A Marriott guest has gone viral for making a point about hotel bathroom design in the most literal way possible: he stepped into the shower fully clothed to demonstrate why a partial glass panel just doesn't cut it. Anyone who's endured a half-door shower knows the routine — contort yourself away from the spray, freeze, and mop up the flood afterwards. The clip has struck a chord because these curtainless, half-walled showers keep showing up in newly renovated hotels even though plenty of guests clearly hate them. Sometimes it takes a soggy suit to get a hotel chain's attention.
Elsewhere in this week's roundup, a genuinely useful tool has appeared for anyone booking American Airlines long-haul flights. A reader-built site, AAWidebody.com, lets you look up which widebody aircraft American has scheduled on a route and month before you commit. Enter your route and travel window and you'll see the scheduled plane type plus the business class seat count — no subscription, no login. For anyone who cares whether their transatlantic flight has lie-flat seats or a cramped 757, that's a five-minute check that can save a miserable eight hours.
Alaska Airlines has quietly started awarding miles on Breeze Airways flights booked through Alaska's own website or reservations line, even though Breeze isn't officially listed among its airline partners. The catch: it only works if you book directly with Alaska — you can't credit a booking made on Breeze's own site, and there's no way to redeem miles on Breeze yet. Spotters note Breeze flights don't actually appear on Alaska's website for sale just yet, so treat this as a work-in-progress.
In ground transport news, Waymo appears to be testing terminal curbside drop-offs at San Francisco International, according to a since-deleted post from a Waymo employee. Driverless rides to the departures curb would put robotaxis on the same footing as regular cars and rideshares at SFO — convenient, though photos suggest the vehicles themselves still look a bit awkward at the terminal.
Smaller notes worth knowing: American has dropped its Landline bus connection service at Chicago Rockford, trimming an option for flyers in northern Illinois who used coach connections in place of regional flights. And on the lighter side, an airport grandmother turned up in a T-rex costume to scare the grandchildren who'd dressed as dinosaurs to surprise her — equal parts adorable and traumatising, if the footage is anything to go by.
Why it matters: most of these items are small on their own, but they're the kind of details that shape a trip — whether your seat lies flat, whether your miles post, and whether the bathroom at your hotel floods the floor. Bookmark the widebody tool before your next American booking, and maybe email your hotel about that shower before check-in.
