Pretzels are the latest casualty of rising fuel prices. US Airways, battling escalating costs and shrinking profits has decided to do away with pretzels in coach. Sure, you fancy first class passengers can still enjoy a snack, but the majority of fliers will have to go without.

As reported by Travel Weekly (subscription required):

Beginning June 1, US Airways will no longer serve free snacks to coach passengers on domestic flights. The airline said high fuel prices prompted the change. Passengers will still receive complimentary beverages.

Alas, the perks just keep disappearing. Hey, at least we don’t have to pay for checking bags…oh, right.

Mike: “So who made Mobil’s 5-star hotel list?”

Anne: “Well, anything with ‘Ritz’ or ‘Seasons’ in its name. Nothing with ‘Motel’ or ‘6′ made it.”

Mike: “Restaurants? Names?”

Anne: “Very exciting names: ‘The Dining Room’. ‘The French Laundry’.”

Mike: “Ah. Would you like the bearnaise with that, or the starch?”

Anne: “And don’t get me started on ‘per se’. I had enough of e.e. cummings in junior high.”

Mike: “We’re starting to sound like total rubes.”

Anne: “Whatever happened to places with names like ‘Killer Shrimp’ or ‘Aunt Kizzy’s Back Porch’?”

Mike: “Nothing. Still there. ”

Anne: “Why ‘Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n Waffles’ didn’t make the list, I’ll never understand.”

No matter how much time I have on my hands when I travel to Los Angeles or Las Vegas, getting to In-N-Out Burger always tops my list of priorities. Sadly, the times I’ve had layovers at LAX, I’ve been unable to sate my hunger for those delicious burgers.

Thankfully, the good people at Gadling have made sure that will never happen again. They’ve laid out a surefire way to get from LAX to In-N-Out for free in a very short period of time. It involves a shuttle and maybe a little bit of subterfuge, but if you’re willing (and you know you are), you can get your hands on a delicious burger and be back in time to catch your flight.

Read Gadling’s Free LAX shuttle to In-N-Out Burgers to get all the details.

Grumpy Santa sheds new light on the best and worst of commercial aviation: you know, important stuff like, which airline’s flight attendants shamelessly coddled him the most, or where he got food you wouldn’t serve a dog.

Stuff like that. See it here. Consider it an early Christmas gift from the fine folks at Standard Upright Position.

British Airways (BA) recently suspended one of their cabin crew stewards.

Did he get drunk? Molest a passenger? Pose for naked pictures?

Nah. According this this article, he was punished for “eating a muffin that was discarded on a passenger’s meal tray.”

Ask any cop: that’s always the very first step to a life of crime.

SPECIAL TO STANDARD UPRIGHT POSITION:

(Editor’s Note: this is the latest communique from Grumpy Santa)

“I have been to many airports early in the morning over the last several days, and I have come to notice something a little alarming. Hash-browns on the breakfast-combos are getting out of control.

I might be wrong, but in my mind, McDonald’s established a pretty solid standard for fast-food hash-browns; slightly oval-shaped, crispy-brown, and delicious.

But now, there are new versions. Round hash-browns that are no more than tater-tots without that cool “tot” shape, and the Arby’s giant triangle hash-brown that is unwieldy and a bit off-putting.

Go ahead, say I fear change, but when eating breakfast at airports, I still say the classic hash-brown is definitely the way to go.”