Dots, Lines & Destinations

Will Star Alliance soon see a new top status tier? The idea was floated during the group's briefing at this week's IATA Annual General Meeting in Sydney.

Also in this episode:

* Rolls-Royce Issues Continue to Grow - Hoping to have a fix by 2019

* TAP/Air New Zealand/Norwegian/LAN/BA/SATA (leasing planes from Qatar)

* Air France leasing Air Belgium A343

* PIT-PVG from China Eastern - subsidized by PIT airport authority

* EWR-SIN restart

* ORD people mover outage

* Bombardier - not delivering trains to NYC (disallowed from bidding on next round)

* Brussels Airlines canceling flights due to a lack of spare parts

 

"This is a project that is in existence because of travel." That's how founder Lauren Lancy describes her project The Kindcraft. And Seth had the great fortune to spend some time chatting with her about how that came about.

Don't you feel sometimes like you make friends with a city? That's just one of many topics we discuss. Also, how travel becomes critical to creativity or making the right connections or chasing down a new creator to build new bonds. Japan, India and Thailand are three of the main regions we talk about in that context.

Plus, being based in Chiang Mai is pretty great for making trips within the region so we talk about that, too.

If you're going to sneak into Canada we suggest a Trojan Zamboni as the obvious choice for transportation. And apparently Quebec is the best place to make your move.

Also in this episode:

* United Airlines is trying for a luxe lounge experience in LAX

* Delta might be returning to India

* Alaska Airlines is closing a crew base

* China is relaxing some route limits on its airlines

* Tiny train travel in Germany

 

 

AmEx or Chase? Credit card are not a particularly common topic for us on the show but we dabble every now and then and this was a pretty interesting set of circumstances to consider.

Also in this episode:

* Why did United Airlines pull tomato juice off its catering carts? And why did it reverse that decision so quickly?

https://twitter.com/united/status/994688318314090498

* The US3 v ME3 open skies battle appears to be settled, with a rather useless conclusion in place

* Norwegian also won an open skies case, beating US airline unions

* Multiplus is launching, and we seem to mostly not care at all

And, as always, lots more…

Header image via CC BY 2.0

 

Fozz almost got stuck in Berlin last weekend, but quick thinking saved the day. But it does get us thinking about EU261 and a few other things to consider when IROPs come calling.

Also in this episode:

* What happens when you struggle with longhaul profits at O'Hare? American Airlines is once again shuffling its route structure at ORD and we have thoughts.

* Mistakes are always a little awkward. But if you go out of your way to highlight Lufthansa's error fares you might lose in court. Whoopsie!

* Emirates is set to add a premium economy cabin to its fleet. That is, of course, assuming it keeps enough pilots on hand to fly the planes. Bit of trouble on that front has a number of aircraft grounded these days.

* Qatar Airways is also trimming its schedule and wants to use some of its spare aircraft to help British Airways out with the Rolls Royce engine issues.

* And then there's Etihad, which is also looking at major fleet changes. Or, perhaps more appropriately, not making changes since it doesn't have the cash or need.

* Southwest will fly interisland in Hawaii

* Delta adds purple to its uniforms

 

Last week we talked a LOT about engines, mostly proving we have very little knowledge on the topic. This week we're making up for that by bringing a special guest, Tom, on to the show. He knows a ton about the topic, having worked in aircraft and engine leasing for the past couple decades. He has some very interesting insight on what the latest 737/CFM engine situation means for the industry as a whole.

Also on this episode:

* Questions around the Airbus finances because of all the "gliders" they're building

* IranAir's 777s are not coming this year. And they may never be delivered.

https://twitter.com/BabakTaghvaee/status/990576073242021888

* A330 production cuts

* British Airways had a flight from Dallas to London divert to JFK because someone apparently forgot to load the catering. How does that even happen?!?

 

Aircraft engines are causing more than their share of issues these days. Failures on the ground and in the air are raising lots of questions.

Also in this episode:

* Sun Country Stranded Passengers (interlining with AS still place)

* We now some some bits about the new Marriott loyalty program. Who got screwed?

* Some links for the engine issues stories, including the 787s, 737s, and private jets.

* United just took delivery of its first 737 MAX 9

* A question came in from listener Jonathan about AAdvantage routing rules and we've got the easy answer as well as a more involved discussion about choosing programs and optimizing efforts. Including some thoughts on when over-optimizing is a bad plan.

* United seems to finally be hitting its stride in Polaris retrofits. It will still take a couple years to complete the rollout and Premium Plus is now part of the work, too.

https://twitter.com/LAflyr/status/984874494761189376

* Aviation relations between the US and Russia appear strained, including overflight rights and Visas for Russian crews

* Swaziland gets a new name

* Cal Jet Shutting Down to Grow

* Miami passenger tasered, taunts cops

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Also, Stephan really likes this GIF:

 

AIX is the place to be for a look at what the future of air travel will be. This year's show included bunk beds (even in economy!) plus a self-service cookie warmer. And lots of other things way more likely to fly at some point.

Beyond the bunk beds Seth and Jason also talk about:

* The Peltier effect and how it makes heating and cooling on board all sorts of awesome

* Making power more accessible at the seat, whether USB-C, wireless or just a lighter, cheaper traditional system

* Carbon fiber composites in aircraft structures

* Possibly the best seating cushion material ever made

And, as always, plenty more…

 

Seth is in Hamburg, but Fozz and Stephan are debating what is the "east Bay" and what is the "south Bay". Riveting stuff. Chime in with your opinion.

Also on tap this week:

* Alaska will be starting JFK-SJC, bringing competition to Delta's relatively new flight and of course JetBlue.

* Alaska implements smaller carry-on luggage rules. Their justification is to line up with partner carry-on rules. We buy that.

* In what seems to be normal news these days, Delta was hit by a data breach. The main target looks to be credit cards, which raises the question, why weren't they encrypted?

* HiFly, the charter carrier out of Spain, is buying two A380s. They aren't changing the previous owner's config though, which is interesting.

* AA is buying 47 new Boeing 787s. They are also putting their Max orders on hold. What does this mean for their Airbus fleet?

 

What is it about ultra long haul flights that attracts so much media attention? The past couple weeks have seen a lot of long routes launched, including the new Qantas service between Perth and London.

Huge thanks to Cynthia Drescher for joining the team this week for the conversation!

That new 'Roo route is not the longest (and might not even qualify as a Kangaroo Route, depending on who you listen to). There's also the part where spending 17ish hours on the plane isn't especially new. Airlines have been running similar (and longer) flights for a while now. Including trips that are in economy class.

New Zealand is pretty much always a long-haul flight from wherever and this week announced Chicago as a new destination, teaming up with joint venture partner United Airlines for that service.

* Could Qantas be far behind with more US destinations?

* Will the "Project Sunrise" flights from Sydney to London materialize?

* What about Singapore Airlines and its promise of returning to NYC and Los Angeles nonstop? And a third US destination for them as well.

* Singapore Airlines also has a new 787-10, the first of the type ever to fly. And the "regional" business class product looks pretty nice, though regional doesn't always mean what you think it does.

* El Al is suing the Israeli government because its flights are longer than Air India's. That's awkward.

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