We talked a lot last time about United Airlines‘ new aircraft order, but hadn’t seen the new interiors yet. Now we have and it seems mostly good news.

Plus, we found Fozz to join us for the rest of the conversation.

Also in this episode:

• Ravn wants to grow from regional Alaska service to long-haul LCC with Anchorage as a hub between Asia and the Lower 48
• Qatar and the European Union signed an Open Skies agreement, with a few limits
• Play and Flyr Norwegian launch operations in Europe
• Jet Airways 2.0 is real
• BoltBus is dead

For our Patreon subscribers we have bonus content, including:

• Some potential pre-order options coming to United Airlines
• A discussion of the DOT and Air Canada and what would happen if the airline doesn’t want to pay
• A billionaire space race (Bezos v Branson, not v Musk, which Seth got wrong)

And plenty more. Enjoy the show!

United Airlines announced a 270 aircraft narrow-body order today.

Also in this episode:

• Seriously, though, that’s a ton of planes, and the full fleet retrofit associated with the move is massive, too
• Alaska Airlines is giving up on the LAX-JFK market
• Lufthansa is pulling A340-600s out of the desert for Munich service
• The 777X faces a new round of certification challenges, likely delaying EIS another year

Enjoy the show!

Opening back up is great, but the inconsistencies are hard to handle. So are the lines.

Also in this episode:

• MAX10 first flight (and 2023ish deliveries)
• AA cancellations
• More international routes are opening, but the rules remain confusing. (TIMATIC can be useful)
• Airbus Quarantine Tents
• Delta to resume South Africa, denied access to Cape Town
• Unions asking for criminal prosecution of asshats on planes
• Delta plans to hire a lot of pilots by next summer
• A St. Maarten trip report

For our Patreon subscribers we have bonus content, including:

• La Compagnie is back, plus TLV, NCE, MXP options
• CRJs are underrated?

And plenty more. Enjoy the show!

Back on the road and exploring the world, with some thoughts on just how well that’s going overall and why we’re not in a huge hurry to do more of it too soon.

Also in this episode:

• Will the new Alitalia join a Lufthansa Group JV, or stay with its SkyTeam partners?
• Some speculation floating about on United Airlines placing a big aircraft order
• eVTOL “orders” from American Airlines, Avolon Leasing and Virgin Atlantic
• Transat shedding its hotels
• Spirit to launch service at Miami, American to expand (again) at Austin
• Amtrak Railpass
• Stobart Air & Air Antwerp both liquidated over the weekend

For our Patreon subscribers we have bonus content, including:

• Qatar stopping delivery of A350 due to paint issues
• Seth is in St. Maarten

And plenty more. Enjoy the show!

Summer is heating up in more ways than one. Booking rooms in some destinations is dicey and seems unlikely to get better any time soon.

Also in this episode:

• United plans a supersonic Boom
• Delta adds Air Baltic codeshare
• Emirates to Miami, but what are the connections??
• UK’s travel Green List got messy, while France is opening up more
• Phuket-Europe nonstops on Thai Airways
• Apple iOS ID in Wallet
• A listener question about credit card rewards
• Seth took a ride on the Breeze Airways Inaugural

For our Patreon subscribers we have bonus content, including:

• Would you take a 93-day pole-to-pole cruise?
• Some travel updates including

And plenty more. Enjoy the show!

Many things are happening in the aviation and travel world. We’re talking about some of them in this week’s show.

Also in this episode:

• Belarus hijacking (Ryanair headed Athens to Vilnius)
• Domestic airfares are insane
• AS to BZE
• AA/AS Upgrade Reciprocity
• AA/B6 Elite earnings [What does this all mean for AA]
• US opening to Canadians

For our Patreon subscribers we have bonus content, including:

• Summer travel plans coming into focus
• Loose routing rules at play

And plenty more. Enjoy the show!

Seth was skeptical of the new LaGuardia in last week’s show. That proved a mistake.

Also in this episode:

• Breeze finally launched, with a broad route map and quick growth plans
• Vaccine passports and what it means for (mostly US-based) travelers as Spain, Italy, and other European countries start to open up. Or there’s an option for American Airlines passengers to some Caribbean/Latin American destinations.
• Boeing may be ready to boost MAX production into 2022
• Spirit fought for slots that don’t really exist at Newark and, at least for now, beat the FAA on that front
• Some details are starting to emerge on which airlines will get what gates at the new Newark terminal

For our Patreon subscribers we have bonus content, including:

• Supersonic business jet hopeful Aerion abruptly ceased operations. What does that mean for the rest of the supersonic industry?
• A strange and very Canadian story about a lawsuit tied to striking hotel workers being hit by a van carrying Lufthansa crew crossing the picket line.

And plenty more. Enjoy the show!

A confluence of work, leisure, and just living has a trio of us on the Williamsburg waterfront on a gorgeous May Saturday for our first in-person recording in well over a year.

Also in this episode:

• Stephan and special guest Jason recount their recent travel experiences. For both of them it was their first flying in the COVID era
• Vistara to launch Weekly Haneda service on short notice
• Delta Air Lines is looking for employee volunteers at SkyClubs in Atlanta
• A mid-air collision at Centennial Airport outside Denver where no-one was injured

For our Patreon subscribers we have bonus content, including:

• Southwest Airlines going big to Hawaii

And plenty more. Enjoy the show!

Ground issues grounding a plane is harder than you’d think to explain, but very much at the center of the latest 737 MAX drama.

Also in this episode:

• United Airlines confirms it will take some MAX 8s
• Delta Air Lines adds Dubrovnik for this summer, as well as Premium Select retrofits on A330/763s, but isn’t combining the two yet
• Avelo picks New Haven for its first east coast hub
• Bernard Ziegler, who basically invented fly-by-wire for Airbus, died
• So did Helmut Jahn, the architect responsible for the UA terminal in ORD and the new BKK.
• Air Senegal plans flights to JFK/IAD later this year
• Kid went into the baggage system at MSP
• UK green list of places people can’t visit
• EASA tracks space weather, too

For our Patreon subscribers we have bonus content, including:

• Breeze to hire non-college kid FAs

And plenty more. Enjoy the show!

Maybe we went a little too far off the rails talking about privacy and ad tech and where they intersect. Including on board JetBlue’s newest A220 fleet. But that shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

Also in this episode:

• More refunds in Canada
• An update on Tugs
• Other bits from the JetBlue A220 inaugural
• Sun Country‘s new routes, bypassing MSP in the Upper Midwest
• Bonus points options from MileagePlus
• RealID is delayed. Again. May 2023
• Is it time to start planning summer travels?
• Has the advance booking window really shifted? IATA shared some interesting data.

For our Patreon subscribers we have bonus content, including:

• An El Al Bomb Threat
• Vistara to the US?

And plenty more. Enjoy the show!

Oh, and Seth got at least two references wrong: Picked the wrong pop Justin to make a joke about and Grab became Servy, not Divvy. Oops.