Dots, Lines & Destinations » Podcast

When will it be safe to commit to big travel expenses? When will it be safe to travel? And do we really know the answer to those questions?? Lots to ponder on that topic as major Summer trips are approaching and people are asking us these very things. The answers are not great, but we have a few ideas. Also in this week's show: * Planes are flying higher and climbing faster because they’re so much lighter without the pax on board* New Autopilot rules for 737 MAX* Doubletree Cookie Recipe released to the public* AA status extended w/ MMer twist* Route exceptions and which shouldn’t come back* Should some airlines not be bailed out??* Back-to-front boarding on Delta* LOT pulls out of a deal to buy Condor And, as always, plenty more. Enjoy!

What will the future of airline route networks look like? We dig deep into the past with special guest Ned Russell as we look to the future. This week's conversation is focused on the future of route networks, based on Ned's recent TPG article. There's some lively discussion among us and debate about whether coastal or central hubs are likely to recover first. Plus: * easyJet’s founder and main shareholder is PISSED. His letters to the board are super fun to read, though.* Marriott is facing another data breach and there are no real penalties so why really worry about such things?* Alaska Airlines goes for limited milk run play, launching some routes that have all of us giddy, even knowing we won't fly any of them.* Many airlines extended status for a year, including United, Delta, Air Canada and Alaska Airlines. They all are doing it slightly different from each other, with some bringing more compelling plays to the table. Plus, it wouldn't be a proper work from home episode if we didn't get an update on a toddler's progress in learning to walk. And, as always, lots more. Enjoy the show!

We don't want to talk only about the industry collapsing under the weight of COVID19-related cuts, but we're also faced with the fact that dominates the news these days. Fortunately, we received some input from listeners about other things to include, like mass transit systems around the world. And, if you've ever listened to us before, you know that mention of limiting operations or even closing LaGuardia is 100% certain to get Fozz riled up. We do typically try for more coherent show notes, but this is all we're gonna get to this week. Hopefully the audio makes up for it. And I'm not really sure anyone ever reads this anyways. For a (generally) up-to-date listing of airlines and their operational levels check out this spreadsheet maintained by PaxEx.Aero and other industry experts.

We talk a lot about planes and travel on the show and perhaps a little less about the people we meet along the way than we should. Today's episode is different. Yes, we're still talking about planes and airlines and the collapsing global economy. But we also have a far more important topic: Mental health. Indeed, with so much seemingly awful happening around us perhaps this is the best time to talk about such things and remember that there is much more going on than just our travels or our jobs. Will always helped his friends in need which is why we chose NAMI.  For the 1 in 5 or nearly 60 million people living with mental illness, NAMI means more than hope. They provide real-time education and support, advocate at the national level, and raise awareness to ensure better lives for all of us. We have each other to look out for and celebrate. And we're trying to do a little more of that on this week's show. So enjoy the stories we have about a recently lost friend and please consider making a donation today to help support this organization. The DLD team is making one and others are matching funds raised so your help goes further than you might imagine. Thanks to Ed for joining us and for spearheading this conversation. Also, while there aren't a ton of links for the show, we did mention an airline cancellation tracking spreadsheet. It is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cRgtHZ4sRPj4BdcJa2y09SKaG8SRrLLtntHSegfmmoU/edit#gid=1072793355. And Seth probably got the description of an "ATC-Zero" event wrong, but the overall points made in the conversation are relatively accurate. 

We're trying to not just talk about the novel coronavirus all day, every day. But lately the challenges it creates have dominated the aviation industry. So we're talking about it again. But some other stuff, too. Among the topics discussed: * Massive cuts in the industry around the globe* A380s grounded by Lufthansa, Qantas and Korean Air (lots of Qantas cuts, TBH)* Changes to the flight volumes in China: https://discover.cirium.com/discover/ideas/covid19/project* Will business travel come back and what will it look like when it does?* Flybe is gone, though probably not entirely related to COVID-19* Which other carriers are likely at risk of failure? We did manage to get away from the cuts to talk about London, trains, the UK Brexiting EASA and a few other things, too. Enjoy the show!

What does it mean when airlines behave unfairly towards customers? And why should we all be worried that they're about to be a lot more deceptive? Listen in to find out. Also in this week's show: * Plenty more discussion about the COVID19 outbreak route cuts, and concerns about slot allocations as a result* The Heathrow 3rd runway is off again as lawsuits scuttled the plans. But maybe Boris will get his airport out in the Thames Estuary?* Delta Air Lines is the new corporate sponsor for the US Olympic Team, taking that role from United after a few decades* Vietnam's Bamboo Airways wants to fly to Munich as it expands a footprint into Europe Plenty of other rambles as well, though we mostly stayed focused this week. Enjoy the show!

Don't like the service from a company? Just walk away. Turns out we've figured that one out pretty well here at DLD. And also that isn't really much of the episode at all, because the story isn't very interesting. Also in this episode: * The weekly Coronavirus update - * Are the smaller Chinese carriers going to collapse back into the big three as the Coronavirus trashes the HNA carriers collapsing?* Delta Air Lines and Hawaiian Airlines extended their cuts to Korea as well* Austria isn't happy with Italians flowing over the border from outbreak areas in the North * Amtrak implementing truly inflexible fares* The United Express E145 fleet is finally confirmed to have a streaming IFE solution on board. The news also comes with a shuffle of regional operations and Cranky Flier has the secret decoder ring we need for that.* A sand storm closed airports in the Canary Islands over the weekend, creating quite a mess* American Airlines and Qatar Airways are friends again. Why, and will AA really fly its own metal to Doha??* KLM is finally getting a premium economy product on board. Eventually.* Are bunk beds really coming to economy class on Air New Zealand? Maybe, eventually. Or maybe not. But the images of Sky Bunk have many people very excited.* Silver Airways is growing with its new ATR fleet, but is that enough to support a return to turboprops versus smaller RJs for the industry? And so very, very much more. Enjoy the show!

Did you every think that Alaska Airlines would join a major alliance? They seemed happy enough to play the field of partners in the past, but starting in mid-2021 the carrier intends to be part of OneWorld. Also in this show: * Alaska will also tighten its relationship with American Airlines after a few years of arms-length friendship. And the move will bring about a west coast global partnership that sees American looking at new long-haul flights from Seattle, too.* Another airline aims to launch service to secondary US markets and it just so happens that, once again, the guy in charge is an alum of Allegiant* British Airways loaded its Club Europe eurobiz cabin up with passengers following flight disruptions over the weekend. The carrier removed the middle seat block to get more pax to their destination. But also claims that it is still the business class product they paid for. Something doesn't add up.* Might Qantas look beyond its existing Union deals for a new set of Project Sunrise pilots?* Delta is investing a billion dollars in carbon offsets but still flying its MD-88s.* Stephan took a ride on the Air Canada 787 premium economy seat and mostly likes it, at least as much as he likes anything And, as always, plenty more. Enjoy the show!

Is the US market ready for another commercial airline? Serial aviation founder David Neeleman is ready to give it another go, and Breeze hopes to fly later this year. Also in this week's show: * American Airlines and GOL teamed up on codeshares, helping to restore AA's Brazilian coverage. But does it matter that much?* United Airlines bought a pilot training school.* Cape Air wants to fly seaplanes to NYC* The jet stream delivered some crazy quick flights from NYC to London last week and some stellar snark to go with.* Air Italy is liquidating its operations. Turns out running a profitably airline in Italy is very hard.* Korean LCC Jeju is grounding 20 of 45 planes owing to the drop in China traffic And lots, lots more. We went off the planned topic list early and often this week. Maybe because we recorded on an election day. Hope you enjoy the show!

As governments and the traveling public continue to respond to the corona virus outbreak in China it is spectacularly unclear who, if anyone, is coordinating a coherent global response. Hooray! * Not only are the health implications significant, but the political impact of the various blockades and route cuts is significant, too. Taiwan in particular is caught up in the quagmire as it is not part of mainland China and nowhere close to as affected by the outbreak. But thanks to UN memberships and the way ICAO and the World Health Organization (WHO) operate, some are treating it as such. Also, things continue to change with respect to travel in/to/through China on a seemingly hourly basis.* Spirit AeroSystems says it’ll only deliver 216 MAX fuselages in 2020, and a return to "full" rate of 52 per month could take a couple years. * LATAM Leaves OneWorld on 1 May 2020; right after Royal Air Maroc joins on 1 April 2020 * United Airlines is dropping service between San Francisco and Paine Field in Everett, WA * Airbus settled its massive bribery inquiry, agreeing to a $4bn penalty. But now the real fun starts as all the details emerge on who it supposedly paid those bribes to and how they will be affected. AirAsia is one of the first to see in impact from the news. * American Airlines may have finally solved some of its union woes. A $4.2bn deal was agreed in principle and will soon be out for ratification. * Airbus wants to make the A220 heavier allowing it to fly farther and carry more cargo. Still no word on a stretched –500 series model, though. * A handful of runways around the world could cause the flight management computers in certain 737NG models to crash. Just the computers, not the planes. So bizarre. But the FAA has plans to get that fixed. Enjoy the show!

What does it take to build a strong Asia strategy for a North American airline? There are a few people in the industry with significant experience on that front and one of them recently jumped ship, headed to Fort Worth to work with American Airlines on its overall route strategy. Also in this week's show: * The Boeing 777X made its maiden flight* South African Airways trimmed some routes but then got some cash to drive its restructuring* Swiss plans to shift its Beijing flights to Daxing, assuming airlines are still flying to/from China in a few months* Airbus subsidiary Skytra wants to market derivatives related to future airline revenue* Emotional Support Animals won't fly in the DOT has its way, but Delta Air Lines has a swanky (and expensive) new pet carrier option* Delta also has new first class seats for its A321neo aircraft* Eastern Airlines wants to fly to Cabo* Condor was purchased by LOT's parent company* Korean has a new SkyPass loyalty program and is giving an incredible amount of advance notice on the shift Lots more in there, too. This is a packed episode with all sorts of goodies. Enjoy!

A quick getaway to Wuppertal was on the agenda this week. It vaguely worked, though none of the three hosts got to or fro exactly as planned. The Schwebebahn hanging monorail is pretty cool, as is the Wuppertaler Brauhaus. But that part of the week plays second fiddle to some interesting news topics at hand, including: * Delta Air Lines is growing at Miami, promising links to the LATAM network there. How much connecting flow can those flights support?* An Ethiopian 737 encountered a swarm of locusts trying to land and the images are incredible.* UK's FlyBE is still flying for now after the British government agreed to certain bail-out conditions. That the full details remain unclear is bad and both IAG and Ryanair aren't happy with the moves* United is bringing the CRJ550 to its DCA-EWR "Shuttle" route and that's both good and bad news in many ways And lots, lots more. Enjoy the show! *No portion of this episode was recorded in Wuppertal, even though that was the original plan. Oopsie

This week we took the show on the road to London and stopped in with Michael Traeger of Travel Zork to talk about all sorts of stuff. And, in a strange twist, he insisted on not saying too many controversial things about topics where he was less informed. Truly amazing. Among the topics: * Delta's fuel dump incident near LAX* Boeing's bad emails* Las Vegas for fun and profit* The best oneworld lounge at Heathrow T3 (mostly as an inside joke, but the conversation became useful) Lots of other stuff in there, too. Most of which I can't remember any more. 

Loyalty programs like to talk about emotion and building relationships. But the driving factor behind all of that is data. Lots and lots of data. In this week's episode we're chatting with Mark Ross-Smith, a guy who knows way more than us about all this data. He's run an airline loyalty program before and currently consults in the industry as part of the New World Loyalty group. He also writes extensively at Travel Data Daily. Among the topics: * Just how different is "loyalty" in North America versus other markets?* Baby steps in elite status or other tipping points that make travel better and getting passengers hooked* Some interesting games that can be played with data and how programs are mining details And lots, lots more.

Sometimes it is others that make a mess of your holiday travels. Sometimes you manage to do it yourself. Regardless of how you pulled it off, we hope your 2019 wrapped up better than some of those affected by this week's top stories. In the headlines: * Seth ended his extended trip earlier than expected, and it is not entirely India's fault* Boeing ended the tenure of its CEO* Alaska Airlines faced a mess on the Sunday before Christmas with many ground crew not showing up for work* Qatar Airways flew a bunch of 787s 14,000 extra miles because of paperwork* Singapore Airlines has a new route idea for getting to New York City We talked about a bunch of other stuff, too. LaGuardia gets some Fozz hate and JFK comes up as an option for domestic travel on United. It is a weird episode and a great way to ring in the New Year!