Dots, Lines & Destinations » Podcast

Pratt & Whitney leads the show with a pair of engine issues on long-haul aircraft on Tuesday. United Airlines had an issue on a 777 inbound to Honolulu while a Delta A330 returned to Lagos immediately after departure. Plus, EASA has an emergency directive out on the Pratt & Whitney A320neo engines that is pretty spooky, with references to inflight shutdowns. Yikes! Also in this show * Air China wants to fly from Houston to Panama, competing with Star Alliance partner United Airlines. * Etihad is dropping the 777-200LR from its fleet and slashing capacity in some markets. Is the carrier collapsing? * Is there really a foreign airline willing to invest in Air India? * American Airlines' employees are speaking up and there's a lot of animosity in play. * The Maldives sit at the center of a political and economic battle. * JFK's massive (and expensive) animal terminal is on the brink of bankruptcy * Southwest Airlines is struggling to keep enough Glycol in stock at its Midway hub * The first (not quite really) A321LR crossed the Atlantic this week on a proving run  

Our annual January beer run to Europe didn't go quite as planned this year. Confusion reigned supreme as we planned and canceled various itineraries. The good news is that we ultimately all ended up in the same place, though getting there was (as always) part of the fun. Some of the stories include: * Vaduz, Liechtenstein on a Sunday morning * Reviews of the Sofia Hotel Balkan, a SPG Luxury Collection property * Checking out the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart * Some sketchy upgrade action at the Aloft at the Munich Hbf * Comparing United's Polaris and Swiss' Business Class * A WizzAir flight not really to Munich And, as always, lots of other stuff.  

Our annual January beer run to Europe didn't go quite as planned this year. Confusion reigned supreme as we planned and canceled various itineraries. The good news is that we ultimately all ended up in the same place, though getting there was (as always) part of the fun. Some of the stories include: * Vaduz, Liechtenstein on a Sunday morning * Reviews of the Sofia Hotel Balkan, a SPG Luxury Collection property * Checking out the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart * Some sketchy upgrade action at the Aloft at the Munich Hbf * Comparing United's Polaris and Swiss' Business Class * A WizzAir flight not really to Munich And, as always, lots of other stuff.  

So, this is one of those good news/bad news scenarios. For the first time in probably two years we have all four of the team on the recording. And we're all in the same place. That makes for a way more dynamic show, even if it also involves some hand gestures shared at various points that don't really come through on the recording. Among the topics: * United Airlines is paying a ton of cash for naming rights on the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles * Qatar Airways is taking a delay on the first A350-1000 delivery from Airbus thanks to issues with QSuite. Also, the country agreed to new financial reporting requirements, giving the US3 a small victory in that battle. * Former AirBerlin subsidiary Niki appears to really, really, really have a new owner now. * Bombardier actually won its case against Boeing related to CSeries production costs. * Perhaps more than you ever wanted to know about inflight wifi service.

So, this is one of those good news/bad news scenarios. For the first time in probably two years we have all four of the team on the recording. And we're all in the same place. That makes for a way more dynamic show, even if it also involves some hand gestures shared at various points that don't really come through on the recording. Among the topics: * United Airlines is paying a ton of cash for naming rights on the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles * Qatar Airways is taking a delay on the first A350-1000 delivery from Airbus thanks to issues with QSuite. Also, the country agreed to new financial reporting requirements, giving the US3 a small victory in that battle. * Former AirBerlin subsidiary Niki appears to really, really, really have a new owner now. * Bombardier actually won its case against Boeing related to CSeries production costs. * Perhaps more than you ever wanted to know about inflight wifi service.

Did Emirates really save the A380? A new order certainly helps keep the production line running for a few more years but is that enough? Also in this episode: * Delta is cracking down on fake service and support animals * Some United Airlines flight attendants are unhappy * Alaska Airlines has some A320 family planes carrying the Alaska livery instead of Virgin America; new uniforms, too * American Airlines has a new "Shuttle" route * Carlsbad might really grow into an airport with lots of flights. And probably a few other bits, too.          

The aircraft slipping off the runway in Turkey this past weekend is our lead story but there is a lot going on in this week's show. https://twitter.com/ajplus/status/952927006789898241 Among the other topics: * Lufthansa wants the remnants of Alitalia, but not all of them. * American Airlines is finally getting new uniforms. Eventually. * A special An-124 delivery: De-icing at CHS * Azores Airlines is struggling * AA's FAs can now issue points for service issues. And some of them seem upset about that.

Got poop? United Airlines was "lucky" enough to have a passenger go a little crazy and share some of his on board a recent flight. Also in this episode: * JFK Airport is barely functional on a good day. In the 96ish hours following the recent "bomb cyclone" blizzard things went from bad to gawdawful. * United Express has a new milk run route through western Kansas. * Hawaiian is headed to Long Beach for the summer * El Al is dropping its UP! LCC subsidiary And a whole lot more…

Awards are changing. Again. Some are going up and some are changing structure completely. Hooray! Among the stories covered in this episode: * New rules for the Hyatt Gold Passport program in 2018 * IHG has a higher award tier * JetBlue is not revenue-based anymore in one niche area * Niki goes to IAG * United's award pricing rules suck, particularly for changes * BA is getting slimlines on its single-aisle fleet * Southwest deferred its 737 MAX 7 deliveries And a few other bits, too.  

Collecting new lines is a big part of our play and two of the crew cashed in on that goal, flying a cheap(ish) Fauxlaris business class fare to Singapore on United Airlines, picking up both the LAX and SFO lines in the process. Alas, they let Stephan choose the hotel for the trip and that didn't work out as well as they'd hoped it would.

A fire in Atlanta caused more than a thousand flights to be canceled over the weekend. That's all sorts of bad news. Also in this week's episode: * Transatlantic domestic flights are about to become a real thing and we are way too excited about that * The A310 retirement for Azores Air/SATA is coming too soon * Someone thinks peak season in Las Vegas is the summer; will Brazilians notice * United is headed to Tahiti, along with some other new airlines; that's a lot of lift for a small cluster of islands * Delta's new A321neo order is about more than just planes * Norwegian is expanding and shifting and generally doing its thing * Eurowings has a new business class product with flat beds; the LCC TATL market is heating up * And lots more…  

After an aborted effort a few weeks back hosts Stephan and Fozz finally made it to Taiwan. They're talking Polaris – the real thing, not Fauxlaris – LCCs and a whole bunch of other stuff. Also, they're reasonably jetlagged, so that's amusing.    

Starwood & Marriott don't have their systems together yet, but they will eventually. Is the slow merger of the loyalty programs good news or bad news for travelers? Also in this episode: * Delta's CSeries might be heading south, while the company is adding links north of the border as well. * AA screwed up Christmas scheduling, but it mostly got fixed. Still, if you want a job in Crew Scheduling for a major airline that position is open. * OpenSkies is gone, with Level replacing it * Norwegian keeps finding new routes to fly * United is shifting more high density planes into Transatlantic service, which isn't particularly good news.

It was an accidental joke while we were recording but the discussion of Lufthansa's new business class seat and soft product in this week's episode brings up some interesting questions about the timing of the products in addition to the overall quality. Also in this episode: * Lots of new route news, from AA, UA, WOW and more. * Some canceled services, too. Survival of the fittest doesn't always work as hoped. * The rumor mill in Hong Kong/China is churning, with China Southern and Cathay Pacific set to switch alliances. Though that might not really happen at all.  

This episode has us on location for a recording in Chengdu, China, where pandas are in charge and boiling chili oil is a delicious dinner option. Seth is joined by Blake, a friend of the show, to talk about travels in China and living as a Texan in some less common ex-pat destinations. In addition to the Chengdu bits we also talk about Saudi Arabia a decent amount since Blake spent a couple years there. Turns out thee are some nifty tourist sites that you'll almost certainly never see, such as Mada'in Saleh. https://twitter.com/WandrMe/status/929007206720262145 On the China side we didn't go too far off the beaten track in Chengdu but still managed to have some fun doing it. High speed trains and negotiating for a driver after arriving at the panda sanctuary was interesting. Even better was actually getting to see the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Even if we did have to essentially run through it to not have our driver abandon us. The Leshan Buddha wrapped up our whirlwind tour and is where we ate, drank and recorded our episode. https://twitter.com/WandrMe/status/929594986177421317