We're back! DOT recently announced some new rules for airlines intended to benefit consumers. What are these rules? When are these rules? What do they mean for you? All that and more, on this episode of Cranky Talk!

Source links:

Rules regarding refunds

Rules regarding junk fees

New regulations announcement

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Southwest has done something unique, bringing its Network Planning group -- the people who decide when and where to fly -- under the Chief Operating Officer instead of the Chief Commercial Officer. I spoke with Adam Decaire to learn more about the decision and see how it's going.

Southwest was called to the principal's office in DC to answer for the meltdown over the holidays. We break down some testimony and what could happen if a passenger's bill of rights were ever to pass. 

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With Delta announcing free wifi, the differences between airlines continue to grow. Join us for a brief history of wifi on airplanes and what the future might hold. 

Thank you to our sponsor, Medjet! The membership service that protects you if you get sick or injured while traveling.

It's time for the annual Cranky Talk exclusive peak behind the curtain at what you can expect when you tune in to the 2023 Cranky Network Awards on February 23! 

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We return from our break a little early to pod about the Southwest meltdown over the holidays.

Thank you to our sponsor, Medjet! The membership service that protects you if you get sick or injured while traveling.

Brett goes on a rant about seat pitch and why it's terrible for measuring legroom. Is there a better alternative? Listen to find out! 

Photo gallery: 

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Frontier's GoWild! is live. Brett tries to see if Dave thinks it's worthwhile. 

Thank you to our sponsor, Medjet! The membership service that protects you if you get sick or injured while traveling.

President Biden gave a speech on junk fees recently so Brett and Dave carved up the portions specific to the travel industry and discussed what is true, what stretches the truth, and what might be junky in this less-than-amazing speech. 

Transcript of the speech

Video of the speech

“Enhancing Transparency of Airline Ancillary Service Fees “

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Listen to an interview with the CEO of Flair, Stephen Jones, on how he sees the market evolving.

On this episode, Brett and Dave are joined by Courtney Miller from Visual Approach to give listeners a sneak preview of the 2023 CNAs! Listen in to find out where the show is happening and the special plans Brett and Courtney have cooked up! 

Thank you to our sponsor, Medjet! The membership service that protects you if you get sick or injured while traveling.

It's about as hard as it's ever been to run a regional airline right now, and Horizon Air President Joe Sprague took the reins in late 2019, just before the industry began to unravel. Joe sat with me to talk about the challenges Horizon has faced, and exactly how it has gone about facing them.

Kevin and I sit down to on an airplane to talk about Porter's big expansion plans

Will there be chaos this winter as airline operations get stretched thin again? We take a look at the data to help you find out. 

Thank you to our sponsor, Medjet! The membership service that protects you if you get sick or injured while traveling.

This week, we're doing a retrospective on the most traveled destinations Cranky clients went to this summer!

Thank you to our sponsor, Medjet! The membership service that protects you if you get sick or injured while traveling.

You have questions and we have the answers for you! Welcome to our first mailbag episode! Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. 

Thank you to our sponsor, Medjet! The membership service that protects you if you get sick or injured while traveling.

The last time we made an episode about Spirit, JetBlue had just gotten hostile...well they won and now pending federal approval, they'll get to merge with Spirit. We go over how this happened and what comes next!

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This week, we're talking about the great mystery in the sky....fume events! Are they real? Are they overexaggerated? What is going on up there?! 

LA Times: How Toxic Fumes Seep Into The Air You Breathe On Planes 

NIH: Characterization of the frequency and nature of bleed air contamination events in commercial aircraft

Cabin Air Safety Act of 2022

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This week, we're joined by Southwest’s Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Ryan Green to talk about the airline’s big change this week!

Thank you to our sponsor, Medjet! The membership service that protects you if you get sick or injured while traveling.

On this episode of Cranky Talk, Brett and Dave are joined by special guest Dawn Gilbertson, columnist for the Wall Street Journal to discuss her story "11 Flights, 6 Airlines, 4 Days: A Flying Test of the U.S. Travel System" 

Listen in for some surprising results as Dawn recaps what it was like to do all that travel over the Fourth of July weekend. 

Thank you to our sponsor, Medjet! The membership service that protects you if you get sick or injured while traveling.

Thank you again to Ezra who wrote in with a great question: Do alliances even matter anymore? Star Alliance, Sky Team, One World, the Rebel Alliance, etc.  We get into that and much more! 

Star Alliance 

KLM/Northwest

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Summer 2022 is shaping up to be quite wild in the world of aviation. Prices and demand are high, travel numbers are way up, and airlines...are delaying and canceling flights left and right! Brett breaks down what's going on and what to expect on your travels this summer. 

JetBlue wants Spirit bad and is willing to go hostile to get it!

We're dusting off the podcast to talk about Boeing, the Max, and what we know about flight 1282. 

Thank you to our sponsor, Medjet! The membership service that protects you if you get sick or injured while traveling.

Brett and Dave take on a listener question! What's the point of travel agencies these days? With a plurality of options available to consumers to book directly with airlines, what can we do that you can't on your own? 

Thanks to our sponsor IDEMIA! IDEMIA is an authorized enrollment provider for TSA PreCheck.

Brett got to nerd out on a bunch of flights over three days to prove once and for all that flying between Oakland and Southern California is BACK! 

Thanks to our sponsor IDEMIA! IDEMIA is an authorized enrollment provider for TSA PreCheck.

Seats are getting smaller and more uncomfortable all the time...or are they? Brett and Dave talk about all this and then guess what the airplane seat of the future might look like. 

Thanks to our sponsor Idemia! Idemia is an authorized enrollment provider for TSA PreCheck.

double decker

cloud concept

Coffeehouse

Swivel

Skyrider 2.0

Bike seat

It's not easy being a little guy, but Denver Air Connection has come up with a pretty interesting plan to get pilots onboard, teach them how to fly, and save the industry... or something like that.

I spoke with Jon Coleman, head of business development for the airline -- and a pilot -- about what it is doing to keep its airplanes flying.

Dave flew Spirit Airlines for the first time and Brett had many questions about the experience! 

In this episode, Brett and Dave recap what happened after Russia invaded Ukraine and the wide-ranging impacts on the aviation world.

Dave and Brett disagree about airplane livery. Dave thinks brands should take bold swings and get creative, Brett thinks it doesn't matter and everything should just be presentable. Things got heated during this debate, as Brett pulled down a lot of livery images and Dave reacted to them. 

If you want to follow along: 

AA Old

AA New

UA Saul Bass 

UA New 

LH 

Zip 

ValuJet

TWA Final 

Etihad 

BA Landor

Korean

Hawaiian 

Figi 

Air Tahiti Nui 

Qantas 

America West Teamwork

Southwest 

Spirit and Frontier decided to merge so we abandoned our original plan for this week to talk about the news and what it could all mean! 

Brett decided to create a whole award show for the airline nerds, and Dave can't believe some of these categories. Join us for a breakdown of all the nominees and get the scoop on the most exclusive industry awards show in 2022!

Here's a link to the 2021 ceremony 

And here's a link to stream the 2022 ceremony

Northern Pacific will be the brand that uses 757s to connect the continental US to North Asia via Anchorage. It's a throwback in that sense... airlines haven't needed to stop in Anchorage for decades. But CEO Rob McKinney thinks he's on to something here with low fares and a decent product.

Rob and his team were down here in SoCal this week to unveil the livery on the first 757 where it was painted at San Bernardino International Airport, and I spoke with him for 15 minutes about the plans.

We're back! Join us for an episode all about how NDC might not quite be as ready for prime time as American wants it to be and its impact on the travel agency world. We're joined by special guests from the Cranky Concierge team, sharing their real-world stories about how difficult this has been. 

Thank you to our sponsor, Medjet! The membership service that protects you if you get sick or injured while traveling.

We kick off the new year with the topic dominating all the headlines: the Omicron variant. Brett and Dave talk about how this new strain is spreading like wildfire and causing all kinds of staffing problems for airlines. 

CDC links: 

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html

It's the holidays! Brett and Dave look back on a very turbulent year and speculate a bit on what's ahead in 2022. Happy New Year to all our listeners!  Stay tuned until the end of the episode a holiday gift from us to you: the 2021 blooper reel! 

An episode all about travel and aviation in the time of COVID! Dave went to Europe, so join us for all the detailed breakdowns of exquisite lunches in the rolling hills of  Tuscany, vespa tours through Italy....just kidding. This is all about what it was like to travel abroad during this moment in time, featuring the Omicron variant! 

I sat down with United CEO Scott Kirby to talk about Omicron, how the airline industry is looking at operational performance all wrong, and the future of regionals.

Scott is never afraid to speak his mind, so it's always great to talk to him.

This interview was recorded at the APEX Expo in Long Beach, CA on November 30, 2021.

If you've never heard of Current Aviation, you are not alone. Current is going to be an airline that flies no airplanes... but it has a lot of partners that will. Have a listen to CEO Brad Beakley talk about the venture which just came out into public view.

Airlines are melting down all over, with three in October alone. Why is this happening? When will it stop? Listen to find out! 

Flight attendant union memo 

Want to sponsor the Cranky Network Awards? Send a note to cna-sponsor@crankyflier.com and we'll be in touch! 

Brett and Dave speculate on what may stick from all the COVID related changes to travel. Voluntary masking? Permanent touch less airports? Biometrics? Airplane cleaning? All of these and more. 

The world changed after 9/11, but this week Brett focuses in specifically on what changed for air travelers here in the US. Next time, Brett and Dave will speculate on what permanent changes may be in store for air travelers once COVID is under control. 

We're talking about Jetblue and American's partnership and why DOJ is suing them! 

DOT agreement 

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It's a different kind of interview as I sit down with Jillian Johnson, United flight attendant and Artemis Bayandor, United corporate safety employee turned translator to discuss what it was like to work the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) flights carrying Afghan evacuees to the US.

We've all seen the news stories, but there is nothing like hearing these first person accounts to really understand what was happening and just how difficult it was for the people fleeing the country.

Following up three years after our June 2020 discussion, Patrick and I run through the different regions and talk about what United is seeing in terms of success in the network planning world.

Vaccine mandates for COVID-19 are here, and every airline has a different policy. Brett breaks down the differences here.

CDC COVID vaccines FAQ

Thanks to our sponsor Jets ETF!

There has been a lot of activity in the electric airplane sector. How viable are these? Will they ever be viable? We have opinions! 

Thanks to our sponsor, Medjet! 

Tecnam planes

Electric Cessna 

Magix

Joby

UA Electric Planes

Aura Aero 

Eviation 

Every airline has different rules on how soon travelers can fly again after they've recovered from COVID. Brett ran into a few of these rules after his recent recovery. 

Thanks to our sponsor Jets ETF! 

CDC COVID guidelines 

United guidelines 

Do we need IFE? Is your phone or tablet enough? Find out, as Brett and Dave approach this from different sides...just like the airlines. 

UA Executive Flights 

Thanks to our sponsor BetterHelp! Right now, BetterHelp is giving Cranky Talk listeners 10% off their first month! Just go to betterhelp.com/cranky and you can be up and running with a therapist within 48 hours.