The news has been relentless to kick off the spring, so the guys spend the show tackling a dozen different stories. There’s an update on those awful TSA lines, JetBlue already raised its baggage fees, and Air France/KLM just raised surcharges on award tickets. We also look into United’s splashy new “Relax Row” seats, discuss why American is reversing course on seatback screens, and throw out some quick takes on news like rule changes around Delta’s 20-minute baggage guarantee. Plus, a listener dubs Gunnar “The Redheaded Clown.” Brutal.
The news has been relentless to kick off the spring, so the guys spend the show tackling a dozen different stories. There’s an update on those awful TSA lines, JetBlue already raised its baggage fees, and Air France/KLM just raised surcharges on award tickets. We also look into United’s splashy new “Relax Row” seats, discuss why American is reversing course on seatback screens, and throw out some quick takes on news like rule changes around Delta’s 20-minute baggage guarantee. Plus, a listener dubs Gunnar “The Redheaded Clown.” Brutal.
00:00 - When do you start packing for a trip?
01:43 - Rosie’s daughter introduces the show from Costa Rica!
02:20 - We’re a finalist for the 2026 Shorty Awards! Vote now at thriftytraveler.com/vote
03:26 - Are we out of the woods with TSA issues?
06:40 - JetBlue raises baggage fees, when will the other airlines follow?
09:15 - Womp, womp: Flying Blue raises fuel surcharges on award tickets
12:15 - United’s buzzy new Relax Row – would we book it?
16:50 - American wants to reinstall seatback screens
20:40 - Two new nonstop routes to the Philippines?!
23:25 - A word from our sponsor (us): Sign up for the Extra Mile newsletter today!
24:00 - Delta’s 2,500 bonus SkyMiles bags on time rule change
23:35 - Delta inks new inflight Wi-Fi deal with Amazon
27:00 - We love Flighty’s new update
28:35 - Amex ditches Saks, adds ChatGPT credits
30:20 - Attention, skiers: Epic and Ikon passes are now on sale
32:15 - Buying MLB tickets with Capital One miles is back
33:40 - What seat on the plane is best for your skin?
36:00 - Gunnar (finally) gets roasted in the reviews
38:15 - On the spot: Start, bench or cut Delta’s new transpacific routes?
Produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas
Video editing by Kyle Thomas
Show music: “All That” by Benjamin Tissot
Yo, welcome to the show. I'm Gunnar, that's Kyle. As always, there's been a lot to catch up on in the travel world. So today we're gonna go through six big news stories, six small news stories, and then one something stupid that needs to be discussed at the very end. Two, uh, but before we start Kyle, we are both what I would call pre vacation right now.
You've got a big trip starting later this month. I have a very small trip coming this weekend. So my question to you is, I thought about this yesterday. When do you start packing for a trip?
I mean, aren't we always pre vacation, even if that vacation is weeks if not months away? True. It depends on how big the trip is.
If it's a weekend trip, it might be the day of, the morning of, uh, really at the last minute for, for a bigger, you know, couple of week long trip, probably the weekend prior. So we're leaving for Hong Kong on a Wednesday. I will probably have almost everything packed over the weekend, heading into that week before heading to the airport, first thing Wednesday morning.
Yeah, I like the, the weekend before is usually when I, I do my best work too, and the bigger the trip, the further out I start and then I, what I like to do, what I try to do is at the last minute, I try and just take one or two things out, like just take one last look at things. It's kind, what, what is it?
The, the Coco Chanel. Like, take one accessory off before you leave the house.
I did not have you dropping Coco Chanel on my 2026 Bingo card.
I didn't either. It just came to me. All right, let's get into it. Today on the show it's. A TSA update, some onboard enhancements for United in American, some airfare getting more expensive, some new route jockeying, and some rapid fire news topics at the end.
And of course, something stupid. All that and more.
Ola from Cost Rica. Hello from the Waldo story. Welcome back to.
Introducing the show today was listener Rosie's daughter who greeted us from the Waldorf Astoria, Costa Rica, or should I say the Waldo Astoria as she put it. That was really awesome. Thank you for welcoming us. Back to the 15 traveler is how she pronounced it. I believe
she nailed it.
She nailed it. That was so cute.
Thank you for the submission. As always, we love our welcome back videos. Um, okay. Let's jump into the most important story in travel. It's what everyone's talking about. It's frankly gripped the nation. Kyle, the Thrifty Traveler Podcast has been named a finalist for a Shorty award. Kyle, your reaction,
it's just time for a little bit more naval gazing.
This might not be good for my ego if we're, if we possibly win this award. If, if you wanna help us out and vote, go to thrifty traveler.com/vote. You can vote until April 8th. We'd really appreciate your support because one of our co finalists, their logo for their podcast is literally just a puppy that, so we're, we're in one,
we're screwed.
Yeah.
Unless if you vote, you can vote. You can vote once a day. You can get extra votes by sharing your vote on social media, LinkedIn, if that's your thing. Is LinkedIn social media?
I think so.
No, it's not a serious place. It's deeply unserious people.
That is true. Um, yeah. Help us out any way you can. We would really love to win this award.
It's, it's kind of cool to be recognized either way. And if we lose to a puppy, we lose to a puppy.
I, I would, I would accept it. But let's, yeah. Vote for us, please.
Okay. Let's get into the real news. This week, an executive order from President Trump ensured that more than 50,000 TSA agents started getting paychecks after working the last six-ish weeks.
Unpaid, uh, might take some time for all those checks get doled out, but as of early this week, checks are hitting accounts and TSA lines seem to be moving faster. Than the carnage of the last few weeks. Are we outta the woods, Kyle?
Yes and no. I we're gonna have to pay close attention to this in the weeks to come for a couple of reasons.
One, we know that this, you know, this six weeks of working unpaid after another six weeks working unpaid in the fall has done some serious long-term damage to the TSA workforce that more than 500 people have quit. Um, you know, found other jobs altogether to say nothing of how many people are just not going to apply to work for the TSA period and train for that job, which takes many months, because who on earth is gonna want.
Be jumping up and down to work for $25 an hour when you may or may not get those paychecks, depending on how people feel in Congress.
And you get used as a political pawn every three months,
everybody's stream. It's the ultimate benefit of the federal government. So that's an issue, but the bigger thing.
Is that this executive order did not guarantee pay for TSA workers going forward. All it did was say, we will back pay you for the last six weeks of work. So it's gonna take time, as you said, for all of those paychecks to go out for the six weeks of work that people had done. But week seven and eight and nine.
Barring another executive order, those paychecks may not come. And you know, as we're talking right now, the Senate is in week one of two weeks of, uh, recess. So they're not, the US Senate is not even meeting to try to get funding in place for these TSA agents and the rest of the Department of Homeland Security, all of which is to say.
We are not out of the woods. This could roar back in a big way. We're just gonna have to keep a close, close eye on it.
Yeah. We'll be monitoring closely as, uh, you and I both navigate airports and see what things are, are really like out there. But, um, we're keeping track. There are good. What are some of the best ways you've written about this a few times to, to take a look at TSA security lines for people out there.
The single best resource, and it's not perfect, but uh, more than a dozen major US airports actually calculate and display current wait times on their website. If you can find it from on your home airport, on your home airport's website, that is number one with a bullet, the most reliable. Estimate of what wait times are like at your airport at that time.
I would start there. There are some other third party services that seem more reliable, um, one of which is a relatively new service called Q Sensor. I've been looking at that a lot and it does seem to be fairly accurate, but again, it's, it's pretty hit or miss. I would just caution anyone. Do not use the TSA Wait times app.
TSA has its own app. You can check on wait time estimates, but the data that they use to calculate historical estimates is borderline worthless. Don't even look at it.
Yeah, they have a big disclaimer across their website right now. Even that says we're not updating this because of the shutdown, so don't come here for the best information.
Okay, that's a good update. Um. Kyle, let's move on to our next story. Last week we wondered aloud which airline would be the first through the glass to raise fees Once again, as, as oil prices rise and, uh, we have our answer. Congratulations, I guess, to JetBlue, who sneakily raised the cost of its first check bag by $4, uh, or $9 depending on the peak or off peak season.
So previously a prepaid. Off peak check bag ran you $35 with JetBlue. That's now 39. Uh, if you paid at the airport it was 45 and is now 49. Uh, in peak season it's even worse. The prepaid fee went from $40 to $49 and the at airport fee went from 50 to $59 for that first check bag. The prices for second check bags also went up $9 each.
Uh, this is the second time. JetBlue has increased its baggage fees in two years. Uh, JetBlue and all the other airlines raised bag fees from 30 to $35 about two years ago in 2024. So are all the other airlines gonna jump through the JetBlue sized hole in the glass here?
This is the worst glass ceiling possible.
Let's just point that out. It is only a matter of time before every airline in the country matches. And in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if in a couple of weeks every major US airline has raised. Check bag fees by four to $5 or maybe more because JetBlue is the early mover, but what they did gives everybody license to do the same and they are not gonna give that additional money up.
This is what we saw the last time. Every major US airline raised bag fees back in 2024. Over a matter of just months. Every single one of them did it. It took, it took a while. It probably took about four or five months total in this case. I am so sure I would love to be wrong, but I don't think I am. I am so sure.
That every airline looks at what's happening with jet fuel right now and says, well, JetBlue did it so we can, and what if we wait too long and jet fuel prices do come back down to Earth? Well then we missed our chance. So I wouldn't, I would not be, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if, you know, we're talking right now on a Tuesday, if by Thursday when this episode drops, that another airline has matched and has raised check bag fees to about $40 or more.
It wouldn't shock me in the slightest.
Uh, and the airlines aren't gonna go the other way with this either. When, like you said, when prices come down, they're not gonna, by the goodness of their hearts, lower this fee for you all either. So, um, expect, uh, the boarding process to become even more cumbersome and annoying.
'cause everyone's gonna be carrying the largest carry on they could possibly carry with them because check bag fees continue to go up. More bad news, more bad fee news, Kyle. Um. We love Air France, KLM, flying Blue. I love using those miles to book flights. It's one of our favorite programs. It gives you solid availability in all cabins for flights all over the world.
But flying blue just did what executives have been promising since the price of oil went up. They're raising their fuel surcharges, uh, so your taxes and fees will be much higher on award tickets booked with Flying Blue. Um, they did this without any warning. Uh, the award surcharges are up by about $60 for a round trip in economy and business class.
That's an extra a hundred dollars each way. I believe those are on the way to Europe, right? Mm-hmm. For flights to Europe, um, and flying blue. I guess they aren't alone here. Uh, US airlines have admitted they've been raising cash fairs, and then Cafe Pacific announced they're gonna have another surcharge increase that takes effect on April 1st.
So flying Blue's not the first one, but what do you make of them raising their taxes and fees?
It's not the first, they won't be the last. I, you know, I, I think the takeaway here is, you know, it, it always sucks to pay more in cash, especially when you're redeeming miles. A lot of, so much of what we talk about is trying to guide people to the best airline program to book a flight for the one two punch of the lowest amount of miles and a, the lowest, or at least a reasonable amount of fees.
Looking through Air France, KLM, flying blue, the fees have steadily increased over the years. It used to be under $200 in fees for a one way business class flight from the United States to Europe, and it got up to 250, and now we're at about $350 for a one way That's. Not the worst, but it's certainly not great either.
So you know, if you haven't booked something yet, I think you can't rule out an additional increase using flying blue miles in the weeks and months to come. But maybe more importantly, a lot of what we talked about last week about rising airfare prices and what you should do in the fact that we're all in the office and everybody should be booking their flights sooner rather than later.
We focused a lot on. Just cash prices, finding the cheapest price that you can and then booking it. But I would say the same is equally, if not even more true for award tickets using your miles. Because the odds that the fuel surcharges, especially using a foreign airline program like Air Franz, KLM, flying Blue, like Virgin Atlantic, like Qatar Airways to book Q Suites, you know, 12 full months in advance, the odds that those fuel surcharges are going to increase and perhaps increase.
Precipitously. Are looking pretty ugly right now. It's not great. So I would lock something in as soon as you can book it. Figure out if you can take that trip later.
Yeah, like we said in our episode, was it already last week? Now just rally the group chat. Get everyone on the same page. It's time to book some flights for travel in 2026.
I wouldn't wait. Uh, I'm not waiting on any of my stuff. I'm, I'm trying to get everything booked as early as I can this year because fares are definitely going to go up. Um, let's switch to some onboard news. We have, uh. Two stories here. One from United and one from American. Um, United announced a dizzying amount of stuff.
Uh, in the last week, they held a big press event in California to show off a slew of new things. Um, one of those things really caught the attention of the public, though Kyle, uh. It's something called the Relax Row. The Relax Row converts a row of three economy seats into a full, flat sleeping surface, including a mattress pad, pillows and blankets, and a stuffed plushie for kids for an additional fee.
Of course. Um. They said, uh, United said there's gonna be 12 relaxed row sections per plane. It's gonna be between the premium economy and the regular economy cabin. Uh, I guess we can call this a poor man's business class, uh, but it's expected to launch in 2027, making its way to 200 planes by 2030 United promised.
Um, this really blew up in the last week, Kyle, but United didn't invent this right.
Yeah, I mean, hats off to United for pulling off a total PR coup and, and managing to convince people that they did reinvent the wheel when they, in fact did not. This is something that Air New Zealand invented more than a decade ago.
It's called the Sky Couch, and it's been incredibly popular. It's really in many, in many ways, put Air New Zealand on the map and. In order to do this, United had to either get, uh, like special permission to take, um, air New Zealand's patent on this in order to do it in the United States. So again, just a great PR move by United to make a big splash with this.
It's clearly very popular. It goes to show that for as much as. The talk about premium travel is really around business class and brand new business class suites with closing doors and fancier champagne and upgrades to dining and all of that stuff at the front of the cabin. Premium travel is more than just business class, it's also premium economy.
And something like this is a really smart move to do now at a time to kind of plant a flag as, you know what, we are the US airline that thinks about doing these things and we're actually going to do it regardless of whether they're the first airline to do it and they are not.
Yeah, I, I mean these are probably gonna be expensive.
Uh, they're, it's not gonna be quite the, uh, business class, but. I mean also if, you know, if I'm a traveler thinking about do I want to spring for that premium economy seat or would I rather spring for that relaxed row? Um, I wonder how the pricing is gonna be different. 'cause I bet a lot of people would just probably prefer the relaxed row if they could lie flat instead of a premium economy recliner, which is, you know, the premium economy cabinet is really, really profitable for airlines.
They love these middle of the plane seats, and now United has just. Kind of extended their middle of the plane, put in a new product. I, I just wonder how they're gonna price it. 'cause I do think it's gonna be super popular right off the bat. Um, would you book this, you interested in a, in a relaxed row?
I, I think it depends on the price and I, I do think that for many it will look exorbitantly expensive.
You know, at, at the minimum you're gonna have to buy three economy seats in order to be eligible to do this, or at least. Two with an open middle, and then you can turn it into this live flat surface. My guess, though is that there may be some, some element of this that as premium travel is all the ridge and the front of the cabin is filling up fast.
Airlines are also looking at the back of the cabin saying, you know what, we're not gonna be able to fill these seats as much as we could, so why not do something like this? And so maybe. And hopefully for people who are interested, the pricing won't be too bad, especially in the last days or weeks before departure.
If the cabin is looking pretty empty, you might get some version of like an upgrade offer to be able to lock in a relaxed row. A row of seats on your long-haul united flight for something that looks a little bit more reasonable, but I have no idea what reasonable would even look like. This is, at least for US airlines new territory.
Yeah. In their press release, they made it very clear that they're catering to traveling families. Um, I, I do see how this would, you know, make a lot of sense to try and get a little one to sleep, uh, without, you know, having them have to pay up for a full Polaris seat. Um, but yeah. Interesting. Really interesting move and I'm, I'm.
Crucially, I need to see what this costs when it comes out. It's gonna take a long time for them to roll this out, but, uh, what'd they say? More than 200 planes. So that's a lot of, a lot of routes that you're gonna be able to see some relaxed rows on. Um. American Airlines. Let's switch over CNBC reports that American Airlines is exploring, bringing back seat back screens.
Uh, what's old is new again, Kyle. Um, they're looking to add it to more of its fleet after years of doubling down on the, kind of bring your own device strategy. Uh, American, especially when they started bringing on their 7 37 maxes, they said, you know. People don't want a screen and we wanna make our planes a lot lighter, which will make them more fuel efficient.
And it turns out everybody does want screens. And so now they're coming back. So, uh, they, that was in 2017, they began removing most of their screens. Um. Delta and United went the other way and just leaned really into seatback screens and kind of left American behind. So why is AA doing this right now?
Because it's clear now. I think it's been clear for years, maybe even back to 2017 when Americans started ripping out seatback screens and getting new deliveries without them. That they shot themselves in the foot, that this was, um, you know, the, the epitome of being pennywise and pound foolish because do people need a seat back screen?
No, they probably don't. In, in many cases, there are a lot of passengers who are okay with, if not prefer to bring their own device and have an iPhone or an iPad or tablet or a laptop or whatever and watch whatever they wanna watch. And that's fine. But as so much of the airline industry has reoriented again around premium travel, it's.
Again, not just about the business class seats and what you get when you pay $5,000 for a, you know, a live flat seat from San Francisco to Rome. In many cases, it's about the day-to-day stuff and the experience that you have when you get on a narrow body plane from San Francisco to Dallas or to Denver and what that plan in experience looks like.
And even if you don't use seat back screens. I do think, and I have always thought. That it sends a clear signal that this is an airline that is investing in your experience, even if you never turn it on, or even if all you do is you tap it and you turn on the map and follow your plane from San Francisco to Denver.
That says something about where the airline is spending money and what the, what American Airlines has said for the last almost 10 years is that. We just don't really care about this stuff, and that is costing them dearly now, and that is one of the many, many reasons why in the US airline industry, Delta is here.
United is getting right there. And then there's like 20 feet of crap and it's American Airlines and they are really struggling along with most of the rest of the industry who have made similar decisions.
Yeah, I mean they're doing this because they have to, uh, 'cause all their main competitors are, and they could either go the way of Southwest or they can go the way of United and Delta and, uh, I'd rather have two of those books than the other.
That's for sure. Um, what's your screen strategy when you're, when you're on a, a. Flight with screens on it. Do you, do you have just the one screen you're just locked in? I like to just have as many screens going as I po. I want the live TV going on. The big one. I've got whatever HBO Sunday Night Show is going on my iPad, and then I'm also looking at Instagram reels the whole time.
What's your screen strategy?
That is way too much going on, man. Uh, either just watch something, like actually watch one thing or what I, I know, hear me out. It's a novel concept. Or if I'm working on the flight, I'll just like plug in my headphones to the seatback screen, probably turn on Top Gun Maverick for the hundred and 89th time and just like barely listen to it as I'm working away.
That's good. That's a good way to do it. Yeah. Maybe I'm overstimulated on my flights when I'm flying alone, but now with an, with an infant, it's just, you know, turn whatever you can on the screen and then she pulls the headphones out and pulls 'em outta my ears, and then we're, we're all in it for her. Uh, all right, last one of our big stories today.
Um, there's a fun little drama between Philippine Airlines and Delta right now, and the end result could be two really fun routes between the Philippines and the us. Uh, according to Department of Transportation filings, Philippine Airlines filed the fly Manila nonstop to Chicago O'Hare ever heard of it, uh, but Delta filed an answer to the application, urging the DOT to defer action until Delta's own route from Los Angeles to Manila was approved by the Philippine government.
Uh, in its reply, Philippine Airlines. Said it welcomes Delta's new route to Manila, as you would say, poque Nolo dose, uh, and hopes that all the routes get approved and that Philippine aviation authorities quote, have indicated their support for Delta's planned service. Um, so Kyle, if everyone gets what they want here and we get both.
Chicago to Manila, nonstop on Philippine Airlines and LAX to Manila on Delta. Which one of these two routes excites you most?
Anything but O'Hare? How's that for an answer?
I should have known
this.
Yeah. You really teed that one up for me. I think, I don't know that this is, it's, it's kind of drama. I think it's mostly Delta just being savvy and seeing a way to get some leverage to get something that they want, which is a nonstop flight from LA to Manila.
Uh, whether they're truly. Irked about the prospect of Filipino airlines adding a nonstop to Chicago. I doubt they really care. They just see this as an opportunity to try to squeeze, um, you know, aviation authorities in both countries to get what they want.
Yeah, I mean, this, it, you're right, it, this does seem like it's just gonna go through just fine and everyone's gonna get what they want here, but, um.
Very exciting. We get two new nonstop routes from the US to the Philippines. That manila route is going to be so ripe for sky miles flash sales. You watch, there's gonna be some unbelievable stuff on that route. Uh, so start hoarding your sky miles for, uh, a nice delta, one round trip or a sky miles flash sale for like 25,000 sky miles round trip.
It's gonna be, it's gonna be really crazy in that first year.
That alone is a reason to, to pick LA to Manila and Delta over the Chicago nonstop to say nothing of T five at. O'Hare, which is just a dumpster. It's a donkey.
It's not the best, not the best terminal in this here, United States. Um, we have, sorry,
could you repeat that?
I said it's not the best terminal
in, in which airport, just to be clear.
Uh, Chicago O'Hare. But it is, you know, there's, there's plenty in there. The lot Polish lounge. Ever been in there? No. Lovely. It's beautiful. The sky Club in terminal five. That's also amazing when you're in gen. Pop in that, in, in that concourse though not a fun place to be.
No. Very strange vibes in there. Um, we have six small news stories that we need to get to, but first we're gonna take a quick break.
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Alright, back to the show.
Okay, we are back and we have six small news stories to get to now. I'm gonna try and keep this as rapid fire as we can. I'm aiming for about one minute each. I'm not gonna run the clock on you this time, but one minute each. Can we do this?
Let's do it.
Okay. Uh, this first one is Delta's Late Bags Rule Change.
So you may or may not know that when. Flying Delta. If it takes 21 minutes or longer for your check bags to hit the belt, you are eligible for 2,500 bonus delta sky miles' compensation. Uh, Delta counts this from when the plane doors open to when your bag gets to baggage claim. You can submit online at delta.com/bags on time and the miles pretty much instantly hit your account if you're eligible.
They just added a new restriction to this though. What is it, Kyle?
Before you had, I think, what, three full days to submit a claim in order to get your bonus miles, and now you have. Two hours after your plane arrives in order to submit a claim, in order to get these bonus miles if you're eligible for them.
I will say there has been more than a year's worth of rumors that Delta was going to end this little known benefit altogether. So this seems like a, a happy medium. It's also just clearly something you should get in the habit of doing right away once you hit that 20 minute mark after your plane pulls up to the boarding gate.
I do this after every single Delta flight where I check a bag no matter what. Um, one bags are almost always late, especially coming back to the belt at msp. Um, especially oversized items like skis, golf clubs, and car seats almost always late too. And two, it's always worth trying. You're standing there at the belt.
Anyway, pull your phone out, delta.com/bags on time. My wife and I just do this as a habit every time we get to the baggage claim. Uh, worst case scenario is your bags come before 20 minutes and they deny you your miles. There's no harm in trying. I always try. Uh, next story, uh, Delta and Amazon. Leo, um, Delta signed an agreement with Amazon to put this Amazon Leo high speed, low latency satellite internet onto 500 Delta planes starting in 2028.
This is clearly Delta's response to competitors like United and Hawaiian who both recently signed up with starlink, uh, for a similar kind of internet. Um, in the meantime, you're still gonna have the kind of hues or ViaSat internet connections on Delta. Those aren't going anywhere because it's gonna take a long time for this to roll out.
And the airline says all the wifi will remain free even when the planes switch over to Leo. Did Delta have to do this to keep up with the times?
It's just an absolute arms race for in-flight connectivity right now. And I think while on one hand this is good news for Delta, you're not going to start to see this until 2028.
So we're talking a full two years from now before you actually see this. And, you know. I at by that point, United, almost all of United's entire fleet will be outfitted with starlink, which is also, I would say a proven commodity now in in-flight connectivity that it is by far the fastest way to get wifi on onboard a flight.
Amazon Leo is gonna be something new, so it's a big name, but I don't think that this Delta needed to do this, whether it's enough to kind of close the gap with the moves that United has made in the last year and change. Uh, that's a big question to me.
Yeah, for sure. Okay, let's move on to one I'm really excited about.
Um, stop me if you've heard this before. Kyle Flighty the best travel app period. Just got better. Last week, flighty pushed an update that wrangles analyzes into codes data and information from more than 14,000 world airports in what it's calling airport intelligence. Uh, this is new territory for flighty.
Do you like the update?
It's, it's really smart and really useful as a way to, to get like a big picture. Look at how things are going at your home airport that day, or what the trend is over the last couple of days, or how things are overseas if you're flying to London or Paris, to see how things are moving at that airport.
And maybe most importantly, the biggest knock against Flighty is that it is only available for iPhone users. This is a public facing dashboard that anybody can use. Whether you have Flighty Pro and pay for a lifetime subscription or you're just a free user or don't, don't use it at all. So it's a great way to get some really quick, smart insights about how planes are moving on or not on time.
Yeah, I think it's just flighty.com/airports and the rollout of this update happening when it did was pitch perfect too. I mean, airports melting down all over 'cause the TSA lines and, and they come out with this perfect update, looks like they're really going after, uh. Flight Radar 24 Flight Aware. They wanna become the Everything Flight app, which is pretty cool to see.
Uh, if you like Flight Ear, are curious, listen to our bonus episode that we recorded in September where we talked to the founder and CEO Ryan Jones, um, about what is absolutely my favorite app on my phone. That was a bit of a fanboy interview, to be honest. Okay, we have two pieces of Amex news. I wanna roll into one quick discussion here.
First. Kyle Amex is discontinuing a longstanding Amex platinum credit that gave you $50 every half year to Sachs fifth Avenue. Will you miss this one?
No, I will. I miss buying, uh, an overpriced bottle of hand soap twice a year in order to use this. I mean, I guess maybe. Maybe I just have to buy my hands.
Hope from Target now.
Yeah.
Um, not a surprise. I mean, SACS entered bankruptcy a couple of months ago now. I think the writing has been on the wall for this for a while, so if you haven't yet used, if you have an AMX platinum card and you haven't yet used your SACS credit, you can do so through. June 30th, come July 1st, this benefit is gone.
Amex has said they're gonna replace it with quote, exclusive Amex offers. That's kind of a different animal. You know, those are rebates for purchases that you have to add to your card and then use to shop at whichever store that Amex offers for. We'll see, they'll no doubt do something splashy at first, but, um, I, long term they'll have to figure out a way to offset this because even as annoying as it was, it was, it was, uh, you know, it added up.
Yep. We had one Amex offer, or sorry, one Amex, uh, credit out, and another one in, um, Amex announced that it's adding a $300 chat GPT credit to its business platinum and business Gold Cards to cover chat GPT business subscriptions. We don't know how it'll be structured as in monthly, quarterly, or annual reimbursement, but did this one get your attention?
Not really. Is this a, is that good podcast material? No, not really. It's fine. No doubt. Business card holders will, will, many of them will get some good value out of this. It just doesn't personally move the needle a whole lot for me.
Okay, next story is super self-indulgent. Kyle, I can't believe you, let me put this on here.
Um. My ski season still isn't over, but I'm already thinking ahead to next week's or next year's trips because the best prices on skiing season passes are on sale right now for just a few more days or weeks this spring. Uh, the mega passes highlighted by the massive epic pass and icon pass are a really good value for skiers and riders, so long as they're gonna ski five or more days a year.
I would say at resorts, uh, considering day lift tickets are close to $300, especially around the holidays. At some of these places, these numbers may seem huge, but it's actually the best value in skiing. The Icon Pass is the biggest, most expensive one. It came out at $1,399 for the season. This is the Total Unlimited Pass.
Uh, the Epic Pass came out at about a thousand dollars with a bigger list of areas. Um, the Mountain Collective came out at $669, which gives you access to many of the Icon Pass resorts, but it was only two days at each. And then the Indy Pass is the best budget option at $399 access to more than 300 independent resorts with two days each.
Um, skiing is not the most affordable hobby, Kyle, but you, you get your passes a year in advance. It's at least doable on a budget. Have you ever considered getting a mega pass?
No. No, I haven't. I. You know what? The Mountain Collective one would be interesting if I was planning to go from more than one annual ski trip a year, typically to just somewhere in Minnesota.
If, if my friend Jim and I were gonna start to plan to branch out a little bit, go twice, maybe three times a year, I would look, give a, give a hard look at this. But for your very, very occasional skier, it's just hard to see the value here. Unless if you, you do one big trip to like Veil a year, in which case it could be a no brainer.
Yeah, Lutin joining the icon for this year, which is pretty interesting. But, um, yeah, lots. It's, uh, it's, it's hard to wrap your mind around this if you're not a skier, so we'll move on. Um. This promotion is really fun. It's, this is one of the sneaky best ways to redeem Capital One miles, and it's for tickets to baseball games.
Um, a few years ago, capital One partnered with MLB to allow you to use your miles on baseball tickets. Most of these redemptions are not good, uh, but at all 30 ballparks you can buy. Lower level dugout box seats for just 5,000 miles a piece, which is a crazy good deal. They only release four of these, is the catch, and that's at every, pretty much every single game.
Um, so you have to act fast. Uh, right now they release these seats through the end of May and they'll release the next batch of tickets for June and July right around then too. Have you done this promotion before?
Yeah, actually, um, you know, back when we worked in downtown Minneapolis, we were like a short walk from the twin stadium at Target Field.
And right when this rolled out, we were like. Yeah, let's, let's go to a twins game. The seats are awesome at Target field, and I think the same is true of every, you know, of the other 29 ballparks across the country. So if you've got some Capital One miles to spare, I think it's well, well worth it.
Yeah.
It's, it's cheap. It does get you like right in, in the action and when you're kind of that low, especially at at Target field and some of the nicer places. Access to like more private concessions. And it's a really good seat and it's a really good value if you do the math on what some of those seats cost, especially for big games or things like that.
So take a look at your schedule and uh, see what you can make work. Um, but make sure you don't get fleeced and end up paying like 30,000 capital one miles for an upper deck ticket. That's not the one you want. You want those special lower box tickets. Um, alright Kyle, do we have time for something stupid if we have
to?
This is a news story I just had to bring. To your attention. Um, I received a press release this week that, uh, you know, we receive dozens of meaningless PR pitches every week. Uh, a lot of them are like barely travel related and most of them aren't well researched. This is a perfect example of that. Um, it's called.
Quote, window or aisle, your choice of plain seat could be ruining your skin. Uh, the release from the brand Fresha, which I am loath to even acknowledge that this is the brand, Fresha cites no actual data or evidence and quotes. A single person that simply calls themselves a quote beauty expert for these findings.
Are you ready for the findings? These expert findings.
You're really testing my patience today.
Highlights.
It was really bold of you to do Icon Epic. Pass into this,
um, the worst for your skin, Kyle. The worst seats on the plane for your skin. The window seat due to boosted UV exposure and minimal airflow.
I. Your reaction?
Sure.
The best for your skin aisle seats in the middle of the cabin where airflow is more stable and humidity dips aren't as severe. The most dehydrating zone, Kyle, the first and last five rows of the plane where temperature and airflow fluctuate the most. And travelers in the center block seats of wide body planes reported less tightness and irritation.
Post-flight. So Kyle, my question to you is you're in rows one through five of the plane. Are you gonna move back to the middle block of economy so that you experience quote, less tightness and irritation post-flight?
I'm gonna ignore your question and I'm gonna ask, do you think Fresha could tell us how, like where you have to see in order to counteract the dehydrating.
Dehydrating effect of your two to four red wines on every flight.
There's nothing
that can, there's, there's nowhere you can go.
No, there's nowhere, nowhere to hide from two to four red wines and what that will do to your body over the course of a long haul flight. Boom. Uh, thank you Fresha for entertaining me with your press release this week.
Uh, and now all my listeners out there know. Where to sit on the plane to make sure that you experience less tightness and irritation when you get off the plane
of your skin, not of your soul and spirit.
Exactly. Um, all right, for our listener question segment this week, we're actually just going to. Award two winners of the Gunner Roast contest.
We asked you to, uh, rate and review the show and Apple Podcasts, uh, and we told you that whoever roasted me the best would get their, uh, reviews, read Live on the air, and that's what we're going to do now. So Kyle, I'm going to have you read, uh, the best comment, the Best Roast Award. From our, uh, our friends here who reviewed us on Apple Podcast, can you do this for me?
In, in a, let's just point out a five star review, which was then titled The Worst, Mr. Magic, great name. Uh, wrote, gunner Olson is a redheaded clown listening to his nonsense, man, get outta town. He starts the show with yo and ends the show with s Ya. I want nothing to do with this. Bam. On Amada Pia, that's really good.
Mr. Magic. Poor Kyle Potter sits quietly by sometimes not so quietly whilst Canada and O'Hare are thrown on the fly. You think sky pesos are worthless? Just wait till you see. Turn on the pod gunner house that they call tt.
Wow. Mr. Magic. Um. That was just, just beautiful. Uh, thank you for the five star review.
It is a little strange to see that the, the first review on our show says the worst in this, in the title of it. So
I, it wouldn't have surprised me.
I know that you're referring to me as the worst, but, um, yeah. You know, maybe, maybe don't call our show the worst in your, uh. I don't know. I'm just bitter at Mr.
Magic 'cause he got me so good. Here.
You gotta take the bad with the good.
Yeah. Well thank you, uh, for your review and, you know, the, the contest stands if someone can come in and, and one up Mr. Magic here with the good roasts of me in the reviews, we would much appreciate it. Five star reviews only and uh, do your worst.
Let's see what you can come up with redheaded clown right off the bat. I hope my mom doesn't read the reviews of the show. Uh, if you want us to answer your questions when we do listener questions in the future, or if you have any feedback for us, hit us up at podcast@thriftytraveler.com. We might feature your question on next week's show.
We close the show as always with on the spot, and I'm putting you on the spot this week. Are you ready? We talked about the potential new Delta route from LAX to Manila. Um, there have been some other announced and rumored delta routes across the Pacific, uh, namely Hong Kong, which has been announced and is on sale, and Singapore, which has also been long rumored that Delta's going to start next year.
So let's do an old fashioned bench start. Cut. Uh, of these three routes, which one are you starting? Which one are you benching? Which one gets cut?
Uh, start would be LA to Manila because this would be new ground for Delta, uh, new-ish ground. They previously flew with a stop in, I think Tokyo NTA before the pandemic and just aren't nearly as many ways to fly nonstop to the Philippines.
So I think that would be a welcome addition bench. I would go Singapore. Um, it's a little bit higher on my list because it's a city that I'm familiar with and there aren't as many nonstop options from the United States and Cut would be LA to Hong Kong. Something that is actually happening, I mean, within a matter of weeks that nonstop service will begin here from LA to Hong Kong on Delta, but between, I mean, especially Cafe Pacific.
Uh, if I, if I have to choose between flying Cafe Pacific or Flying Delta, it's such an easy choice. I'm gonna fly Cafe Pacific a hundred times out of a hundred. It's, they just, they do everything so much better than every US carrier. And so that, yeah, that would be the one that I would cut. It's just doesn't really move the needle for me personally.
Yeah, that's pretty good. I thought I could get you with that one, but I actually thought maybe I would have. Hong Kong and Manila flipped there because I'm just so interested in Hong Kong. I really, I really, really want to go,
I, you know what, my order might've been different if I wasn't about to go to Hong Kong for the first time.
That, so, you know, I, and I'm flying Cafe Pacific there and back, so, you know, I kind of got that one taken care of on an airline that I think is gonna have a much better onboard experience than Delta could offer.
Yeah. Awesome. Okay, well we got everybody caught up on the news. We know Kyle's start bench cut.
I think that's it for us today.
Alright.
Thank you so much for listening to the Thrift Traveler podcast. If you could rate us five stars on your platform of choice and like, and subscribe to the show on YouTube, we would really appreciate it. Send this episode to someone you know who needs a vacation. If you have feedback for us, send me a note at podcast@thriftytraveler.com.
I'd love to hear from you there. Kyle, tell us about the team.
This episode was produced by your favorite host, the redheaded clown himself. Gunner Olson was produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas and edited by Kyle Thomas. Our theme music is by Benjamin Teso. See you next week. See ya.