The end of the year is in sight, so it’s time for Gunnar and Kyle to pretend like they’re high schoolers on the pod (honestly, not a stretch) for some 2025 superlatives, yearbook style. Who was the class clown of travel? Most popular? Cutest couple? Best hairline?! Plus, the guys unveil the winners of TT’s second-annual First Class and Lavatory Awards, recognizing the absolute best and rock-bottom worst from the year of travel. Oh, and Kyle shares his unattainable childhood dreams and what he was really like in high school.
The end of the year is in sight, so it’s time for Gunnar and Kyle to pretend like they’re high schoolers on the pod (honestly, not a stretch) for some 2025 superlatives, yearbook style. Who was the class clown of travel? Most popular? Cutest couple? Best hairline?! Plus, the guys unveil the winners of TT’s second-annual First Class and Lavatory Awards, recognizing the absolute best and rock-bottom worst from the year of travel. Oh, and Kyle shares his unattainable childhood dreams and what he was really like in high school.
0:00 - Kicking off our 2025 travel superlatives with “Class Clown” & “Most Popular”
4:14 - Recapping (some) of the 25 best flight deals of the year
14:29 - A word from our sponsor: HotelSlash, the easiest way to book a cheaper hotel stay - & rebook when prices drop
15:23 - The rest of our 2025 travel superlatives, including “Cutest Couple,” “Most Ambitious” & more
21:11 - The Worst Glow Up (… is that a thing?) of 2025
26:31 - The Best Dressed Airline of 2025
30:06 - A back-to-back “Best Hair” winner & Most Likely to Cheer You Up
37:17 - Our second-annual First Class & Lavatory Awards (recognizing the best and worst in travel) go to…
47:02 - On the spot: What was Kyle like in high school?
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 Olson, a reporter and flight deal analyst at Thrifty Traveler, alongside our executive editor, the host of the Hit series, tiny Mic, big Savings, which you can find on all of our socials every Monday. But today, he's trading in his tiny mic for a big one. What's up Kyle?
This mic is substantially bigger. It, it is also a much more effective microphone than the tiny mic, which I would not recommend. It doesn't work well. The the tiny mic is a great bit though. We love it. Alright, to start out, Kyle, we're, today is our 2025 year in travel episode, so we're gonna look at our top flight deals of the year, but we're also gonna go through our 2025 travel yearbook, which.
Is one of our favorite things, uh, where we dish out some superlatives yearbook style, high school yearbook style. And the first one I want to get, I wanna get right into two of 'em off the hop here. Who's our 2025 class clown in the travel world? It pains me to say it. Well, no it doesn't. It's actually pretty fun.
Uh, it is Hilton, Hilton Honors and not one, not two, but three different devaluations over the course of a year and change. It's started in late 2024, but they just made it so much worse throughout 2025. Who else could it be, but the hotel chain that is charging. At least a quarter million points for a single night at some of their top properties.
Where that high end is 45,000 points at at Hyatt. It's just, it almost makes your skin crawl. Yeah. You very early on in this show, you don't, you don't need to remind everybody free. No, we're gonna go free time. We're gonna go back, uh, early on in this show. We had a Hilton versus Hyatt debate, and you successfully convinced me to, uh, dive into the Hilton pool and I did.
Um, and I actually have gotten some pretty good value out of it, to be honest. But, uh, watching, uh, them charge a quarter of a million points for one night at a hotel. Kind of makes my skin crawl and that's why they are 20, 25 class clown. Any final words in this long, long year for you about Hilton and its devaluations?
I think people would be well within their rights to blame you for this because you jumped in the pool and then pooped in the pool and Hilton pooped in the pool with you. So it might, it may be gunner's fault. Who knows? It might be my fault. All right, let's switch it up. Um, who is. Our 2025 most popular.
In the 2025 yearbook, did your high school yearbook declare somebody most popular? I don't think that they did. I think maybe they were, maybe they had stopped doing that by then, but I don't think they actually declared someone most popular. I wasn't in the running. Uh, but you were, you were never, that was never going to be you.
Uh, or 2025. Most popular is against all odds. The American Express Platinum Card had you told me at the beginning of the year. The American Express Platinum Card would raise its free fee from 6 95 a year to almost $900, and people would like it more, and people would be, honestly, for the most part, thrilled about it.
I, I didn't see this coming. Um, so kudos to them. Kudos to American Express. It. It's not perfect. Nothing is in this world. There are always trade offs, but no question. People are, for the most part, pretty happy. Um, and pretty, pretty happy to, uh, declare it. The, uh, the so-called prom king or queen of, uh, of travel cards.
Yeah. To continue the high school metaphor, if this was a high school football game, this would've been the upset of the century that the Amex Platinum Card became a darling once again, uh, with a almost a thousand dollars annual fee. But, all right, we have lots more superlative. To get to, so today on the show, we're getting through the rest of the 2025 travel yearbook with our best flight deals of the year and the rest of these superlatives, including who had the best glow up, who is this year's cutest couple who held onto the best hair title for the second straight year.
And we're announcing our first class and lavatory award winners for 2025 too. All that and more, welcome back to the Th Traveler podcast.
All right, we're back. And I wanted to go through this list that I put together of the 25 Best Flight Deals of the year because it's a painstaking process to put this list together. And so I demanded that we have five minutes to talk about it on the podcast. And just to be clear, we, you are not reading out a full list of 25 different flight deals.
Let's not. If dear, dear listener, we will spare you all 25, but Gunner, I think just wants you to know that this was like choosing 25 of his favorite children. Um, painstakingly picking the, the best, most beautiful, the prettiest flight deals of the year. Yeah, and to be clear, Kyle, when Kyle assigned this story to me, he asked me to put together a list of 10 and said, please don't go over that.
And so I turned in 25 and that's what's on the website today. Um, alright, so I just wanna pick a few that didn't make the top five and then we'll go through the, the five very best ones. But one I wanted to highlight outta the top 25 was Cancun Port of Ata, Cabo. Delta sky miles deal under 10,000, sky miles round trip from many cities, especially out west.
And then to Cancun, some cities from out east as well. This is one of the craziest sky miles deals that we saw this year in a year of insane sky miles deals. Uh, but this was single digit round trip. Flights to Mexico is something that you really can't beat. Any other deals stick out to you. I mean, I think the lowest one on that was 6,800 sky miles round trip.
Yeah, that's, that's pretty special. We don't see that. Not just every day. We don't see that every year we've. In fact, probably never seen that. So that one is, is pretty special. Um, we gotta throw some love on mistake fairs, uh, in this list. The, uh, JetBlue mistake fair to Amsterdam, London, and Paris from just $218 round trip from, I believe both Boston and JFK.
So the two hubs that, uh, that JetBlue flies from over to Europe and back $218, that's usually at least 600 if not more. So that was that. Definitely deserves an honorable mention here. Yeah. Talk about both those deals we just talked about. If you're flying a family, just how cheap that is. The those are are crazy, crazy rates to get there.
And speaking of which, this deal, another JetBlue deal, Florida and the Northeast Boston and JFK under 2000 JetBlue miles round trip, they had. 750 one-way pricing on those 750 points, not a thousand, just like some of the lowest one-way flight pricing that I've ever seen. This, this flash sale came about, uh, a few months ago, and I still can't stop thinking about it Under 2000 points.
Round trip is, uh, pretty stunning for a flight down to Florida. Gunner did not, you did not miss a zero. We can confirm it was as low as 750 miles. Each way. Yeah. Um, I'm honestly questioning your judgment, um, and why I didn't change your story in that this wasn't in the top five flights to both Tokyo and Osaka from the west coast.
Fourth. $377 round trip. There's a lot of different points, deals on the list of, you know, the top 10 as we got into it, but I think this really was one of the best deals of the year. $377. Again, that's usually at least $900 round trip no matter where you start from, if you're starting from the Midwest or East Coast, probably 1200 or more.
That one was all of Hawaiian Airlines gateways on the West Coast, and it had a connection in Honolulu. So if you played your cards right, you could also build in a Hawaiian, a Hawaii stopover, which is also a pretty phenomenal opportunity on that deal. Okay, let's get into the top five. And I think that Osaka and Tokyo deal was at number six, so it was very close, Kyle, but the top five are some heavy, heavy hitters.
At number five, we had this Delta one suite steal to Tokyo from 89,000 points each way. What's your takeaway on that one? Not just 89,000 points, but 89,000 sky miles. Um, we don't, we don't see this often. This, this I think is proof that, um, delta sky miles deals are better than they've been in years, if ever.
The fact that it was bookable for that low of a rate. And I think, you know, we have gotten so accustomed to seeing only the really new routes that are struggling. See delta slash delta one business class fairs. So they're brand new route to Marrakesh. Um, the route from Seattle to Taipei, which they've slashed, you know, below a hundred thousand sky miles each way again and again and again over the last year and change.
But to see Tokyo. One of, if not the single most popular destination in the world have low sky miles rates to book business class. That's tough to beat. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Same thing, uh, for number four was another Delta one deal bookable with sky miles flying to Europe, uh, for 170 k sky miles round trip.
Or you could book them using Delta's partners Virgin or Air France for as low as 60,000 points each way. That's obviously our preferred way to book them, but if you have a bunch of sky miles at 170 k. Round trip to all of Delta's European destinations is a pretty amazing deal as well. And this wasn't just like January and February when you may or may not want to go to Europe.
This included peak summer for all of these, you know, flying from Boston to Lisbon for 60,000 Air France flying blue miles each way. That is really special. This is, this could have easily gone even higher. One of the deals that, uh, started our hot flight summer debate. Do you remember those episodes when we were talking about hot flight summer?
I, I think I blacked out on that episode. Okay. Another, uh, number three is another way to get to Europe, and we just started calling this in shorthand, the Europe Flight Bonanza, because every airline nearly all at once lowered all of their. Prices under $400 round trip to Europe from so many places in the us.
Uh, and, and these weren't, you know, secondary European cities. This was a lot of like Rome and Milan and Sicily and some of these, uh, fares to these places that you clearly want to go. There also was some summer availability and some fall availability on these ones, but an amazing. Flight deal bonanza. I mean, we talk all the time on the show and right on the site about how important competition is between the airlines of when American undercuts Delta's pricing on flights to Europe.
So instead of flying nonstop to Paris, they say, oh, well you can fly from Minneapolis or Salt Lake City or Atlanta. If you take a. A stop in New York or Chicago and we'll sell you that round trip ticket for $398 round trip. That alone is really special. But what was so significant about this is it was just nonstop all out between all of the major airlines and their foreign partners just going after each other's hubs that there were.
Probably hundreds if not thousands of people who benefited from this for some astonishingly cheap fares over to Europe, including as you said during the summer where you know these prices are almost always north of a thousand dollars round trip. At number two, we had a delta sky miles flash sale to Europe where all of the fares were under 26,000 sky miles round trip, and that's before that 15% off bonus, uh, that you get with a Sky Miles credit card.
This was another amazing deal, and I maybe was fighting against the recency bias, but this could have been the best deal of the year. I, I think number one is, was pretty clear all year long, but, uh, this was just one of those where were you when. Delta sky miles, flash sales from just a few weeks ago. I'm gonna make the case that I think it is number one.
Oh, okay. That I think it should unseed what, what we're gonna get to next that because of how widespread this was, it was. Not just every single Delta hub, it was every single airport in the country that has Delta service being able to fly, uh, over to Europe and back. Not just one city or two as we typically see, but basically all of Western Europe with a one quick connection for as low as 22,000 sky miles round trip, or from JFK in Boston for under 19,000 sky miles round trip.
This was. Easily one of the best. Delta sky mouse flash sales of all time. Absolutely the biggest one that we've ever seen. I think it, I think this should be number one. Can I, oh, let me let, I I am your boss. I can make, I can make this ruling. Oh, you, you can, and you, uh, you have access to our website. You can make that switch if you want to, but I'll make the argument now for our number one of the year.
This was Emirates first class and business class availability on its fifth Freedom route from JFK to Milan from 102,000. Points each way. What really made this one shine is the first class availability, which is really hard to find for, for two passengers. Um, and it was just kind of this unique opportunity to fly this extremely special airplane seat, which is Emirates first class and crucially.
When we sent the deal, it was before Emirates raised their surcharges and raised their taxes and fees to a point where, uh, I don't know if I think this is a good deal anymore, but at the time, just one of the most special like redemptions you could make. Our coworker John, took this flight and loved it. I have taken this flight.
Also loved it. I think maybe most importantly, you can no longer book this through Emirates. You know, at some point earlier this year, Emirates said you need status with us in order to book Emirates first class using Emirates Skyward miles, which on the one hand are very easy to earn by transferring from all of the major credit card points, Amex, capital One, chase, et cetera.
But now it's just not an option. Uh, so yeah, I, I, I get the case for why this is number one, the amount of award space for two or more passengers, something that we had basically never seen, to the point where we just told people, if you wanna fly Emirates first class on this route to Milan on the Airbus A three 80 with a shower on board.
You gotta book business class and then upgrade afterward, which now that might be the only option to do that, at least using Emirates Mile. So. I, I, I could go either way. Let us know what you think. podcast@thriftytraveler.com. Who's right? Me or Gunner? Yeah. A not a lot to argue with in this top five. Some very special deals in a year of incredibly special deals.
Okay, let's get into some travel superlatives, but first we're gonna take a quick break. You know how annoying it is to book a hotel and then find out the price dropped like a week later. Yes. I do know how annoying that is. It's the worst. That's why I am obsessed with Hotel slash Not only do they get you 20 to 40% off hotel stays right outta the gate, but every booking is automatically tracked.
So if the price drops, they let you know and you can rebook and save even more. Yeah, it's like having price protection before your hotel stays. Yeah, exactly. I was looking at the Double Tree by Hilton in Boston on other sites. It came out around. $324 after taxes and fees. But with hotel slash it was just $302.
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Alright, back to the show. Alright, it's time for the extra mile where we dig a little deeper on an important travel topic. And this week we're going through our 2025 yearbook superlatives. So Kyle, where do you wanna start? We gotta pick a cutest couple. Let's see. It's what everybody looks for in their yearbook, right?
That's what everybody wants. And this year's cutest couple is. Japan Airlines and built, I would say, an honorable mention there for Capital One as well in the mix. Little Love Triangle and cutest couple, possible three them. Really cool news this year, uh, that really put Japan Airlines on the map in a big way because before this happened, first starting with Built and then with Capital One later on, there was no way to really earn Japan Airlines miles, at least not at a meaningful scale.
But built outta Japan Airlines as a one-to-one transfer partner. Then Capital One followed up and added them at a lesser ratio. But this just really set off alarm bells here because it, at a, at to that point, it was just an irrelevant airline program and really wasn't worth spending much attention on.
And as this started to happen, we dug into what you can do with Johanna Airlines miles, and it's, it's amazing. Uh, that you can book one-way business class flights for as few as 55,000 Japan Airlines Miles, which means you can book it for as few as 55,000. Built rewards points and you can book round trip business class flights from the United States to Europe or the United States to Asia or wherever else South America, go down the list for fewer miles than it would cost to book those one-way separately.
Flying partners like American Airlines or Alaska or British Airways and often fewer fees as well. Can also book JetBlue Emirates. I mean we, we talked about Japan Airlines on a previous pod. This is just really fun. So this is an easy choice for the cutest couple of the year. Yeah. Japan Airlines is, is a sneaky gold mine.
We have a, a really good breakdown of all of the best sweet spots on our website that I recommend you go check out. We'll link it in the show notes. But I think one of the most interesting parts of all of this is the built of it all and the year that they had, and that kind of leads us into our. Next superlative.
And that why Kyle, do we think that built is our most ambitious for 2025? Now let's draw a distinction here. This isn't most likely to succeed, correct? It's most ambitious. So why is that? I think it's because built is trying to be everything. And that is the most ambitious thing that you could possibly be.
I mean, this is, this is a company that clearly, uh, takes travel rewards very seriously, but built also wants to be the loyalty program that gets you, you know, uh, some money back towards your Walgreens bill. And, you know, they wanna be in every single part of your life. They want you to earn points on your rent and your mortgage, and they want to be, you know, uh, connect you with lenders and they want, they wanna do all of these things.
And that is why. Built is most ambitious. Plus, you know, they're, they're doing things like buying property in Manhattan and, you know, not a lot of, uh, travel rewards companies are doing things like that. So that's why we dove them this year. Most ambitious. Anything I missed? I mean, the news that not only will you soon be able to earn points on select mortgages.
You know, with this new slate of built credit cards that's coming in the new year, you'll be able to do it on any mortgage if you have one of those credit cards, a lot still up in the air about what that means, about how many points you can earn, about what it might cost you, but still, yeah, I, they're, they're throwing everything at the wall.
I'm curious to. To revisit this in 2026 and see what actually sticks. Because I mean, if all of this stuff works and people engage with it, built is gonna be a powerhouse. But I, that's still a question to me, which is why they are not most likely to succeed here. Okay. Let's go to our next superlative, Kyle, who had the best glow up.
I hesitate to use the word best because there's still time for them to screw this up. Uh, Citibank finally got into the game as every other bank in the country has been duking it out of premium travel, and they launched the Citi Strata Elite Card, which. Comes with basically everything you would expect from a premium travel credit card.
It comes with lounge access, it comes with, uh, the ability to earn additional points on select purchases. It comes with an annual travel credit towards hotels. Uh, it comes with a handful of other different kind of coupon style credits, but I think. Importantly, two things that it does in some ways better than most of their competitors.
One is that the laundry list of things that you have to use in order to make sense of this big annual fee isn't quite as long as it is with other cards. That come from banks like American Express and Chase who have been on this journey for a really long time. And two, you know, with a, with a really big bonus as high as a hundred thousand points, Citi points don't get the love, uh, of other banks for a number of reasons.
One of which was because they lacked this kind of a big, heavy hitter of a card. And so that to me just makes this card well worth, at least looking into more in year one, in a way that we just weren't talking about Citi before. Yeah, I think worthy of the title best glow up because Citi is now on my radar.
And before, you know, other than it being my job to have Citi on my radar, personally, it really wasn't, uh, it wasn't, they weren't points that I was super interested in earning, but this card definitely has changed that calculus for us. Um, the next one. Worst glow up is maybe not a good name. Is it a glow down?
Is it a a dim up? A dim down? What is our worst glow up of 2025? Kyle? It's not any of those phrases that you just tried to come up with on the spot. Uh, but it goes to the Chase Sapphire reserve. It has become increasingly clear based upon the moves that Chase has made after the launch of their new far more expensive, at almost $800 a year.
Loaded with credits that expire every month or every quarter or every six months that the Chase Sapphire Reserve just isn't moving the needle in the way that Chase hope. There just isn't as much excitement around that card, not just compared to the American Express Platinum Card. Compared to the Chase Sapphire Reserve before these changes in June of 2025.
I think in some ways, in some very understandable ways, a lot of people have soured on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card that they just can't justify adding another complicated card to their wallet when they feel like the American Express Platinum Card does it better. I'll put it this way, you know, we've talked on the show about the spreadsheets that we've put together.
To help people keep track of their benefits and not lose them. And like, you know, the Capital One Venture X Card is one of the most simple premium travel credit cards. There's like three items on that whole list. The Chase Sapphire Reserve spreadsheet has more than 110 rows of data that you have to keep track of in order to make back that annual fee or get as much as you possibly can out of it.
The American Express Platinum Card is 85. That the, the Amex platinum card has been the poster child of driving people mad with coupons that they need to keep track of and use them or lose them benefits, and that says it all, that the Chase Sapphire Reserve just stole that horrible crown away. You know, I, I have friends who hold, held the former version of the Reserve card and they just hold it for that $300 travel credit and they just love the simplicity of it.
And now that card is so much more expensive and so much more cumbersome. And even with a spreadsheet, it's just, you know, it's, it's, it makes this work. And unless it is your job to do these things, like it is ours, it's really painful for people. And I think that, um. That that card kind of came onto the market.
That refresh of that card came onto the market with a whimper. And that's because they just made things a lot harder for travelers. So not, not the best, uh, year for the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, Kyle, in 2025, who did we vote most likely to succeed? I think it's a, it's a tie. It's the same topic. It's.
Premium airline cabins and the rich people who can afford them, or hopefully the people who can fly them using points and miles. We, we devoted a whole episode to the premium travel boom and why it's happening and, and what it means and whether it's good or bad. And I think you and I kind of hashed out our feelings and we don.
Feel the same way about it, that I feel like it might cause some problems down the road and you were a little bit more bullish. But regardless, um, this is where the entire industry is heading. It's all about premium travel. It's all about giving more space on the plane to. Extra leg room seats and fancier business class suites.
I mean, every airline in the country has introduced a brand new business class seat, or will soon do so. They're building more lounges. They're introducing new, more expensive credit cards. It's all about premium travel. This is everything in 2025. It's one of, if not the single biggest stories of the year in.
Of 2025. Yeah. It's like every time I get on a domestic Delta flight, it seems like they've added another row of comfort plus, you know, and they just keep adding, I mean, they're past the wing at this point. You're almost to the, you know, on the A through 21, you're almost to that mid, mid cabin lavatory with the red, uh, headrest.
I think, you know, the airlines just making a bet on rich people are gonna keep traveling even if the, it appears the economy is in a bit of a downturn. It's smart for the airlines, but unfortunately it's, you know, I don't know if it's great for the average traveler, and I made the case that I think there are still gonna be really great deals to be had out there.
But it's definitely if the, the airlines are most likely to succeed because they've invested in this. And then of course, the people who are rich enough to just continue to travel through. Um. You know, an economic downturn are also gonna benefit from it. Or it's the people like us who are just savvy with points and miles who are gonna, you know, make up the difference.
And that's kind of how we travel like rich people without doing it that way. So let's roll back the tape a a tiny bit here. Did you just say, I would, I believe that it may not be good news for the average traveler. I think. I still think it is ultimately gonna be good news for the average traveler, but it's definitely always gonna be easier to travel if you make lots and lots of money.
So going back to, to the first episode of the Thrifty Traveler Podcast, your, your advice was Don't be poor. Don't be poor. It's the best part about traveling. It's uh, if you're not poor, you heard it here second. Yeah. Okay. Let's move on to another classic of the travel superlative genre. Best dressed. Kyle, it's gotta go.
We, we, we, we hashed it out. Should it go to Alaska Airlines new livery on their 7 87 Dreamliners, uh, with kind of an Aurora Borealis look. Northern Lights for those of you who don't live and breathe this stuff as we do in Minnesota, uh, but it's gotta go to American Airlines new flagship paint job on its, uh, triple seven.
It's, it's beautiful. It's, it's old school, but it's still kind of got a modern feel. We'll, we'll drop it in the show if you're watching on YouTube and drop a link in the show notes as well. It just looks really cool. It's, it may, it feels like a, like a little bit of, of a time machine and fortunately it's not because you're not stepping into a 1960s configuration on the plane.
American is, is outfitting this plane with its brand new business class suites. Its new premium, premium economy seats, uh, you know, nose to tail. Very modern inside, but man, does it look cool. So no best dressed love for the, uh, the Amex platinum mirrored card, the, the cocaine card as we call it in the office.
No, no, it's, that is not getting it. People love that card. People really love that card. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to, to have American Express with whether it, it goes away for a little bit and then comes back or just becomes a permanent option in the same way that when the American Express Gold Card first offered it's rose gold option.
This might stick around a mirror design, but it is not going to win. Best dressed in my book. I still think it's a little gaudy. Yeah, it is pretty gaudy. Uh, I do have it though, obviously. Um, okay. Kyle, most likely to get canceled. Set this up for me. What is the context of canceled here? I think the context of the superlative is like in the new aged canceled, like you did something horrifically wrong and, and now you're not allowed to be in the public eye anymore.
Uh, but I think in this case, we're using it a little more literally in the airline efficiency sense or the air airport efficiency sense in this case. So most likely to be canceled is okay. If it was the former, it would be one of us for saying something dumb into these here microphones. Um, but for the latter.
What a tough year to be flying in and outta Newark. Uh, again and again, just a lot of problems. They, their air traffic control situation was bad to begin the year. It got much, much worse during the shutdown in November. It was. Probably one of, if not the worst airports for on-time performance. They had a runway closure that exacerbated things for a while there.
And it just seemed like every night someone was taking a screenshot of the flight radar, 24 of just a hundred airplanes sitting there waiting to take off. And you, you heard a lot of. Airplanes landing there and not getting gates right away and having to sit on the tarmac after landing for several hours, which is real nightmare fuel for travelers, especially if you're coming in long haul.
Can I tell you something? I had to fly into New York probably three or four times this year. And every single time Newark was 40, 50, even a hundred dollars cheaper than flying in, in and out of either LaGuardia or JFK. So guess who didn't take his own advice and flew into Newark every single time. Me.
That's, that's me. It's me, gunner. It's, it's okay, Kyle. Someone has to sit there and wait to take off. And that's, that's gonna be you. It was, maybe that's why those flights are a little bit cheaper. Um, all right. Can we move on to our next topic A our first back to back winner in the history of Thrifty Traveler Travel Superlatives.
And that is Best Hair. Who won Best Hair for the second year in a row? Kyle Turkish Airlines. Turkish, what Turkish hairlines do we need to explain it? I don't think we do. I think we can just let it sit there. No. We'll, uh, we'll link to the, uh, the Ryanair tweet. That is one of my favorite things that has ever been put out on the internet.
And it's some guy, uh, a man without hair who said, when you book a window seat, but forget it's a Ryan Air. And, uh, he's sitting at a, a seat that has no window at it at all, and Ryan Airs replied to the tweet is Turkey flight. So they're so good. This is, uh, the rudest category that we have, but it leads us to.
Our next category, which is the most likely to cheer you up, which is again, Ryanair. Can you just tell, tell us about the lore that is Ryanairs social media. I love ryanairs social media. There is no more unhinged major corporation, at least in the world of travel than Ryanair, and I have always wondered.
What would've happened if Spirit or Frontier or Allegiant had gone full Ryanair with their branding and really leaned into this identity of basically like, screw you. We don't care. We sold you a $19 flight. Don't ask us for anything else because that to me is part of the beauty of Ryanair. People in Europe expect it because.
That is the identity of Ryanair. You're not getting the extra stuff. So just as an example, and we'll throw this in the show on YouTube, um, you know, some, some account on Twitter posted a photo of like an AI slop job of people standing straight up and saying that this is the future of traveling with Ryanair and everybody.
In this AI photo is wearing a pair of headphones, like what Gunner and I are wearing right now, and Ryanair takes that and responds. We would never give out headphones. It's just, it's so much fun. I love how much fun that airline has while also, again, reinforcing the expectations of that airline. That is something that, to me, spirit and frontier, they just never, never got that far and I really wish that they would've.
Yeah, I think it would've worked better. Spirit and frontier putting in first class seats. And Ryanair is the most profitable airline on earth for, I don't know how many years running, but is coming in and saying, we're not gonna give you anything for free. And if you make fun of us for not having a window out your seat, we're gonna make fun of you for being bald.
Um. That it's a directive from their CEO and just for them to be fun and have fun and let loose on social media. I highly recommend you follow them wherever you can, but especially on Twitter X. Okay. Let's move on to the next category. Most likely to ruin the group trip. We kind of made this one up as a category, but we group trip's a thing when you graduated high school.
I think they were, but we didn't, there wasn't like a name for it. We just were traveling together, I guess. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Group trip. Yeah. Most likely to ruin the group trip. Who wins? We're really forcing this one. Uh, the federal government shut down longest shutdown in US history, I think stopped at 45 or 46 days past the 35 day mark set in late 2018, early 2019.
Uh, what a mess. That, that caused, um, I mean just day after day, week after week, especially as it stretched past the month mark of just horrendous delays in cancellations all across the country, to the point where we know for certain that Thanksgiving travel was lower than it would've been because people saw this heading into, you know, early and then mid-November of all of these terrible headlines and said.
Screw it. I'm not gonna deal with getting on a plane and the uncertainty of whether or not I'm gonna make it home. I'm gonna take a train or I'm gonna hop in the car, even if it means driving seven hours. So, ruined the group trip. Made some people's Thanksgiving, maybe a little less pleasant, definitely a lot longer to get where they needed to go.
Glad we're past it. Really hope that we don't have to deal with this again, and that Congress either. Gets its, you know what, together in general that would be nice. Um, but we can set a lower bar and just say, start paying air traffic controllers shut down or not. These are essential employees that shouldn't be working.
Unpaid period. Yeah. Well said. Couldn't put it better myself. Okay. Most likely to break up. Who do we have as the most likely to break up? I didn't write this one. Uh, so I don't know. You tell me. I don't get it. We just said the couple that's most likely to break up is anyone who's trying to merge with spirit.
I think, uh, all of their failed mergers over the last year, I mean, it's just, uh, the rumor of their, you know, joining with another airline has been kind of ever present. For the past, I dunno, five, 10 years at least since I've been paying attention to this stuff. And it just seems like every time it gets close and the ones that make the most sense, like a Frontier Spirit merger, just they can't get on the same page.
They seem to really despise each other. Uh, so I just think that, uh, spirits love life is getting pretty sad out there. What, what do you think, if you were a matchmaking spirit with another airline right now, who would you pair 'em up with? If you're, you are the, the hinge or bumble for the airlines. Thank God I'm not, uh, I mean this doesn't make any sense, but.
Let's, let's get a little bit of Ryanair over here in the States. Oh, that that won't happen. Yeah, it absolutely will not happen, and I'm sure there are a million reasons why it doesn't make any sense to even suggest it. See, again, what we've said over and over again on this show, neither of us has worked at airlines.
No airline would ever in their right minds hire us. But hey, let's get an airline that has a proven track record of running an ultra low cost operation. If there is anybody that can make it work, it's Ryanair. And we need it. We need a healthy spirit. I don't, I have flown spirit plenty of times. It's fine.
I would never go out of my way to fly them, um, if given any alternatives. But man, we're gonna be hurting if spirit collapses. So somebody needs to couple up with spirit and make this work and not just turn it into, you know, a way to acquire planes and pilots and make United Airlines bigger, or make Alaska Airlines bigger or make.
Even frontier bigger. I, in the end, I don't know that that serves as much of a purpose as a truly healthy spirit would. Yeah, we need healthy low cost carries. Did you see the Ryan Air tweet from Thanksgiving? It said, happy Thanksgiving. We'll never fly you there. I did not. Where is this? Episode sponsored by Ryan Haer.
I don't know it very well. Could be. Um, yeah. The spirit. I hope you have better luck in your love life next year, and I hope that you are acquired or merged with someone who wants to keep you as a low cost carrier 'cause your health is crucial to the airline industry here. Okay? Every year we put together our first class and lavatory award.
Well, not every year. This is the second year. So are, we're committing to it? Yes. We're going to, this is a second year and there will be a third year. Yeah, it's gonna be 2055. You're gonna be listening to Kyle and I do first class in laboratory awards in December. Again, I'm gonna be dead so long before 2055.
Man, please. What? Hang on. Sorry. Sorry. Breaking news, some vitamins. You'll be fine. Okay. First class award. Who gets it this year? We went back and forth on this one with a couple of different options, but I think we both ultimately agreed that the winner of the year in travel, the first class award winner is Delta Sky Miles Deals.
Very important caveat. This is not Delta Sky miles, period. It is Delta Sky Miles deals because they have gotten better over the last few years of Delta. Pretty regularly slashing award rates to not just reasonable, but. Pretty outrageously cheap levels that make delta sky miles worth a lot more. But I think importantly, for context, it was just a couple of years ago when we wrote a story, the sad state of Delta sky miles, and that was based in large part because these sky miles flash sales, these.
Pretty regular deals where Delta would in fact cut you a bargain when redeeming Sky Miles had pretty much disappeared. There was some good domestic stuff here and there, but that was it. There was nothing international that was exciting for six to nine months, maybe even 12 months, any hope of redeeming sky miles for business class had basically disappeared, and 2025 was.
Easily the best year since the pandemic, if not a decade or more. Going back to the days when delta sky miles were actually predictable. This doesn't mean that delta sky miles are the best. They're, again, certainly not, but delta sky miles are more predictable. More routine and better than they have been in years to the point where, you know, we send out a delta sky miles deal in business class with one-way rates under a hundred thousand sky miles.
In some cases under 90 or even under 80, very occasionally, at least once a month now to Europe, to Asia, to Australia for a little bit more than a hundred thousand SkyMiles. These are things that we just didn't see for a long, long time. So yeah, Delta SkyMiles deals are back. They are worth your attention.
Yeah, I think it's, it's a really good time to be paying attention to your delta sky miles. But as you said, you know, it's not perfect everywhere. And if you just search for the exact date that you need in June to get to Rome, you may still see a hundred thousand sky miles or more round trip. You know, 400,000.
500,000. Yeah. So. But the deals are really good. When the flash sales hit, they hit very hard and Delta gives you like a solid week of these flash sales in some cases to go ahead and book your flights or crucially rebook the flights that you got fleeced on previously. And I, I just, the sky miles flash sales have been so good, whether it's the 6,800.
Uh, point round Tripp Faires to Mexico, or 170,000 round trip to to Europe and peak summer. It's been an awesome year, and I think it just, they deserve their flowers on this because Delta has made a concerted effort. Maybe it's just that travel demand is down, but Delta has made a concerted effort to allow SkyMiles holders to get the most value out of their miles.
And, uh, we applaud them for doing that this year and hope that it continues. So they are our. First class award winners this year. There is a lot of temptation to just write off delta sky miles altogether to say that they're worthless and people just don't pay attention to them, and I understand why. I understand why we've gotten to that point.
We were at that point just a couple of years ago, but I think if you are ignoring Delta sky miles altogether right now, you're missing something really important that you can get some really great deals at the right time. Whether you have a big pot of delta sky miles from your Delta flights, or you transfer in American Express points to your Delta Sky Miles account and book them.
But I, we need to stress Delta doesn't advertise these deals very well either. They don't advertise them at all, and we still just find them, or they do advertise them, but the deals are even better than what they're advertising and in almost every single case, much, much, much bigger. So, you know, Delta may say.
Hey, we've got some 35,000 skymile round trip fairs from Boston and New York to Europe only for us to dig in and find out not only is it 35,000 miles from those two airports, it's actually less than that from those two airports and less than that from basically every airport nationwide. I mean, I have lost track of how many times we have seen that exact scenario play out.
So you can't just. Trust what you read on the internet, even from delta.com on this stuff, Delta SkyMiles are better than you think they are. Yeah. It's funny that they don't put their best rates in the promo emails, which are in theory intending to lure you into booking something and you often log on and it's better.
I don't understand why they do that. I'm not in airline marketing as we've said, but uh, I'd probably just tell people what the lowest faires were. That's just me and that's why we do that here instead. So, okay, that was first class. This is the best of the best on the airplane and the worst of the worst we can agree is the lavatory.
What is our lavatory award winner for 2025? Kyle Southwest Airlines wins the Lavatory award of 2025, and I kind of think that should go without saying this is a rough year for Southwest fans. I. We'll never forget the day that kind of out of nowhere, they announced that despite what they had said, just a few months prior, they were getting, getting rid of two free check bags for all passengers.
Not just tough for travelers who had come to rely on that, who had been loyal to Southwest because they appreciate not being nickel and dime the same way that every other airline in the country has for decades. But what a turning point for. One of, if not the most successful and beloved airlines in the country.
Precisely because they didn't do that stuff. So, you know, we, we talked about this in the big Southwest episode early in the early in 2025. But what is Southwest's story now? What is their narrative? What is the case for flying and staying loyal to Southwest? Without that, without that identity of, we do things differently.
Because if you look at the changes that Southwest unveiled in early 2025 and the other changes that they've rolled out since there is not a single one of them, that you can't point at other airlines in the US airline industry and say. Yeah, they've done this already. That's just the antithesis of everything that Southwest stood for and it's, it's honestly kind of sad.
It may work financially. That's maybe the saddest part is that in copying the rest of the industry after five plus decades of doing their own thing, it might. Be better for them financially, but man, what a sad point we're at, if that's the case. Yeah. And you know, we, we were just talking about Ryanair and, and their brand and how they offer you almost nothing and how beloved it is, but in, in the opposite way, Southwest was the brand where, like you said, they're not gonna nickel and dime you.
People came to rely on the fact that, you know what you're getting. It's a friendly operation. They have a really good network for a lot of people in a lot of places. Uh, and it, you know, for the most part besides the year they. Canceled Christmas. They're very efficient and, and operational too. They get you to where you need to go.
Um, so this was just a big hit. And you know, the two free check bags thing was one thing that was brutal. And then adding basic economy, faires was another thing. And now if, if you put up, uh, Southwest Flight against almost any other airline, I really don't have a good reason to fly Southwest. I'm not if, if I'm not a loyalist or anything like that.
So I think this is just, you know. This is a really tough year. I, I, I'm really sad about this. I liked flying Southwest a lot. I could rely on them to get me to where I needed to go. And even if they were charging a little bit more, you know, those two free check bags, man, that's $70 in value now. And, and that's just gone.
So, um, when it comes to, you know, they, they think that they. Turn themselves into an apples to apples comparison with the rest of the airlines. If you're searching on Google flights, which I, I get, I understand that calculus, but for me it's, I know what you used to get with Southwest and I'm not gonna get fooled and lured into that.
And, you know, unfortunately, uh, I, I don't think people at Southwest Airlines, uh, would disagree with me. Even that first earnings call after these made changes, it sounded like a hostage video. They, they did not sound very excited about the. The prospect of these changes either. Um, but you know, they were kind of, their hand was forced here, um, by some activist investors and, uh, yeah, it's a sad state of things over at Southwest.
I hope they can redeem themselves somehow, but I don't see, I don't see how you undo what they've done. No, I mean, the, they, that ship has sailed, right? Uh, there's no going back to the way it was before. And now we will look out into 2026 and figure out if this is going to work. And again, it might. It might be the right thing for them to do financially, but that doesn't make it any less sad that this is where what Southwest has come to.
Yeah. Okay. Well that's all of our travel superlatives for the year. We have the full list of superlatives at our website that you can go check out, and we also have, of course, the crowning of the uh, first class and Lavatory awards for Thrifty Traveler as well. You can find both those in the show notes or@thriftytraveler.com to close the show today.
I'm putting you on the spot. You ready? Okay. Okay, Kyle, so we're talking about yearbooks and superlatives. What was Kyle Potter like in high school? What did you, what did you wanna be when you grew up, when you were in high school? Can I go back a little bit earlier too? Of course. Yeah. So, I don't know why I remember this so vividly, but when I was in fourth grade at my elementary school, we did a like a little yearbook.
And my yearbook entry. I was obsessed with soccer throughout, I mean, honestly, high school as well, but especially in elementary school. And my yearbook entry at Congdon Elementary in Duluth, Minnesota said that I would be a professional soccer player and I would play goalkeeper in the World Cup either for the United States or Brazil.
And you know what? God bless my parents for like, there was no doubt in my mind that that was possible for me to become a Brazilian national. At, uh, just like a tiny kid in fourth grade that I was gonna be a goalkeeper, not just for the US team, but maybe Brazil, if that's who I wanted to play for, because that's how World Cup teams work, I think.
So that, that was, that was my, that was my life in, uh, that was my, uh, fourth grade yearbook high school. It's just all about music. Yeah. Well, all my senior yearbook photo, I had a guitar and a bunch of, uh, albums, vinyl, uh, scattered around the floor. Very punk rock. Wow. Okay. Well you've still got some, uh.
Eligibility left. You wanted to revive the soccer career. Right. Catch me down in Sao Paulo. That would be great. I would love to see it. Okay. That's gonna be it for the episode. Thank you so much for listening to the Thrifty Traveler podcast. Please rate us five stars in your podcast platform, Joyce. And like, and subscribe to the show on YouTube.
Send this episode to someone you know who wants to see the year in review. That was thrifty traveler.com. If you have feedback for us, send me a note at podcast@thriftytraveler.com and we'd love to hear from you there. Kyle, tell us about the team. This episode was produced by a man who just looking, nope, does not need to go to Turkey Gunner Olson.
Yeah. It 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.