For years, I have been told that AirlineReporter needs to do their own podcast. Sigh. Why? I just couldn”t imagine adding on something else. Having to get guests, come up with scripts, and the worst part — editing the audio! I have often asked our writers if they might have an interest, but no takers. Well, I am finally giving in and I have created our very first podcast, called Plane Talking with Mom. So what makes this podcast different?
#1 I talk about airplanes with my mom — 100% exclusive. No one else has my mom talking about planes.
#2 I am not editing crap (and you can tell). You get everything. All the ”ums” and ”uhs,” the mess ups.
#3 My mom doesn”t even like airplanes. So many podcasts have experts or at least people who are interested in talking about the topic. Booooooring. Hear directly from a person who might care the least, and doesn’t even like to fly.
Some reviews are already in…
“It was interesting… at least you and your mom had a nice time” – My Wife
“(It’s) purrr (fect)” – My Cat (aka #A380cat)
“What… I… listened to is… the… nice… podcast… will… listen… again” – My friend Nick
“The combination of airplanes, birds, and moms is a real winner. A++” – David P Brown
Give it a listen… it is the best podcast we have ever done!!! Oh yea, it is not actually up at any of the places you normally listen to podcasts, so you just have to listen to it via our site.
I love looking back at old airline advertisements that promote a new type of aircraft that will soon become the flagship of the fleet. We are talking about the iconic birds of yesteryear; like the Lockheed Constellation, Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8, McDonnell Douglas DC-10, and Lockheed L1011. However, there was one aircraft that let the […]
What do you get when you combine writing about airline travel since 2008, with a few decades of being a sarcastic chap? Unsolicited Travel Advice from David (the Editor-in-Chief of this dog and pony show) — that’s what! There are way too many travel-related click-bait stories out there that give you boring and questionable information from “experts”. This series will be different — I will give you entertaining, possibly less questionable information, while not caring about any sort of clicks or bait. Let me set the mood. Imagine that you and I are hanging out, when we have just hit upon an interesting airline/travel topic (safest airline seats) and I am fired up and ready to spew my thoughts and opinions. When I wrap up, I am hoping that you won’t just awkwardly stare at me, but instead continue the conversation in the comments. Let’s do this…
Series Post #1: WHERE IS THE SAFEST PLACE TO SIT ON THE PLANE?
This question always gets me riled up. If you don’t want to read this whole story, let me save you the time: It does not matter what airline seat you choose. It really, really does not matter. But that doesn”t stop so many others from telling you that a wrong choice in seat could cost you your life! (dun dun DUNNN)
The anecdotal thoughts on the topic are my favorite. “First class is safest, since the airline wants to save the rich.” Interesting…I have heard the opposite as well. “Sit over the wings, that’s the strongest part of the plane.” Of course there are huge fuel tanks located there too. “Sit in back, so you’ll be last to hit the ground, and just jump right before impact.” No joke, someone suggested that once to me and my dad, who happens to not only a pilot, but also a physicist. He was super nice about it, but it was fun conversation.
Anyhow, I wanted to find some actual data that people were using for their conclusions, and what better place to look than the internet? I found a few sites that had some good ol’ fashion data (just the way I like it). However, was this going to be good data (like Data) or bad data (like Lore)? [any Trekkies out there? If not, don’t worry, the Data/Lore joke isn’t that great anyhow]
Keep reading, because what I found will shock you to your core!!! (not really, I am just trying some of the “click bait” stuff, but keep reading, I think my best stuff is yet to come)
“What the heck is a diagcon look of an Alaska Airlines A321 first class product?” Don’t worry, I will get to that.
I had no expectation that I was going to write this review. I recently flew down to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to hang out with Embraer and they were nice enough to put me in first class. When I was preparing for my flight home (I flew on Delta to FLL), I saw it was on an Alaska Airlines Airbus A321. Sweet. I knew that I would either be flying on one of Virgin America”s old birds with their first class product, or Alaska”s new product win/win. I did my thing and looked up the registration number, found the delivery date of the aircraft, and determined that I was going to be trying out the new product. Heck yea.
The good news and bad news is I just had a really long day, got very little sleep previously, and had just flown across the country the day before. That is bad since I wasn”t really prepared to do this review, but good since what better time to test out a product when you aren”t feeling 100%?
Previously, I had the chance to fly down to SFO to preview Alaska Airlines” new first class product on their Airbus A321s. I was only able to sit down in a first class seats for a short amount of time, and obviously media flights like that don”t give you a real experience of how the product compares. Know what does? A six-hour flight from Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to Seattle (SEA), that’s what! And looky there, I just recently did flew that diagcon flight.
My apologies. My subject might be a bit misleading. Or maybe totally misleading. One might even call it a fib. Well mostly a fib. I do have a cat. His name is Harley, but goes by #A380CAT. Although he might tell you otherwise, he has never flown or landed a plane… he mostly just eats and sleeps.
I do have “some actual legit stuff”, which is really a yearly review. Yes, yes, everyone does a yearly review this time of year, and every year I start to get annoyed after seeing about 100 different versions or so. Then I become a hypocrite and write one for AirlineReporter. I figure since I am going to look at the yearly data anyhow, why not share? But I figured if I added some crazy cat stuff to the story, maybe it would make it more interesting. Keep on reading to see our year end stats and also more of my cute kitty cat! Here we go…
