Late Checkouts | January

We’ve said it many times before: a traveler wishes upon a destination. One hopes it will live up to the way it was—or an idea of what it should be. But the honest truth is that there are often other, unforeseen realities. One of the distinct beauties of travel is that almost nothing is as plain as black and white. This means that while we can take hardened stances here and there about this or that (as we often do…), sometimes finding ourselves in even the worst travel situation ultimately molds a new, and better vision for a given destination. All of these things are personal. Everything in travel demands a bit more context.

So with greater context in mind…we introduce a new column, of sorts: Late Checkouts. Every month, we’ll round-up a series of retrospective notes on topics about which we’ve recently published. It will allow us to go just a little bit deeper—whether that’s expanding on our first take, or even posing an open question to readers. The truth, sometimes to our detriment, is that we’ve always had a little bit too much to say. But maybe that’s competitive advantage, after all.

Thanks for reading. And give us a holler with feedback at any time!

———

The MSP airport reigning supreme…

In 2023, data from a prominent aviation analytics tracker showed that Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport had the most timely departure rate, globally, at 84.44%. This is particularly remarkable given the regular winter storms that hit the cold north. One would expect the de-icing requirements that come with the climate to wreak havoc on the departures schedule…but the Minnesotans continue to pull of magic (even if you do realize that the “on-time departure” definition includes a 30 minute cushion for things like this). Regardless, if you do find yourself with a rare delay here, it’s a phenomenal airport to pass the time. We’ll always maintain our love for our original home concourse.

Alaska x Boeing’s exit row door debacle…

For obvious reasons, we have no official comment on this one. But we’d be remiss not to shed some light on something one of our faithful followers overheard just before takeoff when this Alaska/Boeing debacle was ruling the news.

NatGeo’s revival of Stanley Tucci…

Is Stanley Tucci worthy of praise as a fixture in the culinary travel world? We have sincerely mixed emotions about this. And we’ve picked up on the same from our audience and many others in the industry. On one hand, there’s no doubt that he’s won over many viewers with his programs of past. But to be frank, he suffers in comparison to the man that paved the way: Anthony Bourdain. In fairness, nobody will ever pull off the things that Bourdain did in the way that he did, delicately approaching the convergence of cuisine and conflict in backdrops all over the world that were less easy on the eyes than the Italian countryside. And given our love for Bourdain’s body of work (even his one-off crime novel… anyone else?) we’re hardly an impartial 3rd party. Asking Tucci to go toe-to-toe with Tony is an unjust expectation. I suppose we owe NatGeo’s newly announced docu-series with Tucci an honest watch.

Spirit’s stock price volatility…

After a Boston judge ruled against the planned JetBlue <> Spirit merger on January 16th, markets saw JetBlue’s stock rise and Spirit’s shares head the other direction, and considerably so. We talked amongst ourselves about the airline potentially going down in flames (relax: I said the airline…not a literal aircraft with passengers inside) and chuckled about the multitude of downright insane social media videos that have come from Spirit’s biggest problem: the entirely unreliable disposition of its customer base. We’re only kidding — we fly Spirit, ourselves, from time to time. But alas, where our prediction ultimately landed was Spirit rebounding back. And it’s looking like we were right. This was probably the closest we’ll ever be to trading on insider information, if you can really call working in the industry “insider”. If Nancy Pelosi continues to get hers, why shouldn’t we? All signs are pointing to JetBlue and Spirit contesting the ruling, so we’ll see how this one shakes out. And for a closing question: how will the outcome of this litigation impact the Alaska <> Hawaiian Airlines union? Let us know your thoughts. Rest assured, we’ll be here watching.

Our list of top travel documentaries…

Sorry if you missed this one. Every documentary on our list is tremendous, but I’m partial to #3 which happens to be one of my most rewatched films of all time (20+). The soundtrack, alone, is worth the watch. See the details here.

And, of course, an early arrival: The Super Bowl in Vegas…

Hey—we’re forward looking, too. The Super Bowl in Las Vegas is less than two weeks away. And it was obvious from the frequency of our Vegas coverage in January that our minds are already there. We talked about a traveler hitting a $1MM+ slot jackpot in concourse D of LAS, Steve Wynn’s theatrical announcement for the opening of the hotel that bears his last name, and the high-speed electric rail that is planned to connect Las Vegas and SoCal. Unfortunately, we won’t be on a flight to Vegas for Super Bowl weekend. But we just might have some tickets booked for another momentous event in the not so distant future. Any guesses?