Latest / The Red Solo Traveler Podcast / The Hotels Are Booming and is Breeze Airways A Breeze?

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The Hotels Are Booming and is Breeze Airways A Breeze? · The Red Solo Traveler Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Red Solo Traveler podcast. This for Tuesday,
• 0:10
  August in keeen, twenty twenty six. I am Lewis. I'm
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  Red Solo Travel the Red Solo Travel podcast. This very
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  podcast is going to be every Tuesday, so I'm changing
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  it from Wednesday to Tuesday. Really it's because of downloads.
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  So that's the goal right now, and we'll get to
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  that at some point in the next few months. So anyway,
• 4:36
  let's get into the article. Let's get into the show.
• 4:39
  For this week here, I got two articles. One one
• 4:44
  is regarding breeze airways and is it really a breeze
• 4:47
  to travel? But we'll start here with the AI data
• 4:52
  center building boom is fueling a strong year for US hotels.
• 4:56
  This is in Travel Weekly. It's written by Christina jel
• 5:00
  Ski on August seventeenth, twenty twenty six. The US hotel
• 5:04
  industry's growth is surpassing expectations this year, with analysts and
• 5:08
  hotel CEOs saying that the AI related construction boom is
• 5:11
  a key driver. They go on with the US hotel forecast.
• 5:16
  Co Star and Tourism Economics earlier this month upgraded their
• 5:20
  US hotel forecast for the second time this year, now
• 5:23
  projecting revenue growth of four point four percent, adr growth
• 5:26
  of three point one and occupancy increased the sixty three
• 5:29
  point one percent, and there was a revision back in
• 5:32
  June which they raised their projections back then. Going a
• 5:36
  little deeper into the article, it basically said that Aaron Ryan,
• 5:43
  the director of industry studies at Tourism Economics, said it
• 5:47
  was unusual to have a performance run from February to
• 5:49
  July that would prompt such an increase in the forecast,
• 5:52
  and I keep underscoring that it's activity that's happened outside
• 5:56
  of the World Cup host markets. So apparently there was
• 5:59
  a eleven World Cup markets that did really well, but
• 6:03
  outside of that, the top twenty five markets did really well,
• 6:07
  so and their strength outside of those markets, according to
• 6:11
  Jenf free Tag, national director of Hospitality Analytics for the
• 6:15
  Coast Guard Group. So going into the article a little
• 6:19
  bit more. In a February analysis, the free Tag said
• 6:22
  that hotels near large construction sites for AI data centers,
• 6:25
  typically in suburban and ex surban areas, had our enjoyds
• 6:28
  that steady occupancy gains through twenty twenty five, with hotel
• 6:32
  demand expected to remain elevated during construction phases. He pointed
• 6:37
  hotels near a construction project in Homer City in western
• 6:40
  Pennsylvania and development near Aplene, Texas, as standout examples, with
• 6:45
  properties near those cities seeing annualized occupancy increases exceeding fifteen percent.
• 6:51
  These data centers are often built in the middle of nowhere,
• 6:53
  said free Tag, and if you happen to have the
• 6:56
  wherewithal or the luck of owning an extended state property
• 6:59
  that is within five mile radius of one of those sites,
• 7:01
  you were sitting very pretty. Hilton CEO Chrisford and Nestta
• 7:05
  also highlighted AI investment during the company's Q two earnings
• 7:08
  call in late July, sitting a five hundred billion dollar
• 7:12
  data center project in Kentucky as an example, and then
• 7:16
  Wyndham Hotels Center second quarter earnings call on July twenty third,
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  CEO Jeff Bolotti pointed out demand increases in the industrial Midwest,
• 7:26
  and they're seeing increases in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio.
• 7:31
  So they said that many of our hotels located in
• 7:34
  project adjacent markets are serving some of America's largest transportation
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  AI data center in industrial projects now wrapping up all
• 7:41
  across the country, and the AI related infrastructure investment isn't
• 7:46
  the only factor at play. There's broader economic improvement boosting
• 7:52
  US hotel demand, including gains and household wealth easing inflation
• 7:56
  and a relatively stable job market. And this is something
• 7:59
  that's not really told to us in the news. We
• 8:01
  always keep hearing about how, oh, inflation is sky high,
• 8:05
  and even though it was the last five years, and oh,
• 8:08
  grocery store prices are high, and even though it's been
• 8:11
  going up for the last five years, and so on
• 8:13
  and so forth. So, you know, it's it. I like
• 8:17
  it to be better. I mean, I'm not I'm not gonna,
• 8:20
  you know, sugarcoat it. I would like it to be better.
• 8:22
  But at the same time, it's not as bad as
• 8:24
  everyone says it is. There's a little bit less uncertainty
• 8:28
  than there was in twenty twenty five, and labor market
• 8:31
  is back in balance. So it's not just a high
• 8:34
  end hotels seeing gains. And this is something that's really
• 8:36
  important to point out because these AI data centers are
• 8:39
  being built in the middle of nowhere. Well, what's being
• 8:41
  what's in the middle of nowhere hotel? You're not getting
• 8:43
  the four seasons in the middle of nowhere. You're you're
• 8:46
  not getting you know, these high end hotels in the
• 8:49
  middle of nowhere, you're getting mostly you know economy, you know,
• 8:54
  even premium economy. Hotels in these smaller markets, you're generally
• 8:58
  finding that off the side of my highway. According to
• 9:01
  free Tag, spending from small and mid sized businesses is
• 9:05
  driving upscale, upper mid scale and mid scale hotel performance
• 9:09
  to agree to a degree we didn't see last year.
• 9:12
  Group businesses also bounced back after some terror related uncertainty
• 9:16
  caused to decelerate. And then they talk about the Hilton
• 9:21
  brands that are seeing growth. Hampton Home Too, sweets and
• 9:25
  true so true by Hilton is a kind of a
• 9:29
  I've never stayed it. One looks nice from the images
• 9:32
  I see on even from Google when when real people
• 9:36
  take photos and it's not a photographer doing photos in
• 9:38
  the room, but they do look nice. They're a little
• 9:42
  more no frills, I think, but it does suit a purpose.
• 9:47
  So and people are staying. There's what's interesting is that
• 9:52
  the Christopher Nessetta, the CEO of Hilton, said that quote,
• 9:56
  all that investment going on in the country, the people
• 9:58
  that do it aren't staying in a lo hotels. The
• 10:01
  people that do it are staying in mid scale, upper
• 10:03
  mid scale, and that's what we're seeing and I think
• 10:05
  that's true. You know, again, you look at these data
• 10:09
  centers these data centers are built in the middle of nowhere,
• 10:12
  and generally speaking, with hotels, you have really there's two
• 10:16
  different kinds of hotels to think about. So when you
• 10:19
  go visit a city, whether in Europe or the US,
• 10:23
  wherever you are, generally you're going to find that the
• 10:25
  city hotels in downtown or even in a little spread
• 10:29
  out around the city. They generally are hotels that appeal
• 10:34
  to either tourists that are visiting the city or business travelers.
• 10:38
  So let's say you're visiting, you know, an office in Boston.
• 10:43
  You know you're going to stay at one of the
• 10:45
  hotels in the city of Boston. You know, you're not
• 10:47
  going to go to a suburb generally speaking, Whereas if
• 10:51
  you're staying in a suburb, you know, there's a little
• 10:54
  bit more of a multifaceted approach if you're staying in
• 10:58
  a suburb or exerb area. So you're not finding the
• 11:00
  luxury hotels necessarily in those areas. You're not finding the
• 11:05
  you know, I'm trying to think of the high est
• 11:07
  hotels like the Ritz Carlton or the Four Seasons, or
• 11:10
  you know, one of these other hotel chains. You're generally
• 11:13
  finding either independent hotels that are managed by Hilton Marriotte
• 11:19
  through their collections. So the curio collection for Hilton, the
• 11:23
  autographic collection for Marriott. I believe it is the Tribute portfolio.
• 11:28
  I believe it's through Marriott as well. Hyatt has JDV
• 11:31
  which is their forget how I don't even want to
• 11:35
  say what it is. And then you have i HD
• 11:40
  which has Intercontinental, and then they have their other brands
• 11:42
  as well. So those are not in the those are
• 11:46
  not in anywhere outside of cities, You're not. You might
• 11:49
  find those collections in these luxury collections brands in other markets,
• 11:55
  in smaller markets, maybe adjacent to cities. You know, I've
• 11:58
  seen them in like Allentown, but of Ania has a
• 12:01
  has a Higatt, a high end Hyatt hotel and has
• 12:05
  some as a Marriott hotel in their Renaissance is one
• 12:10
  of those change as well. That's pretty high end. But
• 12:13
  you find those in in in cities for the most part.
• 12:16
  And then you have these other brands like Hampton and
• 12:20
  like Home to Suites even to an extent. You know,
• 12:26
  town Place is another brand that Marriott has where you
• 12:30
  find those are more economy or premium economy type brands
• 12:34
  that work more in the suburban exerb areas, and I,
• 12:40
  you know, I go on these road trips, and you know,
• 12:42
  especially if I go on road trips or go on
• 12:45
  if I fly somewhere, I tend to stay at a
• 12:47
  hotel that's off off the beaten path and away from
• 12:50
  the city. I don't like to be in the middle
• 12:52
  of everything, and I feel like that's what a lot
• 12:55
  of hotels are set up for when you go to
• 12:57
  a city. Plus, they charge you an armand leg for parking,
• 12:59
  and they charge and army lake for everything. And I
• 13:02
  don't want valley parking either, So that's not my thing,
• 13:06
  but it is if you're close to you know, the
• 13:08
  train stations, it is. It is nice to have that
• 13:11
  hotel there. If you're staying in the suburb excerb, you're
• 13:15
  generally going to find that it's not just tourists that
• 13:18
  are there. And it could be couples, could be solo people,
• 13:22
  it could be families. You know, you find that these
• 13:25
  hotels outside of the city tend to have those type
• 13:29
  of tourists. But you also find that, you know, it's
• 13:32
  not just it might be the family who lost their
• 13:35
  home in a fire. It might be a bunch of
• 13:38
  people who are, you know, trying to escape a hurricane
• 13:41
  from hating their area, and they go the furthest north,
• 13:44
  or the furthest west, the furthest east or south, wherever
• 13:47
  it might be, to get away from it, and who
• 13:50
  knows what they're going to come back to. You might
• 13:52
  find people who had their homes destroyed in a tornado
• 13:55
  or a wildfire that are staying at a hotel. But
• 13:58
  you also find, too, I want as well when I
• 14:02
  go to these hotels, construction crews. You know, a lot
• 14:05
  of construction crews, and you see these utility trucks, these
• 14:08
  big utility trucks with the excuse me, with the you know,
• 14:14
  the I'm trying to think of what it is. But anyway,
• 14:18
  these these construction trucks that are sitting in the parking
• 14:21
  lot and they take up a ton of space in
• 14:23
  the parking lot. I've seen that happen. You know. I
• 14:25
  had a hotel I stayed at near Saratoga Springs and
• 14:29
  you know, one of my one of my visits this year,
• 14:31
  which I will have up for you, probably towards the fall,
• 14:34
  and stayed there on my little road trip, and you know,
• 14:39
  bumped into some utility guys you know, in the area
• 14:42
  doing work, doing some utility work after some storms. So
• 14:47
  you know, you see that all the time with these
• 14:48
  hotels and these AI data centers. These construction guys are
• 14:52
  coming in. They just need a place to sleep and
• 14:54
  a place to sleep, maybe have some breakfast in the morning,
• 14:57
  and they're on their way. And that's what these hotels
• 14:59
  serve that purpose. So it's not just the hotels. That
• 15:03
  is why I say when I when I talk about hotels,
• 15:06
  I'm talking about really the hotels and the suburbs and excerbs,
• 15:09
  because I think they have they serve a very very
• 15:13
  large purpose across the board for anybody. It could be
• 15:17
  a tourist, it could be a family, it could be
• 15:19
  it could be somebody just going to work. Whereas I
• 15:22
  think city hotels tend to be a little more focused,
• 15:25
  a little more narrow, and they tend to focus on
• 15:28
  the tourists. Maybe you have some families as well, but
• 15:31
  generally tourisms, tourism and business travelers and business travelers. Maybe
• 15:36
  the white collar type that are going to go to
• 15:39
  an office. I've never really seen blue collar types, you know,
• 15:42
  going to hotels in the city. Maybe they maybe they exist,
• 15:45
  but I generally find it to be white collar workers
• 15:49
  or tourists. And in the suburbs and excerbs you find
• 15:53
  just about anybody, all kinds of walk of all walks
• 15:56
  of life are at these types of hotels. So it's
• 16:00
  interesting to see how the AI Data centers are kind
• 16:03
  of adding to that component. And they point out with
• 16:06
  Marriott's brands, you know, you got Courtyard, Fairfield and spring Hill,
• 16:10
  which again, yeah, those are those are pretty much the
• 16:12
  you know, middle range brands that you find with Maria,
• 16:16
  So you know, and and that's why maybe the hotel
• 16:20
  prices aren't as low as we want them to be,
• 16:22
  especially in those areas, because demand is high. I mean,
• 16:26
  it's it's a supply and demand business. And you know,
• 16:30
  maybe that maybe that helps city hotels. You know, maybe
• 16:33
  in the city hotels find that their prices are a
• 16:35
  little less and maybe you decide to stay there instead
• 16:38
  of going to the suburb or excer hotels. So pretty interesting.
• 16:43
  I thought it was pretty interesting articles. So especially with
• 16:46
  the component with the AI Data centers, we go from
• 16:49
  hotels to air travel. A subsetac publication that has actually
• 16:54
  done a little piece on yours truly and red Solo Traveler.
• 16:57
  It's by John b and he does the affordable travel
• 17:01
  site over at Substack. Check that out. It's affordabletravel dot
• 17:04
  substack dot com. This article is called Breeze Airways is
• 17:09
  the budget airline Worth It? And I find this interesting because,
• 17:12
  you know, Breeze Airways is kind of an airline. It's
• 17:14
  kind of run on the radar. You probably not have
• 17:16
  heard of it, especially if you live outside of the
• 17:19
  United States, or especially if you live in a big city.
• 17:22
  Breeze Airways is actually started by a gentleman by the
• 17:26
  name of David Needelman, and he was the founder of
• 17:30
  Jet Blue, and he founded jet Blue, he sold the company,
• 17:33
  I think he built another airline after that, and then
• 17:37
  he built Breeze Airways and started it I'd say about
• 17:39
  five or six years ago. And I'm familiar with Breeze
• 17:43
  because my local airport is one of the focus cities
• 17:47
  for Breeze, and Breeze is a kind of a similar
• 17:51
  airline to JetBlue to Southwest to some of the smaller airlines.
• 17:56
  They tend to focus on medium sized cities and instead
• 18:00
  of flying into New York or Boston, you're flying into Providence,
• 18:04
  You're flying into Hartford. You're flying into Worcester. Westchester County
• 18:08
  and outside of New York City is a big one
• 18:10
  for them. You're not flying to Philadelphia, but you might
• 18:13
  be flying to you know, you know, Baltimore maybe, I mean,
• 18:18
  it all depends, you know. Charleston, South Carolina is a
• 18:20
  big one for them. Pittsburgh's a big city for them.
• 18:24
  I've seen Cincinnati and Louisville. And if you go out
• 18:27
  west Burbank, I think Burbank's in there, then you have
• 18:31
  not Salt Lake City, but Provo, Utah, which is just
• 18:33
  south of Salt Lake City. Las Vegas is part of it.
• 18:37
  You know, they're a pretty big city, but they're not
• 18:40
  as big as say, you know, Phoenix is in there too.
• 18:44
  A couple of their cities out west as well. I'm
• 18:46
  just trying to think off the top of my head,
• 18:48
  but essentially you get the idea. I mean, Breeze is
• 18:50
  an airline that doesn't that kind of dances around the
• 18:54
  large cities, and there's nothing wrong with that, you know,
• 18:56
  I think that's a good thing. You know, when you
• 18:58
  have an airline that focuses on these smaller cities, it
• 19:02
  gets people away to it connects people without having to
• 19:07
  go through a larger city airport. You know. One of
• 19:09
  the things that always drove me nuts about certain cities
• 19:13
  is like, for instance, Cleveland. You know, out of a
• 19:15
  direct flight to Cleveland, I can't get one out of
• 19:17
  my airport. But I have to go to New York
• 19:19
  City or Boston or what have you to go to
• 19:22
  go to Cleveland. You know. And in some cases you say,
• 19:26
  all right, let's get creative with this. Oh I cam
• 19:28
  fly to Pittsburgh and drive to drive up to there. Okay,
• 19:31
  no big deal, you know. So it's just it just
• 19:33
  allows you to be a little more creative when it
• 19:35
  comes to flights. So this article is Breeze Airways is
• 19:39
  the budget airline worth it is reliable? Or roll of vice?
• 19:42
  This is by John Bee of Affordable Travel, of the
• 19:44
  Affordable Travel blog. I should say this past week I
• 19:47
  found myself booking a trip I never wanted to take.
• 19:50
  After learning that my father passed away. I needed to
• 19:52
  get from Raleigh, North Carolina to Rhode Island as quickly
• 19:55
  as possible. Normally, I would have flown Delta into Boston.
• 19:59
  As a Delta oiled list. It's my default choice. But
• 20:02
  Boston still leaves you with another hour or more on
• 20:04
  the car before reaching Warwick. Warwick is in Rheree Island,
• 20:07
  with traffic that can be horribly unpredictable. I was pleasantly
• 20:11
  surprised to learn that Breeze Airways offers a NonStop flight
• 20:15
  from Rally Durham directly into r Island's TF Green International
• 20:18
  Airport in Warwick. As a child, I lived just one
• 20:21
  block from that airport. It was somewhat surreal landing at
• 20:24
  an airport so close to the house I once lived
• 20:27
  in and staying at the Crown Plaza hotel not far away.
• 20:30
  That was a less than stellar experience. The catch, I've
• 20:33
  never flown Breeze Airways. A little research e some of
• 20:37
  my concerns. Breeze was founded by David Nielman. Sorry I
• 20:40
  said Needleman before, but it is actually David Nielman, He's correct,
• 20:45
  the entrepreneur behind jet Blue. The airline launched service in
• 20:48
  twenty twenty one with a business model focusing on connecting
• 20:51
  underserved city pairs with NonStop flights, rather than funneling passengers
• 20:56
  through major hubs. Breeze has built its network around roots
• 21:00
  that often don't exist on the larger airlines. The airline
• 21:03
  also operates one of the youngest fleets in the United States,
• 21:06
  centered around the Airbus to twenty I'm sorry, Airbus A
• 21:09
  to twenty. This aircraft apparently is known to combine past
• 21:12
  or comfort with fuel efficiency. After considering the opportunity to
• 21:16
  fly on a reasonably priced NonStop flight in a Warwick
• 21:18
  instead of connecting through another airport, I decided it seemed
• 21:21
  worth it rolling the dice. Like most ultra low cost carriers,
• 21:26
  Breeze follows a la carte pricing model. You're taking gets
• 21:29
  you to point A to point B, and everything else
• 21:31
  is optional. Personal items are included, but I paid thirty
• 21:34
  five each for our carry on bags when booking. Check
• 21:37
  bags are also thirty five by purchase in advance, though
• 21:40
  those fees jump significantly if you wait until arriving at
• 21:43
  the airport. This is really key too. By the way,
• 21:45
  always always look to pay ahead when it comes to
• 21:49
  checking your bags. When it comes to checking in anything,
• 21:53
  I find that like American airlines, for instance, I don't
• 21:57
  pay for check bags I have with the credit card,
• 22:00
  so I pay. If I were to pay, it would
• 22:02
  be forty dollars. If I were checking ahead of time,
• 22:04
  and you oftentimes, know if you're going to check in
• 22:08
  a back. You know, especially with how much you bring
• 22:11
  with you, you're gonna be there for a couple of
• 22:13
  days and you probably may not check a bag. But
• 22:15
  if you're gonna be there more than a couple of days,
• 22:16
  and you're probably gonna check it back. So your best
• 22:20
  to just plan ahead because what happens is they do
• 22:24
  charge you more and you get to the airport. Now,
• 22:25
  I don't know if it's because of the airport pricing.
• 22:28
  I don't know what it is. But you're better off
• 22:30
  just doing it ahead of time if you can. So
• 22:32
  he's correct on that the fees do jump significantly when
• 22:36
  you arrive at the airport. Wi Fi is available on
• 22:39
  most aircraft, though it is complimentary only for certain fare
• 22:42
  classes or low te memories excuse me. Otherwise it's available
• 22:47
  for a small fee or by redeeming breeze points. Complementary
• 22:51
  beverages are limited to water, coffee, and tea on equipped aircraft,
• 22:55
  while sodaes and other drinks are available for purchase. Our
• 22:59
  outbound flight came with an unexpected twist. The previous evening's
• 23:03
  breeze flight had been delayed by weather, so the airline
• 23:06
  found itself juggling aircraft the following morning. Instead of boarding
• 23:09
  a standard Breeze painted airplane, we boarded an all white aircraft,
• 23:13
  effectually nicknamed Casper. We were advised that the substitute aircraft
• 23:18
  didn't have Wi Fi or hot water. Any complimentary beverages
• 23:22
  were limited to bottled water. While at my disappoint some travelers,
• 23:25
  it wasn't a major issue for me. I probably wouldn't
• 23:28
  have had coffee on the flight anyway. I agree with
• 23:30
  him on that I don't have coffee in flights. I mean,
• 23:34
  I mean it's coffee. Go to get it at a
• 23:36
  Starbucks when you before you're bored. I mean it's every
• 23:39
  airport has a Starbucks, McDonald's, Dungy Donuts. Just use that.
• 23:45
  The aircraft itself made a favorable impression. Everything looked clean
• 23:48
  and well maintained, and the seats were comfortable for the
• 23:51
  relatively short trip. One unexpected benefit of Breeze's baggage policy
• 23:55
  was the abundance of overhead bin space. Because fewer passengers
• 23:59
  were traveling with larger carry on bags, fighting room for
• 24:02
  luggage wasn't the usual competitive sport it has become in
• 24:05
  many airlines. Boys he write about that, I mean, you know,
• 24:08
  I've trapped, so I've I've traveled breeze. And this is
• 24:10
  why I wanted to read this article, because I wanted
• 24:13
  to see if my experience was similar to his. And
• 24:16
  I did travel Breeze when I went to Pittsburgh. I
• 24:19
  have a couple of articles on Pittsburgh up on rud
• 24:21
  solotravel dot com. But if you were I did fly
• 24:27
  direct to Pittsburgh from my airport using Breeze. And he
• 24:31
  has correct about that that that whole overhead bin space
• 24:36
  thing not an issue, not an issue at all. I
• 24:40
  checked in my bag in and even if even if
• 24:43
  you didn't check your bag in, it's very seamless. It's
• 24:45
  very quick. The process to get on and off that
• 24:48
  plane is actually very very seamless. And I will say
• 24:53
  it was very very easy to get on and off
• 24:55
  that plane. So I'm glad he had that experience as well.
• 24:58
  The flight attendants also stood out, though throughout both flights,
• 25:01
  they consistently projected an upbeat, positive attitude. Is that honestly
• 25:05
  reminded me of Chick fil A. He's correct about that,
• 25:09
  even when delivering bad news, they remained cheerful and approachable,
• 25:12
  something that's becoming increasingly where increasingly rare in commercial aviation.
• 25:18
  I almost expect them to say, have a blessed flights.
• 25:22
  Our interim trip was a bit more eventful. After everyone
• 25:25
  had boarded the aircraft door was closed, we were informed
• 25:28
  of a mechanical issue that required us the deep plane
• 25:31
  oh Man. We waited in the terminal while the crew
• 25:34
  evaluated the problem and received periodic updates from the captain. Unfortunately,
• 25:39
  many of those announcements were difficult to hear because they
• 25:42
  were not made over a public address system. After roughly
• 25:45
  two hours, we boarded Casper again. Once again no Wi
• 25:49
  Fi or hot water. But beyond the delay, the flight
• 25:52
  itself was uneventful. One humorous announcement from the flight attendants
• 25:55
  did stick with me. They made a point in mentioning
• 25:57
  the laboratory featured a window, assuring us that it was
• 26:00
  quote kind of a big deal. I never ventured back
• 26:03
  to investigate, but it certainly got everyone's attention. So I
• 26:07
  guess the laboratory had a window in it, which is
• 26:10
  interesting because I never have never been on a bathroom
• 26:13
  in on a plane with a window on it. Mechanical
• 26:16
  delays naturally give travelers pause, especially when trying a new airline.
• 26:20
  In fairness, though, every airline experiences whether disruptions or maintenance issues,
• 26:24
  and in this case here he mentions the maintenance issues,
• 26:27
  you know, they were. What's interesting is I've been on
• 26:32
  airlines where they say, oh, we have a mechanical delay,
• 26:34
  Oh we have a maintenance issue, and they never tell
• 26:36
  you what it is. They never tell you what the
• 26:37
  problem is, and they never tell you what the problem is. Well,
• 26:42
  this is a case where Breeze is transparent with its customers.
• 26:45
  They were telling the customers, Hey, this is what we're
• 26:47
  dealing with right now. And even though they didn't put
• 26:50
  it on a public address system, they still told them.
• 26:52
  They still, you know, they still said, hey, this is
• 26:54
  what we're dealing with right now. We're just letting you know.
• 26:56
  Maybe they had somebody yell it out or something would assume,
• 27:01
  but excuse me, my apologies for my voice today. It
• 27:08
  was something that you're there explaining to the customers, and
• 27:11
  it's good to be transparent to your customers. In this case,
• 27:15
  the Preeze delayed the flight to address mechanical concern rather
• 27:17
  than pushing ahead, and while it was certainly preferred an
• 27:20
  on time departure, wouldn't we all, I'd much rather arrive
• 27:24
  late in questioning whether the aircraft should have been flying
• 27:26
  at all. So what I fly Breeze Airways again, pause
• 27:31
  for effect. Absolutely if it means avoiting a layover, the
• 27:36
  NonStop service between Rally and Warwick was convenient. Even with
• 27:40
  the delay, we arrived in a shorter time of flight
• 27:43
  time than if we traveled to Warwick with a layover.
• 27:45
  Avoiding connections also liminitates one of the biggest sources of
• 27:48
  travel headaches, misconnections, additional delays, and the uncertainty that comes
• 27:52
  to changing planes. Yes, yes, and yes, even with the
• 27:56
  weather related equipment substitution on the outbound trip and the
• 27:59
  mechanical delay on the return, Breeze still got us where
• 28:01
  we needed to go safely and at a competitive price.
• 28:05
  If you're experience, if you're expecting the full cervice experience
• 28:07
  of a legacy carrier, Breeze probably isn't the right comparison.
• 28:11
  He's right, he is very correct. Breeze is a lot
• 28:14
  like Southwest, and I think the old way Southwest did things.
• 28:18
  Southwest is a different airline now than it was even
• 28:21
  five years ago. I remember going on Breeze, I'm sorry,
• 28:24
  going on Southwest flights, and there was a lot of humor,
• 28:28
  you know, the captain made humorous jokes. The flight attendants
• 28:32
  were funny, they were engaging, they're cheerful. That's gone now,
• 28:36
  that's pretty much gone. Now maybe they hired all those
• 28:39
  people from Southwest. Who knows, but you're right, he's right
• 28:43
  about this. You know, Breeze is an airline that is
• 28:47
  really it's a budget airline. It braces that identity. But
• 28:50
  if your priorities are an affordable, fair, comfortable aircraft, friendly employees,
• 28:54
  and perhaps most importantly, a NonStop route that larger airlines
• 28:57
  don't offer, Breeze makes a compelling case. And essentially, you know,
• 29:03
  that's really what it is. It's not a no frills
• 29:06
  airline per se. It's an airline that is telling you
• 29:10
  exactly what it does. And you know, it's kind of
• 29:13
  like it's kind of like when you go to in
• 29:14
  and out Burger. Are you expecting to get a chicken
• 29:17
  sandwich at in and out Burger? No, you want to
• 29:19
  get a burger, fries and a shake, maybe a soda.
• 29:22
  That's what you get an in and out Burger, And
• 29:24
  they do it and they do it well. Same thing
• 29:26
  with five Guys. Five Guys is burgers and fries. I know,
• 29:32
  I know, I'm going burger restaurants here, but work with me.
• 29:35
  Five guys burgers and fries. What are you getting at
• 29:37
  five guys burgers fries? They do have hot dogs, and
• 29:42
  they have shakes and sodas. That's all they have that
• 29:45
  just on the menu. At five Guys. You can't get
• 29:47
  anything else there. And guess what they do it really well.
• 29:52
  Sometimes when you go somewhere, when you go to a destination,
• 29:56
  you just want to get to your destination. You don't
• 29:59
  need the bells and whistles. I just need to get
• 30:02
  from point to point B. And that's what air travel is.
• 30:05
  Air travel is. I know, there's this term where there's
• 30:09
  this derisive term where people say, oh, it's a taxi
• 30:12
  in the sky. Yeah it is. It kind of is.
• 30:15
  And that's okay. You know, I understand there's a hearkening
• 30:21
  back to the days of well, I want a meal
• 30:24
  on the plane, and I want to be able to
• 30:27
  stretch my legs and I want to be able to
• 30:29
  smoke my cigar. And it's those days are over, guys.
• 30:32
  It's over with it's been over with for a long time.
• 30:35
  Air travel is different now because it's a little more democratized.
• 30:39
  And when you democratize some things, you got to take
• 30:41
  some things away. And Breeze doesn't advertise itself as this
• 30:46
  premium carrier that American Airlines is trying to go for
• 30:50
  that Delta is trying to go for and United is
• 30:52
  trying to go for now and that's fine. That's their
• 30:54
  segment of the business. What Breeze is trying to do.
• 30:57
  And he's correct on all this is it's a budget airline.
• 31:01
  You get an affordable fair you get a comfortable aircraft,
• 31:04
  you get friendly employees, and you get a NonStop route
• 31:07
  from a city that doesn't get a whole lot of
• 31:09
  NonStop roots. You know how many times do you look
• 31:12
  at your flying Delta for instance, Oh, I got to
• 31:15
  go through Atlanta. I gotta go through Detroit, or I
• 31:17
  gotta go through Minneapolis or Salt Lake City or Seattle.
• 31:20
  I can't just go to my city of choice. No,
• 31:24
  they all fly through five cities. That's it. That's the
• 31:27
  dirty little secret about a lot of these airlines is
• 31:30
  that they literally just fly through five different cities. And
• 31:33
  the five cities or it's a hub and spoke system.
• 31:36
  It's the same thing with the American all Right, I
• 31:37
  gotta go through Miami's, Philadelphia, Dallas, Chicago, same thing with United.
• 31:42
  I gotta go through Chicago, Denver, Newark, you know one
• 31:45
  of those cities, and you are flying through those cities
• 31:49
  whether you like it or not. Whereas Breeze and even
• 31:52
  to an extent, Southwest and maybe even jet Blue have
• 31:55
  a different system where they have point to point and
• 31:58
  if they're not flying through that city, you ain't going there.
• 32:02
  And you know, some cities they just don't fly to.
• 32:05
  I mean, there's some cities that Jet Blue still doesn't
• 32:07
  fly to to this day. And it's actually surprising you
• 32:11
  see the list. I mean Southwest, certainly Southwest was actually
• 32:16
  getting to a point where they were starting to fly
• 32:18
  to Chicago and Dallas and the bigger airports, and they've
• 32:21
  pulled back from that. They have since pulled back from that,
• 32:24
  which is a good thing. They shouldn't be. I know,
• 32:27
  they're trying to be in line with the with Delta
• 32:30
  and with American, they're also trying to be profitable. So
• 32:34
  does that make you profitable at the end of the day,
• 32:36
  competing in those markets and if it's not, then you
• 32:39
  shouldn't be doing it. And the same thing with Breeze.
• 32:41
  You know, maybe Breeze does expand into sey Lagardia Airport
• 32:45
  in New York City, you know where it's one of
• 32:47
  the more domestic travel areas. Maybe they say, now we
• 32:52
  don't need to be Maybe we just focus on these
• 32:55
  smaller airports. And the smaller airports tend to have lower rents,
• 32:58
  they tend to have lower costs. And what's interesting with
• 33:02
  Breeze too, is it's only one or two flights a
• 33:05
  day NonStop from these cities. You know, my flight from Pittsburgh.
• 33:09
  I'll give you my quick, quick rundown of my flight
• 33:13
  that I had on Breeze, and it's very similar to
• 33:14
  John's experience. But my flight on Breeze was I went
• 33:18
  to Pittsburgh in the morning on a Monday morning. First
• 33:21
  thing Monday morning. I think my flight was eight o'clock
• 33:23
  in the morning, and I got there at like nine
• 33:25
  thirty ten. It was very quick. And then my flight
• 33:28
  home was a late night flight and it was I
• 33:33
  think I'm going to say nine pm at night in
• 33:36
  Pittsburgh were we were literally the last flight to leave
• 33:39
  Pittsburgh International Airport, no joke. I mean it was like
• 33:43
  it was a ghost town in there. Friday night, nine
• 33:46
  o'clock at night. It was an absolute ghost town. I
• 33:49
  couldn't believe it. I actually got a good laugh out
• 33:51
  of it. I got back to my home airport by
• 33:54
  eleven and then I was home by midnight. You know.
• 33:57
  So those are things you got to make with a
• 33:59
  sacrifice you gotta make. If you want a direct flight
• 34:01
  from from your small city or your mid size city
• 34:04
  to another mid size city, that's gonna happen, you know.
• 34:07
  But if you want a direct flight that doesn't have
• 34:10
  the to his point about, you know, you might have
• 34:13
  a misconnection, you might have changing planes, you might have delays,
• 34:16
  and all those things that go along with going to
• 34:20
  you know, Delta, American United, And I'm not picking on them,
• 34:24
  it's just their their business model is different than Breezes.
• 34:27
  So it all, it's all about. It all depends on
• 34:29
  how you want to where you want to go and
• 34:32
  how you want to get there. And if you don't
• 34:35
  mind flying through a hub and getting getting everything through
• 34:39
  Delta and American, more power to you. You know. It
• 34:41
  all depends on what you want to do. So so
• 34:44
  I would definitely consider it. So if you see Breeze Airways,
• 34:46
  definitely consider them. They're a good airline. Again, you know,
• 34:51
  you're you're getting what you pay for. Just keep that
• 34:53
  in mind. And they're telling you you're getting what you
• 34:55
  pay for. You know, they're they're not. They're not lying
• 34:57
  to you. They're not They're not gonna send you down
• 35:00
  a wrong path, you know. And it is a good airline.
• 35:03
  And this article is very very accurate to uh to
• 35:07
  what my experience was anyway on a Breeze airline. All right,
• 35:10
  that's gonna do it for this week. Thank you for
• 35:12
  listening as always, thank you for subscribing. Thank you for
• 35:14
  letting your friends know and your your family know about
• 35:17
  the show. And you know this this is a little
• 35:19
  show that can you know. I mean, I'm not I'm
• 35:21
  not advertising this thing. I'm just letting it work itself out.
• 35:25
  And I'm doing it for the love of the game here,
• 35:27
  That's really what I'm doing this for. So I really
• 35:29
  appreciate you listening, and remember check out the deep dive
• 35:34
  that's going to be in your podcast feed. Usually surrounds
• 35:37
  the Red Solo Traveler podcast. I usually have an addition
• 35:39
  going up on Monday and Wednesday. Eventually we'll get it
• 35:42
  down to one one a week, but for now, I
• 35:44
  want to I want to really get a good base going,
• 35:47
  uh as or as the line goes, from the rest development,
• 35:50
  I want to get a good stew going. So that's
• 35:52
  kind of what I'm doing with this with this show. So, uh,
• 35:55
  thank you again for listening and checking it out. UH.
• 35:57
  Hit subscribe you'll get the next episode in your on
• 36:00
  your podcast feed. Uh. And of course if you want
• 36:03
  to just listen here and there, go to Red Solo
• 36:05
  travel dot com, click on podcast and pick and choose
• 36:08
  whatever show you want to listen to and get to it.
• 36:11
  Thank you for listening and we'll see you next time.
• 36:20
  M