Latest / Brian Thomas / IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: 55 KRC the talk station 829 on a Thursday or
- 0:05Speaker 1: Friday Eve getting ready to say I love this time
- 0:07Speaker 1: of the week get to talk with iHeartMedia aviation expert
- 0:09Speaker 1: Jay Ratliff lightning things up at Scosche at least we
- 0:12Speaker 1: try to sometimes some really bad news floating around there
- 0:14Speaker 1: welcome back Jay Ratliff it's always great having you on
- 0:16Speaker 1: my program.
- 0:18Speaker 2: A very pleasant good morning to you my friend a
- 0:20Speaker 2: lot to be thankful for today all right I'll go.
- 0:22Speaker 1: Off the list because you expected WestJet Boeing 737 MAX
- 0:25Speaker 1: 8 damaged after colliding with a catering truck in Toronto
- 0:28Speaker 1: did you see that one I did. I did.
- 0:31Speaker 2: And they happen. And these are low speed collisions. And,
- 0:35Speaker 2: you know, when you clip a winglet or touch a
- 0:37Speaker 2: wing or anything happens, I mean, everything stops. You have,
- 0:41Speaker 2: and I believe this aircraft was being towed at the time. So,
- 0:45Speaker 2: you know, it happens. And if there's one thing that
- 0:49Speaker 2: drives us in airline management nuts is to have a
- 0:55Speaker 2: Low collision or low-speed collision. I know. That should never happen.
- 0:59Speaker 2: And it totally takes that aircraft out of service, which
- 1:02Speaker 2: means you've immediately inconvenienced, let's say, 150 people. That plane's
- 1:07Speaker 2: going to be used for three other flights that day
- 1:09Speaker 2: and another 150 times three. You've got 600 people that
- 1:12Speaker 2: have just been impacted because sometimes– you know, irresponsible behavior.
- 1:19Speaker 2: Sometimes people just let their attention kind of wane. Sometimes
- 1:22Speaker 2: you don't have the proper support personnel around you to
- 1:26Speaker 2: make sure that you're doing it correctly and nothing's in
- 1:29Speaker 2: the way. And, you know. A lot of times when
- 1:31Speaker 2: these individuals have questions, they just don't stop and check
- 1:34Speaker 2: it out. They just kind of keep going and hope
- 1:37Speaker 2: things are going to work out. Brian, every month something
- 1:39Speaker 2: happens where you've got some aircraft damage around the country that, again,
- 1:44Speaker 2: nobody's life is endangered normally. It's just an aggravation to
- 1:48Speaker 2: everybody involved. And when you have two planes that clip wings,
- 1:51Speaker 2: now you've doubled the issue and you're inconveniencing all kinds
- 1:54Speaker 2: of people.
- 1:56Speaker 1: I just find it hard to believe that it can happen. Again,
- 1:58Speaker 1: you're talking about a giant aircraft being slowly towed across
- 2:02Speaker 1: the tarmac. It's like, Lord Almighty, how can this even
- 2:06Speaker 1: be a thing? But it is. All right, let's get
- 2:08Speaker 1: back to the list. United Flight had to return to
- 2:10Speaker 1: Las Vegas. What happened? What was the security threat, Jay?
- 2:13Speaker 2: A passenger was on board, and a flight attendant was
- 2:16Speaker 2: walking the aisles, glanced down, and this guy was typing
- 2:20Speaker 2: to a friend about hijacking the airplanes. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 2:28Speaker 2: So the flight attendant just keeps on walking, goes up
- 2:31Speaker 2: to the cockpit, tells the captain what's going on. Captain
- 2:33Speaker 2: immediately tells the passengers, there's an issue with the airplane.
- 2:36Speaker 2: They've got to come back to Vegas. Everybody thinks it's
- 2:38Speaker 2: a mechanical problem. They turn around and come back and land.
- 2:41Speaker 2: The air traffic control tower, when you listen to the tapes,
- 2:44Speaker 2: they say, hey, look, you have the passenger restrained. And
- 2:47Speaker 2: the captain said, he doesn't even know what's going on.
- 2:49Speaker 2: So they all come off the airplane. He comes off.
- 2:52Speaker 2: He gets arrested. And initially, Brian, I've got to be honest.
- 2:57Speaker 2: I thought, okay, did the flight attendant really see this?
- 3:01Speaker 2: Did she just want to go back? I've got all
- 3:04Speaker 2: these things in my mind because that's been known to happen. Really? Yeah.
- 3:10Speaker 2: You'd be surprised sometimes. Somebody's leaving their boyfriend, they don't
- 3:13Speaker 2: want to, and some mysterious odor causes the flight to
- 3:16Speaker 2: go back. But in this case, the guy comes back
- 3:20Speaker 2: and he is detained and then he's arrested. So obviously
- 3:23Speaker 2: they found something there that was amiss. And he's later
- 3:27Speaker 2: admitted to it. But look, he's never going to fly
- 3:30Speaker 2: Delta Airlines again. He's going to get a fine from
- 3:32Speaker 2: the FAA for probably $ 20, 000, $ 30, 000. He could face civil penalties, obviously.
- 3:38Speaker 2: And I suspect Delta might send him a little bill
- 3:41Speaker 2: for that return to Las Vegas. And at today's fuel prices,
- 3:45Speaker 2: that could be $ 40, 000 in its own right. So he
- 3:47Speaker 2: said it was just a drunken joke. And typically, you
- 3:51Speaker 2: have a lot of times where people are making these
- 3:53Speaker 2: kinds of what they think are offhanded, light remarks. And
- 3:57Speaker 2: you and I have talked about it before, Brian. When
- 3:58Speaker 2: people fly, they get very nervous. Some of them are
- 4:00Speaker 2: just very anxious. And when they do, a lot of
- 4:03Speaker 2: people just talk, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
- 4:06Speaker 2: And I've had people come up to my counter that
- 4:08Speaker 2: in that emotional state, they'll try to make a joke
- 4:12Speaker 2: that ends horribly, where they say, oh, yeah, when you
- 4:14Speaker 2: scream in the bag and you see the bomb, don't worry,
- 4:16Speaker 2: it's an inert. Or it's something stupid along that line. Well,
- 4:20Speaker 2: not only are they not flying, but everybody in their
- 4:23Speaker 2: group is going to be taken out and interviewed by
- 4:26Speaker 2: law enforcement, which could take two or three hours, and
- 4:28Speaker 2: maybe the airline will let them back on. Most of
- 4:31Speaker 2: the time, they're just going to refund their money and say, look,
- 4:34Speaker 2: go somewhere else. So you have one person acting like
- 4:37Speaker 2: an absolute idiot at one brief moment in their life
- 4:40Speaker 2: that's ruined everything for everybody. Can I ask you this?
- 4:45Speaker 1: There used to be a federal no-fly list or watch list.
- 4:50Speaker 1: Is that still out there? It's still there. And would
- 4:53Speaker 1: this guy be placed on that?
- 4:55Speaker 2: He would not because this– remember, the airlines don't share
- 4:59Speaker 2: their individual lists. And you might be talking about the
- 5:01Speaker 2: terrorism watch list. Yes. That is– that individual would– you've
- 5:06Speaker 2: got two different lists here. One is just the airlines–
- 5:09Speaker 2: You know, something happened where you assaulted a flight attendant,
- 5:13Speaker 2: caused a diversion, whatever. You're never flying us again, but
- 5:16Speaker 2: they can fly any other airline that they want. But
- 5:19Speaker 2: the federal Homeland Security care watch list, yeah, if you're
- 5:24Speaker 2: on that, you're not flying any carrier in the U.S.
- 5:27Speaker 1: Well, let's go ahead and get this other one in
- 5:28Speaker 1: because it's sort of analogous. The United flight, the passenger
- 5:31Speaker 1: threat had caused that flight to have to return to
- 5:34Speaker 1: its base.
- 5:36Speaker 2: International flight coming out of Miami United just had taken off,
- 5:40Speaker 2: still climbing, and apparently a passenger was having a conversation
- 5:43Speaker 2: with a flight attendant who I believe was still seated
- 5:45Speaker 2: at the time, and he was wanting something, and she
- 5:48Speaker 2: was saying no, and he was not happy with what
- 5:50Speaker 2: he heard, and he made the comment, that's okay, I'll
- 5:53Speaker 2: take care of you when we land. Well, she communicates
- 5:57Speaker 2: that to the lead flight attendant who tells the captain,
- 6:00Speaker 2: and that plane comes around, lands in Miami, and that
- 6:03Speaker 2: guy's arrested and taken away. So I don't– hopefully the
- 6:08Speaker 2: charges of threatening and things like that will actually stick.
- 6:13Speaker 2: A lot of times airlines just don't want to take
- 6:15Speaker 2: the time and energy to pursue those charges because it
- 6:18Speaker 2: takes a lot of people out of the line of service.
- 6:21Speaker 2: which just frustrates me to no end. But they're still
- 6:24Speaker 2: facing fines from the FAA and a possible bill from
- 6:27Speaker 2: United for bringing that airplane back. So we're at a
- 6:30Speaker 2: point right now, Brian, where we've got, I won't say
- 6:32Speaker 2: more of these taking place, but anytime they happen, it's
- 6:37Speaker 2: just stupid. And if I'm ever on a plane and
- 6:38Speaker 2: somebody starts to act up, I'm praying, shut your mouth,
- 6:41Speaker 2: shut your mouth, shut your mouth. Because if not, you're
- 6:43Speaker 2: in Topeka, Kansas before you know it, instead of going
- 6:46Speaker 2: to San Diego because they're letting somebody off of a
- 6:49Speaker 2: flight that they had the land to kick off.
- 6:51Speaker 1: Well, and you did anticipate my next question. I was wondering,
- 6:53Speaker 1: we have this seemingly de-evolution of humanity, ethics, morals, and
- 6:57Speaker 1: all the basic social interactions have devolved to a state
- 7:00Speaker 1: where everything is in an argument. I'm just kind of
- 7:03Speaker 1: wondering your experience, and you've got decades of experience in
- 7:05Speaker 1: the aviation industry. Do you believe these incidents are more frequent,
- 7:08Speaker 1: or is it just because we have social media and
- 7:10Speaker 1: the internet now that we get immediately alerted to the
- 7:13Speaker 1: fact that, yes, there are jerks in the world who
- 7:15Speaker 1: cause this kind of thing to happen?
- 7:17Speaker 2: You know, we've always had issues, but Brian, we've got
- 7:20Speaker 2: more people flying now than ever before. So that tells
- 7:22Speaker 2: you from a number standpoint, the frequency per thousand flights
- 7:27Speaker 2: is going to be up. So we're having more of
- 7:28Speaker 2: these than we've ever had. And some of that can
- 7:30Speaker 2: be attributed to the fact that you have more people flying.
- 7:33Speaker 2: But look, there's also a In the days of travel 20, 30,
- 7:37Speaker 2: 40 years ago, you had fewer people flying that most
- 7:41Speaker 2: of them were business travelers and you had some of
- 7:44Speaker 2: the leisure travelers as well. But you were paying such
- 7:48Speaker 2: a price for the ticket. that typically, you know, people
- 7:52Speaker 2: are going to spend a lot of money. They're going
- 7:53Speaker 2: to behave themselves, have a good time. Now, some of
- 7:56Speaker 2: these fares are so cheap, it's like a bus ticket.
- 7:58Speaker 2: They just jump on it and go. And sometimes people
- 8:02Speaker 2: that come on are just, they're not respectful. They just,
- 8:06Speaker 2: I mean, there's all kinds of things that go with it.
- 8:08Speaker 2: And it just, I don't want to say that there's
- 8:10Speaker 2: a correlation between how much you pay and your behavior,
- 8:13Speaker 2: because I think that would be too wide a brush.
- 8:15Speaker 2: But I do think that factors into it, though, and
- 8:18Speaker 2: I'm not going to ignore that.
- 8:20Speaker 1: Fair enough. You're the one with all the experts, all
- 8:22Speaker 1: the experience. That's why you are the iHeartMedia Aviation expert.
- 8:25Speaker 1: We'll come back. We'll talk about some fares. Are they
- 8:27Speaker 1: going up? Are they going down? Does it matter to
- 8:29Speaker 1: the airlines? Plus profit and travel action. See the talk station.
- 8:34Speaker 1: You ever been in a cockpit before? It's 840-55KRC, the
- 8:38Speaker 1: talk station. Jay Ratliff has. He's iHeartMedia Aviation expert. We
- 8:41Speaker 1: get the benefit of his company every Thursday for a
- 8:43Speaker 1: few segments. Before we get over to profitability and airfares, Jay,
- 8:47Speaker 1: what is the story with this travel expert losing 50,000
- 8:51Speaker 1: frequent flyer miles?
- 8:53Speaker 2: Well, it's Katie Nastro. She is someone that is often
- 8:58Speaker 2: giving travel tips and different types of things and does
- 9:01Speaker 2: a good job. And recently, somebody hacked into her American
- 9:04Speaker 2: Airlines account, frequent flyer account, and swiped 50,000 miles. Now,
- 9:10Speaker 2: she later said, well, one of the issues is I
- 9:13Speaker 2: use the same password for everything. And when my password
- 9:16Speaker 2: was exposed, my frequent flyer account was targeted. Now, this
- 9:21Speaker 2: is a frequent target for hackers because our frequent flyer
- 9:24Speaker 2: miles is not really top of mind for a lot
- 9:28Speaker 2: of people. So it's not something you might check as
- 9:30Speaker 2: frequently as, say, your bank account or some other account
- 9:34Speaker 2: that you keep a close eye on. And somebody went
- 9:37Speaker 2: in there, grabbed 50,000 miles, and it was a while
- 9:40Speaker 2: before she was aware of it. She contacted American Airlines.
- 9:44Speaker 2: The frequent plier department, she had to have a local
- 9:46Speaker 2: police report, had to jump through a lot of hoops.
- 9:49Speaker 2: I think she did eventually get the miles back. But, Brian,
- 9:52Speaker 2: what surprised me was that a lot of times those
- 9:55Speaker 2: miles are not restored. So that's certainly an issue. Now,
- 10:00Speaker 2: the thing that I'm still lost at is anytime that
- 10:03Speaker 2: I burn any of my American Airline frequent flyer miles
- 10:06Speaker 2: or Delta, I'm getting immediate emails. Hey, thanks for using
- 10:11Speaker 2: your frequent flyer miles and buying this ticket. That type
- 10:14Speaker 2: of notice is immediate. You would know something was up.
- 10:17Speaker 2: So I'm not sure how that was missed, but you know,
- 10:20Speaker 2: the bottom line here is keep an eye on them.
- 10:22Speaker 2: And for some people, they let them accumulate to the point.
- 10:24Speaker 2: They're never going to use them. And, you know, I
- 10:27Speaker 2: always like if you're not going to use them to
- 10:29Speaker 2: donate them, there's a lot of great charities around that
- 10:32Speaker 2: you can donate those miles to. And just keep an
- 10:35Speaker 2: eye on them because, sadly, people get in there and
- 10:38Speaker 2: try to steal from us. And for a lot of them,
- 10:41Speaker 2: it's just low-hanging fruit because so many people are just
- 10:43Speaker 2: kind of oblivious to those accounts.
- 10:47Speaker 1: It's a nice thing if you're not thinking about the
- 10:48Speaker 1: frequent flyer miles, besides the problem you just mentioned, because
- 10:51Speaker 1: you'll find out one day that when you do want
- 10:53Speaker 1: to fly and you want to fly in an affordable
- 10:55Speaker 1: way with your family, there they are. They certainly came
- 11:00Speaker 1: in handy when we went out to Yellowstone National Park
- 11:02Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. I was like, oh my God,
- 11:04Speaker 1: that's right, I got frequent flyer miles. So after like
- 11:06Speaker 1: 20 years of just sitting on them and every time
- 11:09Speaker 1: I use a credit card, I get some miles for it,
- 11:11Speaker 1: I finally found myself in a position to use them.
- 11:14Speaker 1: But Other people are all using them all the time.
- 11:18Speaker 2: Well, Brian, it's a good point because, you know, there's,
- 11:19Speaker 2: there's sometimes you have a last minute need that comes
- 11:22Speaker 2: up where you got to fly from here to somewhere else.
- 11:24Speaker 2: And goodness, you don't have the advance of three months
- 11:27Speaker 2: in advance to buy your ticket. You've got two weeks.
- 11:30Speaker 2: So instead of paying a really, really high airfare, you
- 11:32Speaker 2: can go, Hey, I got some of those miles. And
- 11:34Speaker 2: even if you can't pay for the entire trip with
- 11:36Speaker 2: your miles, you maybe can pay for some of it,
- 11:38Speaker 2: most of it. And it at least softens the blow
- 11:40Speaker 2: just a bit. So again, Look, a lot of these
- 11:43Speaker 2: airline credit card miles, like the Citibank card for American,
- 11:47Speaker 2: you're spending $ 100 a year on. So you're paying for this.
- 11:52Speaker 2: So as you earn these miles, please use them.
- 11:55Speaker 1: Good point. I don't know which carrier you select, because
- 11:59Speaker 1: I've been an American frequent flyer mile collector for all
- 12:02Speaker 1: those years. It's because I was in Chicago at the time,
- 12:04Speaker 1: and all my flights typically were American, but not as
- 12:07Speaker 1: many choices here at CVG with that.
- 12:10Speaker 2: Well, I've got a Delta SkyMiles. and an American Airlines
- 12:14Speaker 2: Advantage card, credit card, that I run through my business.
- 12:18Speaker 2: So I'm able to accumulate quite a few miles every year. And,
- 12:22Speaker 2: you know, a lot of times I'll just give them
- 12:23Speaker 2: to my sister to come out and visit mom. Or,
- 12:25Speaker 2: you know, if we've got a relative that needs to
- 12:27Speaker 2: fly somewhere, we fly less now than we ever have.
- 12:31Speaker 2: And I'm very quick to pass these on. And, of course,
- 12:33Speaker 2: sometimes you think, gee whiz, I'm spending money on these
- 12:36Speaker 2: cards that if I'm not going to use the perk,
- 12:39Speaker 2: let me find something that I do.
- 12:41Speaker 1: Fair enough. I'm going to talk about profit. Frontier, what's
- 12:44Speaker 1: their story? And fares are increasing, and airlines do not
- 12:47Speaker 1: seem to mind. Plus, hub delays. We'll talk about that
- 12:50Speaker 1: coming up next. More with Jay Ratliff. Don't go away. 55KRC. com.
- 12:54Speaker 2: I've seen Keith Faber's station.
- 12:57Speaker 1: 848, 55KRC, the talk station. Talking aviation with iHeartMedia aviation
- 13:01Speaker 1: expert Jay Ratliff. Pivoting over, Frontier, one of your favorites, right, Jay?
- 13:06Speaker 1: They did a pretty decent quarter, didn't they?
- 13:09Speaker 2: I'm a big fan of Frontier. Remember, Frontier is what
- 13:11Speaker 2: brought the low-cost carriers to CBG when they brought their
- 13:15Speaker 2: one flight a day from Dayton to Denver down to
- 13:18Speaker 2: CBG all those years ago. And boy, it's been great
- 13:21Speaker 2: ever since. But they recorded a quarterly profit, record revenue
- 13:25Speaker 2: for the quarter, $ 1. 4 billion. Their stock rose 8% as
- 13:27Speaker 2: a result. And look, even with higher fuel costs, I
- 13:36Speaker 2: think it was 56% higher fuel costs than what they
- 13:39Speaker 2: had to pay earlier. That's $ 150 million in the quarter.
- 13:43Speaker 2: They still ended up with a nice profit. And when
- 13:48Speaker 2: you threw in some of the other accounting stuff, it
- 13:50Speaker 2: actually came out to a loss, but the initial report
- 13:52Speaker 2: was a profit, which is good news. Brian, the only
- 13:55Speaker 2: kind of negative aspect to The report was their advanced bookings,
- 14:01Speaker 2: not as strong as they would like. They said they're
- 14:04Speaker 2: actually at a five-year low, so certainly that's a concern
- 14:07Speaker 2: moving forward. But some great news. Look, any time I
- 14:10Speaker 2: see a low-cost carrier that's doing well, as Frontier is,
- 14:14Speaker 2: even with some of these rising fuel costs, I'm thrilled.
- 14:17Speaker 2: That means that people are supporting them not only here
- 14:20Speaker 2: at CBG but in airports around the country, and I'm
- 14:23Speaker 2: just thrilled to see it.
- 14:24Speaker 1: Amen to that. And, you know, again, God bless Frontier
- 14:26Speaker 1: Airlines for starting the trend here at CBG, which was
- 14:29Speaker 1: the most expensive airport in the country at one point, wasn't.
- 14:33Speaker 2: It, Jack? It was. And when they came here, people thought,
- 14:35Speaker 2: you have got to be crazy. That's where low-cost carriers
- 14:39Speaker 2: go to die. And they were here. The community responded
- 14:42Speaker 2: in such a way. I was so proud. And then Allegiant,
- 14:45Speaker 2: who never flew into large airports before, said, individuals at
- 14:51Speaker 2: the Cincinnati administrative team whose names I've been sworn not
- 14:55Speaker 2: to mention begged and pleaded and said to Allegiant, look,
- 14:59Speaker 2: you can make money here. And they talked Allegiant into
- 15:02Speaker 2: coming in right after Frontier. And the next thing you know, Southwest,
- 15:05Speaker 2: who's in Dayton, says, hey, we want to get in
- 15:07Speaker 2: on this. They closed the Dayton operation, moved it to Cincinnati. So,
- 15:11Speaker 2: I mean, you've got all of these low-cost carriers that
- 15:14Speaker 2: have been flocking to Cincinnati. The airfares have dropped so much.
- 15:18Speaker 2: I mean, you can go round trip to Atlanta, sometimes Florida, $ 100,
- 15:22Speaker 2: $ 150 round trip. It's incredible. And, yes, Frontier is the
- 15:27Speaker 2: one that broke the door down, and they will always
- 15:29Speaker 2: be one of my favorites.
- 15:30Speaker 1: You know, and I just think back when it wasn't
- 15:33Speaker 1: that way, CVG was so expensive, you could get a
- 15:35Speaker 1: substantially cheaper flight out of Dayton.
- 15:39Speaker 2: All the time.
- 15:40Speaker 1: For me, you know, driving from Sins Township down to CVG, yeah,
- 15:43Speaker 1: it's like a 45-minute drive. It's not that much more
- 15:45Speaker 1: to go up to Dayton, so we've done that. And then,
- 15:47Speaker 1: lo and behold... You got to lay over in Cincinnati
- 15:50Speaker 1: flight at Dayton. It's like, what?
- 15:52Speaker 2: Well, some people would get off in Cincinnati. They'd fly Dayton, Cincinnati, LA.
- 15:57Speaker 2: They'd come back through there, and they're like, eh, I'm
- 16:00Speaker 2: just going to get off here. I know. Because somebody
- 16:02Speaker 2: dropped them off in Dayton, and they would. So you'd
- 16:05Speaker 2: have this calm air flight that was leaving Cincinnati going
- 16:08Speaker 2: to Dayton. It's supposed to have 49 people, and there's
- 16:10Speaker 2: 13 on there because a lot of people just got
- 16:14Speaker 2: off closer to home.
- 16:16Speaker 1: Well, real quick, before we leave the Frontier Airlines topic,
- 16:18Speaker 1: you mentioned the advance booking is down. That's people buying
- 16:21Speaker 1: an early flight to lock in a fare.
- 16:24Speaker 2: Yeah, because part of each airline's infrastructure is individuals that
- 16:31Speaker 2: look for computer programs that look at future bookings to
- 16:34Speaker 2: see how strong they are, to see which markets are
- 16:37Speaker 2: doing well, which markets are not. Typically, Brian, what happens
- 16:41Speaker 2: is when you see a market that's lagging, the decision
- 16:45Speaker 2: is made to throw out some cheaper fares, not a lot,
- 16:48Speaker 2: a few of them, so that you can put as
- 16:50Speaker 2: many butts in seats as you can because once that
- 16:53Speaker 2: door is closed, as you and I have talked about
- 16:54Speaker 2: so many times before, it's a perishable product. Airlines lose money,
- 16:59Speaker 2: and so they want to fill up every seat they can.
- 17:01Speaker 2: But that's how they used to think. One of the
- 17:04Speaker 2: trends that we're seeing right now, and it's on your
- 17:07Speaker 2: list that I sent you, is that airlines are seeing
- 17:10Speaker 2: these reduced bookings And they're not throwing out cheaper fares.
- 17:16Speaker 2: They're in essence drawing a line in the sand and says, look,
- 17:20Speaker 2: if we've got to operate this flight with 80% load factor,
- 17:23Speaker 2: we're going to do it. And if you want to fly,
- 17:26Speaker 2: here's the price. Now, it's going to be fascinating to
- 17:30Speaker 2: see how this goes because you've got consumers that are
- 17:33Speaker 2: proving that they'll pay whatever to fly. And airlines are thinking,
- 17:37Speaker 2: you know, if we stop offering some of these types
- 17:41Speaker 2: of deals, people are going to come around to flying
- 17:44Speaker 2: or they won't. So who's going to blink first, the
- 17:46Speaker 2: consumer or the airline? It's going to be fascinating as
- 17:49Speaker 2: we move forward to see how this is going to happen.
- 17:51Speaker 2: But look, the CEOs for Delta United American have all
- 17:54Speaker 2: been asked, When the price of fuel drops, will we
- 17:58Speaker 2: see these airfares that you had to increase drop as well?
- 18:03Speaker 2: Every single CEO has said, no, we're going to keep
- 18:06Speaker 2: the fares pretty much where the market demands, which is
- 18:09Speaker 2: reflected in that previous analysis of how airlines are operating
- 18:13Speaker 2: right now. So, Brian, it's going to be interesting. If
- 18:16Speaker 2: people stop flying, they will come back to the table.
- 18:19Speaker 2: But if we keep paying, airfares are going to go up.
- 18:22Speaker 1: Well, my, my static rule is if it's eight hours
- 18:25Speaker 1: or less, I'm driving, you know, period, end of story.
- 18:27Speaker 1: So I know I have a higher tolerance for driving
- 18:29Speaker 1: than a lot of people because I really enjoy driving,
- 18:31Speaker 1: but that's it. And I won't fly unless I have to.
- 18:34Speaker 1: And that's the point I always arrive at. The question is,
- 18:36Speaker 1: do you really, I'm.
- 18:37Speaker 2: With you there as well. Yeah.
- 18:38Speaker 1: Do you want to get there?
- 18:39Speaker 2: And I fly a little less now than we ever have.
- 18:41Speaker 1: I find that hard to believe, considering the stockpile of
- 18:44Speaker 1: frequent flyer miles you have there, Jay Ratliff. What's going on?
- 18:47Speaker 2: We've got like 800,000 or 900,000 miles, and it continues
- 18:50Speaker 2: to grow. So, yeah, we could fly to Europe and
- 18:53Speaker 2: back first class a couple times.
- 18:54Speaker 1: Yeah, Eric heard us talking about this. He said, I
- 18:57Speaker 1: don't know anything about that, meaning he's stocking up miles
- 18:58Speaker 1: and not paying attention to them. He's got more than
- 19:00Speaker 1: 600,000 accumulated. He said he's planning on going to Reykjavik
- 19:04Speaker 1: sometime before the end of the decade. Oh, man.
- 19:06Speaker 2: They haven't sent us pictures. That's a beautiful, beautiful place
- 19:09Speaker 2: in Iceland.
- 19:10Speaker 1: Well, he's got a few years left before the decade ends.
- 19:12Speaker 1: It's on his bucket list. Eric, good morning. Jay Ratliff,
- 19:15Speaker 1: we always end on hub delays. How's it looking out
- 19:16Speaker 1: there for air travel?
- 19:18Speaker 2: You're talking about how good it is. I've got to
- 19:20Speaker 2: go to Guadalajara, Mexico to find you a delay, brother.
- 19:23Speaker 2: So that should tell you just how good it is
- 19:24Speaker 2: in the States.
- 19:25Speaker 1: Well, Guadalajara won't do. Jay Ratliff will every week on
- 19:29Speaker 1: Thursdays beginning at 8 p.m.