Welcome to episode 46 of the PointsHoarder podcast where we spend much of our time working to bully/pressure Stephan into taking a trip half way around the world, mostly in coach, for no apparent reason other than that the rest of us are going. Plus it is the famed Island Hopper, one of the greatest “milk run” flights operating today. Not too many similar routes remain, and this one offers access to remote islands in the Pacific Ocean. Plus it is a 737 all the way from New York to Hong Kong. There’s something magical about that. Hopefully we were convincing enough.
Map generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.
Beyond that, the likely more useful topics discussed in this week’s episode include:
- Delta switched to a revenue-based earning scheme. Which of us think it isn’t such a huge deal and which are more suspect? I bet you can guess pretty closely.
- United is now (theoretically) enforcing their carry-on bag rules more aggressively. Rolo ran in to some issues with his suitcase coming home from pre-Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans so pay attention to the details he offers about that with his normal carry-on (and its contents!).
- Both Delta and Frontier are adding some routes in Cleveland, picking up from United’s dehubbing. Not a ton, but Trenton seems to be a cool place to go, right?
- United is selling their business class amenity kits to anyone with $20. But why would you buy them??
- Qantas is going to lay of about 5,000 employees and hopes that foreign investment can save the airline. Is a cash infusion enough?
- United’s new LiveTV-based wifi is now active, even though the company doesn’t quite seem to have all the details to share.
Also, pay attention early next week where we will hopefully have a special episode assembled as recorded across the Pacific Ocean as we hop our way between Honolulu and Guam (and on to Hong Kong).
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I recently did the island hopper when leaving from a business trip in Majuro all the way to Guam. You are able to get off the airplane at all stops except for KWA. On our last leg from Chuuk to Guam we had a ‘fuel imbalance’ halfway in to the flight and had to get priority handling into Guam. We had to prepare the cabin for an emergency landing and go through all the emergency drills. After ‘practicing’ we still had another 40 minutes until landing in Guam.
Upon inspection by the ARFF crew in Guam, it was discovered there was a fuel leak in one of the wings. UA calculated the inconvenience at $300.
Your version is pretty tame compared to what we had, Steve. We ended up spending 12 hours in Kwajalein thanks to a broken plane. Pretty surreal experience, actually.