Welcome

Friends,

I spent my childhood summers in northern Minnesota.

While I had no concept of it at the time, the simplicity of those days was formative. My cousins and I were free to explore near endlessly at a property that my great, great grandfather from Scandinavia homesteaded. Fargo’s airport was (and remains) the closest with commercial service “to the lake”.

At the time, Northwest was the airline that connected Fargo to the world (via their hub Minneapolis/St Paul). I loved Northwest Airlines.

Great column ahead of us today; thank you for flying with me here.

Let’s get going.

Links

Morning flight to Christchurch.

The end of Southwest? (I feel a real pain even posing that question).

Baba Yetu, because it is just so wonderful.

American is expanding at ORD, and Honolulu is back.

Not certain this will work out well, but it is sometimes better to be lucky than good.

Summer round-trip $2800 fares from Toronto to Dubai in Business Class.

Story

First, forgive the awkward selfie that is our headline photo today. That is my “fairly jet lagged but just took a shower” look in Doha this summer. I was grateful to be flying business class on the trip, only as I managed to find a fare originating in Montreal (instead of Dallas, where said trip actually started) that priced in at $400 more than economy.

A business class ticket to the same destination originating in Dallas was almost $4000 more than economy. That 10x price difference made great sense of connecting via Montreal to spend 25 hours each way in a seat that turns into a bed.

What I have come to find is anyone can fly business class, but not everyone can fly business class.

And to be sure: sometimes business class is just not worth it.

Before I go further, some bad news: I just checked and those fares are now gone. The good news is others remain. Plainly, there are great deals out there for you, too. It just takes knowing where to look.

My commitment to you: I will link the best fares and rates I am actively finding in this email.

My ask in return: if you see something that is going where you want to go, book it.

The two coffee mugs I use every day (or every other day, technically) are both from Northwest Airlines. Before you ask, I did not steal them: I bought them on eBay.

To me, they are fantastic: I love thinking about all the places both mugs went before finding their way to my house.

A lot of stories: they could tell a lot of stories about people drinking coffee on the flights that connected their own stories. Good travel creates great stories, and the stories we tell matter. We will talk more about that in a future column.

For now, go fly well — and decide if you want to be one of the anyones who flies business class. The world is waiting.

Forward

This is me asking you to forward this email on to someone who might like it just enough to read it. That is all.

Remember, this life you are living has meaning. Be well today.

-Tommy