One Mile at a Time

While Google Fi appears to offer better security than other US-based carriers, the support team needs work:

Why I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi https://onemileatatime.com/google-fi-review/

> I’ve been fiercely evangelical about Project Fi since Google launched their cell phone service a few years ago. ... I think it’s important to update y’all about some recent experiences and research, along with why I am withdrawing my endorsement.

> ...

> Previously, whenever I had issues with my Pixel 2 or prior Fi-enabled devices, the third-party support center was phenomenal. I’ve had them help me with hardware issues, system issues, a phone that just wouldn’t connect to WiFi, or tethering that didn’t work when it was supposed to — every interaction was great, and resulted in the problem being solved.

> Since November, this has not been the case. My calls and chats to support have gone nowhere, and the once-great support staff have been replaced (or supplemented) by random people using generic scripts. I’m sure the awesome trouble-shooters are still there, but the sampling I’ve seen doesn’t suggest pervasive competency.

EDIT: Actually there is another, possibly more serious issue with Google Fi mentioned in the article:

> If you can’t use Google Payments, you can’t pay for Google Fi

> ...

> Getting this fixed is actually impossible, and I say that as someone who really, truly, loves solving problems and has made a living off getting phone agents to want to help me.

> We…

> Wouldn't surprise me if this newfound paranoia leads to a golden age for cybersecurity, and a wave of new best practices.

I'd be shocked if this happened. This requires politicians to both care about and understand cybersecurity enough to enforce it, and for there to be no opportunists looking to cash in on the ignorance of policy makers.

People demanded more security after 9/11. We got the Patriot Act and the TSA, so the government spies on its own people and an agency that has proven 95% (!!!) of the time to fail to detect a weapon.

https://onemileatatime.com/tsa-fails-tests-95-percent/

Ronald Reagon declared a war on drugs - I've already made this comment too political so I won't delve into that.

For anything complicated enough the general public cannot easily understand it, there is no incentive for politicians to actually care about it. They can just give it lip service with a few talking points and then never actually do anything actionable.

Your read is exactly correct - the frequent flyer costs aren't 'fully loaded', and accounting rules in the US have changed to more fully account for these costs.

That said, the logic behind structuring the rules this way isn't completely crazy. Essentially, award seats are intended to be seats that the airline cannot sell to paying passengers. Since those seats would otherwise earn the airline nothing, accounting for them on a strictly 'found-money' basis makes some sense.

This sometimes creates amusing situations when new loyalty program managers look at their margins and conclude massive sales make sense. For one example, see below - Garuda selling ~$20,000 first class tickets for ~$200 worth of points. On an internal accounting basis, this was still profitable for the program!

https://onemileatatime.com/garuda-indonesia-first-class-award-ticket-discount/

It's said here [0] that they make an average of $160,970 a year.

That's not... rich, not in 2025. That's comfortable in most major American cities, but not rich. And then you have to take into account the fact that these pilots are away from home quite often, and have dozens, if not hundreds, of lives in their hands when they do their jobs, and that makes me think they're fairly compensated for doing the actual labor that the company needs to operate. Meanwhile, the CEOs make more in a year than most Americans will make in an entire lifetime [1]. And that's not even getting into some of the dividends that airlines pay people who just happen to possess a piece of paper.

[0]https://simpleflying.com/salary-us-pilot-2025/ [1]https://onemileatatime.com/insights/highest-paid-airline-ceo/

Air Canada used to have some direct flights Toronto<->Mumbai that are now unviable because of the russian airspace restrictions. So it now stops over in London under 5th freedom rights to refuel/load/unload passengers and continue. This London<->Mumbai leg is one of the few unusual routes that Air Canada flies that doesn't start or stop in Canada.

(It probably could be viable direct with limited passengers/cargo, but financially unviable).

https://onemileatatime.com/news/air-canada-london-mumbai-flight/

But if you fly this route on Air India, it's still non-stop, utilizing Russian airspace: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/AIC188/history/20230610/1625Z/CYYZ/VIDP

> Boeing and the airlines should have provided more simulators if their new model is so different that it needs a dedicated simulator

I highly recommend reading this article:

https://onemileatatime.com/boeing-737-max-lion-air-simulator/#boeing_mocked_lion_air_for_wanting_737_max_simulator_training

The first crash was with Lion Air. Boeing mocked them for wanting simulators. After the crash, Boeing claimed pilots of Lion Air were at fault. This while saying no simulator training was needed.