Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder,

and the great Rees Jones, who is content manager for the frequent flyer website,

head for points.com. You're very welcome, Reese. How excited are you about flying,

given that you spend your entire life circling the globe?

I'm very excited. There's always more to do, more to see, more planes to fly, more destinations to go to.

And there's still so much of the world that haven't explored yet. So I'm really looking forward to it.

Well, from the traveller's point of view, what is going to be happening that you're particularly looking forward to in terms of aviation? There's a few things.

I think for a start, we may be looking at a new Virgin Clubhouse in Manchester, which will be very

exciting for any passengers in the north. This has been on the cards for a very long time. COVID

kind of, you know, put a pause on that. But I think hopefully we might see that next year.

We don't know yet, but fingers crossed. We've got a lot of new seats coming online. Cafe and

Jal, Japan Airlines are all launching new business class, new first class, new premium

economy and new economy seats.

So that's going to be very exciting.

And what we're generally seeing is coming out of COVID, a huge amount of investment into

aircraft, into seats, into lounges.

So that's very exciting.

And this investment in new aircraft comes on the back.

Of course, COVID, actually leading to the almost complete shutdown of familiar aircraft, such as the

Boeing 747. How do the newer aircraft compare things like, I guess, the Airbus A350?

I mean, generally, they're much, much better on every count.

So for a start, they're much, much more sustainable.

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