139 YEG - From ground crew to flight attendant, via two pandemic Olympics: Vinod's AvGeek chronicles

Layovers - Air Travel podcast

Ever wondered about the life of a flight attendant (and ground crew)? This is the episode for you. Paul welcomes his good friend Vinod for an episode full of fun aviation and travel stories — a long episode, with the laughs taking quite some of that length.

From Edmonton to Vancouver, via Calgary (and its keys!), the many airports he worked at (Paul still hasn't been to Canada), Martinair, British Airways, Air Berlin, or WestJet, amongst the many airlines he worked for (and in a world of crew camaraderie around the world, BA really seems like a big family).

Is there something about the uniform that transcends trends? And Vinod's secret to treat cabin crew well (Paul is inspired).

The experience of turbulences in the air (and yes, we discuss that fateful Singapore Airlines flight), but also the video game of driving a jet bridge.

Can you get Covid from an aircraft wing: flying during the pandemic to (and working at) Tokyo 2020 (NRT, a game of chairs) and Beijing 2022 (PEK, calcifying under sanitizing spray).

Does each airline have a specific smell, or is that a neurotic avgeek thing? (dried fish seems like a bad omen though).

Vinod attempts to convince Paul that Frankfurt and Heathrow are great airports, and he nearly succeeds (his definition of LHR is just the best, and Paul softens on FRA), and we (kinda) agree on Singapore's carpet.

And many more stories (Vinod's most memorable flights are quite something).

Listen to Vinod Viswalingam's podcast (hosted along with the great Geoff Dahl), Seat 1A:

Seat1A on Apple Podcasts

Seat1A on Spotify

Seat1A (website with more links)