December 2, 2025 • 9 mins
Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff has the latest travel news from over the Thanksgiving weekend, and some are still trying to get home. Plus, time to get that REALID
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's jump over to the Legacy Retirement Group dot com
phone line and say good morning to our aviation expert.
It's Jay Ratliff. You can find him at Jay Ratlift
dot com. Jay, good morning. We'll talk in a minute
about this snow and see that's causing any delays at
the airports, but I would imagine some of the biggest
delays are actually getting to the airport, but we'll get
into that in a moment. And I see we set
(00:20):
a record for the most travelers ever on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And we did. In fact, the TSA informed us that
they had three point one million people fly on Sunday
and it was expected to be a heavy day because
the Sunday after Thanksgiving you and I have talked about
for years is typically the single busiest travel day of
the year. The problem was it was also one of
the days that was the most challenging if you were flying.
(00:45):
So the TSSE announced a record on Sunday when we
had the three point one million people traveling, and we
also had twelve four hundred and I think thirteen delayed
flights that day. It was a mess. You had American
and United and Southwest that had forty percent plus of
their flights delayed that day. And if you were a
(01:07):
part of that, yes you and you enjoyed being a
part of a record, but sadly you probably were a
point where you had packed flights and delayed flights and
it was an absolute nightmare to try to get home.
In fact, some people are not getting home from Sunday
until today because the Monday flights were not as full
as Sunday. But Sunday we just didn't have a place
(01:29):
to put anybody because nearly every flight was full. And
when you had a family of four or five or six,
you know, you got one seat here, one seat over there.
I mean you're trying to keep everybody together. And yeah,
for some people it was late yesterday and even today
before they're going to be able to get home. And yeah,
they come tuling into the Columbus Airport. Find some snow. Yeah,
welcome home after all that.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
That's right, Jayratlift, you can find them at jayretlift dot com,
our aviation expert. So three point one three million travelers
on Sunday. When was the last record? Was it back
in June?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I think May or June, because it surprised me we
were breaking records absent of the busiest travel week of
the year, and it was something to see because you know,
we we're seeing more and more three million number days.
And look, if you want to kind of take a
peek at what the TSA reports, you can go to
Google and just do TSA numbers and it will give
(02:22):
you a website where they have the TSA checkpoint travel
numbers for the day. And it's really interesting because then
you can go back and look at the same time
in twenty twenty four, twenty twenty three, you can kind
of compare how things were between last year and this year.
But yeah, when you see something over three million, that's it.
It's going to be slower now the next two weeks,
(02:43):
because that typically is the case first two weeks of December.
Things will pick up obviously once we get into the
end of the year break from the nineteen through probably
the fourth or fifth of January. I don't suspect, Mike,
we're going to set any records the next anytime this
month because the travel time has spread out over you
two and a half weeks versus everything we tried to
(03:06):
cram in in just a few days. Because typically the
busiest travel day is the Sunday after Thanksgiving and then
the busiest, second busiest is normally the Wednesday before, and
on the twenty six we had two point seven million
people flying as reported by the TSA, So certainly no
record there, but yeah, record on record on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I wonder how more records we could possibly set, because
eventually you're going to run into a cap right, There's
there's only so many aircraft, there's all the infrastructure can
only handle so many travelers. So you're a three point one.
I mean, could we get to three point five million
on a given day.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Well, we could, and it's going to take some time.
But when you when you talk about the you know
back orders that Boeing and Airbus have, I'm telling you
it's you know, you've got probably between the two Airbus
and Boeing, I want to say, at least least nine
to eleven thousand aircraft that had been ordered yet to
(04:03):
be delivered. Now, obviously those are not all US carriers,
those are airlines around the world. But we're seeing the
demand for travel continue to increase to where ten fifteen
years from now, we'll probably see fifty to sixty percent
more people flying now, and they're expecting it to double
in the next twenty years. Now, the saddest part of
all of that is that you and I might look
back twenty years from now and say, remember the good
(04:25):
old days that travel back in twenty twenty five. That's
the saddest part. If we look back at this is
the days we long for.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I'm telling you, well, we were just talking about the
good old days of travel when people would put on
a coat and tie and a dress and it'll be
polite and not wear pajamas and you know, slip on
shoes and your headphones, and those are the good old days.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
But I can take you back into the thirties forties
when you flew American airlines. They would pull up in
a limo, pick you up and take you to the airport. Imagine,
you know, scuffing out in your pajamas and slippers for that. Yeah,
they would even open the door for.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
You, get on the airplane, lat up a cigarette. Life
was good, man, Hey, what's going on with the TSA.
We were told that we needed these real IDs to go.
You got to go to the BMV and upgrade your
driver's license and get that little star on it so
you can fly and now they're saying you can travel
(05:20):
without that real ID, but it's going to cost you.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, the TSA has been trying to work with us
since it kicked in to the first of May, where
you had to have that TSA approved driver's license that
standardize everybody across the board. Instead of the TSA officers
looking at fifty different variations of identification, they now are
looking at just one, that uniform ID, and about ninety
(05:44):
five percent of us have it. Now, since May, you've
had people showing up with a valid driver's license it's
not expired, but it's not yet been renewed to the
real ID where you're getting the TSA government approved new version,
and the TSA has tried to work with us to
try to get people to their destinations. Now as of
February first, they announced yesterday if you're gonna be traveling
(06:08):
after February first, and you do not obviously, if you
have a passport, use that if it's valid, But if
you've got an outdated but not yet expire driver's license,
you're gonna have to go to TSA dot gov and
pay a forty five dollars fee in advance before you're
going to be able to show up to the airport
and use an ID that's not approved as far as
(06:28):
one of the acceptable forms of identification. Now, the kicker
is if you show up at the airport not knowing
this and get in line and you present that you
know valid but you know not yet expired, but it's
not a real ID, a driver's license, they're gonna have
to get out of the line, go to TSA dot
gov and go through all of that, which could take
five to ten minutes, and then get back in line.
(06:51):
So the thing to do is, if you know that
you've got a driver's license, it's not TSA approved the
real ID, and you know you're gonna be flying after February, first,
sure you go to TSA dot gov, fill that out,
pay the forty five dollars fee, and that way before
you get to the airport, you don't have to worry
about that. Initially, the TSA told us that they were
going to do this, it was gonna be eighteen dollars,
(07:11):
and in typical government fashion, surprise, it's forty five dollars. Light. Yeah,
but the kicker is, make sure you know it so
that you don't get to the airport and you're dragging
your kids. You're probably running a little bit late, and
the TSA says, sorry, you got to get over here,
go online, pay this fee and then get back in
line and just just avoid that headache by being prepared
(07:32):
ahead of time.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Or and if you're planning on traveling a lot, just
go get the real ID, you know, oh.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
The way, because it was in two thousand and five
they gave us ten years the States, and of course
at twenty fifteen we didn't have it, and they kept
you know, like you know, pushing it down the road.
And this May they finally put their foot down saying, hey,
we mean it this time. And about ninety five percent
of us have what we need to fly. And those
that have a passport, you know you can you can
use that as your bellad idea as long as it's
(07:59):
you know, not yet expose.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
These are aviation expert jayratlifts. You can find them at
jayratlift dot com. So we've got I don't know, maybe
three or four inches of snow on the ground. Jay
is coming down pretty good. A couple of hours ago,
seems to have quieted down. But is this kind of
weather cause delays because the airports are very well equipped
with plows in their own infrastructure to keep the runways
clear and clean, they de ice the planes. I mean,
(08:21):
they're very well prepared for this. Does this cause any problems, Well, they.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Are, in fact right now we have one three and
twenty delays as of this moment in the country, and
they're pretty well spread out in that weather that's gone
through here. Obviously, he's heading over east of US, and
it's creating some problems in Charlotte, Atlanta's kind of a
glancing blow. In the northeast. New York, Philadelphia, DC just
(08:44):
getting hammered right now. But you know, I don't panic
when I see just thirteen hundred and twenty delays, because
even with the air traffic controller shortage, we're averaging about
thirty nine hundred delays a day, So we're pretty much
where we should be from a delay standpoint, But that
number is certainly going to increase as this mess continues
to move to the northeast and creates even bigger headaches.
(09:05):
If you're flying south or to the west, even through
Chicago should be in pretty good shape today, or Detroit,
but anything to the northeast certainly expects them to lay
Let's jump over to the Legacy Retirement Group dot com
phone line and say good morning to our aviation expert.
It's Jay Ratliff. You can find him at Jay Ratlift
dot com. Jay, good morning. We'll talk in a minute
about this snow and see that's causing any delays at
the airports, but I would imagine some of the biggest
delays are actually getting to the airport, but we'll get
into that in a moment. And I see we set
(00:20):
a record for the most travelers ever on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And we did. In fact, the TSA informed us that
they had three point one million people fly on Sunday
and it was expected to be a heavy day because
the Sunday after Thanksgiving you and I have talked about
for years is typically the single busiest travel day of
the year. The problem was it was also one of
the days that was the most challenging if you were flying.
(00:45):
So the TSSE announced a record on Sunday when we
had the three point one million people traveling, and we
also had twelve four hundred and I think thirteen delayed
flights that day. It was a mess. You had American
and United and Southwest that had forty percent plus of
their flights delayed that day. And if you were a
(01:07):
part of that, yes you and you enjoyed being a
part of a record, but sadly you probably were a
point where you had packed flights and delayed flights and
it was an absolute nightmare to try to get home.
In fact, some people are not getting home from Sunday
until today because the Monday flights were not as full
as Sunday. But Sunday we just didn't have a place
(01:29):
to put anybody because nearly every flight was full. And
when you had a family of four or five or six,
you know, you got one seat here, one seat over there.
I mean you're trying to keep everybody together. And yeah,
for some people it was late yesterday and even today
before they're going to be able to get home. And yeah,
they come tuling into the Columbus Airport. Find some snow. Yeah,
welcome home after all that.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
That's right, Jayratlift, you can find them at jayretlift dot com,
our aviation expert. So three point one three million travelers
on Sunday. When was the last record? Was it back
in June?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I think May or June, because it surprised me we
were breaking records absent of the busiest travel week of
the year, and it was something to see because you know,
we we're seeing more and more three million number days.
And look, if you want to kind of take a
peek at what the TSA reports, you can go to
Google and just do TSA numbers and it will give
(02:22):
you a website where they have the TSA checkpoint travel
numbers for the day. And it's really interesting because then
you can go back and look at the same time
in twenty twenty four, twenty twenty three, you can kind
of compare how things were between last year and this year.
But yeah, when you see something over three million, that's it.
It's going to be slower now the next two weeks,
(02:43):
because that typically is the case first two weeks of December.
Things will pick up obviously once we get into the
end of the year break from the nineteen through probably
the fourth or fifth of January. I don't suspect, Mike,
we're going to set any records the next anytime this
month because the travel time has spread out over you
two and a half weeks versus everything we tried to
(03:06):
cram in in just a few days. Because typically the
busiest travel day is the Sunday after Thanksgiving and then
the busiest, second busiest is normally the Wednesday before, and
on the twenty six we had two point seven million
people flying as reported by the TSA, So certainly no
record there, but yeah, record on record on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I wonder how more records we could possibly set, because
eventually you're going to run into a cap right, There's
there's only so many aircraft, there's all the infrastructure can
only handle so many travelers. So you're a three point one.
I mean, could we get to three point five million
on a given day.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Well, we could, and it's going to take some time.
But when you when you talk about the you know
back orders that Boeing and Airbus have, I'm telling you
it's you know, you've got probably between the two Airbus
and Boeing, I want to say, at least least nine
to eleven thousand aircraft that had been ordered yet to
(04:03):
be delivered. Now, obviously those are not all US carriers,
those are airlines around the world. But we're seeing the
demand for travel continue to increase to where ten fifteen
years from now, we'll probably see fifty to sixty percent
more people flying now, and they're expecting it to double
in the next twenty years. Now, the saddest part of
all of that is that you and I might look
back twenty years from now and say, remember the good
(04:25):
old days that travel back in twenty twenty five. That's
the saddest part. If we look back at this is
the days we long for.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I'm telling you, well, we were just talking about the
good old days of travel when people would put on
a coat and tie and a dress and it'll be
polite and not wear pajamas and you know, slip on
shoes and your headphones, and those are the good old days.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
But I can take you back into the thirties forties
when you flew American airlines. They would pull up in
a limo, pick you up and take you to the airport. Imagine,
you know, scuffing out in your pajamas and slippers for that. Yeah,
they would even open the door for.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
You, get on the airplane, lat up a cigarette. Life
was good, man, Hey, what's going on with the TSA.
We were told that we needed these real IDs to go.
You got to go to the BMV and upgrade your
driver's license and get that little star on it so
you can fly and now they're saying you can travel
(05:20):
without that real ID, but it's going to cost you.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, the TSA has been trying to work with us
since it kicked in to the first of May, where
you had to have that TSA approved driver's license that
standardize everybody across the board. Instead of the TSA officers
looking at fifty different variations of identification, they now are
looking at just one, that uniform ID, and about ninety
(05:44):
five percent of us have it. Now, since May, you've
had people showing up with a valid driver's license it's
not expired, but it's not yet been renewed to the
real ID where you're getting the TSA government approved new version,
and the TSA has tried to work with us to
try to get people to their destinations. Now as of
February first, they announced yesterday if you're gonna be traveling
(06:08):
after February first, and you do not obviously, if you
have a passport, use that if it's valid, But if
you've got an outdated but not yet expire driver's license,
you're gonna have to go to TSA dot gov and
pay a forty five dollars fee in advance before you're
going to be able to show up to the airport
and use an ID that's not approved as far as
(06:28):
one of the acceptable forms of identification. Now, the kicker
is if you show up at the airport not knowing
this and get in line and you present that you
know valid but you know not yet expired, but it's
not a real ID, a driver's license, they're gonna have
to get out of the line, go to TSA dot
gov and go through all of that, which could take
five to ten minutes, and then get back in line.
(06:51):
So the thing to do is, if you know that
you've got a driver's license, it's not TSA approved the
real ID, and you know you're gonna be flying after February, first,
sure you go to TSA dot gov, fill that out,
pay the forty five dollars fee, and that way before
you get to the airport, you don't have to worry
about that. Initially, the TSA told us that they were
going to do this, it was gonna be eighteen dollars,
(07:11):
and in typical government fashion, surprise, it's forty five dollars. Light. Yeah,
but the kicker is, make sure you know it so
that you don't get to the airport and you're dragging
your kids. You're probably running a little bit late, and
the TSA says, sorry, you got to get over here,
go online, pay this fee and then get back in
line and just just avoid that headache by being prepared
(07:32):
ahead of time.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Or and if you're planning on traveling a lot, just
go get the real ID, you know, oh.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
The way, because it was in two thousand and five
they gave us ten years the States, and of course
at twenty fifteen we didn't have it, and they kept
you know, like you know, pushing it down the road.
And this May they finally put their foot down saying, hey,
we mean it this time. And about ninety five percent
of us have what we need to fly. And those
that have a passport, you know you can you can
use that as your bellad idea as long as it's
(07:59):
you know, not yet expose.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
These are aviation expert jayratlifts. You can find them at
jayratlift dot com. So we've got I don't know, maybe
three or four inches of snow on the ground. Jay
is coming down pretty good. A couple of hours ago,
seems to have quieted down. But is this kind of
weather cause delays because the airports are very well equipped
with plows in their own infrastructure to keep the runways
clear and clean, they de ice the planes. I mean,
(08:21):
they're very well prepared for this. Does this cause any problems, Well, they.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Are, in fact right now we have one three and
twenty delays as of this moment in the country, and
they're pretty well spread out in that weather that's gone
through here. Obviously, he's heading over east of US, and
it's creating some problems in Charlotte, Atlanta's kind of a
glancing blow. In the northeast. New York, Philadelphia, DC just
(08:44):
getting hammered right now. But you know, I don't panic
when I see just thirteen hundred and twenty delays, because
even with the air traffic controller shortage, we're averaging about
thirty nine hundred delays a day, So we're pretty much
where we should be from a delay standpoint, But that
number is certainly going to increase as this mess continues
to move to the northeast and creates even bigger headaches.
(09:05):
If you're flying south or to the west, even through
Chicago should be in pretty good shape today, or Detroit,
but anything to the northeast certainly expects them to lay
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