- Well, good morning from Albuquerque, New Mexico,
in the USA.
Now, Boutique Air, they're an airline
that I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with.
You see, I really want to love them.
They operate some really cool places,
some fantastic off the beaten track places.
But the fact is,
that out of two flights I've had booked with them before,
they've never once actually managed
to get me to my destination.
You see, buying a ticket with Boutique Air,
is a little bit like buying a lottery ticket.
You know the chances of you getting to your destination
are fair to slim,
but it's always nice to have that dream.
That one day,
they might actually take you where you need to go.
So, I've bought another lottery ticket.
Let's go and see if we win today.
So cool here at Albuquerque Airport.
They've got this little museum thing
with all things like this.
Aviation history, the capsule off of a Goodyear Blimp,
and hot air balloon baskets, and things everywhere.
It's very cool.
So, immensely cool models here.
Wish my model collection was like this.
Ah, I see Boutique Air's plane has arrived
to take me on my way today.
I wonder if I can get a window seat?
- Good morning. How are you?
- [Noel] Good morning. I'm good. How are you?
- Dallas?
- [Noel] All the way to Dallas. Yeah.
- You have a YouTube channel, yes?
- [Noel] I do have a YouTube channel, yeah.
- I love your videos.
- [Noel] Do you? Thank you.
- Yes. - That's very kind of you.
I've flown on Boutique before.
It didn't go well, so. - I know,
I've seen that video for myself.
- So, part of the reason I'm making this video
and flying with Boutique today,
is 'cause I need to give you an update
on what happened last time after my last video
where things didn't go to plan with them.
Link on the screen to that video
if you wanna check that one out.
But effectively, after that video went out,
I had an email from the Vice President himself,
of Boutique Air,
who apologized profusely for the problems I'd had.
He thanked me for being kind to the crew and everything,
and the staff, which was quite nice.
And he also arranged for me to get a refund for my flight.
So I did get a refund for my flight about a month later.
He also offered me to reimburse the extra cost
that we had incurred as a result of not being able
to get to our destination on that flight.
I mean, he offered,
but unfortunately it never materialized
and it never showed up.
I mean, like, the thought was there, you know.
They at least offered,
but, I suppose.
But yeah, I figured,
well we'll come and give them another go today.
So far, I think we're about half an hour late
so we're not doing too bad.
The plane is on its way,
which is more than it has been for the last couple
that I've done.
So fingers crossed,
we might actually get to where we need to be today.
All right. So I'll be boarding very soon.
It seems that I've been foiled,
which is kind of working out to my advantage a little bit.
They've just asked me if I want to ride up
in the flight deck in the front.
So, I might totally.
So, I'll be riding up front today
for today's ride over to Carlsbad, New Mexico,
and then onwards to Dallas, Fort Worth in Texas.
- Thank you. Have a nice flight.
- [Noel] Cheers. Have a good day.
- [Airline worker] You bet.
- [Noel] All right. Do you want me to wait out here then or?
- What's that?
- [Noel] Do you want me to wait out here a bit, or?
- Er yeah. You just wanna hang out right here
and then I'll put you in last.
- [Noel] Awesome. Thank you.
- [Passenger] Seat in the back?
- [Pilot] Yep.
Any of those seats in the back might be...
- [Passenger] Oh, any of them. Okay.
- [Pilot] Yeah any of them.
- [Passenger] Okay. Thank you.
- [Pilot] Unless you want my seat. You can fly today.
- [Passenger] Right?
- [Pilot] All right, man?
- [Noel] All right. - [Pilot] All yours.
Find your seat.
- [Noel] Cheers. Thank you.
- [Pilot] I'll brief you here separately, in just a second.
- [Noel] Yeah. Thank you.
All right, so I'm on board the Boutique PC-12,
over to Carlsbad first.
This is so cool. Riding up front.
We got it, yeah.
- [Pilot] Four-point harness and twist to release.
Oxygen mask's gonna be right behind
your right shoulder there.
- [Noel] Got it, yeah.
- [Pilot] To use it, you just squeeze
on these little handles right here.
It'll pop out. So put it over your nose and mouth.
Release it. It'll suck to your face.
And then it's always on.
Best way out's just gonna be the stairs right there.
- [Noel] Okey doke.
- You just crawl over.
I think that's just about it.
I have to remove this
just in case I need to use my oxygen.
- [Noel] Yeah. Of course.
My first leg today then
took me southeast from Albuquerque, New Mexico
to Carlsbad in the southeast of New Mexico.
Flight time today was 57 minutes, cruising at 17,000 feet.
All right. So, airborne from Albuquerque
onboard the Boutique Air PC-12,
in quite possibly the best seat in the house.
Well, almost the best seat.
I think that's actually the best seat over there.
But fantastic to be able to ride up
in the front of the PC-12, I have to say,
down to Albuquerque.
They fly a lot of these routes single pilot, you see.
So, there's often a seat going in the front
for weight and balance purposes,
and maybe I'm probably the heaviest on board
with my excessive height and weight.
And I'm working on it, I'm working on it,
but it does work to us advantage
and it means you get to get seats like this
from time to time,
when they need to move you for weight and balance.
So, yeah.
Fantastic view up here in the front of the PC-12
and I'm looking forward to the rest of the flight.
- [Pilot] All right, guys. Welcome to Carlsbad.
- [Passenger 2] I love your socks.
- [Pilot] Thank you.
- [Passenger 3] Thank you so much.
- [Noel] It wasn't me. All on him.
There we go. Thank you very much.
- [Pilot] Of course. Thank you.
Yeah, here's your
first officer. - You can have your seat
back now!
- Oh yeah. Nice to meet you.
- [Noel] Nice to meet you.
- [Pilot] He kept it warm for you, so.
- All right, cool. Well.
- Well, let me get the paperwork going.
Gotta get some fuel.
The facilities are inside. - [Noel] Okay.
- Restroom's just gonna be to your left
when you get inside the door
There's a staff machine in there and all that, but I mean.
- So then, on the ground here at Carlsbad, New Mexico,
Cavern City Air Terminal.
It's proper in the middle of nowhere this.
We're not far from the border with Texas here,
and it's Texas we're heading to next,
to Dallas Fort Worth with Boutique.
What an amazing flight that was!
They really pulled it out of the bag
on that one didn't they?
Everybody kind of knows me, which is a bit,
they've all seen the videos and they're all,
Oh yeah, I've seen that one.
I've seen that video
where you had a really bad experience with us.
It's like, sorry.
But it's all good,
and the staff, as always, at Boutique
are absolutely amazing.
So yeah, here in the middle of BFE in New Mexico.
We're gonna head back inside in a minute
and take a ride back.
I'm actually in the back for the next leg
'cause the first officer is back on board.
They had to leave him behind apparently,
in Carlsbad, because of weight and balance
and they were a bit overweight,
so they left him here and went up to Albuquerque and back.
But now obviously he's back in his rightful place
where I don't belong,
right at the front of the PC-12,
and I will be back enjoying the high life
in the amazing comforting cabin
of the Pilatus PC-12.
So yeah, let's head back inside and get on our way,
hopefully, down to Dallas Fort Worth.
- One person on the stairs at a time.
But you can go ahead.
- [Noel] Thank you very much.
- You head on out. - Thanks a lot.
- You're welcome. - See you later.
- [Noel] Hello.
- Hello.
Right. How's it going?
- [Noel] All Right, yeah. How are you?
- Good, good.
I'm gonna pull up the floor real quick.
I think they may have briefed you
but we're gonna have a full seating assignment,
so I'm just gonna tell you where to sit.
- [Noel] Yeah. Okay.
- All right, cool. Very first row for me please.
- [Noel] Very first row, yeah.
Thank you very much.
- [First officer] No problem.
- [Noel] Hello again.
- [Pilot] Welcome back.
- Hi, thank you.
All right, so back on board
sitting backwards today on this one.
Right at the front and a good view
back out over the front again of course,
for the later in the flight.
The next leg of my journey today took me east
from Carlsbad across to Dallas Fort Worth in Texas.
Flight time for this leg was one hour and 38 minutes,
cruising at 17,000 feet.
Hi there, so airborne out of Carlsbad, New Mexico
now heading to Dallas Fort Worth
on the Boutique Air PC-12.
It's a very full flight this one.
Everybody's on board,
so that's why we're kind of in certain places,
for weight and balance reasons and stuff.
But it's all good. It's a nice seat back here.
Just figured out as well,
this is the exact same aircraft
that Rachel and I were on back in the summer
that had the flaps failure.
It's the exact same tail number and everything.
So, yeah.
History, hopefully, not repeating itself today
on the same plane.
But it's nice. It's very comfortable.
And that's the thing about Boutique Air you know,
the crew are absolutely amazing
on every flight that I've had with them.
Even the ones that haven't gone to plan.
The ground staff have always been fantastic.
The air crew have been fantastic.
The aircraft themselves are nice to ride on.
It just seems to be that whole reliability issue
and the customer service that I had issues with before.
Once you actually get to fly with them,
then I've never had an issue with them.
And hopefully you'll see that in the previous videos
that I've done with them as well,
over to Muscle Shoals and the last failed attempt
to get out of Atlanta on this very aircraft.
Anyway, we're airborne on leg two
heading to Dallas Fort Worth,
and it looks like we might actually make it today.
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You can pick up these and much more over on my merch store
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- [Flight Personnel] There you go. Welcome to Dallas.
If you wouldn't mind following me down the stairs.
One at a time, the stairs
If you have a bag we'll bring it inside in a second,
and our CSAs will lead you inside, okay?
Thanks for flying with us.
- [Noel] Thanks very much
- [Pilot] thank you.
- [Noel] Cheers. Thanks very much.
- [Pilot] See ya.
- [Noel] Thank you so much.
- [First Officer] Yeah, you have a great day.
- Yeah, you too.
There we go.
On the ground in Dallas Fort Worth.
As always, a massive thank you to my patrons
for helping to make these videos possible.
You can join them at the link on the screen now
for access to my WhatsApp group,
weekly live Zoom calls with me,
and much, much more.
So, I get to use the corporate terminal
here at Dallas Fort Worth rather than the big one
over across the airport.
So, it's always quite nice coming
into these little FBOs like this effectively.
It's quite a nice one. Nice and quiet.
Just waiting for my bag
and we'll grab the bag and get out of here.
Thank you.
- [Baggage Handler] All yours. Okay.
- Right. So I made it to Dallas.
Boutique Air lottery,
well I think we hit the jackpot today, didn't we?
Got two fantastic flights
with the one, of course, up on the flight deck,
and the other one comfortably in the back
of the PC-12 on the way over from,
where did we come from?
Wow. Albuquerque and Carlsbad, New Mexico.
What a fantastic flight.
Yeah, I think I'm glad that I gave Boutique Air
another chance today.
I, for so long thought I wasn't
gonna travel with them again,
and honestly they did a fantastic job
and the crew, as always, were just absolutely fantastic.
So, thank you so much for everybody
at Boutique Air for today.
It's been a fantastic flight over.
Hope you've enjoyed it.
Let me know what you thought to it
down in the comments below,
but in the meantime from Dallas,
thank you so much for watching.
Take care and I'll see you on the next one.
Bye for now.