The Chaser Report - Welcome Back Ansett | WTTF

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

In a blast from the past that nobody asked for, Ansett has returned in the form of an AI travel agent website. Charles and Dom put the new Ansett site to the test and ponder what other old defunct Aussie brands they can rehash for cash.---Buy the Wankernomics book: https://wankernomics.com/bookListen AD FREE: https://thechaserreport.supercast.com/ VOTE OPTICS FOR A LOGIE: https://vote.tvweeklogies.com.au/Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: [e-mail] CEO’s Super-yacht upgrade Fund: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gadigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to another episode of The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles, as well as Welcome to the future. Future, Future, Future. Oh, Charles, and what a bright future we have, because AI is getting into everything and I'm here for it. It's solving the airline duopoly. in Australia.

And I know we've both been suffering from this, the insane prices that Qantas and Virgin charge for flights to anywhere, the frequent cancellations, the massive fees, the terrible service, all this stuff. It's over because... Oh, that's great. So what's happened? Well, one of the most legendary names in Australian aviation has returned.

Do you want to take guess? A household name of the past. Compass here one? Yeah, Compass. Bonzer? Is Bonzer back? Bonzer. Bonsor is return.

Oh my gosh. I'd so love it if that was the answer. Tiger Air. That's very good. Has Airways? Has Air India expanded its services into Australia? No. No.

There were one called like Southern or something. There are so many of them. Yeah, Southern Cross Airlines here. I remember there. Yeah, yeah. Let me just look. Australian failed airlines. No, Charles, the biggest.

I feel like anyone under the age of like 45 is not going to really. There's so many. Aaron Airways. It's like. Ardvarc Airways, Ad Astra, Adelaide Airways, Advance Airways, Aeropelican, remember them. What about TAA? TIA. Oh, there's a brand.

Air Queensland. Goodness me. There's Albatross Airlines. That's a terrible metaphor. No, Charles. It's to be, I'm just enjoying this list. It's a very long Wikipedia. I haven't heard of most of them.

Bush pilots airways, Brindabella Airways? My God, there's some shockers on here. No, Charles, it's the big gahuna. The genuine second carrier that Australia had for most of its time with commercial air. It's Anset. Anset is back. The Golden Wing Club, I'm assuming. And are they going to allow us to redeem all the points that we lost when it went bust?

I was very briefly, as you know, I briefly had a corporate job once upon a time. And one of the perks of that corporate job was that they bought me membership to the Golden Wing Lounge of Anset. Oh, wow. And I never ever got to you. use it. So I don't think we're bankrupt within weeks of be getting that membership. They went right. Okay, that's it.

Final straw. Dom's got membership. Yeah, no, it was the end of the brand. So there you go. So it's all going to be fine because Anset, you know, Bob Anset, Bob Hawksold, mate. It's back. The Anset brand is back. It's back.

And so what sort of marketing genius thinks that running an airline called Ancet is going to be anything other than a disaster? Like, who would trust? Anzid to not go bust again and you lose all your points again? Like, there's a terrible idea. You're not going to trust it with anything. You're not going to book a flight on Anzit in 2025. Well, in that case, you're in luck because let me explain after these ads exactly what the new

ANSET is, other than an amazing way to get headlines on literally every news website that I've been able to find. Okay, ready. Thank you for your. patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore. FIS is 100% online, so you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15

a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. Okay, and it's got the same font and everything. This is big, this is big news. So it's Anset.com, it's the place to go. It says you need an Anset holiday. Can I just

guess that it's something to do with AI. I just have this feeling. In 2025? But this is going to be some sort of fucking piece of bullshit where somebody's realized that ANSET.com travel is available as a web domain. Oh, no, it's goes much deeper

than that, Charles. They've spent 25 minutes on chat TPT getting it to put together a little AI engine. I bet you a billion dollars, that's true. Go to anset.com. com.com and you will see its website for creditors and staff of the Anset group. Still. It's still run.

by the administrator's quarterment there. Yeah, it's pretty impressive that they've still got an update. They've put in the 65-year corporate history of ANSET up there. And it has, amazingly, it sort of has a web design from 2002, so it's very dated. No, Ansett.com, you're absolutely right. It is AI, and it's an AI booking agent, by the looks of it, has absolutely nothing to do with either ANSET or an airline, but you can book flights to it, and it says that it's cheaper with the VIP membership.

They've got lots of pricing. In fact, everything on the main page seems to be more than $500 a night. So I'm not entirely sure what the huge bargains are. It says it's prices you'll brag about. And Charles, the secret source in this idea, it's not just that AI is involved in apparently booking all these flights. It's the genius of a lapsed copyright or a lapsed intellectual property. They no longer have the trademark.

So this guy, Melbourne entrepreneur Constantine Francescos, has announced. that it's back, he says here, I've registered the trademark. I've created a fleet of AI agents. And thanks to a tech integration with Traveller, which is some website, I've turned Anzad into a one founder online travel agency. So let's take it for a spin. Where do you want to go? Wow. Okay. Yeah. Well, I suppose I want to go to Edinburgh next week. So Edinburgh next week or flights. Oh, do you want me to look this up? Because you might find A flight? You might find that, what, next Monday?

Well, next Friday. If you're going to Edinburgh, we should probably talk about the podcast and what happens while you're away at some point. But anyway, we can figure that out later. I'll ask an AI agent what to do about a host who's much more successful and going on world tours all the time. Anyway, when are you coming back? Well, I was hoping to not come back.

But I suppose, end of the month. Okay, one way. I'll go for a one-way flight to Edinburgh on Monday. Yeah. Let's see what it can do. One-out-hour economy. It says, best price, easy booking, secure. Your transaction.

Yeah. Sydney to Edinburgh. One way. Yeah. One way ticket to Edinburgh. This is testing it out in real time with Anset. Dot Travel. Yep.

Next Monday. Hassel free, it says book flights, hassle free. Oh, yeah. Airports in Edinburgh. Yeah. It's giving me nothing. I'm going to hit search again. It's just given me from Sydney to Edinburgh.

It didn't work the first time. You can do Sydney to Edinburgh. Qatar goes there direct by a do. Yeah, of course it does. Oh, here we go. Come on AI magic. Let's change travel forever and bring back a beloved brand. Do you think maybe it's using, because when did they close?

It was about 2001, wasn't it? Yeah. Do you think they're using 2001 web technology? 2001 pricing would be good, wouldn't it? It's $1,200. $1,230 via Ety had with one side. That's pretty cheap, isn't it? There's a small issue.

There are. five, this is the top option. There are five stopovers. That's great. Let me see what this route is. I get to see the whole world. Yeah, I've got to check this out. So listeners, I think we can whip together $1,200 to get Charles to leave Australia permanently.

Let me see the route that it's given you. This is fantastic. All right. Ready? You're on Eddie had. Good airline. Sydney to Abu Dhabi, unsurprisingly. In two hour layer over there.

Then Abu Dhabi to Manchester. the Manchester City, of course. Okay, that's pretty close. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty close. Then there's a Manchester City, oh, Eddie had booking on a train to QQM. I don't know where QQM is. Then you've got another train to XPT and a train from XPT to XQL and then a train from XQL to ZXE.

So if you want to book, mysterious trains. So it's Picculem is Piccadilly. So it sends you from Manchester all the way south to London. Does it? To get another train. To QQM. That's literally going in the opposite direction. Yeah.

So ZXE, ZXE is in fact Edinburgh Waverly train station. Yeah, right. Yeah. QQF is Piccadilly. That's extraordinary. Oh, no, it's Manchester Piccadilly. Ah, okay. So it's not quite as stupid.

but it is very stupid. So there you go, but Charles, think of the delight you'll have because you'll know you're travelling with An airline best known for its out of failure. And I can tell everyone under the age of 40 traveling Antet and they can stare back at me with a blank look in their eyes. Yes. So that's a very good offer. Let's see.

Would you like a hotel while you're in Edinburgh? Oh, yeah, yeah. Why don't you look up the price of hotels? I'll be staying there from the next. 9th to the 26th. Okay, 9th the 26th August, right, okay. By the way, anyone in the UK should presumably come and see your show, or is it sold out already? No, no.

We've sold out a couple of shows, but yeah, you can, the general availability for our show in... And if you're in the UK, you can still use headset.com travel to book your trains with Eddie. Yeah, that's true. That'd be really good way to do it. All right. Your top option, Edinburgh for that period, is the rating is apparently exceptional. It's three stars and it's $8,500. Oh, that is cheap.

Or if you're a VIP member, $7,300. Oh, my God. What is it? Is it a hovel or something? No, it's the Ghana-Edinburgh Haymarket buy. It's actually a hotel. That looks all right, isn't it? I bet you it's not in Edinburgh.

I bet you a million dollars that's not actually in Edinburgh. You've got to become a VIP member. I wonder what you have to do to be a VIP. Yeah, no, because is it in Edinburgh. We actually stay in student accommodation. We don't even have a toilet to ourselves. This would be so funny if it actually finds you a better hotel than your actual hotel. Yeah, that'd be amazing.

VIP rates. It's only $99 a year for a VIP rate. And Set Australia's... I'm going to sign up to ANCET immediately. This would be the best welcome to future ever, is if we try hanging shit on this new site. And it actually is really good. I mean, what they've obviously done, right, is they've taken this brand name and this guy's basically hooked it up with an existing service.

Like, it's a white label, looks like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just what if with a different brand. Or whatever it is, yeah, traveller.com, I think. Okay, well, no, it seems to be in Edinburgh. Yeah, that's good. It's in Clifton Terrace. Do you know where that is?

Admittedly, I'm just looking at the one that you searched for. Admittedly, it is a windowless room. No, what I've got here has a picture of a window. Oh, yes, double cozy windowless. Cozy windowless room, yeah. Yeah. Room only, it's eight square meters. The room is eight square meters.

Oh, my God, how did they fit a double bed in there? Bargain. Oh, it's, it probably is an, and it's actually an AI illusion. Yeah, you're right. It's not, oh, well, that's, I'm reassured that it was underwhelming. Yeah, okay. So, there you go. So that's one AI story, Charles.

Welcome back, Ancette. If you want to do your travelling with an airline which failed, yes. Should we went registered compass not travel? I think we should. But I think it's not just travel. No, I think we should be going for other sort of failed brands. Like, you know, the Daily Mirror, we could set up our own newspaper.

Yes, that's very good. Oh, Charles, I've got it. I've got it. One tell. What? One tell? Definitely. Let's totally do that.

But it won't be an actual mobile phone company. It'll just be an AI bot that tells you how to get an AI phone. How to get a phone. What it can do is you have to trust it to place the call on your behalf. The AI bot. Yep, that's really good. And what about this is going back a bit, but what was it called, Pyramid Building Society?

Pyramid Building Society, yeah. That's great. ABC child care. What about the state bank? The state bank of New South Wales. Oh, that's a prestigious. Yeah. Yeah.

I remember when I was a, when I was young, there was the advanced bank. Advanced bank, yeah, definitely. Retreated quite significantly. Yeah. What else could be set up? What about El Caballo Blanco? That's very good. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, failed iconic Australian Blades. Send us the money you want us to bring back at podcast at chaser.com. What's the? You've got enough money. for that, I think we'd just about do. What about the theme park that was out in Western Sydney? What was it called growing up? Australia's Wonderland.

Australia's Wonderland. We should definitely do Australia's Wonderland. Yeah, absolutely. What are the failed brands? Oh, I know. The Australian Liberal Party? Does that still exist? No, I think it's a bit tarnished.

Like, based on recent voter data, I think you'd have trouble with that. It's basically, it's a bit like. It was rejected pretty. comprehensively in the marketplace, I think last time it was used. What about Adelaide? Just Adelaide. Because I don't think anyone's using that.

No, no, no. I think we're doing it to a favour, to be honest. Yeah, that's really good. Now, Charles, are you going to share with us perhaps after another ad break at some chilling AI news? Or we say that for that time? Yeah, I've got some chilling AI news.

Because this is an episode of Welcome to the Future, so we need something chilling as well. Well, we're 70 minutes into this. So if you want to leave it for another day, you can. I'm assuming that Loughlin's going to cut out most of the search for the hotel. Yeah, that's, I think Woodrowless was a good payoff, though. Oh, that's square feet is. There you go.

All right. Okay, so after the break, chilling, chilling, chilling news. Thank you for your patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore. Fizz is 100% online so you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply.

Details at fizz.ca. The Chaser Report. Less news more often. So it's been a bit of an AI-themed episode, Charles, and you've got another AI product for us. Yes, and this one is pretty amazing, which is the world's first 24-7 worker, who doesn't take any breaks,

and stop for any food or anything, has been unveiled in China, right? It's called the Walker S2. Walker S2. How many of them have an Amazon ordered? No, it's made by a Chinese company. But the company's called Ubetech, right? Right.

And it looks exactly like one of those, you know, the Tesla. Yeah, the Optimus or it's called. Yeah, what are they called? You know, the Tesla ones? Optimus, I think of that. Yeah. Yeah. And they don't actually exist.

Yeah, the humanoid ones. Yeah, that's right. Well, what they've done in China is they've taken that concept but actually made it actually happen. Oh, just like that with electric cars. Yeah, Elon has so many good ideas for China. And possibly the most chilling part about this Walker S2 is when it changes its battery. Because instead of you having, like when it runs low on battery, you have to then go and change its battery for it. It changes its battery.

And so what happens is it walks up to the battery station, which has a whole lot of batteries charging. And then with its arms, it reaches behind itself in this very unhuman-like thing. Like its arms suddenly sort of, you know, operating out of the back of its back. Yeah, yeah. You can imagine.

Like, there's stretch around. Rotating more than a human arm can do. Yeah, and it pulls the battery out from itself, right? And it's obviously got some sort of small battery backup power as well. Because then it puts the old battery in a slot and then takes out a fresh battery and puts itself back in. So you'd never have to charge it because it just looks after itself in terms of charging. And I kind of feel like this is the breakthrough part of the technology. Like you can have, like the whole fact that it can go and, you know, it's a bit like a robot factory worker.

So it's got enough dexterity to sort of be able to make cars and things like that. like the whole video that shows off its abilities is set in a car factory so it can go and you know screw things in and check everything right but I think the real technology breakthrough is in this self-charging thing where it just wanders off and you know replaces its own battery and I feel like if we bring that style of technology to mobile phones and laptops and iPads I think that would be good I think the thing that's been missing the The sort of next step in the next generation of mobile phone is that they should have arms and legs. Yes, and be able to walk over to the charge point.

Yes, exactly. So, you know how you get, you know, to your bed, you know, and your battery's like 3% and, you know, like you're constantly looking for an outlet all day to sort of, because your battery's so pathetic. What if your phone just wandered off on occasion and found a new battery and then wandered back and put itself back in the pockets? There's legs. Yeah. And then when you leave it somewhere, when you leave it somewhere, it can come running after the,

running after you down the street. See, this is why it is a tragedy that Steve Jobs died, isn't it? Because I feel like that's the sort of, you know, thinking that Steve Jobs brought to the table that Tim Cook just has no ability to conceive. No, I wouldn't think of arms and legs. Or little wheels, perhaps, in the case of the phone. A little popping, pop-out wheels are so. Wheels are just like the 20th century don't.

Or little propeller drones, a little drone propeller. A little drone propellers? Oh, yeah, no, they, yeah, but as long as they've also got bombs, maybe it could be like a... Yes, it could. Actually, that might not be a bad idea. Yeah. That'd be good. I think, or just do what phones do now without needing weapons on them and just, you know, spread

damaging misinformation and basically just have social media apps that undermine the whole of our social cohesion. It's much the same thing as a death ray, just slower. I feel like we need an ANSET branded mobile phone. Dom. I think that that's what the world is missing. Yeah, the one tell. I feel like that's what that entrepreneur down in Melbourne, who's done ansoot. Not travel, he should find out whether Anset. Mobile or Moby is available.

It clearly is. Yeah. I love that he's trying to squeeze juice out of the sort of Anset brand, as though people's nostalgia for an airline, surely we barely remember 25 years after it folded. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's just the height of optimism, isn't it? I wonder if I could, I wonder if I could start a travel agency called Epstein. Dot travel.

Do you think that would be available? Yeah, just to island paradises. Yeah, because if people forgot the actual detail, we know the name, but we've no recollection of why that's famous. Very good name recognition. And you could offer discounts for children traveling. Oh, God. Okay. Children travel free.

let's not let's not let's like that bit out sorry that's a point no we're not doing that come on that's a good joke that was a joke that was a joke um yeah it's just worth it's just worth mentioning um yeah that uh once we're cancelled because this episode yeah chaser dot com that i will come up in about 25 years and you can use it someone can buy it to um do an ai comedy website for everyone who remembers with the Chaser was a thing. It doesn't remember why he got cancelled. But the final

question, before we wrap up this disastrously called thrilling episode of the show. It's awful dystopian episode, yes. Just to let you know, and I know it's been on the tip of your mind, the Walker S2 is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth compatible. So

that's the one thing that makes me confident that it might not actually just be used in chilling, military, kind of humanoid soldier bot technology within a year or two. If it relies on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, we're safe. No, it's safe. And actually, they reckon the primary use of it is going to be to greet customers at public venues.

So, wow. Yeah. That's truly chilling. Who thought that, you know, the jobs that would be wiped out by AI are the ones that were about adding a human touch. You can't tell me Amazon hasn't Just on the rumor of this technology Amazon hasn't sacked all the factory workers

That's actually everyone For workers that don't need toilet breaks I mean it's a dream come true I think we should take ourselves right now I think the internet will probably do it for us Within 24 hours We're part of the iconoclus network Catch you tomorrow

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