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Viewers who have been watching The Amazing Race these past few years might notice that the teams fly on chartered planes. However, for many seasons of The Amazing Race, contestants actually had to coordinate their own transportation in and out of various countries. They also had to book tickets for more people than just themselves.

‘The Amazing Race’ contestants had to book flights for themselves and their camera crew

An engaged couple vie for airline tickets at LAX on The Amazing Race
Contestants vie for airline tickets at LAX on The Amazing Race | Cliff Lipson/CBS via Getty Images

Each pair of contestants travels with a camera operator and a sound person. As a result, whenever they buy transportation tickets, they have to take care of the crew members who are constantly with them.

“If they can’t get tickets for the four members on the plane, they have to wait until they can find four seats. Their entire crew has to travel with them,” co-creator Bertrand van Munster shared with People.

According to TARFlies, when teams had to take commercial flights, each team could use the production crew’s credit card to buy four flight tickets. However, in order to keep costs down, they were not allowed to buy business or first-class seats. There were some exceptions, though, such as if an airline sold business class seats at economy prices. They also were not allowed to buy up all the seats in order to prevent other teams from getting on the same flight.

‘The Amazing Race’ will continue to use chartered flights for its 35th season

A fun part of The Amazing Race for many fans is seeing “airport drama,” which includes contestants scrambling to get plane tickets and some teams getting on earlier flights than others. This drama has largely been eliminated thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, with CBS chartering flights to take the cast and crew between countries. 

While some fans complain about the removal of commercial flights, according to host Phil Keoghan, chartered flights are the main reason the show has been able to continue filming during the pandemic.

“Hang tight my friend,” he wrote to a fan on Twitter in October 2022. “Booking flights will be back as soon as the ‘return to work’ Covid protocols are off our back. Right now having a charter = @AmazingRaceCBS on TV … no charter = no  @AmazingRaceCBS on TV. Let’s stay focused on what’s good in the world.”

Season 35 finished filming during the fall of 2022, and production utilized chartered flights for it.

Season 36 might bring back commercial flights

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President Joe Biden has announced that the coronavirus public health emergency is set to expire in May 2023. Because of this, CBS could allow The Amazing Race to let contestants of Season 36 to book commercial flights again.

Still, because the show usually takes place outside of the United States, the production crew does have to take into account COVID restrictions in other countries.

Additionally, there is now a rule that contestants diagnosed with COVID-19 are discharged from the show. Commercial flights would bring about larger risks of COVID-19, which could disrupt filming a lot. If CBS chooses to bring back commercial flights, it is not clear how they plan to deal with these risks.

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