I don't doubt that there are phones out there for which airplane mode works with Spotify. It's often the case in software that the bug is just not encountered, for some.
But it was also just an example of the many ways the app is broken here and there. Freezes up, crashes, etc...
And this I've gotten across phones.
But that's just the bugs. As others have said the whole thing is not even close to designed for podcasts.
Podcasts are an entirely different use case, that needs to be RSS-shaped, not like music.
But you make it sound like it's a widespread problem. For me their app is just great and much faster than Apple Music that may randomly fail at playing some track. And it works on airplanes just fine.
But it was also just an example of the many ways the app is broken here and there. Freezes up, crashes, etc... And this I've gotten across phones.
But that's just the bugs. As others have said the whole thing is not even close to designed for podcasts.
Podcasts are an entirely different use case, that needs to be RSS-shaped, not like music.