This week on the podcast, Gunnar and Kyle celebrate their recent travel bookings (a.k.a. “Getting Booksy”) before diving into an extremely busy couple days of travel news.
Gunnar introduces an unhinged new “Stoke Scale” to help the guys rank a flurry of new route announcements from Italy to Hong Kong, and more. Plus, they break down stories you need to know about the Park Hyatt Tokyo, Hilton’s latest woes, Delta’s future in Mexico City, some intriguing new Capital One transfer partners, and more!
Join us for all the travel news that’s fit to podcast! Tune in now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! And be sure to subscribe now to get each new episode every Thursday morning.
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Show Notes
- 00:00 – Kyle and Gunnar both booked something: Kyle to Hong Kong (maybe), Gunnar to Italy (also maybe)
- 03:45 – Route news: All the new routes you should be excited about, ranked on the brand new “Gunnar Olson Stoke Scale”
- 12:15 – Bad news for consumer rights, worse news for Delta flights to Mexico City (MEX), and some great news from Google Flights
- 20:07 – The easiest way to stay up on the news? The Daily Beat Newsletter! Sign up (for free) today!
- 20:40 – Hotel news: The Park Hyatt Tokyo is reopening, the sorry state of Hilton Honors, and White Lotus France hotel speculation
- 32:00 – Credit card news: The revamped Amex Platinum gets rave reviews, Chase chases Amex with new hotel credits, intriguing new Capital One transfer partners, and Avios news
- 45:00 – On the spot: Kyle tells us more about his dogs!
- 46:45 – A heartfelt tribute to the late Katherine Olson, Gunnar’s grandma who helped spark his life in travel
Produced by Erica Kamrowski and Gunnar Olson
Edited by David Strutt
Show music: “All That” by Benjamin Tissot
Hi guys! Very interesting discussion on the new Amex Platinum Card and the fact that you have a really cool spreadsheet to track all the benefits. My wife and have been doing some personal calculus on if that card is right for us, and it actually makes more sense to potentially get the Amex Gold Card. Do you guys have a tracking spreadsheet like this that’s specific to the Amex Gold Card?
We appreciate everything your team does and we love the podcast!
Thanks for the kind words, Marcus! Stay tuned for something for the Gold Card.
Great episode! Thanks!
My husband and I have 15-20 credit cards each and are entering retirement (i.e., much lower spending). We’d both like to get down to about 4 cards each. How do we do this without cancelling most of them and totally taking a hit to our (stellar) credit ratings?
Episode #19 – Kyle, I feel ya big time RE: standing in line for security and people are not prepared or act surprised that they need to remove metal, liquids, etc. Hello… what have you been looking at for the last 20 minutes while waiting? Paying attention to your surroundings and taking social cues helps everyone. Phew, exits soapbox! (I think this can apply to the check-out line in the grocery store too! :-))
We loved Oban. We went to Oban by train from Glasgow. We took a boat tour to Mull, Iona, Staffa, and Lunga. We went during puffin nesting season and saw so many puffins. I highly recommend this tour company.
https://westcoasttours.co.uk/tours/tour-mull-iona-and-staffa/
Fellow travel enthusiast from the Midwest here!
Just wanted to share my travel social media username/handle – @TravelSizeBudget on Facebook and Instagram. I attended Thrifty Traveler University a few years ago regularly follow TT’s amazing content. I started @TravelSizeBudget last year to offer my own unique spin on travel – from the usual (points and miles, affordable fares) to the less common (savings and convenience on food, souvenirs and more). Thanks for continuing to inspire me, Thrifty Traveler!
Great podcast! Thanks for all the great information.
Hello Gunnar,
I am enjoying and appreciating all you travel savings information. Would you please help us finding an appropriate venue to get results form lost bag by United? In June last yWe re senior citizens 1K United. Last year in June we checked 6 bags from LAX to HNL. One of the bags never arrived and we filled a claim at HNL. There was lack or no communication from United including corporate. We provided photos and invoices for 4 pro racing high end OZONE kites $12,500.00. The bag never made it “downstairs” after being check at 1K counter at LAX. I wrote countless letters , got a lots of lying and contradicting run around or no responses. Now we found out someone is selling our stolen kites on E-Bay because they all have serial numbers and person who bought one of the kites very ‘cheap” called Ozone co. to ask why is someone selling a $4,000.OO kite for $1,500.00 and the company contacted us since they have record of us paying a full price. E-Bay is not taking any responsibility. Now United finally e-mailed us claiming they do not cover “sports equipment”. Our bags were handed to United employees and they should be responsible. Would you have any suggestions how can we recover our losses? I would appreciate any suggestion you could provide. I know its not what you are about but since you have lots of travel experience maybe you know something that can help us. Keep up the good work.