Modhop Podcast

It was a bit of a rough start to Anthony’s most recent visit to the Philippines. This time, he’s got his wife along to visit family and TRY to have a great time. Listen on and find out how AR got things back on track.

The podcast returns after a year-long sabbatical and Anthony's been doing all (or most of) the travelling. Hear tales of hawker stands , infinity pools and the great people of Singapore as we try to get our pod-chops back.

Anthony is back from Ireland with stories of beautiful countryside, cows in the road and tips for travel. From Galway to Dublin we dive into the details of his trip and learn what YOU can do to make your next Irish trek a better one.

We were so excited to just sit down an do a new podcast, we forgot that this was our 100TH episode! Our plans for a star-studded salute to our pod-body of work was barely afloat at this point anyway so probably for the best that this is just a low-key event. That said, there was some wacky shenanigans aboard a Virgin Atlantic flight this week so we cover that along with a sweet discount for Uber One and point you to a solid breakdown on the current state of high-annual fee credit cards. Plus, we chat about Anthony’s trip to Texas and commiserate about finding good flight deals right now.

AirBnB axes a covid-era cancellation policy and Jake forgot where Charlotte was in North Carolina…and such. We’re back with a few travel tidbits to cover along with random bits of domestic treks of our own. Get the early Spring vibes of Lake George, NY and Charlotte, NC (Anthony knows where it is) in our latest podcast. Listen now…

The podcast returns after the guys get through another busy holiday season. Jake and Anthony dive into the planned revamp of the US passport renewal process and touch on more unruly behavior in the skies. Amex Platinum is on Jake’s chopping block once the increased new nearly $700 fee comes due so we break down why it’s not the value it used to be. Also, we finally wrap Anthony’s trip to France and Italy with his stop in Milan filled with drinks and apartment balconies with trees.

We dive right into the second part of Anthony's Euro vacation with a chat about Lake Como. He dishes about what to do and what local hops are worth the walk. Plus we dig into changes to the American Express Business Platinum and why it and it's consumer level sibling are losing the war against perk-fatigue. Also, what the heck happened at Southwest? Listen here!

Anthony is back and has lots to tell us about his first Covid-era overseas trip. Because he’s full to the brim with shareable info, we’re breaking it into a 3 part mini-series starting with Nice, France. Everything from how he got there to what you’ll need to do in order to get into a restaurant. Plus, travel news with Jake, parasailing and more!

We start re-shaking off the rust as we dive into the 95th Modhop Podcast and diving into a ton of Chase-related news. Our fave travel points are up for grabs with a generous bonus for an initial spend on Sapphire Preferred AND news of a Sapphire Lounge trickles in. Plus, United's got plans to get places faster (like, BOOM fast) and we explore our bad spelling. It's all here, listen...

Anthony welcomes a new chair to his home office while Jake reconsiders Karaoke. Just a few of the topics the guys ramble on about in this episode of the Modhop Podcast. Plus, we explore a story about a Spirit passenger losing it mid-flight, new British Airways first class meals at home and FREE perks for getting vaccinated. Listen:

Jake and Anthony talk about scooter and bike programs in their respective towns (Hoboken and Jersey City, respectfully). A man is now free after Hertz ponies up his alibi and New York lifts quarantine restrictions. Plus, we toss around the idea of doing live events. Listen...

The guys are back after a couple of months of work chaos. We get some rambling out of our system and chat about being off-brand before providing few details on how to start our own businesses. Travel? Sure, why not. Greece has a big to-do this Summer, we'll talk about that and tell you why stay-cations are still a good use of points. Listen... News Transcription As of today, restrictions for US Citizens travelling to Greece would have you in quarantine for 7 days on arrival BUT that’s a few days from expiring. It could always be extedned but maybe some CAUTIOUS Summer planning? To that end, One of Europe’s oldest festivals is ON for this year. The Athens & Epidaurus Festival celebrates some of the worlds greatest performers in the world of dance, theater and music. The festival has some cool history, it says here that “Up to the year 2005, the Festival was held exclusively at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens and the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus…” , it’s since expanded to neighboring sites as it grows but the original venues are within an awesome archaeological site with tons of history. Hop to greekfestival.gr if you want to take a look AND Modhop for our recent look at top Greek must-see places. Host of one of my favorite OTHER podcasts, Miles to Memories’ Mark Osterman. Wrote up a helpful rant about Chase’s recent 10x points-for-dining promotion, noting that you’ll need to use their own dining portal within the Ultimate Rewards website to get the extra points. Ultimately, limiting who you can order from and it’s highly likely not somewhere that you were considering in the first place. He points out that it highlights a disturbing trend of similarly deceiving offers from card issuers so tage a good look at those offers when you get them. Add the Miles to Memories podcast to your cue, their crew hops on a ton of useful points and miles news and tips like that.

It's our last pod before Christmas! Jake talks about how he used his few minutes with Alicia Keys via a company (SiriusXM/Pandora) sponsored Zoom meet & greet to confirm details of something he saw at the JFK Concorde Room in 2014 (at the start of "#mileburn2014"). Plus we dig up a quick tip on "secret" Chase Ultimate Rewards partners, find out we're not CNN's fave podcast AND finish our interview with our YouTube pal Joel Bruner. Listen now.

Building on the opportunities he's had traveling with and contributing to the blogs of travelling foodie Mark Weins (Migrationology, Eating Thai Food), Joel Bruner is charting his own YouTube course. After hitting some travel headlines, we talk with Joel in part one of our interview about the journey so far and how he's handling his growing popularity online.

We skip the whole news portion to talk with Jake’s longtime radio friend and co-founder of Emotional Support Threads Deena Lang about a whole Thanksgivning-style cornucopia of topics. From cleaning your AirBnB during covid times to travelling outside your political bubble, we cover lots of ground. Strap in for family travel tips and a few laughs. Listen now…

We may veer off course a number of times in this podcast so feel free to skip in a bit for news on an Amex Platinum bonus with tons of potential to earn. We also chat about the major airline alliances pushing for quarantine-free travel soon. Plus, we talk about Zoom backgrounds, seasonal sadness and online chats. Listen now.

Modhop hosts are fairly mild mannered but are apparently a nuisance as neighbors in your building. We talk at length about the noise problems in our respective homes but eventually get to some travel news and talk. Airline lounges are more open than you may have thought while Chase and Amex have some pretty good bonuses happening for existing card members. Plus, find out another reason why being a Federal Air Marshall might be less than fun. Listen…

With Friday naps behind us (well, one of us), we dive into new data about how likely it is that you’ll get covid 19 on a plane. Plus, it looks like United is going to storm back into JFK with a vengance in 2021 and we look at a European airline’s plan to put some chefs back to work. To top it off we’ve got some bad ideas for food on airplanes. Yes, amidst the rambling about sound effects and flu shots, there’s a travel podcast. Listen….

Jake shares an embarrassing moment of lost patience before diving into news about the new Flagship Centurion lounge at JFK, an app that proves you're healthy and an airline that's hangin' in there. Plus, we talk about where we'd want to live in Asia on the arrival of some sort of normal. Dig in and listen now...

Jake sets a record for getting off course talking about his new phone, why he’ll never fly a plane and his drug-dealing high school math teacher. Somewhere in the mix are our chats about the stellar IHG (Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, Kimpton) credit card sign-up bonus and tearful goodbyes from furloughed airline employees. The podcast is here, listen! News Segment Transcript -Chase keeps throwing up credit card deals so it might be time to check your 5/24 again. The bank just posted new offers for the IHG base and premiere cards. The no-fee card signup bonus is up to 100 thousand points (normally, it’s 75 thousand) with a 2 thousand dollar spend in 3 months. The step-up PREMIERE card bonus is up to 140 thousand points for a THREE thousand dollar spend in the same time frame. On top of that, the premier card gets it’s $89 annual fee waived for the first year and comes with a free night after your first year. Just stop it Chase. I’m already in on the Freedom Flex so I’ll skip this one for now but it’s a great bonus if you’re working your way back into business travel and the like. Our pals at Renees Points do the full reporting, check the link at our podcast page. -Did you see??? …the tearful goodbye of that American Airlines flight attendant on Facebook? She’s Breaunna Ross and with the help of her also-furloughed crew-mate on camera duty, gave a tear-jerking welcome announcement upon arrival at Dallas-Ft. Worth. Along with the typical “welcome to dallas” announcement came a thanks to her employer, passengers and all those she’s had the privledge to work alongside in her abliet short few years at American. Her situation similar to 19,000 other furloughed at American and as much as 40, 000 industry-wide. Airlines, Hotels and others are hoping for another round of emergency funds from the government. -Our pals at Boarding Area partner site One mile at a Time did a great but sad piece today on the current state of airline loyalty programs. Airlines have been leaning on these programs in the times of Covid and may do more of it when things get back to some sort of normal. Ben explains how “investors could soon trade frequent flyer miles” saying that it’s hard not to see further devaluations long term for frequent flyers. I’m sorry if that’s more of a tease than a story, but I’m not good at explaining value propositions in detail. I just sort of see where it’s going…SO.. I’ll give you the link to the nice work at Ben’s site.