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Air Marshalls & Angry Neighbors

Jake Redman October 30, 2020

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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…

Show Links

List of open US airport lounges.
Air Marshalls at extra risk of contracting Covid.
Chase + Amex bonus points (registration required).


News Segment Transcription

Covid numbers are up in a lot of places, but a lot of airport lounges are open. It’s a decidedly different experience than it was pre-pandemic. What you’ll find is that most airlines have at least one lounge open at each of it’s hub airports. It’s great news if you’re back travelling for business and have allegiance to an airline or membership. Less lucky are those of us who rely on Priority Pass to lounge as many independent and partner airlines clubs remain shut down. Boarding Area’s “Point me to the Plane” has a running list of what’s open domestically if you want to check up on your home airport.

What’s the experience like? The article points out that points of contact with staff are reduced, masks are of mandatory when not eating, spacing is in place. It even points out some experiences that brought improvements in pandemic times. Check out the link on the podcast page at modhop.com.

Who’s job is the riskiest when it comes to contracting Covid 19? Federal Air Marshalls might be in the running as nearly 100 have contracted the virus since the start of the pandemic. Just last week the agency was hit hard at it’s Dallas field office and was forced to shutter another in Philadelphia. One Marshall has died due to Covid and HE believed that he had caught it on a flight. Yahoo News reports that there are currently 14 active cases but it’s unknown if any were caused by flights and that many of the nearly 100 total came at the beginning of the pandemic when there was more confusion and less access to testing.

One of the more disturbing things in the article was that over the Summer a number of agents said that they had been told to fly to and from hotspots even when waiting for test results.

Boarding Area site Frequent Miler pointed out some good…but temporary bonues with registration for Chase partner cards. For example the IHG Premier card can earn 5x points on Amazon Purchases through December 31, 2020 and 3x for groceries (although that’s not much more than the 2x you normally get for groceries on the IHG card. The 5x on Amazon is actually attached to a lot of partner cards thru the year starting Nov. 1st like th United Explorer Card, Marriot, Hyatt, Southest Airlines cards and more. Marriott personal AND business cards also get 10x on Marriott stays on up to $3,500 of spend.

So some good value back getting into the holiday season.

 

AND BEFORE YOU START TALKING ABOUT HOW MUCH WE LOVE CHASE CARDS, I found a decent Amex deal via Renee’s points and a few other Boarding area blogs. It’s a targeted offer apparently for Amex BUSINESS cards offering 10% back in statement credits up to $100 after registration and purchases MUST be made directly at the pump. That offer runs through Dec. 22…So a little bit to trim the gas budget.

 

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Jake Redman
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Jake Redman

Modhop Host & Founder Jake Redman brings years of global exploration and travel tips to the podcast and our videos at Modhop. Jake is also a Producer and Host for SiriusXM.

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