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Podcast #173 — What’s New in Travel Insurance; Keeping Ahead of Expiring Miles

As travel bookings beginning to rise with vaccination rates, we talk with Michael Giusti of InsuranceQuotes.com to find out what’s changed over the last year. I make the rounds through all my frequent traveler programs to reset impending expiration dates. We also talk about yet another travel data breach, a favorite beer bar is a…

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Podcast #172 — Timeshares Without the Pitch; Notes on Tucson

Escaped Chicago winter for a week of hiking and eating in Tucson; CEO of Koala talks about renting timeshares; travel planning gets hot and then cools back down

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Quick Notes on Our Trip to Tucson

I left my suitcase at the door of our West Tucson Airbnb and walked out onto the back patio to watch the sun slip behind the Tucson Mountains. The shades of red and orange on the undersides of a couple of clouds stood out in the pale blue sky. This was exactly what we were…

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Podcast #171 — Data Privacy and Rental Cars; 2021 Travel Planning Tips

Pivoting from San Diego to Tucson for COVID restrictions; planning tips for travel during COVID; CEO of Privacy4Cars talks about leaving data behind in rental cars

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Podcast #170 — Show Me the Proof; Hereditary Road Warriors

No Thanksgiving travel, but looking at the travel volume for this, the busiest travel week of the year, shows just how far things have fallen. The Qantas CEO said “No vax, no fly”, so we dig into the emerging world of digital vaccine passports. And then I trace my travel genealogy, wondering if road warrior-ism…

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Podcast #169 — Pandemic Holiday Gift Guide; Year-End Status Offers

No travel since the last episode, so I had some time to think back through my post-lockdown travel and come up with my top 10 gift ideas for your pandemic travelers. We look at the start of the year-end efforts by airlines, hotels, and credit card companies to keep their grounded travelers, unpack the work-from-hotel…

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10 Best Travel Gift Ideas for These Unprecedented Times

With public health officials saying things like “it will be easily by the end of 2021 and perhaps into the next year before we start having some semblance of normality,” I figured this year’s travel gift guide would need to be a bit different. Here are my top shopping ideas for your pandemic traveler. Comfortable…

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Podcast #168 — Surviving Quarantine Theater; Traveling for Food

Trying to recover from a long weekend of eating and drinking through the neighborhoods of South Philly. Our movable feast reminded me that food may be the one experience of a place left that can’t be easily exported and bought on-line. We talk about the FBI’s cybersecurity warning to work-from-home types using hotels for getaway…

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