{"podcast":{"title":"MTM Travel - The Fun Side of Points & Travel!","slug":"mtm-travel-the-fun-side-of-points-travel-251388","podcast_index_feed_id":251388,"rss_url":"https://milestomemories.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://milestomemories.com/podcast","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/4/b/a/f/4bafcdeae464719de55e3c100dce7605/Copy_of_Copy_of_Copy_of_MtM_Vegas.jpg","author":"Shawn Coomer","episode_count":403,"summary":"The fun side of miles, points and travel! Hosted by Shawn Coomer and Mark Ostermann, MTM Travel dives into the points hobby & the lifestyle of travel with topical conversations and plenty of laughs along the way. Mark & Shawn have a combined 18 years of experience covering these topics on Miles to Memories and Travel on Points and are cohosts of the popular MtM Vegas Youtube Show on the Miles to Memories Vegas channel. They also host the 20 Minute Travel news show on this same feed where you can keep up with the latest deals, news and happenings.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-17T08:17:05.407415+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/mtm-travel-the-fun-side-of-points-travel-251388"},"episode":{"title":"Phone Calls on Planes, Hotel Points = DEBT and a Wild United-American Merger Idea","slug":"phone-calls-on-planes-hotel-points-debt-and-a-wild-united-american-merger-idea","published_at":"2026-04-14T22:16:10+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/mtm-travel-the-fun-side-of-points-travel-251388/phone-calls-on-planes-hotel-points-debt-and-a-wild-united-american-merger-idea","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/mtm-travel-the-fun-side-of-points-travel-251388","url":"https://milestomemories.libsyn.com/phone-calls-on-planes-hotel-points-debt-and-a-wild-united-american-merger-idea","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/milestomemories/MTM_Travel_Apr_14_26_audio.mp3?dest-id=1462559","summary":"This week on MTM Travel, Shawn and Mark get into one of the most annoying travel debates imaginable: phone calls on airplanes. They also dig into American Airlines' bus route oddities, what hotel loyalty liabilities really mean, and whether a United-American merger would solve anything or just make the mess bigger. In This Episode: Why phone calls on planes feel like a terrible idea The strange case of American Airlines bus routes A quick detour into the Spruce $100 offer and Condor trip planning Why hotel loyalty programs are carrying giant IOUs Whether a United-American merger is smart or a complete circus Episode Guide: 0:00 Welcome to MTM Travel 0:17 Phone calls on airplanes and why this could get ugly 4:14 American Airlines' bus route confusion 6:30 Spruce $100 offer ending April 15 7:29 Shawn's Condor booking and Europe trip planning 12:15 Hotel loyalty programs and their giant IOUs 15:29 Why hotel loyalty is now the real hotel business 17:18 The United-American merger idea 20:24 Why JetBlue or Alaska makes more sense Links: Track your travel credit cards for free Patreon (bonus shows + Slack community) Newsletter Free Facebook group (16K members) Watch on YouTube Apple Podcasts milestomemories.com Hotel IOU - https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/7-billion-loyalty-iou-marriott-130000589.html United-American - https://onemileatatime.com/news/united-ceo-scott-kirby-merger-american/ BA calls - https://onemileatatime.com/news/british-airways-video-voice-calls-starlink-wi-fi/ AA bus - https://www.fox13news.com/news/american-airlines-customers-say-flights-turned-bus-trips-without-warning Advertiser Disclosure: This site/channel is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. This compensation may impact…","meta_description":"This week on MTM Travel, Shawn and Mark get into one of the most annoying travel debates imaginable: phone calls on airplanes. They also dig into American…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1380,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/mtm-travel-the-fun-side-of-points-travel-251388/episodes/phone-calls-on-planes-hotel-points-debt-and-a-wild-united-american-merger-idea/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/mtm-travel-the-fun-side-of-points-travel-251388/phone-calls-on-planes-hotel-points-debt-and-a-wild-united-american-merger-idea.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}