We lay out the argument that credit card points hurt loyalty of airlines and hotels, best United awards, show you how hard it is to follow your passion, some famous lines of code, we finally get some Radisson properties in New York City, travel to St. John’s, meet a travel personality on Instagram who is actually from Detroit, help you know more about the famous 1%, a hideous online scam, show you how balloons are made, some very sad photos of people saying goodbye to their beloved pets, the FBI agent who was involved with Waco, the United executionist perk and more!
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I am a marathoner.
Most of this blog post was done on Saturday. Sunday I ran the Detroit Marathon. 26.2 miles! And now I am now in recovery lol. I may do a post someday about it. And yes I am still on Cloud 9!
MILES & POINTS
There are some good thoughts here: How Credit Card Points Threaten The Value Of Loyalty Programs… I agree with this:
The harder an airline or hotel makes it to extract great value from the points, the more consumers will happily take a fair, easy, no complication value to simply burn through their points when and how they please. It’s on their terms, and people like that. [And this is why Delta did away with the award charts and every airline is copying them…The price you pay is on the…computer’s terms lol]
As airfares continue to reach record lows, like business class as low as $1300 round trip to Europe, and economy under $250, the easy values for credit card points are everywhere. If airfare continues to drop, expect credit card points to continue to bring better and better value. Plus, you earn airline miles back when you use credit card points directly, whereas you don’t if you transfer them to airlines and redeem. [We may see more of this too…]
These may not last that long: 7 Best Partner Awards Bookable With United Miles. #Hint You can get all the credit cards listed in the post elsewhere too.
Finally! Radisson Hotels Take New York City by Storm With Two – and Soon Three – New Radisson Hotels! They are priced reasonably it appears. But the award rates will likely be 70,000 points per night!
TRAVEL
I am just going to place this here and provide no comment. Be gentle 🙂 Jessica Nabongo’s Lessons from Visiting Every Country. “She began livestreaming to her 130,000 Instagram followers.” And I nuked the TBB Instagram account. We are all different 🙂
Interesting trip report about St. John’s Newfoundland. And I also wonder if this type of affiliate credit card links they now use pay better than mine 🙂
PERSONAL FINANCE
Interesting table in this article: Here’s what you need to earn to crack the 1%, according to latest IRS data.
ODDZ & ENDZ
I have quite a few for you in this section today.
Fantastic article: 3 Reasons It’s So Hard to “Follow Your Passion”. You should probably read it. It will not shock you but it will educate you!
Research on passion suggests that we need to understand three key things: (1) passion is not something one finds, but rather, it is something to be developed; (2) it is challenging to pursue your passion, especially as it wanes over time; and (3) passion can also lead us astray, and it is therefore important to recognize its limits.
This reminds me of so many other operations online. Like some bloggers selling a lifestyle pumping their readers silly with credit cards. And FIRE bloggers working their butts off to…show others how they retired lol. How A Massive Facebook Scam Siphoned Millions Of Dollars From Unsuspecting Boomers. It’s all about conversions you guys smh.
I have another gem for you: The Lines of Code That Changed Everything. When I say gem, I mean it.
Apollo 11, the JPEG, the first pop-up ad, and 33 other bits of software that have transformed our world.
Have you ever wondered how balloons are made? #Mindblown
Another deep article today: The FBI Agent Who Can’t Stop Thinking About Waco.
And this will make you cry, I am sorry: Heartbreaking photos of the last moments between pets and their owners show how deeply people care for their animals.
BLOG BUZZ
We are now entering BLOG BUZZ, a section for advanced hobbyists and veterans of this fast imploding hobby and also a section where I go on and on about some stuff that happens in my life because it helps me feel better about myself.
Remember the article leading today’s post. Yeah, I don’t expect the Executionist perk to be around for long. Because most people just would not go there! Maximizing (and understanding) United Excursionist Perks.
I don’t have much here, I am so behind as yesterday was all about the Detroit Marathon.
And I leave you with this…
TBB
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Let me be the first to congratulate you here, George! Awesome job on the marathon! And I can already here you planning the next one!
I am already thinking for the next one. I just need to pick one. This may be my thing to combine with travel. No worries, I am not turning my blog towards your target market lol.
And thanks for the running tips along the way too, much appreciated.
Thinking to go back to the homeland for my next one…We shall see.
In the meantime, I know what you mean by…the stairs will not be my friend, OUCH!
What Charlie said!
Mr Time lost that round. Good.
You know Mr. Time will win in the end, sad! 🙂
What am I missing? You ended up doing the marathon?? Very impressive! How’d it go?!?
“How’d it go?” He finished a marathon. No more needs to be written.
Congrats, George!
What Bluecat said 🙂
Your buddy Frequent Miler:
40K to Far Away Afterglow. Help us design the next #40KFarAway challenge.
Oh dear God, help him design the next #40kGoAway challenge?????
I have trouble driving 26.2 miles non stop, congrats!
If there are followups…all it means is that the challenge brought the clicks.
But not mine.
Only 1200 votes for who should win though. That is low.
1200 morons. go figure
Congratulations!
Gracias!
Nice inadvertent Onion headline. I for one will not be taking advantage of the Executionist perk.
I did that headline embracing my inner Gary Leff thinking out loud “How would Gary headline it?”
🙂
Congratulations, marathoner!!! We’re all proud of you! Woohoo!
Me too, crossing the finish line, the feeling is…magical
Buzz-
Congratulations on the marathon. That’s really an achievement.
A rare complaint: I didn’t need to see pictures of people in exterme grief as their pet dies. How about a portfolio of photos of folks looking for first class awards on AA? Them’s real tears!
Not me. I figure the only thing worse than not finding AA awards is…….finding AA awards and having to fly that third-rate airline.
Thanks.
And, wait, do they even exist? Lol
Congratulations George on the marathon!! That’s awesome!
Everything hurts now. But I don’t mind 🙂 Thank you.
Congrats GP. You are now a marathoner.
I know your muscles are likely wacked out but how is the foot and skin?
What made it more special was the complete wacky end to my training to..even line up and then finish the darn thing!
October 10 went on a regular 4 mile run. Woke up next morning and I could not put ANY weight on my left foot. Rest and treatments followed. Got better each day VERY slowly. Getting restless. Finally walked 1 mile and ran 1 mile on October 15 because I was getting way too rusty. Maybe that was not a good move. Saw PT people, no structural damage. Must have been my newer shoes, just never felt right. More icing…by October 17 I thought this was not going to happen. So me, the moron, I iced it way too much that day to burn my toes! WTF!!! Went to Walgreens, asked pharmacist what to do and been doing lukewarm water baths, frequent application of cream containing menthol and burns started subsiding. I did not wear a left shoe until October 19 Saturday!! My coach said to walk 1 mile and if it is okay to run 1 mile just to see how it feels and go from there. So I did and felt okay with tolerable pain in just two of the toes.
That Saturday night I went to Walgreens to get me duct tape to fix my old trust shoes and then I looked at the Feet section and found/bought a product called “toe bandages”. More bath/menthol/Advil on Saturday night and then I say, well I wake up and just go and take in the experience at least so I am better prepared for next time and maybe I can bear it to finish the half as I thought the toe burning will get to me.
And then you won’t believe what happened next. I cut the toe bandages and put them over my toes and felt good. So that is what I did right before the race. And then I started running and the amazing toe bandages covered my toes so well…I did not feel anything the whole race. Best money I ever spent you guys! And my left foot did not bother me, I guess it finally healed.
And the rest is history I guess…Just two miles in the last 10 days before the race. Freaky stuff to end my training…and I pulled it off someway somehow. If no injuries, my time would have been a lot faster no doubt.
Wow, that was long explanation. I could be pumping you guys for conversions here like Ingy does 🙂
Congrats on finishing!
No sooner did TPG acquire MMS than MMS blasted out “The best Chase credit cards (for clone)” – since replaced with “The Best Chase Credit Cards in 2019.” Oops!
LMFAO!!
I expected nothing less!
Well done on your marathon! Way to go.
That top % breakdown of income is AGI, right? Before the new tax raw, right? I don’t think most people realize that…
Cheers,
PedroNY
Can you explain why that matters?
Yeah, it is 2017 AGI numbers.
Wow! I thought you said you weren’t gonna do it… BUT YOU DID!
Congratulations and Hooray as well!
Job well done, sir!
See long explanation written above to dat.
Thanks…
Crazy way to finish the training and back into the starting line
Thumbs up to Toe Bandages and Walgreens!
Will respond to the comments later, hopefully by tonight.
This link is for Ramsey:
https://www.travelcodex.com/review-twa-hotel-and-twa-lounge-part-1/
Thanks George for the link. The place NEVER looked so go!
Just received emails w. pics from friends who went to the F/A reunion there last week…..everyone looked so freakin old.
Flew out of there for most of my trips during my 27 year Bacchanalia. The place was a dump for the most of the years I flew out of there (no air conditioning/ leaky roofs w. buckets underneath/ restrooms w. over flowing toilets, ect.) unfortunately. The company was always in a bankruptcy or when they had money, the Port Authority wouldn’t let them update because it was a Historical Landmark Building……
Congrats on your successful Marathon!!! Is the 26.2 sticker on the car yet?
Age is just a number.
Looking for a place with an affiliate relationship on stickers next 🙂
How can APPL be up >60% YTD without any support from SoftBank?
WeWork to be renamed WeGoDown soon 🙂
APPL is only up 52% ytd, not including dividends.
Not that I’m complaining.
Wow. Congrats on the Marathon!!! And you for the link to Nabongo’s story. You are both inspiring.
… Can’t type anymore. “Thank” you for the link…
If I had 130,000 followers on Instagram I would have an intern to respond to comments 🙂
Thanks.
Find a hot woman who will pose in bikinis as the TBB mascot on Instagram and the followers would increase pretty quickly. Seems to be what works the best on there from what I can tell! lol!
That got to me and…I killed my Instagram account, not my type of crowd.
I blew my chance to be an…influencer LOL.
The trend lately is to claim a DMZ visit counts as a DPRK visit because of US laws, not North Korean laws. And visiting Israeli-controlled Goland Heights and calling it Syria.
Congrats. I once saw a bumper sticker, “0.0 but good for you!”
Really enjoyed The Lines of Code That Changed Everything.