We bring you all the action about hotels in Greece, visit the most remote islands, all about stress in America, learn more on Chase shutdown experiences, United day of killing award charts is almost here, meet the Greek island of Amorgos, learn about ride sharing apps around the world, trek Nepal, how to retire in each US state, some amazing funky stuff and more freeeeee!
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Back in Ann Arbor from sunny San Diego in time for the first snow fall of the season…
MILES & POINTS
The “loyalty” cancer to award the goodies to the customers who spend the big bucks is spreading. We freeloaders have to adapt and adjust and stick it back to them with being free agents until they need us again. Will we ever see the good old days of this hobby again? Probably not. But hope never dies I guess. What died years ago is me turning left in a US domestic flight like I did for about ten years straight as a Northwest Airlines Platinum elite. When I turn right and walk to the back of the bus these days I try not to make eye contact with the passengers in First Class you guys, sad lol. Oh, my point was this link: Confirmed: Lufthansa Miles&More Announces Massive (Negative) Program Changes Effective January 1, 2021.
As the Greek economy finally starts to recover (it is amazing what a government staffed with people who mostly know what they are doing!), there is increased interest in investing in the tourism sector (one of the few bright spots in the history of the country, thanks Zeus!). Reading the Greek press, I made the following notes:
- Airbnb properties and boutique hotels are exploding in Athens.
- In addition to a Four Seasons hotel, an Israeli company Brown Hotels is coming to the Omonia neighborhood (it may be safe again to walk there as it had become a den of drugs and whores) to restore the Acropol hotel that closed its doors back in 2010.
- Guess which brand is also coming there? Marriott’s Moxy hotel at the end of 2020 or early 2021 you guys! I bet you can not wait to burn some of your Bonvoy points there!
- Marriott will also open another Autograph Collection too (in addition to the Domes of Elounda in Crete that opened in 2015).
- Fattal Hotels (never heard of it) will open a Leonardo hotel branded property too after taking over Esperia hotel that was also shut down back in 2010.
- Accor is also coming with another Ibis hotel, which makes it the 2nd Ibis in Greece and the chain now has four properties in Greece.
- And there is talk of doing more expansion/improvements in the Thessaloniki airport which includes rumors of a new hotel connected to it.
It is odd that Chase has kept the Chase Ink Preferred business card signup bonus at 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points for so long. This post explains the card well and if you determine it is right for your relative (I am assuming most of my readers are over 5/24) please come back and use my links so you can be conversion #2 this month, sad lol!
TRAVEL
Nice roundup: World’s Most Remote Islands.
The Nepal trip report at Travel Codex continues: Trekking the Annapurna Circuit and Nar Phu Valley of Nepal.
There are a lot of them! Your guide to ride-sharing apps around the world.
Drop everything. Stop. Watch this video titled THE ISLAND. It is the Greek island of Amorgos. Which, to my knowledge, does not get many tourists. At all. But after watching this video you have no desire to visit I am going to wonder out loud if you are a human!
PERSONAL FINANCE
I found this very interesting: How Much You Need to Retire Comfortably in Each State.
ODDZ & ENDZ
I liked this one too a lot! 5 Lessons Most People Learn Way Too Late in Life. I found nodding my head as I was reading…
This is, well, amazing. Stress in America 2019 Edition. All kinds of interactive graphics of what everyone is stressing out about. Notice how they all stress about money!
Well, if I worked in an office building, I would love to walk by everyday to this, wow!
Today, I am big on stuff for your eyes! The Starling and Falcon Dance. Wow again!
Feast for your eyes. Ornito-graphies by Xavi Bou.
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.
Well, we need to get the two guys behind the Amex RAT team frenetic beating of us to a recruiter who will get then out of there to other jobs so they will leave us the phuck alone, sad lol!
Update: Just saw Frequent Miler post about it shortly after my post went live: Amex rachets up their war on gaming with wave of shutdowns.
Just four days until United kills award charts and then all awards will be based on whatever the computer says, end of an era. What is taking American Airlines so long to join them?
A post about a Chase shutdown experience.
The Andaz in San Diego is nice but oh so loud. The rooftop with the pool and the restaurant/bar are great. I guess there are worse properties to blow a free Hyatt Visa night.
Any hope of getting Hilton Honors to extend the free night cert (from spending over $15k on the Amex Hilton Business card) by just two days?
And I leave you with this…
TBB
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Good morning!
Thanks for the link to the AMEX RAT team. I wonder if blogger advice puts in patterns in behavior which make it easier for the data mining to detect the hobbiests.
That’s a warm thought for a cold morning!
Another thank you for the RAT post. I saw some folks on both FT and DOC saying it was just a troll, but it rings true to me.
Me too
Data will only get better and this hobby will likely not exist in a few years from now. But of course bloggers will still be blogging enthusiastically how they manage to fly for free if only readers will click on their plastic affiliate links…
Love the photo with the birds ( I think it is birds) and the hilarious shrugs guy. Now excuse me while I try burning some miles to visit Amorgos!
Thanks for blogging and keeping it real.
+1 My mom always asks me “Are these banks just stupid?” Yep.
Many aren’t necessarily stupid. Some have suggested that many banks spend heavily on IT security and fraud. Things that they are heavily regulated. And very little on IT systems built for marketing purposes. I’m guessing that AMEX realized that the losses are a bit too big in some areas and it’s worth spending a few millions to catch the low hanging fruit.
Amex has been sending me shit NON STOP to get my business to use their capital and of course checks to use…NON STOP! They turned off my son for ever by getting their legal dept to respond with a two page letter to the CFPB complaint we filed. And they are now turning petty to clawback months earlier…This is just not stupid…it is beyond stupid and mean! Phuck them…can TPG say that? Lol.
Bronze! For Palermo, Sicily!!!
Great stuff as always. The RATs are coming for us all one way or another.
Forgot who sent me the RAT link, thank you! And yeah, sure sounded true to me otherwise it would not be posted here.
Banks are still stupid but…they are getting a little bit smarter lately, sad!
I have NO links in the pipeline as of Monday 4.30 pm. Which is a FIRST. I also got no conversions either, just one in 10 days month to date…I think I’ll knock off Wednesday for sure then #developing
On the one hand the story sounds reasonable. On the other hand, there’s no need for sexy ML, AI and neuronal network in this space. Spend a few days reading reddit or a few blogs and you can easily introduce simple “if this then that” functions. Heck, just go to the next national MS meeting. The cardinals have been watching for many, many years.
This. Amex doesn’t need machine learning to curb a lot of what they likely would consider abusive / unprofitable behavior. It’s not complicated.
Though, more generally, I am not sure I see the logic in the adversarial and punitive approach they seem to take to the problem, as opposed to, say, just implementing common sense restrictions.
Stress article is appropriate in the midst of the RATs and such!
Amorgos is gorgeous! Wow!
Fattal Hotels Is also an Israeli brand…pretty heavy tourism to greece from Israel
Yep…Did not realize the extent the tourism from Israel until it hit me. Two examples:
-Driver at the Thessaloniki Hyatt told me the only constant that saved them all these years are the groups from Israel.
-Stopped at a rest stop on the way to Larissa and in came two buses full of Israeli tourists…it was literally me, two other Greeks and all of them lol.
Speaking of RAT bought about 5K Visa under the 6x BluePlus Amex SAMs offer over about a month period. All 4 purchases I got the offer confirmation email then a day after the purchases posted the extra 4x points. This last time I got the email but only 2x points show in the tracking and the 4x never showed. RAT activity? T&C does not include a limit of points earned and does not exclude GC.