We bring you posts about how banks have too many miles, the sad Covid-19 spreading rates, freak out with the FINCEN files, horrible middle class finances, travel to so many cool places, the best Covid-19 coverage, some advice on personal finance like stop piling up debt, pay respects to amazing Ruth Bader Ginsburg, warn you about the coming violence after the election, sign up for more promos and much more!
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I have moved the COVID-19 Section further down starting with this post. There is a LOT in this post. This is my baby, going strong for almost 8 years! You all enjoy the weekend and thanks for spending some of it reading my blog. If you are not into the frequent flyer miles/points game please feel free to skip the first section.
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 65k CitiBusiness AA, 20k Chase Freedom Flex, 130k AMEX Hilton Business & Hilton Surpass, 60k Chase United Explorer. 70k AMEX Delta Platinum Business and 60k Platinum Personal, 60k AMEX Delta Gold Business and 50k Gold Personal.Please use my Affiliate links.
If you do not see a credit card with my affiliate links, perhaps I could refer you? Contact me please, thank you!
Chase Sapphire Preferred 80,000 Points Signup Bonus with $4,000 Spend. I do not have an affiliate link for this card sadly and my referral link only offers 60k points. Which blows but hey, what’s new! Please try to find a blog you want to support and use their links! This is a flagship travel rewards credit card and this is a hell of a signup bonus. We use this card in my family as the hub of our miles/points earning addiction. It is a keeper card.
So I canceled my Athens, Greece Hilton award reservation for November as I am now definitely not going, Covid cases there are now in the 400+ a day! With that, I now have 4,219,21 miles/points in the bank. Thanks US banks!
Newbies: NEVER EVER PAY a penny of interest to the banks, ALWAYS pay off the credit card balances EVERY month!
I let you all know that we would be looking at banks offering higher sign up bonuses. And they keep on coming! Even Capital One bank got into the act and now offers 100,000 points for its Venture Rewards card. Watch the high minimum spend! Last time this bank raised the signup bonus to 100k for this card, it was a free Caribbean cruise for us, thanks Capital One for paying for it woohoo! Update: Amex now offers 130k Hilton points for the Hilton Surpass card as well, it is raining points out there!
Check to see if you can get some miles for a targeted spend on your United cards (HT: DansDeals) Oh, Chase is offering the Mileage Explorer card with a 60k bonus! Please use my credit card links which are always open, come on!
Delta makes positive changes…you want to bet if they stick post Covid? Delta extends loyalty benefits further into 2021, offers more flexibility for award travel. Again, all these changes now are meaningless as most people are still afraid to fly. With the pandemic entering what appears a very hectic fall…I am thinking of more…road trips instead! On a similar note, I saw Southwest come out with a very short amazing promotion to get its Companion Pass…Again, in normal times this would have been awesome and I can assure you it would have never been offered in normal times lol!
Having a hard time keeping track of all the pro consumer no more fee changes in the airlines, here is a nice recap.
Excellent Radisson Rewards promotion if you happen to be traveling and one of their hotels can work for you: Earn 5,000 Bonus Points For Every Stay Until End Of Year (+ 5,000 For Using Radisson Card).
This is Delta’s presentation on again whoring its Delta Skymiles program to bail out the incredibly money sucking loser operations of its main business, you know, flying passengers on its airplanes! 🙂
Not a big change for now: Your Virgin Atlantic Miles Are Now New Virgin Points. They never expire and looking forward what they come up with to unite the “Virgin” brands, stay tuned I guess.
I mostly use United’s site to search for awards, for the record. The Best Alliance Award Search Websites & Tools.
I redeemed 88,000 CNB points for eight $100 Amazon gift cards leaving me with just 2,008 CNB points. One of the best ever premium credit cards will be canceled in the next month as it now has turned to one of the shittiest cards ever! I still have AA gift cards left 🙂 Another one bites the dust I guess…
I enjoy helping newbies, ask in the comments or email me. Beware of bloggers who give VERY self serving advice!
TRAVEL
This is a MUST click. Find out what the climate risk in six areas is at the US county you are living in or you are thinking to move to: Every Place Has Its Own Climate Risk. What Is It Where You Live? My area has three Medium, two Low and one NO risk indicators. I am staying in Ann Arbor, Michigan!
We will start seeing more and faster Covid tests enter our lives. Including airlines: United Will Be First US Airline to Test Passengers on Flights to Hawaii. It is a pilot program and let’s see how it goes. The other thing is, you know, the phucking virus is still out there…
We are thinking of doing this in Michigan. 2020, the year of the road trip sad lol. The Best Places to See Fall Foliage in the U.S.
Let’s learn more about the ridiculous wealth of that sultan dude who rules there: The Island of Borneo’s crown jewel—Brunei.
The Sultan likes cars too. No one knows how many he has. Estimates range from 5,000 to 7,000 exotic cars. There are more than 600 Rolls Royces and 500 Ferraris—including those in the ocean because many of the cars have to be pushed off the dock into the sea to make room for the newer ones.
I absolutely love the photography work of Alexey Vasilyev, here are some from the Yakutia region in Russia. It’s REALLY cold there!
Anyone been here? Shetland: an epic landscape with a Viking soul. Closer to the Faroe Islands than to Edinburgh, Scotland’s northernmost isles are home to fascinating ancient sites and a spirit of proud self-sufficiency. Starting to doubt we will ever see a Hyatt here lol.
Another amazing find imho. Ok, I am biased. But you be the judge: The Last Quiet Places.
COVID-19
While awaiting any day my daughter at the University of Michigan to message us with “I tested positive for Covid”, I want us all to make sure How We Survive the Winter. The coming months of the pandemic could be catastrophic. The U.S. still has ways to prepare. This is a must read! Best line of advice is this imho: Live like you’re contagious.
Maybe worrying about the heart was a little premature, very interesting update on this: The Core Lesson of the COVID-19 Heart Debate.
This is great shocking, updated right in front of your eyes: COVID-19 Spreading Rates.
Fantastic article on the Carnival Ruby Princess: The Carnival Cruise Ship That Spread Coronavirus Around the World. How were hundreds of infected Ruby Princess passengers allowed to disembark in Sydney and return to homes from Tasmania to Florida? So many mistakes, so many missed opportunities, so sad.
Well, before we get there, we need to get that damn vaccine! How to Vaccinate a Planet. What it will take to build the fastest inoculation program in history and defeat COVID-19.
We can honestly say that Asian countries are kicking our ass in how we are fighting the pandemic. And it is not even close. Why? This is a good comprehensive explanation: An Asian Pandemic Success Story. What SARS Taught Governments About Fighting Infectious Disease.
Oh, meanwhile in Wuhan: Nightclubs in Wuhan packed as coronavirus epicentre reports no new cases.
It had appeared that cases in the US were coming down and in Europe they were going up. And that is exactly what is happening! The new Covid-19 case surge in Europe, explained.
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PERSONAL FINANCE
There was a Wall Street Journal article that went kind of viral. Wait, is it okay to say something like this in the corona era? Anyway, the article is linked to here “No Job, Loads of Debt: Covid Upends Middle-Class Family Finances”. It is behind a paywall so maybe you could find it somewhere else or something. I am going to single out some excerpts here that just stood out to me and inject my devastating commentary in [] brackets as I usually do.
In a good year, the 43-year-old lawyer and her husband, Ian Boschen, 41, together brought in about $175,000, the couple said—enough to cover the mortgage, two car leases, student loans, credit cards and assorted costs of raising two daughters in the New York City suburbs.After the coronavirus halted many foreclosures and closed courts, her work dried up. Unemployment benefits have helped, Ms. Hopkins said, but the family is running low on savings and can’t keep up with $9,000 in monthly debt payments including mortgage installments. [two car leases, student loans, credit cards…running low on savings…$9,000 in monthly debt payments—————>WTF!!!!!!! Priorities people, DO NOT DO END UP LIKE THIS!]
Before the pandemic, she and her husband together earned roughly $150,000, she said. The Denton, Texas, couple pay $4,400 a month on their mortgage, four car loans and leases, and student debt, Ms. Scott-White said. Minimum required monthly credit-card payments total about $700. The debt was manageable pre-pandemic, she said. She deferred lease payments on her Infiniti QX60 for three months and started paying again with unemployment benefits. Her husband traded in his Ford F-150 in August for a lower-cost car and reduced his original monthly payment of $820 by about $100, and his income covers the $2,100 mortgage. [$4,400 monthly mortgage payment, FOUR car loans and leases, minimum credit card payments $700 per month, Infiniti QX60!, thanks for first buying a Ford truck lol…Again, don’t go so deep in debt, LOWER your lifestyle so you can have some emergency cash because something will undoubtedly happen and SAVE for the future…yeah, right, some people are just not cut out for healthy money habits and they are the prime targets of travel rewards credit cards these bloggers sell every day to them!]
Good personal finance advice here: When To Change.
You will be hearing a lot about the FinCEN Files in the coming days/weeks/months. The FinCEN Files investigation is based on thousands of “suspicious activity reports” and other US government documents that BuzzFeed News has shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and more than 100 news organizations around the world. It offers an unprecedented view of global financial corruption, the banks enabling it, and the government agencies that fail to stop it. Prior to this reporting, very few SARs had ever been revealed. The FinCEN Files encompass more than 2,100. Here is what the investigation has uncovered: And there is A LOT here to dig in, wow! Just as a teaser, start with this: FinCEN Files Show Criminals Moved Billions As Banks Watched.
This is just visually very cool! A 3D View: The US Cities With The Highest Economic Output.
CURRENT EVENTS/POLITICS
Well, we lost an amazing human being, RIP Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In her own words: Advice For Living.
This is just beautiful, NPR’s Nina Totenberg’s friendship with her: A 5-Decade-Long Friendship That Began With A Phone Call.
Do you see Trump conceding to Biden? Of course not. We are entering a really dangerous era my friends, I expect wild shit to happen after the election! The Election That Could Break America. I hope I am wrong but… If the vote is close, Donald Trump could easily throw the election into chaos and subvert the result. Who will stop him?
The hypocrisy of Lindsey Graham is world class!
Totally blown away by Miami Heat’s performance in the playoffs. True TEAM and playing their hearts out every game, wow! Herro’s heroics in Game 4 made him a star and he is just a rookie, amazing! And then in the West Coast we have Dwight Howard LOL: The Sun Rises, The Sun Sets, Dwight Howard Is Exhausting And Nobody Likes Him.
So many areas that are going to shit, this one is up there! Tech Workers Are Living the American Dream—in Canada.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Probably one of the most fun reads lately in my blog: The Anatomy of Assholes. Please contain your lols 🙂 Just to give you an idea about what it is, here is the graph below. Help an independent blogger before they give up, come on!
Amazing piece of investigative journalism. The Vampire Ship. This story still roils Greece. I hope I do not get on the hit list for linking to it too! How the seizure of Europe’s largest heroin shipment created bloody fallout throughout the world—and sparked still-raging political corruption scandals in Turkey, Greece, and the Middle East. One of the guys who are probably involved owns the most famous soccer club in Greece and also bought English club Nottingham Forest too!
I have warned readers before in my blog that I think we are about to see some even crazier shit, especially after the election. Be prepared. Welcome To The ‘Turbulent Twenties’. Can you imagine Trump conceding? Exactly!
I know nothing about card games. And I am anti gambling! So when it comes to stuff like poker I really have no interest. But I somehow gave this article some time and I am glad I did. The Cheating Scandal That Ripped The Poker World Apart. If you are into poker you will enjoy this. And I don’t know, maybe, find something else to do, something healthier?
Enya broke out with that Orinoco Flow song, has remained a reclusive mystery but…Enya Is Everywhere.
Things you read and make you wanna scream Jeeeeesus! Well, maybe not in this case lol. Dude looks like him…not that I ever met Jesus woohoo! Cult leader who claims to be reincarnation of Jesus arrested in Russia. Check him out in the one minute video…surrounded by morons who are everywhere, maybe it is a human trait or something.
It’s not all bad out there: Diseases We’ve Nearly Eradicated.
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.
You are seeing lot of posts about a new credit card that is…coming. Or maybe not. X1 is the name, wake me up when someone actually has in their hands.
I am not going to bother you with targeted Amex offers, a few dollars off gift cards, airline sales and posts about buying miles so I can make money off you. If you are falling for buying miles YOU are the product!
Amazing how these cards just magically reappeared again in the blogs of credit card salesmen now that Chase gave the affiliate links back smh.! Chase Approving More Business Credit Card Applications.
Bloggers will go out of their way to make any money by jumping on referral and affiliate offers. Often from new companies who may be suspect. I don’t bother potentially harming my readers to make a buck. Which, wait a minute, it may have a direct relation my blog makes so little, sad lol! For the record, I never liked Chime and never promoted it! Is Chime Card Legitimate? They Closed My Account & Took My Money.
Thanks to the two readers who have been using my Amazon links to buy the expensive items, you know who you are. By far the best month in Amazon…which translates to a couple of credit cards sold at The Points Guy smh. Thanks also to the five readers who have used my credit card links this month. Amazingly, none were in my own family, I better correct that soon lol.
Keeping it real and once a week now, sorry for the massive posts lately. Changes likely coming when the 8 year anniversary rolls in around mid November. Unless I go from huge disappointment seeing how little I make per hour blogging to feeling something like this dude! 🙂
I always wondered about this too you guys lol.
My running injury is IT Band. When you are 53…healing is excruciatingly slow! Sucks but it is part of the running fun I guess. Just started slowly jogging this week again. One of these days this blogger will run again, I am close!
And I leave you with this…
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Good morning!
Lots to read over the next couple days. Too much for the.morning.
I think I should make contingency plans for summer trips right now since the vast stock of miles/points that people hold is going to come gushing out when vaccines are available. All these new deals to get bonus points with grocery spend by themselves are huge I’m not so worried about prices but availability.
Another fine Friday full of interesting info. Thank you!
Here’s one for you:
https://us.cnn.com/travel/article/hotels-of-pyongyang-book/index.html
#TBBon
Bronze! From the Pacific North West! Where, according to the chart, the biggest Climate danger is Extreme Rainfall. I live on top of a hill so am not worried now!
WOW! Gobs to read here over the weekend! You have outdone yourself! Thanks!
I buy on Amazon, but just little stuff mostly. Sorry!
4 million points? Can you publish a points&miles balance statement? I’m curious to see what sort of points. Have you not been burning the past few years?
@DML: Yeah, there will be a frenzy of trips…if there is a magic date. I think everything will just trickle out based on how we all feel comfortable about how the pandemic is going. With 30-40k cases a day here…it will be a while!
@ GringoLoco: Thanks for the link…I think this is an update on a link I posted recently that focused only on photos of the North Korea hotels. An idiot from the South wanted to visit one so badly he got shot and killed and then burned by the North Koreans, such a friendly group 🙂
@ Carl: What if the ground gets too wet and your house…oh, never mind, it is the weekend, enjoy and thanks!
@ In 2019 I burned 760k, in 2018 735k and 2017 910k. It was more in previous years and even more in the second half of 2000’s decade. Slowing down man, maybe aging. Or blogging, sad lol.
Still lots of AA, BA, Hilton and Chase UR
Looks like you’re having problems burning points. Put them to good use right now. Cash out UR and send some to Jamie Harrison’s campaign. It’s a close race. I would love to see Lindsey Graham voted out.
Been donating left and right, well…mostly left lol. Ok, this guy is next then! Not seeing Lindsey kissing ass will be a contribution to the advancement of the human race!
CONGRATULATIONS GEORGE, You Made The Barron’s Top 1200 U.S. Financial Advisors
It is the largest, most comprehensive listing ever, with rankings of everyone from independents, who own and operate their own practices, to employees of the biggest Wall Street firms
You made me look…to see if this publication finally did something that did not make them money. Well, nope. So many brokers in that list, full of Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Ameriprise…even Wells Fargo WTF! I think it pissed them off when I kept ignoring their emails to be included for $$$.
I am not paying any phucking dollars for a stupid Top XXXX whatever list that is meaningless.
I prefer to make Top 10 lists and keep my money…to donate to Democrats to stop the killing 🙂
i seriously doubt you donate money to anyone, you are uber cheap like the rest of us
We need proof, you have a big mouth! You talk the talk, but do you put your money where your mouth is? I say nay.
Show us a copy or receipt of a recent Political donation you have made to prove it.
If you do, I will make a donation to either the Al Sharpton needs new Brionni and Gucci suits go fund me or the Nancy Pelosi fix my facelift go fund me.
Hey Quakenbush, if George wins your bet, you should have to make a donation to the Hunter Biden Defense Fund. I hear he has no problem accepting Rubles as donations.
Dude, Hunter Biden again? Like her emails? Give it up, this won’t work this time…
I post this every day with updated numbers:
January 26, 2020:
USA & South Korea each announce their first case of COVID-19 on the same day.
Since then:
USA: 7,282,769 cases 209,109 dead
SKorea: 23,516 cases 399 dead
Populations:
USA 331M
South Korea: 51M
#VoteBidenHarris2020 to stop the killing!
Please RT, let’s go!
WAKE UP RAMSEY!
Well, Buzz, it’s been a while. I’ve spent some time looking at a compass, and a bit more looking in the mirror. I’m still ramping up to a full comment, but when it’s time, I think I’ll start here:
“She deferred lease payments on her Infiniti QX60 for three months and started paying again with unemployment benefits.”
It’s one banana, what could it cost – $10?!
Sam is back!
Looks like Commerzbank also wants to excel at money laundering:
Commerzbank Names Deutsche Bank’s Manfred Knof as New CEO
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-26/commerzbank-names-deutsche-bank-s-knof-chairman-of-board?srnd=premium
Man Jailed In Thailand For Negative Hotel Review – One Mile at a Time
Hotel Guest Jailed For Writing Bad Review On TripAdvisor – View From The Wing
I mean, the ghost writer even said “Phuck it” and just does not take any steps to at least make it look like these are written by the bloggers themselves anymore!
Does bail code as travel – lodging? Find out in my 24 reasons I (Still) Love the Chase Sapphire Preferred review
It was assigned to the ghost writer 🙂
I have been paying more in income tax than billionaire Trump.
Sad!
Ramsey is impressed how even his own taxes may equal what Donnie paid!
Can u imagine how batshit crazy the Republicans will go if Obama paid $750 in taxes one year?
Clearly I haven’t been taking advantage of the tax code “ nine Trump entities have written off at least $95,464 paid to a favorite hair and makeup artist of Ivanka Trump”.
Is there a tax code for this? Is this really a “business” expense? And must it not be reasonable? How about we allow a maximum of $200 reimbursement for a haircut.
Ramsey thinks it is all fake news…
and apparently the reason Trump has not disclosed his tax returns is because he….is under audit.
Bwahahahahahahahahaha
Remember back in 2016, when then candidate Trump said he would self finance his campaign? No outside donations needed; he was a billionaire. It now appears that was just another of his lies, from our now liar in chief. Up to his baggy eyes in debt.
Last night some dude on my FB feed (from college, have not seen since) posted about how he still plans to vote for Trump because he would rather have a business man running the country…I mean, you just can’t make this stuff up!
Basically, the dude is a terrible business man and if it wasn’t for his TV fame thing that kept him barely afloat…
Funny thing is he gets elected again and the banks foreclose on him Bwhahahahaha
Naw, if the banks threaten to foreclose, he’ll just sic old Billy Barr and the DOJ on them, investigating all their money laundering tactics. That’ll teach those silly bankers who’s the boss, and they’ll soon find a way to refinance all those underwater loans on his overvalued properties. Or undervalued, depending on which institution he’s trying to impress.
We both know you are probably right…
Got absentee ballots today for me and son. But not for my wife. They were requested at the same time. It started…
Still waiting for my absentee ballot. I will just vote early instead and that will give me some time to make sure Biden isn’t senile. I will keep an ear out for “Person, woman, man, camera, TV” at the debate tonight. That’s how Biden should end the debate.
FFS, you need to get with the program, Buzz!
Wyndham has exciting new shiny pieces of plastic from Barclays!
Think of all the Super 8 redemptions!
I’m sooooooooooo (h/t Rudi) there!
I added it to Friday’s post and then I deleted it. Debating if I should mention it at all, for completeness’s sake. Friday’s post is even more epic than last Friday’s…and it is only Wednesday…I think
I get some form of this almost every day. I never responded. Actually, I did a few times and asked for $1,000, they did not reply until they emailed me again some time later smh.
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They are just collecting pricing information looking for the cheapest price.
Cancel the remaining debates.
So many horrific moments…
“Don’t you get smart with me”…
What a fuckingasshole wow!
Another card for you approved today.
Thank you and thanks for letting me know too.