We bring you more on the Gamestop trading lunacy phenomenon, three new Amex Hilton Honors credit card offers, Covid long-haulers, best cult movies, travel to Norway and Berlin, the best Covid-19 coverage which is really THE event of our lifetime, show you how to use Google Flights better, try to instill some sense into some readers’ heads who are way addicted in this trading dopamine roller coaster but some are too far gone to save or even listen, we are all breathing better without Trump and magically we have not turned into Venezuela lol, an amazing graph about the number of languages that will shock you…sorry, no shocking video to accompany it, sad! And a lot more eclectic stuff, enjoy the weekend!
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TOP PICKS
Top picks are not excerpted at all. I recommend you find time to read every word!
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The action in some tiny stocks in the markets this past week was beyond anything imaginable. To start wrapping your head around it read this before we get into it some more in the PERSONAL FINANCE section:
Ok, this whole week has been totally nuts in the investing trading speculating world. Best read on the subject I found was this. I agree with everything. Don’t do this shit!
Part of the mission of my blog is to inspire too. To get inspired watch this short video. After losing his leg to cancer as a young adult, Jon Wilson struggled with feeling broken. Challenging himself in the outdoors presented a possible remedy. Today, crutching up and skiing down mountains at night provides a distinct backdrop for Jon to explore, accept, and embrace the idea of “brokenness,” allowing him to find a more sincere, vulnerable and honest connection with life.
If you know of someone who had Covid-19 and still has symptoms this article is a MUST read! It is very long, gets into chronic fatigue syndrome and LOT more.
What If You Never Get Better From Covid-19
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 75k Chase Ink Cash, 75k Chase Ink Unlimited, 100k Chase Ink Business Preferred, 60k Chase Sapphire Preferred, 80k for all three personal Southwest cards (ENDS February 8), 60k Citi Premier, 65k AA CitiBusiness Platinum Select, 50k AA Citi Platinum Select, 20k Chase Freedom Flex & Chase Freedom Unlimited, 75k AMEX Platinum, 85k AMEX Business Platinum, 50k Chase World of Hyatt, 150k AMEX Hilton Aspire, 150k AMEX Hilton Business & Hilton Surpass (and $150 credit!), 100k AMEX Hilton Card (and $100 credit!), $250 AMEX Blue Cash Preferred, $300 AMEX Blue Cash Everyday, 140k Chase IHG Rewards Club Premier, and many more! 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!
My REFERRAL links for the 100k Chase Ink Business Preferred, 75k Chase Ink Cash and 75k Chase Ink Business Unlimited.
Newbies: Avoid speculating in stocks like Gamestop in apps like Robinhood, this is NOT investing! Focus on what you can control, you know, travel hacking is enabled by being responsible with credit card churning while NEVER ever carrying a balance and making the bank pay…you! Ok, I had so much written in this post that I forgot about this section, my bad. Any questions please ask.
The title says it all: Hotel Promotions & Covid-19 Policies Update: Best Western, Choice, Hyatt, Radisson & Wyndham For January 2021.
Google Flights is becoming the go to airline search engine as expected: How to Use Google Flights to Find Cheap Flights Like a Pro.
I am not a fan of promotions when you have to keep counting the number of transactions to score the bonus. It takes too much mental real estate. But if you have the World of Hyatt credit card you can register and then go for it if you wish: Chase World of Hyatt Cards: Get up to 5,000 Bonus Points when Using your Card during February. You can earn 50,000 World of Hyatt points with its Visa card, here is my REFERRAL link. Staying in Category 1 hotels costs just 5,000 points, do the math! 🙂
American Express has improved three of its Hilton Honors cards offers, all available HERE:
No Annual Fee Hilton Honors card now offers 100,000 Hilton Honors points AND a $100 statement credit. Just $1k minimum spend. Think about it, Amex is paying you. 🙂
The $95 annual fee Hilton Honors Surpass card now offers 150,000 Hilton Honors points AND a $150 statement credit. Gold elite status too. Yeah, you are still getting paid!
The $95 annual fee Hilton Honors Business card now offers 150,000 Hilton Honors points AND a $150 statement credit. Gold elite status too. Same as the one above!
The 80k Southwest credit card offers end February 8. I think I will give a shot on one on behalf of my daughter as it will be six months since she turned 18. When I told her what I am thinking to do (shoot for the Southwest Companion Pass which is only 100k points this Covid year) so she can travel with a friend next year she was ecstatic. When I explained to her what the minimum spend is…she was seized by sheer panic and I told her I am going to help and take care of it and her smile returned. This is what I do, je suis TBB! 🙂
Good resource list to have just in case: This List of Contacts Makes it Easier to Get in Touch with Your Airline.
TRAVEL
They are not kidding in Israel! Israel Halts Flights in and Out of the Country in Attempt to Slow the Spread of New COVID-19 Strains.
With the new requirement requiring a negative test, I think we may start seeing more travel companies providing that. Hyatt was first out of the gate: Hyatt to offer free COVID-19 testing at resorts in Mexico, Caribbean, South America. If you think about it…the abuse of this will be off the charts!
It has been shocking that Accor has not made yet another acquisition since last Wednesday 🙂 But wait, maybe the company is taking a breather and, wait for it, Accor & Faena Team Up. It will take a while…like 2023 at the earliest lol.
Faena, a collection of two open hotels in Buenos Aires and Miami, has decided to team up with Accor to bring the brand to twenty locations worldwide.
Amazing photographs from around the world: 20 photographs of the week. The ones from Gaza City and Thessaloniki Greece are MUST see.
You wanna go get away after the pandemic is over in this private island in Hvaler Norway.
We go from a super pretty private island to a super grotesque of a building: Mäusebunker: Berlin’s Mouse Bunker.
COVID-19
Just so you have no doubt how disastrous was the previous administration in handling the pandemic: This table provides a ranked comparison of the average performance over time of countries in managing the COVID-19 pandemic in the 36 weeks following their hundredth confirmed case of the virus. Rated #94 out of 98 countries, hey we beat Iran, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil. We can only go up from here and we will!
This is very relevant: Covid-19 vaccine basics: Why the rollout is so slow, who can get doses, and what about side effects.
Well, I think we are starting to know already and it is looking good BUT the virus is still raging and mutating fast: We could know soon whether vaccines work against a scary new coronavirus variant.
Fascinating history how vaccines came into our lives: The Untold Story of the First Vaccine.
Actually, the vaccine news is really really good and too much fuss and attention is given to them regarding the new strains, etc. This Twitter thread explains this.
Bolsonaro is mega asshole #2. Of course Trump was #1, both extreme morons responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of people. Thankfully, we got rid of Trump. I hope Brazil does the same: An Entire Country Suffers as President Sabotages Immunization Campaign.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Look, I shed no tears for hedge fund types getting cleaned out. Not at all. I just fear that many will get hurt when all the dust settles: The GameStop stock frenzy, explained.
Well, everyone is happy with the continuing bull market. Corrections and bear markets have been so few and far in between lately. And when they came, they were VERY quick. So, many invested in the markets lately have NO clue what carnage can happen…fast! So, enjoy it I guess. 9 Uncomfortable Facts About the U.S. Stock Market.
1. The stock market was underwater from 1929-1954
2. The total return from early-March 1997 through early-March 2009 was 5%
3. Government bonds outperformed the stock market for 40 years at one point
4. From 1969-1981, the stock market underperformed the rate of inflation by more than 56%
5. Gold destroyed the stock market in both the 1970s and early 2000s
6. In 30 out of the past 93 years, keeping your money in a savings account would have beat the returns of the stock market
7. Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s the Japanese stock market outperformed the U.S. stock market by more than six-fold
8. The U.S. stock market has experienced 6 crashes of 40% or worse since 1928
9. The U.S. stock market has fallen by 10% or worse in a single year 11 times since 1928
Well, we shall see what happens. I think most of these will come eventually…The pandemic altered financial behaviors for many. Here’s what we can expect to change for good.
Yes, yes, you should try to file early! 7 Reasons to File Your Tax Return Early. Another reason to keep things simple and minimize tax forms coming your way!
CURRENT EVENTS/POLITICS
Oh yes, sooooo true! 50 Things That Are Better Already.
It is hard to believe one year has passed already since Kobe’s death. This is a pretty nice story about him.
ODDZ & ENDZ
The winners of the 42nd annual The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. Hilarious! A few of my favs:
A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path
Introducing the MedievalAss
How to make love to a despot
I have seen a lot of them! The 50 Best Cult Movies.
Hell of an obituary, RIP Margaret!
If you knew that there were 840 languages spoken in tiny Papua New Guinea I quit! The Countries With the Most Linguistic Diversity.
This may be a repeat. But the entries here are absolutely breath taking! The 40 Most Stunning Photos Of Nature From Last Year’s International Photo Awards.
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 that promo to gift equivalent Hilton Honors elite status to another member? I swear it must be the most mismanaged promo in recent years! Never got the email, reached out via email, standard reply we will get back to you, they never do, reached out on Twitter, they will reach out they tell me, I get a code via email, the code does NOT work, I email again, standard reply, I go out to Twitter, they ask me which email address so they can check and then they tell me they are backed up and will take a while. Ridiculous is an understatement! Update: Tried the code again the next day with another browser and boom, it worked! My son is now Hilton Gold elite for a full year.
Same story with Hertz. I had some expiring points so I reserved a Ford Mustang. Then I saw the company extended the expiration date so I canceled the reservation online. Well, even after I got a confirmation the reservation always showed up in my account online. I finally called, got an agent somewhere in Asia who had to put me on hold to check for everything she told me! I managed to cancel the reservation with her but I never got the points back. Imagine I am the highest elite here after matching from National…if they treat them this way, imagine how they treat the regular members! No wonder the company is bankrupt!
God Save The Points is going premium, I think. No worries, this blog will stay free, it never crossed my mind to go there. Oh, there have been no ads here in years by the way!
I expect United’s Excursionist award feature and this Southwest policy to eventually be fixed. Until then, I guess, be responsible…
I am getting a cortisone injection shot to deal with the pain in the bulging disk area and get back to running soon. If that doesn’t work I guess I need to find a new sport…
And I leave you with this…
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Methinks there’s a digit missing on the first listing of the Hilton card bonuses?
Locally in Costa Rica, hotels have partnered with various labs for PCR testing. Ain’t freeeeee — will set you back a Benjamin — but test in the AM, results in the PM.
Thanks for MORE great links, amigo!
Are we there yet?
#TBBon
The Southwest link in the second to last paragraph is the link to the Mouse Bunker.
J&J’s vaccine looks pretty good. Now we have 4 good to great vaccines. It’ll still be hard to plan for international travel.
Love the GME/Robinhood story. So Robinhood blocked trading of the stocks and they drop. Reddit/discord folks get upset and give Robinhood >10k negative reviews on Google apps. And then Google deletes those reviews!
Young men coding are the most powerful people in the worlds. Once it was clear that Dem would be in power in DC, it took these “platform” companies zero time to turn off the QAnon/Trump switch (something FB et al could have restricted in the last ~4years).
Meow!!! Glad to see you’re still burning points. So jealous. I only took one vacay last year, in state. Well that’s not completely true, got 2 flights in before mid-march. Had to cancel my annual trip to SRQ this month. But mommie dearest and I are planning a eurotrip for 2022. Yes I know I’m on the wrong post.
The 401k line is terrific!
Thanks for the links.
Thanks for the corrections, both fixed!
I will come back here later today, things are completely bonkers with this Gamestop shit!
For the haters bitching my blog is like the others, here is the $ haul in the past three days:
-$6.53
$0
$0
So, BUZZ OFF!
VFTW back at it today with a headline about Chinese Covid anal probe testing.
All I could think of was the old Kids in the Hall sketch with aliens discussing the efficacy of anal probes and how all they ever learn is that 1 in 10 don’t seem to mind very much.
I hope the Cortisone shot helps a lot! My lady friend was running and has had similar problems and is finally, after almost 2 years starting to resign herself to the idea of just not running much at all, let alone sign up for yet another race she won’t be able to run. I sometimes think that people that get into the running thing later on, as opposed to in their teens and twenties are more vulnerable to injuries that end the running thing. I wish you the best on this!
Great links and as usual, read some and will dip back into the email as time allows to read more stuff. Always the best blog out there!
I’d say more, but it is time to go buy more GME, AMC, AA, etc! (OR NOT!)
Hey Buzz,
Great to see the support from your readers today, I got a laugh from Bill’s comment regarding Kids in the Hall, thank you Bill. And from your comment directed at the haters. I have to say it’s nice to see the positive vibes in the group, especially considering the darkness over the past year. We are all aware of the devastating impact the pandemic has had on far too many.
Fact is most, if not all of us are here because of our addiction to travel. And since travel is off the table due to the fact we are trying in our own small way to help contain the virus, I gotta say thanks Buzz. Thank you for hanging in there and putting in a sincere effort to help keep us entertained in these challenging times. We all know you don’t do your blog for the money. I appreciate the fact you put in all the time because you truly love it.
Either that, or you are truly addicted and we should probably get you the help you need.
Good luck with the healing and have a great weekend!
@GringoLoco: Thanks for catching that missing digit, obviously over at the TBB Quality Control department they are all slacking! Will terminate the bonus this year. Bwahahaha! I think all the PCR people can/will pivot to vaccines. Actually, assuming a hotel company can get hands on vaccines LEGALLY…shit, I’ll fly there to stay…hopefully they are Hyatts staying for free 🙂
@ Josh: Thanks again for catching that. See Quality Control dept comment above. And the :Not the Pacific Northwest” line was really funny, thanks!
@ ABC: Remember when I had a chance to participate in the &J&J trial and I chickened out…Big mistake. Wish the numbers were better but with just one shot and no freezing..LET’S GO!!!
Yeah, this Gamestock/Robinhood stuff is just unbelievable…Trying to inject some wisdom here but…not sure if it gets through to some folks. I expect Roaring Kitty to demand six figure speaking fees lol.
@Sexy_kitten7: Yeah, considering what is going on, not bad. But still kind of embarrassing for my expert situation lol. Yeah, when we finally get the upper hand on the virus I expect a travel explosion….along with devaluations!
@ DML: When I saw it, I knew it was TBB worthy 🙂
@ Bill: LOL…Yeah, he is on fire. And that Live and Let’s Fly dude reminds me of Kevin McAthty kissing Trump’s behind 😉 I should have linked to that interaction we had in Twitter but post got way too big.
@ Carl: Yeah, the doc has been hinting at it but that is SO hard to admit…defeat! Going for it and pray it works the same as it did in 2017. I would LOVE to get back in it and run 10 marathons by age 60. Then I will slow down with biking which will be a lot easier on the impact on my body…or maybe take up cruising on big ships…without viruses lol.
Best blog? Thanks. Definitely not best blog in conversions 🙂
@ David: Thanks again. Yeah, this whole experience is taking a toll. On all of us. But to some a lot more so we should not complain and just try to keep it together and do what we can to end it. Maybe this whole blogging thing is primarily for me to keep my sanity! Better to be addicted to this helping others than picking up other addictions like crack…not that I have ever done crack…every time I bring up this crack addiction it cracks me up 🙂
Enjoy the weekend, it will be very cold and another snowstorm….still, mild winter and we are almost in February! Michigan about to cross over 900,000 vaccine doses administered…it has to help, we just gotta keep going. With the new team in the White House we are a lot more hopeful as everyone else has turned from a Trump deranged spree to…Gamestock/Robinhood crap…
Thanks to all for taking the time to comment!
Look I am just a man….just a regular guy. But PLEASE, when you write my name or even speak it for that matter. Please refer to me as Ramsey, Philanthropist.
Also IMHO this nonsense going on with WallStreetBets is giving you an opportunity to buy MSFT and AAPL, who both had blowout quarters, on sale.
Got half correct, l am off my game…apply for a refund 🙂
I only buy APPL, with all the buyback, there will eventually only be one owner left, BRKA.
APPL will be the first $3T company.