I bring you an eclectic collection of content about stimulus cash, vaccine deniers, AA complete guide, Hilton offers, travel to Kauai, Italy and Turkey, investing sanity we all need these days, some will be retiring, reaching herd immunity will be very hard, lighthouses, map with most common names, a story about a park ranger dude who was never found and lots of stuff for my miles and points hobby trying to help YOU. Enjoy the weekend
TBB Blog Mission: To Educate. Entertain. Inspire. In That Order!
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TRAVEL
I can’t wait to get out of Dodge and visit this place…in January 2022! Review: Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort, Hawaii. 5 nights for 125,000 World of Hyatt points, with confirmed suite upgrade applied as Hyatt Globalist elite #winning. I would like to thank Chase Bank for making this possible lol.
I loved this: Life and Death on the Lighthouse of the Mediterranean. Stromboli’s volcano is always active, always at the brink of devastating paroxysms. For those who visit the island as tourists or scientists, it is a spectacle like no other. The images and, especially, the short video about the Road of Fire are visually stunning! Archive.is link.
What a waste. And what a creepy site, maybe a film director uses it for a horror film one day? Haunting Photos Reveal a Massive Abandoned Town of Disneyesque Castles.
PERSONAL FINANCE
I believe we were all changed by the pandemic. Some more than others. I thrived in the first months…and now I am so sick of it like all of you. Started pondering about my life, what I am here for, you know, the meaning of life and all that. Some say to live life fully now. I am trying damn it but can we just hurry up and vaccinate all of us and smash this %&%^$# virus before we all go nuts! Oh, the article, I almost forgot: Affluent Americans Rush to Retire in New ‘Life-Is-Short’ Mindset. From my experience, this is not happening now but it is more like, well, I have nowhere to go so might as well make more money while working from home but when we get called back I am going to tell them that I am outta here. Or something like that…
We need to get back to the basics: Put your stimulus cash towards credit card debt, not student loans: Here’s why. Love how one of the quoted pros beats up credit cards viciously! 😉
This short article is needed in this environment: The Limits of Investing Sanity.
People’s desire to get rich far exceeds the number of easy and obvious opportunities.
There are two things you can do about it. One is acceptance that insane market doesn’t mean a broken market. Crazy is normal; beyond the point of crazy is normal. Every few years there seems to be a declaration that markets don’t work anymore – that they’re all speculation or detached from fundamentals. But it’s always been that way. People haven’t lost their minds; they’re just searching for the boundaries of what other investors are willing to believe. The second is realizing the power of enough…Maybe there’s more out there, but it’s fine to say, “You know what, I’m pretty happy with this level of risk and I’m fine just watching this game play out.” Not everyone can do it – and markets on average can never do it – but more investors can and should probably try.
COVID-19
As we all know, the pace of vaccinations has slowed substantially. It is good to see the Biden administration now aiming to vaccinate 70% of adults by July 4th. There is no other way to get out of this jam we are in for more than a year! And then again, as days go by, you see more and more indications of how some people are determined to put themselves and their “rights” first. Or I guess they did their own “homework” and whatever…I mean, we have done one thing right in this colossal failure of fighting the pandemic and…now we are about to screw it up again? Enter ^&$#! insult. Reaching ‘Herd Immunity’ Is Unlikely in the U.S., Experts Now Believe. Widely circulating coronavirus variants and persistent hesitancy about vaccines will keep the goal out of reach. The virus is here to stay, but vaccinating the most vulnerable may be enough to restore normalcy. Archive.is link.
Polls show that about 30 percent of the U.S. population is still reluctant to be vaccinated. That number is expected to improve but probably not enough. [Very soon we need to do some severe measures to vaccinate the holdouts imho]
As I said, some people are just going to be a problem. The author talks to them and be careful with your head as it may start shaking violently as mine did! Millions Are Saying No to the Vaccines. What Are They Thinking? Feelings about the vaccine are intertwined with feelings about the pandemic. Archive.is link. Article provides some ways to make them change their mind. Like asking “What if natural immunity isn’t enough to protect your grandmother?”
One in four Americans says they don’t plan to take the COVID-19 vaccine, and about half of Republicans under 50 say they won’t get a vaccine. This partisan vaccine gap is already playing out in the real world. The average number of daily shots has declined 20 percent in the past two weeks, largely because states with larger Trump vote shares are falling off the pace.
Michigan continues to do well lowering the hurt from Covid. We were recently the #1 hotspot in the nation. What I have found to be shocking is how several places initially did well and we were praising them only to flip the switch and become the ridicule, I mean, India, Greece, Michigan and California come to mind. I am sure there are more. My fear is…this continues to happen and as we are now all sick of the Covid measures and the virus keeps developing new variants we get hit again. Oh dear God, please no!
Two graphs below that capture the madness:
ODDZ & ENDZ
I really enjoy long well-written stories about mysteries. Especially if they are still not solved! And this is one of them: The Search for a Ranger Who Was Lost and Never Found. Involves some unique characters, weed and drugs, open marriages, etc. My guess is we will never know, he has been buried somewhere and will never be found, sad!
Wow, you can see all the lighthouses at sea…and how they are blinking in real time! Lights at sea.
I love these sites with interesting maps! 30 Informative Maps People Shared On This Group That Might Change Your Perspective On Things. I just had to…
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 80k CHASE Sapphire Preferred (& $50 Grocery store credit), 100k CHASE United Quest, 100k CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards, 75k CHASE Ink Cash, 75k CHASE Ink Unlimited, 100k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, 60k CHASE Sapphire Reserve, 60k CITI Premier, 20k CHASE Freedom Flex & CHASE Freedom Unlimited, 125k CHASE IHG Rewards Club Premier (& a free night) and many more, including many American Express cards! Please check out my Affiliate links. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
If you do not see a credit card with my affiliate links, perhaps I could refer you? Contact me!
This section is about my hobby addiction of collecting frequent flyer miles and hotel points since the early 1990’s! Feel free to skip this section and parts of the next one if this is not for you.
Newbies: Get educated. Follow blogs that have YOUR best interest in mind and are not multi million dollar operations serving banks first. US banks can shower you with money and miles and points if you are educated enough, are organized and NEVER EVER carry a balance/pay interest to the banks! Beat them at their game, it can be fun and…addicting. Actually, it is stronger than crack, not like I have ever done crack. I always make this joke and I am the only one laughing I think lol.
Register for the latest IHG Rewards promotion HERE.
No, it is not just you. Yes, the US banks are on a major spree again with higher sign up bonuses. This only happens in this country, nowhere else. It is nice…if you know how to play this game, so here we go:
There are new highest ever offers for the no annual fee Hilton card and the Surpass card. Up to 130k and 180k, respectively. I could fake my excitement so I can sell you more of them but I won’t. Look, this hotel company is devaluing like crazy. I remember back in early 2000’s I took my family to the Hilton Waikoloa Village in the Big Island of Hawaii for six nights for 100,000 Hilton Honors points TOTAL! As we posted earlier this week, Hilton now wants at least 95k (soon to be 125k?) points per night for its highest rated properties (and one in Maldives is now at 150k points!!!). Get it? But if you are okay staying for free in lower rated properties these cards will enable you to do just that. Let’s go on with this. Check this out: Hilton Honors 5,000 & 10,000 Points Per Night Hotels These are vanishing as Hilton Honors continues to devalue by moving them to higher/more expensive rated categories. We like value around here and if these locations can work for you…you can spend many nights there! 180k divided by 5k is, do the math! For freeeeee…actually $95 annual fee for the Surpass, the other one earns 130k points REALLY freeeeee. You know where to find my links (see above!). Me and wife had them before and we can not get them again. My kids could go for them but they are not interested in hotels, only airlines. Ok then…
I know, I know. All this can be very confusing if you are new to this. There is nothing wrong with keeping it simple, peace of mind is under rated. Most consumers will be fine if they just carry a 2% pure cash back card, like the Citi Double Cash or the Capital One Venture Rewards card if you are a big spender. But if you can add on a bit more complexity and pick spending categories that earn more than 2% there are now higher offers for the two BlueCash cards that add an interesting cash back/savings category, Amazon spending!
Wait, that is not all! There is a new high offer for the IHG Rewards card offering 125,000 IHG Rewards points. Ok, so what you may say. The offer now adds a FREE night to it for just $3k of spend. This card gives you free Platinum status as long as you keep it AND a free night every year for an annual fee of $89. Not the greatest hotel chain in the world but it may work for you, we are all different.
All of the cards mentioned above are available with my credit card links. You got questions, ask in the comments or email me. The only sources of revenue for this blog now are these cards and a few donations, that’s it. Since I can not remember the last month this blog had 10 conversions it is obvious by now that this is not making me rich! Thank you for understanding and the support to keep this blog going.
Good for reference: American Airlines AAdvantage Complete Guide.
Two United promotions that are pffft: Mile Play and TravelBank Cash (if you are a United credit cardholder).
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.
I am no fan of the Maldives but I guess some in this hobby are: Marriott’s Maldives Madness: The Le Meridien Maldives. And I fully expect Marriott to fix this any day now…And THIS is how you sell plastic! As in, stay in this amazing over the water bungalow for free only if you click on these credit cards! Never mind paying for the airfare to and from it within Maldives that is excruciatingly expensive.
The Lazy Traveler does a deep dive for value here: New Radisson Rewards 2021 Changes: Part 1 — Digging for Values in the Americas.
I have finally been burning some points! Son needed a 2 night stay in Honolulu as he is in between Airbnb stays. I burned 12,000 World of Hyatt points and a Free Night award cert expiring in July 2021 to get him the two nights as my Globalist Guest of Honor at the Hyatt Place Waikiki Beach property. He got a nice ocean view room and really liked the hotel. I tried to get the Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach property which is 15,000 points per night and a better property to use my Free Night award. But nope, that specific property magically does not have any “standard” rooms available as awards. It is a property that is well known for doing these shenanigans. So, then son says I need more time to find next Airbnb and asks if he can stay longer in the same hotel and room preferably. How many nights I ask. He says minimum three, preferably four. So, 48,000 World of Hyatt points later I tell him he is all set. He got credit for six nights and also earned 7,500 World of Hyatt points from the latest Hyatt promotion where credit card holders can earn 2,500 every two nights. We are pleased that these points were well spent!
Tomorrow we are driving to Columbus, Ohio to attend the graduation of my wife’s nephew from the wrong school (Ohio State University). I again tried to finally use my Radisson Rewards points (excuse me, RadissonAmericas points lol) but I am not going to burn 28,000 points for a Country Inn going for $91 plus tax when I can burn 5,000 Hyatt points for a nice Hyatt Place, I am sorry. That gets me to 54 elite night credits in 2021…inching closer to my Hyatt concierge and a free category 7 night award cert at 60 nights!
Waiting for daughter to see her Southwest Companion Pass as we I have completed the requirements for it. She is excited! Update: It is here, wow that was fast, as soon as the points posted the day after the Visa statement closed! Any tips on how to take maximum advantage of it are welcome.
Can’t wait for warmer weather to get here finally…
I have nothing I am working on right now, maybe it is time for a new credit card, it is an addiction lol. I like the new United Quest card, could get me 100k United miles, annual fee is $250 but could get $125 statement credit with United paid tickets and two 5k miles rebates for two awards. I am okay with these and I can finally cancel my United business card. Of course I am going to use my own credit card links! Hey, I am also a client here, I click the talk lol. Which reminds me this pic lol and let me leave you with this then:
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TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
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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.
Great stuff George! I’m glad you linked to Andy’s Radisson piece, I’m sitting on a lot of points.
Must-read piece here in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists by former NYT science reporter Nicholas Wade as the covid lab escape theory is looking more likely: https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/
This part was shocking to me:
“We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,” a group of virologists and others wrote in the Lancet on February 19, 2020, when it was really far too soon for anyone to be sure what had happened. Scientists “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife,” they said, with a stirring rallying call for readers to stand with Chinese colleagues on the frontline of fighting the disease.
Contrary to the letter writers’ assertion, the idea that the virus might have escaped from a lab invoked accident, not conspiracy. It surely needed to be explored, not rejected out of hand. A defining mark of good scientists is that they go to great pains to distinguish between what they know and what they don’t know. By this criterion, the signatories of the Lancet letter were behaving as poor scientists: They were assuring the public of facts they could not know for sure were true.
It later turned out that the Lancet letter had been organized and drafted by Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance of New York. Daszak’s organization funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. If the SARS2 virus had indeed escaped from research he funded, Daszak would be potentially culpable. This acute conflict of interest was not declared to the Lancet’s readers. To the contrary, the letter concluded, “We declare no competing interests.”
I read that article in Medium. The smoking gun is the furin cleavage site and the optimization of the arginine sequencing for human expression (rather than bat). Codon optimization is what researchers introduce when messing with viruses. I can’t believe NIH has been funding Gain of Function studies. NIAID & Fauci can’t justify these type of studies. They are extremely dangerous.
““When I first saw the furin cleavage site in the viral sequence, with its arginine codons, I said to my wife it was the smoking gun for the origin of the virus,” said David Baltimore, an eminent virologist and former president of CalTech. “These features make a powerful challenge to the idea of a natural origin for SARS2,” he said”
Good morning!
Thanks for the links. It will be interesting to see how many schools
require vaccination as a requirement for admission.
Of course if one applied the doctrine of contributory negligence to COV infection — no vaccine, no insurance coverage — I suspect “principled” objections would vanish.
Bronze! And I have returned to the Pacific Northwest! Damn, it was hot down south!
The local university just today I see i the paper is calling for mandatory vaccinations. Good for them!
What to do with people that refuse to get shots? OSTRACIZE THEM! Don’t visit with them, don’t sit at the bar with them, do not get near them. Leave them alone. They should be refused entry to restaurants, theaters, stadiums, etc.
Once they have to pay a price, so to speak, then maybe they will get with the program.
We should brand them with a scarlet letter.
Or make them wear a yellow star.
Or use separate public restrooms and drinking fountains.
American values are as dead as the 0.00181% of the population killed by Covid
Client’s favorite uncle died last week.
Look at the death chart. We are about to hit 3 million dead from this virus and many more to come.
If there was a way to keep Unvaccinated (by choice) people from reading my blog I certainly would. But the tech department is inadequate, don’t even do SEO and clickbait headlines!
No stimulus checks of any kind of them, no flying, no concerts/games/etc…let’s start there. If still refusing we can proceed with further measures.
Have a good weekend.
This is not an issue of individual rights, it is PUBLIC HEALTH.
My 2 cents
Shoot them all into the sun.
@ NIck and @ ABC: I will read the article when I get to it. I am curious why Dan of DansDeals had not posted here ” I told you so” lol. I am not buying it. We may not know how it originated for a very long time. Same with HIV, it took a while.
My issue with these theories is that they tend to obscure the fact how the Trump administration criminally failed in such a colossal scale to protect us. And we also failed to recognize how effective the communists were in dealing with Covid. We must never forget and must learn. Now it is a pandemic and we have a job to do to fight it! We will circle back to answering the origination issue eventually now that the cat, so to speak is out of the bag all over the world…
@ DML and Carl: Yeah, like to see more schools do that. University of Michigan says all dorm students will be vacccinated…they should take the next step. Yeah, I am totally fine for ostracizing them!
I said it last February and you called me a nut.
I said it again 2 months ago:
https://www.dansdeals.com/more/dans-commentary/news-roundup/3-10-21-news-roundup-vaccinations-yudi-dukes-mandalorian-0-mortgages-shomer-shabbat-airlines-frontier-near-miss-cats-plane/#The_Wuhan_Lab_Is_Back_In_The_News
You need to have your head in the ground not to think it’s a valid theory.
Oh. And I told you so 😀
What took you so long?
Remember, there are many theories out there. And they are just that…theories until proven otherwise.
I hope we find out one day how this happened so we can better prepare for the next one.
My point: This should not impact how disastrous was the US handling of the pandemic. This is not a theory.
See you back here again when one of us can truly say a valid “I told you so”. In the meantime, I still give Trump 0 out of 10 🙂
Of course it’s just a theory. But you said I was a conspiracy nut.
Theory isn’t looking nutty anymore!
US handling was disastrous, but no more so than most of the western world when you look at the number.
Trump is an imbecile, but operation warp speed was successful beyond anyone’s wildest dreams and not giving due credit for it means that you have blinders on. Even though he funded it and cut through the red tape because he thought it would get him reelected, that doesn’t make it less of a success story.
Ok Dan…I guess you still rate him 3/10.
I was fired today as only $52.20 was earned month to date.
TBB is distraught. He feels like he is bringing it with every post but readers are not coming and clicks are certainly not happening. I am about to clear my desk, it’s been real folks.
WM (not WalMart)
P.S. Got job offer at TPG making minimum wage AND benefits, sorry TBB!
Rams, for the 1045th time, you are NOT welcome here, take your angry Trumpy lunatic crap to blogs you like.
Biden won, Trump lost.
Dow: 34,777.76 NEW High
Thanks Biden!
DOGE $0.7
#Elon4cryptoPrez
Seriously, how could the “experts” be so wrong about the unemployment number? 260k jobs created vs 1M predicted (and of course the market was excited..)
It happens a lot with experts!
Especially with this jobs number…and it is a weird time so expect future numbers to be adjusted backwards, they always are.
Stock market loved it…isn’t it weird people in stocks make more when more are without jobs? Something is not right here…
The fact that some people are sitting around by choice getting all this free money is certainly a factor. How large of a factor is hard to determine. You know, with the tax cut the rich made more money and of course it did not trickle down, it never does! This time the money goes mostly to people who need it and I am okay with that. Wages will need to rise. Yes, some small businesses will be affected of course and that sucks but maybe it is time to raise the lower wage earners for a change.
I am not staying up to watch Elon tonight. I want to and I have no idea wtf to expect with all this Dogeshit…
All client portfolio reviews this month are: Stocks are up again, we take enough gains to rebalance, enjoy the summer 🙂
Back from Columbus, OH. It rained all day on graduation day….it sucked!