Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as the C word, not getting rich fast enough, how to travel for free, Bilt clobbers Wells Fargo Bank, IRS warnings about scams targeting seniors, Excel superstars, how Hermès sells its luxury bags, surviving a parachute fail, the 2044 election comedy and much more and of course always all of the most important developments in the crazy world of miles and points. Enjoy the weekend!
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This blog started way back in 2012 focusing on my crazy hobby addiction of traveling with frequent flyer miles, hotel and bank points. It has since evolved to a curated at least weekly post of the best web content along with my commentary. Here to Educate primarily, sometimes Entertain and if I get to Inspire you, well, that is a bonus.
BLOG HOUSEKEEPING AND PERSONAL NOTES
Someone made it pretty clear to me that my blog posts are ridiculously long. Let’s just say I was convinced this time and I intend to make my blog posts shorter going forward. Which will likely mean another post during the week, most likely on Tuesday.
I am back from Greece. I went back to see my mother and encourage her to stick with the physical therapy sessions after her hip replacement surgery. But she got a heavy pneumonia infection which necessitated going to the hospital in an ambulance and almost a week long stay there in a heavy antibiotics regiment. The first few days things looked bleak. But she turned it around and has made continued progress. And yesterday they let me know that she had her best walk with her new hip. I left her in good hands, she is a fighter at age 85. We don’t give up easily, it is in our genes.
It is my birthday today. I don’t feel my age at all. This is a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts.
PERSONAL FINANCE
The best personal finance writer Jonathan Clements posted about his terminal cancer diagnosis The C Word and that just sucks. He also wrote about it so eloquently and it is a must read imho. I used to send his articles in the Wall Street Journal to my clients and they loved them.
Managing money is fraught with uncertainty, but never more so than now.
Money is intimately bound up with regret.
The cliché is true: Something like this makes you truly appreciate life.
We can control risk, but we can’t eliminate it.
It’s toughest on those left behind.
Generosity suddenly feels so much sweeter.
Life’s priorities become crystal clear.
Investing looks easy but it is hard. Mostly because people can’t handle their emotions. If fear does not get them, it is greed. And this article here just shows greed in all its “glory”. If the person featured in the article had an advisor this would have never happened by the way. Not Getting Rich Fast Enough.
But taking more risk to make up for lost ground is a slippery slope. The late-Peter Bernstein once wrote, “The market’s not a very accommodating machine; it won’t provide high returns just because you need them.”
Over the past 5 years, U.S. stocks have doubled, which is also good enough for 14%+ returns per year. I know 30% returns sound far more appealing but that’s just greed taking the steering wheel. It’s like you’re trying to skip the line. In the immortal words of Gem Coughlin from The Town: “You know what your problem is? You think you’re better than people”.
Half the battle is just staying in the game over the long haul by avoiding crippling mistakes.
Some things I came across and wrote down to share with you here:
Only 7% of all HSAs have funds in investments. [Shockingly low!]
SCAMS/CRYPTO
Please watch your elder loved ones: IRS warns against scams targeting seniors; joins other federal agencies to recognize special awareness day.
Remember the following:
- The IRS will never demand immediate payment via prepaid debit cards, gift cards or wire transfers. Typically, if taxes are owed, the IRS will send a bill by mail first.
- The IRS will never threaten to involve local police or other law enforcement agencies.
- The IRS will never demand payment without allowing opportunities to dispute or appeal the amount owed.
- The IRS will never request credit, debit or gift card numbers over the phone.
I remember when this guy just vanished to avoid going to prison. Well, finally: CNBC financial analyst-turned-fugitive arrested by FBI after 3 years on the run.
McDonald is also suspected of obtaining $675,000 in investment funds he raised from one victim group, which he used to splurge on himself — “spending roughly $174,610 of them at a Porsche dealership.” According to the DOJ, he also allegedly transferred over $100K of those funds to the landlord of a home he was renting in Arcadia, California, and then another $6,800 to an online store to buy designer clothing. [Hey, gotta look good in that Porsche smh]
ODDZ & ENDZ
The most surprising and fun read recently was this: The Microsoft Excel Superstars Throw Down in Vegas. An elite handful of analysts, actuaries, and accountants have mastered Excel, arguably the most important software in the business world. So what do they do in Vegas? They open a spreadsheet.
This is a great read if you are into luxury brands. And how this company gets people to spend crazy amounts of money on its bags: How Hermès Sells “Time”.
For the uninitiated, Birkin and Kelly bags start at ~$10k (but regularly sell for $50k to $100k on secondary markets). Each one is handcrafted and takes 20 to 25 hours to make. The supply is tightly controlled and — as we will discuss later — the process to attain one is arduous.
TRAVEL
SAVE $100 FOR 2024 THE EXTRAORDINARY TRAVEL FESTIVAL
Every year I say this is the year I am going to jump out of a plane. And every year I read something that makes me say never mind. Like this one: I jumped from a plane – and my parachute failed. As I hurtled towards earth, I felt oddly calm. At 4,000ft, Jordan Hatmaker pulled the string and realised something was very wrong. With the speed of her descent increasing, she braced herself for impact.
These are nice: The 12 Most Scenic Overlooks in U.S. National Parks. Every time I look at a pic of Crater Lake in Oregon I say I must visit.
Very interesting: The World’s Wettest and Driest Countries. I am surprised to see Colombia as #1 wettest country. And definitely not surprised to see Egypt as the driest. At all.
BUZZING
A section where I go on and on about some stuff that happens in my life and anything else that just does not fit in another section above
If you want to take a mental break and read something that will have you laughing non stop, this is it: The 2044 Election Is the Most Important Election of Our Lifetimes.
Each of the seven times Trump has run for president, it’s been close. Who could forget the 2028 election coming down to three hundred votes in Wisconsin? Or the e-ballot controversy during the Brazilpox pandemic of 2032? Or the days leading up to the 2036 election, where it seemed all but certain Trump would prevail until Taylor Kelce dropped that surprise album, Democracy (Taylor’s Version)?
Ok, one more, can’t resist, lol:
President Harris carried on Biden’s remarkable legacy of making modest social progress in some areas while losing ground in others. This was an impressive achievement compared to the complete erosion of the social safety net and civil rights that would have happened had Trump been elected.
And, in the 2030s, President Newsom did an admirable job of keeping the country only slightly worse off than it was before. No president in the modern era has been more effective at ensuring America’s decline remained gradual rather than completely and utterly apocalyptic.
Some sports commentary:
I am really enjoying the Euro 2024 soccer games, the quality has been great and it is only the first round.
For the first year ever I did not watch a single NBA Finals game. Because there was no way in hell I would wake up in the middle of the night while in Greece, congrats to the Boston Celtics and especially Jru Holiday who was run out of the Milwaukee Bucks so they can go for another ring only to have him get it instead.
Also, Monty Williams the Detroit Pistons head coach was fired but don’t feel pity for him as he will collect, please sit down, over $85 million dollars in total after signing a ridiculous guaranteed contract only to proceed to stink up the joint and embarrass our team, good riddance!
Not giving up on running yet. I started with a highly recommended physical therapist yesterday and I think she can fix me #developing.
This blog started with a focus on miles and points and travel. It has evolved since then. Everything below deals with the hobby of collecting frequent flyer miles and points and maximizing your travel experiences. If you are not interested, you can stop here, thank you.
MILES & POINTS NEWS/PROMOS/MY ACTION
It was another week with nothing earth shattering. Wait, I do want to single out two things though below, an article titled “How to Travel for Free” and the Wall Street Journal sensational story about the Bilt Wells Fargo one sided deal. So, here we go:
How to Travel For Free by Money With Katie. Which explains the reasons why this hobby can be so addictive to a small fraction of people like me (us). And I think the key excerpt is this:
Because there’s a payoff in the form of fake tokens you can redeem for real travel, it’s assumed that the only gauge by which you can judge worthiness is whether the effort spent engineering the trip generates a commensurate amount of money saved. The idea that it’s “not worth your time” usually rests on the assumption that your time could be better spent doing something more valuable, like, I don’t know, negotiating a raise. But we don’t use the same language about leisure activities like Netflix (TV isn’t worth your time!), because we don’t expect things we do for fun to meet stringent ROI requirements. Some people find enjoyment—find pleasure—in pulling one over on the fine folks at American Express or scoring a really gratifying redemption. [Bold font mine for emphasis. Look at my photo of the lamb shank I ate aboard Turkish Airlines Business Class below in the MY ACTION section. You bet I find it absolutely pleasurable that Capital One bank paid for it lol]
And also the level headed good advice I generally agree with:
The good news, though, is that if you don’t enjoy it, can’t be bothered, or, to Nick’s point, already “earn more than $200,000 per year,” you can get a simple cash-back card and ignore the influencers in their business class suites. Get a little somethin’-somethin’ for the money you’re going to spend anyway, but know that points and miles aren’t required for your journey. [She refers to this article we featured here last week which I was a subject of and stand by it still. And I also agree that most people will be fine with a simple cash-back card earning at least 2% and go on with their life focusing on what gives them joy. I still find joy getting banks to pay for my travel, I just enjoy the chase (pun intended)].
The other big news since my last post was this WSJ article: Wells Fargo Bet on a Flashy Rent Credit Card. It is Costing the Bank Dearly. I will list a few more links but here is my 2 cents. What an amazing deal the Bilt guys pulled on Wells Fargo, wow! Bilt gets paid 0.8% on every rent payment AND $200 per new credit card application. Say whaaaaat? And the contract is locked in until 2029! Many are saying $10 million loss a month is nothing for Wells Fargo (mostly true) but you do that for 12 months and we are talking bigly losses at $120 million every year! The sad thing about this way over rated and way over hyped card is that they could have taken some of that $200 paid back to Bilt and instead gave it to us consumers to entice us to sign up for the card. I don’t know, maybe Bilt could have suggested that for their deal. Instead, Bilt took Wells Fargo to the cleaners and then spent a tiny bit on marketing wining and dining bloggers in private islands instead. And these bloggers did their duty, overhyped Bilt to their readers. Not this blogger. Anyway, masterful sell job by Bilt. A few more links if you are interested:
Wells Fargo Loses $120M With Bilt Mastercard Every Year by Loyalty Lobby.
This guy on Twitter laid it all out, including a TV clip by Bilt’s CEO evading answering the question thrown at him for over 6 minutes!
GENERAL NEWS/PROMOS/NEWBIES/ETC.
Enterprise Rental Car has a status match promotion if you are interested. I am skipping this one as I do have adequate status with Hertz and National and Sixt. Even though I rent enough cars per year that can be counted in one of my hands. I also rent less because Uber/Lyft.
When you hear the words “activist investor” you are free to think out loud “what an arshole!”. Also, why are they always male? Ok, don’t go there. Anyway, this Elliott dude thought he can make some money on Southwest stock and it is pretty clear he has no idea about the business. And could care less about the customers and the employees. Elliott Doesn’t Know How to Fix Southwest, Nor Does it Likely Care. Don’t get me wrong, Southwest could use some fixing certainly. But this is not the guy to lead change ok?
CREDIT CARD CORNER
Please help the small independent blogs like mine continue to exist by supporting them with your credit card clicks below, thank you!
I will indicate with NEW every new section as the rest is the same from the previous blog post and will finally roll off those parts as these offers expire, thank you.
NEW: Having a credit card earning 5% in different categories is a habit we in this hobby have since, well, they have been invented. I still handle two Discover cards for my kids they got when they turned 18 and it looks like I will be using them for groceries next quarter. Register HERE.
NEW: I also have a Chase Freedom Flex card in my household that keeps moving around when the Signup Bonus gets juicy. Which has not happened in a while, come on Chase! It looks like I will be using the card for gas and at movie theaters next quarter. Register HERE.
NEW: I have mixed feelings about this: Some Chase Cards Get Amex Style Pop-Up for Welcome Bonus. On the one hand, it was unfair not to get a card you wanted if you were not eligible for the Signup Bonus. On the other hand, this policy pioneered by Amex to limit our hauls is getting institutionalized/copied. Which is kind of sad.
We had a flurry of new credit card offers thrown at us in the last week. Let’s recap:
NEW: Decent United offers but nothing earth shattering: United Credit Card Reviews: We Look At Four United Personal Cards.
Best credit card offers STILL remain the same, see below my TOP THREE travel rewards credit cards right now:
The TOP offer NOW is the 75k Capital One Venture X card. It is amazing what you get for free with this card actually. See more below.
MY ACTION
I revived the dormant TravelBloggerBuzz Instagram account and giving it another go, follow me there please. I post travel pics mostly as they happen so for all the flights/hotels laid out below, my TBB Instagram page IS the one to follow.
First, there is a 20% transfer bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Air Canada Aeroplan. So I transferred 50k Chase points and got 60k Aeroplan points. Almost instantly.
In my recent trip to Greece I decided to book awards in the last minute. Which is very different than my style as I like to plan way in advance. And I found it a really good experience with plenty of decent options which was a pleasant surprise. So for my return back to the US I tracked some flights on Google Flights and kept playing a little bit every day with PointsYeah and both Air Canada and United websites. I was getting options for both Economy at no more than 44k miles and Business for 70k Aeroplan and 88k United. But not the greatest routings and connections. And then boom, got an email from a Google Flight tracked flight that Turkish Airlines had a one way Business class from Thessaloniki to Istanbul to Detroit for about $1,665. Great routing and more than three hours in Istanbul which allows plenty of time to overeat at the fantastic Turkish Airlines Business lounge. And I have enough Capital One points to cover it. Which I did for 166,517 points #winning.
Of course I stayed one more night at the Thessaloniki Hyatt Regency before my flight out of Greece the next morning on Turkish Airlines, see above. It is busy summer season and there was no standard room available for 8,000 Hyatt points so instead I booked me a premium type room for 13,000 Hyatt points. Of course I got the same suite I always get. I skipped breakfast so I can have a go at the great Aegean Airlines Business lounge in the Thessaloniki Airport.
I had planned a different award trip back which included spending a night at the Vienna Park Hyatt on my Cat 1-7 Free Night cert on the very last night it was expiring. But I had to cancel everything the second day my mom was in the hospital and her condition was not good. So, I emailed my Globalist Hyatt Concierge about it and was credited 20,000 World of Hyatt points for not using this Cat 1-7 free night cert.
The Turkish Airlines app is great while its website absolutely sucks. When checking in I changed the TK number to my United number to get the miles credited to. Because I would rather not deal with them TK miles, they have a hard 3 year expiration policy. And it worked without me having to track this down.
My World of Hyatt Globalist run is well underway with 24 night credits to date. Three more coming next week with two nights at the Chicago Hyatt Regency during the 2024 Morningstar Investment Conference and then one night at the Chicago Hyatt Centric. Inching closer to 30 night credits for another set of Milestone Rewards goodies, including another Free Night cert. With current reservations booked the rest of the year I am going to hit 60 night credits on the dot for another Globalist requalification. Speaking of the Chicago Hyatt Regency property, back in the good old days in this hobby, I used to stay here for $30 or $35 per night via Priceline and get Hyatt night credits and points. Looking forward to check out the Chicago Hyatt Centric for the first time. Checkout the TBB Instagram page for photo updates.
I loved spending time in the magnificent Istanbul Turkish Airlines lounge. And the food aboard the flight to Detroit was great. The cauliflower soup was the best soup I ever had aboard. And the lamb shank was great, especially for presentation! I mean, look at it:
ADVANCED
Comparing Point.me, Roame.travel, PointsYeah: Which Flight Award Availability Search Tool Is Best?
I generally do not recommend this company, watch out! Horrific Experience With Marriott Homes & Villas. Yikes!
Also, I generally do not recommend Choice Privileges. Because they just keep doing this: Choice Privileges Devalues Program, Pricing Nights Higher Than Ever Before.
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 100k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, 75K CHASE Sapphire Reserve, 75k CHASE United Business, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards, 150k AMEX Business Platinum, 80k CHASE Southwest Performance Business, $1,000 Cash Back CHASE Ink Business Premier, 75k Citi Strata Premier, 15k AMEX Blue Business Plus and many more!
This section is about my hobby addiction of collecting frequent flyer miles and hotel points since the early 1990’s! SKIP if you are not into it!
As of today, I have burned 1,109,513 miles/points year to date (1,148,286 in 2023) and have 4,131,359 miles/points in the bank. Some do drugs, I do miles lol!
Thanks to US banks, very lucrative travel rewards credit card offers come and go all the time. This section will act as a reference point on the best CURRENT offers. I will designate new material preceded by NEW.
Remember, you are NOT allowed to ever carry a credit card balance!
Let me leave you with this:
Some of the links are behind a paywall. You can try to read them using Archive.is.
Thank you for reading my blog. If you enjoy it please forward it to a family member or friend. Or Buy Me a Coffee, thank you!
Feel free to contact me anytime at travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com and tell me what you like and don’t like about my blog and, more importantly, what you would like to see changed and/or what you would add or delete. All feedback is very appreciated.
George
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This site may receive compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. Travel Blogger Buzz and Your Best Credit Cards may receive a commission from card issuers. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not necessarily include all financial companies or all available financial offers. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone.
Sorry for not getting back to all comments in the last post. I was too busy in Greece and traveling back to the US. Thing should return to normal around here. Looking to do two posts next week, we shall see.
State of the blog business wise continues to be abysmal. And I keep tweaking it and nothing seems to work. Maybe having blogs is too passe as almost everyone’s attention spans have been clobbered due to TikToks and Youtube and endless clickbait crap. One day I am going to give up. Until then, I guess enjoy.
TBB blog “stats” month to date June 2024:
Coffees sold: ZERO
Credit cards sold: Two
Credit card referrals: Two (both Capital One Venture X, which was a shocking welcome surprise).
Email Subscribers: 556
Youtube subscribers: 23 (lol)
Instagram followers: 77
Clickbait/Ads/Sponsors: ZERO
When the first three completely dry up this blog ends.
Gotta run, well, walk, back on 4 miles walk a day. And praying daily for my mother to continue improving.
Enjoy the weekend.
Happy Birthday, Buzz.
Glad your mother is doing better.
Happy birthday!
Great news about your mom! What a great use of your points! Your diversified portfolio
really seemed to have helped!
Hey Buzz,
Happy uh, interesting point about attention spans..
Birthday, that’s it. Happy Birthday Buzz. And great to hear your mama is on the mend. Have a great weekend!
Running incredibly late today….
1. Hope mom will continue to improve. Tough having older parents as there is always something.
2. Happy Birthday!
3. Tried, tried, Tried to use your links to get oldest grandchild their first credit card. No luck both because the card(s) I advised him for were not available through your link and then he got denied on the one we did try. No idea why either. He will try again. I showed him how to apply and to use your link.
4. Been sluggy on the coffees but will get to that soon as I can get back up to speed at my desk. Been a slow week. Still recovering from my health thing. Seems I spent a little too much time with not enough blood to my brain so I get a bit spacey.
5. Great post as always and your blog posts ARE NOT TOO LONG!
Thanks for all you do to post these to us. I truly appreciate it!
Many happy returns. Glad to hear your mom is doing well after her operation. Thanks for the info on Turkish Airlines as we are flying with them to Istanbul next month and will make sure we get to the airport early enough to enjoy the lounge on departure.
@ Christian: Thank you.
@ DML: Thank you. Yeah, I always tried to be diversified enough with my miles/points stash and did come through this time. But if it wasn’t for two CO Venture X referrals I would not have enough for the TK Business Class ticket so I am thankful for that. But now I have under 17k CO points left so I am out of this currency pretty much. CO is not Chase so replenishing them would not be easy.
@ Carl: Thank you for all the support and kind words always. Son told me on my face that my posts are just way too long and he is right. This one was somewhere in the middle between the old long ones and the new shorter ones. Expect the one on Tuesday to be the norm going forward. If I get to it. Blogging here takes a lot of time and if it wasn’t for the few clicks of support it would be, well, kind of suicidal, sad lol. Careful with the youngsters and credit. I think best starter card are the Discorer it cards (not available with my links) and Freedom Rise with a tiny aff commission, so don’t worry about my links. Instead worry about them not getting carried away thinking it is Free money!
@ David: Thank you. Maybe in July we do what you inquired about some time ago via email.
@ Vicky: Thank you. To or from Istanbul? I think if you are flying from Istanbul the TK Business lounge is a must. And do not eat for a while before you visit it.
Thanks to Brian for the generous Paypal donation and to Fannie for the 3 coffees, so appreciated!
Getting ready for another three Euro 2024 games today. And starting tomorrow we are on to the third games of the first round where the urgency matters and looking for fireworks.
Thanks George. We are doing a round trip in and out of Istanbul from Germany. I deliberately chose an afternoon departure on our return thinking some lounge time might be called for. Have also booked for a week at GH Istanbul and managed to secure a suite for our stay. Will be our first time in Turkey so looking forward to it.