We learn about the new ANA Award Chart, Car Leases, Alaska Airlines Awards, take a jab at bloggers pumping the SPG Amex, visit Turkey, marvel at Northern Lights Over Iceland, check out Skylines, and also visit the Great Lakes.
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Let’s go on another round through the blogs and see what caught my eye to share with you here.
Travel Is Free shows us how to use the new ANA Award Chart.
If you want to learn how car lease deals work this blog post by Philip Hall (the MilesAbound guy) is it! I saved it on Evernote so I can negotiate my next car lease deal using this info.
Can I book a hotel for someone else? Great reference post by Points With a Crew.
You can learn a lot about Alaska Airlines Award Travel Rules by Travel Codex.
Apparently you may have noticed bloggers making separate blog posts telling you all how the SPG Amex card now has a lower minimum spend requirement. I could have done that and pumped the card. But if you waited so long to get it for 25,000 SPG points, might as well wait a little more when Amex will likely offer it for 30,000 SPG points as they do almost every summer (no guarantees, just saying). And when they do offer it, y’all come back here and get it with my links. Fight back the pumpers this way, hit them where it hurts lol.
I screwed up. For some reason I thought my Hilton HHonors Gold Elite status was locked up but just realized I was dropped to Silver status, oh the horrors! I have had the regular no fee Hilton Honors Amex for ever it appears and always knocked out $20k in a few trips to “shopping” establishments to get the Gold status and then parked the card. Anyways, like I said, I screwed up. It happens, darn TBB blog again. I am leaving in a few weeks and have a stay at the Hilton Frankfurt airport and was planning to eat a great breakfast before boarding our plane to return to the US. So, thanks to some advice on Twitter, the fastest way to get the Gold status back was to upgrade to the Surpass Amex card and pick up another 50,000 Hilton points along the way. May be enough for a night at a Hilton Garden Inn in Topeka, Kansas maybe. I plan to downgrade back to my regular HH Amex in early 2016 to avoid the annual $75 fee (which will likely be prorated it appears so that breakfast will not be totally free, darn it!). Anyways, to get the 50,000 points I need to do $3k min spend which would be a quick trip to my nearest mall for them gift cards and then a stop at good old WalMart lol. No hard credit pull!
A fantastic travel video about Turkey!
This is amazingly beautiful: Northern Lights Over Iceland
More highlights from the 2015 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest:
You need to come over to see the Great Lakes!
Every plane in the US Navy’s massive air contingent. Holy cow, that’s a lot!
The Ten Harsh Financial Commandments by the Irrelevant Investor. This is great, loved the last one!
The Triple Tax Savings of Health Savings Accounts. Love HSAs, they can be awesome deals!
How to Avoid this Top Retirement Scam. Oh boy, variable annuities. Sound lovely and they usually are…for the seller!
And I leave you with this:
TBB
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Go Ducks! First!
go Beavers
To be clear, you’re just rooting against the Hawks right?
Yes, they have gone way too far for being…Hawks 🙂
Second. Tough day already.
I’m third!
Turkey is awesome. After spending a cumulative 35+ weeks in Istanbul on business trips, ten years ago we decided to do a 3+ week trip of Istanbul and the western half of the country. Did you know that Turkey has more Greek and Roman ruins than Italy and Greece combined? They are all over the place, and of course things from the Ottoman era. The caravan serais (ruins and restored) are also interesting. These places were rest stops on the silk road in ancient times to provide shelter, food, and water to the traders. They have really thick stone walls that created a primitive air conditioning effect – it might be 95F or hotter outside, but inside one of this places it is quite cool/comfortable. Dolmabahçe Palace (Istanbul) is possibly one of the most opulent in Europe. Our early morning balloon ride over Cappadoccia was a memorable experience. The people are super cool and very friendly. Many Americans don’t even consider Turkey as a destination because it is a Muslim country, but if they did some research they would understand that it is a stable/secure country and a great opportunity to get a better understanding of the religion/culture.
I really enjoyed my time in Istanbul and will explore the country more later. My grandparents used to live over there and were kicked out in 1921. They used to speak Turkish and taught me some words which I still remember. They all settled in a village outside Larisa in central Greece and they always longed to go back to their homes. Nowdays people from my village do tours over there every year, it is quite emotional for them. As I get older I want to go back there and see for myself…
the about Lucky info on OMAT shows a picture of him and he looks about 40 years old, I thought until recently he touted himself as a college student…My about Clive info is not only accurate but humble imho https://www.facebook.com/pages/Clive-Bixby/151351901588266
You are an animal Clive! https://www.facebook.com/151351901588266/photos/pb.151351901588266.-2207520000.1432168610./887962837927165/?type=3&theater
Astute Buzz followers will appreciate that I had to comment on OMAAT that poster child should not be hyphenated. Nor should phrases such as babbling idiot, but then I rarely comment on HTs.
As for the picture, my take is Ben’s jumped from cute to chic.
George, with the current 30% off summer sale with Hilton, a club room with breakfast is pretty decent and just 20-30EUR/night 😉
I ‘ll check it out…it’s just that I am allergic to paying cash rates for hotels you know…just does not seem…right 🙂
My feelings exactly after my trip to Spain, where I paid cash for lodging. I paid cash because it was cheaper, but it really sucks!
Andy, the ultimate points currency is cash! It’s the one you should be happiest to manufacture and spend, so, if you get a great deal somewhere, never think twice about it!
Hey TBB, I don’t see any Barclays Bank credit card links in your site, what happened?
Anyways, Citibank Prestige and Premier cards are back, thankyou points all the way, keep it up.
TBBlinks Rock! http://travelbloggerbuzz.com/credit-cards/
You are right, I just noticed there are no Barclays Bank cards listed. That blows! No wonder I have not seen any sales from that bank, this explains it!
Anyone know why?
You lease a vehicle? And you call yourself a financial adviser?
Yes. First time I leased a car and it was a 48 hr superb deal given to Ford employees (wife). Awesome Ford Fusion hybrid for 2 years for about $250 per month, one year in and LOVE it. I always used to buy cars and drive them to the ground. Gave son the 2001 Camry that is at 190k miles, it was perfect timing. You know, I realized why some people like to lease cars…that new car smell is really nice and in about a year we may get to do it again. I did not think I would like driving something I do not own but I was wrong! Heck, I get some cards from my site and can make the lease payment lol.
Shhhh!
(Scared ya? Just kidding)
Yes, they have gone way too far for being…Hawks