Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as average salaries around the world, the rideshare mafia, the top flight routes, more new sweetened card offers, sleek salesmen selling dreams, the risks we miss, LVMH’s Arnault story, the tragedy in the Bangkok Grand Hyatt, best lake towns and much more and of course always all of the most important developments in the crazy world of miles and points. See you next next week, 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.
This is a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts.
PERSONAL FINANCE
The Wall Street Journal lately has been publishing some articles that make my blood boil. Like this one: Investors Keep Faith in America’s ‘Apartment King,’ Even in Tough Times. Brad Sumrok’s pitch drew thousands of people seeking riches in rental apartment buildings but trouble now looms for many. You may have noticed I have a very strong dislike for people selling a dream to others and making money off of them. And doing it in a clearly arrogant way like this guy. Dead giveaway when this guy was inspired by Robert Kiyosaki! And he met his wife at an event by another guru salesman, Anthony Robbins, I guess it was love at first sight smh.
During a 2021 recruitment video, the year before rates began to climb, Sumrok lifted a fist and cinematic string music swelled.
“We’re gonna do what’s called an incantation,” he told the crowd, initiating a call-and-response.
“I am a millionaire apartment investor,” he said.
I am a millionaire apartment investor, the crowd responded.
“Yes, you are,” he said. “I am financially free.”
I am financially free, the crowd echoed.
“I live life on my terms.”
I live life on my terms.
Excuse me, I took a break. To barf, yikes. Anyway, there are always suckers out there:
His training programs, costing as much as $35,000 a year, gathered thousands of followers…
And then interest rates rose and you won’t believe what happened next. Here is the direct link to the article for you with a WSJ subscription. Some of the comments are great.
Jonathan Clements, the founder of Humble Dollar and former columnist for the Wall Street Journal for many years, recently revealed he has terminal cancer. And the quality of his articles is increasing, which was hard to top I think. The Risks We Miss.
We’re laser-focused on certain risks. Stock market crashes. Auto accidents. Our home burning down. Big medical bills. Losing our job. Hefty home repairs. All this drives the size of our emergency fund, the insurance we carry, and the sum we allocate to bonds and cash investments. But what if the risks we’re trying to contain aren’t the risks we get hit with?
Limiting one risk can open us up to others—such as the cash-loving investors who fear stock market turmoil but end up getting decimated by inflation.
Dangers arise that never even occurred to us. [Pandemic, 2008 GFC, 9/11, LTCM collapse]. The lesson: Purportedly low-probability events seem to happen with surprising frequency.
Some of our biggest financial hits come from an unlikely source: our own family.
The apparently mighty often collapse with shocking speed. [Lehman, Enron, WorldCom].
Folks often get into big trouble not because they purchase insurance that offers too little coverage, but because they completely neglect to buy certain policies.
I view the long Japanese bear market as perhaps the seminal financial event of my lifetime. Could something similar happen in the U.S. or Europe? Probably not—but it is indeed a risk, one ignored by those whose home bias leads them to stick largely or entirely with their own nation’s stocks.
If leverage is involved, our financial life can unravel fast.
We are lucky here in the US and darn Luxembourg lol. Link.
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
And here comes another grifter who is likely not leaving prison anytime soon. China Tycoon Who Angered Beijing Found Guilty of Fraud in New York. Jurors agree Guo Wengui conned followers out of more than $1 billion to sustain a lavish lifestyle. I don’t know about you but I find it incredibly satisfying to see assholes like this guy rot in prison. Like we said, so many suckers out there being separated from their money. WSJ original article for subscribers.
The government said Guo leveraged his popularity in the Chinese diaspora to pitch his schemes as ways to make money and simultaneously undermine the Communist Party. His broadcaster GTV raised $411 million, an operation called G-Club $240 million and a cryptocurrency venture $517 million, the government said. The jury saw photos and videos of dazzling properties in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, a Lamborghini, a Bugatti and a Ferrari plus a yacht and racks of Italian suits, all luxuries the government said were paid for with money from supporters. Prosecutors played music videos featuring Guo on board a yacht and next to a private jet and produced flow charts and bank statements they said showed how investor millions paid for a mansion, chandeliers, mattresses and a Ferrari for Guo’s son.
Remember when not that long ago, Uber and DoorDash were giving away lots of money to go drive for them. And then this Brazilian lady arriving in the US found herself in desperate times and then went to, well, “work”. Priscila. Queen of the Rideshare Mafia. She came to the US with a dream. Using platforms like Uber, Instacart, and DoorDash, she built a business empire up from nothing. There was just one problem. Well, she scaled up this deal and greed took over sadly.
ODDZ & ENDZ
This is an excellent dive into Bernard Arnault, the richest man on planet Earth and how he came about his wealth taking his company LVMH into the stratosphere cornering all things luxury. The House of Arnault. His company, LVMH, bought up many of the world’s major luxury brands. And he’s not finished shopping. Very interesting history of how he got here. Reading this I must admit this guy must be hated by many for his shrewd business tactics. I should probably send this to my wife to see where the money spent on purses goes lol.
Well, this is pretty good. Inspiring, which is in my blog’s mission. Nothing shocking, just good to be reminded to do these things. Character is Fate: Ten Habits That Will Help You to Live and Be Better. I am going to try harder to be kind to convicted grifters above…never mind.
The obligatory photography link: The Most Hilarious Entries So Far in the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards.
TRAVEL
SAVE $100 FOR 2024 THE EXTRAORDINARY TRAVEL FESTIVAL
You probably heard of the six people found dead in the Bangkok Grand Hyatt: Update On The Tragic Murder-Suicide Case At Grand Hyatt Bangkok: Financial Crime Lead To Death. How tragic. They gave her money to invest, investments went south (if not scammed outright), they decided to meet to talk about how to resolve this and she poisoned them all and then committed suicide. I thought about adding this to the Personal Finance section but it was already filled out. I wanted to make the counter point to the guy selling syndicated apartment deals who was telling his suckers to stand up and say “I am free” while being in debt up to their eyeballs that…when you are in debt you can never be free. Aspire to be debt free, it is amazing, true freedom. And, for crying out loud, why would you give anyone so much money to invest in some real estate deal? Run away in the opposite direction when approached by smooth people like this.
Let’s stay in Asia, this looks amazing: World’s largest indoor ice park in China offers immersive tech experience.
Interesting: Best Lake Towns in the US to Visit in Your Next Summer Vacation. I endorse the two towns in Michigan, Marquette and Saugatuck. And I have been to Lake Tahoe of course, one day I am going to sell my blog to buy a house there. Please laugh, I am, woohoo.
This one has been in the queue for a while: The World’s Top Flight Routes, by Revenue. I thought New York – London was tops. And surprised to see some of these routes make this list.
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
As I was about to push the Publish button today, it appears there has been a massive Microsoft outage worldwide impacting, well, everything. Including aviation.
We love our Detroit Airport. But the bathrooms were starting to show their age so I was happy to see this: DTW rebuilding 67 bathrooms in McNamara Terminal — occupied lights, shelves, stools, more.
Well, I was explicitly told there is nothing wrong with my feet, other than I need to let them heal and not be on my feet, so back to biking I go. I continue the physical therapy for now to correct my mechanics. I guess I could not accept that I should stop running, you know, it is difficult. But now I am in peace with this decision and will start running again only when I no longer feel the pain (mostly discomfort). In other getting older news, I got an ear infection in my bad right ear and the level of buzzing from tinnitus has scaled up. The name of my blog ends in Buzz and it so defines me, sad lol.
So, the 2024 Ann Arbor Art Fair is underway when parking downtown becomes, cough, problematic. So we rode our bikes to it and checked it out as we do at least once a year every year. Pre Covid, we had a meeting with miles and points enthusiasts every year and on the Friday night before the speakers did their presentations I used to host the attendees at my home. Good times. Here is an old post I did blogging live the 2016 Ann Arbor Art Fair DO. An interesting painting piece from this year’s Art Fair:
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
I only pick worthy links to share with you. As there is so much crap out there! What stood out since last post is that new travel rewards credit card offers keep coming and they come with several sweeteners. Which is great to see, thumbs up for US banks competing, we benefit, capitalism at work.
GENERAL NEWS/PROMOS/NEWBIES/ETC.
Another year goes by and another year I bought absolutely nothing on Amazon Prime Day.
Finally! Amex Opens New Centurion Lounge at DCA on July 17. Can’t wait for angry posts about how long the lines are lol.
Pretty easy online shopping scores: Alaska/Southwest/United Shopping Portal Bonuses: Get Up To 2,500 Bonus Miles.
Another 20 properties to join Hyatt soon it appears: Hyatt In Talks To Acquire The Standard Hotel Chain.
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 offers expire, thank you.
NEW: We are being hit by more travel rewards credit card offers. What stands out is a 75k Capital One Venture card and a 50k Alaska Airlines Visa card. But wait! The banks are offering juicy sweeteners on both cards, see details below in this section.
NEW: Meanwhile, this is a good post on how to go about downgrading/product changing credit cards from different banks: Downgrade Paths: How to keep your card but break up with your annual fee or find a better fit. Also, suddenly, Capital One just killed the Savor card.
The right way to go about earning miles and points is of course to aim for the signup bonuses of bank credit cards earning their own points currency. Think Chase/Ultimate Rewards, American Express/Membership Rewards, Citi/ThankYou points (what a dumb name!), Capital One/CO Miles (should be points lol), etc. Because they are more flexible by nature. When you get an airline or a hotel rewards card you are limited to that company and, you know, they devalue a lot more frequently. So, you should expect more goodies to sign up for airline/hotel cards. And we have been seeing different benefits being tested to figure out what works/sticks.
NEW: Wait, there is more! The streak of unique sweetener offers continues. Pure airline cards must be suffering I am guessing. So, here is Bank of America with a unique sweetener offer: Buy One Get One and 50k Alaska Airlines Visa Signature card. Ok, let’s get into it. The annual fee is $95 and the minimum spend is $3,000 in the first three months. Well, you buy one but you don’t get the other ticket for free, you just have to pay the taxes and fees starting at $23. At each anniversary you get to use a Companion Fare at $99 plus fees/taxes, which could be a great deal. Earns 3x on Alaska Airlines, 2x on gas, EV charging, cable, streaming and local transit, 1x on everything else. Free checked bag and priority boarding for up to 6 guests as long as you use the card to pay for your ticket. 10% bonus on all your purchases annually if you have an eligible Bank of America account (checking or savings will do). 20% off on in flight purchases. No foreign transaction fees. Bank of America website and its Bill Pay feature can be very annoying, always watch them.
MY ACTION
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I recently closed three credit cards: son’s Citi AAadvantage, wife’s Chase Ink Business Cash and my own Chase Ink Business Unlimited. So, you know, I have more capacity. 🙂
So, then off I went. I applied for the 120k Chase Ink Business Preferred card and I did not get instantly approved. Which was kind of expected. I tried to call Chase Reconsideration on the Monday after the Friday I applied for and I had a kind of bizarre and very unusual chat with a Chase rep. I was going to call back again on Tuesday to chat with a different agent and try to push through a decision. But on Tuesday at 11.14 am I received an email that my application was approved. I called Chase and talked to a nice rep this time and I asked to expedite the card to me. I received the card via UPS on Thursday. I also told the agent to change the statement close date to make it the same as my other cards.
And then, I was going to wait a little bit to decide what to do next but, you know, I am itching to go for another one. It is a known symptom of milesaholics, hehe. When I logged in to my wife’s Chase account I noticed an area titled “You’re already approved”. And I saw the Ink Business Preferred card already there. So, that led me to believe that if she applies now for it she will be approved, likely instantly. So, this is what we did, boom, instant approval. Immediately sent a secured message to ask for three things: 1) Expedite the card, 2)Transfer some credit line from her Ink Business Unlimited card to make them more even and, 3) Change the statement close date. No response yet from Chase on the secured message. Hopefully she does not have to call because she would rather have a root canal instead.
And now, you know, I am itching for more. I am debating whether to just take a shot applying for the 75k Capital One Rewards card. Another $4k of minimum spend and it is now getting a little hefty you know to meet all that. Capital One pulls your credit from all three bureaus which sucks. And there is no guarantee that I will be approved because you just never know what Capital One will do. I do know I should wait at least a week before applying for it, so maybe next Wednesday. This is 75,000 Capital One miles AND a straight $250 travel credit. So, $1,000 free travel credit at least (if not transferring the points out to partners) for an annual fee of $95. Works for me! I do have the Capital One Venture X card by the way which I am keeping. So, I don’ t really need this card but I will keep it for one year at least. And then likely close it and I hope Capital One does not put me on a black list or something. Or, heaven forbid, close my Venture X card and tell me to take a hike. The reason I am hesitating here is…
Amex still tries to get me back. And now we are up to 250k on the Amex Business Platinum card. I am fine swimming in the Chasesphere you guys. I only have an Amex Hilton Surpass and an Amex Blue Business Plus card. Me and my wife are Authorized Users of personal Amex Platinum cards from our son’s personal Amex Platinum card that costs him $195 times 2 and we pay for that with Amazon Prime and family cell phone plan for him. But, you know, 250k is really really hard to resist! We are talking “free” $2,500 without transferring the points. But of course it comes with a $695 annual fee. And a bunch of credits which I find extremely annoying to keep them mentally straight. Like, I mean, I have to force myself to buy $400 worth of crap from Dell, try to use the $200 airline credit (I guess United Travel bank still works?), and maybe even go for CLEAR ($189 credited). The rest of the credits (Adobe, Indeed, $120 cell phone credit) are meaningless to me. And then I have to cancel the authorized user card, get new Priority Pass cards blah blah blah. I have been doing fine without my own Amex Platinum in my life for a while. But, you know, I have the packet in my kitchen counter looking at me and the 250,000 number screams “Are you an idiot, just take me for a year, come on!’. Anyway, this offer is good until 10/1/2024 so I have some time to think it over. I guess next thing I should check is “Lifetime Language”. And check my records when I had this card before, I am pretty sure it has been more than seven years.
I spotted my daughter about 200,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points and told here she can go ahead and use them in the Chase Travel portal for fares under $250. And then boom, she booked three separate one way flights already, 14,359 points Seattle to New York JFK, 11,479 points New York LGA to Denver, 11,879 points Denver to Seattle for the Christmas holiday and then she spends New Year’s in Denver with friends. She assured me she will not cancel them to avoid dealing with the Chase travel reps. Oh, I need to book my own way to New York area for the holidays. And now we can’t use British Airways Avios to fly on partner American Airlines flights since British Airways devalued killed this. Wife has hers booked as she changed her United Seattle trip to New York, all this from a $500 United voucher last year.
ADVANCED
If you have status on any of the 19 airlines listed, this is a great opportunity: Get SkyTeam status now – and Star Alliance status later – via ITA’s new BA status match.
Interesting: How to find SLH hotels bookable with Hilton points & free night certificates. I guess I should take Rooms.aero for another spin.
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 120k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 75k CHASE United Business, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards AND $250 Travel Credit, 150k AMEX Business Platinum, two 120k CHASE Southwest Business cards, $1,000 Cash Back CHASE Ink Business 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 1,147,230 miles/points year to date (1,148,286 in 2023) and have 4,139,537 miles/points in the bank. Some do drugs, I do miles lol!
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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Huh! Gold! For the Pacific Northwest! (Hadn’t said that for a while.)
Lots of great stuff here and I will spend some good time reading a lot of the articles. Thanks as always, George!
Hello from JFK in the delta one lounge. Quite spiffy! One way to deal with overcrowding is the restrict entry for Delta one tickets.
We stayed at the Santiago intercontinental. IHG points
Thanks for the links!
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Thanks guys, enjoy the weekend. The weather here the past two days has been absolutely magical.
Best of luck for anyone flying today. Looks like a clusterphuck out there. When my daughter gets to Seattle to start working for Microsoft she will fix it 🙂
It could be worse!
Give me an hour and I’ll say just how!
The security firm has a bad reputation but that will come out
Greetings from 30,000 feet! After gorging myself at the AAdmirals club I took my very slightly more comfortable main cabin extra seat as my family and I are headed for our dream vacation in… BUFFALO!
Enjoy Buffalo 🙂
Nice links. I was pretty shocked about the average salary in the USA until I realized that it’s probably pretty skewed. I wish they had listed the mean salary instead.
I agree, definitely skewed. I swear I posted it and started the title with it because it would drive clicks. So, I am not sure it qualifies as “clickbait”. And this is how the online world is changing us all 🙂
Ok, can we put this leak baby to rest for good, come on!
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanmic/article/PIIS2666-5247(24)00206-4/fulltext
What a disaster with Crowdstrike – an event just waiting to happen.
Anybody remember that movie with Sandra Bullock -“The Net”?
I have a strong feeling Putin may have been behind it. Therefore, the VERY quick statements that came out to blame Crowdstrike. Of course, we will never know most likely.
I do remember the movie back then but I don’t remember much of it.
When I was asked what keeps me up at night, my answer was: Civil War and major cyberattack.
For any blog issues I would like to blame the third party responsible (Crowdstrike). 🙂
Going to make my Tuesday posts shorter, aiming for half the length going forward. Just sticking with even more eclectic stuff.
I am also going to share with you the latest music video I discovered today from an amazing band…from Singapore! Really raw sound, I am blown away. This should lead more to unsubscribe for sure lol.
And thanks to Joe Biden, thank you for four amazing years and saving us from the dotard. And now…hang on, it is going to get even more crazy!
Hey Buzz, been awhile. Thanks for the great links lately. The Castaneda story, creep, and not surprising. And Priscilla, wow! Talk about cojones.
Good luck with the rehab, glad you made the decision before it was too late.
Looking forward to hearing the band from Singapore, keep up the great work, we do appreciate your efforts.
Thanks David, email me to arrange a time to chat.
I am playing that band from Singapore again while I type this 🙂
Humbly submitted for TBB: a Turkmenistan trip report because you don’t see too many of those.
https://www.asiafrontiercapital.com/travel-reports-2024/july-2024.html
Looks interesting, will add it to the queue, thanks! Hope you are not flying Delta.
AA thankfully. My brother’s currently delayed by a few days on an unrelated Delta trip though.