Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as the biggest homes in each state, AI bubble or not, a review of the 2024 Paris Olympics & memes, countries with the most paid time off, meet an eccentric collector, how to volunteer for the Olympics, a map of independent bookstores and much more and of course always all of the most important developments in the crazy world of miles and points. See you next on Friday!
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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.
Tuesday posts aim to be much shorter than the Friday posts. Another post dominated by the Olympics, hopefully I am still here when 2028 Los Angeles Olympics rolls around.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Let’s keep it light and just look at some bigly homes: The Biggest Home in Each State Will Stun You. And it will also stun your pocket! In order to be financially independent there is always a battle between living it up and living below your means. And reaching way high for that mega dream home while you are in the accumulation years (and bypassing all that compounding of your investments to make that mortgage payment every month) while possibly raising a family and demanding work schedules and, well, some people find this to be way too stressful. But they can’t get off that FOMO treadmill and keeping up with the Joneses. (Why Joneses and not Smiths I always wondered). At the same time, you know, we only live once. So, it is very important to find that balance.
I still can’t get over the fact so many still believe they can time market moves smh. Going to drop this here so we can move on.
Very interesting graph: Countries With the Most Paid Time Off. Be like Luxembourg? Yes. Be like Central African Republic? Probably not.
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
We are all trying to figure out if this AI thing is the real deal or yet another bubble? This is a good article: Three reasons we’re in an AI bubble (and four reasons we’re not). Per author:
Bubble: Companies aren’t yet earning profits on their AI investments, and it’s not clear if or when they will.
Bubble: Some of the most prominent startups are throwing in the towel.
Bubble: The rate of innovation seems to be slowing down.
Not a bubble: Tech companies are often unprofitable for very long stretches.
Not a bubble: Startups failing is a normal part of the venture capital life cycle.
Not a bubble: Tech companies are still wringing plenty of innovation out of current generation models.
Not a bubble: Technology adoption takes a long time.
I guess we’ll find out, time always tells. Always diversify!
ODDZ & ENDZ
What a sweet article about an old guy who has been collecting, please sit down, washing machines: The Charming, Eccentric, Blessed Life of Lee Maxwell. Ninety-four-year-old Lee Maxwell lives in Eaton and owns a Guinness-world-record-holding washing machine museum. When his wife of 71 years recently died, Maxwell was left to ponder what his new life would look like—and if anyone, besides him, cares about his singular collection. This was one of those reads that I felt grateful for having a chance to read it, thanks so much to the author. And many thoughts started flowing through my mind. What a great guy, so surrounded by love, not slowing down at all while dealing with grief losing his dear wife and so many friends and family. And so fascinated by washing machines, wow! I also feel for the dear son who will have to deal with all of them when his dad passes away. The hardest thing I did was clear away all the crap my parents accumulated in the family home before selling it. And one of my life goals is that I would never let that fall on my kids’ shoulders. Making a conscious effort to clear crap away from my house slowly and steadily, the feeling is liberating. And what do I do with my stamp collection I never even looked at since I went to college and all my LP records since CDs came into our life lol.
2024 PARIS OLYMPICS
I really enjoyed these Olympics. So many memorable moments…
But first, this is a wonderful must read article about the Ancient Olympic Games. You know, in every Olympics, Greece goes first. And all Greeks get this euphoric wave of pride and, stay with me for a sec, we dream about returning the Games where they were born. Actually, making Greece the permanent place to hold the Olympics every four years, stop all wars, celebrate the best athletes and maybe dial way down all this intense nationalistic feelings. And of course this will never happen but we can still dream. Anyway, the article goes in detail how the Games were held and I even learned a lot I did not know. A few excerpts:
During this period, war among Greek city-states is forbidden, criminal trials are suspended, and the execution of capital punishment is prohibited.
When an athlete made a false start, they were physically punished by the judges. This punishment was also applied in other competitions for any irregularity committed by the participants.
The Summer Festivals of Olympia, held continuously for 1,169 years from 776 BC to 393 AD, came to an end by order of Roman Emperor Theodosius I after proclaiming the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 AD, which required the cessation of any non-Christian celebration.
First, here is a site that compares the Medal Counts per country in the last two Olympics. Some of my observations:
It was a VERY close race for the Gold medals winner between USA and China. It ended with a tie with each country winning 40 Gold medals. USA beat China by just one Gold medal in Tokyo. Overall, USA won 126 medals, up from 113 in Tokyo. China earned 91 medals, up from 89 in Tokyo. The only way for the US to win is to take diving and table tennis out of the Olympics, lol.
France more than DOUBLED its medals haul, going from 33 to 64. Now that’s a home advantage! Maybe Macron should call another election right now lol.
Greece doubled its medals, going from four to eight so nice job! Our amazing long jumper Tentoglou has two gold medals and promised another one in Los Angeles in 2028. And, you know what, all Greeks know that he will do it again. Because this dude is just special, keeps a private life, never ever flashy, always respectful of others, keeps admitting he is just lucky he jumps for a living and many others have it way worse and should be thought of as heroes instead of him. Anyway, what an ideal person for Greek kids to look up to:
Some memorable moments:
Did you see what Steph Curry did at the basketball final, epic!
I LOVE seeing the reactions of athletes winning a gold medal in the Olympics. I always dreamed of that. Maybe I have a shot at competitive taco eating lol.
And celebrating with their families. You may get emotional, you have been warned.
We talked about how an Olympic medal can change lives, especially the gymnast from the Philippines. Here is another one: Every Olympic Champion Wins a Medal. This One Also Gets Free Colonoscopies. But here are some more interesting ones:
The Kazakhstan government, on the other hand, measures medals in rooms. A gold winner gets a three-bedroom apartment, silver means a two-bedroom and a bronze medalist settles for a one-bedroom. Yeldos Smetov, who won judo gold for Kazakhstan here, also received a herd of 100 thoroughbred horses, a Lexus and the guarantee of a smooth ride no matter his method of transportation: The local administration laid new asphalt on the road to his house.
In South Korea, Olympic medalists are exempted from compulsory military service. In Poland, winners get an investment grade diamond and a painting by “respected and talented Polish artists.”
By the way,...the U.K. and Sweden offer to their winners: nothing but pride.
All right, back to the Filipino gymnast, he is still raking it in:
…he will get a congressional medal and at least $350,000 from the government. Plus, a free set of headlights and fog lights. Also, free wedding photography, haircuts and furniture. And more food than he could eat in an entire lifetime. One local real-estate developer awarded him a fully furnished, three-bedroom apartment in Manila. Not to be outdone, another real-estate company offered him a house. companies have raced to offer Yulo a free lifetime supply of everything he could possibly eat and drink, from coffee, ramen and strawberry float ice cream to grilled chicken and mac-and-cheese. As if he didn’t already have enough food, Yulo was also offered free access to a chain called Vikings Luxury Buffet.
Ok, let’s move on. I still don’t care much about breakdancing in the Olympics. Especially after this Australian who did not earn a single point lol. Australian Breakdancer Goes Viral as Sport Makes Its Olympic Debut. Wait, forget competitive taco eating, maybe I can make it to the Olympics as a break dancer, why not? Actually, this “sport” will not be in 2028 Los Angeles, thank you Jesus! Anyway, more on her for more lols.
Did you see the dude dressed as Kim Jong-um mocking the stone cold North Koreans?
And one more entertaining link: 50 Times The 2024 Paris Olympic Games Were The Source Of The Funniest Memes And Reactions.
One of the most memorable moments of these Olympics will forever remain Celine Dion’s epic performance in the Opening Ceremonies that still gives me chills. Especially when you see the lyrics of the original Edith Piaf song, thanks to reader Sam for this.
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TRAVEL
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Since this post is dominated by the Olympics, maybe this will interest you: How to Apply to Be a Volunteer and see the next Olympics for free, Los Angeles anyone?
Awesome world map of independent bookstores. Make sure you support everything out there you want to keep alive and thriving to make the world a better place, thank you!
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
On Tuesdays I will make this section really short and consolidate it and just throw everything together. I will get back to splitting it up to the different sections on Friday.
Please help the small independent blogs like mine continue to exist by supporting them with your CREDIT CARD clicks, thank you!
As this was going to press, it appears Avianca’s Lifemiles inflicted another devaluation. As in First Class awards going up by 50%, ouch. I never trusted this program. Will likely have gory details on Friday.
This was actually pretty fair: Loyalty programs changing fortunes (August 2024).
Can’t even get to 10 these days smh. 9 of the Best Deals in the World of Points & Miles. This is a typical post from yet another business in this miles and points industry. Some decent info and the post is full of credit card affiliate links. Fine, I get it now, they need to get paid. But when you inflict 60k Amex Gold and 80k Amex personal Platinum affiliate links to your readers because they are the only ones you can sell and get paid from absolutely hosing them as we know there are easily found non affiliate links offering way more points, well, just be aware of that ok? This will not happen here in the body of the post and my readers are smart enough to avoid non competitive offers. If you don’t know, just ask. Educating is listed first in my blog’s mission!
I avoid publishing about targeted offers here. Because this is a one man show, no staff, no interns, nothing. And if I start going down this path these targeted offers never end. But always be aware of Amex direct credit card links because there have been instances in the past that whoever clicked on them was deemed a gamer by its infamous RAT (Rewards Abuse Team) and was shut down or went through Financial Reviews. So, if this happens to you, don’t complain to me here, thank you. With all that warning, you may want to consider this one: Amex Blue Business Plus, 50K Bonus with $5K Spend (Targeted, NLL). I should go for this one for my daughter (the rest of us do have this card, it is our Amex Membership Rewards points anchor card, no annual fee, 2x on everything, keep Membership Rewards alive). But she is moving to Seattle and going to keep a lid on my mental bandwidth and not add yet another card…I think.
It looks like son’s Hyatt free night cert will go unused. After several warnings. He tried desperately to book a night at the only Cat 4 Hyatt in Oahu, the Hyatt Place Waikiki Beach, and that property still plays games basically not allowing awards and free night certs. Another bad point for Hyatt, this should not happen when there are standard rooms available. Maybe we return to Hilton in 2026 if this trend continues? Update: Gave up on using it in Hawaii. Son gifted it to me and I booked a night (on the very last night before it expires!) for this Friday at a Hyatt Place in Grand Rapids, Michigan before we head off for the rest of the weekend in Ludington State Park (and a night on a, please sit down, Comfort Inn using Choice hotel points Saturday night).
My credit card vendor “Your Best Credit Cards” (YBCC) has added a new way to keep track of new credit card welcome offers and transfer bonuses. You can find details in the Section titled WELCOME OFFERS & TRANSFER BONUS NOTIFICATIONS in this page HERE. Of course read my blog for details on the offers and if you are not sure about a specific offer never hesitate to email or ask in the comments. If you open a YBCC account with my link and then apply for credit cards in YBCC notification emails you help support this blog to keep going.
12k United miles from a United Gateway credit card promo finally posted, they take a while. I am now awaiting for some more to post, hopefully before Thanksgiving.
Thinking to grow a beard. Never done it before, stop me.
Still the #1 BEST OFFER out there right now, we got three of these babies in my household clearing about 400,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points #winning. The top credit card offer right now is the 120k Chase Ink Business Preferred card. This card has been at an elevated 100k Signup Bonus for a while, so going with an extra 20k points takes it to the TOP travel rewards credit card offer out there right now. And yes, it is its highest ever signup bonus. The annual fee is $95. Requires $8k minimum spend in the first three months (used to be crazy high at $15k!). It earns 3x on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines and 1x on everything else. No foreign transaction fees and primary rental car insurance on business trips. Points are worth 1.25 cents each if used in the bank’s travel portal. So, if you do the math: 120k plus 8k MINIMUM (if all spend was at unbonused 1x ) is 128k points times 1.25 cents gives us free travel worth $1,600. For an annual fee of $95. Ok, I did the math for you, come on! And of course you can transfer the points instead to airline/hotel partners (I prefer Hyatt, Air Canada Aeroplan and sometimes Southwest, in that order) for even higher value. Very solid cell phone insurance coverage along with strong travel and purchase protections.
Best credit card offers STILL remain the same, see below my TOP FOUR travel rewards credit cards right now. For a DETAILED explanation of the features of these cards below, please click HERE and read about them at the bottom of that page.
Temporarily, the 120k CHASE Ink Business Preferred card goes right to the top.
The next offer NOW is the 75k Capital One Venture X card. It is amazing what you get for free with this card!
Next we have the 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash and 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited cards.
Learn how to apply HERE to support the blog.
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!
Learn how to apply HERE to support the blog. Or email me if you have any questions about any cards, I’m happy to help, thank you!
As of today, I have burned 1,205,957 miles/points year to date (1,148,286 in 2023) and have 4,363,325 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.
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Feel free to contact me anytime at travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com, all feedback is very appreciated.
George
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Where is everyone?
Probably reading One Mile at a Time’s latest: “American Airlines Bans Lesbian Woman, Accuses Her of Sex With Man”.
I can’t even imagine what VFTW did with this one…
While OMAAT rakes in more $ in 5 mins from so many morons clicking (helped by back scratching Boarding Area brotherhood blogs linking to it) at such hideous clickbait shit, this blog has sold 5 coffees this month which does not even pay for the Mailchimp fee! This makes me ponder about the meaning of it all and wtf I am still doing here. Serenity now…
Too much to read! Couldn’t wait!
Have to say I have never had problems redeeming certificates at HP Waikiki, last time I did redeem they even let me check in at 10 am. I believe the Waikiki Centric has an issue letting any redemptions slip by, so instead of bitching we all need to remember who plays games when deciding where to spend our cash. Why pay for Mailchimp? Why not let it go and let people find their way here if they are interested. Most things I subscribe too I never click through from the email.
Oh yeah, the Waikiki Hyatt Centric is still #1 bad boy, yes. But since it went to Cat 5 it kind of took itself out of the equation. It all ended working out fine, I updated the post. I took the award, called Globalist line, and used it on the very last night before it expired at a HP in Grand Rapids, we’ll go out for dinner and then take our time to drive up to Ludington instead of a very long drive there on Saturday. Gives me one more elite night credit…29. So close to 30 🙂
Many rely on the email. Like Carl 🙂 It was all fine and free but it went up to 554 now. I did cancel some of them looking to get under 50 but some complained. So, I think of it as the right thing to do. Definitely not doing business friendly things around here 12 years into this “venture”. It is what it is.
Sorry I am late. Returned home from 50th HS Reunion yesterday and even after just a few days, takes a while to get caught up. Much good stuff here even in the shorter version! Stayed in a Hyatt Place while there and burned some points but that was the COLDEST hotel I have ever been in. Hallways had AC roaring and after I finally got a room service, when I returned they had set the AC in my room at SIXTY (Yes, 60) degrees. Yow! Made the mistake also of not seeing that this hotel was very close to LegoLand so a MILLION kids running around the joint.
Even though there is no price of admission here, just the article about the Washing Machine museum would make it worth while! I always appreciate the articles and graphs and all. Thanks!!
Post ended up not being that short at the end.
60 degrees, WTF!!! I like my rooms on the colder side but that is crazy cold.
Hope you enjoyed the 50th HS reunion. Amazing how fast all these years went by.
Going not to mark you tardy this time 🙂 That washing machine collector article, I still think about it.
Just booked something that if I do a separate post it will be shut down. But not before I get many blogs to publicize it and link to me and lead to a lot more blog fans. And I won’t. Because Je suis TBB and sometimes I feel like a moron and determined to keep it that way LOL.
It’s all good…
Avios, pfffft
Just booked a speculative trip for my family to….
(drumroll)
…Michigan!
I don’t know why but AA has the CLT-Traverse City direct flights for only 6k on a bunch of days in June 2025 so I snagged a trip. AA keeps giving me good value on tickets; those flights often go for like $300-500.
George, any input is welcomed. Besides relaxing and crossing the last two great lakes off our family’s list I don’t really have big plans for this trip other than:
1. Sleeping Bear Dune NP
2. Maybe Mackinac Island–think it’s worth it?
3. Maybe drive around a bit in the UP.
If I do 2 and 3 I guess I’ll probably want to relocate from TVC for a few days.
We had a lot of comments back and forth the last time you were thinking to visit Michigan. I am sure they are still valid. 🙂
Again, it all depends on how long you got. Driving early to Mackinaw City and taking the ferry to the island and spend the day/bike around it for the whole day and then the ferry back and overnight in Mackinaw City, I think they had a Holiday Inn Express years ago.
UP is huge! I say the highlights is Pictured Rocks park, you can spend a whole week there easy. Marquette is the city to stay and will find points hotels I think. Maybe a whole day to do the LONG drive around. Maybe spend a night in Copper Harbor if the kids like mountain biking activities. The beaches and water up there is majestic and freaking cold lol.
I think hitting Porcupine state park at the Wisconcin border will be impractical/too far.
Another superb area to drive around is the Lake Michigan surrounded peninsula north of Traverse City. Much shorter too. The other peninsula further in has Torch Lake where some big shots stay and mansions abound. Think caviar lol.
6k is great. But can you do better? Think AA #hint
Sorry, been traveling to the Pacific Northwest with my wife.
Roman Emperor Theodosius seems like a weenie who wasn’t much fun at parties.
The Korean sharpshooter looks like she’s in a Matrix movie. That takes an awful lot of cool.
Theodosius was definitely a weenie lol.
The contrast of the two shooters is wild.
Pacific Northwest is nice, I should get there more. But this weekend is exploring more local Lake Michigan coast in the west part of our state. August weather here is just perfect.
And just when I was about to comment here that tomorrow’s post is shaping up to be another awesome one…I got an email I lost another email list subscriber.
You have no idea how demoralizing this is. Thanks a lot Amber smh.
On another note, I am in the first phase of growing a beard and finally let someone else touch my hair…yes, I went to a barber.
Ok, back on working the post. One of these days I am going to say phuck it and give up…and then figure out what i am going to do with my time. Maybe my feet are cured completely and get back to walking and then running again, been so long!