Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as chaos FAFOnomics, what Elon Musk wants, traveling in Thailand’s Deep South region, I am slowly getting back to running, the latest tax scams, IRA mistakes, bubble watching, aliens messing with human heads, 21st century architecture, Internations group, always the best photography links and of course always all of the most important developments in the crazy world of miles and points at the lower half of the post. Enjoy the weekend and file your tax returns early.
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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 curated posts featuring the best web content along with my commentary.
This is a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts.
BLOG HOUSEKEEPING
I started a new Bluesky account. Please follow me there, my handle is @feeonlyplanner again. It will be mostly personal finance stuff. There will not be a Bluesky account for my blog. I am also done scrolling on Facebook but have kept Facebook Messenger open. We all need to take steps to control our scrolling…
PERSONAL FINANCE
Very good post putting together the craziness we are all experiencing every day lately: FAFOnomics: How Chaos Became America’s Economic Strategy. So, the author comes up with four different possible outcomes ahead of us: Managed Decline, Crisis and Reset, FAFOnomics to the end, Artificial Intelligence. I have no idea what will happen. Therefore, Diversify!
Here we go again: 20 IRA Mistakes to Avoid.
There will be a lot less articles written about Warren when he passes on for sure: Warren Buffett: 6 Best Pieces of Money Advice for the Middle Class. No argument with any of these. Ok, maybe one, consider replacing investing in the S&P 500 with a Total Stock Market fund perhaps.
I like the writing of Howard Marks. Who has been bearish for years. So, do not take any advice from a guru, nobody knows what the markets will do in the short term. Best thing to do is to diversify and carry on. And never forget that in the long run we are all going to die ok? Anyway, like I said, I really like his writing, his latest memo: On Bubble Watch. Some quotes from it that stood out to me:
... a bubble or crash is more a state of mind than a quantitative calculation.
They say experience is what you got when you didn’t get what you wanted…
When something is on the pedestal of popularity, the risk of a decline is high.
In bubbles, investors treat the leading companies – and pay for their stocks – as though the firms are sure to remain leaders for decades. Some do and some don’t, but change seems to be more the rule than persistence.
What a great quote I found somewhere online:
Self employment is a never-ending contest between the world’s worst manager and the world’s laziest employee – Daniel Akst
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
Great podcast to listen to about this guy: What Elon Musk Wants. And how he went from an Obama liberal type guy to what he is today. I say it was drugs, Covid, money and trauma from childhood, etc.
I remember vaguely this guy going way back. And I am certain you will be shocked how someone can go down in flames like this guy, wow. Add UFOs and just plain fraud. Believing in Aliens Derailed This Internet Pioneer’s Career. Now He’s Facing Prison. Joseph Firmage helped create today’s digital economy. These days, he’s being sued by antigravity-machine investors and claiming to be hounded by a Jamaican wire-fraud gang, with a guy pretending to be Steven Mnuchin along for the ride. There are some articles you start reading and just can’t stop until you get to the end. Shaking your head along the way. Non stop. This was one such read.
Every tax season rolls around it means more tax scams pop up. Every year. Shady tax scams circulating on social media could bring big penalties, delayed refunds. Three things specifically warned about:
Pumping up your tax refund by claiming a fuel tax credit.
Don’t try inflating the dollar amount that you’ve withheld in taxes
Don’t work with a ghost tax preparer [If they won’t sign the tax returns, RUN away]
Also, the IRS suggest that taxpayers be cautious and watch for:
- Amazing promises for big refunds: “Bad tax advice on social media may convince people to lie on tax forms or mislead them about credits they can claim,” the IRS said.
- Threats of arrest or deportation. Scammers try to steal your money by claiming that you must pay taxes “now or else.” They don’t let people question or appeal the amount of tax they owe.
- Misspelled web links can take people to harmful sites instead of IRS.gov.
Speaking of the IRS and scammers, beware: Where’s my refund: Scammers impersonate IRS with texts about $1,400 stimulus money.
If you apply for a job at Anthropic, there is this disclosure, oh the irony of it all:
While we encourage people to use AI systems during their role to help them work faster and more effectively, please do not use AI assistants during the application process. We want to understand your personal interest in Anthropic without mediation through an AI system, and we also want to evaluate your non-AI-assisted communication skills. Please indicate ‘Yes’ if you have read and agree.
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ODDZ & ENDZ
You probably have heard and/or seen the lawyer Tom Goldstein. He has been arguing cases at the US Supreme Court for many years. And this story will shock you: Tommy Supreme and the Blitz. Tom Goldstein was a star in arguing cases before the Supreme Court. He was also one of the world’s highest-rolling—and most reckless—poker players. Then his worlds collided. Wow, Ferraris, private jets, multimillion dollar bets and more. Coming back from Macau with close to one million dollars in cash in a duffel bag. I guess some people are in a different league lol. Anyway, if true, he’ll be in prison for a while. Unless/until he gets a pardon…
Must read/listen interview with the author of “Dopamine Nation” Dr. Anna Lembke. It goes into digital drugs, addictions, social media, cell phones, GLP-1 drugs, how our brains are changing, and much much more. Just a few profound tidbits below to get you to set aside some time for this.
In the richest countries in the world, we have more leisure time, more disposable income, more access to leisure goods than ever before. And as a result, we are all struggling to know what to do with all that extra time and money. But instead what we’re doing is spending a whole lot of time masturbating, shopping and watching other people do things online. And essentially what’s happened is we’re spending more and more of our energy and creativity investing in this online world, which means that we are actually leaching our real-life existence of our energy and creativity. So when we try to re-enter the real world, it actually is more boring, because there’s less going on, because there’s nobody there.
I think we’re essentially struggling with endemic narcissism, where our culture is demanding that we focus on ourselves so much that what it’s creating is this deep need to escape ourselves.
21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings. Exactly that, your eyes will enjoy them.
Perspective: The True Size of Land Masses. Scroll down and sideways.
Winners of the 2024 Close Up Photographer of the Year Contest.
TRAVEL
South Thailand is an area that still suffers from domestic terrorism. And it is pretty much ignored by tourists. And this is a fantastic trip report from a place you almost never see any from: Mind-blowing experience on Thailand ‘s Most Perilous Rail Route.
I learned of a website to find fellow expats from your own country when you move to a foreign country: InterNations. I had never heard of it and I wonder if anyone is familiar with it. I am NOT endorsing it ok?
Let your eyes go on a visual feast with Travel Photographer of the Year winners’ galleries 2003 to 2023.
Great photos of a place I only visit when I need to use a bathroom lol: A photographer visited McDonald’s in more than 55 countries. Here’s what he found.
Ok, one more pic I could not resist: Moon-Bound Spacecraft Captures Beautiful Photo of Earth.
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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
Here we go, buckle up:
At this rate Hyatt may change its name to Hyatt All Inclusives: Hyatt Acquires Playa Hotels & Resorts For $2.6B. So many properties to choose from in Mexico and Dominican Republic now. Is this equivalent to investors going all-in on Nvidia or AI or what?
This new brand The Standard Hyatt recently acquired looks interesting. Anyone stayed at one in Thailand? Here is a review of one: The Standard Singapore Review: Not your standard stay.
Maybe I should add a separate section for devaluations? Here we go all over again with JetBlue TrueBlue points and of course Lifemiles again and again.
But wait, there is more. When Iberia emails you that its program is evolving (lol), you know exactly what it means, it is NOT evolving to your favor: Club Iberia Plus Follows BA And Goes Revenue Based On April 1, 2025. To be more blunt:
These changes are insane and prove how out of touch the people at the Avios and IAG are. They don’t appear to understand that passengers have a choice, and if they prioritize price and comfort, they choose to fly on other airlines. However, Iberia is quite strong in traffic between Spain and its ex-colonies in Spanish-speaking Americas. I am sure that Iberia, IAG, and Avios try very hard to put lipstick on a pig and prove how beneficial these changes are for Club Iberia Plus members, but the only ones who benefit from these are those who fly on very expensive tickets (business travelers). Everyone else is simply a loser.
Speaking of Lifemiles, it never ceases to amaze me how bloggers keep bitching about its constant devaluations and then never stop making blog posts how you can buy Lifemiles with their affiliate links smh. I could do that here too but I just can’t. I think this may have something to do with the lack of revenues this blog generates but let’s not go there please.
Wait, there is more on the devaluation front. Marriott Bonvoy always finds a way to go lower: You Can No Longer Book Cash + Points Stays on Marriott Website.
We will all miss the CFPB in this community, here are some options to fight back.
TRAVEL REWARDS CREDIT CARDS
What am I doing here? This blog has been averaging 2 or less credit card sales for the past several months. The last credit card sale took place here on January 7. I am going to cut down on the space devoted to this because it is obvious it is not working. My second credit card vendor will undoubtedly kick me out due to “low sales”. And that is when this blog ends. So, enjoy it while it lasts. The end is near. Yeah, I have been saying this for years and one day is going to happen. And I intend to go out with a bang instead of just disappearing like that one blogger named Drew did one day who…went on to work for The Points Guy Inc.
I mean, the Frequent Miler has several full time staff members and for them to be paid the site sells a shitload of plastic. And my site can’t even sell just two per month, seriously? Every single “content creator” in this space does it because banks pays them to sell credit cards. And of course everyone keeps silent about this fact except this weird TBB dude who keeps saying no to prospects who want to hire him to be their financial advisor so he can spend hours here doing his blogging thing. It is insane, this whole “venture” lasted way too long you guys. I mean, there are so many doing this lately pounding everyone and contributing to stats like the sad link in the next paragraph. And I swear if banks stopped paying to sell plastic 99% would be gone in an instant and on to selling something else online. Look, there is a reason blogs are dying and everyone is moving to YouTube. These four guys below have, please sit down, 450,000 subscribers and my YouTube channel has 61 subscribers. Ok, please LOL with me! I don’t know, maybe it’s my face.
If you are contributing to this, you are the reason travel rewards still thrive. I guess we thank you but perhaps you should consider changing your ways: Americans’ credit card debt reaches new record high.
NEW: The latest before Amex plugs them: Maximizing American Express credit card rebates & credits.
For the recently elevated World of Hyatt Chase personal and business cards, see the details HERE. If you want to be convinced about reasons to get the Hyatt business card, read this: The World of Hyatt Business Credit Card Review: Accelerate Your Progress Toward Top Status. If you want to help the blog, please check these offers from my favorite bank HERE.
NEW: Death, taxes, devaluations. Maybe we should add Southwest card welcome offer changes to this? Here we go again: Score a Companion Pass & 30k Points on These Southwest Cards. From my favorite bank HERE. Except the Premier card, not sure why this one is not available with my links.
NEW AMEX Delta Offers
New elevated offers from Delta again: American Express and Delta Introduce Limited-Time Welcome Offers, Earn Up to 110K Miles.
Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card
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Gold: Earn 80,000 Bonus Miles after spending $3,000 in purchases on the new Card in the first 6 months of Card Membership.
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Gold Business: Earn 90,000 Bonus Miles after spending $6,000 in purchases on the new Card in the first 6 months of Card Membership.
Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card
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Platinum: Earn 90,000 Bonus Miles after spending $4,000 in purchases on the new Card in the first 6 months of Card Membership.
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Platinum Business: Earn 100,000 Bonus Miles after spending $8,000 in purchases on the new Card in the first 6 months of Card Membership.
Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card
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Reserve: Earn 100,000 Bonus Miles after spending $6,000 in purchases on the new Card in the first 6 months of Card Membership.
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Reserve Business: Earn 110,000 Bonus Miles after spending $12,000 in purchases on the new Card in the first 6 months of Card Membership.
Not going to add my affiliate links in every single card above, no time for dat. But you can find them HERE, please scroll down, they are all there.
More elevated offers finally from Chase:
100k CHASE United Business
And just like that, the welcome offer for this card went up to 100k from 75k. The annual fee is $99 and and the minimum spend is $5k in the first three months. The card earns 2x on United, gas stations, restaurants, office supplies, local transit and commuting. And 2x on everything else. If you buy 7 United tickets with it, you will get a $100 United flight credit at card anniversary. You get two United club passes every year. If you have a personal United card as well, you get a 5,000 mile “better together” bonus. 25% discount on United in flight purchases. Expanded award availability. Ability to earn Premier Qualifying Points (PQP). Free checked bag for credit card holder and one companion on the same reservation. Priority boarding. No foreign transaction fees. Can be a good fit for travelers flying on United a lot. Available from my favorite bank HERE.
NEW: United Business Card Review: Sky-High Bonus Plus Multiple Unique Perks Help Justify the Annual Fee [“Sky-High” lol, anything to help credit card sales I guess, sad]
170k CHASE IHG Rewards Premier
Suddenly Chase came out and increased this offer from 140k points. The minimum spend is $4k in the first three months. The annual fee is $99 (not waived in the first year). You get a free night (worth up to 40,000 points) on each card anniversary. Automatic Platinum elite status. Card earns 10x points on IHG properties, 5x on travel/dining/gas stations and 3x on everything else. Once you spend $20k in a calendar year, you earn a $100 statement credit AND 10,000 bonus points. You also get up to $50 United TravelBank cash each calendar year. You get the fourth reward night free on any stay of 4 or more nights. You can earn Diamond status if you spend $40k on the card each year (please don’t). Global Entry/TSA Precheck fee credited in case you haven’t done this yet with another card. No foreign transaction fees. 20% discount on points purchases. There is another offer floating around online to earn 5 free night certs worth only 40k points each, pass. If you regularly stay in IHG Properties (like Holiday Inns) this is a solid card to get and keep. Other than that, if you like to diversify, this is not a bad haul (I think the highest ever points offer has been 175k) and the card pretty much pays for itself. If you want to help the blog check these offers from my favorite bank HERE.
100k CHASE IHG One Rewards Traveler
Just elevated from 80k offer. This is the no annual fee IHG card. The minimum spend is $2k in the first three months. Card earns 5x on IHG properties, 3x on dining/phone/gas stations/select streaming/internet and 2x on everything else. You earn 10,000 bonus points after $10k spend. You can earn Gold status after $20k in spend. Fourth night free on award stays. 20% discount on points purchases. No foreign transaction fees. If you hate credit card annual fees and don’t mind staying in a Holiday Inn a few nights for free, maybe this is a better fit? If you want to help the blog check these offers from my favorite bank HERE.
Please help the small independent blogs like mine continue to exist by supporting them with your CREDIT CARD clicks, thank you!
The 75K CAPITAL ONE Venture X card has a minimum spend of $4k in the first three months. If you like simplicity and looking for one (premium) card, I highly recommend this card (and yes, I have it myself!). It has an annual fee of $395 but it comes with an easy $300 statement credit for travel booked on its own travel portal, essentially turning it into a $95 annual fee card. But wait, there is more! On each card anniversary you earn 10,000 points essentially making it FREE! Every dollar of spend earns 2 points and flights booked on the travel portal earn 5 points per dollar. You get access to Capital One and Plaza Premium airport lounges and a Priority Pass Select lounge membership and, this is important, you can add FOUR authorized users FOR FREE who can also have their own Priority Pass Select airline lounge membership and, this is BIG, they can bring in unlimited guests with their FREE Priority Pass card! You can transfer your Capital One points to up to 18 Transfer Partners. No foreign transaction fees. Free Hertz President’s Circle rental car top elite status. Cell phone protection and PRIMARY rental car coverage. Awesome seats at baseball stadiums for just 5k points each. And lots more. If you prefer, this is my personal referral link.
Click on my TOP CREDIT CARD OFFERS to see a DETAILED explanation of the features of these cards.
Here are my three TOP CREDIT CARD OFFERS as of today:
The #1 Top Offer is the 75k Capital One Venture X card. It is amazing what you get for FREE with this card!
The #2 Top Offer right now is the 75k Chase Ink Business Unlimited card.
The #3 Top Offer right now is 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash card.
Learn more about these offers HERE.
BONUS OFFERS NOTIFICATIONS
Would you like to be automatically notified every time a card comes out with (or is about to remove) an elevated welcome offer? If yes, I highly encourage you to sign up if you haven’t yet. And when you apply for a credit card from a link in these emails you help support the blog (and you don’t have to hunt down the link in my Credit Cards page!)
Elevated Card Offer Notifications
All you have to do to receive these free notifications is:
1. Click on the link above
2. Create an account
3. Subscribe
MY ACTION AND BLOG BUZZING
No miles/points stuff, focusing on clients’ taxes these days…Wait, just this morning I finally made another Hyatt reservation. Down for three nights at the Hyatt Regency in Toronto for 45,000 World of Hyatt points and I applied one suite upgrade. Why? Well, our running friends will run the 2025 Toronto TCS Waterfront Marathon in October and I am going to be there just like I was for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC earlier this year. And since I did not particularly like being the only cheerleader I am going to participate in the Half Marathon with my wife who is most likely done running full marathons. Notice I said participate and not run. Well, my feet are feeling better lately as I continue to do my exercises daily. And I continue to walk and jog. And just yesterday I did a total of four miles, half walk and half jog. Anyway, this is going to be a huge change for me again. Going from a competitive marathon runner aiming for Personal Best times to more than a year recovering to a pure recreational lol type walker/runner doing it for the pure fun of it with wife and friends. And for the culinary outings preceding it lol. Also looking to do the same in Copenhagen in 2026…
Question: Will it matter if someone applies for the Capital One Venture X card while being an Authorized User of it?
Thinking to upgrade my phone to the Samsung Galaxy 25 Ultra from the Galaxy 21 Ultra. I was thinking to do this the past two years. Maybe I wait for the Galaxy 26 lol.
What a powerful movie I saw last week: I’m Still Here.
I forgot to report that during my recent trip to Boston I did finally use a Hyatt FIND Experience credit for a walking city tour. And it worked out great. Will I choose it again as a World of Hyatt Milestone Reward? Probably not, it was an experiment.
A reader let me know he likes my music recommendations. So here is my Taylor Swift song, just kidding. There was a band The Gun Club back in the 80 and 90’s led by a very talented and troubled guy Jeffrey Lee Pierce who sadly died in 1996 and yes, drug and alcohol abuse contributed to his passing away before everyone recognized what music genius he was. Anyway, many great songs, here is just one of them: Mother of Earth. I had a chance to see them live (and they were so wild live!) and I missed it, I try not to think about it but it still bothers me to this day. Some other songs by them you may want to listen to if you are interested: Fire spirit, My dreams, Like calling up thunder, My man’s gone, Idiot waltz, Cry to me, Go tell the mountain, A devil in the woods and many more.
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS:
75k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 100k CHASE United Business, 150k AMEX Business Platinum, 200k CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash Plus, 150k CAPITAL ONE Venture X Business, $1,000 Cash Back CHASE Ink Business Premier, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards, 90k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, 60k Chase Sapphire Preferred, 80k CHASE Southwest Performance Business, 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 170,000 miles/points year to date (2,027,816 in 2024) and have 4,350,474 miles/points in the bank.
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, all feedback is very appreciated.
George
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First.
I woke up at 2.30 am to work on the blog. And I am proud of the final product. Will Elon offer me $97 Billion to keep TBB LLC non-profit?
I think I have a problem and this blogging thing is really developing to be a relationship that is detrimental to my health.
Thinking to pull a cold turkey Drew move. Or go the Mile Nerd method, as in posting on the 1st of each month a short personal essay or poem or whatever.
Or maybe I just go to the gym or work on the next tax return…
Will return to respond to comments over the weekend sometime. Or not. Maybe I cut the comments. Pull a DOGE move or whatever.
I need more coffee…
George, I’d like to buy you out. How does $97 billion sound?
Internations, don’t bother. I was signed up for a while but it’s nothing more than a networking community for foreigners who are looking for contacts in the working world in the host country. Can’t recall the full details but I opted out as seemed to get a lot of spam but no actual activities.
I like Howard Marks but I don’t know if I would necessarily say he’s been bearish for years. If anything I would say he enjoys repeating the same thing over and over again that ultimately leads him concluding in a way that allows him to sit exactly in the middle, which ultimately once you read him for a little while leads to him never saying anything interesting because he’s at the end of the day a fence sitter. An AI bot would do an also carbon copy of his memos these days because he never really says anything new. But I still do try to read his memos when they come out because I’m a glutton for punishment.
For the Thailand train article, I wouldn’t say it’s dodgy. It’s more of a conflict between the separatist group and the military. They usually take care to avoid involving civilians, especially the rail system, as it’s bad publicity and ultimately the government will devote a lot more resources to stomping it out than they currently are. I’d say the risk would be spending time in the area for an extended period versus just passing through on a train. But Southern Thailand is definitely a different vibe from the rest of the country.
The standard hotel looks interesting, the Bangkok one is in Silom which can be a pretty sleepy part of town during the weekend. More of a business district. Would rather be on the Sukhumvit line just for the accessibility. Will probably head down to Bangkok once the burning season starts getting bad in Chiang Mai. Quite nice here right now still.
Today I learned about the existence of chess boxing, a sport which combines chess and boxing. Sounds fun, actually: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing
Thanks for the links and the photos! With the new administration and it’s take on regulation, it will be interesting to see how credit card rewards develop.
I am surprised that you had not heard of Internations. Been a member for years, though only ever gone to two events when I was in Italy. Not a bad group, but I think oriented more toward people born much more recently than I.
Lots of good reading here and many links that I will explore. Thanks so much and please don’t ghost us, hey?
I tracked down the four esteemed YouTubers and I realized that you were not kidding they had about 450,000 subscribers. Which explains a lot about how more people (and AI I am sure) are doing video. Maybe it is your face TBB, pulling your leg. Hope you stick around but I see your point how deflating it must be competing against them with 61 subscribers only. About Chase cards, sorry I am LOL/24.