Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as escaping tariffs shock, crypto frauds out of control, Mary Kay MLM tragedy, the eagle hunters of Kyrgyzstan, my own cave adventures, China and manufacturing realities, 1000 Years game, best Lake Michigan beaches, the latest updates on Thailand, the best photography links and of course always all of the most important developments in the crazy world of frequent flyer miles and points at the lower half of the post. 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 curated posts featuring the best web content along with my commentary.
This is truly a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts.
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BLOG HOUSEKEEPING
I am going to keep the Tariffs section one more week. Hopefully that stupid shit deescalates much faster than it is currently…
I added the blurb above in red font to encourage reader action to help me justify spending so much time bringing these blog posts to you. I just noticed that there is now a monthly box to check when you use the Buy Me a Coffee link. I am thinking to do something extra for such monthly supporters. But I have no idea what, any suggestions?
NEW: Huge 100,000 point offer on the card all four of us in my household have and keep from my favorite bank – literally the offer of the year in my opinion, even better than the 75k Capital One Venture X! (ENDING SOON!)
TAKE ME TO THIS OFFER
PERSONAL FINANCE
We can pick dates that makes our point beautifully. So, how about the returns of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq100 indexes from January 1, 2010 through the end of the first quarter of 2025 then? So, since you asked, here we go: A spectacularly Underappreciated 15 Years.
Starting January 1, 2010, the S&P 500 generated a total return (with dividends reinvested) of 566.8%, or 13.3% per year from the start of 2010 through the end of Q1 2025. The Nasdaq 100 has nearly doubled that. (Chart above is from March 2009, but that’s cheating). Compare this to the average 15-year return periods over the past century, which generated ~8.7%. Average annual returns over the past century have been about 10.4%.
Interesting visual: Visualizing Government Debt-to-GDP Around the World. Japan has been at #1 for decades. So, this is not alarming…yet. Also, debt for sovereign countries is nowhere near the same as people being indebted. But, you know, debt goes along with sudden unexpected financial crises of all kinds. Anyway, remember how we here in the US used to make fun of Greece’s debt? And look at how Greece has been closing the gap. Which it has done greatly when compared to other European countries, the same ones that had bailed it out. Also, you know, entertainment is part of the blog mission so here is that legendary SNL skit about debt in Greece and how the Greek gods were handling it lol.
Wearing my CPA hat, I am starting to finally see the first signs of collapsing service at the IRS. Which was expected after the new administration came in and started cutting indiscriminately across the board. So, be very careful and pray you do not get caught in something that will require you to contact the IRS to resolve it, you have been warned.
TARIFFS
We are all hoping we somehow escape the self inflicted pain ahead. Then again, I have been around for a long time, expect the unexpected and I always say don’t obsess about the short term. Because these days no one knows wtf is going on: Bracing for a Slow-Moving, Self-Inflicted Economic Storm. The markets face a baffling prospect: continual disruptions from the White House with potentially severe consequences.
But, you know, it is not looking good out there in the short term: Bookings for China-to-US shipping containers plunge. Bookings for China-to-US shipping containers are down 44.5% from the same time last year.
Must click: Your Home Without China. Some shocking numbers involving share of US imports from China below. I am not sure placing tariffs to bring back manufacturing of toasters and artificial plants is in our interest you guys.
Alarm Clocks >99%
Toasters >99%
Umbrellas 98%
Baby strollers 97%
Fireworks 96%
Thermoses 96%
Artificial plants 96%
Children’s books 96%
Charcoal grills 93%
Irons 93%
Microwaves 90%
Gaming consoles 86%
Don’t get me wrong, I am pragmatic enough to realize some tariffs to protect selected industries deserve a place of course. Especially when it involves national security interests. But the way we went about this latest round was batshit crazy, I will never forget the sharp collapse in the futures markets as soon as that “Liberation Day” talk started and that horrifically moronic chart was revealed, sigh.
If you believe we will all benefit by bringing back manufacturing, well, maybe you should read this: America Underestimates the Difficulty of Bringing Manufacturing Back. I am not sure who this guy is but he does make a lot of great points.
They’re not high enough
America’s industrial supply chain for many products is weak
We don’t know how to make it
The effective cost of labor in the United States is higher than it looks
We don’t have the infrastructure to manufacture
Made in America will take time
Uncertainty and complexity around the tariffs
Most Americans are going to hate manufacturing
The labor does not exist to make good products
Automation will not save us
Robots and overseas factory workers don’t file lawsuits, but Americans do
Enforcement of the tariffs will be uneven and manipulated
The tariff policies are structured in the wrong way
Michael Jordan sucked at baseball
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
This shocked me. Ok, it takes a LOT to shock me. Especially when it comes to fraud involving crypto. But these guys smh: They Stole a Quarter-Billion in Crypto and Got Caught Within a Month. How luxury cars, $500,000 bar tabs and a mysterious kidnapping attempt helped investigators unravel the heist of a lifetime. Not going to spoil anything, read the whole thing. If you are a parent and your kid spends hours online while spending wildly on luxury cars you have to do something. Because if not, well, don’t be shocked. And lock these pricks up and throw away the keys. Unless daddy can buy a pardon ^%$(*!
Another monthly roundup of The Ponzi Scheme Blog, the April 2025 edition. A few select excerpts with my incendiary commentary. Still can’t believe so many people fall for these every day out there smh.
They promised returns of 3% to 6% per month and the return of the principal within 14 months. [Investing comes with no guarantees and no promises. Ever]
Bossetti is a social media influencer who promised returns as much as 30% from flipping properties. [When you see “social media influencer” run away fast]
He guaranteed returns of 10% to 15% and told investors their investments were risk-free. [Come on!]
…were supposedly short-term, high- interest loan programs that would pay returns as high as 200% [If you feel like the people falling for stuff like this deserved it I would not disagree. But that does not mean that the ones committing the fraud are not guilty and belong in prison]
The scheme targeted 90,000 investors with promises of daily returns from 3% to 200% on crypto and forex investments. [Daily, seriously?]
Another article that should steer you away from another well known MLM scheme. You know, Mary Kay stuff. I am pretty sure my readers are aware but maybe a loved one was just approached at Target for this “opportunity”. Show them this article to save them: How One Woman Lost $75,000 to an MLM. Monique wanted to be her own boss — even if it meant spending tens of thousands of dollars to get there. The product is you. Back when I was working for the man (actually a small CPA firm and then Deloitte) I had a small tax practice on the side. And then one day it happened, a client couple got into Amway. And I saw first hand the absurdity of the actual numbers. I was actually blown away, it was my first experience with this MLM stuff. Not a single sale came from selling to others and almost all expenses were for purchases from Amway. I was like WTF! They had a response for my reaction it appears, “we need to invest in the business”. I told them this does not look good and they should cut their losses asap and do something more productive. Nope. Next year it was even worse. And I told them I will no longer work with them if they kept going with this. They never came back, maybe they were too embarrassed. It’s like drugs, don’t get involved.
Also, just when you thought we finally will get a practical consumer crypto application after 16 years from the date some dude named Satoshi came up with bitcoin, its actual real world affinity to commit fraud is second to none. And getting worse…
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ODDZ & ENDZ
I LOVE web finds like this game. You don’t need to click on clickbait “shocking” headlines and videos, click on this and learn something: 1000 Years. Check it out:
Test your historical knowledge in this interactive map quiz! Travel through time by guessing the correct years of key events from around the world. Answer 10 questions per country, but be careful—wrong answers cost you years.
Can’t keep away from my geopolitical fix. Really good analysis on The Once and Future China. How will change come to Beijing? Well, the author has some ideas but the bottom line is we don’t know. And the author concludes the article this way to allow for that…
A China that looks like the creator of a peaceful order in the 2040s will be much harder to argue against in the West and the wider world than its current confrontational incarnation. It is unclear whether China can really take that path. Still, over the past century, the least reliable way to predict what China will look like in 20 years has always been to extrapolate in a straight line from where it is now.
Very cool: Minerals and Gems Ranked by Hardness. From softest to hardest.
Amazing photography: The Pure Street Photography Competition Spotlights Humor and Chance Amid the Ordinary.
TRAVEL
Spent last weekend exploring the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, see more in the My Action and Blog Buzzing section near the end of this post.
You hate to see this happen: Airlines cut flights as industry pushes for tariff relief amid declining demand. But there is a silver lining I guess as I am seeing a lot more deals for cash fares AND awards. I have never seen such high award availability to/from Europe from the US in August wow.
Every year I have great ambitions on what to do in the coming spring and summer. And every year come September I wonder how the hell the summer passed so fast and all I did was a fraction lol. So, I intend to check more of these beaches out: 12 Best Lake Michigan Beaches With White Sand, Rolling Dunes, and Stunning Views.
For the aviation geeks who read my blog: The MiG-21 Project Trailer. I guarantee you have never seen a MiG-21 like this before.
Another best of list. Can’t help it, sorry: The 51 Most Beautiful Places in the US. I just knocked out the one in Kentucky, more on our trip to Mammoth Lake below.
Thailand related content: This is now live: Thailand’s New Digital Arrival Card: Step by Step Guide. And look at these gorgeous beaches: Koh Chang, Koh Kood & Koh Mak Beaches From the Sky by Drone.
There are some eagles flying around my neighborhood lately, I will try to take some photos. Meanwhile, let’s check out The Eagle Hunters of Kyrgyzstan.
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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…
Well, I wish this was Hyatt instead, oh well: Marriott Acquires citizenM Brand For $355M. Only 36 properties, no big deal. Never stayed in one of them, you?
No big deal too: Bilt Rewards Adds Southwest Airlines as Transfer Partners (1:1).
Oh, this was unexpected: Exclusive: JetBlue negotiates partnership with United Airlines, sources say. JetBlue execs are scrambling to save the company in all directions. Speaking of JetBlue, the airline has started a direct flight from Detroit to New York JFK, hooray.
Speaking of Southwest, we are learning more of the huge changes ahead: Southwest Renames Its Fare Products and Adds New Perks for Cardholders. If you are a regular Southwest flyer, it is becoming a no brainer to get one of the Southwest credit cards it appears.
Blog reader Nick @ PFD brought this new outfit to my attention in a blog comment. And then I saw it here: Rove Miles (New Flexible Loyalty Program With 12 Transfer Partners). Don’t bother, at least for a while…assuming they have not folded yet. Maybe they should be pursuing someone at Wells Fargo to hit them up for some funding, I am sure the Bilt Rewards guys have a few names lol.
Shoot, this is not good. Actually, I am surprised the 5 day hold lasted this long: American Airlines Slashes Award Ticket Hold Window. I guess now down to one day is one more day than the other airlines.
TRAVEL REWARDS CREDIT CARDS
NEW: Huge 100,000 point offer on the card all four of us in my household have and keep from my favorite bank – literally the offer of the year in my opinion, even better than the 75k Capital One Venture X!
TAKE ME TO THIS OFFER
For newbies, this post is for you: Just starting with Points and Miles? Just start with Chase credit cards. I agree with the advice. And also you should be aware that companies in this space thrive by selling credit cards. This company has 30 full time staffers wow. I am a one man operation here and this site sold three credit cards in April, sad lol. So, every card sold keeps the lights on I guess and allows me to expense stuff that would not be possible if I did not have a blog business. Thank you to everyone who chose to give my site the sales commission for a travel rewards credit card over the years.
Well, instead of Bilt getting so overhyped all the time from bloggers, I was aware of this Mesa card from a few YouTubers. And it is getting some press from the big bloggers. In an analysis type post instead of just a mention that is. Mesa Homeowners Card: Earn transferable points on mortgage payments. If these guys can manage to keep this baby going (and adding more/better transfer partners) they will eat Bilt’s lunch. I can’t see having so much money to keep this going but right now the value proposition for this card deserves all the hype it should be getting and not Bilt. Wait, there is more on this front aiming towards rewards for homeowners, I guess this is the next frontier for the loyalty industry? There is another outfit called Aven gunning for homeowners and their home equity and…well, don’t go there. I guess these guys don’t have much access to venture capital money lol.
Here we go again, does this ever stop? Wave of Amex Shutdowns.
And at last, this Cardless company with the stupidest name finally drops the most ridiculously restrictive rule of having just one card per lifetime.
A few offers have now announced expiration dates, they are:
All of the United cards latest elevated offers end 5/7/2025, see below.
More elevated offers finally from my favorite bank:
What stands out from the massive changes in all United credit cards is the 80k United Explorer card and the 125k United Business card, learn and apply with the links in the link below, thank you!
United Revamps Credit Card Lineup in a Big Way – Here’s What’s New (ENDS 5/7/2025)
(NEW) There is a new Chase Hyatt Business card that still gets you 60,000 World of Hyatt points but now it gives you Explorist status through 2/28/2026. The annual fee is $199 and the minimum spend is $7k in the first three months. Nothing to shout about. The World of Hyatt credit card offers have sucked for so long, come on Chase! You know where to find it.
No recent Amex elevated welcome offers below that stand out to me right now…
Another elevated offer from Capital One:
75k CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards PLUS $250 Travel Credit
and the best offer still remains:
75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X
Please help the small independent blogs like mine continue to exist by supporting them with your CREDIT CARD clicks, thank you!
TOP TRAVEL REWARDS CREDIT CARD OFFERS RIGHT NOW:
NEW: Huge 100,000 point offer on the card all four of us in my household have and keep from my favorite bank – literally the offer of the year in my opinion, even better than the 75k Capital One Venture X! (ENDING SOON!)
TAKE ME TO THIS OFFER
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 75k Capital One Venture X card. It is amazing what you get for FREE with this card!
The 75k Chase Ink Business Unlimited card.
The 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
After my wife, me and son wiped out all of our Amex points and transferred them to Hawaiian Airlines and then transferred to Alaska Airlines. About 340k of them. I actually left 8k Amex points in there, maybe I look to increase them again later this year. We all four now have close to 900k Alaska miles which is crazy. What is even crazier is that my son is MVP Gold elite and my daughter is on track to complete a status challenge to also receive MVP Gold status with Alaska Airlines. Since he reads my blog, maybe he should consider very soon plenty of award flights connecting Honolulu and Manila, Philippines due to yet another partnership for Alaska Airlines.
Burned 26,500 Alaska Airlines for a one way flight from Honolulu to New York JFK for son to come join us all for my brother in law’s retirement party in June.
It happened again. I got a fraud alert someone tried to use my Capital One Venture X card at Walmart.com. So, went through the motions again and they sent me a new card. This is the second time this happens. It has not happened with any other card in a very long time. And I tried to think what I did differently. And then it hit me. I think both times this happened right after I used this card at Walgreens. So I could earn Bilt points. So, I deleted the card in my Bilt account. Because I don’t have time to deal with this shit.
Remember I tried to get the miles into my JetBlue account for my Qatar flight from Doha to Bangkok last year? Yeah, I had been shutdown/ignored/ repeatedly. So, I filed a claim with the Department of Transportation. And when JetBlue received it they got on it right away and boom, got the miles in my account. Five and a half months later. I am stubborn and don’t give up that easily.
Mammoth Cave trip: Really enjoyed this short roadtrip getaway. The Mammoth Cave National Park area is nice. I have always wanted to visit this cave, finally did it. Did you know that this is the longest-known cave system in the world, over 400 miles deep inside the earth and they are still finding more unexplored spaces? Stayed one night at the Lodge inside the park and burned about half of the annual $300 credit from my Capital One Venture X card, winning. We only did two cave tours, the Historic and the Niagara ones. Both were great for different reasons. The Historic tour takes you deep into the dry cave and the Niagara is a much more laid back tour that gets you to the more iconic wet part of the cave. I always find the national park rangers to be super nice. What a national treasure we have with our national parks. And then on the return I burned an expiring World of Hyatt Cat 1-4 Free Night cert at the great Cincinnati Hyatt Regency hotel in a very nice spacious Studio King suite. And had some time to explore Cincinnati as well which I found very nice. Posting travel content in Instagram and YouTube, see links below:
Pics from the inside of Mammoth Cave
Pics from the outside of Mammoth Cave
Hyatt Regency Suite and pics from the Cincinnati Ohio Regency
Pics roaming the Cincinnati streets
Video #1 from inside Mammoth Cave
Video #2 from inside Mammoth Cave
Cincinnati Hyatt Regency Studio King Suite
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS:
100k CHASE Sapphire Preferred, 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 125k CHASE United Business (ENDS 5/7/2025), 80k CHASE United Explorer (ENDS 5/7/2025), 150k AMEX Business Platinum, 200k CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash Plus, 350k CAPITAL ONE Venture X Business, $1,000 Cash Back CHASE Ink Business Premier, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards AND $250 Travel Credit, 90k CHASE Ink Business 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 218,500 miles/points year to date (2,027,816 in 2024) and have 4,515,394 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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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 the typos in the email everyone. They were fixed after it went out. Running slow because I stayed up way past my bed time last night to watch the Pistons Knicks game and the crushing way it ended will sting for a while.
April saw 3 credit card sales and 9 coffees from 3 readers. To people who think about starting a blog, DO NOT DO IT. Unless you are insane. I need to figure out a way to continue spending so much time blogging away here, this is not sustainable. Crying out for intervention, someone tell my wife to demand change LOL.
Enjoy the weekend.
Great you made the cave. There was a time I thought about doing all the national parks. We did a lot of them but ran out of time and energy.
Thanks for the links!
Howdy from Udine! My first time here and it’s pretty nice. Seems a bit laid back and a lot fewer obvious tourists (American, anyhow) as well. The bus system works pretty well here also. Glad the Cave thing went well. That was a pretty nice suite upgrade and use a free cert! I’ve been to Carlsbad caverns but none farther east, but one of these days maybe.
Soon as I get back I’ll sign up on that monthly coffee thing. I don’t have the card I want to use for it with me and of course I do not have all the numbers from all the cards somewhere on my phone.
That crypto stuff still bugs me. Not to mention now even you-know-who looks to be cashing in on fleecing people with his own coin, not to mention using that as an obvious way to get bribe money. Grr!
Have a great weekend!
Anyhow, thank as always for the post! I’ll get it all read over the next couple days.
Good morning Buzz,
Great post as always, thank you sir.
Looking like I may have to learn grifting skills before I become an enemy of the state, any help with that will be greatly appreciated…haha
Or I guess moving out of the country is an option so thanks again for the posts regarding Thailand Buzz.
I have one extreme suggestion to acknowledge your die hard supporters. A trip to Larissa to see the opening home game for the upcoming season for your beloved squad…or maybe just a shot of tsipouro.
Have a great weekend!
A quick update, my app for the Chase United biz card was finally approved today after an hour on the phone with 4 different departments. I did ask and they said that you should see the referral bonus sometime Buzz….
Have a great weekend!
Thrifty Traveler has 30 full time staff? Pardon my skepticism but that seems like a lot. They post around 2, maybe 3 times a day on average and I get about 1-3 emails with award notices a day. What are the other 25 people doing?
@ DML: I had the same thought and also run out of time and energy to do all national parks 🙂
@ Carl: I should check out them Carlsbad Caverns, don’t know anything about the place. Can you imagine if Biden had a meme coin while President? No, I didn’t think so. The G in MAGA stands for grift. Udine? Is this the town with its soccer team named Udinese? Not sure which division the team is in these days, I used to follow Italian soccer but not anymore. Enjoy the rest of your days in Italy, thanks.
@ David: I may try to be in Larissa for the opening game at home. Tsipouro? A sip and it will knock me out, so strong! Maybe when I was in my 20s lol. Thanks for letting me know about the United Biz and thank you. There are a few Chase cards that were not instantly approved and awaiting for the credit to hit. Every single one makes the credit card vendor owner to hold back from sending me the “you are out due to low sales” email and keep this baby rolling along.
@ Christian: The 30 staff number came out during their latest podcast. I had to rewind to make sure I heard the number right. Then again, maybe I still misheard but I don’t think so. I had the same reaction as you, what the hell are they all doing for the company? Since the founder has journalist backgrounds, maybe at the back he has writers ghost writing across a bunch of Boarding Area blogs? Maybe they are powering Gary Leff’s “shocking” clickbait daily posts? I don’t know. I am signed up for their deals email alerts and I almost jumped on dumping my low Skymiles to that RT flash sale to Taipei. But I procrastinated on purpose 🙂 And thanks for the coffee!
The Hilton Surpass Free Night Cert after hitting $15k spend for the year hit my account the day after I crossed $15k YTD. Wow, impressed.
Time to catch up on a lot of stuff over this weekend. And of course the blog reading queue is always very high when weekends start and I need to attack it. TBBing never stops 🙂
Time to hit the gym in this rainy cloudy day, enjoy the weekend everyone!
George, here is the kind of content your blog needs, instead of your incessant whining about no card sales. Get some decent content and reap the rewards. Learn from those who are successful.
HOW TO MOVE HILTON POINTS FROM PERSON TO ANOTHER
You may already know about the ability to combine your Hilton points with another person, but did you know you can transfer them to another person for free? You can learn more about sharing or transferring Hilton points from one person to another in our Hilton Complete Guide here. (from a current Frequent Miler post)
So you are saying I do not have decent content and this is why I do not reap the rewards. Well, thank you for your uplifting message, so appreciated #notreally.
Please help FM pay the salaries of his 4-5-6? full time staffers. You are doing that, right?
Anyway, keep reading my bad content for free then lol.
Spring has been postponed in Ann Arbor for today, brrrrr.
Lost 2 email subscribers today. So uplifting smh.
Trump 100 days: delusions of monarchy coupled with fundamental ineptitude
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/29/trump-100-days-doge-trade-wars-economy
Alaska Airlines? Why would anyone want 900k there? What did I miss? Are we back to the golden days of “Three Emirates First Class Showers for 100k Alaska Airlines Miles”….. from a decade ago?
It’s four of us with 900k Alaska miles. Two have mid tier elite status with the airline. Can book Detroit NYC trips like the old glory Avios days every day. And plenty of other nice awards with this airline. Hoping a bid devaluation massacre does not happen…tomorrow lol.
Noticed 1 Venture X and 1 Venture Rewards cards approvals from April showed up today. And one CSP this month. Wow, 3 cards in one day being credited is something to celebrate. On Tacos Tuesday followed up from Cinco de Mayo hooray!
So much rain here in Ann Arbor this morning, wow. It was lovely riding my bike yesterday in my local park, so many duckies everywhere. I think I am pretty much done with running, sad.
George, I’m sorry / not sorry for sharing this with you:
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fw661nb67k5ze1.jpeg
Going to have nightmares now, thanks Nick
Just checked this venture’s revenue in 2025. So far, year to date, the revenue is at 8.81% of all of last year.
Wow 🙁
DO NOT START A BLOG FOR PETE’S SAKE.
I knew it was bad but I must admit it is shocking…If the cc vendor is reading this please pull the plug and kick me to the curb so I can move on with my life lol.
Thinking to watch that first Champions League semifinal…
Also, crazy endings in Oklahoma City and Boston in the NBA last night, wow.
Just a wild idea here but what about a meetup somewhere in your neck of the woods sometime? Honestly, like many others my calendar is pretty full for this year but with some planning next year might be viable. I know pretty much nothing about the area where you live but seeing it a little might be fun and I think that something like this – if you didn’t have to put too much into it – might be a worthwhile engagement mechanism with readers that would enhance readership. Then again I might be absolutely wrong. Either way it’d be fun to meet you, even if just for a short time.
We used to have the Ann Arbor Art Fair DO here pre Covid. And it was a lot of fun as I hosted attendees in my house on the Friday night before the opening of the DO Saturday morning. But it kind of died as everyone’s priorities shifted post Covid. I always thought I should revive it but I just don’t have the stamina to do it as my current job and TBBing is way too much to handle.
I did meet with some readers pre Covid again at a restaurant and again one showed up at a Starbucks, both in Brooklyn, NY. Also, met Andy while we were both staying at one of those Hyatt Z properties in Cancun, forget which one, you know Zilara and the other one, I always confused them, one of them is for adults only. I do love meeting blog readers of course and if anyone is visiting Ann Arbor I will go out of my way to meet, assuming I am here of course.
Thanks for the suggestion, much appreciated. I do have more time as my running days are behind me it appears. Anyway, up to mid 70s again and time to take the bike out for a spin again.
Wow, what a fascinating mix of topics — from eagle hunters in Kyrgyzstan to crypto frauds and cave adventures! Really appreciate how you blend big global issues with unique travel stories and practical travel tips. Always look forward to these posts to get inspired and stay informed. Thanks for keeping it real and interesting!