Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as how humans invest, financial industry salesmen, more Paris Olympics drama, the best credit card combos, real wage growth in the US, listen to birds around the world, the George Foreman grill is still a massive success, more UNESCO sites, 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!
TBB Blog Mission: To Educate. Entertain. Inspire. In That Order!
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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
Investing is easy. In theory. Actually making it happen is extremely hard. Because the problem is us humans, it is all behavior. So, this is a good read: I Can’t Explain It. It has been consistently proven that even experts can’t foresee what the markets will do. So, why even bother listening to them explaining why something happened afterwards and believe their next predictions? Anyway, at the end of the day every day:
…markets are volatile; sometimes uncomfortable and inexplicable things occur.
To reiterate my point above:
People who didn’t predict the market sell-off will confidently foresee what is to come: “I didn’t see this coming, I cannot explain what caused it, but I am going to tell you what happens next.”
and this is already happening:
A new market narrative will take hold incredibly quickly and everyone will start using a fresh set of buzzwords that are consistent with the current set of events.
And of course we carry on:
This might turn into something more substantial, or we might be talking about something else next month. Usually it is the latter, sometimes it is the former.
Absolutely:
Living through periods of turbulence is taxing. It is easy to talk about the long-term, staying invested, and compounding returns when markets are going up. It is an entirely different story when the reverse is true, but these are the times when behaviour really counts.
Since we are on the fascinating subject of behavioral finance, this is a podcast you should listen to: Humans Are Not Built For Investing.
In the latest issue of the Kiplinger Tax Letter: There is a proposal for a new tax credit titled “End Kidney Deaths Act”. It seeks to establish a pilot program to give living kidney donors a refundable tax credit of $50,000 paid over five years. Will this ever become tax law? No idea, I am just intrigued seeing this. The group proposing this says it will save taxpayers billions in health care costs and I think I believe it.
Interesting visual found here. Look at what happened after 2020 comparing High Wage and Low Wage groups, well overdue imho.
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
I am including this Wall Street Journal article here in this section: The Insurance Industry Is Winning a Fight to Kill New Protections for Retirement Savers. The financial industry has a well deserved awful reputation because of the vast harm inflicted by financial advisors financial product salesmen to consumers looking for financial advice. This happens because of the perverse conflicts of interest plaguing the industry. I think if you advise people you should act and actually BE a fiduciary. But this is the F world to the powerful part of the industry always dominated by unleashing poorly trained army of people out there to sell shit. Amazingly, the worse the shit sold the more money these guys make and of course their company makes, they are NOT on your side! I am not saying advisers like me who do not get paid by commissions do not have conflicts of interest, of course we do. But some of us sign on our letterhead that we are fiduciaries to our clients. Try to get an advisor from a bank/wirehouse/insurance company to do the same, I dare you.
Ok, long intro. So, in 2014 after many years of trying to codify this fiduciary tag to financial advisors, the US Labor Department actually put something on the books that was passed. What happened? Nothing. After years of these powerful lobbying groups representing the army of salesmen licking their fingers targeting people with money (widows with inheritances, 401k lump sums, new doctors etc.), they managed to get this thrown out with ridiculous self serving arguments. This administration is trying again and I predicted this will happen, sadly of course.
“Insurers and agents are fighting for their right to keep ripping off clients, with biased advice and sky-high commissions,” said Joseph Peiffer, president of the Public Investors Advocate Bar Association of lawyers who represent investors. “And, right now, they’re winning.” [Sad fact. I would never ever refer a prospective client to an advisor who is not paid by client fees only. Don’t fall for advisors who tout they are compensated as “fee-based”.]
Financial advisers typically get upfront commissions for the sale of annuities, giving them an incentive to promote the products to clients. Products with the biggest commissions have accounted for much of the recent sales growth. [Not shocking]
The article proceeds to lay out all the horrors of the fixed indexed annuity (or sometimes known as EIA, Equity Index Annuities) products and it ends with some incredible quotes by salesmen taunting us that they will win again. It is year 2024, unbelievable. Many are angry online for stupid things. Now this is something you should be angry about. I don’t know, do something? Call your congressman and vote accordingly?
Let’s move on.
Be careful about grifters online screaming about an “amazing” tax credit, they are about to scam you. There is no “self-employment tax credit”. Ok, there was a very limited Covid payroll related tax break but it expired in 2021. With all well designed scams, they pony up (pun intended) on some true facts and then, watch out! Just click away or block every single account you see praising these, they are nothing but lowly scum scammers.
ODDZ & ENDZ
If you ever got the urge to listen to sounds of birds from around the world, this site is for you: Dawn Chorus.
This blog is not going to blog itself. I rely on you readers helping it grow as I don’t have time to do any marketing. Which leaves the content clean of intrusive sponsoring posts and stupid ads and stuff like that. So, please:
You like my blog? Send a link to someone please!
I must admit I never had a George Foreman Grill. But man, wow, what a phenomenally successful product it has been! Thirty years and still counting. The story how it came together is crazy. The spectacular rise and surprising staying power of the George Foreman Grill.
And how George got really really rich with what became one of the all time best sponsoring deals ever in history:
Amazing photography: Frank Deschandol’s Photos Uncover the Some of the World’s Most Elusive Insects and Arthropods. Amazing collection in his website and Instagram.
2024 PARIS OLYMPICS
I was not that excited for these Olympics. But that quickly changed and I have been totally loving the action every day. It will be a sad day when they end this weekend.
Some happenings that stood out for me you may have missed. Oh, before we begin, here is the Medal Count. Can we finally shake off the Chinese for the gold medal race, come on!
Greece has a long jumper who is probably one of the most chill dudes you will ever meet. So laid back and down to earth is unreal. Oh, and he is the best long jumper out there who managed to win his second straight Olympic gold. Which was widely expected and the dude never disappoints. And he promised he will be there in 2028 Los Angeles games. Miltiadis Tentoglou joins Carl Lewis as the only men with consecutive Olympic long jump golds.
Pole vault has been around for a very long time. If you really think about it, this sport is bizarre running like a maniac with a ridiculously long fiber glass pole to jump over six meters! I mean, you can get injured and risk your life doing this, especially in the early years. There have been some amazing pole vaulters over the years. And you know you have to be a little nuts to do this sport. But we have never seen anyone like this 24 year old kid from Lafayette, Louisiana who keeps breaking world record after world record. Oh, his mom is Swedish so he suits up for Sweden. His dad is his coach and his mom is his conditioning coach, talk about a family affair. Everyone plays for silver and bronze, he has the gold locked up. And it is not even close. Oh, and he broke his own world record again in Paris: Armand Duplantis, the Timothée Chalamet of the Pole Vault. Also, a Greek pole vaulter got bronze medal in Paris. Another amazing story, one of the nicest guys with a Greek father and a Ugandan mother.
One totally epic race was the Men’s 1500 meters. I get goose bumps replaying what our eyes saw. A young American Cole Hocker came out of completely nowhere to stun the top two arrogant loud mouths (the heavy favorite pretty boy Norwegian and a Scottish dude claiming he will beat the pretty boy in Paris)…only to let Hocker come in the inside and finish in one of the craziest finishing kicks ever in the history of the Olympics. I apologize to all men with man bun hair I ever criticized in the past, I take it all back. Even sweeter it was at the end the Norwegian had nothing left and finished fourth over taken by another long shot American for the bronze medal. Long distance running in the US has been in a slump for decades, not anymore. Cole Hocker emerges on top of a loaded men’s 1500m field | Paris Olympics | NBC Sports. So, for everyone, believe and leave it on the field. I am doing it here in my blog for you lol.
Do you know how tough it is to win a gold medal? And then do it again? And again. And again. This Cuban wrestling legend Mijain Lopez did the unthinkable, he won a FIFTH straight gold medal. At age 41. I mean, this is just an accomplishment that is beyond EPIC. The wrestler he fought in the final is a Cuban guy he used to wrestle with who ended up defecting to Chile so he can finally have a shot to make it to the Olympics lol. Actually, in his first four Olympics Nunez did not give up a single point! In Paris he did give up a few points in his march to another gold, I guess age caught up with him lol. Mijain Lopez goes out ON A HIGH with record fifth straight gold medal | Paris Olympics | NBC Sports. And then at the end he takes off his shoes to signal his retirement from the sport. Then again, who knows with this guy?
Amazing semifinal game between Serbia and an always loaded USA Team. Serbia almost did it. Actually, they will be thinking about it for a very long time how they let it slip out of their hands at the very end. Thank God for Steph Curry. And, please sit down, for Joel Embiid, what?
Don’t forget the women’s soccer final between USA and Brazil tomorrow. This is the third time they meet in an Olympic final and USA has come out on top both times, will it be a third? In legendary Brazilian player Marta’s last game. She got a red card in a first round game and was expelled for the next two games and was besides herself because this is the worst way to end your international glorious career. But her teammates pulled together to win both games to make it to another final to give Marta a chance to win what has been missing.
I now realize this post may be my longest post ever and I hope you are still with me. Or you can take a break and come back again and again to digest more. It increases page views and my imaginary advertisers love it. Oh, I have no ads here, never did by the way. Anyway, if have you ever wondered about how much you get paid for a gold medal, here it is below. Actually, they get a lot more. Like the Filipino gymnast with two gold medals who got a condo, lifetime ramen supply and colonoscopies for free!
Or wait, add this race to another epic Paris showing: Quincy Hall unleashes stunning comeback to win men’s 400m gold. Watch it HERE. I have now watched this too many times, it is not humanely possible! “He found something deep”, indeed!
And then there is the artistic team event that makes me say wow and wtf at the same time repeatedly, enjoy this show. Which always reminds me this all time SNL classic.
I should have made a separate post about the Olympics, too late! One more for you: Athletes with the most Olympic medals.
TRAVEL
SAVE $100 FOR 2024 THE EXTRAORDINARY TRAVEL FESTIVAL
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Some very interesting places on this list: 52 Unexpected Places to Go in the USA. Do you have a favorite?
Is it only me who thinks that UNESCO World Heritage sites is getting a bit out of control? A Roman road, sand dunes and gold mines: These are the 24 new UNESCO World Heritage Sites for 2024. Is it a plot by tourism bureaus to increase tourism? They just keep coming dozens at a time!
Waiting to see a blogger do a trip report from this place lol. Actually, cameras are not permitted for obvious reasons. Except a group photo in this piece lol. El Fonoll, the medieval village in Spain where clothes are banned. Since there is high probability there would not be a Hyatt here I guess I am not going woohoo. And now I expect this to be a blog post in many miles and points blogs that thrive on clickbait and ad dollars smh.
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! More new credit card offers, gotta love US banks. This only happens here in the US. Also, this means many are in credit card debt up to their eyeballs who allow these banks to keep competing and throwing at us higher offers to allow us to travel almost free. Tough to turn this down, can’t believe this gravy train has lasted for so long.
GENERAL NEWS/PROMOS/NEWBIES/ETC.
Hyatt and American Airlines have a unique partnership for their elite members and here is another promo: American AAdvantage and Hyatt launch reciprocal instant status match / challenge. I have no American Airlines flights coming up. But I placed a calendar reminder on September 4 to register for it anyway and who knows, I may get an upgrade if I fly American the next four months. This is offered to World of Hyatt Globalist and Explorist elites. Also, check out the offer if you are an AA elite flyer, you could actually earn Globalist status after only 20 nights.
I don’t post transfer bonuses here in general. Because I usually don’t go for them unless they are worthy. I am not seeing anything worthy lately. And I usually don’t buy miles/points because, come on, the whole point of this hobby is to travel free or very close to free. Which does not involve giving up cash to these companies. And I am philosophically opposed to such practices because by giving up cash to buy miles it only increases the chances for these companies to devalue. Do not contribute to the problem, thank you. Also, almost every blogger pumping you up with the latest offers to buy miles and points from airlines and hotels gets compensated if you click on their links. So you know.
Did you ever stop to think why airlines are still allowed to inflict “fuel surcharges” on their customers? Anyway, some countries have explicitly forbidden this hideous practice: Save Your Wallet by Booking Fights from These Countries That Limit Fuel Surcharges.
I am going to stick this here: CNET to Be Sold to Ziff Davis in Sign of Possible Media Deals to Come. It probably belongs in the ADVANCED section but since this section today is a little light I am sticking it here. Red Ventures bought the formerly wonderful CNET site for $500 Million. Only to sell it for $100 Million. Definitely NOT winning. Why do we care? Because Red Ventures bought Bankrate. Bankrate had bought The Points Guy and it is the main site that proceeded to take the business model of selling plastic to consumers to unimaginable levels. Before that happened, we were a small community of weirdos sharing tips and scoring amazing deals and there was no profit involved whatsoever. It all changed when a blogger cashed a check from a bank for selling its credit card. And that blogger (hi Rick!) told Brian Kelly, The Points Guy founder and then, well, you would not believe what happened next. Maybe one day I write a book. Screw that, maybe I do a blog post instead. For crying out loud, friends don’t let friends read The Points Guy!
CREDIT CARD CORNER
Please help the small independent blogs like mine continue to exist by supporting them with your CREDIT CARD clicks, 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.
Some interesting card combos: Best fee-free transferable point credit card combo. Some get absolutely stuck with refusing to pay any annual fees. I never understood it. But it is what it is. So this post is for you. I swim in my favorite bank Chase ecosystem. And we do just fine paying some annual fees, cost of doing business lol. Do what works for you and provides you peace of mind. I do a lot but way less than I was younger. When I am compared to some other hobbyists I am an amateur. And that’s okay. I have never been shut down by a bank so I keep playing and winning my way. You do what works for you and don’t listen to so many who don’t know wtf they are talking about. Over 95% of the content creators in this space will be gone when banks stop paying them to sell plastic. I would probably still be here doing my thing.
More new offers are here, for disclosure purposes mostly, here we go:
NEW: 155k Marriott Bonvoy Bevy: Earn 155,000 Points. I am no Marriott Bonvoy fan. But it is the largest hotel company in the world, so you can not avoid it. This card has a $250 annual fee and you can get a nice 155,000 points after you complete $5k in spend in the first SIX months. Gold elite status, 15 elite night credits and 1,000 bonus points with each stay. The 155k points is not the highest ever but it matches it. Will it be enough to make me go for it? No way. And I am not going to be like so many bloggers faking my enthusiasm making an ass of myself in order to make a sale so I can get paid. Read more about the offer if you are interested and apply for it HERE to help support the blog if you decide to go for it, thank you.
NEW: 185k Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant: Earn 185,000 Points. Again, read the paragraph above for my feelings about this program. This is a premium card for people who stay in Marriott properties a lot, like many business travelers. As a premium card, it comes with a premium annual fee of $650. You get 185,000 points after you spend $6k in the first SIX months. Platinum status. Wait, is this six month period becoming standard lately? Comes with fairly easy but annoying $25 per month credits on restaurants worldwide up to $300 per year. 25 elite night credits. 1 free night every anniversary year. Priority Pass lounge membership. Again, this can fit some heavy Marriott hitters. Read more about the offer if you are interested and apply for it HERE to help support the blog if you decide to go for it, thank you.
You can refer Amex cards from within your Amex account. Sometimes the referral bonus you earn referring others to Amex cards can be very lucrative. And sometimes the offers you can sign up for can also be very lucrative. And they can vary wildly! Sometimes different offers show up when you use different browsers, incognito mode, desktop or mobile browser or app, it is maddening! So, I will drop here my own personal Amex REFERRAL LINK. You can use this referral link to apply for ANY Amex card. You just click on Learn More and then click on either “Personal Cards” or “Business Cards” at the top. And act accordingly if you see a crazy high offer!
NEW: Barclays JetBlue Plus Card – 80,000 Point Bonus. I mean, if you are into JetBlue and fly out of an airport it uses, 80,000 points is not bad. But it is not something to make me sit up and consider it. Maybe at 100k I’ll think about it.
NEW: Capital One Spark Cash Plus $1,200 Cash Bonus + Up to 5% Cash Back. This is a card for heavy volume businesses. Because it takes $30k of spend in the first three months to earn the signup bonus of $1,200. The “unlimited 5% cash back” struck your fancy? Me too! But it is only on hotel and rental cards booked through Capital One Travel, so not a big deal. Annual fee is $150 but wait, you can have it waived if you put at least $150k of spend on the card each year. Like I said, this is for heavy volume businesses who just love to earn 2% cash back on every dollar. This 2% is completely unlimited. Maybe one day we all go to these 2% pure cash back cards and tell the airlines and hotels if they keep devaluing why get plastic from them and just stick it.
Still the #1 BEST OFFER out there right now, we got three of these babies in my household. 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. 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.
Comparing Chase Ink Business Cards: Which One is Right for You
5 Excellent Options! What I Would Do with 130,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards
Capital One has come out with a lucrative 75k Capital One Venture Rewards card PLUS a $250 Travel Credit. The annual fee is $95 and the minimum spend required is $4,000 in three months. Capital One cards usually earn a simple flat 2 points on every dollar. This card earns 5x on hotels and car rentals booked on its own travel portal, which is no big deal. No foreign transaction fees. Get $100 credit towards Global Entry or TSA Precheck. Most importantly, you can transfer the 75,000 points out to airline and hotel partners. Or just erase travel charged on the card for $750. And then of course you get the $250 travel credit. Basically, $1,000 of travel for $95. No Priority Pass lounge membership, just 2 visits allowed to Capital One or Plaza Premium airline lounges. Very tempting indeed. For diversifying purposes as well if you have enough miles and points elsewhere as it is always nice to use this card to pay for a trip and then use Capital One miles to erase the charges. Just like I did for my upcoming trip to Thailand using Capital One miles to fly from Detroit to Bangkok in November. Capital One pulls and reports to all three credit bureaus. And they can be, well, finicky in approvals. If you are denied, you can not call to ask them to reconsider, it is all done by algorithms so, Good Luck! Finally, YES, you can have both the Venture X and the Venture Rewards cards.
I keep receiving emails from Chase trying to get me to apply for the Southwest personal credit cards. Offering only 50k Signup Bonus. Never do that, just wait until the bonus goes much higher ok? Or you can read below how the Signup Bonus for the two Southwest business cards is now 120k. Friends don’t let friends apply for 50k Southwest credit cards! And here we go with two Southwest offering business cards offering 120,000 Points.
Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business Credit Card and Business Performance Credit Card are offering a signup bonus of up to 120,000 points:
Earn 80,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from your account opening.
Plus, earn an additional 40,000 points after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first 9 months
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.
MY ACTION
United had a “sale” in award travel every day this week. And it was so exciting I fell asleep.
On track to complete the minimum spend on the third 120k Chase Ink Business Preferred card in my household, this one is for my daughter to spot her even more points to travel for free courtesy of our favorite bank Chase. I wonder if my annual insurance bill (I pay it all at once for simplicity and a small discount) will post before the next statement closes to see another one of these hit my miles/points bank, it never gets old.
We had booked an award trip on American Airlines for son to fly from Honolulu to Detroit as a place holder. He managed to get his business trip booked and his company to pay for it so I canceled it and the miles returned to his AA account the next day. That was the plan all along. Gotta love these free cancellations, I hope we never go back to the egregious fees airlines used to charge to “redeposit” the miles. Son is Alaska Airlines MVP Gold elite due to a great targeted promo last year for employees of his company and has already qualified for MVP elite status and stands at about 22k elite credited miles year to date. To make MVP Gold again he needs to reach 40k which may be a stretch. This latest business trip will help and I think he has at least one more before the year ends. I see 30k but 40k looks like a reach. He does have a few personal trips to book so those may help, we shall see how it goes.
Son booked two award trips on Alaska Airlines for himself plus one to fly Honolulu to San Francisco in October. For only 7,500 Alaska Airlines miles each. Proud dad!
I have not done any travel bookings or gardened my existing reservations. I am too busy with life and bringing you this blog. Every time I press the “Publish” button I am proud of what comes out. I wonder if this post will lead to more people unsubscribing which always bothers me. Anyway, I keep doing my thing . Enjoy the ride.
No movies, all Olympics lately.
I continue my physical therapy to get back to walking and eventually running. Now going all out focusing on the main culprit of my feet pain, the metatarsal bones. I did not even know what metatarsal was, I do now. And they are such a bitch to fix!
ADVANCED
Well, the reprieve did not last that long, sad: United Airlines Mileage Plus Award Massacre Returns Two Months After Being Walked Back.
Start consolidating your accounts and simplifying life. Because the more accounts you have out there, the higher the probability this will happen to you: My United Airlines Account & MileagePlus X App were Hacked, My Journey to Restore Access. This worked out okay. I think. But it could have been a lot more painful, always be alert!
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 4,362,146 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, all feedback is very appreciated.
George
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Thanks for the Olympic updates! Good that you are paying attention. Yes Steph Curry is a marvel.
That Olympic section should have been a separate post. Oh well 🙂
Greece remains the only team that beat an all NBA star team in a World or Olympic competition semifinal ever. Made LeBron look like a college player. Not to brag lol.
“According to my research through ITA Matrix, British Airways award flights departing from Brazil are not subject to fuel surcharges. That’s a big deal considering how notorious British Airways is for its fuel surcharges.”
I’m somewhat surprised. Acc.to my knowledge ITA Matrix is for cash/revenue flights, only?! How do you search with the ITA Matrix for revenue flights?
TIA
I use to use ITA Matrix. Then Google bought the company and slowly brought on all its great features to a much better design on the eyes to Google Flights. You could zero in on the ITA Matrix ticket code details to get the fuel surcharge $ numbers. ITA Matrix was not specifically for award flights but you could see how many fares were on each bucket, including the award bucket. Man, been so long since I used it, I have been using Google Flights for a while.
Scary travel moment for the Panthers: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/delta-flight-runs-off-taxiway-charlotte-airport/275-5b748137-4f0d-4686-b18b-28828e2bdbba
So, will Delta sue Charlotte airport? And will they offer 100 Skymiles to each passenger for the inconvenience that they are not responsible for? 🙂
Hey Buzz-
1. What happens to that $50,000 kidney donation tax credit if, uh, you know, you don’t make it? Can your estate claim it? Can you sell it like carbon offsets?
2. For an Olympic bonus, go back and watch Celine Dion singing on the Eiffel Tower at the end of the opening ceremony but this time read the English lyrics to the song:
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/l039hymne-l039amour-hymn-love.html
Piaf’s husband was killed in a plane crash. Well, he wasn’t exactly her husband, but they were both married. Just not to each other. Hey-she was French. What’s it to ya?
3. Ah, yes. The good ol’ days of real travel hacking. Ingy, Mommy Points, Ben when he was a kid. As the philosopher Led Zeppelin put it:
« Does anyone remember laughter? »
Another epic TBB post. Thanks and have a great weekend.
1. Great question on the kidney tax credit. If this ever passes, I expect final regulations to come out sometime after 2030 🙂
2. That Celine Dion performance was indeed epic. And then after you sent me the lyrics and I played it again I was overcome with emotion…I need to share this in the body of the post here sometime.
3. I think I would love to do a post with interviews with these retired old timers. Except Ben, who will never retire. But they are not talking to me for some reason. Do you remember years ago Rick used to come here and taunt me I am not going to last as a blogger? I think Mommy Points has somehow survived numerous layoffs at TPG, kind of impressive. I also miss Daraius and Emily blogging how they traveled for free as a loving couple telling friends and family how to do it out of the bottom of their hearts. I could go on but I need to do my physical therapy exercises for these phucking metatarsal bones while I am dreaming of winning a gold medal in competitive taco eating contest lol. Thanks man, when TBB IPOs you are invited to the New York Stock Exchange bell ringing ceremonies. And all seven TBB readers who have been supporting me ever since I started this because I was bored and was just going to do it for three months…wow.
Good stuff! But I am not going to El Fonoll. Visiting Southern Cal for my 50th HS reunion. I am an Old! I had a George Foreman grill for many years. Used it almost exclusively for Bacon. (Yes, I capitalize Bacon. My prerogative.) The things are so simple and work so well I am not surprised they just continue to sell.
Hope the weekend treats you well. I gotta go see what all these old people look like I went to HS with!
Not going to El Fonoli to hang out either. Or, to be more correct, to let it all hang out lol.
Yeah, 50 years HS renunion must be something. I never went to the US high school reunions because I was only there for one year and spent more than half of the year lost learning English. But there have been reunions of my Greek high school, we have a Facebook page. But no activity and the 40th year is next year, I hope someone takes the initiative to pull it together but it doesn’t look likely. I will do my best to make it to that one as I have missed every single one to this point. Have fun, outlive everyone 🙂
I’ll own up to owning one of those grills as sometime in the past. Yeah, what happened to Ingy? He seemed to totally disappear. Must be exhausting being Mommy Points and having to cover the same old Disney crap non stop. Does anyone really get that excited over going to Disney and overpaying multiple times a year? I do still read OMAAT, not every article but occasionally will click through. Personally I think Ben has matured and appears to be a decent adult and have to admire what he has achieved as he avoids most of Gary’s clickbait headlines.
Not a Disney fan here, I really don’t get all the appeal it has. Took the kids there and we all left wondering the same thing.
I killed VFTW from my Feedly and it has really improved my health, I highly recommend it! I kept OMAAT and sometimes I look at one here and there. Amazing what this kid has accomplished, I still remember him in high school with his escapades told in Flyer Talk. The pace of his blogging is an unparalleled machine. I mean, he outposts TPG with all the (shrinking) staff! And yes he has avoided most of Gary’s clickbait shit which of course is commendable. Seems to be focusing more on aviation news lately, don’t really care much about how Frontier canceled A321XLR order or how Cathay plans A330 flat bed business seats in regional flights sometime before 2030.
i think phelps medals were revoked and at least tpg is behind a pseudopaywall now
Not sure about the Phelps medals being revoked.
Some TPG articles are behind a paywall. But not every single one? You can rest assured this will never happen here, I am committed to educating/entertaining/inspiring. For free…all around lol.
Hey George, thanks for linking to my United Airlines hacked account post. I still do not know exactly how the hacker got into my MPX account.
I set up text and email alerts for almost all of my airline, hotel, and credit cards so I caught it pretty quickly but I’m sure a lot of people would not find out right away and would have a harder time restoring account access and account balances.
I’m planning on a going to the LA 2028 Olympics, at least for the first few days. Maybe I will see you there 🙂
Good job getting up on this. Yeah, very weird this happened. Looks like it was a one off…hopefully.
Not thinking about 2028 LA yet. But it will be cool to come see the Greek long jumper win another gold. And meet again, been what, 10 years since the Phoenix event? I think it was Phoenix, my brain cells are not as strong as they used to be.
I am thinking about 2026 World Cup though.
Good memory! I checked my photos and it says the event was on July 25, 2015. The hotel was a Kimpton I believe but now the resort is a Marriott (The Canyon Suites at The Phoenician, a Luxury Collection Resort, Scottsdale).
So much has changed over the last 9 years, but it would be great to see you in person again.
Note to self: never, ever work for Amazon. https://twitter.com/Amy_K_Nelson/status/1822318185556648348
Yikes. After reading this, if Bezos ever makes me an offer to buy my blog I will have to decline it 🙂
This is cool: they’re using AI to rapidly increase the rate at which we’re deciphering old cuneiform tablets and we’re filling in more of the Gilgamesh epic.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/12/books/booksupdate/ai-ancient-tablets-gilgamesh.html?smid=tw-share
non-paywall: https://archive.ph/1uyq7