Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as how to buy a house right now, Michael Lewis still loves SBF, the greatest US road hotels, new 90k Chase Ink Business Unlimited card offer, professional whistleblowers, August ponzi scheme roundup, laughing gas revolution, ATC Hiker Photo Archive and much more and of course always all of the most important developments in the crazy world of miles and points. See you next next week, enjoy the weekend!
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This blog started way back in 2012 focusing on my crazy hobby addiction of traveling with frequent flyer miles, hotel and bank points. It has since evolved to 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.
PERSONAL FINANCE
If you are looking to buy a house (or sell or just interested in real estate), this podcast is great: At the Money: The Best Way to Buy a House Right Now.
Talk about a niche job, professional whistleblower: How to Make Millions as a Professional Whistleblower. If you were not aware of this program, here are some details about it:
Whistleblower programs were established at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to manage and investigate tips, and the calculus for awards depends on multiple factors, including the value of the information in making the case. But the payouts can be enormous. Recent cases have rewarded SEC whistleblowers with $29 million, $38 million, and $104 million. Last year, the SEC cut its biggest check yet, issuing a payout of $279 million to one tipster who reportedly aided in a bribery case involving the Swedish telecom Ericsson that resulted in a more-than-billion-dollar settlement.
The labor market is cooling. From the peak of 12.2 million job openings at March 2022, we are down to 7.9 million in June 2024 and now 7.7 million in July 2024. In the bigger picture, this level is still above prepandemic levels. Going bigger, total payroll employment stood at 158.7 million jobs, up 6.4 million from the prepandemic high. And we are at a 43 consecutive month of job gains. Just some facts to keep it all in perspective. And don’t worry about these things you really have no control over, focus on what you do best.
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
This should not come as a surprise that author Micheal Lewis still can’t get over his crush convicted felon San Bankman-Fried out of his mind as I have blogged about this several times in the past. I am just blown away, smh: Sam Bankman-Fried, a personal verdict. A few thoughts on how Americans thought about the crypto trial of the century. Not going to excerpt any of his excuses here, has he ever apologized how wrong he was about this guy? Nope.
We have the monthly August 2024 Ponzi Scheme Roundup. Full of, you guessed it, crypto thieves and other fine people. Every month I am blown away how people fall for these schemes. If you are promised anything involving investments you should just walk run away!
Investors were promised returns from loans to a crypto asset trading platform that used a “bot” to supposedly identify arbitrage trading opportunities.
The scheme promised returns of 12% annually and 99% at the end of three years.
…promising returns of 10% every three months from land development projects.
They promised returns of 8% to 15% within 30 to 90 days.
…promised returns of 20% to 2,000% over the course of one to 18 months from supposed ventures in stocks, gold, diamonds, and oil commodities.
…promised investors returns of 14% to 18% per year from investment in a private fund.
Bin promised investors .5% returns daily from purportedly owning 300,000 machines that could mine cryptocurrency through its Chain Mining Scheme.
Investors were promised returns of between 45% and 50%.
OmegaPro promised returns of up to 300% through a top-secret trading algorithm.
This blog is not going to blog itself. I rely on my readers helping it grow as I don’t have time to do any promotion/marketing. Which leaves the content clean of intrusive sponsoring posts and stupid ads and stuff like that.
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ODDZ & ENDZ
Very cool. ATC Hiker Photo Archive. ATC stands for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, a spot where hikers took a photo. Maybe your loved one did this and does not even know?
The archive can be searched by date, trail name, first name, and/or last name.
I had no idea about this, how fascinating! Revolution in the air: how laughing gas changed the world. Since its discovery in the 18th century, nitrous oxide has gone from vaudeville gimmick to pioneering anesthetic to modern party drug. I am going to show this to my anesthesiologist doc client, I am sure he will have a laugh.
Amazing photography: August’s Best Science Images.
TRAVEL
This is great: The Greatest Road Hotels in America. CLASSIC MOTOR LODGES ARE IN A COMEBACK ERA, SETTING NEW STANDARDS FOR ROADSIDE HOSPITALITY. THESE ARE OUR 27 FAVORITES ACROSS THE US. More like motels. Even though we like to stay in luxurious suites for free around here, some of us are not elitist and would stay here 🙂
Useful site: CheckPlug. Exactly what you think this is.
Sometimes I wonder how incredibly damaging social media can be. This is happening in Spain and I keep shaking my head: Spain’s ‘pineapple-gate’ sparks hopes of romance and shop chaos.
A Spanish craze encouraging single people to seek partners in supermarkets by using a fruit-based code has caused some chaotic scenes and even led to the police being called to restore order. In recent days, many single Spaniards have been drawn to branches of supermarket chain Mercadona between 7pm-8pm by claims they can find romance at that time, particularly if they put a pineapple upside down in their shopping trolley. The phenomenon seems to have been driven in great part by the actor and humourist Vivy Lin, who posted a video on TikTok of her pushing a trolley around a Mercadona store talking about the supposed window.
The discount is now down to $60 (from $100) if you sign for ETF using code TBB below. You can be first!
SAVE $60 FOR 2024 THE EXTRAORDINARY TRAVEL FESTIVAL
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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 NEWS/PROMOS/CREDIT CARD CORNER/MY ACTION
We start with an expiring credit card offers section before we get into juicy developments, buckle up!
GENERAL NEWS/PROMOS/NEWBIES/ETC.
Great addition for our Priority Pass lounge memberships that we get from so many credit cards around here: Priority Pass Members Now Have Access to XpresSpa Locations. Looking forward to enjoy a a 25-minute Zero Gravity Massage Lounger, yeah.
Register for the latest Best Western Rewards promotion.
Let the heads of these programs sweat! DOT probe seeks to determine if frequent flyer programs are fair to travelers. Don’t expect anything to happen soon. But maybe, just maybe, they announce some consumer friendly initiatives proactively, you know, like no devaluations more than once a year, give notice before impending devaluations become effective, maybe lower some fees, etc. I could go on. I bet you the heads of these programs are all sweating buckets!
According to the DOT, it will investigate four aspects of frequent flyer programs:
- Devaluation of earned rewards – how airlines can reduce or eliminate accrued value after travelers earn their points or miles.
- Hidden and dynamic pricing – how airlines price award flights in a way that can mask or change the purported dollar value of a point or mile.
- Extra fees – the practice of airlines charging cash to maintain, redeem or transfer points, which the DOT says can effectively reduce the value of a point or mile.
- Reduction in competition and choice – how frequent flyer programs are combined during airline mergers and how the value of points or miles is affected as a result.
CREDIT CARD CORNER
I will indicate with NEW every new section as the rest is the same from the previous blog post and will finally roll off those parts as offers expire, thank you.
NEW: If you recently got the Chase Ink Business Unlimited card at a 75k Signup Bonus, be aware: Chase Is Matching 90,000 INK Unlimited Bonus.
NEW: This is a must click, just remember to come back here to support my blog so I have a shot not getting kicked out from my second credit card vendor due to low sales, sad lol. Anyway, all you need to know about my favorite bank’s merchandise that has been funding our travels for the past several decades:
NEW: I love the US banks competing in this space! U.S. Bank launching Smartly credit card offering up to 4% cashback – with a catch. It is way too early to get excited about this, we are talking about THE U.S. Bank after all, one of those weird banks out there. This will require parking some money with it, similar to what Bank of America does with its own point credit cards. We shall see what happens here, I have no doubt that this bank will come out with something that will make this card a non event.
MY ACTION
I am now an elite with American Airlines, proceed with laughing at me. But let me explain. It is not costing me anything and I doubt I will receive any benefits (maybe when I fly RT to New York City in December for the holidays). Hopefully i get to use the status to do another elite status match. This has now expired and yes I did wait for the last day to sign up to get the four month clock running: American Airlines Instant Status For Hyatt Elite Members – Sign Up By September 5, 2024. Thanks to my World of Hyatt Globalist status.
I burned 120k Choice Privileges points for my daughter to stay 7 nights at the Country Inn & Suites by Radisson in Bothwell, WA near Seattle. Pics from the stay at Instagram HERE.
After that stay she moved to the much nicer Hyatt Regency in Bellevue for the next 2 nights she booked after opening an account with Hyatt and transferring 27k points from her Chase Sapphire Preferred account. Pics from this stay on Instagram are HERE. On top of that, I used my last remaining Globalist Guest of Honor cert on this stay which gave me an elite night credit. Which was #30 and boom, I got another Free Night cert and another $25 FIND experience gift card that I hope to use at some point before it expires. I usually choose the easier 2k points from the next Hyatt House or Hyatt place stay but I want to look into this FIND experience thingie, any tips for it? If all goes as planned and looking at my stays the rest of this year, I will hit 66 elite qualifying night credits easily requalifying for Globalist. So, do I go for 70? Need to study the Milestone Rewards section a bit more 🙂
I will post the hotel videos on the TBB YouTube channel when I get around to it, my 30 subscribers there will just have to wait a little longer lol.
I squeezed in paying my annual insurance bill on the very last day before the statement closed and got the third 120k Signup Bonus on daughter’s Chase Ink Business Preferred card #winning. I closed her Chase Ink Business Cash card after holding it for about 18 months. There is a method to my madness swimming in Ink cards you guys #hint.
So, this is the fourth card I closed recently which ties my four new cards I opened (three 120k Chase Ink Business Preferred and one targeted 250k Amex Business Platinum). I will soon close my wife’s Chase Ink Business Cash card and I see that my son is already preapproved for a Chase Ink Unlimited card, maybe it is time to roll that way too. So many Chase points available, so little time, in Chase We Trust hehe.
NFL is starting and the Detroit Lions have Super Bowl aspirations. But, you know, we must tone it down. For Lions fans, this is hilarious: Pure Michigan: The New Lions Fans.
Seeing some progress in my feet as I continue to basically reconstruct the way I walk. Years of pounding walking and running and compensating a certain way has caused all the problems and it is taking a very long time to correct them. Meanwhile, my beard has grown a lot, you say Santa George, I say George Clooney woohoo.
ADVANCED
The Chase Ink Business Premier card is a very different animal than the other three Chase Ink Business cards we frequently talk about. Don’t be confused by it and hope you do not do this. But if you do: So You Applied for a Chase Ink Business PREMIER: Now What? Take it easy, slow down a bit ok?
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 90k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 75k 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, 15k AMEX Blue Business Plus and many more!
As of today, I have burned 1,446,957 miles/points year to date (1,148,286 in 2023) and have 4,572,803 miles/points in the bank. Some do drugs, I do miles lol!
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.
Elevated Card Offer Notifications
All you have to do to receive these free notifications is:
1. Click on the link above
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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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How can you expect us to think about points, miles, and travel when San Marino just upset Liechtenstein for its first victory in 20 years?
Agreed! Who cares about Ronaldo’s 900th goal? BTW, lots of Chase business CCmentioned, how about suggesting how many and how long to wait between applications.
I’d say a no to doing anything that is not organic to go from 66 to 70 Hyatt nights. Keep the points you have or the $s it will cost to do so and save them for next year. The FND experience, I couldn’t see any value in it and believe it is not transferable so it was a pass for us.
Thanks for the laughing gas link! I had NO IDEA!
The air born theory of disease transmission was a huge impediment to figuring out how
chorea was spread. John Snow’s “statistics by shoe leather” exploited the competing water supplies in London to show how it was spread by water. But people seemed not to want to believe that.
@Nick PFD: You know, I did pause whether to post this today! But post was way too long so I passed.
https://dasfootball.com/san-marino-vs-liechtenstein-highlights/
@ABC: Have placed hints. And so did Dan at his linked article. We can not spell it out completely, the compliance overlords are always watching. I can see Ronald at 49 pleading with refs to award a PK so he can score goal 1,000 lol.
@Vicky: You are right, I may get to 68 with spend alone on the personal Hyatt Visa. Will see what happens. Yeah, the FIND experiences are mostly a miss than hits but something may come up, they are good well into 2026. I love food tours.
@DML: I have been holding on the laughing gas link for at least 3 weeks until today. I am glad I posted it before I demoted it to the trash bin 🙂
Finally I am able to get into daughter’s Microsoft 401k & other accounts at Fidelity. Kind of disappointed with the investment lineup I must admit.
Woot! I am very late to comment but it’s been… interesting around here. The Ponzi thing amazes me. How in the hell do s many people lose so much money in this stuff month after month? I simply cannot understand it.
I am glad you continue to see progress with your foot issues! Time for a pic here of George with his new beard though!
Thanks as always for the good reading and entertainment!
Good to see you here, we were all woindering 🙂
The Tuesday story about yet another person falling for a scam will blow you away. I am completely speechless about it.
So, the beard is growing. Going back to the barber on Saturday before leaving for my conference in Cali. Barber suggested I dye my beard brown. Which I guess means some of my white hair on the sides too. I am still completely clueless about this beard thing. In one way, I like not having to shave so often! And I have a new look. But the beard comes with lots of white hair in my beard. Shit, most of it is white, wtf! Which makes me look old. And I am so conflicted by this. I am who I am (lol), do I fake it and try to cover it with brown color all over? Barber says it will look good on me. But will it look fake? And the people who know me will know for sure that I have done this. Is dyeing even safe? How about maintaining it. I am leaning towards keeping it the way it is, all real and mostly white.
Remember here when I had an issue with my eyebrows? I was posting every day and then my eyebrow hair started falling out lol. And yes a little of my eyebrow hair is now white too so is the barber going to make that area all brown too?
Remember that movie with Tom Hanks all alone in an island with his beard growing to gigantic proportions? I am not there yet but omg, will I get there?
Michigan lost to Texas today. Not suprising, tough to repeat as National Champs you know.
George, there’s no way growing a beard will make a person appear younger; only the opposite, especially with the white showing. I had an acquaintance many years ago, who grew a ‘stache so he would look older, so just think what a beard will do.
Oh really? Ok, got it. Leaning towards keeping it real, going all in with the Santa Claus look 🙂
Carl: That mind blowing scam article has been pushed to the Friday post. I replaced it with a MUST read post about AI to appear this Tuesday.
Trying to make the Tuesday posts much shorter. One link in each category and no more than two. And aim to have at least five but less than ten links/paragraphs in the Miles and Points section.
TBB the human, no TBB AI bot here ever
Well, I like lots of links but being retired, I have time to read them leisurely. You do you and whatever you post, it is always good.
Dying your hair or beard or whatever will be a Not Good Thing. I have seen guys do this and it looks awful. Be natural.
I have an amazing article on Friday about retirement. And of course the amazing article about an unbelievable scam I forwarded to the Friday post.
There is an attention span plaguing the online world. Therefore, all the shitty clickbait “shocking” crap you see all over. I am fighting that…it is hard man!
Added 3 new email list subscribers without losing one last week. Finally, I am sensing this blog is breaking out you guys lol.
Yeah, definitely leaning going all natural after hearing back from others as well. Maybe when I retire I go for that youngster look lol.