We bring you news about Hyatt Awards nights, visit the Lofoten islands, ponder the Mile Nerd future, learn secret Avios tips and new direct flights, travel to Mongolia with a 6 year old, learn how to access lounges, cry together with more hobby losses in the past year and a lot more for free!
TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order!
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I have soooo much work to catch up to and then you combine quarter AND year end work to it and…leads TBB to make shorter posts. I know I said that before…
I will keep all “advanced” travel hacking/miles/points/churning/MS in the Blog Buzz section as it remains the heart of how TBB came into existence and will likely remain the core…as long as this hobby is alive. But here is a perfect must read post about the state of the hobby NOW by Lazy Traveler who will reappear in the Blogs I Like list if he keeps this up now that he appears to be firmly back into blogging:
My Annual State of the Hobby Address and Happy 2018!
Top 25 Credit Cards via Mile Nerd. Enjoy this blog this year as it will not be around (in its present form I think) next year. For the cards with the Best Offers available in this blog, please click HERE.
For the record, as you probably know, All Hyatt Award Nights Will Count for Elite Status going forward. Which still makes reaching for Globalist elite status kind of dumb imho if you are no road warrior.
IHG Rewards Club Point Increases and Decreases for 2018. There are changes for a huge number of properties. Yeah, many are going up. like 499 of them and only 192 are going down. Sadly expected…the top award now goes to 70k per night, up from 60k. The first blog I saw this was at The Gate, just fyi.
Bunch of Hilton promotions you can try to register for to take advantage of this month…
Kind of shocked that there were so many, wow! Here are 1,310 direct flights created in 2017 that you can now take.
I need to add the Megan Starr travel blog to the Like list one of these days: 10 Things That Surprised Me About Svolvær and the Lofoten Islands, Norway.
The ridiculousness of Trip Advisor reviews: I Made My Shed the Top Rated Restaurant On TripAdvisor. Lol galore. (HT: Peachfront).
And here is something you did not know. And it is totally wild! This Fish’s Propensity for Deafening Orgies Is Both Its Strength and Its Weakness. I read every word shaking my head…Nature is amazing indeed!
Good personal finance post: 50 Phrases to Run From.
From Romania to Mongolia with a 6 year old. What a cool adventure.
The Fortified Villages of Khevsureti. In Georgia.
BLOG BUZZ
This section is for advanced level hobbyists and veteran blog readers & personal rants & stuff
I made a promise to Mrs. TBB that this blog will post three times a week if it goes three months in a row without hitting the minimum of ten card conversions. Somehow the streak was broken back in October (on the very last day!) but we are back on track in November and December…so we are down to the rest of this month. Ingy is laughing right now…get him mad you guys 🙂
So, it appears Mile Nerd will stop blogging after 2018. But it appears he is going to do something else with his “community”. Not sure what to make of this…Your take?
The 5 Biggest Losses of 2017. In the Hobby. I think this is pretty good…
Well, they are not secret anymore…7 secret Avios tips you probably don’t know.
Very handy resource: Accessing airport lounges through credit card benefits.
This blog space remains a credit card pump zone and is now slowly turning into a Kardashian click bait hole, sad!
And I leave you with this…When TBB retires and is on his way to the airport for that private jet trip to the Maldives with his entourage 🙂
Check out my updated blog lists: Blogs I Love, Blogs I Like, Blogs To Ignore
TBB
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Welcome Home!
On the way myself… did you manage to stay up till midnight?
Sadly no…Stayed up until about 10.30 pm…Was up at 3.30 am on New Year’s Day 🙂
Updated 4/9/2018
To help TBB keep going, all of them at Best Highest Offer and available with his links here:
http://travelbloggerbuzz.com/credit-cards/
Any mistakes/corrections please let TBB know!
You can bring up the cards you want by clicking on CARD TYPE and then click on the specific BANK.
NAF=No Annual Fee
AU=Authorized User
TIME LIMITED OFFERS:
CITI ThankYou Premier 50,000 points
CHASE Ink Business Cash 50,000 points NAF
100k personal AMEX Platinum Possibly by trying the CardMatch tool (3rd banner above)
CITI American Airlines Business AAdvantage Platinum Select World Mastercard 60,000 AA miles
CHASE Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business Credit Card 60,000 points
AMEX Delta Platinum 70,000 Skymiles (with 10k MQMs & $100 statement credit) ENDS 4/11/18
AMEX Delta Platinum Business 70,000 Skymiles (with 10k MQMs & $100 statement credit) ENDS 4/11/18
AMEX Delta Gold up to 60,000 Skymiles ENDS 4/11/18
AMEX Delta Gold Business Up to 60,000 Skymiles (including a $50 credit) ENDS 4/11/18
STANDARD WORKHORSE CARDS:
CHASE Ink Business Preferred for 80,000 Ultimate Reward points
CHASE Sapphire Preferred 50,000 Ultimate Reward points & 5,000 points for adding AU
CHASE Sapphire Reserve 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points
CHASE Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus & Premier 40,000 points – Wait for 50k or 60k?
MAY BE GOOD CARDS FOR YOU:
CHASE British Airways Visa up to 75,000 Avios points
AMEX Business Platinum Up to 75,000 points
AMEX Personal Platinum 60,000 points
CHASE IHG Rewards Club Premier 80,000 points plus 5,000 for AU
CHASE Hyatt 40,000 World of Hyatt points plus 5,000 pts for adding an AU
AMEX Hilton Honors Ascend for 100,000 points
AMEX Hilton Honors Business 100,000 points
CHASE Marriott Rewards Premier Personal Visa 75,000 Points
AMEX Starwood SPG Personal 25,000 SPG points
AMEX Starwood SPG Business 25,000 SPG points
CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards 50,000 points
CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash for Business $500 cash back bonus
CAPITAL ONE Spark® Miles for Business 50,000 points
OTHER CARDS:
BANK OF AMERICA Premium Rewards 50,000 points
AMEX Blue Business Plus card Earns 2 pts per dollar for up to $50,000/yr, NAF.
DISCOVER It or Discover It Miles Double Cash/Miles back for first year NAF
CITI Double Cash Get 2% cash back on everything NAF
CHASE Freedom Unlimited 15,000 points, 1.5% Ultimate Rewards points per dollar NAF
CHASE Freedom 15,000 points NAF
AMEX SimplyCash Plus Business $500 bonus (after $15k Spend in first year)
CHASE United Travelcard $150 NAF
CAPITAL ONE Savor $150 bonus, 3x on dining
DISCOVER it for Students Great student starter card
Remember, in general, the restrictions by each bank:
Amex-Once per lifetime
Chase-Once every 24 months. 5/24 Rule
Citi-Once per family every 24 months
Thanks for this!
PSA: Comments are being posted by spammers with crappy links, DO NOT CLICK on them. I am deleting them as fast as I can!
Hope that MN’s new idea is as good as the current blog. I’m pretty confident it will be – eager to hear more about whatever it is.
Mongolia road trip pics are awesome.
Need to be thinking of what CC to get next. Do you ever get any affiliate links for the SkyPass card? Would be nice to boost up my balance aside from UR transfers but so far I’ve only seen 25K offers on the KE website. I’ve yet to try US Bank though so it kinda scares me lol! And there is conflicting advice on whether or not to freeze Sagestream, etc. when applying now.
Have not seen that card in my links. Ever. Sad!
US Bank is weird. Getting that Club Carlson card for me was a ridiculous ordeal!
Heard back from email to MN last night. Wants to get work done but said he will release more info in the next few months. Said this evolution will be even better so excited to see where it goes.
Thanks a lot.
Lets wait then…
Still kind of baffled what he has in store #developing
An excellently curated group of articles this morning, Buzz. As I read these, I had a few thoughts:
-The Head for Points suggestions for BA Avios mostly add up to ‘don’t use Avios to fly BA’. Good advice in any context.
I’ve had this joke ready for months, to ask if Head for Points is a blog or a proposition. I’ve held back since he seems like such a nice guy, and I’m a bit afraid of what might come back from TBB readers.
-There is the Lazy Traveler blog and a similarly-named blog by a couple of women who like to travel. I knew I was in the wrong place when I found myself reading ‘Taking a toddler to Venice’.
I like Lazy Traveler’s writing but I don’t blame the banks for trying to avoid churners. This isn’t a few thousand of us nut jobs like 5 years ago. Reddit has over 60,000 people snarking away over there, and one of Richard Kerr’s Facebooks Groups has over 30,000 followers and added over 1,000 new followers in a single day.
Kerr might just be the Ray Kroc of this while thing-Here’s an idea: TBB could set uo a joint venture with him, offering to be the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. If TBB likes it, it must be good. Kerr throws TBB some traffic, TBB throws Kerr an elevated position of respect, along with some financial planning tips (like adding cheeseburgers, maybe). Just a thought.
-Megan Starr’s blog looks like a keeper.
-Anyone know a way to get my wife to stop using Trip Advisor to look for restaurants and hotels? Is there a pill or a twelve step program?
Excellent commentary on my post again Sam!
I see what you are thinking about HFP 🙂
Andy, THE Lazy Traveler is great. Glad to see him posting again.
Kerr knows his stuff but every time I see him posting at TPG I…lose interest. He would appear here more when he stops #hint.
Sad to see Julian retire his Devil’s Advocate twitter presence. Next thing you know he would be modeling with the CSP card in front of TV cameras…
The Megan Starr blog is at the very top to be added to the Like list. I am very impressed indeed.
You are on your own there on your last point. And good luck.
In the meantime, the Travel Thought leader let us all know that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle flew coach #wow #requiredereading4frequent flyers #lol
Was the sentence above demeaning? 🙂
HFP is a title that seemed a good idea at the time but perhaps wasn’t, especially as it has morphed into a mix of miles and points and Business Traveller, but I think I am stuck with it ….
Getting head for points is always a good idea. With a name like that it may be harder to recruit employees with the right mindset.
If Delta would offer head for points, I might actually sign up for another Delta Amex card! Though I’d need to know the details of the service provider before redeeming!
Of course not everyone is a Ray Kroc fan (“dog eat dog, rat eat rat”):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuQrmdu6quc
#32,589 sign Trump is mentally ill:
“Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news — it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!”
#663,289 sign George is is a Hater, Whiner and a Sore Loser (Big Baby)
Does Rene de Lambert write Trump’s tweets or something? Sounds like about his level of writing. (Not sure if that could be considered demeaning to Trump or to Rene)
I guess it is the nature of any President – or any leader – to take credit for the good stuff that occurs under their watch, whether they had any real connection to it or not. But usually it’s done more professionally – maybe lauding the Agency or Dept with purview over the subject – rather than the “me centric” tweets like this. That’s what makes this dude so odd (among other things).
Update: Dead
Ultramax Air 360 4-In-1 Convertible Car Seat is still available.
Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
Just want to let everyone know that all foreign transaction charges have now been eliminated at TBB.
🙂
Headed to Solvaer for a conference this June. Randy P and Bankrate are the Ray Kroc of the miles and points blogosphere. Saw the movie a few weeks ago and had flashbacks from 2007-10…
Lets see how long will Gary take before he blogs about yet another incident aboard a cheapo European airline today? Required reading for frequent flyers…lol.