We bring you more details on the latest Hyatt Devaluation, how to fly To Africa With Miles, what to do when you visit Mauritius, the horrific Quadriga Scam, more on the Best Western Rewards devaluation, LeClub becomes ALL, all cruise fees, do not disturb international flights you have been warned, travel for orgasm workshops, how we all suffer from overconfidence, a must read for new software engineers, the five universal laws of human stupidity, how I am not to partner with Capital One bank since they do not know this blog exists, I burned more miles finally and more!
TBB Blog Mission: To Educate. Entertain. Inspire. In That Order!
Support TBB by applying for CREDIT CARDS and visiting our LINKS!
You like my blog? Send a link to someone please!
MILES & POINTS
The big news was: Hyatt Introduces Peak and Off-Peak Award Rates – The Bad and the Good. Another devaluation. But who is counting hey? I can not wait for The Points Guy to revise downward the Hyatt and Chase Ultimate Rewards points valuation. Yeah, right! This hobby is getting demolished right in front of our eyes little by little. Or should I say devaluation by devaluation. Expect games to be played with availability from individual properties. Please tell me why again we should be caring about hotel points when we can use a 2% cash back card and book away using…Airbnb or the best available rate with the cash back (and earn points on it too). Expect the same pumping bloggers to keep selling credit cards by shouting how you can stay for freeee…Same old BS!
Best ways to get to Africa using miles.
The Accor LeClub is no more. It is now renamed ALL. Stands for Accor Live Limitless. Yeah, whatever.
Loyalty Traveler goes deeper into the Best Western Rewards recent devaluation. And it is worse than you thought. Best Western Rewards 56K and 70K is not program’s primary reward devaluation. Sign of the times I guess.
TRAVEL
I like these comprehensive travel posts by Megan Starr. I like to save them in my Evernote vault to check them out when we visit: 25 Things To Do in Mauritius.
I know this probably will not apply to TBB readers but you may want to warn your redneck cousin Bobby about it! Crackdown on passengers who get unruly on international flights starts Jan. 1.
If you were looking for an orgasm workshop, I have you covered! Orgasm workshops are a thing, and these are the best ones to try. Oh boy, I can see the headline now over at The Points Guy: You can orgasm for free when you go to these workshops, all you gotta do is apply for these 27 Chase credit cards lol!
Good reference if you are into cruising: USA TODAY’s guide to cruise ship gratuity fees and service charges.
PERSONAL FINANCE
More crypto crap for you: Ponzi Schemes, Private Yachts, and a Missing $250 Million in Crypto: The Strange Tale of Quadriga. Wow…just when you thought that this crypto space could not get any scammier and creepier…here we go again!
Ok, this is a gem of a post by Jazon Zweig, one of my favorite personal finance writers. It is a BestOfWeb post. Something we ALL suffer from. Overconfidence: An Autobiography. It is a must read okay? And it is hilarious as well!
The only thing more ridiculous than a know-it-all is a know-it-all who doesn’t know how ridiculous he is.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Check this out, it will shock you…Sorry, been hanging around blogs for a long time now so some of their clickbait habits are making headway into my brain, sad lol. 35 Years of Submarine Cables in One Map. Wow!
If there is a software engineer in your life you care about, you should send them this article like I did to my son: The care and feeding of software engineers (or, why engineers are grumpy).
Beware of the idiots among us. The five universal laws of human stupidity.
Law 1: Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
Law 2: The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
Law 3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
Law 4: Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
Law 5: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. OR A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.
BLOG BUZZ
We are now entering BLOG BUZZ, a section for advanced hobbyists and veterans of this fast imploding hobby and also a section where I go on and on about some stuff that happens in my life because it helps me feel better about myself.
The God Save The Points blogger did a promotion campaign a few years back traveling around and urging others to find him. Or something like that. He was at it again and the media was eating it up it appears: If You Recognize This Man in the Airport, He’ll Upgrade Your Flight to First Class or Give You a Free Hotel Suite. Dear readers, this is a JOB for most commercial blogs in this “hobby” business! And of course…
Ott has partnered with Capital One Venture to trick out the contest for 2019.
And of course the sponsored post: Hey Washington DC, I’m Doing a Travel Meet Up and Talk. Come Hang? With this disclosure:
This article is brought to you by Capital One. We get approached for sponsored posts all the time, but only take them up when they offer value or useful information to our readers. We think this is definitely one of those times.
For the record, I like Gilbert, he is a likeable fellow. I tease him all the time how he will be the next blog to be acquired by The Points Guy 🙂 They have the same partner lol.
I added up all the Chase Ultimate Rewards points under my control: 863,775 wow!
I am trying to burn more of my miles and points stash…because I was getting nearer the 4 million mark once again, WTF! One goal lately has been to burn my expiring Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles. Burned some to send Mrs. TBB to see her mommy next April flying Singapore Airlines. Trying to burn these miles on United flights is a really bad joke! I looked to book an award trip Detroit – Austin and for a period of about ten days I could only find two seats on one day to Austin, that’s it!
Any questions? I did not think so!
And I leave you with this…
TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
Follow TBB on Twitter @FlyerTalkerinA2.
You can subscribe to TBB below, winners only!
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.
Regarding computer engineers, as Monica Lewinsky famously said, if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything.
With that said, I have never seen a group of employees more protected than computer engineers, no matter how incompetent (lots) and little they get done (most).
Thanks for the.link to Jason Z’s piece. I had a class much like that at Berkeley. The professor was blind and he taught us how to read.
Bronze! For the Glory and honor of Viareggio Italy, where I just had the best meal of my life! Great stuff on the blog as usual! You are the best, George!
I did a year exchange program in Forte Dei Marmi in 1988 🙂
Right up the coast all right! Spent a nice piece of the day in Viareggio today and had the BEST lunch, possibly best meal I have ever had. Superb food and service and experience. It cost me, but I will never forget it, plus I got a nice plate to remember it by!
Ingy killed this one…doing it all for the love of the hobby. Oops, I meant conversions.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/american-airlines-cracking-down-on-credit-card-rewards-abuse/
No wonder he stopped showing up here, the guy will sell water to immigrants crossing the border!
Hey Rams….got an email that one of your comments got flagged and I am too lazy to login to my account to unflag it. Take it easy with the pro Trump videos…one is enough dude!
Just imagine where we would be right now if the dotard was actually not doing his best to stop the amazing economy and momentum he got from Obama!
Saw a black farmer union dude in CNBC, I felt so sorry for him, he was crying!
WTF,there were pro Trump videos/ one pro economy video…..the others?They were from F Troop, best TV Show in the 60’s….your reader’s lose on your CENSORSHIP! No fun here anymore, keep walking. I’ll stick to posting my medal position from now on, should be funny (Sarc.)
BRONZE from the PDX
Dude, I use an anti spam software to automatically flag suspicious comments. And it also kills THOUSANDS of obvious spam comments.
It flagged yours…sometines it does it and I have no control over it. Obviously, it deemed suspicious that it contained so many links!
Enjoy the weekend.
WTF,there were pro Trump videos/ one pro economy video…..the others?They were from F Troop, best TV Show in the 60’s….your reader’s lose on your CENSORSHIP! No fun here anymore, keep walking. I’ll stick to posting my medal position from now on, should be funny (Sarc.)
BRONZE from the PDX
ps, APPL stock up 129 points when I told your readers to BUY, BUY, BUY…..your welcome!
Gman calling for a recession at any moment. The Hate is strong in the lefties these days. So so so very angry. Gimme muh free stuff
Is it healthy that the healthcare workforce grew by 400k in the last 12 months?
It’s been the one shiny part of the economy for more than a decade. It grew like crazy during the GrEaT recession.
Bloomberg, a true billionnaire, is coming for yr guns amigo 🙂
If the economy holds it will be close. If not, the dotard will lose in biggest margin ever!
I was raised Othodox. I pray for you. And Ramsey. But not fir Ingy who killed the Citi AA mailers. For what? Dosh and SoFi $$$. SAD LOL
Citi mailer, death by a 1000 paper cuts (opening envelopes). You’re giving Ingy too much credit here.
@ABC IF there is Universal Healthcare, the system will collapse from every freeloader going to the Emergency Room to get their Hemorrhoids and other so called vitals looked at. System is already flooded by those who do not have to pay their bills (illegals,drug addicts, loafers, bums and loones) they stiff their bill. Quality Healthcare will be a thing of the past. Hiring? You ain’t seen nuttin yet.
My wife works in a Practice of 30+ Doctors. When she started there 14 years ago they had to write off about 18-20 percent of the bills from those who stiff them (see above). Now the amount of people who just do no bother to pay their bill is over 70%. Guess who gets stuck pay the cost?
2 of my Boys are Firemen/Paramedics, they do not spend their workday putting out fires……they are tending to vagrants, drug users, homeless and losers who call 911 to go to the hospital..over and over again. The same people!
it’s sick that a family contributes $25k to the insurance system EVERY year. Some say Oprah was generous giving away a car away OnCE. I will be contributing ~40 cars to the insurance industry. It’s highway robbery!
1. Since most of Europe seems to make the free healthcare thing work, I reckon you’d survive.
2. We don’t have many vagrants, homeless etc either, however – perhaps fix that bit whilst you’re at it.
Also happy to give you free college education too if you move to certain bits of Europe.
I dont believe in a God but I appreciate The Buzz’s prayers for me. Life is dangerous, you gotta live your best life now. Market at all time highs, lots to complain about for some.
Has there ever been a perfect society? (I’m not asking a philanthropic billionaire).
It’s part of the natural cycle to change (evolve). We create new life and die. The new generation brings in different ideas and experiences and our society changes
Monday’s post is shaping up to be a gem….mostly in the Oddz & Endz category! Very low on miles & points, so sad!