I have millions of Miles and Points, go on a Sofia Tour with blondes, visit Paramaribo in Suriname, eat at the most remote 5 star restaurant in the world, golf in frozen Lake Baikal, bring you automation and masturbation (not together), administer some of my own miles and points massaging and lots more for you who always come first!
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It was a slow day in the miles and points world, according to my standards anyway. So, I took the opportunity to sit down and see where I am at and where do I go from here. So, I decided to pump you all with daily “Top 10 travel rewards credit cards you must have now, hurry” type posts. Ok, relax, I am kidding…
I have 3,500,522 miles and points. Which is a ridiculous amount for my current situation. So, I am taking a breather in piling up more, canceling some cards, consolidating some accounts…in other words, aiming to simplify my life a little bit while gaining me some time to let the Chase and Citi bank restrictions run off a bit. I would like to go under 2 million and finally catch up on my two big trip reports from our Asia trip in the summer of 2016 and my Iran trip in October of 2016, Zeus willing.
For a bit more on this, see the BLOG BUZZ section below.
Loyalty Traveler goes on a free Sofia tour with blondes.
Golfing in frozen Lake Baikal in Siberia. This is nuts.
The 10 worst airports in the world. Congrats Berlin and New York.
How automation will impact jobs. Relax, this is the optimistic version #hope
Ok, enough serious posts, time for a funny one. How about this? New bill takes aim at men’s masturbation habits. Only in….Houston.
Your personal finance fix: Investing When No One Really Wants To. I have had this type of conversation numerous times in the past.
Inside the Loneliest Five-Star Restaurant in the World. It is in Antarctica’s Concordia Station. Wow, I had no idea. I could be faking my excitement and dropping some urgency on you guys to sell another travel rewards credit card but I don’t.
A Love Letter to Paramaribo, Suriname. I have no idea how I found the concrete and kitsch blog. But I am glad I did. No Hyatt suites here #reallife
BLOG BUZZ
This section is for advanced level hobbyists and veteran blog readers & personal rants & stuff.
It was another typical Monday…trying to catch up to stuff you put off doing over the weekend…until I got an awesome email by a reader who thanked me for my blog and my advice here as it was instrumental in booking a vacation inspired by my Fairmont scores in the Calgary area (Lake Louise and Banff). And that makes it worth it. For a little longer I guess…
So I sent 80,000 Thank You points to Singapore Airlines. When I see them in my KrisFlyer account, bye bye Citi Premier. I will be doing exactly the same thing with wife’s Premier. My Citi Prestige will follow sometime in May or June and I better knock out that $250 airline credit soon. Maybe to Portland in September?
Travel plans are on hold until my trip to Greece is decided, waiting on brother to make up his mind. Mrs. TBB has given up on looking for awards, she is totally exasperated. Perhaps asking her to use our stash of AA miles may had something to do with it lol. We can or she can take daughter and go wherever…if they find award seats. Plus, how is she going to ever learn what is involved in this hobby? 🙂 #bestwaytolearn
I finally transferred her 191,620 Club Carlson points to my account as I am keeping my Club Carlson Visa for the Gold benefits. All it takes is a short email to ClubCarlson@CarlsonRezidor.com with the names and account numbers and a simple two lines request. Email response within an hour, done! Impressive turnaround.
As Starwood is winding down, I transferred 2,000 SPG points from her to me, leaving her with 808 which I will send to her Marriott account.
Tomorrow I am calling to get some points for her personal Amex Platinum card (yeah, it was for 100k, 40k is for morons or misinformed gullible readers of pimping bloggers) because “I never use Uber and not getting us in the Centurion lounge with our two kids is terribly insulting anti family practice, whoever thought of this should burn in hell” blah blah. I expect crap from the Amex agent and then say “cancel me”. Almost 200k MR points which will stay intact as she has the Amex EveryDay card (no annual fee) which we are keeping of course! Maybe one day we will have a REAL juicy transfer bonus (remember those?). She never did the Global Entry because she never got around to inputting all her travel…oh well, enjoy the lines sweetie.
Of course this addiction will not go totally silent…as son is going to get a 35k+ SPG card. With my links #winning! First app in March it appears! And I will be canceling his Citi AA card before the annual fee hits next month, not before I try to squeeze some points or perhaps a waiver of the annual fee. Need to get them 24 month Citi timezones working again.
No wonder credit card clicking activity has slowed down in my blog, look at ours, wow! With Chase 5/24, Amex once per lifetime and Citi at 24 months one per family…you realize how difficult it must be for bloggers to stay in business UNLESS they go big time commercial and pump the crap out of more and more newbies who so easily get excited about a family vacation to Orlando to visit Disneyworld. Or to Topeka, KS to stay at the Hampton Inn that has an indoor pool 🙂
I miss WalMarts #notreally.
Well, I certainly don’t miss her, she is all over!
I do not like it when other bloggers are addressing me along with some bloggers I ignore in the same tweet. I guess maybe I should take it as a compliment to be thought of in the same breath tweet as them? It just upsets my stomach. Really. Maybe it is because of these Bankrate owned businesses this hobby has gone to shit and we are now addressed in earnings conference calls with several slides as gamers. I could play along and be nice for some clicks but it.just.does.not.feel.right.to.me. I am weird.
Holy crap, this was supposed to be a short post. Why am I doing this? I need help. Or a therapist coded as a grocery store or restaurant perhaps to make me feel better, woohoo! #addiction Or maybe an office supply store BOOM!
At the end of the day…when the posts get published, I like what I see, what I created. I know it is making a difference with you!
And I leave you with this…
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.
Where is ScottCastle and why does his bot only work when he’s in-country?
These and other worthless musings, live today on TBB
Where is ScottCastle?
A. He is on a secret mission to bump Kim Jong Un
B. Ran off with ScottCastleGroupie
C. Stranded in some remote beach in Thailand
D. Sick of TBB whining and could not handle all the Gold medal fame
The winner wins a personal interview by Emily oh la la.
Woohoo…
Ok,I need to get going, you all have a great day!
Worthless TBB musings indeed?
Hey GringoLoco, do I need a rental car in Ft Lauderdale or can I easily Uber around?
That Hyatt Pier something property looks like a good deal on points…leaning towards it.
My musings are ALL worthless, the most worthless, believe me.
Uber is doable in FLL and I’m particularly fond of the Water Taxi but then I love anything with a boat. Problem with Pier 66 on a points redemption without status is they will probably stick you in the “Marina” rooms which are best avoided. Not that the Tower rooms are world class accommodations!
Working two angles for you in FLL — so hang on a day or two?
The way I move…I ll be hanging for a while! #slow
Relax people, the wifi where I was sucked and I don’t bring my laptop with my on vacation!
Good to see you are okay! Does your bot need to be updated? I’ll let yr groupie know you are back, she almost lost it!
Blog monetization idea: next level miles and points coaching. When you’re tired of the credit card salesmen and their self serving suggestions, come to TBB for one on one coaching from a man with 3.5 million miles and a well-established reputation for putting his clients, and readers, interests first! Start with an opening email describing your credit, goals, etc. and TBB will reply with a plan to maximize your miles and points. Monthly personalized emails will allow you to stay on track with your plan and will allow TBB to share some tips he can’t publish on the blog as you progress in the miles and points world. The only cost to the reader: a promise to use TBB’s links. But ONLY when they are the best available offer. You are probably doing this anyway. Make it official, promote it, build a list and earn a bunch of apps while staying true to your brand. Consider it. I am a daily reader who would join. And I think it could end your no apps problem.
Thanks for taking the time for the suggestion and the kind words.
You are correct, I have been helping people in this for many years. Just because I like to help people. But only if they ask first and if not, I make absolutely sure it is the types who can handle this (most are NOT!). In small volumes it is perfectly fine. What happens if I do this and then get clobbered by requests? It is tough adding more on my plate right now…so I focus my energy in producing a quality blog and let the chips fall where they may.
For many years I thought this would make an interesting idea if leveraged the RIGHT way by technology. There are outfits that do this and yes, you guessed right, they rely on credit card sales in a pathetic non transparent way. Or done in a “put them all in one bucket” mode and then pump them to death (think FTG Wallet!). We are all different and it is very hard to keep up with a certain person’s situation and of course GOALS. Some businesses out there target the small business owner(s) who generates craploads of miles/points and have no idea what to do with them. I think that is better for business purposes, better target market that can pay for advice.
The way things are going…businesses in this space MUST find and cultivate newbies…and do it again and again. I just can not do this as I believe the vast majority of Americans should not be doing this at all as it only leads them to REALLY spend more, get in over their heads and possibly destroy credit and maybe their lives. So, more experienced hacker types like my blog readers are, you know, limited due to all the latest bank restrictions. So, it is a conundrum…
There are business out there that ask for SSN’s (DansDeals wrote about that recently) and then they go do all the applying for you. That is definitely NOT recommended, it is like giving away your life and are just a sitting duck, wow!
I am perfectly fine with some crumbs from Amazon from sister in law and many nowhere near a JetBlue hub and some apps from my family and some readers. But having no apps at all in the first 13 days of the month shows the writing on the wall for the CreditCards dot com banner…
Thanks again for taking the time for the suggestion…certainly made me think this through…again.
I’m wondering if it was prophetic that the line about “enjoy the lines, sweetie” posted on the same day as the reference to men’s masturbation.
Bwahahaha!!!!! I just choked on my tall brewed Starbucks coffee!!! Gold=free refills!
Poor Emily ….. 53,000 Twitter followers and only 5 likes.
Slightly bizarre article given how people in the US have airberlin miles.
‘how FEW people’
“few people in the US have Air Berlin miles”
Exactly…hey, good to pump some easy content and some more credit cards…
And this is when I check my Amazon and cc clicks and discover this site brought an absolutely zero clicks. And that makes me angry…This happens repeatedly lately and my wife just said recently “if it bothers you so much why don’t you stop?”
I need to refill me some more coffee (free) and try to come down…
Maybe one day I take this seriously in relation to the time I spend on it 🙂
That’s odd, I know I’ve clicked through the Amazon link for some purchases in the past few weeks.
Sorry I meant zero clicks yesterday on March 13th. I have already spent my $21.74 earnings this month at Starbucks producing this baby 🙂
Thanks for the support!
Blaze Pizza has a Pi Day sale today in all Michigan locations: $3.14 for all pizzas!
Blaze pizza has that sale nationwide. I went to a Blaze pizza in San Diego tonight and the line was about 1/4 mile long. I didn’t feel like waiting for 2 hours for a $3.14 pizza so I ate at the Panera next door instead.
One of the two stores in Ann Arbor was closed due to some power issues we had recently. The line in the other store was ridiculously long…went twice but left. I saw another travel hacking dude in line over there 🙂
Why cancel the Citi AA card after 1 year when you can “downgrade” it to the Dividend version?
Does downgrading an AA card avoid it being considered “closed” for purposes of the 24 month rule?
What Sam asked…
I don’t see the benefits of downgrading outweigh the mental real estate of having around yet one more card…Keeping his Discover for students card he got the day he turned 18…for eveh:-)
Thanks for sharing my piece on Paramaribo! Many more on our time there and in Guyana coming soon!
-Nick @ concrete and kitsch
Looking forward to them!
I think we can make this into a big event, lots of folks flying in, $$$ for T shirts and other crap……..bigger than SXSW in AUS
working on catering by PHO KING GOOD, selling sponsorship, ect.
This is going to be BIG
June is possible but probably a long shot….Can’t make plans until my lazy brother finally decides when we go back to Greece to take her of mother.
Looking forward to the PHO KING GOOD visit lol.
Absolutely dead day in the blogs. Just full of unimportant stuff. Barely have some links worthy enough to make it on TBB.
What to do?
Screw it, taking the kids for pizza at Blaze Pizza, all day long pizzas are only $3.14…hope the line is not insanely long!
I’m 250 miles north of PDX but if you come out and have a big get together blog-celebration, I’ll try and make it!
250 miles,wow! I’ll post it here…it may be a while. Definitely in 2017. Always wanted to check out Portland. I just hope my blog is still alive by then 🙂
Thanks.
Half and half news:
Obama goes to Hawai’i and visits a dive: Buzz’s Original Steakhouse.
Sorry but the place sucks! Maybe our Buzz can contact legal counsel and get them to take HIS name off the dive?
Just another worthless musing at sunset in Paradise.
#TBBon
Maybe Rene will give a me a referral for his attorney 🙂
Reading this at 0400 in a hotel room upstate NY. Ir’s a good time to get caught up on Buzz.
Speaking of Starwood… sigh.
Speaking of Chase… I just got my CSR card yesterday after applying in branch for the 100k bonus. Pow. Boom. A blogger missed out on the big commission $.
Now that this is settled, I can once again apply with reckless abandon for other credit cards.
One Last thing.
Last.
Just can not believe we were shut out of the 100k CSR…you have no idea how much this bothers me!
Ok, we will start calling you the Closer #last
last!