Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as the impact of debt, AI eleven predictions, the spiders of paradise, an interactive Fall foliage map, obsolete Sony product archives, Istanbul swimmer commuters and much more and of course always all of the most important developments in the crazy world of miles and points. See you Friday!
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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.
Tuesday posts are much shorter than Friday posts.
PERSONAL FINANCE
This is a wonderful discussion all about debt between Morgan Housel and Howard Marks: Behind The Memo: The Impact of Debt. In my long career in wealth management, absolutely no one has ever regretted paying off all debt. Speaking of experience being debt free for many years, it is liberating to say the least.
Speaking of debt, proud to not be a contributor to this, aspire to do the same: $315 Trillion in Global Debt, by Sector.
AI
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.
You like my blog? Send a link to someone please!
This is a must read: Eleven Predictions: Here’s What AI Does Next.
Always consider that predictions can be wrong, especially about the future. I tend to share the author’s concerns fears about what AI is going to unleash to us all.
1. Stop worrying about AI taking over. It’s the people who own the AI who pose the biggest threat.
2. You also have to stop thinking of AI as a single force. Hundreds of governments and corporations are already competing in building their AI empires.
3. We will soon be living in an AI war zone—because competing AI agents will constantly battle each other for control (often over us).
4. Companies will launch stealth attacks on their own core talent base.
5. The bots will actually get dumber, despite trillions of dollars in investment. This huge spending actually accelerates the degradation.
6. AI will create more disruption than profit.
7. A few real people will benefit—but (surprise!) not tech workers, who are the most vulnerable of all.
8. The actual winners will be holistic thinkers and empathetic individuals with human skills.
9. But these caring human agents will be vastly outnumbered by malicious and deceptive AI—which is proliferating at warp speed.
10. Even when AI can adequately handle a job, people will pay more for a human being. This will soon become a status symbol.
11. AI will create an existential crisis of epic proportions, as all the dividing lines that are foundational to society—between reality and deception, truth and lies, fact and error—collapse.
This blog is all real run by one human, me! And it will stay that way. Support real humans who keep it real.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Remember when buying Sony products was a status symbol with a stellar reputation for quality? Well, there is a Substack newsletter devoted to Sony products from its glorious past titled Obsolete Sony’s Newsletter. I loved my VAIO laptop back in the day. And here is a look at all the Sony products and innovations from 1996. Oh yeah, the Walkman, I remember having one in high school thinking I am so cool lol.
The photos of these tiny spiders are absolutely amazing: Remarkable ‘Spiders of Paradise’ Show Colorful Courtship Dances.
Maratus, often referred to as Peacock Spiders, are known for the males having a huge range of vibrant, iridescent patterns on their upper abdomens. Their colorful patterns range from spots to stripes to intricate patterns that almost resemble faces or even artwork. These tiny spiders are 4–5 mm (0.2 in) in length, but showcase huge range of colors. The upper surface of the male abdomens have a “plate” or “fan” of brightly colored, highly iridescent scales and hairs. During courtship or aggressive interactions with other males, they form patterns in which the foreground colors contrast with the iridescent background.
No link is brought to you in this blog by an AI bot ok?
TRAVEL
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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Istanbul is a great city to visit. And I really enjoyed reading this article: I Joined the Turkish Commuters Who Swim Between Europe and Asia Every Day.
It is that time of the year again. Summer is over, weather is cooling and contemplating to turn on the heat already at home lol. And leaves are falling: This Interactive Map Shows When Fall Foliage Will Peak Across the U.S. in 2024.
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
On Tuesdays, this part of my blog is much shorter as I do away with the usual SECTIONS and bunch everything below. First, an expiring offer and then the #1 Top Offer before we proceed with some noteworthy items in this hobby:
Please help the small independent blogs like mine continue to exist by supporting them with your CREDIT CARD clicks, thank you!
First, this expiring offer: There are two 120k Southwest business card offers that END September 17, 2024. You can read them about here by clicking the name of the two cards to learn more. Only if you are a committed Southwest passenger. And you don’t care about the famous Companion Pass because you probably already have it, you are just in it for the points lol. It is not a coincidence that Chase is ending these offers on September 17. Because they are both structured to earn half of the 120k points in the first three months. Which will be before January 2025 rolls around so your Companion Pass will only be good until the end of 2025. If you can somehow apply on the final day and somehow could talk a Chase rep to push back the opening statement date so the first 60k can hit your account in early January, you then have another six months to do the (high) minimum spend for the second 60k batch and voila, you earn the Companion Pass in 2025. Which will automatically last up to the end of calendar 2026. Obviously, a bit risky strategy. Or just go for the new 90k Chase Ink Business Unlimited card and transfer the points to Southwest if you are only in it for the points. Anyway, if you somehow determine that these cards are worth it to you, please find the proper link form my favorite bank HERE to support the blog, thank you.
NEW: More on the Southwest Companion Pass HERE and properly timing it to last through all of 2026 HERE.
The new TOP #1 offer now is the 90k Chase Ink Business Unlimited card. This is my personal REFERRAL link. The affiliate links from my favorite bank can be found HERE. Learn How to Apply to support the blog. Chase’s business cards are a gift that keeps on giving you guys. This is a NO ANNUAL FEE card that earns 1.5x on everything, unlimited. The minimum spend required to earn the Signup Bonus is lower at $6,000 in the first three months. 0% APR for the first 12 months, in case you need it. Don’t use this card abroad as it has a foreign transaction fee. Chase may advertise this card all over the place as a cash back card but it does pay the Signup Bonus in 90,000 Ultimate Reward points. You can redeem for cash back at minimum $900. Or, preferably, if you have a Sapphire Reserve card, 90k points can be worth $1,350 (1.5 cents per point). Or if you have a Sapphire Preferred or an Ink Business Preferred card, one point can be worth 1.25 cents, so $1,125. Of course, don’t forget to add the value for the points you earn doing the $6k minimum spend as well, you are going to net a minimum of 99,000 points so always do the math. The card earns 5x on Lyft through March 2025. Of course, extended warranty, purchase protection and primary CDW when renting a car for business purposes also apply. All these goodies for no annual fee, wow! Needless to say you don’t have to book travel in the Chase travel portal to get the travel values above. You can transfer your points to airline and hotel partners and possibly get even more more value than what you can get at the Chase travel portal, assuming you do have one of the cards mentioned above (Sapphire Reserve or Preferred or Ink Business Preferred). But that requires a little more legwork from you to transfer, find availability, etc. I like to transfer to Hyatt, Air Canada Aeroplan and sometimes Southwest. This was one of the Top Three offers when it was at 75k Signup Bonus. Now at 90k it goes straight to the top #1 spot.
If you are an American Airlines elite, don’t forget about this: World Of Hyatt Fall 2024 Elite Fast Track Offer For American Airlines Elites, Register By October 31, 2024.
Some of us get good value out of the Wyndham program. This blogger is not one of them. Some may be interested: Increased Signup Bonus On All Three Barclays Wyndham Cards (Up To 80,000). Excellent earning on gas, enter cough, spend. I guess some good value can still be found burning these points on Vacasa and even Wyndham if you look harder.
Still searching for awards Kuala Lumpur to Detroit on Dec 7 or 6. For two. American Airline miles continue to be absolutely useless, wow. Not much with Aeroplan and United. Have some time left. If that Turkish Airlines Business Class fare comes back at $2,500 again I may just go for it. Because I can lol. Still feels so weird having to pay when I have 4.5 Million miles in the bank. I did book my daughter one way to Bangkok from Seattle for 55,000 United miles flying a combination of United and Thai Airways via SFO and HKG. Mostly to have something booked while I look for a better award. Oh, the joys of free cancellations. She could not confirm with me in time if she was ok with this itinerary and she now says that it will likely not work. So it looks like I am probably canceling it. It will be reflected in the totals I keep track of below but they will likely revert. Not sure all this makes sense for not more than a week in Thailand with us. Developing…
I thought that AA did away with them, I guess I was wrong: Complete Guide to Airline Award Holds – Which Airlines Allow Holds?
I was recently targeted for a 250k Amex Business Platinum card. After repeated and increasing offers sent to me by Amex over the years and me holding out for the highest offer. I got the $200 statement credit promptly after ordering a monitor and keyboard/mouse for my daughter. I chose United Airlines as my airline of choice simply because it is still so easy getting the $200 credit by funding the United Travel Bank account. I did it in two $100 increments to be safe. The first $100 credit is already in and the second one should appear shortly. So, $400 off the $695 annual fee in the books. And I am thinking maybe I get a round trip ticket for daughter to join us in Thailand over Thanksgiving and book it on the Amex Travel Portal since I now have over 387,000 Amex points. Maybe I look into this 35% points rebate thingie one of these days…
My YouTube channel is growing, up to 31 subscribers LOL. Anyway, I finally figured out how to edit videos and join them together. And I am proud of myself. This is the latest video I uploaded from daughter’s recent stay at the Country Inn & Suites by Radisson in Bothwell, WA near Seattle. Ooops, lost a subscriber, down to 30 now, come on! I don’t think I have the talent to become a YouTuber you guys. And now with my beard growing so much, is there hope? Ok, don’t answer that. I have had trouble identifying and learning video editing, why are these programs so not that intuitive? Or am I so dumb using them? Not much time to learn video editing, I do my best with the time I got. I am now playing with Openshot video editor after son suggested it. Any suggestions?
Best credit card offers STILL remain the same, see below my TOP THREE 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.
The Top offer right now is the 90k Chase Ink Business Unlimited card.
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 card.
Learn How to Apply HERE to support the blog.
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, two 120k CHASE Southwest Business cards (ENDS 9/17/24), 150k CAPITAL ONE Venture X Business, $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 1,501,957 miles/points year to date (1,148,286 in 2023) and have 4,541,547 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 (and you don’t have to hunt down the link in my Credit Cards page!)
Elevated Card Offer Notifications
All you have to do to receive these free notifications is:
1. Click on the link above
2. Create an account
3. Subscribe
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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This site may receive compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. Travel Blogger Buzz and Your Best Credit Cards may receive a commission from card issuers. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not necessarily include all financial companies or all available financial offers. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone.
Me watching the Panthers go 2-15 last year with no first round pick to show for it: “Well, at least it can’t get much worse than this.”
Me after the Panthers lose their opener 47-10 and their only Pro Bowl player suffers a season-ending injury: “…”
Swimming across the Bosporus is kind of cool! I knew a guy who lived on Long Island who’d drive to Stamford CT for his job, which is about a 2-hour drive in typical traffic. But he knew a LI resident who worked somewhere in CT as well who had his own boat and could boat from LI to CT. Beats sitting on the freeway. I walk about 30 minutes to work and whether it’s 95 degrees or 15 degrees walking is a lot more fun that driving.
Those spiders! Wow. THANKS! I never knew things around here were so dull.
Hey Buzz-
To help get your « Interview the Old Bloggers » project started, I went back to have a look at a real financial guru: Mister Money Mustache.
MMM’s specialty is frugal living. Now where did I hear that word before? He would tell readers of his blog to buy a house near their job so they could ride a bicycle to work.
Imagine my surprise the read now that MMM is driving a Tesla.
Then I noticed his affiliate links for companies like Betterment and the usual array of credit cards. No links to Alliant’s 2.5% cash back on everything but then Alliant doesn’t pay affiliate commissions, and as that other frugal aficionado put it, it’s all about the conversions.
I also read that someone said that MMM is knocking down $400k a year. If so, that proves he was right: You can do very well by being cheap.
@ Nick PFD: Yeah, sorry about them Panthers. But we Lions fans have been in the doghouse for sooooo long man.
@ DML: Yeah, I absolutely loved the one with them spiders too. Dull? Here in the comments? We need Carl to fix this!
@ Sam: Oh yeah Sam, that MMM dude. Started early like Rick and developed a following and perfected the magnificent placement of affiliate links. He tried pushing some cc aff links some time on his blog and I called him out and he came here to respond only to come to his senses that it is better to ignore me and focus on “content marketing” lol. If my blog produced $400k a year (guess it went u p from $300k) just milking the followers telling them how they can ride a bike around town lol…I would buy a Lincoln Nautilus car but I am busting my ass here and don’t make this during my lifetime, sad. But wait, I just did lease a Lincoln Nautilus car, thank God day job is fine. So much fakery online and people falling for it is stomach turning. I guess when people fall for news that Haitians are cooking your pets you know something is wrong smh.
Anyway, this is my little baby here. Fighting for every click. Keeps me out of trouble, learning a lot and enjoying the ride. I gained back that YouTube subscriber, up to 31 again. I am unstoppable now, I feel the momentum lol.
On Friday I will have a collage of two pics with some YouTubers who would not be selling plastic online if banks stopped paying them. I had Mrs. TBB put them together because I am clueless. Maybe when she quits Ford she can join TBB Enterprises, can’t wait to do a performance evaluation of her. I see bigly bonus woohoo.
Ok, time to eat some grapes I picked up at Kroger on sale using daughter’s Discover card to earn 5% because she needs all the cash back she can find as I see her Amazon orders flying to her rental place, yikes! But no worries, when she sees how little her paycheck is after dad set the 401k% contribution to 65% it will shock her.
I hope Rick is okay and aging well. Miss that guy. Never met MMM in person, which is probably a good thing. Out of all the old bloggers, the survivor must be Mommy Points still writing away at TPG (I think). And Lucky who in the span me typing this comment probably posted at least two new blog posts, what a machine! While his buddy Gary makes the National Enquirer look respectable smh.
Hey Buzz-
Watch out for that performance review. You see a bonus, but that could be a sex harassment trap.
I always thought Mommy Points was ok, even if her idea of adventure travel was staying in Epcot an extra 30 minutes. At least she pointed her readers to better offers with no links.
And Ben was fun when he was doing mileage runs on weekends in high school.
But the thought leader needs some better thoughts. Lovely thoughts.
And isn’t it Venezualians who are eating pets?
Yeah, I always liked Summer Mommy.
Good point on the potential of sex harassment, better be careful lol.
Waking up dreading to read debate reviews and I must say I am very pleased. But, I mean, if you are still undecided what can I say?
And then stoked to read Taylor Swift endorsed Harris, if she would also endorse TBB then I can finally retire here man really having nothing else to prove.
Participated in a live YouTube thingie last night and these guys had never heard of me. I asked do you even read blogs and which ones and the responses shocked me: Some big commercial blogs were mentioned including TPG and then Danny The Deal Guru. It is wild over on YT! So many fighting for cc clicks, no wonder it is getting tougher and the banks continue to favor the big cc pumpers because there is really no way to keep so many tiny cc sellers in line! I fear for the future commercial viability of TBB, I think I sold 10 cards in a month once! I have so much to learn. Also, I am thinking of St. Kitts and the Hyatt there 🙂
One new email list subscriber yesterday. But three unsubscribed, including someone I know for many years, really Pat?
So demoralizing to my ego…Maybe I turn to YouTube. Saw a video of someone who now has $100,000 after working for 5 years and I sent the link to my son and told him “Dude, just imagine how we can take YT by storm by telling them all what you managed with my help” 🙂
Hmm think it is unlikely Taylor is into points and miles, private jets are more her speed.
As to the FIRE movement, seems like there is a lot of focus on deprivation. I prefer that Ramit guy, he has more common sense, spend on what you enjoy and forget the things that don’t matter. What all the eager FIRE disciples don’t seem to grasp is that they are the product, their clicks are what enables the bloggers to live their best lives retiring by 40.
Oh and buy that ticket and stop wasting another moment of your life looking for a redemption. Sometimes points, other times they don’t, but figure your hourly rate and what would be a better use of your time. Personally I’d be looking at Emirates first out of Asia, because you know, life is too short. You could YouTube it and claim it as a business expense.
I blogged here many times about FIRE, not a fan. Also, not a Ramit fan either.
>>>>>>>>>What all the eager FIRE disciples don’t seem to grasp is that they are the product, their clicks are what enables the bloggers to live their best lives retiring by 40.
Right on!
When I read your comment, I had just logged out of AA after doing award searching and letting some explicit words come out of my mouth. Again. I hear you but…this is what I have been doing for years, hard to break this habit.
If I was thinking “hourly rate” this blog would be dead three months into its life, like January of 2013! And I would be all over the web showing my videos from slick flights up front pumping my cc links. But I think I am different from these guys…As in, you know, it did not occur to me to deduct my tickets…now that makes it a bit easier to digest! And paying FC on Emirates would never happen, it just goes against everything about my principles. And my wife says to save the money and just buy Economy tickets, she does not approve me buying even Business Class tickets. I have become okay with buying Business Class tickets if I can score a good deal. And now that I can deduct the cost because of your suggestion, it makes it more feasible 🙂
I am still down Pat, the MS Queen, unsubscribed.
Back from PT and I basically need to strengthen so many muscles and relearn how I walk first…I have been pounding my body the same way, the wrong way and I guess it has caught up with me.
Thanks. And yes I will still be doing award searching, something will open up, I can feel it.
Any word on Ric Garrido, the Loyalty Traveler? His blog if still up, but hasn’t updated in a long while. I always enjoyed reading of his travels through Europe, and his reports on how many points/amenities at the various hotels, compared to the same brand(Choice) in the U.S. And, thank you, George, for continuing to plug away, all the while awaiting that White Knight.
Ric commented in one of my blog posts recently, the one I talked about not finding much value in Choice Privileges and glad to move on. Maybe a week or so ago. I replied to his comment and told him I am glad to see him around. So, he is out there and reading. But I think he may be done with blogging. Blogging is hard work man, maybe I should give up on being discovered and bought by a bigly enterprise? 🙂
About 65% of Friday’s post is in already. And still have Thursday to go. I better start shifting some content to next week as I will be hanging out in a swanky Hyatt suite and eating way too much stuff I should’t, like In-n-Out burgers.
Completely agree.