Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as market insanity, AI meltdown, flight chaos, 90k Chase Ink cards finale, ACA health plan horrors, millionaires per capita, more Medicare and Social Security scams, Gene Hackman’s end, the nanny from hell, oldest bridges, tiny European countries, my Thailand/Malaysia trip miles/points burn summary, the best photography links and of course always all of the most important developments in the crazy world of frequent flyer miles and points at the lower half of the post. Have a great 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.
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BLOG HOUSEKEEPING
This is truly a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts.
I added a new section “Must Read Gems”. For truly one or two truly exceptional articles (always imho) that deserve to be singled out.
The post next Friday will come to you from Bangkok, Thailand. I will be posting frequent trip updates in Instagram. And YouTube when I get around to it.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom” – Socrates
MUST READ GEMS
Two articles blew my mind. I will not excerpt any parts of them because I will do a great injustice. I highly encourage you to take some time to read them.
The Joy of Giving Up on “Having Enough” by Jacob Schroeder at The Root of All
and
How to end your extremely online era by Tommy Dixon
PERSONAL FINANCE
This may change any moment. Until then we all pull our hair out cursing smh: What to Know About Signing Up for ACA Health Plans as Rates Rise. If this applies to you, please be prepared and you should sit down with no sharp objects within reach, you have been warned.
When people invest they do not like volatility. Actually, let me rephrase that. Investors love upwards volatility and despise downwards volatility. And you can’t have the one without the other. And to persevere you must be able to stay sane. Because otherwise you will go through periods that can drive you insane: How to invest without going insane. Knowing why you invest, having a process and having a crash plan for that inevitable time when everything goes to hell will really help.
Don’t be in the same position as her: Her Husband Died Unexpectedly. She Spent a Year Untangling Their Finances. When only one partner manages the investments, death can bring even greater stress. I am a huge advocate of simplifying/consolidating finances. To make it easier to the survivor, who would have lots on their plate grieving. And not partying hopefully lol.
We all have a risk tolerance level. And it is different because we are all different because our life experiences are all different. Going through massively disrupting events like the dot com crash around the turn of the century and the Great Financial Crisis, well, it changes you. And of course luck plays a role, something we do not control. I like this article: how much chaos can you stand? And the way it concludes:
In investing, though, circumstances set limits that may override your natural instincts. Sometimes you have to pull back even when the market feels hot, because too much is on the line. Sometimes you have to stretch past your comfort zone rather than play it too safe. The goal is neither to be fearless nor paranoid. It’s to find the balance between boldness and caution. Too little risk and your money doesn’t grow enough; too much and you end up stoned in the front row, hoping not to get stabbed by a Hells Angel. Most of us do best somewhere in the middle, which is why professional portfolios mix steadier assets with riskier ones.
Always interesting visuals from The Visual Capitalist:
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
Very interesting read: Here’s How the AI Crash Happens The U.S. is becoming an Nvidia-state.
For now, many of these tech companies have cash to burn from their other ventures: Alphabet and Microsoft both made more than $100 billion in profit over the previous fiscal year, while Meta and Amazon both made more than $50 billion. But at some point in the near future, data-center spending will likely outpace even these enormous cash flows, reducing Big Tech’s liquidity and worrying investors. And so, as the AI arms race continues to escalate, the companies are beginning to raise outside money—in other words, take on debt. [Oh yeah, debt…]
The biggest lesson of the past two decades of Silicon Valley is that Meta, Amazon, and Google—and even the newer AI labs such as OpenAI—have remade our world and have become unfathomably rich for it, all while being mostly oblivious or uninterested in the fallout. They have chased growth and scale at all costs, and largely, they’ve won. The data-center build-out is the ultimate culmination of that chase: the pursuit of scale for scale itself. In all scenarios, the outcome seems only to be real, painful disruption for the rest of us.
Be careful out there: How to spot Medicare, Social Security scams as crooks target seniors.
Scams are so prevalent and growing that we now have victims getting into the business of protecting others from scams: He lost nearly $100k to a con artist. He turned it into a business. How can scammers do this destroying others slowly and deliberately I never understood. There must be a gene for this. Or something, yikes.
Can you guess which country is #2 in electric vehicle sales? Of course we probably all heard or read somewhere that Norway is #1. Anyway, I was shocked to find out the #2 country and I guarantee you will be too. If not, you will be issued a refund immediately. Oh wait…
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ODDZ & ENDZ
When the news of Gene Hackman’s death came out I was shocked. Not because of his death of course. But how he and his wife were laying dead for so long, where were the children? Anyway, this is a depressing article that goes into detail about the deaths. Hopefully our own demise does not look like this you guys smh: One Four Two Five Old Sunset Trail. On the last days of Gene Hackman. Be careful reading this, it may get to you, you have been warned.
Never get a live in nanny, EVER! The Nanny Squatter. A couple thought they’d found Mary Poppins. Until she refused to leave. Can you imagine living through this, what a nightmare!
Well, we started this section with horrible deaths and insane people. Let’s carry on along the same lines with the List of unusual deaths in the 21st century.
Amazing: Animagraffs – Animated infographics about everything.
Amazing photography in the 2025 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards.
TRAVEL
And here we are: FAA to Reduce Air Traffic by 10% at 40 Major Airports.
We start over in Europe: 20 Most Beautiful Places in Europe. Only two in Greece? Some I had never heard of by the way. No Prague? Which one is your favorite?
Let’s stay in Europe and go small: 7 Teeny European Countries That Demand Your Attention. Other than the Vatican, none of the rest ever piqued my interest enough to visit. So far at least.
I have a feeling I may have shared this one before. If a repeat, I apologize. The world’s oldest bridges that are still standing. Oldest one is a bridge crossing in Greece that was built sometime between 1300 and 1190 BC.
Sometimes it takes a while for good things to happen. Like, a really long time. And it happened finally in Thessaloniki, Greece. Generations of Greeks thought they would not live to see this day lol: This City First Started Its Metro Construction in 1989 – It Finally Opened in 2024.
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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
Here we go again.
Before you go on a trip, always scan the Current Hotel Promotions.
Once in a while, scan the Current Point Transfer Bonuses too.
I knew there were some Hyatt properties that did not allow confirmed suite upgrades in advance. Well, the list is now longer: Hyatt Adds Four Additional “Suite Award Ineligible Properties”.
I burned World of Hyatt points here for the last two nights in Malaysia. It will be the highest I ever stayed in a suite in my miles/points travel career…by far: Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur: Amazing Hotel, I Didn’t Want To Leave!!!
I still can’t get over how Chase got into its own premium hotel business line and named it “The Edit”. Who the hell came up with this name wow! Anyway, it has such a long way to go to get close to Amex’s hotel offerings (and not just the 2 night requirement). But there is some hope at least trying to locate the properties: A Map for The Edit by Chase Travel.
Out of all the new startups in our space (Rove, Mesa, Gondola, etc.), the one that hit it out of the park was Rove. Because they somehow came through with a shocking development: Rove Miles Adds Lufthansa Miles & More As Transfer Partner. I know some veteran hobbyists who are salivating about them First Class award tickets and lounging around them First Class Terminals in Germany…
Choice Hotels made mostly positive changes to its Choice Privileges program for a change: Choice Privileges Changes For 2026 & New Titanium Tier. And Aegean Airlines made even more negative changes again to its frequent flyer program making it a joke for us outside Greece to even consider, boo! Aegean (Star Alliance) Just Ruined Their Elite Program for Americans (and others). I remember the good old days when we all could get Aegean Gold elite status and enjoy some great Star Alliance benefits, like access to lounges in domestic US flights.
Oh oh, here is what happens when you give top elite status to anyone holding just one credit card: Leaked: New Hilton Diamond Reserve Tier Coming in 2026? Nothing official yet, so don’t get surprised when this becomes reality.
TRAVEL REWARDS CREDIT CARDS
This is great: Year-End Credit Card Checklist 2025: Travel Credits, Spend Reset, Application Strategy & More. Can you imagine the work into this if someone had every single card? Yikes!
The title of this article in the Wall Street Journal screams the truth out loud: Using Premium Credit-Card Rewards Is Becoming a Part-Time Job. And thanks to long time blog reader Sam for sending this one in.
Of the more than $40 billion that U.S. cardholders earned in rewards in 2022, more than $33 billion went unclaimed…
Americans on average have about seven credit cards and use about four of them, according to credit bureau Experian. People who pay more than $250 in annual credit-card fees make up less than 15% of all cardholders…[Pffft…lol]
Some reward seekers are starting to rethink the math. Rachel Birk, a 28-year-old pricing manager in Chicago, and her husband decided to downgrade or close some of the 14 credit cards for which they were paying nearly $4,000 a year. “Before, we could get away with saying, ‘Maybe we recoup things, maybe we don’t,’ but it’s gotten too expensive now,” she said.
Nerd Alert: I vaguely knew some things about this but this article went a lot deeper: The Math Trick Hidden in Your Credit Card Number. Find out how this simple algorithm from the 1960s catches your typos.
Probably the best video on the subject: I Ranked The BEST Hotel Credit Cards. If only one day I had time to learn how to do videos like this. For the record, I probably stayed in a hotel for free using points before the video creator was born lol.
Debit cards suck in general. And airlines used to avoid them. But they are starting to trickle back in the marketplace. With no or super low signup bonuses. But this new debit card by United Airlines comes with a 10,000 United miles bonus. Maybe we start seeing higher ones in the future? Or 10k is the top? United Launches New MileagePlus Debit Card (10,000 Miles Signup Bonus & More). This may apply when we all get shutdown by the major banks and then the issuing Sunrise Bank comes to our rescue #sarcasm.
Every move Chase has done since the subpar intro of its Sapphire Reserve cards screams of a team in panic trying to enhance it again and again. So, here we go again: Hyatt Explorist Status Coming for Sapphire Reserve Cardholders, Plus New Hyatt Card. We’ll see at what spending level we’ll see the “free” Explorist elite status, I bet you it is at $75,000 spend. Which is pretty useless imho. I guess it is a good move to see more premium Hyatt properties being added in the Chase hotel program inexplicably named “The Edit”. And how about that new premium Hyatt card we have been hearing for years and still nada. Get it together Chase, hurry up. And yes I will probably be getting the Hyatt premium card of course.
Here we go again, another week with Bilt coming out with a masterfully written press release. Promising the moon again: Bilt Card 2.0 Will Include Earning Points On All Mortgage Payments (Card Transition Details, 5/24 & More). If they can execute all these things, great. I will admit I was wrong. Until then…wait for more press releases lol. Also, do you think I will get invited to the big intro company event in February 2026? That was a joke. Because they probably don’t dare. Let me counter that with “hey, if you can win me over you made it”. Or something like that. Some time ago I wrote here that Bilt should buy Mesa to take over this miles for mortgages thingie. It would be hilarious is this ends up happening. Business advice for free, read TBB. It rhymes woohoo.
And then we get this from US Bank, what the hell! U.S. Bank Launches Cobranded Partnership With Edward Jones (Three Cards). I can see Edward Jones people pumping this card along with individual stocks and expensive mutual funds, be careful out there.
Wait, after rents and mortgages, here comes another startup doing the same on car payments: Fasten: Earn 3X-4X Rewards on Car Payments (and More). Amazing how entrenched of an industry rewards has become. With no end in sight.
You can now link your Lyft account with United. Link your Lyft and MileagePlus® accounts to earn up to 4 miles per $1 on Lyft rides. New Lyft riders earn 1,000 bonus miles after 2 eligible rides in 30 days.
Not many changes in the offers listed below, just added the new 85k Southwest personal card offers, 90k Citi AAdvantage Globe card and now the 90k Chase Ink Cash and Unlimited cards ending 11/13/2025 at 9 am EST and all Bank of America Alaska Airlines cards are “Ending Soon“.
NEW OFFERS:
Southwest always has new offers it appears, here we go again: Chase Southwest Personal Cards: 85,000 Points Signup Bonus. For $3k minimum spend in three months.
90k CITI AAdvantage Globe Card
New card: CITI AAdvantage Globe Card Launches With 90,000 Points Bonus ($350 Fee). The minimum spend to earn the 90,000 AA miles is $5,000 within the first 4 months of account opening. The card earns 6x on AAdvantage Hotel bookings, 3x on AA purchases, 2x on restaurants, 2x on rides and rails and 1x on everything else. First checked bag free and preferred boarding. AA companion certificate (after the first year) for $99 plus fees and taxes. $240 credit on Turo at $30 per quarter, $100 credit on inflight purchases, $100 credit on Splurge (up to two merchants from 1st Dibs, eligible AAdvantage Hotels, Future Personal Training, or Live Nation). 4 Admirals Club lounge passes every year. $120 Global Entry/TSAPreCheck every four years. No foreign transaction fees. If you are looking for a link please email me.
These two offers stand out and they are back until 9 am EST 11/13/2025
Two NO ANNUAL fee cards from CHASE, the CHASE Ink Business Cash and the CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, for 90,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points for $6,000 minimum spend.
The 90K CHASE Ink Business Unlimited card is back. This is a NO ANNUAL FEE business card that earns 1.5x on everything, unlimited. The minimum spend required to earn the Signup Bonus is $6,000 in the first three months. 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 Chase Ultimate Reward points. 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 Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred). But that requires a little more legwork from you to transfer, find availability, book award trips, etc. I like to transfer to Hyatt, Air Canada Aeroplan, United and sometimes Southwest. (ENDING 11/13/2025)
The 90K CHASE Ink Business Cash is a NO ANNUAL FEE card. The card now offers the 90k Signup Bonus after $6k spend in the first three months. It earns 5x on office supply stores and internet/cable/phone services on the first $25,000 and 2x on gas and restaurants on the first $25,000 and 1x on everything else unlimited. Don’t use this card abroad as it has a foreign transaction fee. I usually go to Office Depot and buy gift cards of the stores I usually shop at, hello 5x Amazon! 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 Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred). But that requires a little more legwork from you to transfer, find availability, book award trips, etc. I like to transfer to Hyatt, Air Canada Aeroplan, United and sometimes Southwest. (ENDING 11/13/2025)
EXPIRING OFFERS:
We now have the refreshed AMERICAN EXPRESS Platinum & Business Platinum Cards ($895 Fee, 175k/200k Bonus, Many New Credits).
The Signup Bonus offers remain the dreaded “Up to 175,000 points” for the personal card. And a solid 200,000 points for the Business card.
125k CHASE Sapphire Reserve/200k CHASE Sapphire Reserve for Business
Chase raised the Signup Bonus to 125,000 from 100,000 points. The minimum spend is $5k in the first three months. As with all cards, you know what to do to help the blog, thank you. You can read a lot more about the Sapphire Reserve cards HERE.
Citi now offers the 100k CITI Strata Elite card after $6,000 minimum spend. This is Citi’s premium card at a $595 annual fee. $300 annual hotel credit, $200 annual Splurge credits, $200 annual Blacklane credit, 4 annual American Airlines Admirals Club lounge passes, Priority Pass Select membership and $120 Global Entry/TSA Precheck credit. Earning structure is: 12x points per dollar spent on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked on cititravel.com, 6x points per dollar spent on Air Travel booked on cititravel.com, 6x points per dollar spent at restaurants on Citi Nights purchases, Friday and Saturday from 6 PM – 6 AM EST, 3x points per dollar spent at Restaurants any other time, 1.5x points per dollar spent on All Other Purchases. Points can now be transferred out to American Airlines. This card is a Mastercard. There is a $145 discount off the annual fee if you are a Citigold customer or have a Private Client relationship (requires over $200k with Citi). Citi Private Clients get the first annual fee waived. Citi is not an easy bank to deal with so beware. If you are looking for a link please email me.
American Express just came in with elevated offers on all four Hilton Honors cards, they all END 1/14/2026:
– Honors: 100,000 points after $2,000 spend in six months
– Surpass: 155,000 points after $3,000 spend in six months
– Aspire: 175,000 points after $6,000 spend in six months
– Business: 175,000 points after $8,000 spend in six months
And Chase just elevated this offer:
Chase Marriott Boundless 125,000 Points + Free Night Certificate (up to 50,000 points) after $3,000 in six months
30k CHASE United Gateway
One of my favorite no annual fee keeper cards. Just $1k minimum spend in the first three months. Earns 2x on United purchases, gas stations, local transit and commuting, 1x on everything else. You get expanded award availability and 2 free checked bags after $10k spend in a calendar year. 25% off in in-flight purchases. No foreign transaction fees. Many spend based promos with this card from personal experience, there is always a spend based promo going on, they never stop, love it.
75,000 Points + $300 Travel Credit CAPITAL ONE Venture
If you value simplicity, this card earns 2x points everywhere (and 5x on hotels and rental cars booked on the Capital One travel portal) with a $95 annual fee. No foreign transactions fees, Visa Signature benefits and credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck.
CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash Business Card $1,000 Signup Bonus With $10,000 Spend
The card has its annual $95 fee WAIVED for the first year. No annoying credits to deal with, it just earns 2 points everywhere. And you can earn 5x on hotels and rental cars booked on the Capital One travel portal too. And when you have a Capital One Venture X or the Venture card above, the $1,000 can be turned into 100,000 miles.
CITI Strata No Annual Fee 30,000 Thank You points
CHASE Aeroplan 100k Bonus Points. $95 annual fee. 75k points for $4k spend in 3 months. Additional 25k points for $20k total spend in 12 months.
Please help the small independent blogs like mine continue to exist by supporting them with your CREDIT CARD clicks, thank you!
THIS CARD STILL PAYS FOR ITSELF:
The 75K CAPITAL ONE Venture X card has a minimum spend of $4k in the first three months. If you like simplicity and looking for one (premium) card, I highly recommend this card (and yes, I have it myself!). It has an annual fee of $395 but it comes with an easy $300 statement credit for travel booked on its own travel portal, essentially turning it into a $95 annual fee card. But wait, there is more! On each card anniversary you earn 10,000 points essentially making it FREE! Every dollar of spend earns 2 points and flights booked on the travel portal earn 5 points per dollar. You get access to Capital One and Plaza Premium airport lounges and a Priority Pass Select lounge membership and, this is important, you can add four authorized users FOR FREE who can also have their own Priority Pass Select airline lounge membership and, this is BIG, they can bring in unlimited guests with their FREE Priority Pass card! You can transfer your Capital One points to up to 18 Transfer Partners. No foreign transaction fees. Free Hertz President’s Circle rental car top elite status. Cell phone protection and PRIMARY rental car coverage. Awesome seats at baseball stadiums for just 5k points each. And lots more.
Here are my three TOP CREDIT CARD OFFERS:
90K Capital One Venture X
90K Chase Ink Business Unlimited ENDING 11/13/2025
90K CHASE Ink Business Cash ENDING 11/13/2025
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
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MY ACTION AND BLOG BUZZING
We are going to check out yet another Park Hyatt in the upcoming Thailand/Malaysia trip, the new Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur. And kind of excited as it is in the second tallest building in the world and we will look out down at the Petronas Towers. I burned another 40,000 World of Hyatt points for two nights along with a Globalist Confirmed Suite Upgrade cert.
The only missing piece for this trip has been getting my wife over to Bangkok. I guess flying on the Friday before Thanksgiving week may be the cause that absolutely nothing has been available from Points Yeah alerts, nothing! And I have regularly been checking American/Alaska/AirCanada/BritishAirways and of course United airlines for award seats. Absolutely atrocious lack of any seats whatsoever. And what few crumbs were available they were completely laughable as in taking 57 hours to get to Bangkok, burning 100k miles in Economy for awful routings or, please sit down, 650k United miles business class (LOL!). I realize my extreme dislike for positioning flights and complete lack of flexibility (had to fly on a specific date) and of course departing from Detroit contributes to this. But I have never seen it that bad. Anyway, I found a paid fare on Delta with the perfect routing getting in early in Bangkok at the same time son plus one arrive and I booked it, cost about $1,100 usd. And my wife agreed to it and loves the routing. So be it.
I am going to keep the PointsYeah alert just in case something opens up but judging from the complete lack of any reasonable award space I am not obviously banking on it. Still going to keep the other alert as well getting her back to Detroit on business class. She does not mind economy by the way, she always has plenty of room and wants to save the miles for retirement trips. I like doing these massive award bookings for family trips. And I must admit they take a lot out of me as they have become so much harder to put together. Or maybe I am getting old. Sometimes I feel like retiring from this hobby, go to an all cash back card or two and just pay for everything going forward. Because it has been kind of liberating actually not trying to squeeze the value out of so many banked miles and points. Hmmm, something to ponder I guess.
Let me recap this Thailand/Malaysia trip again and what miles/points were able to accomplish, not to brag. Ok, of course I do this to brag lol.
10 nights at the Bangkok Hyatt Place Bangkok Soi 1 for 50,000 World of Hyatt points
3 nights at the Grand Hyatt Bangkok for 36,000 World of Hyatt points with confirmed suite upgrade
3 nights at the Hyatt Regency Koh Samui for 36,000 World of Hyatt points with confirmed suite upgrade
2 nights at the Conrad Koh Samui for for 95,000 Hilton points and 1 Free Night cert
1 night at The Standard Bangkok for 15,000 World of Hyatt points
3 nights at the Park Hyatt Bangkok for 75,000 World of Hyatt points with confirmed suite upgrade
2 nights at the Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur for 40,000 World of Hyatt points with confirmed suite upgrade
Private cooking class for wife and daughter at the Grand Hyatt Bangkok for 11,381 World of Hyatt points
100,000 United miles for business class Detroit to Bangkok via Frankfurt on Lufthansa and Thai Airways
100,000 United miles for business class Kuala Lumpur via Bangkok and Frankfurt on Thai Airways and Lufthansa
55,000 United miles for economy class Detroit to Bangkok via Frankfurt on Lufthansa and Thai Airways
Burned another 51,000 World of Hyatt points for 3 nights at Hyatt Regency Koh Samui gifting Globalist Guest of Honor and another 20,000 World of Hyatt points for 4 nights at the Hyatt Place Bangkok Soi 1 for family members.
And I still may shift some of the flights to business class if something opens up. Not bad hey?
So I may not be able to cross 2 million miles/points burned in a second year in a row. Currently at “only” 1,827,748.
I applied again for the 125k Amex Schwab Platinum on November 2 and got the dreaded pop up jail message again, boo! Ok then, I am keeping the Amex Business Platinum card for now. And trying to use more credits. For calendar year 2024 I used $600 in credits. And this year I have used another $600. Going to use up the Hilton credit in the Koh Samui Conrad soon and I almost used up the $300 FHR hotel credit for one more night in Kuala Lumpur but we decided to head straight to the village after landing in Kuala Lumpur and not to take any chances of missing the mother in law 90th birthday party. So, yet another year I may not use this darn FHR hotel credit. Amex does not like me for a long while. I am trying to shift some spend to my Amex Hilton Surpass to get back in the fold.
I also planned to go for another 90k Chase Ink card but changed my mind. With currently three Chase business cards I just don’t think I would get approved. And I did not want to close my United business card only about four months in. After closing a Chase Ink Business Preferred about the same time I got the United business card. I do plan not to renew my Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business card next year. I do have a Chase Ink Cash card I have had for years, that one is a keeper.
I am just taking a seat back in the Chase ecosystem to let some time go by before openings/closings, kind of lay low and get ready for an app push in 2026 at some point to replenish the bank. Not that I am lacking of course but, you know, this is what we do around here lol. But what if I start getting the dreaded pop up message from Chase as well? That will really suck and get us closer to the end of this hobby. I mean, judging from the constant devaluations and hits we have been taking over the last several years we are on our way there, Covid saved us for a while. A bit encouraging to see United lowered some business class award prices recently. While they promote the “value” of having a United credit card to help on the award department. More airlines will be doing this I think.
Also, the end will face us when Hyatt also ditches the award charts and goes dynamic. We have no indications that they plan to do this. Actually, the World of Hyatt program is doing very well as is. But sometime ago I had a nightmare they announced this and you would not believe how depressed I was. Thank God I woke up lol.
Maybe it is time to join Rove. If you have previously supported my blog (with credit cards or coffees) and have a referral link for Rove, email me.
If you are in Bangkok next week and have time to meet please let me know. I always enjoy meeting blog readers.
Before I click Publish, I take a last look at my blog post. And I sit back with two thoughts: 1) I am extremely proud of my work here and 2) I can’t believe I am still doing this, I can assure you it is not for the money. Actually, this calendar year, unless you guys go on a massive credit card app spree, this blog will operate at a loss. And then I look around to so many other “creators” online making a lot of money and I shake my head. I do dream of just shutting it down and moving on one day, what else I do have to prove?
Oh, next week this blog turns 13 years old. 13 YEARS just wow. One day I will move on…until then enjoy my posts I guess.
I DO have a separate page listing my affiliate links HERE for: Rakuten and Top Cash Back and more. These get one click a year in total, sad lol.
I am giving myself a challenge to average 5 credit card sales and 15 Buy Me a Coffee sales per month.
September:
Credit card sales: 3 Buy me a Coffee sales: 18
October:
Credit card sales: 7 Buy me a Coffee sales: 12
November to date:
Credit card sales: 1 Buy me a Coffee sales: 6
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS:
200k CHASE Sapphire Reserve Business, 125k CHASE Sapphire Reserve, 100k CITI Strata Elite, 175k AMEX Platinum, 90k CHASE Ink Business Cash (ENDING 11/13/2025), 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 90k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited (ENDING 11/13/2025), 100k CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash, 200k AMEX Business Platinum, 200k CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash Plus, 75k CHASE Sapphire Preferred, 30k CHASE United Gateway, 100k AMEX Gold, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards, 100k CHASE Air Canada Aeroplan, 15k AMEX Blue Business Plus and many more!
As of today, I have burned 1,827,748 miles/points year to date (2,027,816 in 2024) and have 3,845,374 miles/points in the bank.
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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Don’t mind me asking, but what am I missing with the United Gateway card spend bonuses? Do you have to call to ask? I can only spend so much at Zales 🙂 !
They keep coming to me via email. Already knocked one out for some spend by 12/31. Also waiting on another one for 3x on gas/groceries/dining to post. I am sure more are coming based on past experience.
Thanks for the terrific links! The credit card checking procedure is so clever! And
the story about the Hackmans’ deaths so sad.
And thank you for the kind words and always commenting. And for the coffees too!
Bon Voyage to Thailand! Hope all goes well with the trip and all flights are on time! Much to read here and thank you! The wind has stopped and the sun has come out here finally. Much to do over the next day or two but I’ll slip in some reading on what looks like a bunch of good stuff that you have included. Thanks, George!
Yeah, hope my flight goes out as scheduled. On Lufthansa. Out of Detroit, one of the 40 airpors scheduled to be impacted. Are we at 40 yet? As in govt shutdown?
I’ve only been to four of those bridges. Thanks for giving me more reasons to travel! I’ve been thinking about a long-overdue trip to the seven-mile bridge in the Florida Keys next year, we’ll see…
That bridge is long 🙂 And worth it.
When my P2 graduated from University of Michigan for Med School, we flew DTW-FRA-BKK R/T for like 110,000 UA Miles. It was my first redemption with miles from a Fidelity offer. It is cool to see that routing still working.
I have a screenshot somewhere from the check-out page with the ‘are you sure you want to use miles you could pay for it’. It was something like $13,000 for Econonmy for 2; 12cpp.
Great school 😉
I am probably going to fly the same exact planes as you, they are old lol
We lucked out and DTW-FRA-BKK-FRA were all undersold, so I had an entire middle row and P2 had a side row for all of those flights. A340-300 (I think) over the Atlantic and the A380 to and from BKK. There was a tiny economy section at the back of the upper deck, so that was awesome, my first time flying upstairs!
Enjoy Bangkok, I’ve put in some “back up” reservations for Bangkok and Chiang Mai in January. Usually fly to Tokyo on New Years Eve, spend a week, and then fly south for the warmth!
Solid links this week. I’m impacted by the ACA change, I think my premium goes from free to $50 a month if sticking to a silver plan with a max out of pocket of $3.5k or just switching to a free bronze plan but the out of pocket max is something like 10-13k. I’ve yet to ever use American healthcare since getting on Obamacare, more just have it in the backpocket for a serious injury I’d rather have treated back home vs. abroad. But still on the fence with what I’ll pick for this year.
The 7 teeny countries list seems like they just populated the actually population sizes as their list. Andorra actually has became a haven for professional cyclist as it has their right characteristics for altitude training.
Liechtenstein is interesting as a soccer fan, FC Vaduz, the only pro soccer team in Liechtenstein, plays in the Swiss League. But as a guest club, they cannot represent Switzerland in UEFA competitions. This means they are ineligible to earn a Champions League or Europa League spot based on their final position in the Swiss Super League or by winning the Swiss Cup.
So they’re only way to ever play in the Champions League would mean winning the Liechtenstein Cup and entry into the UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying rounds and winning the competition. That gets them an entry the next season into the Europa League, they’d have to win the Europa League to win a Champions League entry.
A loss anywhere starts them all the back at the beginning.
Thanks for the travel updates, nice.
When the govt shutdown ends there should be changes to make ACA more affordable. Then again, who knows with the circus governing.
Very interesting info on FC Vaduz. In the meantime my soccer team in Greece lost again and it is in a major crisis. Everyone understands now that everything went wrong since the day after winning the Second Division undefeated last year. And the product on the field in the First Division is totally inadequate to escape relegation. More developments are coming soon, never seen the team play so weak ever before and it is totally depressing us fans and the whole city. I will probably miss watching the games while in Thailand. Then again, watching such tragic performance is not good for my health, sad lol.
You should check to see if Thai Port FC is playing while you are in Bangkok, they’re the ‘expat’ team of choice and have the closest stadium to town. And having another good season sitting 4th on the table right now. You can get a walk-up ticket for like $3-4. You can get there an hour early and there will be all kinds of vendors set up with food and drinks and it’s a cool atmosphere.
It is on my list but not sure I will get to it. Thanks a lot.
Going to just zone out the rest of the day…Today got the news many of us in the financial advisor world dread…learning of a client’s death. It is incredibly sad. RIP Denise, you will be so missed. And I am devastated I can’t be in the funeral as I am departing to Thailand in a few days.
In today’s WTF crypto scammer news… https://nypost.com/2025/11/11/world-news/russian-crypto-scammer-and-wife-dismembered-after-fleeing-investors/
That list of Hyatt exclusions….maybe they should make a shorter list of hotels that allow suite upgrades
Award seats next summer from Africa in business are, well, non existent.
Hi from Bangkok…I need to make sure the Friday post will get published. See Instagram for trip updates.
https://onemileatatime.com/insights/awkward-conversation-blog-monetization/
Read this while fighting jetlag in my Hyatt Place deluxe room and…maybe it is time to move on after 13 years of blogging (as of yesterday). If he has a hard time making enough online when his weekly revenue probably beats my annual revenue…and he is thinking memberships and targeted ads…come on!
Finding I am spending way too much time and may not even get to post tomorrow (and 90% of the post was done back in the US)…and how am I going to make another new post. And miss doing what I came here for.
Anyway, Bangkok is great, had the most amazing foot massage yesterday and today my feet are so sore lol. And now fasting 12 hours before my all day checkup at Bumrungrad Hospital next door.
Oh, Capital ONe Venture X cards are back at 100k and 200k signup bonuses.