Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as Millennials becoming Boomers, Dad’s last day in court, the best Fall foliage sites, our weekend trip to Ludington Michigan, another crypto genius imploding, why you should sell company stock immediately, an Azerbaijan trip report and much more and of course always all of the most important developments in the crazy world of miles and points. See you Friday!
TBB Blog Mission: To Educate. Entertain. Inspire. In That Order!
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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 a curated at least weekly post of the best web content along with my commentary. Here to Educate primarily, sometimes Entertain and if I get to Inspire you, well, that is a bonus.
This is a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Millennials have been beaten up and yet: Millennials Are Becoming Boomers. Two stats that stood out to me:
In early 2024, millennials and older members of Gen Z had, on average and adjusting for inflation, about 25% more wealth than Gen Xers and baby boomers did at a similar age, according to a St. Louis Fed analysis.
Close to 40% of millennials have a college degree (versus 25% for baby boomers and 29% for Gen X). That should lead to higher lifetime incomes.
And these two charts speak for themselves:
Sometimes, the prudent thing to do is just do it and never look back. As in, selling all shares of your company you receive: Why you should sell shares in your company immediately. This is not easy to actually do it in practice. It is still the right thing to do.
Diversifying exposure away from an employer makes cold financial sense.
Having all your eggs in one basket is always dangerous. And remember, even as you sell old vested stock, you are probably getting reloaded with new unvested stock, so still have plenty of investment exposure to your employer.
There is one company where the employees famously held 30 per cent of the shares. The CEO seriously disapproved of employees selling their (vested) stock. Following my grizzled colleague’s advice would have damaged the career prospects of anyone working there. The name of that company — Lehman Brothers.
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
Deep dive on yet another crypto cringy crypto character: The Unraveling of a Crypto Dream. Brock Pierce arrived in Puerto Rico seven years ago, promising to use crypto magic to revitalize the local economy. Now he’s mired in legal disputes and fighting with his business partners. From NYT. This guy sure sounds like the worst person to partner in a business with, yikes. This space just attracts characters like this non stop still…
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ODDZ & ENDZ
This was one of those rare human stories full of raw emotion. Especially if your family has dealt with dementia. My Dad’s Last Day in Court. Watching a parent’s mind slip away from dementia is difficult in any circumstance. It’s even harder when your father is a lifelong lawyer who insists he has one final case to win. So much respect for that court clerk who managed to pull this off! Days later and still recalling this story how lucky this great guy was to have his loving family around him…
Back with amazing photography: Dive Into Marine Drama Around the World with This Year’s Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalists
TRAVEL
It is getting to be about that time of the year you guys: 22 Best Places to See Fall Foliage in the United States.
You don’t get to see many Azerbaijan trip reports, here is one: Off the Beaten Path a Bit: My Azerbaijan Trip Report. Looks nice!
What a proud dad moment! Pilot Daughter Surprises Proud Father Who’s a Passenger on Her Flight.
SAVE $100 FOR 2024 THE EXTRAORDINARY TRAVEL FESTIVAL
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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 NEWS/PROMOS/CREDIT CARD CORNER/MY ACTION
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On Tuesdays I am just going to make this section way shorter. And bypass the usual Sections. And just bounce all over the place. On Friday we are going to get back on track. I hope.
I really enjoyed reading this WSJ article about exclusive lounges and stuff like that: The Hottest Club in Town Is… Run by Your Credit-Card Company? Because we in this hobby just love this stuff lol. Amex, Chase and Capital One are opening a new crop of lounges for people who carry high-end cards. ‘It feels really like you’re going to something exclusive.’
You could try to get a free VIP membership upgrade in the Radisson Rewards hotel program. Remember, this is the international Radisson chain after a much complicated merger deal a few years back. Hey, free is free and who knows if you ever book a stay with them to enjoy breakfast lol or maybe even a room upgrade.
I posted two hotel reviews on Instagram after our stays this past weekend. And some pics from our weekend in West Michigan’s Ludington State Park. Follow me there for more:
Weekend in Ludington State Park in West Michigan
Hyatt Place Grand Rapids South
Videos of the two hotel rooms are coming soon to my YouTube channel. When I get to it.
This leaves me with just 579 points in my Choice Privileges account after many years of trying to burn these former Club Carlson points. I am good with moving on. But I must say that finally after hoarding them for several years they did come through this month!
That Hyatt Place above stay was #29 elite qualifying night.
Another 27,000 World of Hyatt points burned for daughter’s two night stay at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue On Seattle’s Eastside. Instructed her how to do it via transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards point into the World of Hyatt account she opened. I called the World of Hyatt Globalist line and successfully applied one of my own Globalist Guest of Honor certificates to enrich her stay. That’s what dads do I guess. Oh, when her stay posts I do get one more elite qualifying night for applying my Guest of Honor certificate. Which, boom, gets me to #30 and another Free Night cert along with another goodie I will choose from the short list, yippeee!
Marriott will now have Brand #36! Marriott Announces Long-Term Licensing Agreement with Sonder. Because apparently 35 brands were not enough. I had never heard of Sonder by the way.
If you happen to take a flight on Air Canada between September 1, 2024 and March 30, 2025, you could earn 6,000 Air Canada Aeroplan miles when you register HERE. But only if you register by September 1, 2024. I just do this and forget about it and then I get pleasantly shocked if I see the miles pop into my accounts.
It looks like this airline merger will actually happen: Alaska-Hawaiian Merger Clears DOJ Review: What Happens Next?
Best credit card offers STILL remain the same, see below my TOP FOUR 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.
Three out of four come from my favorite US bank Chase. The 120k Ink Business Preferred is definitely going to end soon, probably early September. The 75k Capital One Venture X still stands as is and it is shocking this offer has lasted for so long, the bank pays you $5 to carry the card for crying out loud. The two no annual fee 75kChase Ink business cards are still going, months later!
Temporarily, the 120k CHASE Ink Business Preferred card goes right to the top.
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 and 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited cards.
Learn how to apply HERE to support the blog.
WELCOME OFFERS & TRANSFER BONUS NOTIFICATIONS
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Elevated Card Offer Notifications
All you have to do to receive these free notifications is:
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MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 120k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 75k CHASE United Business, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards AND $250 Travel Credit, 150k AMEX Business Platinum, 200k CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash Plus, two 120k CHASE Southwest Business cards, 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 1,370,957 miles/points year to date (1,148,286 in 2023) and have 4,198,742 miles/points in the bank. Some do drugs, I do miles lol!
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.
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Feel free to contact me anytime at travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com, all feedback is very appreciated.
George
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Going to mark “tardy” on all four of you 🙂
The father-son story was delightful mixed in with sadness about what happens to us as we get older. Night 30, hmm obviously you perform under pressure as the end of the year is fast approaching. Maybe time to get spending on that credit card. I’ve always been a fan of both Alaska and Hawaiian, always had good service plus both have given me lots of free seat in First. The best thing about the merger will be one less plan to manage.
Thanks for the great links!
We got to sit out the Crowd Strike/ Microsoft collapse in the Delta One lounge at JFK. Too bad I picked up something in Santiago but the lounge was completely wonderful although we were not unhappy to leave.
I’m not tardy, I am sick.To bed early coughing and achy, woke late soaked in sweat. Need to be better by Saturday for The Annual Extreme Croquet Tournament and Money Games. Wish me luck, hey?
So the Lawyer story made me tear up and then you got me again with the Daughter surprising her dad on a flight. Good stuff all through today’s post!
I am excited by that Alaska/Hawaiian merger because living near Seattle, this would benefit me enormously. Time to start getting busy on accumulating more Alaska miles!
Thanks as always for all the good reading, George!
@ Vicky: Oh yeah, hooray for one less account to deal with soon (Hawaiian)! Have a 20 year stay booked at Hyatt Place Bangkok booked. And stays at Huntington Beach, Washington DC, Hua Hin and Kuala Lumpur, going over 60 easy. Thing is..could I get to 70? 🙂
Yeah, I also wish I had more Alaska miles as well. But not proactively transferring Amex MR to Hawaiian to…eventually turn into Alaska miles, something just does not sit well with that route. Yeah, that was a wonderful story indeed, one of my favorites I have posted lately.
@ DML: Vicky got First. Well, after me lol.
@ Carl: Hope you get over that bug you got. No bugs here, just continuing issues with my feet. And getting tired of paying the physical therapists…same old exercise BS and really no improvement. I think I ran my feet to the ground. Sad development for sure. I just share what I read, I have always been a reading freak. Glad you like them and this is the point of this blog.
Well I have to confess I have a time zone advantage over the being Europe based. My main issue is remember what day of the week it is to check. So if you make to Globalist this year do you have big plans for Hyatt stays in 2025? We think 2025 will be the year we don’t pursue Globalist as we are returning to Oz to live by the end of this year and Hyatt properties in Oz are few and far between.
No definite Hyatt plans for Globalist yet. Probably get back to Thailand. And go see mom. And who knows? Or Hyatt drops a mega devaluation and just give up on this Globalist thing, which can be a little addicting.
BREAKING: My nephew just got signed by Italian soccer club Juventus!!
That’s fantastic!!! Congrats to him and very happy for you and all the family!