Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as Mr. Market, highest wealth per person, see the Northern Lights in the US, the #1 best 120k Chase card offer ends tomorrow, crypto bros are psychopaths, the tragic story of Craig Mack, best BBQ places in the US and much more and of course always 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 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.
Tuesday posts aspire to be much shorter than Friday posts.
PERSONAL FINANCE
I really enjoyed this by Howard Marks: “Mr. Market Miscalculates” going deeper into behavioral finance, enjoy some excerpts below and here it is in a podcast version.
Its key observation was that in the real world, things fluctuate between ‘pretty good’ and ‘not so hot,’ but in investing, perception often swings from ‘flawless’ to ‘hopeless.’
What this means is that in good times, investors obsess about the positives, ignore the negatives, and interpret things favorably. Then, when the pendulum swings, they do the opposite, with dramatic effects.
Rudiger Dornbush’s great quote about economics is highly applicable here: “. . . things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.”
The human brain is wired to ignore or reject incoming data that is at odds with prior beliefs, and investors are particularly good at this.
My point here is that, during big market moves, no one performs rational analysis or makes distinctions. They just throw out the baby with the bathwater, primarily because of psychological swings. As the old saying goes, “in times of crisis, all correlations go to 1.”
Further complicating things in terms of rational analysis is the fact that most developments in the investment world can be interpreted both positively and negatively, depending on the prevailing mood.
From the Visual Capitalist again: The Countries With the Highest Wealth Per Person. Looks like Luxembourg is doing very well. And we here in the US crash out of the Top 10 when we talkin’ about median…
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
This blog is not going to blog itself. I rely on you 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. So, please:
You like my blog? Send a link to someone please!
I knew it! Crypto Owners More Likely to Have Psychopathic Traits, Study Says.
ODDZ & ENDZ
I always felt someone must be really broken to fall so low to join a cult. And then I learned about what happened to Craig Mack, a rapper I remember way back in the day and at one time I wondered what happened to him, it felt like he just vanished. Well, he did. By joining a lunatic and his cult and…dying there way too young. And way too gone. Crazy story: Craig Mack Was Bad Boy’s First Star. What Led Him to a Doomsday Community? Thirty years ago, the “Flava in Ya Ear” rapper helped put Bad Boy on the map. He’d eventually shun the industry, seeking salvation before his death among an extremist religious group.
This fits here: The Name of Things You Probably Didn’t Know. Yep, I had no idea. This blogs primarily exists for education.
TRAVEL
This sucks. For them. Three months into their global cruise, they’ve not left Belfast. And this ship is supposed to be the “first affordable residential ship”. Hmm, ok.
If you like BBQ, save this, you are welcome: The United States of BBQ. These are the Best Texas-Style Barbecue Joints in America. The one in Michigan is in my town of Ann Arbor, 2.5 miles away from my house. I knew it was good but…not that good to be #1 in Michigan. So, like all lists, they are subjective.
Just in case you can’t travel across the pond: The Northern Lights Will Be Incredible in the U.S. This Year—These Are the Best Places to See Them. I had no idea about this place in Michigan! Headlands International Dark Sky Park.
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.
On Tuesdays I do without the usual separate Sections and I just lay out some note worthy items. Maybe I try to limit myself to no more than 10 entries? On Fridays we go back to the usual Sections, so here we go:
First, the two credit card offers below ended expire tomorrow!
For the FINAL time! The #1 BEST CURRENT credit card offer from my favorite bank, the 120k CHASE Ink Business Preferred card, ENDS 7 AM on September 5, 2024! You can read more about it below and you know what to do HERE. We got three of these babies in my household from my favorite bank. Don’t wait until the last moment!
120k points is its highest ever signup bonus. The annual fee is $95. Requires $8k minimum spend in the first three months (used to be crazy high at $15k!). It earns 3x on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines and 1x on everything else. No foreign transaction fees and primary rental car insurance on business trips. Points are worth 1.25 cents each if used in the bank’s travel portal. So, if you do the math: 120k plus 8k MINIMUM (if all spend was at unbonused 1x ) is 128k points times 1.25 cents gives us free travel worth $1,600. For an annual fee of $95. Ok, I did the math for you, come on! And of course you can transfer the points instead to airline/hotel partners (I prefer Hyatt, Air Canada Aeroplan and sometimes Southwest, in that order) for even higher value. Very solid cell phone insurance coverage along with strong travel and purchase protections.
The CHASE IHG One Rewards Premier: 5 Free Night Certificates (Up To 60,000 Points Per Night). ENDS SEPTEMBER 4, 2024. If you have a specific IHG property in mind to spend five nights in for free $99 and you can use the points and some of the decent benefits, I mean, go ahead. The minimum spend is $4,000 in the first three months. You get Platinum status and a free night each year at card anniversary. 10x on IHG hotels, 5x on travel, 5x on gas stations, 5x on dining, 3x on everything else. Not bad for IHG loyalists. No direct linking to the any Chase cards allowed here anymore. Check it out, it is my favorite bank.
Ok, let’s get back into the groove.
It had been so long since I got an Amex card I had forgotten how the points appear as the spending occurs, no need to wait for the monthly statement to close. Seeing another 250k Amex Membership Rewards pop into my account is always sweet. This was from a targeted offer via snail mail for the American Express Business Platinum card.
Updated: Complete Guide to Credit Card Application Rules by Bank. Required reading, you can find this link in the best resource online, ok I am biased: TBB’s Miles & Resources Page.
Unbelievable? Another devaluation just a few months later? Another Choice Preferred Hotels devaluation: Up to 118K per night. Then again, it is Choice and it does this a lot. You have been warned here repeatedly.
This blog got a mention and a backlink from one of the few blogs I recommend in this hobby: Miles Earn and Burn. We all need to do more burning 🙂
I paid my annual insurance invoice on Monday Labor Day. And the statement closes on the fourth of the month, tomorrow. Still shows as Pending as of publishing time. If that is moved from Pending, I should see the third 120k points post, this one on daughter’s Chase Ink Business Preferred. If not, it will post a month later, boo. I keep burning and my balances still keep going up, it sucks! #notreally.
This Hyatt promotion appears to be targeted, you can try to see for yourself. But maybe time it for maximum effectiveness to go along with your future Hyatt stays as the 90 day window starts ticking the day you register. Or, maybe wait a little bit to see if you will be targeted for sure.
Update: New Southwest promo if you can make it work! Earn Southwest Promotional Companion Pass with One Round-Trip.
The Offer
- Register for the promotion.
- Purchase a qualifying Southwest® flight (one round trip or two one-way qualifying flights), starting today through Sept. 5, 2024. Now you can pay with cash, points, or Cash + Points.
- Travel by Nov. 20, 2024.
- Designate a Companion to fly for free with them between Jan. 6, 2025, and March 6, 2025.
Been checking more often for Kuala Lumpur to Detroit flights for us. And for a roundtrip Seattle – Bangkok for daughter to join us in Thailand over Thanksgiving. American Airlines continues to be completely useless. Slim pickings elsewhere so I wait. I did see a Turkish Airlines business class fare with ideal times/connections at about $2.5k each and I must admit I thought about it. We can definitely afford it but it is my inner psyche that still has a real problem paying with my cold hard cash instead of miles/points. I am working on it lol.
I saw the movie Slingshot. I saw the reviews but I am a sucker for science fiction. Ok, I was a sucker for falling for it, the movie tries to do too much, the plot is confusing and I just don’t get Casey Afflec’s acting at all. Was the director tripping or what?
Ok, one more Fontaines DC song. I was looking to go see this band live in Chicago but my right ear is not cooperating at this time. The slow build up of this song and its eventual explosion is unreal.
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.
Temporarily, the 120k CHASE Ink Business Preferred card goes right to the top. Offer ends 7 am on 9/5/24!
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.
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 120k CHASE Ink Business Preferred (ENDS 7 am on 9/5/24), 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 (ENDS 9/9/24), 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 1,446,957 miles/points year to date (1,148,286 in 2023) and have 4,419,436 miles/points in the bank. Some do drugs, I do miles lol!
WELCOME OFFERS & TRANSFER BONUS NOTIFICATIONS
Would you like to be automatically notified every time a card comes out with (or is about to remove) an elevated welcome offer and/or a lender releases (or is about to remove) a transfer bonus with one of their partners? 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 through one of the two links above
2. Create an account
3. Subscribe to the email notifications of your choice
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.
Good morning!
Thanks for the elevated offer notification link. Useful!
Hi,
Been testing it myself and it works great. If you opened an account with my link, if you apply for a cc from one of those notification emails my blog gets credit for it automatically. Without going the usual much longer route searching and scrolling on my site.
I tested this when I applied for my daughter’s 120k Chase Ink Business Preferred from one of these notification emails she received in that “miles” related email I set up her account with. And it worked beautifully. So, hopefully someone gets Second! As she always will be First lol.
Thank you.
Wish we would be targetted for one of those Hyatt offers as we have had nothing all year come our way. All I can say George, is crack open your wallet and let those moths out. Don’t get blinded by the points game into flying inferior routes/carriers just because you think you are winning by redeeming. Life is too short for that behaviour.
You are really contributing to this condition…of moving away from the joy of redeeming well to, say phuck it, we got the money and life is too short for holding on to it. A few client/family events have turned me a little over to that level…I am not there yet. But if nothing comes up on award searching I may get there! 🙂
Just checking back in after weeks (months?) of not commenting. This blog hasn’t really changed in the 10 years or so I’ve been reading: lots of interesting stuff and the occasional nugget. Much better for the brain cells than Instagram scrolling!
One thing I found funny today was that George still has a lot of meta-level discussions about his blog writing organization and frequency and the fact he has no ads, etc. I imagine there are 2 George’s that argue with each other over how much time he should spend on it. Ha!
Well, thanks for all the laughs, George, and keep it up! Don’t let “you-should-stop-this-blogging George” beat out “Its-a-labor-of-love George”!
>>>>>>>>>>One thing I found funny today was that George still has a lot of meta-level discussions about his blog writing organization and frequency and the fact he has no ads, etc. I imagine there are 2 George’s that argue with each other over how much time he should spend on it. Ha!
Yep, every freaking day. When a long dry stretch takes hold, these discussions get more intense. This morning reader Alex gifted me 5 coffees with the note “I’ve loved your blog for years, thanks for all you do”. And the intense discussion with myself takes a short break until…
It has been going like this for years! You guys are stringing me along lol. Doing this for $ makes absolutely no sense. It is a labor of love indeed.
Thinking to separate all the non travel/miles/points stuff out to a Substack and take TBB back to its roots here. Well, I will probably be thinking that for several years too lol.
When the pain of the long stretches gets too much I will walk off like Drew of Travel is Free. No, I don’t mean get a job at The Points Guy, no way!
Ok, gym is open after 2 weeks closed for cleaning/repairs, time to get back into it.
And thank you!
Always a pleasure to get the newest email, George! I’m finishing up one AU card for Amex with another in the works. But my enthusiasm for chasing points is lessening. Haven’t traveled much lately and the health thing has been difficult at times. Got a lot of points that need using, to be honest. Hoping to get motivated enough, AND healthy enough to plan a nice trip back to Italy and other parts of Europe though.
Thanks for all your work here, trust me, it truly is appreciated!
Priority should be yr health. Every time. Attack it! As my mother says, “I am going to work at it (physical therapy) and keep going because there is no alternative.”
Got a new subscriber, shocking!
Last day for the 120k Chase Ink Businees Preferred. My insurance payment still showing “Pending”, come on Chase!
I can’t believe you didn’t know about Headlands Dark Sky Park! I was already considering it for our Michigan trip next year, then I checked the moon phases for the dates of our trip and it turns out we’ll be in town for a new moon so as long as the weather cooperates, we’ll be there.
Yeah, totally forgot about it.
Not even one cc sold here since August 16. With the amazing 120k Chase Ink Business Preferred in its last 24 hours…Will make it much easier to walk away when I go to Thailand you guys.
Time to sign up for that Hyatt AAelite promo so I can be AAdvantage Pro for four months and maybe get an upgrade on two December AA flights booked with Alaska miles lol.
RE “crypto bros are psychopaths”
This bogus allegation is just another deflection from a much more horrific reality…
By FAR the most vital urgent and DEEP understanding everyone needs to gain is that a mafia network of manipulating PSYCHOPATHS are, and always have been, governing big businesses (eg official medicine, big tech, big banks, big religions), nations and the world — the evidence is very solid in front of everyone’s “awake” nose: see “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room”… https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html
“When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker, a raving lunatic.” — Dresden James
And psychopaths are typically NOT how Hollywood propaganda movies (or the Wikipedia/WebMD propaganda outlets) have showcased them. And therefore one better RE-learns what a psychopath REALLY is. You’ll then know why they exploit/harm everyone, why they want to control everyone and have been creating a new world order/global dictatorship, and many other formerly puzzling things will become very clear.
The official narrative is… “trust official science” and “trust the authorities” but as with these and all other “official narratives” they want you to trust and believe …
“We’ll know our Disinformation Program is complete when everything the American public [and global public] believes is false.” —William Casey, a former CIA director=a leading psychopathic criminal of the genocidal US regime
“2 weeks to flatten the curve has turned into…3 shots to feed your family!” — Unknown
“Repeating what others say and think is not being awake. Humans have been sold many lies…God, Jesus, Democracy, Money, Education, etc. If you haven’t explored your beliefs about life, then you are not awake.” — E.J. Doyle, songwriter
But global rulership by psychopaths is only ONE part of the equation that makes up the destructive human condition as the cited article above explains because there are TWO human pink elephants in the room… and they’re MARRIED.
Without a proper understanding, and full acknowledgment, of the true WHOLE problem and reality, no real constructive LASTING change is possible for humanity.
And if anyone does NOT acknowledge, recognize, and face (either wittingly or unwittingly) the WHOLE truth THEY are helping to prevent this from happening. And so they are “part of the problem” and not part of the solution.
If you have been injected with Covid jabs/bioweapons and are concerned, then verify what batch number you were injected with at https://DELETEDBYMANAGEMENT.BOMB
“There are large numbers of scientists, doctors, and presstitutes who will sell out truth for money, such as those who describe people dropping dead on a daily basis as “rare” when it it happening all over the vaccinated world.” — Paul Craig Roberts, Ph.D., American economist & former US regime official, in 2024
“… normal and healthy discontent .. is being termed extremist.” — Martin Luther King Jr, 1929-1968, Civil Rights Activist
Feel kind of honored that Katie bot posted here, is my blog finally big enough to attract such bots?
For fuck’s sake, do NOT click that link (will disable it soon when I can enter WordPress to edit it out).
So many people with way too much time in their hands fall for this crap online thinking they are smart doing their research. Just sad!
On the last day yesterday, finally, this blog sold not one, not two, but Three 120k Chase Ink Business Preferred cards. Thank you to the three readers, this blog lives on this month. I better get going on tomorrow’s post and make it a good one. Thank you again.
Breaking news! https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2024/09/05/dot-will-probe-american-delta-southwest-and-united-loyalty-programs/75088242007/
Sweating buckets on aisle 3 lol.