Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as how it is never quite enough in life, anatomy of online scams, the strange Churchill portrait art theft, Michelin KEY hotels, the Capital One Venture X card rocks, fantastic street food spots, pointsflation galore and a few selected 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.
This is a Tuesday short post. See you Friday for the usual longer post. Let me know if you prefer these short posts. Or is it still too long?
PERSONAL FINANCE
Jonathan Clements with another gem: Never Quite Enough.
1. Slights and failures are easily recalled, while praise and successes are quickly forgotten. We get more pain from losses than pleasure from gains.
2. Life makes sense in retrospect. …here’s what’s striking about those [life] successes: They were preceded by so many failures—or, if not failures, undistinguished results over many years.
3. It always feels like there’s more to be done. …I think most of us have a little of that drive within us. In retirement, we might not be aiming for that next promotion or pay raise. But we’re still looking for a sense of accomplishment, whether it’s visiting all 50 states, losing weight, seeing our portfolio’s value hit some milestone, building something with our hands or putting together a great family reunion.
This article really hit home for me. I have had a great career in wealth management being my own boss working with clients of my own choosing and affording to say no to any prospects who were not a great fit. When clients come aboard they do not leave. But it still hurts when I let a client go during the great financial crisis who just could not take the pain of seeing his portfolio go down. What if he had listened to me back then like every other client? It’s been over fifteen years and that still hurts when I think about it.
A few more personal notes after reading this article: I spent seven years working in public accounting. This meant seven tax seasons. I liked the people I worked with but I could not stand the boring work and grueling hours. Looking back though, it was a great learning experience after all. I became a CPA and really learned a lot about individual taxation. Which did wonders when I left the cushy well paying job at Deloitte to pursue my entrepreneurial dream of starting a wealth management firm from scratch and building it my way.
Ok, one more observation. I was chosen by the Wall Street Journal to participate in a feature titled “Experts in Wealth Management“. And for a few years I wrote a lot. Without any real return, as in new clients. And then boom, within a year I had several amazing clients come aboard wanting to work with me “we have been reading your WSJ articles and we want you to be our financial advisor“. Just about when I was thinking to quit writing as another colleague had just done. I wrote 102 pieces for WSJ, which, in retrospect, is mind boggling. I am not looking for new clients by the way.
Also, the final point about how it feels like there’s more to be done. Maybe one day, after 12 years of blogging away here, this blog will be discovered. Maybe it did or I just suck in marketing/promotion lol. So, find that purpose, reach for that sense of accomplishment. Whatever it is. And stay healthy my friends.
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
The New York Times is starting a series on online scams. Should be a must read: Phony Romeos? Email Threats? Dissecting the Anatomy of an Online Scam. In a series for the Business desk, a reporter is chasing down sophisticated online scams that target Americans, particularly older adults.
After the article was published, I heard from more victims. Many had lost their savings, including a musician who lost $9,000 and an educator who lost $900,000. I continue to be astounded by the number of victims who are still contacting me…As for me, this reporting has put me on even higher alert for all-things potentially sketchy, and I hope it does the same for readers. Since filing this essay, I’ve received three more threatening emails with photos of my home, demanding $2,000 in Bitcoin in exchange for keeping my web browsing habits a secret.I didn’t pay up, and my Target browsing history is still safe.
It is getting out of control, be careful out there!
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ODDZ & ENDZ
I really enjoyed this fascinating story: The Strange Theft of a Priceless Churchill Portrait.The inside story of one of Canada’s most brazen, baffling, and mysterious art heists and how the police cracked it. I learned so much about legend photographer Yousuf Karsh, the backstory behind his famous shot of Churchill, living in hotels, the art theft market and a lot more.
Ok, one more: Drone Awards 2024. Gotta love drone photography!
TRAVEL
Michelin now rates hotels, in addition to restaurants. Very interesting selections: The First MICHELIN Key Hotels: All the Keys in the United States. I am not sure how this will work out. Why mess with the restaurant star ratings?
Interesting list: 20 Fantastic Street Food Spots Around the World. Never heard of the one mentioned in neaby Dearborn, Michigan by the way.
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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.
Again, this is a short Tuesday post. No sections, just a few noteworthy items to share with you:
No big deal for us, we don’t stay in these motels lol: Oyo to Buy Motel 6 for $525 Million in U.S. Expansion Bid.
Brace for more: Pointsflation is Here: Why Airlines Keep Charging You More Miles. Why?
The Rise and Fall of Flexible Bank Transfer Points
The Emergence of Travel Influencers & Websites
More Tools Mean Easier (But More Expensive Redemptions)
I have said it again and again. More than 95% of them travel influencers & websites out there will be gone in an instant if it was not for the banks paying them to sell credit cards. And I will still be here most likely. To keep me around please choose my site to get a rewards credit card. I know, it sounds ridiculous. But it is simple economics. At the very least, use the links to support blogs you want to keep around that add value to your life. Think Before You Click!
I think Barclays staff may be busier than normal in the near future: American Airlines in talks to pick Citigroup over rival bank Barclays for crucial credit card deal, sources say.
Posted on Instagram some pics from the 2024 Future Proof Conference and our great suite at the Huntington Beach Hyatt Regency Resort & Spa. More IG pics from the hotel will follow along with a suite walkthrough video over at YouTube.
Banks will gladly give you a rewards credit card with fat signup bonuses which can be worth multiples of the annual fee (if not waived). All you gotta do is meet the minimum spend and AND pay off the balance EVERY month. It is not rocket science, really! So, if you have decent organization and money management skills and like traveling for free paying very little this is still a lucrative hobby.
Frankly, I am amazed how this party lasted so long. Yes, your life WILL be more complicated because each card adds some legwork. And you WILL spend more, no doubt about that. Do you think all these banks don’t know that many new cardholders will get in over their head and start paying ridiculous fees and interest? Sadly, the consumers falling behind are paying for all these rewards.
I am often asked if I had to pick just one travel rewards personal credit card, which one would it be? The answer is easy, this card pays for itself and shockingly its annual fee (compared to the competition) is still absurdly low and it is definitely going up in the future:
75k Capital One Venture X
The Capital One Venture X card offers a 75,000 point Signup Bonus after 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 decent 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.
And this offer is live for a few more days:
Up to 75k Chase Hyatt Business Card: Chase kept the same “60k points for $5k spend” offer and added a sweetener to earn an additional 15,000 World of Hyatt points for a TOTAL $12k minimum spend in the first 12 months. The annual fee is $199. The card earns 4x on Hyatt stays and 2x in the top three spending eligible categories (becomes top two spending categories after 12/31/24). These eligible categories are: Dining, airfare, rental cars, local transit and commuting, gas stations, internet, cable, social media/search engine advertising and shipping. Discoverist elite status while you keep the card open. Can get $50 statement credits on Hyatt stays twice a year, which essentially turns this card into a $99 annual fee card. But here is the key differentiator for big spenders and Hyatt fanboys and girls. You can get 5 elite qualifying night credits after each time you spend $10,000 on the card. Interestingly, this card does NOT give you 5 elite night qualifying credits automatically and no complimentary free night as the personal Hyatt Visa does. Finally, when you cross $50k of spend you can get 10% back on redeemed points for the rest of the calendar year (up to 20k points back per year). Learn How to Apply HERE to support the blog, thank you. This offer ends 9/26/24.
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!
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:
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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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Dear American Airlines,
Please continue allowing two banks to issue your credit cards.
Sincerely,
All of us
Forgot to say–interesting to see the Motel 6 acquisition! I will never bet against Indians in the hotel industry. I assume you’ve heard about the Patels? I think I remember reading that Gujaratis own a surprisingly high percentage of hotels in the U.S.
We need to get Barclays to stay involved and relevant in this space 🙂
Should we be looking at a Motel 5 credit card? Oh boy, can’t wait for the Signup Bonus on that one. Probably Barclays will go for it LOL.
Thanks for the link to the story about the theft of Churchill photo! So many moving parts there …
Karsh only working in monochrome hit me like a ton of bricks. There is a reason Leica makes digital monochrome cameras. And tomorrow in class I’ll be discussing how / why BBC kept Churchill off the air in the 1930s.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>how / why BBC kept Churchill off the air in the 1930s.
Please do tell.
Whee! For a short post this has a lot of good stuff! Thanks, George! BTW, your posts and NEVER too long as they are always full of good stuff. Much appreciated!
Blog and click traffic don’t agree, there are just not that many of you guys around and I don’t know how to get them here.
If you build/blog it, they will come they said.
Nope.
Thanks, you have no idea if it was not for kind words from readers like you that this blog would stop existing many years ago.
Burned Aeroplan miles on Turkish Airlines flights KUL-IST-DTW. Business Class. So, Thailand trip is wrapped up. Other than the short flights from BKK to KUL, will do AirAsia most likely. Now if son can hurry up to lock his tickets up we can plan on Thanksgiving in Hua Hin cheering our Detroit Lions to victory.
Will reply to comments later today.
This blog’s future is bleak $ speaking, 12 years baby, no clickbait shit, thanks for the kind words.
10 year anniversary for this video, I miss Emily:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHqXQ3GbFRg
Congrats on finalising your flights from Asia. Always a relief when you can lock in something you can live with. Those financial scams, I always cringe when I read them, problem is we are so vulnerable as we age and if we don’t have people looking after us we could easily be one of the scammed.
Attending an AICPA webinar by my colleague right now in the other tab titled: “Facing the Challenges of Caregiving”. It is all about aging and the challenges that come with it…
Yes, what a relief indeed. Only downside is that both flights are on the old 777-300ER planes. But managed to get seats together on the side, avoiding the middle three seats.
The pointsflation post is okay but the writer continually ignores when someone pokes big holes in his theories, like when he said to always burn points instantly in the same post where he said to use points strategically when great offers arrive. I pointed out that you can’t take advantage of offers when they come around if you don’t have any points because you already burned them for worse value. The response was crickets…
Yeah, it is definitely one of the sites that belong in the 95% that would be selling something else online instead of plastic for the banks. Actually, I think 96% is too low, more like 99%.
I need to cancel daughter’s UA award tickets to Thailand from Seattle, will get her on a simpler RT with my Amex points. Almost pulled the trigger today putting her on Singapore Airlines but there were 2 slight compilcations, a 55 minute layover in SIN which would probably be ok but on the inbound it would require overnight in SIN and that would be too much handle.
Have been very happy with the Crowne Plaza Changi hotel, if push comes to shove. Super convenient/easy/safe/clean, especially with so much to see at Changi. Not a bad way to burn IHG points, all things considered.
Good to know, thanks.
Another one for the CP Changi. Have had many stays there and have to say it’s always a pleasure staying there.
Since Sep 4, this blog has earned 70 cents per day.
Please don’t say “keep up the good work”…
Also, to aspiring bloggers, don’t. Learn how to YouTube.
See you Friday.
This blog completes 12 years on Nov 12, the day I leave for Thailand. It would be 11 years and 9 months longer than anyone (including me) expected this baby to last!
Posted a video of my suite at the Huntington Beach Hyatt Regency, please subscribe so I can add to my 33 followers LOL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfvNqEUGfhQ
A kid on YouTube did his first Hyatt redemption and blogged all about it to his 15,000 followers. Anyone online can be an expert I guess. Phuck it, going to the gym at 6 am.
12 years! Wow, that’s a long time. I’ve been an ex-blogger for longer than I was a blogger.
Ok I subscribed and watched so you are up to 34. However can I suggest you add some basic commentary and shorten the viewing length for something like a room review. Personally having stayed at that property I never understand the love people have for the place or location.
@ Nick # PFD: Still holding on to the pfd domain? When I sell out this blog I may buy it. Lol.
Thanks. At 34 YouTube subscribers I feel the momentum lol.Thanks for the feedback.
I am sooooo newbie at this video stuff, got no time to learn and learn how to edit. But if anyone wants to intern to help with the TBB brand marketing please contact me.
Abt this property: I like staying at the conference hotel using points in a suite while everyone else is paying the “conference rate” 🙂 Nice resort and the beach front is great.
Yeah, orangey county area, not my favorite for sure. I may come back for the fourth year if I can do it again 🙂
Also, filled up a big suitcase with swag. And it flew for free on Southwest 🙂
And thanks for the CP Changi recommendation, maybe I get back to IHG points one day.
Thinking to snag a Barclay Hawaiian card next. Because, you know, this is what I do 🙂
This post highlights some really important issues in the travel and finance world! It’s shocking how many scams are out there, especially with the rise of online transactions. Has anyone had a close call with a scam while traveling? Sharing those experiences could help others stay vigilant and safe on their adventures!