We bring you more sad news of the new bank restrictions, we ride the amazing Sahara Railway, warn you about scam timeshares, laugh with Tinder dating, travel to Ethiopia and Mecca, register for the latest Hilton and Hyatt promos, more bag fees, Republicans love weed, we talk about them bloggers destroying our inherent right to travel for free while they get fat selling plastic and lots more for you for freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
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You know our travel hacking “hobby” is resembling a long prisoner march with marchers (us) getting shot and thrown in ditches as we march along to…extinction. Every day we lose another deal a blogger blogged about while selling more travel rewards credit cards to unsuspecting readers , we get hit with another devaluation in a diminishing pool of award sweet spots, more mergers consolidating avenues to engage in a little more earning we enjoy, more fees and other restrictions and on and on. And then of course the banks exacting revenge on us…while we hope things will change. But they only get worse. And next one was Chase Adds 48 Month Restriction for Sapphire Bonuses & A Way to Get It Under the “Old” 24 Months Language. Dear Lord, have mercy!
When mainstream media writes articles like this you know they are on to us: Credit-card super users are searching for answers amid a string of shutdowns from Chase, as billions in costs on lavish rewards pile up (HT: ABC)
Casinos make their billions on the masses of tourists and novices who play their games without a clue. Card sharks use skill, and sometimes deception, to eat away at their profits. If Chase is the largest credit-card-rewards casino in the country, churners are their card sharks. For years, even as their numbers grew, churners largely managed to slip by without getting the boot. But has the house finally decided to come down on them? [Thanks a lot bloggers!]
Register for the latest Hilton Honors promotion for stays September 10 to January 3. Called Hilton Moments Made Bigger.
And this is Hyatt’s Fall promotion: Make your travel add up to more. A lot more.
And more fees. We now have them at $30 per bag, thanks JetBlue (and Air Canada and Westjet). Sad! Oh, and JetBlue will “refresh” its TrueBlue program bothering us with some meaningless changes while sticking it to us with more fees, yawn.
Other than that above that sends a very clear to churners we have, please sit down, the new Reduced Mileage Awards from AA.
I LOVED this short film: This Sahara Railway Is One of the Most Extreme in the World.
TBB blog readers are well read. But I want to point you to a recent monumental discovery: Scientists Stunned by a Neanderthal Hybrid Discovered in a Siberian Cave.
A remarkable new discovery—also in the Denisova cave—paints an even more interesting picture, telling us that Denisovans also interbred with Neanderthals. The evidence is as direct as it can be: a bone fragment in the cave that, according to DNA analysis, belonged to the daughter of a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father.
Very interesting stuff: Legal Weed: How Republicans Learned to Love Marijuana.
No other government is doing the things China is doing in such a scale. Who needs democracy when you have data?
Hilarious twitter thread on dating, Tinder and stuff like that. If you do not lol I will give you yo money back!
Timeshares. Don’t do it! Timeshares: The Variable Annuities of Real Estate Investing. You have been warned! Can you care to guess how much I despise these salesmen? As much as fake experts selling “free” travel by pushing EVERY damn credit card they can get paid on!
I need to go to this place in Ethiopia, it is calling me! Churches cut from single rock welcome Orthodox Good Friday celebrations. Anyone been? Safe to get there with miles? Any Hyatt hotels nearby? 🙂
More awesome photos here: The Hajj’s massive scale, seen from the air.
It must be getting harder for credit card salesmen bloggers to sell more plastic as well. With Chase’s new restriction on the Sapphire cards, the message is clear. No, we lost our butts on the Reserve and we must recoup the costs ASAP. No churning to other cards, if you want it you keep it and pay us the annual fee. And wait until we start hammering you with the new Banking product to make you give us more of your money to invest load it with high fees while pretending we are your advisor and supposedly have your best interest in mind…NOT! Ok, back to the salespersons bloggers…Look, if you made this your career writing and selling plastic perhaps you are not looking too far ahead to sustain it as a career. You have been warned!
I have combined my Marriott and SPG accounts. I think everything looks fine for the most part. I am not going to give you a play by play okay? I have about 240k MR points now and this baby is only going down…In other words, I don’t care too much about this pool of points.
I am so sick of Amex Offers. Bloggers LOVE them so they can push what they are selling. Non stop. I wish they went away. The offers I mean. Or is it both? Lol. The only Amex offer I will publish here is this: Buy $0, get $20 Back! Since that will never happen, well, you know, you don’t need arrows!
I swear I saw a bunch of posts in Boarding Area about the JetBlue points pooling feature that all came out at the same time! Maybe they have a smart ghost writer over there? 🙂
Emily at MMS is now selling baby stuff full mode too. Dan at DansDeals got some diaper competition! 🙂
Been a while, here is another fav song:
And I leave you with this…Really Colgate, really?
TBB
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The China “social credit scores” is way scary! My wife was telling me stories about friends experiences…
I hope Chase goes 5/48 soon and cull the blogosphere!
Appreciate your content so much more than any thought leader…
Thank you.
Enjoy it while it lasts…
China’s social credit is really scary. Can’t believe too many people are impacted by 5/48. Bloggers are so bored this week. After Marriott happened, they are talking about double Hilton points and this completely inconsequential rule.
Someone should recommend OMAAT review the United Explorer in the comments. Would they let him apply since he is banned from having a United account?
Also, Dr. Death from Sunday’s best of web is in jail for life.
The conversions by bloggers are impacted for sure. They can not sell a CSP to the newbies roped in with the CSR. Must hit the pavement to develop more newbie markets…Word in the street is Mommy Points has been sighted outside maternity wards with apps ready lol.
Yeah, it is so amazing how bloggers will go out of their way to keep pumping the merchandise they sell!
GREAT to hear this surgeon dude is in jail for life. This guy should not be out, just bad news. Unbelievable story!
Lively this morning!
Sure is!
To the few who asked:
9 cc conversions PAID in August. But since two were paid on August 1 and 3…they could be from July and I still don’t know how to distinguish which month they “belong” so we could be as low as 7. So this baby is ready to evolve it appears…Maybe it is time with daughter now driving and me devoting the extra time somewhere else #developing
No Amazon orders yesterday. One shipped, 49 cents to me…
Just wrote the above for Ingy to laugh. But remember amigo, these are 9 conversions you never got because you sold TOO DAMN EARLY LOL.
Daughter now has drivers license OMG!
Calf is still down, have not ran since Sunday, sad!
LOL:
The Points Guy’s Brian Kelly distinguishes himself and TPG from churners. Kelly, who has 24 cards, is wholly in favor of taking advantage of sign-on bonuses, but he advocates that points enthusiasts keep cards open and spend on them past the introductory period.
“Credit-card bonuses are really juicy — trust me, I love them, too — but be a good customer to the banks. Don’t be a jerk and just close an account right away,” he said, adding that gamers can cost banks significant money. “You really don’t want to get in the habit of opening and closing cards. The credit-card companies are becoming very savvy about weeding you out as a bad customer.”
As a responsible costumer I always look out for Citi’s bottom line. Just like the banks did when they caused the financial crisis.
costumer=customer
You are guys are on today, LOL!
That Business Insider article could have been a thread on Flyer Talk a few years ago. “The Hobby” is really mainstream now.
Here’s a question for you Buzz:
That WSJ article said that Delta’s take from Skymiles will go up 21% this year from $4.4 billion to $5.4 billion. My guess is all of that comes from card user activities, give or take say $50-100 million to bloggers.
My question is if Delta’s revenues are going up 21%, is the value of award availability also going up 21%?
I am going to venture a guess on this Sam…
No?
🙂
I have that article and will comment on it, just ran out of space in today’s post.
Catching up day, ready for Fall here!
Ahhh I remember the days… Fall and 60f nights up north… but when I started univ downstate it was in the 80’s!!!
Love the comparison to the Bataan Death March. The only difference: Some survived the Bataan Death March.
In another year (or sooner), the devaluations and limitations will snuff out all of the fun. The only upside is that more than a few of the card pumping blogs will end. There really aren’t any “billion mile secrets” to getting one’s three or four allowed cards, keeping them for years, and only putting real spend on them.
Of course, the big thought leading pumpers will pump on… giving sage advice like Steve Martin’s old riff on how to be a millionaire: First, get a million dollars.
The ones who survived were skeletons 🙂
Why haven’t more of the card pumping blogs ended yet? Why is Points Miles and Martinis still alive? I mean, they write hideous shit like this:
This Woman Says TSA Made Her Prove She Was on Her Period
Other than Mommy Points doing an internal transfer of sorts, we only have non pumpers quit. Which is super sad.
So many newbie suckers for pumping card blogs out there…they go through them like underwear.
No wonder Mile Nerd is on a long retirement tour…
Looks like I will be joining him next. Mine will be abrupt, like Nick at PFD.
It’s time folks…
I wanted to end AFTER Rene though, shucks!
2 more conversions came through today…so that may be 10 actually. Come on you guys, let me go join Nick and Mile Nerd in retirement, maybe go on tour of something RTU…Retired Travel University lol.
Found out today that TPG Inc has 40 staff. PAID staff. How can anyone compete with that???
I bet you they take a turn go go into personal finance next when newbies dry out getting pummeled with Chase cards…and start pushing Chase non plastic products #youwatch
Crazy
Meanwhile AMEX is clawing back Amex offers the bloggers were blogging about them being screaming deals….LOL
I need to get me outta here, this “hobby” is being perverted. What you knew of this little corner frequented by intelligent and kind of weird people taking advantage of these corporations is on its way to extinction right before our eyes….
TPG Inc can’t be making money anymore. It’s costly to build an empire.
No wonder Mommy Points has been on a cc pumping tear lately 🙂
Wait, MMS sister company of TPG now does posts like this:
Top 10 Small Business Expenses Ideal for the Chase Ink Business Unlimited
Can the newbs be so gullible? Apparently, the answer is yes.
And then the travel thought leader informs his readers with must read reports like this:
Report: 1 in 50 Passengers Will Find Love on an Airplane
I give up you guys…
Actually, no…This baby may have another month in its life as it appears we hit 10 conversions. Another ten conversions Ingy could have. Every month. So sad he sold FIRST!
🙂
I met my wife on a plane ….