Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as private equity in 401(k) plans, dividend investing hype, haunted hotels, Kefalonia island, market cycles and concerns, update on the fraudsters selling yield shit, our shared reality and sending Navy Seals inside North Korea, places to visit for movie lovers, the new Air Pods live translating, 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.
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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.
Due to new severe affiliate restrictions, there will not be any credit card affiliate links in the body of the blog posts other than from Capital One Bank and personal referral links going forward. You can always get to my credit card affiliate links by clicking on “CREDIT CARDS’ at the menu on the top of the homepage or the “We make finding a new credit card simple” banner on the right sidebar. Or, preferably, you can receive new offers in your email inbox by signing up to receive alerts HERE. Or you can always email me, thanks for your support.
BLOG HOUSEKEEPING
This is truly a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts.
Currently in the Greek island of Kefalonia traveling with my family and about to attend a big fat Greek wedding.
PERSONAL FINANCE
They are coming for your 401(k) plans: Workers Do Not Need Private Equity in their 401(k) Plans.
My view is that people should invest in stuff they understand, and private equity is not a transparent investment. Moreover, it takes years for returns to be realized, and participants who leave early will have paid higher fees for nothing. Private equity simply adds unnecessary risk to retirement saving. [Same]
Further, it is not apparent that private equity produces outstanding returns in retirement plans…Moreover, in terms of diversification, private equity did not have a statistically significant effect on volatility. Yes, the private equity guys get rich, but it’s not clear that participants in retirement plans benefit. Why should fiduciaries bother to take such a big risk?…the risks associated with private equity far outweigh any potential gains. [Same2]
Some interesting quotes in this one: Wise Words on Market Cycles.
Bull markets and bear markets last long enough so that the average trader is likely to forget by the time the climax is approaching that any sort of movement is possible. — Philip Carret
When things go badly, people become cautious. Then their caution causes things to go well, and when things go well, they become incautious. I think that’s a forever cycle. — Howard Marks
The market cycle of the future may prove to be surprisingly independent of the business cycle, and it may even exist if there is no business cycle — which is in itself quite an assumption, but not an entire impossibility. — Ben Graham
And before you get way too ahead of yourself, remember this:
For investors out there, the goal is not to know exactly when the cycle turns. it’s too unpredictable. Just know that:
- Markets do turn,
- Emotions and fundamentals play a role in the course of a cycle, and
- Letting the emotional side of markets influence your investment decisions can be expensive.
Your best defense is an investment plan built to take advantage of the emotional side, as much possible, throughout a full market cycle.
I share the author’s concerns by the way: I have some concerns. It is amazing how the stock market keeps going higher, seemingly unfazed by anything that is thrown at it. And it is a lot, ranging from the erratic launch of Trump’s global tariff war, fears of an India-Pakistan conflict escalating to something bigger, worries about Israel strikes on Iran and that escalating to something bigger, and a new Chinese competitor to the American A.I. apps, named DeepSeek, which caused jitters about the whole “U.S. dominating the AI revolution” thing. And other things too numerous to list here. Well, the main ones are:
Macroeconomic pressures (tariff hits are coming while labor market is suffering perhaps the first AI induced damage)
Market structure and valuation (top heavy market may be the biggest understatement ever)
Speculative behavior (Fartcoin is worth almost $1 Billion, wtf!)
Increasing interest in illiquid or complex products (see above the first link in this section)
Am I going to cash? Of course not. No one can do market timing successfully and consistently. Because:
It’s impossible to perfectly time reversals in financial markets. That’s why your time horizon matters so much. It’s not the only thing—diversification, risk tolerance, and cash flow needs all belong in the mix—but having an idea about when you need to access your money is what keeps you from mistaking short-term noise for a reason to blow up a long-term plan.
And never forget. And always prepare mentally for the next one of these and the eventual recovery. If no eventual recovery comes, we are all phucked.
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
Remember that dude who was guaranteeing 15% returns selling some shit recently? And he had the audacity to try to explain the magic of his merchandise to Jason Zweig of the Wall Street Journal. I remember asking here in my blog why is this guy not criminally charged yet and locked up? Well, here we go: Federal Prosecutors Charge Financier Who Offered ‘Guaranteed’ High Yields. Paul Regan was indicted following a series of Wall Street Journal articles examining his investment products. To get him locked up you first need to find him smh:
The federal court in New York also last week authorized U.S. authorities to share the indictment with domestic and international law-enforcement agencies “to facilitate the arrest and extradition of Regan.” Last known to have been living in Colombia, Regan couldn’t be reached for comment.
Sometimes lately there are too many assholes that interrupt our lives. And we let them smh: Meet the Fraudster Who Wants to Make California Its Own Country. The man behind the Calexit movement claims to be a baller. But he’s broke.
This dividend focused latest hot thing did not hit me until I saw an expat guy from the US who retired in Thailand suddenly started doing videos about it. It is actually a lot more prevalent than just Gen Z: The New American Hustle: Dividends Over Day Job. You know this is getting out of hand when a company bigly into this starts inviting influencers to its sponsored events where they will all drink the “Cool-Aid” smh. It never ceases to amaze me how Wall Street comes up with different ways to fool people.
On a Friday afternoon in July, some two dozen of them gathered in Midtown Manhattan to preach an alternate path — one paved not with paychecks, but payouts. Their mantra: plow money into a host of newfangled, dividend-chasing strategies and use the steady stream of cash they generate to escape the 9-to-5. Never mind the long-term damage it might do to their portfolios.
The current wave of interest is new enough — and many of the followers young enough — that it has been easy to ignore how the most popular funds have often lagged basic stock indexes and threaten to eat away at long-term returns…“A lot of people think of the dividend as separate from the cash flow,” he says. “They don’t realize it comes at the expense of the price level and isn’t making you richer.”…“They’re fooling people into thinking that they’re somehow getting income,” Eifert said. “All you’re doing is giving me my money back, so the value of the ETF is declining as you’re paying me that.”
I feel triggered right now. These influencers make a lot of money selling this shit to people with way too much time on their hands. This all goes well with what is happening lately around the world, especially in the US. We are living in a meme world smh. And here I am blogging with a tiny readership after 13 years. My kids keep trying to tell me I should move to Substack…
You like my blog? Send a link to someone please!
ODDZ & ENDZ
Amazing resource: The Food Timeline. We make food history fun. Sometimes you find these absolute gems on the web like this one.
This is a must read imho: Our Shared Reality Will Self-Destruct in the Next 12 Months. What happens when you can’t trust photos, videos, text, or the entire web?
In this new degraded world, we will see these six behavior patterns from everybody, even (or especially) those who under other circumstances would be well integrated into their communities:
After learning of this operation I wonder maybe the North Koreans are not that paranoid smh: How a Top Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission Into North Korea Fell Apart. The 2019 operation, greenlit by President Trump, sought a strategic edge. It left unarmed North Koreans dead.
Amazing photography: See stunning images of ‘Blood Moon’ and total lunar eclipse.
TRAVEL
Scary fun site: 64 Haunted Hotels Around the World You Can Stay At—If You Dare. Of course the one hotel where The Shining was filmed is in this list, how could it not?
Another one going off on that movie related turn we just took with the link above: 100 places all movie lovers should visit. Yep, the Stanley is here too.
Interesting info here about an airport we often find ourselves in: The Best Things to Do at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.
I am no Apple fan boy. But this could be big: Apple’s New AirPods Pro 3 Can Translate Language in Real Time.
Can’t say I am surprised by this: The 20 Most Densely Populated Countries and Territories.
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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.
Many in this addictive hobby are going to miss booking LATAM with Alaska Airlines miles, hurry: Lie-Flat to South America? 5 Deals to Book With Alaska Points, Before It’s Too Late.
New Avios Transfer tool HERE.
Not that long ago we were talking how Hilton is closing in to Hyatt. And then this happened, the top award went from 90,000 points per night to a whopping 250,000 points per night. Actually, we went from 150k to 250k in less than a year. Which is just ludicrous: Ouch: Hilton Hikes Award Rates (Again!) With New 250K Nightly Cap.
Good analysis here of what Hilton is doing: Hilton Honors devalues its luxury hotels, now as high as 250,000 points.
What’s changed is the volume of free points dished out to the US credit card market, which is fuelling inflation in the system. What is really driving it is the number of free night certificates, valid anywhere, which are being issued with US Hilton credit cards.
If a US credit card holder redeems a free night certificate at Waldorf Astoria New York when the hotel is over 95% full and the cash rate is $2,000 per night, Hilton is on the hook for $2,000, give or take. It has to earn that money back somehow, and you are paying the price.
Frequent Miler‘s take on it is equally grim: Analyzing Hilton’s spiraling devaluations.
I think that the Hilton / SLH partnership is spiraling out of control. An increasing number of high-end SLH hotels will opt into the Hilton partnership once they discover its lucrative potential. And SLH hotels that are already opted in will continue to increase award availability, and perhaps increase their rack rates. This will all lead Hilton to increase top-end award pricing again. And again.
TRAVEL REWARDS CREDIT CARDS
Here is an article about what we have been talking about here for a while: Airlines Want a Piece of Every Purchase You Make. The biggest U.S. airlines make billions of dollars from their loyalty programs and branded credit cards, which some analysts believe are now essential to the businesses. Nothing really new here for us.
NEW OFFERS:
And they are back! 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. Thanks for supporting the blog, you know what to do.
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. Available from my favorite bank links above.
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.
Remember two things. Chase is changing the way it awards points for personal referrals on October 7. It will only do so if the person getting referred is a new business customer. And if you got only 75k points for either of these two no annual fee cards recently: Chase Matching 90,000 Ink Cash/Unlimited Signup Bonus.
BANK OF AMERICA ALASKA AIRLINES THREE NEW ATMOS CREDIT CARDS
100K AND 25,000 Point Global Companion Award Bank of America Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite Card: The new premium credit card we have been waiting for a while. $395 Annual Fee. Fairly low $6k minimum spend in first three months. Earns 3x on Alaska/Hawaiian Airlines purchases, dining and foreign transactions, 1x on everything else. 10% bonus points if you have an eligible Bank of America account, so the 3x becomes 3.3x oh la la. Can earn 100k Global Companion Award cert if spend reaches $60k during the year. 8 Alaska Airlines lounge day passes and 8 Wi-Fi passes every year (2 per quarter). Free checked bag for cardholder and up to six on same reservation. 10,000 status points every anniversary. 2 status points for every $1 spent, uncapped. Waived partner award booking and same day change fees. $50 vouchers for cancellations and 2+ hour delays. One free cocktail drink at each lounge visit (through 2026). Points sharing with up to 10 Atmos Rewards members. 20% off in flight purchases. $120 statement credit for Global Entry/TSA Pre. If you had requested to be waitlisted for this card you should have received an email with an application link that can earn an additional 5,000 points (on top of the 100,000).
80k Bank of America Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards Ascent Visa Signature Card: $95 annual fee. Comes with a $99 Companion Fare. $4k minimum spend in first four months. 3x on Alaska/Hawaiian Airlines purchases. 2x on gas, EV charging, cable, streaming and local transit, 1x on everything else. Earns 1 status point per $3 spent (up to 30k status points in 2025 and uncapped starting in 2026). 10% bonus points if you have an eligible Bank of America account. Free checked bag for cardholder and up to six on same reservation. Preferred boarding. 20% inflight purchases. $100 off annual Alaska Lounge membership. No foreign transaction fees. Here is a link to get you 85k miles instead of the 80k affiliate link.
80k Bank of America Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards Business Visa Card: $95 annual fee. Comes with a $99 Companion Fare. $5k minimum spend in first three months. 3x on Alaska/Hawaiian Airlines purchases. 2x on gas, EV charging, shipping and local transit, 1x on everything else. Earns 1 status point per $3 spent (up to 30k status points in 2025 and uncapped starting in 2026). 10% bonus points if you have an eligible Bank of America account. Free checked bag for cardholder and up to six on same reservation. 20% off inflight purchases. $100 off Alaska Airlines Lounge membership. No foreign transaction fees. Here is a link to get you 85k miles instead of the 80k affiliate links.
EXPIRING OFFERS:
125k CHASE Sapphire Reserve: Chase raised the Signup Bonus to 125,000 from 100,000 points. Which is great of course. But it also withdrew the $500 statement travel credit in the original offer, boo. Then again, you know, getting an extra 25,000 point is certainly a lot more flexible. 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.
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, it is surprising and love it.
We have a great REFERRAL offer from Capital One: 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 is at it again with a revised offer for the 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.
After waiting for Citi to introduce a premium credit card, it finally arrived. Please click the link below to get all the info you need about the card and email me if you want to apply.
Citi Strata Elite Review: 80,000 Points Bonus, $595 Annual Fee, $300 Hotel & $200 Splurge Credit
Citi has a new offer for 30,000 Thank You points for its Strata no annual fee card. Very good earning rates for a no annual fee card: 5x on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked on cititravel.com, 3x spent at Supermarkets, Select Transit, Gas & EV Charging Stations, 3x spent on an eligible Self-Select Category of your choice, 2x spent at Restaurants and 1x on All Other Purchases.
Chase Southwest Personal Cards: 100,000 Points with $4,000 Spend In 5 Months. 100k Signup bonus for all 3 personal cards is excellent. If you like 100k bonuses and free bags it makes sense too as each Southwest point could be worth around 1.3 cents, so we are talking $1,300 travel value. You know where to find them, thank you. All three 100k offers end September 17, 2025.
My still favorite bank Chase is at it again. We have two new 100k offers on United business cards. Actually, the United Business card is decent, especially for people who have United elite qualification aspirations. I have it myself and not keeping it past the first year by the way. Ends November 5, 2025.
Brand new elevated IHG and Delta SkyMiles offers just launched yesterday:
- Chase IHG One Rewards Premier: 165,000 Bonus Points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months from account opening.
- Chase IHG One Rewards Traveler: 2 Free Nights + 40,000 Bonus Points after spending $2,000 on eligible purchases within the first 3 months from account opening. Each Free Night is valued at up to 50,000 points.
- Chase IHG One Rewards Premier Business: Earn up to 200,000 Bonus Points. Earn 140,000 Bonus Points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months from account opening. Plus, earn 60,000 Bonus Points after spending a total of $9,000 in the first 6 months from account opening for a total of 200,000 Bonus Points.
If you love IHG, the Premier card always made sense to make it a keeper imho. If you hate annual fees, the current Traveler card also makes sense, especially if you have targeted a particular property for a two to three night getaway. Lots of IHG points to score if you can swing the very high (for a hotel card) minimum spend for the business card. Don’t have the time to list the other benefits of these cards while traveling you guys, you know what to do and thank you.
We also have higher Amex Delta Skymiles offers again:
- Amex Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business: Earn 125,000 Bonus Miles after spending $15,000 in purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer Ends 10/29/25.
- Amex Delta Skymiles Platinum Business: Earn 100,000 Bonus Miles after spending $8,000 in purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer Ends 10/29/25.
- Amex Delta SkyMiles Gold Business: Earn 90,000 Bonus Miles after spending $6,000 in purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer Ends 10/29/25.
- Amex Delta Skymiles Reserve: Earn 125,000 Bonus Miles after you spend $6,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer Ends 10/29/2025.
- Amex Delta Skymiles Platinum: Earn 90,000 Bonus Miles after you spend $4,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
- Amex Delta Skymiles Gold: Earn 80,000 Bonus Miles after you spend $3,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer Ends 10/29/2025.
The STANDARD Amex Platinum offer is now up to 175,000 Membership Rewards points. The annual fee is $695 and the minimum spend is $8,000 over six months. 5x on Airfare and Hotels and 1x on everything else. Superior Centurion lounge coverage and of course Priority Pass lounge membership. No foreign transaction fees. A long list of couponized credits, up to $1,800 if you took advantage of every single one. Which you won’t. The easiest credits are the $200 airline fee credit, the $240 Digital Entertainment credit, up to $200 Uber credit and $200 hotel credit…and many more.
Same deal with the STANDARD Amex Gold card now up to 100,000 Membership Rewards points. The annual fee is $325 and the minimum spend is $6,000 over six months. This card’s main appeal has always been its earning power at 4x for dining worldwide and groceries and 3x on airfare. Crazy couponing comes with it, such as $7 per month on Dunkin Donuts, $10 per month on Uber Cash, $10 per month on 5 Guys/Grubhub, Cheesecake Factory, Wine.com or Goldbelly, two $50 Resy credits for dining per year and $100 hotel credit per year.
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.
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
All you have to do to receive these free notifications is:
1. Click on the link above
2. Create an account
3. Subscribe
MY ACTION AND BLOG BUZZING
Congrats to Grant at Travel With Grant who now has a P3: Attention Passengers: Madison has Joined the Travel with Grant Family.
While here, I hit 30 elite night credits with World of Hyatt. Which came with another Free Night cert. Wish all the free night World of Hyatt certs had a one year expiration instead of just 6 months like this one hitting the 30 night milestone. It also comes with another choice of reward and I chose to earn another 2,000 World of Hyatt points in my next stay. Which is coming up early next week at the Thessaloniki Hyatt Regency again.
Got another spend based promo for my United Gateway card. Again, they never stop. I will earn 10,000 United miles for spending $5k. As I am seeing my annual insurance policy bill landing in my inbox this will be very easy to accomplish. Due to travel to Greece and Thailand/Malaysia coming up I am taking a short break on applying for travel rewards credit cards. For the bigly Signup Bonuses that is (what else?). I also was targeted to earn 15,000 United miles upgrading my Gateway card to the United Explorer card. I looked at the annual fee and the list of ridiculous coupons that come with it and I deleted the email.
Annual fees posted on my Amex Hilton Surpass and Amex Business Platinum cards. Here is my thinking on both. The Surpass card annual fee is $150. I have managed to use the $50 quarterly Hilton credits so far. Yes I do have some unused $50 Hilton gift cards as well hoping to use them one day and I will. A few days after that we had yet another hideous Hilton devaluation. Remember when not that long ago we were all saying how Hilton at number 2 was closing in on Hyatt to take the lead? LOL. The only savings grace of the Hilton program is the Free Night certs. But judging from the cruelty of the devaluations in the past ten months, how long would the FNCs be spared? Anyway, I chatted with an Amex rep for a retention offer and accepted the insulting “spend $1k to earn 6,000 Hilton points”.
Now on to the $695 Amex Business Platinum annual fee. Which is going to $895 soon. Or $995. I guess I am lucky timing wise I could get to keep it for a whole year at the lower $695 annual fee. Anyway, remember I got the card last year with the ridiculously high 250,000 Membership Rewards Signup Bonus. I can easily gain back $200 from adding to my United Travel Bank and most of the $50 Hilton quarterly credits. Sadly, the Dell credit is now down to $150 I think. I was hoping the $300 Lululemon credit on the personal Amex Platinum will also show up on the Business card. But apparently this is not the case which sucks. I chatted with an Amex rep to ask for a retention bonus but the retention department was not open over the weekend apparently. So I will do so again when I get a chance. The $695 annual fee due is September 28. I am going to make Amex sweat a little bit lol.
The blogosphere has been buried by the impending Amex Platinum card changes. And the introduction of higher credits such as the FHR credit going to $600 from $200 and the new Resy credit at $400. Which imho make the card a keeper. And talk about a response to Chase’s deflating refresh of its Sapphire Reserve card. My son is definitely keeping his Platinum card and is elated with the new $300 Lululemon credit. I had no idea that Lululemon had stuff for males until he convinced me to go in and buy something. So I bought a pair of shorts and a Tshirt and I must admit I love them too, please don’t judge. If Amex keeps the $200 airline credit it will not take that much effort (relatively speaking) to “make” money on the card. I just wished all of these credits were equally applied to the Business Platinum version as well.
Been renting cars from both Hertz and Sixt in Greece. No issues at all with either so far. It appears Sixt has best prices lately.
Aegean flights to Kefalonia from Thessaloniki via Athens were good too. Kefalonia airport is small but very well run. Like most Greek airports after they were sold to a German company.
We are staying in this place in Kefalonia. It is really nice, love the views and the private access to a very nice beach a few minutes away. The villa is very comfortable and having a washer is great too as we all needed to do laundry badly. Then again, I am not sold on this type of lodging arrangement and parting with my cash. I must admit I missed the comforts of a Hyatt resort and the breakfast and lounge that comes with it. And calling the front desk if any issues develop. Here in Kefalonia there is no front desk, it is weird not even meeting the owner yet I have exchanged emails with. Update: We met the owner who is very nice.
Really struggling to keep up with posting pics from this trip on Instagram. Here is one with pics from my hometown Larissa and the nearby beach of Agiokampos. And some pics from the place we are staying and the beach in front of it. Keep checking my TBB IG account for updates. One of these months I will update the TBB YouTube channel, sad lol.
Just a few selected pics from our trip:
I DO have a separate page listing my affiliate links HERE for:
Proton VPN, Uber and Lyft.
I am giving myself a challenge to average 5 credit card sales and 15 Buy Me a Coffee sales per month. If I can’t even hit these low targets after almost 13 years of blogging I am out. We now have:
July:
Credit card sales: 6 Buy me a Coffee sales: 24
August:
Credit card sales: 8 Buy me a Coffee sales: 22
September to date:
Credit card sales: 1 Buy me a Coffee sales: 5
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS:
200k CHASE Sapphire Reserve Business, 125k CHASE Sapphire Reserve, 175k AMEX Platinum, 100k CHASE Southwest Plus/Premier/Priority (ENDS 9/17), 90k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 90k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 100k CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash, 150k 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, 80k CHASE Southwest Performance Business, 15k AMEX Blue Business Plus and many more!
As of today, I have burned 1,431,212 miles/points year to date (2,027,816 in 2024) and have 4,110,887 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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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.
Nice pictures! Do update the YouTube channel.
The Hilton dynamics are really interesting. I wonder if they are stable.
Thanks for the links.
Hey Buzz-
Sounds like you’re having a great trip. I hope so.
All that talk of Alaska Airlines credit cards brings back memories of the day Daraius of Million Mile Secrets applied for 5 Alaska cards in one day. And he got approved for all 5. And of course memories of MMS bring memories of co-founder Emily. You think if Heff were still around he’s have an issue with a “The Girls of Travel Blogging” photo section? Different times I guess.
Glad the trip seems to be going well and thanks as always for the good reading! This week’s edition though for some odd reason will not fit like it does to read in either my email client or Firefox or Chrome. I did get it to fit (side to side, btw) by clicking on the header and reading it as if I was going from the page where you store all the posts. Just a heads up, no complaint.
Great pics and when I have time I will look at the Instagram though that is a program I rarely check.
Have fun!
As Sam points out, it’s all a different dynamic when it comes to the world of points these days. Some days, since we have been banished from applying for new cards, I suffer from FOMO, but most days I just don’t care, the signs that the glory days of points and redemptions were coming to an end have been there for a while. I think 2026 will probably be the last year we are able to get anything meaningful out of points redemption but we are ok with that as it will mean future bookings will be us choosing routes and carriers we actually enjoy. I can’t see us actively going out of the way to maintain Hyatt Globalist next year either. So ridiculous with the 6 month expiry on certificates and the cat 1-4 certificates become more difficult to use. Oh well, we will always have the memories of fun times.
Hey George, thank you for linking to my baby announcement, Madison says thank you. We are planning on getting her passport soon so we can fly to Europe and visit Laura’s relatives on Malta. Maybe a quick stop in Greece is in order too 🙂
Thanks for taking the time to comment here.
I can’t believe I was able to make this post. Which was the biggest challenge. Wedding is today, girls leave for the US tomorrow and me son leave the island on Monday. So it should be a bit easier next week to make the post next Friday.
@ DML: Yeah, something going on with Hilton. Keeping the Surpass card for now but definitely considering relegating it to #3 and reviving my IHG arsenal.
@ Sam: Oh man, I remember those days. That dude made that “5” Alaska cards post the day after he learned it at a DansDeals seminar after being told not to share online. Or something like that 😉 The line “I miss Emily” lives on YouTube in that video I made years ago. Those were the days when so many bloggers were doing it all to help friends and family travel for free smh.
@ Carl: As I prepared this post I deleted a few lines of WordPress code and everything shifted in my end as well. It looks weird but the final product on the web looks fine. So, apparently, it shifted everything the way it looks in the email, thanks for letting me know. I am going to start next post by copying the code from the previous post of this one and kind of copy and paste the latest cc stuff…If I only had an intern. Actually, been talking to my kids about how no one discovers anything on the web anymore with the lack of SEO and AI onslaught so they tell me I should just move to Substack. We shall see.
@ Vicky: Yeah, you may be right. This hobby was a Lamborghini which has slowed down to a Ford Edge and by 2027 it may be a little discarded Tesla model from back in 2020 or something. Typing this from the expensive villa I paid for in Kefalonia island. No points were involved. It hurt of course. In a way, love the Globalist treatment at Hyatts staying on points. But this is also a very liberating way to do lodging. I just need to get more Capital One points to erase the charge LOL. So, I think cash back ways will expand going forward. But, oh wait, Ink cards at 90,000 points with no annual fee is something irresistible you know 🙂
@ Grant: Welcome to fatherhood. Enjoy the ride. And start a 529 Plan now. I am sure you opened several airline/hotel accounts by now 🙂
Going to the beach you guys. Need to update the Instagram account sometime today, so many pics.
I guess the Kirk shooter was a mixed up online obsessed dude and nothing in common with them crazy leftists. Shocking #notreally. At least we still have some decent Republicans like that Cox guy in Utah. I better stop and get my fat ass to the beach now.
Good guesses, 529 yes (with blog post coming), but no airline and hotel accounts yet (waiting to open the Atmos Rewards account when we are ready to book a flight since there is a $50 discount for new CA residents).
It looks like there is a Trump Savings Account that I’ve heard about for babies born in 2025 that comes with a $1,000 seed balance, but I don’t think that is available yet.
No news yet on the free $1k yet. Need time to set them up. You will hear from someone at the govt at some point.
No reason to wait on the legacy airline frequent flyer accounts imho…ok, you got an excuse for the Atmos one.
Atmos account, still getting used to this…
You’re too nice to the private-equity-in-401ks crowd. As best as I can tell the motivation is exit liquidity for shady PE execs. The Ivy League is currently trying to reduce its PE exposure and that should tell you something. (Yes I know there are some funding issues for colleges but there are issues with the PE investments themselves too.)
Regarding the “our shared reality will self-destruct” article: dude, senior citizens are the canary in the coal mine. They are defenseless against this stuff. My mother-in-law (age 80) is easily taken in by AI-generated fake pics, videos, etc on social media. Meanwhile my 87-year old father has been captured by the YouTube algorithm and consumes whatever it tells him to. It’s currently pushing both 4chan crap as well as Ukrainian war propaganda (he thinks Ukraine is about to win.) I don’t know how this gets fixed but humanity is not wired to deal with this.
Not disagreeing much on your PE take.
So you are saying that the article should have been titled “Our shared reality is self-destructing”. I think we have a huge problem in our hands and I am not sure how we get out of this meme world.
A client asked me just last year what I fear the most. I said “civil war”. This Kirk assassination is not helping. At all. So glad we have a President to calm us all down…sad lol.
If you think things are bad now, wait until we get the next round of crippling inflation. Things will be zesty!
Nice pictures. Good that you’re enjoying yourself. My wife and I are looking forward to our first visit to Naxos in a couple of weeks so I’m trying to channel the vibes from your pictures.
Are Chase Ink cards still super hard to get approved for if you have a few open? IIRC Chase tightened down approvals big time some months ago and I don’t know if they’ve eased up or not.
Kefalonia has great beaches. And mountain/hiking and caves. And…is very large and not easy to drive. At all. Thank God son drove everywhere. And thank God for automatic and not having a stick shift! I am sure Naxos will be much easier to get around.
I don’t know about how Chase has scaled back approvals. I just dont have the time to look into it. I am sure the reddit/churning folks are on it. And FT if you still go there. Please let us know if you find out.
90k for the 2 annual fee cards are a no brainer to take a shot if you have the bandwidth and not recently gone wild with them when Chase was giving them out like candy.
Back home. In the Thessaloniki Hyatt that is. All family members are in the air right now. Heading back to Larissa tomorrow for a stretch of 10 days or so. I am seeing absolutely nothing in award flights returning to DTW in PointsYeah, wtf is happening?
Been an amazing trip. 7 second cousins reconnected after 10 years in the beautiful wedding of the oldest one. In Kefalonia island. And they got along so amazing which is kind of surreal. And my girls are finishing the trip aboard Austrian Airlines Business Class flying back to the US.
Thanks to V for the coffees. And to the reader who got a SW card, enjoy the 100k points. And to the one reader who unsubscribed from my email blog list, well, your loss I guess, go read The Points Guy or the clickbaiting national enquirer View From That Suite.
Not sure about a post this Friday….we will see. I will need to reach way deeeeep to pull it out.
It is Amex Platinum Card refresh day everybody…in case you missed it LOL.
I thought the United Gateway card lost the expanded award availability without a $10k spend. I also thought you used to have to downgrade to get it. If you opened it directly you didn’t get the availability.
https://frequentmiler.com/new-chase-united-gateway-card-offer-card-changes/
You are correct on both counts. Did the $10k on the Gateway card already, the spend based promos on it keep coming.