Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as raising schizophrenic kids, the Startup graveyard, AI & human worlds collide, Bilt keeps imploding, stock market myths, bitcoin price still too high and the Chinese are not messing around with it and fraudsters, Spain Prime Minister comes out supporting immigration, online betting scourge, the fall of the House of Assad, visiting Nauru is an adventure, 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. And much more. Enjoy the weekend.
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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.
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BLOG HOUSEKEEPING
This is truly a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts. Crazy busy with tax season, so the post today will be way less on my commentary.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The boomers are all about money. Gen X is like, ‘is it all about money’? Millennials are like, ‘where is the money’? And Gen Z is like, ‘what is money’?” – Amy Poehler
MUST READ GEMS
Probably one of the saddest and most depressing reads in a long time. How three mothers have been dealing raising their mentally ill sons. I can not imagine, please be kind.
Three mothers, one struggle: saving their children with schizophrenia
PERSONAL FINANCE
The Beautiful Chart That Busts 3 Stock Market Myths.
Some interesting excerpts:
…the current expansion doesn’t look unusually long or strong. As of December 2025, it was in its 25th month, which is less than half the norm. Moreover, the market’s 21.4% per year return over that 25-month span was in line with what we’ve seen historically.
US stocks had notched a 4.5% annual inflation-adjusted return over the 10 years ended Oct. 31, 2007. Yet less than a year later, investors were looking at a lost decade amid the damage that the global financial crisis had wrought.
Consider that over the past century the market has been in a bear market 142 months. It’s spent another 349 months working its way back to the previous high. So if you think about it, roughly 40% of market history has been spent falling from, or climbing back to, previous highs (around 31% if you exclude the Depression).
The High Price You Pay to Get on Board Hot Companies Before They Go Public. Stay away, fees will eat you alive, returns are not as high as advertised and holding this crap will make your life miserable, including higher fees from your accountants and lawyer(s).
For individual investors, the promise of this market is great. So far, the perils are even greater.
CRYPTO/TECH/SCAMS
I agree with this. Then again, I have been anti crypto for the duration lol: Bitcoin is still about $70,000 too high.
This week has shown us that the supply of “greater fools” that bitcoin relies on is drying up. The fairy tales that have been keeping crypto afloat are turning out to be just that. People are beginning to wake up to the fact that there is no floor in the value of something based on nothing more than thin air. Ask yourself: is this thing still going to be going in 100 years’ time? And remember that “what really matters isn’t how you fall, it’s how you land”.
Not going to find me posting positive things about the Chinese government. But I think they are right doing this, while we go the opposite direction here: China expands crypto crackdown to stablecoins, asset tokenization. And all of humanity should shed no tears for what happened to these scammers: China executed a series of Myanmar crime bosses. The condemned headed family syndicates that trapped Chinese abroad in massive scam centres.
Very cool site: Loot Drop -The Startup Graveyard.
AI
Deep dive: When AI & Human Worlds Collide. Can we imagine a future where synthetic AI worlds shape ours?
For us not well versed in this AI stuff, this is a good explanation of all these relevant terms:
To understand world models, it helps to distinguish between two related concepts: AI models and AI agents. AI models are machine learning algorithms that learn statistical patterns from training data, enabling them to make predictions or generate outputs. Generative AI models are AI models capable of generating new content, which is then integrated into systems that users can interact with, from chatbots like ChatGPT to video generators like Veo. AI agents, by contrast, are systems that use such models to act autonomously in different environments. Coding agents, for example, can perform programming tasks while using digital tools. The abundance of digital data makes training such agents feasible for digital tasks, but enabling them to act in the physical world remains a harder challenge.
Last week we talked about how Moltbook raged across the tech world. Well, Moltbook was peak AI theater apparently. The viral social network for bots reveals more about our own current mania for AI as it does about the future of agents.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Finally, someone steps up to call out the obvious: I’m the Prime Minister of Spain. This Is Why the West Needs Migrants. And to bring it home to the US, this:
I am not sure which I despise more, crypto or all gambling. Which is now everywhere and on our phones, it is sickening: The Scourge of Online Sports Betting. And it is ruining many people, especially the young.
Amazing this loser lasted this long wow: The Fall of the House of Assad. A detached ruler, obsessed with sex and video games, refused every lifeline he was offered.
Amazing shots: What the Universe looks like: from nearby to far away. Outer space begins just over 100 kilometers up, but what we can see extends for billions of light-years. Here’s what all of it looks like.
TRAVEL
When you try to get to Nauru and you fail and you try again and at last: Fourth Time Is The Charm, My Journey To Nauru. I think it is a fair bet we will likely never have a Hyatt built here lol.
Obligatory Thailand link: Retiring in Thailand: What $1,600, $4,000, and $10K REALLY Get You. If you were thinking to retire in the kingdom…
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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.
Register for the latest Marriott Bonvoy promotion HERE.
This was an educational post about the difference in the two bank hotel programs: The Edit vs Amex: My experience at Pendry Chicago (and a point mystery). By the way, I had never heard of the Pendry hotel. Anyway, to me, having to do 2 nights for the Edit (probably one of the worst brand names ever?) makes it a no go. Instead, the AMEX Fine Hotels & Resorts one night requirement make it so much more bang, looking at you Chase, get it together come on!
I am posting pictures and videos on Instagram and YouTube about our recent stay at the Conrad Koh Samui, Thailand. And this review is pretty accurate in my humble opinion, peaceful and private indeed.
Looking forward to eating here next time we pass through NYC LaGuardia airport: Capital One Is Opening a New Chef-curated Lounge at LaGuardia Airport—and It’s Designed by José Andrés. I was not that impressed by my visits at the other Capital One Landing lounge at DCA airport, hope this one is better. It is not easy keeping up the food quality when these lounges are overrun by huge crowds.
The saga with the NYC Waldorf Astoria continues. Remember when here years ago we were all shaking our heads with that lunatic fraudster in charge of the Anbang Group who even tried to buy Starwood. Instead blew billions buying this property and then the Chinese government took over the company. Years later after many billions it will most likely lose billions, what morons. Or maybe we should wait to see the sales price before I look like a fool, it has happened before: Chinese Government Puts Waldorf Astoria New York On The Market.
TRAVEL REWARDS CREDIT CARDS
For ANY questions on cards, contact me anytime at travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
Southwest is probably the one airline that changes its credit card offers more often than any other airline. And it is not even close. New offers offering Companion Pass and some points as well right off the bat:
– Plus: 20,000 points plus a Companion Pass through February 2027
– Premier: 30,000 points plus a Companion Pass through February 2027
– Priority: 40,000 points plus a Companion Pass through February 2027
Please let me know if some of these offers are no longer valid.
- United Explorer: Earn 70,000 United MileagePlus bonus miles after spending $3,000 on qualifying purchases in the first three months of opening an account, plus $0 annual fee for the first year.
- United Quest: Earn 80,000 United MileagePlus bonus miles and 3,000 PQP after spending $4,000 on qualifying purchases in the first three months of opening an account.
- United Business: Earn 100,000 United MileagePlus bonus miles and 2,000 PQP after spending $5,000 on qualifying purchases in the first three months of opening an account.
- United Club Business: Earn 100,000 United MileagePlus bonus miles and 2,000 PQP after spending $5,000 on qualifying purchases in the first three months of opening an account.
175,000 IHG Rewards Premier: $99 Annual Fee, minimum spend $5k in three months.
120,000 IHG Rewards Traveler: No Annual Fee, 90,000 for $2k spend in three months and another 30,000 points for a total of $10k spend in six months.NEW
75,000 Capital One Venture PLUS $250 Travel Credit: $95 Annual Fee, $4k spend in three months. That’s at least $1,000. I got the card last year and now it is time to cancel it 11 months out. And yes I am keeping the Venture X. I never understood why people can’t do this extraction from the banks, it is not really that hard!
And we also have new Increased American Express Delta Offers, Up To 125,000 Miles (Personal & Business Gold, Platinum, Reserve).
New interesting offer for the personal Hyatt Visa offering 5 Free Night Certificates (Category 1-4) after a total $15,000 in the first six months (three of the five FNCs after $5k spend in first three months). I prefer World of Hyatt points offers but this could be relevant for some of you. Why? Because you can get the following night credits: 5 for having the card, 6 for spending $15k (card earns 2 night credits every $5k) and another FNC after hitting $15k. With me so far? You now have 11. If you do burn all your now 6 FNCs you are at 17! Just three away from hitting the first 20k Milestone Reward and 13 away from the next more valuable 30 Night Milestone Reward and Explorist status (where another FNC awaits you, among other goodies).
125k CHASE Sapphire Reserve/150k CHASE Sapphire Reserve for Business
We now have the refreshed AMERICAN EXPRESS Platinum & Business Platinum Cards ($895 Fee, 175k/200k Bonus, Many New Credits).
Citi now offers the 100k CITI Strata Elite card after $6,000 minimum spend.
Due to credit card vendor restrictions, the only affiliate links I can place in the body of my posts are for Capital One cards. For the rest, you know what to do. You can always email me at travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com with ANY questions.
Please help the small independent blogs like mine continue to exist by supporting them with your CREDIT CARD clicks, thank you!
BONUS OFFERS NOTIFICATIONS
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MY ACTION AND BLOG BUZZING
This hobby always changes. And it is part of its appeal that has held us mesmerized for such a long time. But I believe we have entered a phase that just makes it really unworkable. Mostly because our favorite bank Chase has instituted a hard stop to the never ending stream of big credit card signup bonuses. And the other huge development is the increasingly horrendous state of finding business class award availability. Even changing the way I operate by waiting at the last minute to book trips it is now an exercise in futility. And leave alone the mental bandwidth expended by checking and checking. My wife got tired of me saying “nothing yet, still checking” and just booked herself an economy ticket flying Turkish Airlines to Kuala Lumpur with only one stop in Istanbul round trip for almost $1,500. She just could not wait any more she said. I don’t blame her. Her friend just flew that route and said it is just fine. We have flown it in business class in the past. The few award seats I found were just horrendously expensive (no United I am not burning 250k to 650k! miles for one way in business class, WTF!) or with punishingly long layovers with two or more stops. And this is where we are…
Which has led to a big drop in credit cards sales and blog revenues. This is why content creators are diversifying all over the place out there. Ads, sponsorships, Patreon, memberships, merchandise, books, Discord communities, doing live streams for super $ chats. We all despise YouTubers who in the middle of the video interrupt themselves to sell us whatever shit a sponsor told them to sell. This has become common actually these days, I can’t wait to skip ahead. All kinds of shit you would not even dare suggest to any loved one. This is all in direct response to lower commissions from credit card sales. Just last week I watched how a YouTuber went on about something and then, boom, at the very end he forced himself to get excited (pun intended) selling to us a new treatment for erectile dysfunction, come on! I would rather stab myself than to go there. Then again, this has been my true hobby, including blogging. Maybe one day I will get paid here for my time a little. But at least I would like to cover my low blog costs and cover our bank annual fees. Anyway, I am still here blogging away. Like I told my clients recently, I won’t be doing this forever.
I didn’t think I could despise Bilt more. But this company never stops reaching lower, amazing:
BILT Issues – Cards Not Working, Promotions Not Working & More
Bilt cards being frozen, 5x not being honored. Bilt’s response: Pound sand, it’s TPG’s fault
Bilt mortgage payments are running into snags…even with its own partner
If you ruin your credit by missing your mortgage or rent payment due to all the issues outlined, you have no one to blame but yourself. And Bilt blaming TPG, the two most marketing focused entities in this space is insulting. But make no mistake, Bilt still wines and dines all these bloggers and YouTubers and undoubtedly is taking notes who is toeing the line. Maybe there was a company wide email to ban that Stephen dude at the Frequent Miler staff from all marketing events. Now if only FM would stop accepting Bilt advertisements in its podcast. If Bilt ever approached me to place an ad I will tell them to go phuk themselves.
My last week’s YouTube posts:
Hyatt Regency Koh Samui walkthrough of the property
Short of Tempo Beach Club & Resort in Koh Samui
And three short videos with sunsets from our glorious private villa at the Conrad Koh Samui:
And over at Instagram:
From checking in to the Conrad Koh Samui magnificent villa
Conrad Koh Samui in our own private swimming pool
Magical sunset shots from our villa at the Conrad Koh Samui
Looking back at the many concerts I attended, I regret I never got a chance to see Sonic Youth live, my bad: Kool Thing – Sonic Youth
Happy Chinese New Year to all by the way.
Follow on Instagram and YouTube if you want to see more from the recent Thailand/Malaysia trip, they are coming…eventually.
Check out my page listing my affiliate links HERE including Rakuten and Top Cash Back and more.
At this rate, the TBB IPO sadly has been postponed indefinitely, sad.
December:
Credit card sales: 8 Buy me a Coffee sales: 19
January:
Credit card sales: 0 Buy me a Coffee sales: 20
February to date:
Credit card sales: 1 Buy me a Coffee: 0
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS:
150k CHASE Sapphire Reserve Business, 125k CHASE Sapphire Reserve, 100k CITI Strata Elite, 75k AND $250 Travel Credit CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards, 100k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, 175k AMEX Platinum, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 100k CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash, 200k AMEX Business Platinum, 200k CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash Plus, 75k CHASE Sapphire Preferred, 30k CHASE United Gateway, 100k AMEX Gold, 15k AMEX Blue Business Plus and many more!
As of today, I have burned 47,515 miles/points year to date (after burning 1,893,248 miles/points in 2025 and 2,027,816 in 2024) and have 4,330,130 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.
First! Gold for the glory of an early wake-up to go get an echocardiogram! If that’s how you spell it. Thanks for a lot of good links and articles. I’ll be reading these over the next couple days! Thanks for keeping this going, George. I do look forward to each new posting! Plus today is my first go at a new brand of Decaf coffee from Goya. Much lower price than my old pal from Cafe Bustelo. Had to buy a case of 12, and with some trepidation, but turns out to be as advertised, nice and smooth and tasty!
All good for the day! Have a wonderful day yourself!
That schizophrenia article is sad… my heart goes out to those parents and all the others. I don’t know if you remember that murder on the train in Charlotte last year that became a big political football but the murderer had schizophrenia. His mother had tried to have him involuntarily committed but she was denied. He became a threat to her so she kicked him out. So he would get arrested, released, arrested, released, until he finally killed someone.
Good afternoon! Thanks for holding on and for the wonderful links.
I’ll be reading them over the weekend.
Hey Buzz,
Thanks as always for more great links. Trying to put off the schizophrenia article for a few days,
just trying to decompress this week in Puerto Vallarta. The annual trip to see the whales, however the whales are on vacation as well. Apparently the water is too warm in the bay, and they are making very few appearances this week. Good thing our fearless leader took care of climate change.
I have to agree, the game has changed immensely. Seems like the hotels and airlines have hopped on the grifter train as well. I’m very thankful for the cash back cards and hope they stick around awhile longer.
Thank you for the heads up regarding Conrad Koh Samui. Looks impressive. And sincerely thank you for all the great posts over the years. The impact on our travel the last decade has transformed our way of life.
Enjoy your weekend and best to the family.
“Just last week I watched how a YouTuber went on about something and then, boom, at the very end he forced himself to get excited (pun intended) selling to us a new treatment for erectile dysfunction, come on! I would rather stab myself than to go there.” Thanks for saying this.
That was shocking to me as well and should have been so embarrassing for the creator.
@ Carl: Hope your diagram thingie (don’t know how to spell it either!) went well. Goya coffee? Is it only decaf? If it is only decaf, is it coffee? 🙂 May check it out, love exploring new coffee brands.
@NickPFD: “That schizophrenia article is sad… my heart goes out to those parents and all the others.” Yeah, say that 100 times, I still think about that and feeling the pain. The country needs a better way to deal with this issue. Can’t wait until Trump can fix this too in less than 24 hours lol.
@DML: Thanks for breaking the Coffee dry streak on the 13th of the month, much appreciated. I almost did not post yesterday.
@David: Yeah, the game has changed. I am trying not to retire because I will miss all the opportunities for more cards and higher spend, you know, the addiction is real lol. But we all must agree that this hobby has been a true blessing and should be grateful for it. Enjoy Puerto Vallarta, sounds nice. We are warming up here in Michigan too..with temps in the 40s and maybe pass 50 F next week, it’s a heatwave.
@harv: I really liked that guy and boom, just like that, lost respect for him. Anyway, I do understand the pressure all content creators are on these days with much lower cc revenues across the board and they all need to scramble. As doing this takes time! I am in the fortunate position not needing to eat doing this. As long as I can recover the blog costs (which are low) and deduct my cc annual fees and even some travel expenses I am good. I am fortunate and this blogging thing keeps my mind sharp as well and fends off dementia and stuff like that. I don’t have time to look for sponsors by the way and sure as hell I will be blocking any emails for ED pumpers! And thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.
The Goya brand coffee is ok. I usually make my espresso half caf and half decaf. Also usually just one 5 oz cup in the morning. Switched to half caf & half decaf after I had a TIA a few years ago and a doctor said to cut back on coffee. I told her I only have one cup in the morning and she said ok, so put decaf in, so that is what I do. I had been buying Cafe Bustelo decaf for a long time but it suddenly went up in price like $4+ a can! So decided to try Goya out as it was much cheaper. Kind of a gamble because I had to order a q12 can case of it! But it had good reviews and now I have tried it and it meets approval so all is good and I sure do not need to buy any more for a while!
The echo-cardiogram was ok and the cardiologist will review the pics. Next week I get a small battery powered monitor that will be glued to my chest for 2 weeks and it will record everything. Then it gets sent in for review.
After that, I will likely get another Ablation treatment on the nerves around my heart. Doesn’t hurt and should help regulate my heartbeat better. What fun it is getting old! But once that is done I think it will be time for some travel, hopefully!
Suicide article was heartbreaking. But a good read.
That morning star article was great. Thanks for sharing!
@ Carl: “glued to my chest for 2 weeks”…Wow, hope it all goes well. I may check out Goya one of these days.
@ HoKo: Great, thanks for letting me know. Gives me a reason to keep blogging…