We bring you details on the Southwest companion pass, bank bonuses, TikTok financial advice, the Biden era begins, travel to Utah and Budapest, the best Covid-19 coverage, a few remaining Trump beatings, some timely information about what is happening in the financial markets, how a Rwandan butcher was finally caught, some awesome links from Inauguration Day and a lot more for you to enjoy over the weekend!
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BLOG HOUSEKEEPING:
This goes out to subscribers via email the day it is posted at 8 am. After that I may add something new in the body of the post and I indicate it like this: Update.
If you are not into the frequent flyer miles/points game please feel free to skip the MILES & POINTS and most of the BLOG BUZZ section.
Stay positive, test negative!
TOP PICKS
Top picks are not excerpted at all. I recommend you find time to read every word!
Just click it!
You may have noticed that there are some crazy things happening in the investing world these days. Like, amateurs who have no idea what they are doing thinking they are geniuses. And they sell “advice” in TikTok of all places. Here was Chad: “I see a stock going up and I buy it. And I just watch it until it stops going up, and then I sell it. And I do that over and over, and it pays for our whole lifestyle…up is good. down is bad. I just ride the upward trends and when they start going down jump off lol..” I mean, I had mixed feelings ranging from rage to just feeling sorry about them and more importantly everyone looking at this shit. Be careful out there!
I had never heard of Amanda Gorman. I don’t send many things to my kids. This was one I sent them, so inspiring!
Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman delivers a poem at Joe Biden’s inauguration
Great resource on the vaccines, I have bookmarked it.
State-by-state data on COVID-19 vaccinations in the United States
I predict, with Trump gone, this blog will feature a lot less material about him. But please allow me a few more mentions because it is important for history that we do not repeat the same mistake. I love the tone of the new administration already, so welcome! The nastiness is gone, good riddance!
The Complete List of Trump’s Twitter Insults (2015-2021)
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 75k Chase Ink Cash, 75k Chase Ink Unlimited, 100k Chase Ink Business Preferred, 60k Chase Sapphire Preferred, 80k for all three personal Southwest cards, 60k Citi Premier, 65k AA CitiBusiness Platinum Select, 50k AA Citi Platinum Select, 20k Chase Freedom Flex & Chase Freedom Unlimited, 75k AMEX Platinum, 85k AMEX Business Platinum, 50k Chase World of Hyatt, 150k AMEX Hilton Aspire, 130k AMEX Hilton Business & Hilton Surpass, $250 AMEX Blue Cash Preferred, $300 AMEX Blue Cash Everyday, 140k Chase IHG Rewards Club Premier, and many more! Please use my Affiliate links.
If you do not see a credit card with my affiliate links, perhaps I could refer you? Contact me please, thank you!
My REFERRAL links for the 100k Chase Ink Business Preferred, 75k Chase Ink Cash and 75k Chase Ink Business Unlimited.
Newbies: Southwest is a really well run airline. It has been consistently profitable and its success is derived by how well managed it is. And how good they treat their employees, imagine that! Yes, the airline has a weird way it makes its passengers board their planes and there are no assigned seats, you just board based on the number on your boarding pass and grab the best seat you can find that is open. I like flying Southwest Airlines like most passengers do. We can always cancel without paying a fee, a super friendly consumer policy the airline always had. And of course there was never a fee for a bag too. So, if you are going to fly at some point, if you are a responsible individual with good money habits and love deals, Chase is still offering three personal Southwest cards with 80,000 point signup bonuses and a business card with 100,000 points! And you could even score a Companion Pass easier this year: Southwest Offering Companion Pass with Lower 100,000 Point Requirement This Year. The famous Companion Pass allowing you to bring along another passenger for free can now be had for just 100,000 points in 2021. It is amazing this Southwest deal has lasted for so many years! If you decide any of these cards are for you, they are available with my links above or you can use my REFERRAL links as well, thank you. Whoever gets a credit card in my site makes a promise to ALWAYS pay the FULL balance every month ok? Yeah, you do not have to fly anytime soon you know and you can still earn enough points for several future flights for free, what are you afraid of? 🙂
Bank account bonuses have always been around. Along with investment account bonuses. Back in the E*Trade baby ad days I managed to churn repeatedly bonuses with this company that they banned me lol, oh how I miss those days. In recent years I hardly bother with these bonuses because they take lots of mental real estate to properly execute. There are certain requirements to fund them, keep the funds locked in for a certain period and giving up the tiny interest you can earn these days, make sure you receive the bonus and then eventually move the money/close the account. In the meantime, you will likely receive a 1099 tax form making the bonus taxable and on the way out you may get hit with an account closing/transfer fee. All along this process you may encounter a customer service issue and/or the company refusing to honor your bonus because you did something wrong, so good luck! I have found HSBC and Citibank to be notorious for making your life miserable, beware! I do not care how high the bonus is, I avoid them like the plague for banking bonuses. Having said that, if you can keep meticulous records this can be profitable, for example: Bank Account Bonus Goals for 2021. For a resource for this type of bonuses, check here: Best Bank Account Bonuses for January 2021.
United has this ongoing Mile Play promotion that I have never been eligible for. Maybe because I do not remember the last time I had to pay for a United ticket lol. It appears to be geared towards United MileagePlus members who actually have flown United recently. If you want to waste your time to see if you have been targeted, click HERE.
Spirit Airlines is out with a new frequent flyer program, it is too going revenue-based. Like anyone cares! I guess the program gets to the main leagues now that it does not punish members expiring their miles after just three months (think about how ridiculous was that!). The miles will now expire after 12 months without activity, you can pool family members and, please sit down, you can achieve Silver and Gold elite status, woohoo! Some bloggers known for their expertise ( selling travel rewards credit cards) were way too cheerful about the revised program and it leads me to believe there may be Bank of America affiliate links coming soon so they were preparing the ground to sell them? Do NOT buy, the credit cards and flying this airline sucks. Actually, I flew Spirit once (for free) and it was fine.
TRAVEL
This blog started about my miles and points hobby addiction to do what it has really been about: Travel! We will get back to it soon. Until then, we will stick to virtual travel and click the awesome travel links I bring you ok? 15 Fantastic and Fun Day Trips from Salt Lake City.
You may have noticed there is a new team in Washington DC. All travelers flying to the US must provide a negative Covid test and self quarantine. A friend of mine recently visited Thailand and was sending us messages from his VERY strict hotel “prison”…so, until we do something similar I doubt this will have any teeth here! But the point is to reduce travel and add yet another weapon to fight the pandemic. It will take a village…of weapons to win this war! But when I see friends on Facebook posting their amazing travel photos I keep shaking my head…
I always wanted to do this and now we may have a shot at it, post pandemic that is (unless you live nearby or within a drive you are willing to take): One of the World’s Most Exclusive Hikes Just Got Easier to Visit.
Amazing picture of the Hungarian parliament in Budapest.
What a cliff in the Pennine Alps of Switzerland!
Amazing growth in Delhi, wow! The Most Populous Cities in the World.
COVID-19
Wow, we now have a National Plan to fight Covid-19. Imagine that, a year later! Since you won’t read 200 198 pages, here is a summary: Biden unveils Covid-19 plan based on ‘science not politics’ as he signs new initiatives.
Really well made video: Vaccines 101: How vaccines work.
I have been saying for a long time that science will save us. This virus will likely still surprise us but we are making progress and I was very excited after I read this: The Second-Generation COVID Vaccines Are Coming. After Pfizer and Moderna, a slew of other candidates could fill gaps in efficacy, production, or distribution.
With new strains coming up so often lately, the virus is raging everywhere. Even in Japan! Hospitals in Japan close to collapse as serious Covid cases soar.
No chance of that happening in Vietnam, seeing pics of a friend living there and I wish I was there too, everything looks so normal! Oh, still 35 deaths IN TOTAL: Asia’s COVID recovery: Vietnam’s breakout moment. Apparently, it “magically” disappeared only in Vietnam which even shares a border with China!
PERSONAL FINANCE
You know I love reading the memos of Howard Marks. Not that I always agree with him, I certainly don’t. So, always seek out views different than yours. Except Fox News, Newsmax and OANN woohoo! Ok, seriously, this is a wonderful read about the current investing environment. And trying to differentiate between the growth vs value styles. Warning: It is long and the topic is dry but Howard has this gift of writing so clearly I wish I had it here so I can be a legend like him. Something of Value. Key is to remain flexible, the investing world is unknown and changes constantly! Stick to your plan, you have one right?
This follows the theme I started in the TOP PICKS above that this is very dangerous! Terrible financial advice is going viral on TikTok. Be careful out there!
There have been some trends in investing that stuck for many many years. And then BOOM, they reversed! This gives a great summary of what happened: When Secular Trends Reverse.
When secular trends reverse, no bell is rung, and no one can believe that a shift has actually occurred.
He is not wrong: Baupost’s Seth Klarman compares investors to ‘frogs in boiling water’. But…remain flexible 😉
I thought the ex-wife of Bezos will easily be #1 but she is #3, wow! The 50 Richest Women in the World in 2021.
CURRENT EVENTS/POLITICS
I promise that the Trump beatings will go way down soon! But as we are all still traumatized by his era, please allow me to continue them here for a little longer, thanks! But we start out with something way more positive and hopeful for our future: The Best Photos From The Inauguration Of Joe Biden And Kamala Harris.
But before I get attacked for being one sided, for the record, I despise how CNN suddenly made the Covid-19 death count disappear from the screen when Biden became President, some Antifa type assholes burned a bunch of stuff again in Portland, and Biden is spotted without a mask in federal property after issuing a mask mandate, come on man! Take advantage of the short honeymoon you have, don’t give them any reasons to blow it so fast. I remember how four years ago I wished Trump all the best here…Obviously, I was so wrong!
Please allow me: The 15 most notable lies of Donald Trump’s presidency. History will remember.
All the insurrectionists filmed themselves, I mean, how can you not lol at them? What Parler Saw During the Attack on the Capitol. And all the videos have been saved for authorities, lock them up!
Wow: “A River of Lies: 23 Women on Four Years of Covering Trump. Devastating…
Ok, I saved the best for last. This is the most vicious beating of Trump I have seen to date, I was a bit uncomfortable with it even though I totally despise the guy: The Last Day of Disco(rd). It starts out like this and gets even angrier!
This is the last day of Trump’s presidency. He leaves an unfathomable amount of devastation in his wake and may not face any consequences for all the wrong he has done. He will leave no legacy beyond the stench of rank incompetence. I am tired of reciting all his crimes, misdeeds, and failures. Trump was a cruel, petty tyrant of a president who surrounded himself with similarly terrible people, slobbering sycophants, and political operatives who knew they could advance their agendas so long as they told him what he wanted to hear.
Ok, last one I promise!
ODDZ & ENDZ
It took a long time for this butcher to be captured! The Epic Hunt for One of the World’s Most Wanted Men. He was one of Africa’s richest moguls and helped unleash the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Then Félicien Kabuga vanished and stayed hidden for more than two decades—until recently, when the United Nations’ war crimes detectives picked up his trail and began to close in. LOCKHIMUP!
Bet you have never seen a parrot singing Led Zeppelin!
Epic photography here: Winter Wander, a Celebration of Snowy Peaks.
BLOG BUZZ
We are now entering BLOG BUZZ, a section for advanced hobbyists and veterans of this fast imploding hobby and also a section where I go on and on about some stuff that happens in my life because it helps me feel better about myself.
I am definitely not going anywhere before I get vaccinated. And I don’t have lots of Alaska Airlines miles. If you do, this may interest you at some point I guess: Maximize Alaska Mileage Plan One Way Stopover Awards.
Some new data points how the Amex Pay Over Time feature may impact how many of its products you can have open: AmEx Slots.
Really nice tables for each airline using these: Things to Keep in Mind About Airline Travel Bank Credits.
Tomorrow I complete my 15th night “stay” in a local Hyatt Place and I expect to be Hyatt Globalist by the end of the month. Here comes another free Hyatt night. I then need to pace myself on the $15k spending on the World of Hyatt Visa card to make sure I cross it as late as possible before my card anniversary (in mid September) to ensure that Hyatt free night cert has a longer expiration as possible. I will look for status match possibilities soon after the Globalist status is reflected in my account. I still shake my head on the World of Hyatt elite names: Discoverist, Explorist and the stupidest of all…Globalist…which sounds like Deep State or something woohoo!
I watched the first press conference of the White House Press secretary and I was struck and so relieved that it was so completely normal. And I thought, how refreshing is that!
I am hopeful normalcy will return in some form by the Fall…I really have no idea when we will get the vaccine here in Michigan…Meanwhile, that strain from Britain is here at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from someone who traveled there. The thing is she tested negative two days before flying back, and even a few times AFTER that but on the 8th day she tested positive. And she infected seven others so far, probably more. And Michigan is supposed to open restaurant dining on February 1st smh! When will this nightmare end?
And I leave you with this…
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Thanks for the vaccine news! Lots of balls in the air.
George, DC Flyer is most likely an Antifa plant, if you know what I mean.
Thanks for continuing to blog!
Better chart https://travelisfree.com/finding-all-the-best-alaska-stopovers/
This is dated April 2019. The site has been purchased by the parent owner of The Points Guy. RIP TravelWasFree
Is Drew a Frequent Miler intern at this point?
What is going on with the TPG app?
Due to COVID it will take another year.
Guantanamo….just sayin.
I am wondering If being Vaccinated (showing your card) would that take care of needing a COVID Test entering or leaving Countries? Has there been any information on that exact topic? I have not been able to locate if there are articles.
Hawaii appears intent to start doing that. I am sure others will follow. The situation is…fluid.
Thank you….
Add Seychelles too
Glad you mentioned the 80,000 point offer with the Southwest card. I just received an email from Southwest for it, but the trouble is that Chase told me several years ago that they can’t extend anymore credit to me (I have $77,000 limit across 4 cards). Should I apply anyway so that they take from one to open the new one?
I keep a few and then…cycle through great offers as they come 🙂
Well, looks like it won’t be an instant approval. Maybe apply and then call the reconsideration line and plead stuff like:
“I really plan to get back to traveling after the pandemic and plan to make Southwest my primary carrier. I really want to have the card, what can I do to make it happen? If you would like to transfer some credit from another one of my cards please do so.”
But be ready to sacrifice one if the agent asks so have that one picked just in case.
1-888-270-2127
One more thing, just make sure you take credit line from a personal card to a personal Southwest card. You can not transfer credit lines personal from/to business cards!
I would not have posted but having three cards at 80k and one for 100k is huge. Especially when you consider 100k gives Companion Pass…..Now if only that damn virus went away!
Amazing in depth piece written over at Renes Points concerning new IHG card. Must reading for every Mile and Point enthusiast!
I see that blog in Milesfeed and PointsBuzz and my head starts shaking…if I clicked on it it will explode. I have not clicked on that blog in many years. Its place in the Blogs to Ignore list is safe.
Thanks Shatner those IHG tips and hacks revealed over at Renes Points are awesome. It’s all good man!!!
please click on the aforementioned IHG post by Renes Points, you will die laughing
yes, die laughing!
Thanks so much for the good advice. I can’t imagine giving up one of my cards: Freedom, Freedom Unlimited, Sapphire Reserve, and the United Club card (so much for telling Chase that Southwest will be my primary carrier). If push comes to shove, I’ll put off getting the Southwest til next year when I cancel the Reserve because of the higher annual fee.
I know many have more than four cards, Chase is all about the credit limit they allow cardholders! 80k Southwest points is excellent. You never know but I don’t see how they can offer such high bonuses again next year, assuming plane capacity goes higher as everyone expects. Worth taking a shot at it and lay it all on the line…the reconsideration line that is 🙂
Ok, maybe you skip the bit about Southwest becoming primary carrier.
My 2cents.
I think I am going to go for it for my daughter…just turning 6 months after 18, maybe it is time. No worries about the min spend, dad will come through again 🙂
Rest in peace Larry King
Would like to see all his 10 Ex-Wives show up at the Memorial Sevices at the same time. It would be like going to a Gold Digger Convention.
RIP Larry, you are gone but, but you and your alimony payments are not forgotten.
Peace, Your Pal Huell
Hyatt stays post fast!
Officially a Globalist now, show me some respect. Lol
Congrats
for the moment you reduce your posts about Trump. However, I agree watched the press conference and sounds and loos more calm. Fake news media (CNN/BBC/MSNBC) stopped attacking the government every single moment and that should allow to function properly and focus better.
A few words that you won’t hear from the idiots in media, 2/3 of world vaccine was/is distributed in the US, thanks to the previous government. Right now we are vaccinating ~1.5M people per day (last 3 days average) and should see the results of it in March. California, the blue blue state is worst in % distribution which is not surprising.
Another good point, in the last 4 years NPR, CNN and NYTimes sounded like a hard German porn, the amount of lies and fakes news was over the roof. These idiots figured out no ignore the Middle East Peace peace process. I am happy they are back to be a soft signing boys/girls band from the local farmers market. Its just helpful when they stop provoking people we may have some nation unity. I have no hopes they will banned from Twitter, Facebook or Youtube.
and the last comment 🙂 wanted to share this awesome link!
https://www.wsj.com/articles/15-personal-finance-lessons-we-can-all-learn-from-the-year-of-covid-19-11611493201
You know, I contributed to this article. And it appears mine did not make the list. Because I did not spend much time on it and sent it in kind of late. Because I am busy here blogging for peanuts.
For the record.
I need to reset my priorities smh…
And then I get vitriolic attacks like that DC Flyer dude…Ok, gotta go, got to watch the KC Bills game 4th quarter
UK is doing 500k per day on a fraction of the US population …..
Good for UK! 66M/UK vs 323M/Us and 0.5M/day vs 1.5M/day. Numbers obviously better there. However, it depends on a size of a state. Alaska for example already has 12% vaccine coverage.
The UK has access to more vaccines. And the UK approved them very, very quickly. AZ’s trial wasn’t up to the FDA’s standard. what will you go for? Moderna/Pfizer’s vaccine with 95% efficacy or AZ/Oxford’s 50-75% efficacy. Sad to read that AZ won’t live up to their delivery promises. The EU is far behind the curve.
J&J’s vaccine results will be presented this week.
The key with the Astra vaccine is that not a single person who took it has ended up in hospital. You need to look beyond the 50-75% number which is your chance of it not developing at all.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Fake news media (CNN/BBC/MSNBC) stopped attacking the government every single moment.
Of course, there is a new team in town! And they have access to Twitter and not even ONE deranged one.
Please read the Fauci interview tomorrow here.
>>>>>>>>>Right now we are vaccinating ~1.5M people per day (last 3 days average)..
Please, stop moving the goal posts. I even believed that Army dude that he was ready to roll….20 Million vaccinated by end of December. SAD lol.
>>>>>>>>>NPR, CNN and NYTimes sounded like a hard German porn, the amount of lies and fakes news was over the roof
So, let me ask you, how do these outlets compare to Fox/NewsMax/OANN? It is a serious question!
Latest vaccination rates:
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-02-24..latest&country=European%20Union~USA®ion=World&vaccinationsMetric=true&interval=smoothed&hideControls=true&smoothing=7&pickerMetric=total_cases&pickerSort=desc
That 1.5 M vaccination number is way wrong.
Sorry the link broke
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
7 day rolling average in the US as of January 23 is 1.06 Million. 1.5M came from…Fox News? 🙂
1.06M _7_ days rate
1.37M _3_ days rate (as I mentioned in my post)
7 days rate was affected by … weekend days 🙂
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution
As stated 20M _distributed_ vaccines. The government promised to supply (aka distribute) these to states. And they were late … by … 2.5M, in other words 17.5M vaccines were distributed on Dec 31. Even fake news had to report that.
Now its up to states to administer these vaccines.
Blue state are notoriously bad in such a task, especially California – its a shit show across the board. However, I have some hopes that this process will be accelerated over the next few weeks and we will have a few more people saved.
@Pav, maybe you’ve spent too much time reading fake news:
“Leaders of Operation Warp Speed have repeatedly said they are on track to vaccinate 20 million people in December”
https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/07/pledge-to-vaccinate-20-million-against-covid19-in-december-seems-unrealistic/
And
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/13/trump-covid-vaccine-december-436481
And this is of course supported by “Operation Warp Speed’s General Perna Apologizes For Covid-19 Vaccine Delivery Shortfalls”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2020/12/20/operation-warp-speeds-general-perna-apologizes-for-covid-19-vaccine-delivery-shortfalls/?sh=527788d954e3
The current problem is not enough arms, it’s limited vaccine supplies at the state level.
https://nypost.com/2021/01/24/nyc-set-to-get-paltry-amount-of-covid-19-doses-this-week/
I do agree that Biden’s goal of 100M vaccinated in 100 days is setting the bar low.
It was caught in the “approval pending” bin, sorry! I guess too many non fake news media links 🙂
3 days statistic tracks only available data. Obviously, there are additional doses administered but bot reported: government, military, etc.
Fake news media did not want to report this success just because of a blind hate, and I hope it will change and we will have more positive news very soon. It will help to many people since some of “us” consume only garbage from NYTimes / CNN / MSNBC etc.
Are you locked out of your Gab account?
Pav:
You avoided answering this:
“So, let me ask you, how do these outlets compare to Fox/NewsMax/OANN? It is a serious question!”
Actually, you didn’t:
“…only garbage from NYTimes / CNN / MSNBC etc.”
and this is THE problem we have in the country that led to January 6, the day that will live in infamy. But maybe you don’t agree with this either…
Read my Monday post, lots from the “fake” news media. Feel free to forward me worthy material from the “real” news media my readers would want to get educated on 🙂
Have a great week!
FoxNews is beyond horrible 🙂
will check about NewsMax/OANN