We bring you the news of Southwest overbooking no more, the top travel rewards credit cards, visit strange bars and the Lofoten islands in Norway, what is happening when you apply for the US Bank Altitude Reserve cards, what flight attendants find, which countries do the most environmental damage out there,
TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order!
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The Top 25 Credit Cards via Mile Nerd. The hobby starts here!
4-Card Guide to a Week in Tahiti! Nice. This is the essence of the hobby!
Thank you to BestOffersPatrol for the Best Offer (aha!) credit cards available here with MY links, sorry I don’t know how to do arrows. Thanks for your support!
You can now apply for the US Bank Altitude Reserve card. Who in their right mind will keep this card the second year? I am assuming some of the bennies will be “adjusted”.
Book from April 30Β to May 7, 2017 and receive 50% off IHG Rewards Club Reward Nights at select resorts in Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean. Valid for stays from May 1st to June 30th, 2017.
Southwest announced it will stop overbooking. The Cranky Flier expands on the topic.
Weirdest things flight attendants have seen in the line of duty. What the hell!
13 Bars in Strange Places. Some really cool bars in this AFAR list.
You can now search all Trump tweets, yes! Trump Twitter Archive.
Your personal finance fix of the day: Why Baby Boomers Won’t Destroy the Stock Market in Retirement. I agree with this…Some time ago many charlatans were pounding the theme “boomers will start retiring in droves soon and will be selling all stocks and a crash is coming, so MOVE your money now!” MOVE money—–>THEY make money, you likely lose.
Which Countries Destroy the Environment the Most (and Least)? Look at China, wow!
Amazing Soccer Pitch in Lofoten Islands, Norway. (HT: Personal Finance Digest)
BLOG BUZZ
This section is for advanced level hobbyists and veteran blog readers & personal rants & stuff
Many have been applying for the US Bank Altitude Reserve card. Experiences vary…
I am really getting tired of these….What I go through for you guys…
Maybe Deals We Like should change name to Deals We Like As Long As We Get Paid! – “Amex Decreasing the Business Platinum Card Rebate, But Still Time to Take Advantage” —-> just wow!
This blog space is running out of things to blog about, sad!
Zillow is telling me my house more than doubled since I bought it in October 2007. Another client in nearby Northville is getting some crazy numbers for his very nice house. My wife is connected to the local Chinese community and it appears we may have some Chinese buyers bidding up homes all over our area and paying cash. I called my realtor (who was at Disney!) and he told me it’s just crazy out there. But…you run into the issue of having to buy in this market. Unless you are willing to rent…which I would have no problem doing for a little while. In three years we are empty nesters anyway. Anyways, it is nice entertaining these thoughts. And this was your local Ann Arbor housing market update!
I am done with Part Two of my Asia Summer trip report. This one was about roaming the streets of Tokyo while staying at the Conrad Tokyo. Soon I will post it…after I get five clicks, go! π
And I leave you with this…
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You can bring up the cards you want by clicking on CARD TYPE and then click on the specific bank.
TIME LIMITED ALL TIME BEST HIGHEST OFFER:
AMEX Hilton Surpass card for 100,000 Honors points & free weekend night Ends 5/31/2017
AMEX Hilton no annual fee card for 80,000 Honors points Ends 5/31/2017
Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Personal Visa at 107,500 Marriott Rewards Points
STANDARD WORKHORSE CARDS:
Chase Ink Business Preferred for 80,000 Ultimate Reward points
Chase Sapphire Preferred 50,000 Ultimate Reward points
Barclaycard Arrival Plus 50,000 points
MAY BE GOOD CARDS FOR YOU:
JetBlue Plus 30,000 points
Hyatt 2 free nights in any Hyatt [can get $50 credit with other offer, see link on 4/28 post!]
British Airways Visa up to 100,000 Avios (50k really, up to 100k requires high spend!)
Starwood SPG Personal or Business 25,000 SPG points
OTHER CARDS:
Citi Thank You Premier 30,000 (40k possible in branch)
Discover IT Double Cash Back for first year
Citi Double Cash Get 2% cash back on everything with no annual fee
Chase Freedom Unlimited 1.5% Ultimate Rewards points per dollar
Amtrak Guest Rewards World Mastercard 20k points
Remember, in general, the restrictions by each bank:
Amex-Once per lifetime
Chase-Once every 24 months. 5/24 Rule
Citi-Once per family every 24 months
Fiiiiiiiiiiiiirst!
Silverrrr. That lofoten field is unreal, now
I’m curious about that place. Any Hyatt over there?
At first I thought it was not real…But it is.
Can someone let me know the nearest Hyatt/SPG/Hilton so I can work in some killer cc app links to sell, thanks π
Wow, where is everyone. At least this blog was a winner in comments, now those are drying up because of the cc pumping here as well…
Last 5 days this blog earned $1.91.
Troll Ingy is right.
Prove him wrong π
Or suggest other things to occupy my time, this blogging thing is getting old after all these years…
#whiningtomakemefeelbetter
#thanksforlistening
#independentblogsdon’tlast
Lazy Traveler’s website says “account suspended”. Points Centric has not posted in so long.
Then you try to earn a little bit and you get attacked viciously (which is kind of fun actually).
I could be doing other things with my time…
Phucking JetBlue, how long can they keep the 3x going with Amazon, WTF!
Michael Lewis in the Morningstar conference about Trump’s administration: this is a “government by idiots” lol
Shame about Lazy Travlers, I liked Andy’s blog.
George why not try bloggerbuzzz.com. (3 z’s so you can get the name and dump the “travel”
whining, content and title. It’s worthless obviously.
For something “worthless”, you sure spend a lot of time reading and whining about it, mein sweet Ingy.
Just waiting to see how long it takes him to wake up?
Yawn!
Nothing like an old has-been still trying to get attention from the sidelines. How much daily computer time do they allow at your nursing home?
I think, deep down, he really cares about me. Where would my blog Alexa rankings be without Ingy lol.
Of course I care about you. You’ve been whining about the lack of income stream since you became the travel blogger hypocrite of the century. If you really didn’t care about the income, you’d never mention it again. It shows a lack of what’s the word?????????
Oh Yeah Integrity
Some of your other readers have made very great suggestions. The most honest one would be to switch your focus to the odd ball stuff you find online, your photos and personal finance advice.
But like you say “its your blog” And if you want to keep beating your head into the tree “Pitter patter and have at her”
$1.91 in five days??? You’re nuts.
Look at your life, Ingy. Look at your choices. Pish posh and suck my mosh.
Lazy Travelers went bust? Sigh, I liked his contents.
Hopefully, it’s technical problems with its domain…
Not sure what’s going on.
http://nypost.com/2017/05/02/passengers-get-into-nasty-brawl-aboard-plane/
I think the Titans will make half a dozen posts about this shocking video π
I would be the guy in black, the guy with the torn red shirt fights like a girl.
+1
I hear you can get a house for next to nothing in Flint! : )
Hope it comes with free water!
Damn Republicans running Flint. Horrible.
You have a point.
But the Republican Governor we have (and I voted for) screwed up so bad that he kissed his Presidential aspirations forever about the Flint water crisis, sad!
I still like the guy and did not regret voting for him.
See? π
The Chinese (from China) have been buying houses and flats in Vancouver, B.C. like crazy for a few years now. The locals (both ethnically Chinese and whites) say they think it is the corrupt Chinese–bureaucrats and no-longer-evil Capitalists– who are trying to hide their money abroad–they buy in Vancouver because there is a already a vibrant Chinese ex-pat community there.
Anyway, they buy and then it either just sits empty or they rent it out.
Prices skyrocket. You love it if you own and want to sell and move out…you hate it if you are trying to buy your first house. (Every silver lining has a cloud.)
London has been doing that for years.
They don’t even bother marketing new luxury apartments to locals any longer. They are sold at roadshows in Asia.
Some of the marketing stuff is great though. Every so often one of the newspapers here gets hold of a brochure ….. some developer claiming that Luton or Watford is actually in London, or that some crime infested slum is full of cheery hipsters.
It is actually an offence in the UK for a property agent to sell a home to someone who you believe may be using corrupt or criminal money.
Total number of reports filed in the last reportable year: 2 (IIRC)
There were more than 2 purchases on my road last year funded by corrupt money.
Getting a sense these Chinese buyers are moving into Michigan…
I even promised daughter we ‘ll get her a puppy….as she almost started crying when we told her we might sell.
I will not ask where the money came from π
Sorry George but Michigan has nothing on Silicon Valley. If you guys are interested in seeing marketing to Chinese and other wealthy Asian buyers at its finest look no further than Ken Deleon in Palo Alto. He opened an office in China, has a jet to give overhead tours of the Los Altos & Palo Alto areas, along with a fleet of Mercedes mini vans for tours.
His company can spend well over 30k on a platinum listing, and most sell the day they hit the market for cash offers well above asking. He has now moved onto conquering the extra wealth in India. The guy is something else.
There’s also the Chinese birth tourism industry so that well-off families can acquire an anchor baby:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-birth-tourism-persists-20161220-story.html
Ken dude….birth tourism…wow.
In FLL I met a Ukranian couple going on a cruise the next day…and they mentioned about couples coming here having babies too!
Trump better hurry to put up that wall…lol.
I met a chubby woman from another country who came here on a tourist visa to have a baby. When asked about her pregnancy and her intentions at U.S. immigration, she replied, “I’m not pregnant, I’m fat!” The embarrassed agent waved her through.
Did the same thing to someone long time ago. Probably the most embarrassing moment of my life. Now, I NEVER say that EVER again…I just assume they are fat unless THEY mention something about a baby π
George, you’d give up being neighbors with Rene?
He is in the next state…still close enough if u ask me π
Back from Turkey. Really nice folks all around, but
FΓCK ERDOΔAN!
He completely blocked Wikipedia right before I left. That’s like someone coming into your house an stealing your encyclopedias!
Such a conundrum. On one hand I love the people and geography of places like Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia, etc. On the other hand nasty, nasty govt. But my money spent there goes to people….
George, you’re like the neighborhood bar owner. A meeting place.
You’re not allowed to shut down!
What if Erdogan shuts me down tooooo?
Erdogan has lost some screws. Many Turks are buying property in Greece theae days, probably the only brightest sign ever in Greek real estate.
My grandparents were living in mainland Turkey but had to leave in a few hours notice with just a few bags of their belongings. They used to tell me stories living there and I used to love hearing them.
Turks deserve better than this deluded dude who is drunk by power now…
The Turks deserve Hillary.
I am so glad to her as part of the resistance now #notreally
I confess that I’d never heard about the Greece/Turkey exchange before this trip. How brutal. It’s hard to imagine how that must’ve felt, my sympathies to your grandparents.
The year was 1923.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_exchange_between_Greece_and_Turkey
Talk about starting with nothing!
The most bizzarre coincidence is that now just outside my village where my grandparents (and many from the same area in Turkey) settled, about 100 years later, there is a big refugee camp housing mostly Syrian refugees. It is surreal!
Long time reader, first time commenter.
Just want to say I enjoy your blog George. Hope you find a way to keep going because I will miss it. And I am sure many others will too.
I also noticed your whining bursts only happen when clicks dry up for stretches as long as a week. Or longer. And stop when you hit the minimum. So, to other readers…get him some clicks in the beginning of the month so he does not sell out too and join all the others. Either in the sidelines or the ones selling cards every day.
A couple of ideas:
Look into some type of support or membership. Give those something extra. I am not sure what. Maybe stock tips or pictures of your wife holding cards in front of gift card kiosks in CVS or Wal Mart. Joking
Post every other day or reduce number of posts in a week.
Give away shit, we all like free stuff.
Find another hobby, this travel hacking one is in its last legs. Then blog about that hobby and find a way to sell your credit card links, ha!
Get a job at TPG’s new swanky offices in NYC so you can go out with Julian and talk about the good old days.
Get a sponsor to sponsor a TBB Blog Reader Meetup Tour. Or any sponsor. I know you will pick a worthy one, not Dosh π
Frankly, I think you are crazy to keep doing this every day. Very impressive.
Thanks for the kind words.
Thanks for the ideas, some are very funny!
One thing for sure is I am NOT asking Dosh for anything…EVER!
Membership type idea is interesting. If it replaces the current cc income, I could withdraw from it and then REALLY LET LOOSE on all these card salesmen…
At the end of the day, I still treat this as entertainment. The money is just play money and I am ok with it, even with all the work that goes into this every day. It’s only when it dries up…it just gets demoralizing when I check and it’s not enough for one tall cup of coffee at Starbucks for the week man!
Thanks for the email, small world!
I don’t think I’ll bit on the US Bank card. They seem so wonky for one thing.
VFTW found yet another excuse to post about the United dragging thing today. He must pleasure himself to that video each night or something.
I am not biting…
VFTW lately is like those tabloids u see in the super market check out lane…
George, your wife could advertise your Pfizer home in Chinese to Chinese in KMG? That way you could write off the travel expense. π Honestly though I would sell now and downsize a bit for the next 3 years, then downsize some more to a warmer place.
We were just talking about that!
Really loved my time at the FLL beach this time…thoughts came into my mind not dealing with the Michigan cold. Or do the snow birding thingie perhaps…
Life decisions when u near 50 and being empty nester is in the horizon…
Why sell now? The bubble just started. This can last for 5 years. Just look at Toronto.
Great point!
The wild card out there is…Trump!
I’ll be darned, the Pepsi thing didn’t work:
http://i.imgur.com/lgfcJRA.gifv
Should have been Coke!
And from the biggest blogger hypocrite of the century <------------------- just want to say that I hope all of you were entertained as much as I was but need to say that I am Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast!
Oh no you’re not. π
By the way, have you seen Gringo lately? He told me he wants to come on the Brooklyn Tour. He wants to see what Rick and George has seen.
Maybe he was pulling my leg. Dunno. Brooklynites can be trusting sometimes.
Gringo, you know how to contact me.
Ok. LAST!
Dan
I knew it!
He has been seen much less lately, maybe he is traveling?