Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as why stocks are up again, AI vs everything, who goes MAGA, the problem with rewards credit cards, the five key changes in the new tax law, index fund investing turning into extreme sport, sales taxes in each US state, how banks handle scams, tokens, who came up with the name pickleball, best things to do in Bangkok, more UNESCO sites, Pan Am is back, 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. Enjoy the weekend and stay cool.
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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.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Well, we are at all time stock market highs again. Remember, over the short term anything can happen. Ignore the “gurus” out there who always make fools of themselves making predictions. Only to court more media attention again and again. Markets are too dynamic to explain short term movements, stop and instead focus on what you can control: Why Are Stocks Up? Nobody Knows. A torrent of bad news hasn’t been enough to sink the market.
The stock market is different: A smart strategist can make a surprisingly accurate guess about what stocks will do over a decade. Saying how it will do this quarter is routine, and routinely wrong—there is simply too much noise and emotion.
Maybe this is happening because the US economy just keeps on ticking? Time will tell as it always does. Enjoy the summer and never ever fall in love with the highest numbers in your portfolio.
We need to get used to the new realities from the tax law passed earlier this month: 5 Key Tax Changes Advisors Need to Know in 2025. For many taxpayers, keeping track of charitable donations is back in the mix.
I was one of the first advisors who went to 100% indexing with ETF portfolios more than 20 years ago. And then you won’t believe what happened next. It has gotten totally out of control out there lately: How Index-Fund Investing Turned Into an Extreme Sport. Exchange-traded funds are becoming far more concentrated, amplifying risks.
The irony is that many people worry about how concentrated the S&P 500 is in only a handful of huge tech companies. They then turn around and concentrate their own portfolios in an even riskier handful of stocks. Let’s be clear: Bundling a limited number of stocks inside an ETF doesn’t make them safe.
We now have ETFs that capture the returns of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning stocks; own convertible bonds issued by companies that hold bitcoin in their corporate treasury; use borrowed money to buy already leveraged loans; follow an index of small-to-midsize uranium stocks; track the future cost of transporting crude oil by sea; and replicate the performance of Icelandic stocks. Although some are actively managed, many charge fees 20 to 30 times higher than a traditional index fund.
Excellent dive into what is happening lately: Is America Breaking The Global Economy? What an Age of Economic Uncertainty Will Mean for the World.
We focus on income taxes a lot around here. But never forget about other taxes: How does your state’s sales tax compare?
The new tax law will fight inflation, just kidding smh:
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
You can take a deep dive and download the full report of the 2025 AI vs. Everything we care about research study. Some key findings:
People think AI will worsen almost everything we care about, even as they rank AI low on their list of concerns.
This was such a painful read: Millions Stolen, Death Threats: Should Banks Do More to Fight ‘Pig Butchering’? Scams that trick people into transferring funds fall outside most current fraud protections. Some victims want banks to take responsibility.
It starts out like this below and then it gets more painful. Be careful out there.
For nearly 50 years, Anamarie Hurt trusted her husband, Craig, to manage their finances. And he did a good job of it, making investments that grew into a comfortable nest egg. Then Craig walked into a bank in Tulsa, Okla., and began moving their retirement funds into cryptocurrency investments that turned out to be fake. A year later, after losing more than $5 million, the Hurts’ life savings were gone.
There is so much memeing going on. Tokens and stuff. Some good thoughts on the subject here: Lindy’s Law. If you are going to take a shot with one of these things, be okay with losing it all. If that is good with you, go ahead YOLO it lol. Me and my clients can sure afford to roll the dice and our situation will not be impacted at all if we lose it all. Have we done it? Nope.
Lindy’s law can, though, help us think about risk management. It tells us that when something is new—no matter how logical, safe or secure it may seem—we should be more careful. In situations involving new financial instruments, investing small amounts, or investing incrementally, may make more sense.
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ODDZ & ENDZ
This is brilliant in its entirety imho, no excerpting, read it all: Who Goes MAGA? We all know one of them or more: the Contrarian Intellectual, the Wellness Influencer, the Centrist Politician, the Linkedin Thought Leader, the Crypto enthusiast, The Facebook Mom, the Venture Capitalist, the Legacy Media Reporter, the Business Owner, the Normie, the Ones Who Won’t.
I always wondered Why Is It Called “Pickleball”? Forget what you’ve heard about a dog—here’s the real story about the origins of the name.
Who invented pickleball? Pickleball was invented by Washington state representative Joel Pritchard and his neighbors, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum, on Bainbridge Island in July 1965.
Was pickleball named after a dog? No.
Wonderful photography link: Weird, Wonderful Photos From the Archives. A grab bag of curious and interesting historical images from the 20th century, depicting stunt diving, inventions, unusual war training, giant household objects, scenes from daily life, and much more. I can’t grab a pic to paste here, Getty Images will come after me and bankrupt me.
Absolutely amazing photography work by Sebastião Salgado.
TRAVEL
Can’t wait to return again later this year to this city: 20 Best Things to Do in Bangkok.
More! Discover the sites that made UNESCO’s World Heritage list for 2025.
This is for the aviation geek blog readers: Illinois man has spent 40 years rebuilding a WWII-era B-17 bomber. This restoration isn’t just for show. Mike Kellner wants to fly the ‘Desert Rat.’
A man in Marengo, Illinois, is on a mission to fully restore a World War II-era B-17 bomber—a project he’s been diligently working on in a roadside barn for the past 40 years. [40 years? Talk about a life project wow]
It seems like Pan Am keeps getting revived only to vanish again. Here is the latest rebirth: The Rise, Fall, and Revival of Pan Am. The brand that pioneered the golden age of flying is staging a comeback—but can it exist in the cost-cutting world of international travel today?
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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.
If you are going to buy something online, maybe you can score a few miles: Earn up to 7,500 Bonus Miles With Four Airlines Shopping Portals.
Southwest’s transformation to yet another normal airline continues: Southwest Passengers Get Assigned Seats Starting January 27. Customers can start buying tickets with assigned seats later this month, starting July 29.
I hope we don’t regret transferring our Amex Membership Rewards points into the Alaska Airlines program: Alaska and Hawaiian Combined Loyalty Program Launching Oct. 1st.
Interesting discussion in The Thrifty Traveler podcast: Will AI Wreck Air Travel? AI could wreck their business model as well.
Another 37 hotels to be Bonvoyed lol: Marriott International Completes Acquisition of citizenM Brand. From the few pics in the article this brand looks just like Aloft, do you agree?
TRAVEL REWARDS CREDIT CARDS
Stop everything, this is a must read: The Problem With Rewards Credit Cards. Their fees are getting higher—and their benefits are sometimes wildly complicated to redeem. I could excerpt so many parts (except the self serving comments by a The Points Guy staffer). I am just going to excerpt how the article ends below and let your read it in its entirety:
Fancy cards are like coupon books or miners’ scrip, but they are also, in this sense, more like high-end gym memberships. The commodity they offer is access to a rarefied place, one where everyone else is attractive and competent, putting in the work and reaping the rewards. The product is a subscription to do more work—it’s a tax on laziness or a deposit on your future self’s conscientiousness. But it seems to me that credit-card companies, and gyms, know something consumers don’t: Everybody thinks they’ll be a more diligent person tomorrow.
Are we nearing an inflection point where we dump all of them and simplify our life with just one or two cash back credit cards? Of course do not expect TPG staffers to mention anything like that lol.
As warned last week, with Citi bank you need to lower your expectations. After years of working on an elite card, it appears it is almost here: Citi Strata Elite complete details leaked. And as expected, it blows. I mean, it does not even make much sense even for the Signup bonus wtf! And having to time your Friday and Saturday dinners in specific time slots is beyond the coupon pale.
And this one is almost here: [Launches Next Month] Alaska Airlines To Launch $395 Premium Credit Card. Hope the signup bonus lands north of 100k to pay attention hehe.
Interesting info: Market Share by Credit Card Network.
Credit Card Market Share by Purchase Volume:
- Visa: 52.20%
- Mastercard: 24.90%
- American Express: 19.50%
- Discover: 3.50%
Discover is now Capital One. And they have room to grow…
NEW OFFERS:
I swear the Chase manager responsible for the Southwest credit cards has been given a blank check to keep experimenting nonstop with them. And, oh boy, here we go again: Chase Southwest Personal Cards: 100,000 Points with $4,000 Spend In 5 Months. 100k Signup bonus for all 3 personal cards is excellent. Sadly, every single one has a higher annual fee that starts in 2026. And they all get some more benefits, including expected free bags: Chase Southwest Cards Increase Annual Fees & Revamp Card Benefits.
Apparently, the same bonus eligibility rules apply as before, mainly that you can have the signup bonus assuming you did not get another bonus from a personal Southwest card within the past 24 months. And yes you can have a Southwest business card along with a personal card. Another new feature is allowing the minimum spend to occur over 5 months. Which is interesting because you can throttle your spending to make sure you complete it in January 2026 so you can earn the Southwest Companion Pass which will be good for almost two full calendar years, 2026 and 2027. This of course assumes Southwest does not nerf the Companion Pass before then.
Anyway, if you are a regular Southwest flyer having one personal Southwest credit card makes sense. If you like 100k bonuses it makes sense too lol as each Southwest point could be worth around 1.3 cents, so we are talking $1,300 travel value. Even after the annual fee you will score over $1,000 of free travel. And this is what we are talking about around here! You know where to find them, thank you. All three 100k offers end September 17, 2025.
My favorite bank Chase is at it again. We have two new 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 by the way. These days I don’t roll out of bed for offers less than 100k lol.
- United Business: Earn 100,000 United MileagePlus bonus miles & 2,000 PQP after spending $5,000 on qualifying purchases in the first three months of opening an account. $195 AF
- United Club Business:Earn 100,000 United MileagePlus bonus miles & 2,000 PQP after spending $5,000 on qualifying purchases in the first three months of opening an account. $695 AF
EXPIRING OFFERS:
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.
Here are my three TOP CREDIT CARD OFFERS:
The 75k Capital One Venture X card.
The 75k Chase Ink Business Unlimited card.
The 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash card.
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
Not much award booking action lately. I have a PointsYeah membership and have set up alerts and I was hoping as we are coming closer to the dates we are looking to fly (Greece and Thailand) it would get better with more award space being released. This is not happening…yet.
Some of us have this hacking DNA. You see something and our brains just switch into “how to maximize it” mode. It is, well, fun! So, respect to this guy: One Man’s Quest to Break a Record for Birthday Freebies. Competitive freeloaders plan for months to cash in on as many offers as they can on the big day; ‘I like to push myself’. I am not sure this is how you make it into the first page of the Wall Street Journal but still lol.
By early evening on Feb. 19, a tired Svatos paused to take inventory of his haul and realized he had done it—40 freebies, a new record. All told, Svatos redeemed 10 free beverages, 14 free desserts, 12 free food items including wings, burgers, tacos and a free popcorn, and four other discounted products.
Blogging has changed, in case you have not noticed. If I needed the money I would not be here almost 13 years later. And it has gotten increasingly harder this year sadly. Miles For Family has been around a long time, with the original owner managing to unload it to another person who is, surprisingly, still around. This is another reminder how important it has become for small independent blogs to be supported from you the readers: Rolling with the punches and adapting new blog survival strategies.
This past year, several changes have occurred that have negatively affected our business::
- Chase adopted new rules for affiliate traffic which meant we could no longer have Chase affiliate links
- American Express followed suit a few weeks ago, causing us to lose the vast majority of our credit card revenue
- AI summaries from Google searches have resulted in a significant decrease in blog traffic
Same. She proceeds to offer affiliate links from Klook, Booking.com, Hotels.com, Expedia.com. I have none of these. Which reminds me that I DO have a separate page listing my affiliate links HERE for:
Proton VPN, Uber and Lyft.
Actually, I am not sure the last three are valid. Honestly, I think I got just ONE click in Rakuten from a reader in the past two years, that’s all! I am just not good in marketing, you may have noticed. Anyway, screw Hotels.com and Expedia.com. Would any reader ever use my Klook or Booking.com affiliate links if I got them? Just curious.
At the end of the day, I love getting paid applying for our own credit cards with my links and deducting our own credit card fees as business expenses. And of course you guys using my credit card links and Buy Me a Coffee link keeps this “venture” going, thank you. Not sure for how long, you know me, I am not a quitter lol.
The home kitchen and master bathroom project is now on with design meetings set, hooray. The sticker shock is going to hurt I am sure. I bet tariffs will be blamed because someone has to pay them.
I am giving myself a challenge for the summer, 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:
June:
Credit card sales: 5 Buy me a Coffee sales: 1
July to date:
Credit card sales: 4 Buy me a Coffee sales: 21
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS:
175k AMEX Platinum, 100k CHASE Southwest Plus/Premier, Priority, 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 150k CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash, 150k AMEX Business Platinum, 200k CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash Plus, 75k CHASE Sapphire Preferred, 100k AMEX Gold, $1,000 Cash Back CHASE Ink Business Premier, 90k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards, 80k CHASE Southwest Performance Business, 15k AMEX Blue Business Plus and many more!
As of today, I have burned 1,017,829 miles/points year to date (2,027,816 in 2024) and have 4,165,450 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.
Thanks for the Bangkok link. Going to Jim Thompson’s house is one of our favorite things. I love the architecture, the rich color of the wide floorboards and fantasize about how I could live in it until I remind myself about the lack of ensuite bathroom.
Why do all the dolts that get scammed immediately blame the bank and take no responsibility for their foolishness? I find it strange they were able to transfer those amounts with no questions asked. This week WF froze my account for a suspicious transfer of $5k and that transfer was to myself. And I’m sorry, but if you are in a marriage you need to take an interest in the finances instead of just waiting until it is all gone to moan. Spouses who choose to not show any interest in the finances do my head in. That’s all fine until there is a divorce or death.
Greetings from Utah! This place totally lives up to the hype. In addition to the national parks I urge y’all to take a day to drive highway 12, which really ought to be another national park.
One of my now departed friends, a performing magician, taught finance. He got a lot of grief for talking about things like Ponzi schemes. Can’t happen, he was told, in this world of cheap information. That was, of course, before Madoff.
I think there is a law out there … if it “can’t happen” it will happen.
Thanks for the links!
Good stuff and enough to spend a couple hours on this weekend! Thank you! You are a hero!
I am kinda with Vicky on a lot of this scamming stuff when only one person in a relationship/marriage takes any responsibility for things then screams bloody murder about stuff they should have been aware of something going on. That said, the incredibly rare times I have moved a chunk of change the banks all seem to be having me under a microscope. I do not mind as that makes me feel they are watching out for me. It does make me wonder why that guy’s bank didn’t say anything about the huge amounts being moved around.
I have to mention I love all the posts you put up with great photos. I always look at them!
Just signed up for 4 new CC’s. Used none of your links.
Just thought you should know
General commentary on the WSJ piece about that couple losing so much money to obvious scams:
Very tough situation. Of course they are to blame but…but…the brain is obviously impaired. And this shit is only going to get worse with so many aging to that point. Of course the guy needed to get his wife involved and she obviously had to take the initiative. Just a preventable and just horrible situation to be involved in.
This article has been talked about in the financial advisor community…bigly. Some are in strong favor of the advisor who tried to talk the dude out of it. But, I mean, really? If this happened to me I would talk to the wife pronto first of all and try to get her to snap out of it and confront the dude. Hopefully another trusted contact is on record…but they have no kids, remember that. I would at the very least get this guy to sign a paper saying “this is my action alone and my advisor is totally against it and I would not take legal action”. Naaah, phuck it, I would go straight to their home and confront them (like I did years ago when a client flipped out during the Great Financial Crisis in late 2008). And have my resignation papers handy because they are not taking my advice. And when that happens…what is the point of being their financial advisor.
This shit is only going to get worse with AI being let loose…
I agree this problem is going to magnify and it does concern me as we age and being in the situation of no children, I want to smack the women my age who when I try to get them to take an interest tell me oh husband has all that under control. They have no idea where the money is, how much or what it is invested in. Seriously, it is not cute a 60 yo acting like a bimbo when it comes to money. And as for the scamming, my sister closed her account with one bank because they kept asking personal questions about her transfers. FFS, she is the exact person who will end up scammed because they have danced through life from financial mistake to next mistake and then will blame everyone else but themselves. We are investigating options to protect ourselves. We don’t have a family member with common sense that would outshine a gnat and finding a trusted financial advisor is difficult.
@ Vicky: You took Gold. I marked the rest tardy 🙂
They blame the bank because the bank has deep pockets. Careful with WF. Client saw a big withdrawal the same day and called and got the money back, proceeded to change all passwords of course. So true, the spouses must get involved. But sometimes it is not easy for them. Like my wife…but if something happens to me she knows who to call and I am sure she will have lots of fun spending it all lol.
@ NickPFD: Yeah, Utah is great, enjoy.
@ DML: It always gets back to greed and fear. So, ponzis will probably never end. And with AI you won’t believe what will happen next 🙁
@ Carl: Hero, like a super hero? 🙂 It’s a tough call. What if they did trying to make sure it was him and he said “Yeah, it’s me, it’s my money”…The insult on top of this is having to file the tax return to report this IRA distribution…yikes.
@LFederer: I did get a laugh reading your comment, thank you! Hopefully you gave the 4 app clicks to another blogger you read and appreciate. Maybe Frequent Miler, he has full time salaries and benefits to pay. I don’t and my imaginary intern signed on to the TBB mission to do this as a labor of love LOL.
A Hawaiian BBQ place opened in Ann Arbor, heading there for dinner today. Thanks to the reader who got an IHG Premier card, sale #4 this month.
Enjoy your summer weekend everyone.
I don’t think you could go wrong throwing that Amex to HI/AS. Sure it will devalue but good deals will still be there. Hunting in the off season for multiple months down the road has scored me fancy stuff, like QR Qsuites, to most recently a one-way from my burg to BKK with segments in PE on Starlux for 35K AS miles. Am counting on better living through chemistry for getting zzzs on that last one.
I would have added to the T&L Bangkok list: spending an hour watching the world go by at the Erawan Shrine. It’s a sacred intersection of religion, dance, music, art, and hope.
Want to add a sincere thank you for continuing to plug away at this. Always informative and entertaining!