Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as possibly longer and stronger bull markets, warnings about life coaching scams, jungle hotels, nearing 1 million miles burned year to date, my blog featured and recommended by Of Dollars and Data blog, there is too much money and home equity out there, broken algorithms, beautiful streets around the world, weird tourism spots and much more and of course always all of the most important developments in the crazy world of miles and points. 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 a curated at least weekly post of the best web content along with my commentary. Here to Educate primarily, sometimes Entertain and if I get to Inspire you, well, that is a bonus.
This blog usually publishes on Fridays. This is a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts. I may post on another day when I find the time, especially when I am traveling.
Featured at the blog Of Dollars And Data
I was pleasantly surprised to be featured in one of my favorite Personal Finance blogs Of Dollars And Data in this post:
Is Maximizing Credit Cards Rewards Worth It?
In general, I agree with the recommendations. This has my been my main hobby for 30+ years. I am super organized, I absolutely love to travel and as a CFP and CPA my money habits are excellent, not to brag. And I do LOVE the chase (pun intended) you guys, I am an addict. I have slowed down a lot over the years, I mainly go for the big signup bonuses these days, anything less than 75k a pop per travel rewards credit card signing bonus just does not get me excited anymore.
Let’s clear something up, I do NOT have 107 open credit cards. I do keep track of 107 different programs in the Award Wallet app. But I have had 40+ open credit cards way back when Citi would give us new credit cards with fat signing bonuses every 31 days, those were the days. These days I get by with around 20 open credit cards and just try to keep no more than 25 open. And I continue to pare down airline/hotel/banks to consolidate and simplify my life.
This hobby is not for everyone, it can be very dangerous if you don’t have what it takes. You do what is best for you, we are all different. If you are going to charge something on a credit card you should earn some rewards. Absolutely nothing wrong to use just one card, preferably a no annual fee 2% cash back card. Or use a pair of credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP) card to earn at least 2x on bonus categories along with a Chase Freedom Unlimited type card that earns 1.5x on everything else. Or just use the amazing Capital One Venture X card which earns 2 points on everything and has great travel benefits and at this time Capital One basically pays us to give us this card. You can learn more about this credit card and others near the end of my posts below.
You can learn more about me HERE. I am not looking for new wealth management clients and my goal is to travel and blog more as I age. Meanwhile, I am aiming to burn more of my 4 million + miles/points I still have in the bank. A small fraction of past family trips we have done in this hobby over the years courtesy of the US banks are shown HERE. I aim to burn at least one million miles/points every year.
This is my haul year to date and we are not even halfway through the year:
Update: Since my post published, I have managed to book my return to the US from Greece and have now burned 1,033,996 miles/points year to date! I am coming back through Vienna where I am going to finally spend a night at the fantastic Park Hyatt Vienna using a World of Hyatt Free Night certificate. And flying back to the US in Austrian Airlines Business Class connecting at Montreal and then flying Business Class on Air Canada to Detroit. Unless I find a better way in the meantime. Oh no, I canceled everything and staying in Greece to take care of my mother who is still in the hospital with a heavy pneumonia infection (after having hip replacement surgery last month). It sucked canceling everything, especially my stay in the Vienna Park Hyatt but mom comes first of course.
PERSONAL FINANCE
This blog will never make market predictions. My standard answer when asked is that “the market will fluctuate”. Anyway, stocks over the long term tend to go up. But the ride to the promise land can be harrowing at times, it is the cost of doing business being in the market. And never forget that in the long run we are all dead and you can’t take your wealth with you. So, it is a fact that even after a steep rise since a bad 2022 there is still a lot of money out there sitting in the sidelines! And that is on top of plentiful home equity as well: America’s Piggie Banks Are Full.
Money market funds have gone from around $3.5 trillion before the pandemic to $6 trillion now…Then there’s another $2-3 trillion in CDs, which offer similarly attractive short-term yields…And another $4 trillion in checking accounts.
So, are you wondering how this bull market compares to other bull markets in the past? Remember, everything is possible in the short term. But even I was surprised to see that the present bull market is kind of weak actually. Bull Markets are usually longer and stronger than this.
This bull market, which started in October 2022, has seen the S&P surge 48% in just 19 months.
Excuse me, 48% in 19 months is weak? Yep, check this table out:
SCAMS/CRYPTO
Wow, what a read! Be careful out there, watch your elder loved ones: “She Hooked Me”: How an Online Scam Cost a Senior Citizen His Life’s Savings.
Also, beware of life coaches, so many scammers out there! They Spent Their Life Savings on Life Coaching. Some people who wanted to improve their lives and careers through coaching found themselves trapped in what they described as a pyramid scheme. So many selling you a dream and before you know it…you just keep buying. One interviewed insisted she was too intelligent to fall for this and then she did this:
She withdrew $18,000 from her 401(k) to pay for her first course at a leading life coach school, hoping that it would lead to a much-needed career change. [I am sorry, seriously? This is a NO NO! Hopefully she learned something, the most expensive lessons tend to stick with you.].
Another one: The Ponzi Scheme Blog May 2024 Roundup. And I pick the wildest parts from it, hang on:
He promised returns of 12% through low-risk investments. [12% and low-risk should never been in the same sentence].
David Kagel, 85, of California, pleaded guilty to promoting a $9.5 million Ponzi scheme, Kagel, a disbarred California attorney, operated a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that falsely guaranteed profits and promised to use artificial intelligence trading bots to generate returns. [85 years old, I guess he just had to grift another one smh].
…claiming they were receiving a “50+” return on investments in securities. [You know, if you fell for such a claim maybe we should not really feel sorry for you?].
…claimed to exercise a trading strategy called “options straddles” that would not only prevent any trading losses but also, for some of the supposed investments, guaranteed returns on the investment of at least 9% and up to as much as 50%. [Whenever you hear “straddles”, RUN away!]
Pigida failed to show up for his sentencing but was later found hiding behind a false wall in a relative’s house. [LOL].
He was accused of running a fake law firm in one city and pretended to be a psychologist in another. [Could have had a career in Hollywood, sad].
ODDZ & ENDZ
This one hits home, we are all seeing it online, must read imho: Let’s Just Admit it: The Algorithms Are Broken.
No matter what you search for, you end up in a polluted swamp of misleading links. The more you scroll, the more garbage you see:
- Bogus product reviews
- Fake articles that are really advertisements
- Consumer guides that are just infomercials in disguise
- Hucksters pretending to be experts
- And every scam you can imagine (and some that never existed before) empowered by deepfakes or AI or some other innovative new tech
The Google algorithm deliberately makes it difficult to find reliable information. That’s because there’s more money made from promoting garbage, and forcing users to scroll through oceans of crap.
The algorithm is not designed to help me—it just wants to manipulate me for the platform’s benefit…That’s what the algorithm is like nowadays—a pushy sales person who won’t take no for an answer. If it were a store, I could just walk out. But what recourse do I have when the whole Internet starts acting like this?
Fascinating read: How Diclofenac is killing Zoroastrianism. Learn about Zoroastrianism. And its practice to feed the dead to the vultures. And how the vultures are dying and you won’t believe what happened next (thanks to reader Nick PFD for sending it in).
Fascinating indeed: 30 Fascinating Maps You Don’t See In School.
Amazing photography here: Snug polar bears and lava dragons: Take a look at the jaw-dropping Drone Photo Awards 2024 finalists.
TRAVEL
SAVE $100 FOR 2024 THE EXTRAORDINARY TRAVEL FESTIVAL
Beautiful! 71 Beautiful Streets Around the World, From Kyoto to San Francisco. Take a stroll down these spectacular streets, avenues, and boulevards worth traveling to see.
Some of these look absolutely stunning: 15 Beautiful Jungle Hotels Around the World.
We like weird around here: The weirdest free tourism spots in the U.S. The Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, what?
Worth to repeat this link: Fly Through A Colossal Son Doong Cave in 360.
BUZZING
A section where I go on and on about some stuff that happens in my life and anything else that just does not fit in another section above
This.Wow! Eclipse 2024.
This. This is what spoke to me as what I am trying to do with my blog: The New Generation of Online Culture Curators. In a digital landscape overrun by algorithms and A.I., we need human guides to help us decide what’s worth paying attention. I am your human guide you guys.
We are in a transitional phase of digital culture, and thus more in need than ever of friendly faces, personable human guides (not unlike a “stalker” in the Zone), to help us navigate this treacherous ground. Such guides go by many names—call them influencers, or content creators, or just “this one guy I follow.” Guided by their own cultivated sense of taste, they bring their audiences news and insights in a particular cultural area, whether it’s fashion, books, music, food, or film. [You can call me George or TBB and please don’t call me influencer! Yes, absolutely “cultivated sense of taste“! The thing is I am not concentrating in one area, I am all over the place. Should I go back to the roots of the blog with the travel and miles/points stuff and separate everything else in a Substack newsletter or something?]
Curation takes work, and like any other kind of labor it is only sustainable if it’s reasonably compensated. [Absolutely! I will be fine, clicks are mostly for my ego and go to cover the blog costs primarily. Please look around for good curators you like and help them out ok?]
There’s another word that we might apply to such people: “connoisseurs,” in the art-historical sense of passionate observers who shape a discipline through their judgments. We’ve always had connoisseurs, from the radio d.j. to the bookstore clerk, subtly but vitally informing the culture that the rest of us choose to consume. [You can call me “connoisseur” though lol].
Looks like I missed the big party in Detroit opening the Michigan Central Station after a 6 year complete redo. Amazing building, this marks the signature stamp of the city’s rebirth.
What a powerful moment indeed between Zelensky and a WWII vet in Normandy.
Still in Greece looking after my mother trying to recover from hip replacement surgery.
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 NEWS/PROMOS/MY ACTION
It was another week with nothing earth shattering.
GENERAL NEWS/PROMOS/NEWBIES/ETC.
Yes, Hilton is rising and if Hyatt continues its downward trend lately it will have real competition. Hilton Is Entering Its Golden Era of Reinvention — Here Are Its New Brands and Member Benefits. NoMad, AutoCamp, Small Luxury Hotels of the World, and Graduate Hotels are just a few of the noteworthy brands soon-to-be under the Hilton umbrella.
RIP Lounge Buddy App. Even though it was never updated since Amex bought it, I was still using the app to get a glimpse which airline lounges were available with my cards and their location.
Yes, there is value still in this hobby flying up front for free but it is getting harder to squeeze it: 8 Business Class Flights You Can Book for 50K Points (Or Less!).
Hotels just continue to unleash new brands on us: Hyatt Studios Is Now Part of World of Hyatt Program. Interesting that earning is half of what you earn on other Hyatt brands. If anyone stays in a Hyatt Studio, please report back on your experience.
Positive development but not going to move the needle that much in upgrading this alliance: Oneworld Welcomes Fiji Airways and Oman Air as Full Members. I always thought Fiji looks amazing but then I read somewhere the mosquitoes there are also amazing so I lost interest.
CREDIT CARD CORNER
Please help the small independent blogs like mine continue to exist by supporting them with your credit card clicks below, thank you!
I will indicate with NEW every new section as the rest is the same from the previous blog post and will finally roll off those parts as these offers expire, thank you.
We had a flurry of new credit card offers thrown at us in the last week. Let’s recap:
NEW: Here we go again: Improved Offers on American Express Delta Credit Cards, Up to 110,000 Miles. There have been many changes in these Delta cards lately. Higher annual fees and new benefits/credits now come with them. I recommend preferring credit cards with much more flexible bank points than pure airline/hotel earning cards. Unless you are so absolutely committed to a specific airline or hotel. Delta Skymiles are notoriously sucky in squeezing any value out of them. Can you still do it? Yes. But it only applies in unique situations and good luck to you. For the record, I have no beef against Delta Airlines. I think they still provide the best product flying you among US airlines. My issue with them is that they have just completely hammered the Delta Skymiles program that now makes earning miles with it a complete afterthought. If you are interested in these latest higher offers, learn how to apply HERE.
Amex Marriott Bonvoy Business card: Oh, it is back! Up from three five nights again, I told you it is likely going to be back. I may go for it after I return from Greece as I see that it expires 7/10/2024. I am no fan of Marriott Bonvoy but hey, five free nights is five free nights you guys. The annual fee is $125. The minimum spend is $8k in the first six months. Earning structure is 6x on Marriott purchases, 4x on gas stations, cell phone bills, restaurants and shipping and 2x on everything else. You do get 15 elite night credits if you are one of those shooting for worthy Platinum status. You do get Gold elite status AND a Free Night Award cert at each card anniversary. To reiterate, I am only interested for the five free nights, maybe I can time it to go see Machu Picchu in 2025 as it has a great Marriott property near it.
Amex is back with American Express Hilton Increased Bonuses (175k Points/130k Points + Free Night Certificate).
Hilton Amex Surpass Card: I have this card because Hilton is my #2 hotel program (and closing in to #1 Hyatt). The annual fee is $150 but every quarter I buy a $50 Hilton gift card and I get it all credited. So, in a way it makes money for me until Amex closes this hole. It also gives me Hilton Gold Elite status which is great, especially overseas. Signing Bonus is 130,000 Hilton Honors points AND a Free Night Award cert. The minimum spend is a surprisingly low $3k in the first six months. These Hilton free night certs can be used in ANY property anytime which makes them much more valuable than all other hotel free night awards. You can earn a second Free Night Award cert after you spend $15k on the card every year. Earning is also very good with 12x on Hilton purchases, 6x on restaurants, groceries and gas stations, 4x on online retail purchases and 3x on everything else.
Hilton Amex Card: This is the basic no annual fee card. The signing bonus is 70,000 Hilton Honors points AND a Free Night Award. The minimum spend is only $2k in the first six months. You also get a pretty useless Silver elite status and the earning on the card is kind of anemic: 7x on Hilton purchases, 5x on restaurants, groceries and gas stations and 3x on everything else. If you like Hiltons and abhor paying annual fees this card could work for you.
Hilton Amex Aspire Card: Signing Bonus is 175,000 Hilton Honors points and a Free Night Award cert. This is the premium card with a hefty $550 annual fee. The minimum spend is $6k in the first six months. A Free Night Award cert comes with it at each card anniversary. It also comes with a bunch of statement credits that you have to be very diligent to make sure you use them all; if you did, statement credits could be worth up to $889 per year. You get the highest Diamond elite status with the card and other goodies. I carried this card for several years but I dropped it and settled down with the Capital One Venture X as my premium go to card. You don’t have the Hilton Aspire card for its earning structure: 14x on Hilton purchases, 7x on restaurants, airfare and car rentals and 3x on everything else.
So, Amex is back juicing the Hilton cards with Free Night Award certs and another trend I noticed is how they now extend the minimum spend period to six from three months, both very welcome. Remember, Amex has the policy to not award the Signing Bonus if you had the card before in the past seven years or so. And it also has onerous card family rules. Which they have not affected the Hilton family of cards…yet?
MY ACTION
I am continuing to polish the Asia Trip in November/December. We are going to visit Malaysia after we leave Thailand and go see the in-laws. And get back to Kuala Lumpur for three nights at the Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur. 36,000 World of Hyatt points and a Globalist confirmed suite upgrade and looking to end the trip with a major bang as this property is pretty high on the travel hacker list with its gorgeous views, humongous suite sizes and one of the top lounges in the world.
I burned another 17,500 World of Hyatt points to treat some friends in Greece to two nights at the Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki, Greece property.
I still have not pulled the trigger on booking a flight back to the US yet!
I revived the dormant TravelBloggerBuzz Instagram account and giving it another go, follow me there please. I have been posting some pictures from my daughter’s three week Asia trip, they started in Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto), moved on to Seoul and Busan in South Korea and then flew to Bangkok and then Koh Samui in Thailand. Coming soon are Bali and Da Nang. And pictures from my hometown Larissa, Greece. And here is the TravelBloggerBuzz YouTube channel with another video walkthrough of a suite at the Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki Greece property.
ADVANCED
Most in this hobby try to plan ahead. As in, jump on awards as soon as seats become available. So, this is good reference: Award Release Dates For Each Major Airline.
And just like that, there goes another sweet spot: Preferred Hotels & Resorts Devaluation: Top Rate Hits 87K Choice Hotels Points / Night (Previously 55K). I can’t wait to be done with my Choice points.
The never ending always changing landscape on how we can take advantage of this: Amex Airline Fee Reimbursements. What still works?
Wells Fargo has a new Attune card with 4% cash back in many categories uncapped. And it is a no annual fee card! GREAT to see another bank competing in this space, stay tuned for competitive responses from the Big Three (Chase, Amex, Citi), we are ready, let’s go! Will have more on this card next week most likely.
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 100k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, 75k CHASE United Business, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards, 150k AMEX Business Platinum, 80k CHASE Southwest Performance Business, $1,000 Cash Back CHASE Ink Business Premier, 75k Citi Strata Premier, 75k CITIBusiness AA Platinum Select, 15k AMEX Blue Business Plus and many more!
This section is about my hobby addiction of collecting frequent flyer miles and hotel points since the early 1990’s! SKIP if you are not into it!
As of today, I have burned 934,996 miles/points year to date (1,148,286 in 2023) and have 4,208,160 miles/points in the bank. Some do drugs, I do miles lol!
Thanks to US banks, very lucrative travel rewards credit card offers come and go all the time. This section will act as a reference point on the best CURRENT offers. I will designate new material preceded by NEW.
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 and tell me what you like and don’t like about my blog and, more importantly, what you would like to see changed and/or what you would add or delete. All feedback is very appreciated.
George
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Gold! For the Pacific Northwest!!! Great post today! Gonna be reading over the weekend. Grandson graduating HS today and I did not die this past week in the hospital! It’s all good!!
Thanks for writing all this George! I truly appreciate it!
Good to see that Carl did not die! Can’t beat that!
Great to see George’s 107 credit cards (WOW!) get such a nice writeup. The author makes the usual mistake of confusing average salary with marginal. Yeah, as a professor I’m at the extreme. My financial rewards for another article / presentation are (if I am lucky!) $0 in the current year. Future rewards? More complicated. I suspect a lot of folks are in much the same position.
Thanks for all the work!
Good to see you alive and kicking Carl!
I do NOT have 107 open credit cards you guys. I did top 40 way back. I am not that crazy 🙂
Currently putting together my trip back to the US. Vienna Park Hyatt here I come, using free night cert.
Finding MANY options, booking last minute awards may become my thing! May stay another night in FRA, I don’t know, have not decided yet.
Hot as hell here in Greece. Mom is doing ok, not sure she has it in her to get over this surgery. I may be back,aging is rough.
You know, I’m pretty sure that woman already has a washing machine and a dishwasher. Laundry and dishes really aren’t that much work.
Oh, and speaking of AI: George, if you haven’t done so already, give udio.com a try since you’re a music buff. It’s really amazing.
Bull market is spelt Nvidia (and roaring Kitty). Another sign of recession with 272k new jobs created.
I think you will love love love the Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur. Even the base rooms are lovely and the suites are pretty impressive. The Globalist breakfast is superb and the club lounge is the best I’ve experienced. The pool is a little so-so but no place is perfect. If you want to do a tour of the Petronas Towers you have to book a day or two in advance. You can walk there easily through the park behind the hotel. I’ll be interested in your take on the place afterwards.
On the Hilton overtaking Hyatt, I’m just not seeing it. Is Hyatt slipping a bit? Yes. But, they still promise suites when one is available, allow confirmed suites in advance, offer free breakfast, and give you 4PM late checkout if you’re top tier. Hilton offers none of that. Last week my wife and I were in London for the first time and I used the (since discontinued) free night certificates from spending a lot on the business card, which also got me top tier status. We stayed at the Conrad, which is well located and fine overall but got no suite upgrade, no room upgrade, and I practically had to beg for an extra hour’s late checkout. For a top tier elite at a luxury hotel it just didn’t feel that luxe.
Will respond later, back to the hospital with mom.
Make sure you do not pay a visit to a Greek hospital, you are welcome.
@TikTokInvestors on Twitter is comedy gold: https://twitter.com/TikTokInvestors/status/1800222211477012934
Good luck with your mom.
Thanks.
Regarding the lab leak theory, let’s put this baby to rest, shall we?
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/gain-of-function-research-covid-19/
Poor hit job. “irresponsible researchers, used gain-of-function research to create SARS-CoV-2”
The author did not even bother reading the article he referenced. While claiming that “The third point is simply untrue”…(inadequate biosafety levels)
In the referenced document it says:
“As of January 2019, WIV researchers performed SARS-like coronavirus experiments in BSL-2 laboratories, despite acknowledgements going
back to 2017 of these virus’ ability to directly infect humans through their spike
protein and early 2019 warnings of the danger of this practice”
WIV had BSL-4 (appropriate for SARS) in 2017. Why they didn’t adhere to that standard is completely irresponsible. You should be fired for that.
In my perspective the lab leak refers to Chinese researchers traveling to the wild and bringing back to SARS related viruses to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Poor biosafety system permitted a “leak” (perhaps infection of WIV personnel) of their cultures during an experiment. I do not think that the CCP had plans to make SARS-CoV-2.
The article is misleading. There are better articles for “the other side”. Again, my view is that we have insufficient data (I blame this on the CCP). And we will thus never know.
Since we’ll never know I expect it to show up again, especially when some good things are happening to change the mood 🙂
Just discovered your site. Clicked on the “Meet George” link in the upper right corner: 404 Page Not Found error.
Thank you for letting me know! Looks like Morningstar moved it. I fixed it now.
New post here:
https://travelbloggerbuzz.com/meme-stocks-insanity-fantastic-us-economy-ai-revolution-fly-to-hawaii-with-miles/