Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as the TikTok investors, broken Internet, bar pilots, how to maximize credit card rewards, costly Medicare mistakes, how to think about debt, we say goodbye to the Geopolitics section, FTX pays back all creditors with interest, we travel to aviation museums and to the most beautiful beaches, daughter graduated from college 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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Welcome to my quirky original authentic blog. It all started back in 2012 focusing on my crazy hobby addiction of 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 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. More clicks, more posts.
PERSONAL FINANCE
I am anti debt. In my almost thirty years as a CPA and CFP I have never had a client who regretted paying off their mortgage. Morgan Housel: “How I Think About Debt”.
I think this is the most practical way to think about debt: As debt increases, you narrow the range of outcomes you can endure in life…But once you view debt as narrowing what you can endure in a volatile world, you start to see it as a constraint on the asset that matters most: having options and flexibility. [Nailed it!]
This is great if it applies to you: New Retirees: Avoid Costly Medicare Sign-up Mistakes.
The real estate market is not that attractive for the younger generation. Because prices have shot way up and it is becoming a huge problem finding and affording a house. So, this hit home in a way: The Rise of the Forever Renter Class. I have my home on Zillow and they email me periodically about the value of it. And I just can’t believe what Zillow thinks it is worth.
The awful crap you see online being passed as personal finance advice should be criminal. And TikTok is way up there. This calls it out: TikTok Investors. And it is a must read imho. The examples that are singled out are very disturbing that people fall for this shit. STAY AWAY!
Sure, sometimes mainstream media is bad, but social media is much worse. No editors or gatekeepers, just a Wild West of grifters mixed in with everybody else. Bad financial advice reaches naïve, impressionable consumers without any guardrails or controls. On Social Media, grifters can make outlandish claims without fear of reprisal. It is a bizarre set of circumstances that allows people to be defrauded on a regular basis. Only after people are conned can prosecutors pursue the scammers.
SCAMS/CRYPTO/ELON
I highly recommend subscribing to Molly White’s newsletter Citation Needed. The latest issue catches up with everything going on in the crypto world. And of course all the scams that never end in this space.
And just like that: FTX will return money to most customers less than 2 years after catastrophic crypto collapse. With interest! Poor SBF rotting in jail screaming it was a liquidity and not a solvency problem. Well, if only he did not “borrow” steal clients’ money. Then again, 25 years seems a little harsh, doesn’t it?
Nothing shocks me about this guy anymore: I Read Everything Elon Musk Posted for a Week. Send Help. Where does this guy find the time to make a complete arse of himself every day on Xitter?
GEOPOLITICS
This is the last time you see this Section, I am retiring it. I may slip a link in the Oddz & Endz section starting with the next blog post. I need to start making these posts shorter…
This one by Illia Ponomarenko is a must read imho: Ukraine Has Changed Too Much to Compromise With Russia. My generation has tasted freedom and experienced a competitive, vibrant political life. We can’t be made a part of what Russia has become.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Food for thought: A Psychologist Explains Four Reasons the Internet Feels So Broken. Jay Van Bavel of New York University joins Derek to explain the group psychology dynamics behind the negativity and tribalism often seen online.
I had heard of her but did not know much. Until this article: The English Heiress Who Masterminded a Multimillion-Dollar Art Heist and Built Bombs for the IRA. Fifty years ago, Rose Dugdale stole 19 paintings worth an estimated £8 million, including works by Vermeer, Velázquez and Rubens, from a British aristocrat’s estate.
I had never heard of “bar pilots”. What does that bring in mind to you? Well, I bet nothing like these guys: Those giant ships you watch from Crissy Field don’t steer themselves! Meet the Bar Pilots at the heart of the Bay Area’s shipping economy.
Amazing science photography: Mount Etna’s spectacular smoke rings and more — April’s best science images. Must click.
TRAVEL
SAVE $100 FOR 2024 THE EXTRAORDINARY TRAVEL FESTIVAL
Interesting article on Rick who has been around for ever: The Rick Steves Guide to Life.
I need to visit these, I am embarrassed to admit I have not visited a single one: 9 Best International Aviation Museums.
The older I get the more I dream about beaches: The 28 Most Beautiful Beaches in the World. Which one is your favorite? I have been to seven listed here. The one in Vanuatu looks so nice.
Amazing photography of my state: Lake of the Clouds and Northern Lights: Scenic Michigan photo contest winners.
This is very sad what we did to the locals: The Poisoned Paradise Island.
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
My mother in Greece fell and looks like she will need to be operated on had a hip replacement. So far so good, operation went well and she is recovering/stabilizing, pray it continues. So I am going to travel back to Greece this month and will try to keep up with the blog, we shall see how it goes…
I went to see the movie The Fall Guy. Pop corn was great, the movie was not. Not that it was bad but, well, it was not good either.
So glad Jon Stewart came back, I think he is the best US comedian. Here is his latest show: Biden Halts Weapons to Israel & Trump Trial Coverage Hits New Low.
They started with gas stoves. And I did not speak up [Lol]
Finally, this explains it woohoo! RFK Jr. says parasite ate part of his brain.
We had a great weekend with our daughter’s graduation from the University of Michigan Business School. And the commencement speech by Brad Meltzer was fantastic, easily the best commencement speech I have heard.
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 a lot happening but no event jumps out to define the week.
GENERAL NEWS/PROMOS/NEWBIES/ETC.
Let’s knock off some easy scores first: Shopping Portal Bonuses From Southwest, United, American, Alaska Portals. I bought some HP toner cartridges using one Chase Ink card to earn 5 Chase points per dollar. And satisfied several United promos with it. In other words, I stacked the hell out of this. Because this is how I roll.
Yes I am starting to get the feeling that transferring Chase points to Hyatt to get great value out of them may not last as the program just keeps cutting lately. So I share these concerns: Hyatt’s cumulative changes hurt more in retrospect.
Good for reference: World of Hyatt Complete Guide.
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!
Old friend Andy wrote this fantastic article for newbies wanting to join us veterans in this still lucrative hobby: Unlock your dream vacation: 6 ways to maximize credit card rewards like a pro. I am quoted in the article a few times.
Citibank has been laying low for a while in our space. And it looks like it is returning to life. To retire the Citi Premier card which has been around with a 60k signing bonus. And to replace it with the New Citi Strata Premier Card: 75K Bonus, $95 Annual Fee and 3X on Popular Categories. Expected to launch on May 16. The card is very similar to the Premier. The higher signing bonus is noted and welcome.
If you are into Avios, Chase has higher offers from three different airlines now offering 85k signup bonus: British Airways, Aer Lingus and Iberia. These are not the highest offers by the way, we have seen 100k and even higher. So, unless you love and need Avios, maybe go zzzzzz. Every time I see Lingus I wonder who/what came up with such a name for an airline lol.
Wait, more Avios: Cardless Qatar Cards: Up to 60,000 Miles Bonus. Who came up with the stupid name Cardless for a credit card? If the three cards above did not put you to sleep, this offer from Cardless will certainly do! Stay away, small signing bonuses and…one card per lifetime rule on top to ruin it all, pass!
MY ACTION
No burning of any miles/points this past week but I am waiting for a charge to appear in my Capital One Venture X account so I can use some CO points to wipe it out. What is it for? Well, I decided to book the conference hotel of the ETF Festival in Bangkok because of convenience. It is the Ambassador Hotel and I booked it on Agoda for $168. For 4 nights, without breakfast. I am keeping my 21 night reservation with points at the Hyatt Place Bangkok Sukhumvit as it is only 5,000 Hyatt points per night and I need the night credits to qualify for Globalist elite status. Depending on how Hyatt bookings shape going forward, I will likely shave some of the duplicate stays from the HP #developing. I was going to stay around the corner at the great Hyatt Regency we stayed last year but it now costs 12.000 Hyatt points per night and I would rather stay at the conference hotel for $168 for 4 nights instead.
Speaking of Agoda, I have an account now. Very nice website. I think this site specializes in Asia travel bookings, can someone confirm?
I am finding I am using Capital One points more and more. I hold the Capital One Venture X card. We know this bank can be quirky in approvals. What other card earning these points the bank will allow and approve me for? Any suggestions welcome. Can I go for the Capital One Venture X for Business while holding the personal Venture X? That card signing bonus is down to 150,000. I should have looked into it when the signing bonus was 300,000 points but I was busy blogging for you guys. Crazy high minimum spend though.
Looking for Detroit to Thessaloniki, Greece ticket on May 19 through May 24. Preferably using miles. Any ideas from the veterans please let me know, thanks!
Son flies for business and last year he met the criteria to earn Alaska Airlines MVP Gold elite status due to a targeted promotion. First class upgrades have been mostly miss than hit. But he did get upgraded from Detroit to Seattle and on to Honolulu last week. He said “I used to not care about being upgraded but now I sure check the app to see if the upgrades cleared, is this what lifestyle creep is about?”. I said yes 🙂 . He is only about 500 miles to qualify as MVP this year but it looks like qualifying for MVP Gold will be a stretch.
Update: I burned 30,000 Choice Privileges points for one night at Ludington, Michigan in very busy mid August. I had to wait until the 110 day award window opened up and pounced on it. It is a Comfort Inn, please don’t judge. It is very expensive in Michigan near the lakes in the summer with so many tourists and there is nothing else I can use points nearby so it is perfect. Yes, I could pay but I prefer to blow the money on a nice meal you know. Besides, it is more fun using points. Also, finally found a use for these Choice points I have from the Radisson program that was acquired last year.
ADVANCED
In the old glory days of this hobby I never let a mile/point escape me. I had many accounts all over the place. I still do but I have been phasing out some programs just to simplify my life and just consolidate. In the hotel front, I was a Hilton guy and also used IHG as well. And of course SPG but I was never a fan boy of the program unlike many in this space, we are all different. Lately, Hyatt has become my go to program and Hilton my secondary go to. And I share these feelings as well with Hilton getting better and Hyatt becoming stingier with no end in sight: Is My Thinking About World of Hyatt vs. Hilton Honors Changing Thanks to SLH / Mr. and Mrs. Smith?
It amazes me I still learn things I don’t know after so many years of playing around in this hobby: Tip: Expedite Chase Ultimate Rewards Points By Product Changing Card.
The amount of publicity Bilt still gets boggles the mind. It announced a new transfer partner, Hilton Honors. At the beyond insulting transfer ratio 1:1. Bloggers still can’t get themselves to speak honestly and say how insulting this is. Anyway, I guess I am giving up on ever getting an invite to be wined and dined by this company lol.
Well, this was expected: Bad News! Capital One Venture X Business Card Loses Priority Pass Restaurants. Only applies for new cardholders, the old ones still holding the Mastercard version of the card can still enjoy the PP restaurants until the axe gets to them too.
Big layoffs are coming at Vacasa so you may want to book stays soon?
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 CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards, 150k AMEX Business Platinum, 80k CHASE Southwest Performance Business, $1,000 Cash Back CHASE Ink Business Premier, 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 581,178 miles/points year to date (1,148,286 in 2023) and have 4,433,710 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 if you ever get a credit card here!
Let me leave you with this:
Some of the links are behind a paywall. You can try to read them using Archive.is.
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TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
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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.
Good morning!
Hope your mother is doing ok.
Thanks for all the credit card ideas … and the links to the internet “advice” …
Sorry to hear about your mom, I wish her a speedy recovery. My mom had the fall and hip surgery thing a couple of years ago. She’s still hanging in there.
I enjoyed my first trip to Alabama, it seems like a nice place (the northern part anyway, I didn’t make it south of Birmingham). Currently in Nashville, then the mountain drive back to Charlotte on Sunday.
Darned sorry to hear of your mom’s fall! Hope the recovery is fast and complete! Good luck getting a smooth and uneventful flight to and from Greece, as well!
Great link today! Thanks! Read about 5 so far, more with coffee tomorrow!
Take care!
Longtime Agoda customer here. For a while, there was lots of competition in the Asian hotel consolidation market. I wasn’t playing the hotel credit card game too hard back then and was delighted by some local hotel deals I got via Agoda and its many competitors. (For example, I got a lovely room at The Stamford in Singapore before that silly ship hotel across the way rose up and spoiled the view ;-D)
Last year, I was unable to follow through on a complex set of flights due to a flat tire on the arriving plane I needed. That delay (~18 hours) let to a domino effect to the point where I could not get to my most important connecting flights and all alternatives were sold out. UA was abominable in handling the mess (TY Pete Buttigieg for future prompt cash refunds!), offering only a $200 nontransferable credit valid for only 1 year. But Agoda was worse: they refused to refund the money for a booking despite my providing them with all of the paperwork they requested. I escalated the matter within Agoda, plus cc’d the hotel manager who said I should be reimbursed as my cancellation was well within their cancellation terms, and who even stated that after my cancellation they had rented the room to another person. Agoda refused to budge. All of my other hotel bookings refunded me quickly, without issue. (This had been put on a new credit card that was meeting signup bonus spend, and sadly had no travel insurance.) So buyer beware. YMMV.
Another word of warning about Agoda. A year ago I used it for the first time, booking a couple refundable rooms in Mazatlan, Mexico for the eclipse nearly a year later. I chose Agoda because it was slightly cheaper than other OTAs due to some coupons and a new customer promo I think. The hotel was a backup to my first choice of the one Marriott in Mazatlan, but it took the full year of constantly checking until I was able to secure the Marriott rooms I needed with points. A couple weeks before our visit, I called the hotel booked through Agoda to make sure they had our bookings. I thought maybe I’d keep them as a backup at less than $100/room per night in case somehow Marriott didn’t have our rooms available upon arrival, because finding alternate accommodations would have been extremely expensive (or impossible?) due to the eclipse crowds. Upon calling, the Agoda-booked hotel had no record of our reservation. Agoda looked into it and eventually agreed that they or the hotel had messed up somehow, and after initially saying their “guarantee” would put us up in a similar hotel (at no extra cost to us), they must have looked at the sky-high prices and decided to back out. They offered us a full refund and 50% of the price of the booking as a future Agoda credit, expiring in 6 months. I negotiated it up to 60%. In the end it worked out because it was just a backup that I ended up not needing, but if I were a normal tourist who had just booked one hotel, I would have been COMPLETELY SCREWED. Might the same thing have happened with another OTA? Maybe. But it was enough of a disaster that I’ll never use Agoda again after using the free credit they gave me.
This may be known already, but Agoda is a subsidiary of Booking Holdings, aka Booking.com, and almost all the smaller OTAs are subsidiaries of either Booking Holdings or Expedia.
Keep in mind, when making a hotel reservation through an OTA, you probably won’t receive any hotel points, either. And just for giggles, even good old Priceline is a part of Booking Holdings.
Just found your comment held up in Spam, not sure why. Sorry for the delay and thanks for the feedback.
NY Post could have at least used your links. Slackers.
Glad your mom is doing okay. Those situations can be tough.
Just saying hi.
Trying to deal with the Greek health system is a bitch when you don’t even understand the US health system, sad lol.
I appreciate all the Agoda feedback. I am definitely keeping the Hyatt Place reservation then as a backup.
Hey Buzz,
Thanks for the links, always greatly appreciated.
Congrats to your daughter and family on the graduation.
Good luck to your mom.
Sorry I have not replied to your email. Life has been a little hectic lately.
Hi from Philadelphia!
Door keys have been down all day at the Hyatt Centric Center City, so weird,
I need to conquer my “eat everything at airline lounges and hotel breakfasts” strong tendencies, I so need to move on from this stage in my life lol.
Markets just gone crazy lately. Not that they have never been crazy…but I mean, this meme stock shit is back only to go poof after just a few days?
I should have a 75k Citi Premier affiliate link tomorrow, EMAIL ME. Trying desperately to meet the cc quota before this vendor kicks me out and just put this baby to rest once and for all you guys.
First time at a Capital One Bank cafe. It is nice. 50% off if you use a Capital One bank so I pulled out my Venture X. Lady across the street with sign “Homeless Vegan”, welcome to Philly.
You on your way to Greece? How’s your mom?
See new post. Heading to Greece in a week or so, this last minute booking is not working out yet. She is back in familiar surroundings,started PT. Spirits are good, body not as so…at 84 years old.