We bring you to the new era in awards and how United screws its MileagePlus members, travel to Mauritius and Uzbekistan, meet some unlikely US tax havens, best article about our divisions that I have read recently, sign up for a Best Western Rewards promo if you dare, go to a Mexican city for dental work, learn about the history of interest rates, watch an amazing art video and more. I bring you eclectic stuff to stick with the mission below. For over 7 years. Thanks for your support!
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Lets get the party started…
MILES & POINTS
November 15 was the day United deleted its award charts. They followed the lead of Delta as they almost always do. We now await American Airlines to do the same thing and I am not sure why they are taking so long. Maybe they are occupied to keep their operations afloat as they have substantially deteriorated in the last several years. DansDeals was out first with “Here Are 9 Things You Need to Know About the Good, Bad, And Surprising Changes That United MileagePlus Made Today!“. I think Dan is being awfully generous to United. As November 15 rolled on, the bad news started to come out and Charlie at Running With Miles was all over it:
Did United Lie? Partner Awards Are Now Higher – And That Wasn’t Supposed to Happen – Of course they lied. Only us sharp miles obsessed freaks would know. The vast majority of MileagePlus members (I would guess 98.9% of them) would have absolutely no clue. Remember, this worked for Delta lol and this post was just hours into Day 1! But wait, there is more…
Not Good: United Replaced the $75 Close-In Booking Fee with a Mileage Surcharge – Even Delta would not do that. Take credit for killing the $75 close-in booking fee and then replace it with a mileage surcharge. On a second thought, yes Delta would do exactly something like that!
Well, it only took one day for DansDeals to come around and let United hear it: United Adds Mileage Surcharge For Close-In Award Bookings, Here Are Ways To Avoid Them. “But United has now added mileage surcharges onto close-in awards. That means they deceived us about partner awards not going up in cost and about the fee for close-in awards being eliminated.”
Best Western Rewards® members who register on bestwestern.com by November 18, 2019, book an eligible stay* online between November 15, 2019 and November 28, 2019, and complete their eligible stay before March 20, 2020 will earn 3000 Best Western Rewards Bonus Points for every eligible stay.
TRAVEL
If you travel to Mauritius, read this: 30 Useful Things to Know Before You Travel to Mauritius.
Need dental work done cheap and done well? Welcome to Molar City, Mexico. The town of Los Algodones has mastered dental tourism! You know, Greece could be a hotbed of medical tourism rivaling Thailand but…making plans and sticking to them is not something that is characteristic of Greek politicians, so sad!
Learned a lot in this one by GlobalGaz: Exploring the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan. The Aral Sea used to be the fourth largest lake in the world but since the 1960s it has shrunk 90%, thanks to Soviet Union policies, wow! Did you know Uzbekistan has an autonomous republic which is considered sovereign state and holds veto power over Uzbekistan? Neither did I! It is the Karakalpakstan (say that quickly three times in a row, I dare you!) Republic and its capital is Nukus. Two photos stood out, here they are:
PERSONAL FINANCE
South Dakota has been hot ever since the state became THE place for the mega rich to park their money in trusts. Fascinating account of the history behind it and how it all started with a Governor whose nickname was “Wild Bill” in the 80s. You probably get Citi credit cards statements and if you were attentive to detail you would notice the mailing address is in South Dakota. After the financial crisis, there was a concerted effort to stop tax havens around the world and someway, somehow…some states in the US escaped it all and are now becoming tax havens, it is maddening!
The great American tax haven: Why the super rich love South Dakota
Fascinating chart: The History of Interest Rates Over 670 Years. Yeah, it is a race to the bottom these days…
ODDZ & ENDZ
What a fascinating video! Like Watching Ghosts by Anthony Baldino. “Video incorporating image processing via python and BigGAN adversarial artificial neural network to breed new images. There are papers about “high fidelity natural image synthesis“. Ok, play it with the sound up!
This is a BestOfWeb piece! The Places Where the Recession Never Ended. A conversation with Tara Westover about the urban/rural divide. If you are concerned about where the United States is going with the divisions that appear to be getting sharper every day, you MUST take time out to read this. I am assuming most of my readers fall in the urban side and we must understand where the other side is coming from. Even the racists. Ok, phuk the racists, it is almost 2020, WTF! To give you an idea how good this is, here is just one excerpt:
The fact that Democrats and Republicans now have a different experience of life in this country. Broadly speaking, the modern economy works well for cities and badly for the countryside. In recent years, growth has been hyper-concentrated in our cities, which are hubs of technology and finance. Meanwhile, the hinterlands, which rely on agriculture and manufacturing—what you might call the “old economy”—have sunk into a deep decline. There are places in the United States where the recession never ended. For them, it has been 2009 for 10 years. That does something to people, psychologically.
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 finally got me some winter running gear and joined those crazies running outside I used to make fun of lol. I could not take it in the treadmill dreadmill any more! Be careful driving out there okay?
I can not wait to see the updated valuation of United miles and Ultimate Rewards points over at The Points Guy points valuation guide…yeah, right. They will probably raise them instead because…it is all about conversions lol.
And I leave you with this…
TBB
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Good morning!
The South Dakota story was terrific. I particularly liked how it is making the tax havens out of the US irrelevant. Especially after all the US huffing and puffing about tax havens.
South Dakota marketing campaign:
“Meth? We’re on it”
Really.
#TBBon
Frequent Miler: “Sign up for cards you don’t want to get cards you do”
Stick a fork!
Man if you thought the rural areas in America are stuck in a 2009 recession. you should visit some of the US’s largest cities to see wide swaths of the cities stuck in poverty for multi-decades. Being stuck 10yrs in the past seems like a walk in the park.
I was just in Philadelphia. Very sad to see 100s of homeless ppl sleeping outdoor on pavement when it’s 20F. Inexcusable when you’re running a $1T annual deficit. We often take better care of lost pets.
I was surprised that downtown Philadelphia didn’t want to portray a better image.
HEY ABC…….Obama did nothing for the homeless ……Most Overrated President ever (greatest accomplishment, his father was black and the Obamaphone)…..this homeless epidemic started on his watch. Trump has provided more jobs for ALL people that WANT to work than any other President except FDR. Come to PDX and see what an UBER LIBERAL politically run town does for it’s HOMELESS……nothing! This city is a disgrace, a shanty town that looks like a Sh!thole Country. I use to be SO proud of my city now I am truly embarrassed if a relative comes to visit. It started when all these losers from Oakland/NOCAL and LA started flooding here. Losers not winners with education and job skills, they went where the good jobs are, Seattle. In PDX all we have are coffee shops, pot shops, tattoo shops, food carts and micro brews. F NIKE they contract out. Filth, litter, graffiti, gridlock traffic and thousands of homeless shantys everywhere. Tens of thousands of homeless, all drugged out. These Phuckers just throw their shit everywhere, I used to be sympathetic, but no longer, I realize 100% of them are on drugs (see documentary mentioned below). I literally get sick driving on I-5 north of town, so disgraceful.
My wife tells me her practice gets multiple underdeveloped newborns(many very badly damaged) from homeless parents each and every week. EVERY case mother is doing drugs while pregnant. Parents freak out when they lose their kid to social services but this happens to all of them.
Watch SEATTLE IS DYING on you tube, a TV station Doc. Then imagine it is 10X worse, that be Portland (formerly known as the Rose City).
FYI most liberal run cities in this country have the worst homeless crisis’.
I am going to Popeye’s Chicken to try the new Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich…..if I make it back alive I will give a review.
Ramsey’s rant is what Tara’s article was all about.
It’s like an alternate planet. Or reality. Or something…
Obama is now responsible for the homeless crisis? And Trump created more jobs than all Presidents except FDR? Seattle is dying? And PDX is 10x times worse?
Why go elsewhere for entertainment you guys…smh.
Loved the article with Tara Westover and the South Dakota article. Being out of the US for an extended period of time, watching News and reading it (some) not based out of the US, one gets a much different feel for what goes on there. It’s sad, but I think the decline is baked in now and will only speed up as time goes on.
I think it may start if Trump loses and then does not go quietly…
Hillary was the only person who lost and didnt go quietly. She is like a character from Walking Dead. Enjoy pulling the level for Bernie or Warren and hug those socialists tight
Bush didn’t go away when he lost against Gore! If you would have counted all the votes. That’s when I realized how biased the Supreme Court is.Voted straight down the party line. What happened to “every vote counts” no matter what? I can’t respect that “institution”.
In general, Ido agree with you, it’s been 3 years and we still keep hearing from her. You lost. Just go away. You’re not helping the party nor the debate. You’re a gift to the Republican Party.
That was not my point. Hillary did not lose anything, she was a candidate for President. I am referring to Trump actually losing his job in the next election and my bet is he won’t go quietly. Hope I am wrong.
I loved Tara Westover’s book, but her lack of depth and unwillingness to confront the sad historical legacy of bone deep bigotry that is a cultural bonding point for many in white rural America leaves me cold. As is her unwillingness to confront the fact that with current technology, not to mention that which will be coming in the near future, there is no longer any economic reason for most rural communities to exist. Agriculture and resource extraction and manufacturing require far fewer people than they used to. Tourism is now the economic foundation for those communities lucky enough to be in areas where tourists want to go–and for much of the country that’s seasonal.
Are you saying that people are moving out from Seattle and PDX because they are dying to…move to rural areas?
<sarcasm?
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan is the most segregated city in the US. I think thats a little far from the south.
You should visit. Detroit has come a LONG way. People are moving in from everywhere!
Why are you guys so obsessed with Hillary I never understood…
Will post pic of Roger Stone holding Tshirt of Hillary in prison lol
I love Hillary. As a non Socialist voter I love to see her messing with the Democrats. I hope she never leaves. I believe Detriot metro recently won that award for most segregated. So pardon me if I dont take your small sample size of rich white suburbs as the new normal for Detroit
The offer to visit Detroit still stands. Along with the offer to educate us about your pro guns views.
Waiting…
Heres you education on the gun thing and Ive been to Det a few time over the yrs.
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed
Great article on South Dakota. Citibank was able to “export” its high interest rates nationwide thanks to the then recent supreme court case, Marquette Nat. Bank of Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corp., 439 U.S. 299 (1978).
SD is on Meth lol
Mileage Update:
What will it take for you to change your views?
I think the answer is nothing. Sad!
7 months left for my kids to survive high school!
they have a lifetime to survive, not just high school. Driving on the roads with people on drugs, drunk or texting. Life is dangerous.