Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as more private equity warnings, boredom crisis, curing cancer, more premium travel reward cards changes, lack of tech jobs, hopeless housing, another crypto bro going to prison, viral trickshot video stars, the best hotels in Thailand, best camping places in the US, Spirit Airlines descending, 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.
TBB on!
PERSONAL FINANCE
I will continue to warn about the coming free for all for your pockets with all things “private” investments. Then again, I am the guy who has been warning about crypto for years and look at what happened. So, take my advice with a grain of salt. Come to think of it, why grain of salt and not, say, grain of rice or something huh? Anyway, here is the article: The Gilded Age of Private Equity for the Masses.
The asset management firms hoping to gain access to trillions of dollars in “retail” investor dollars are explicitly referencing this aura of exclusivity as a key marketing message for private equity offerings. But there are several reasons to be wary when you hear fund marketers make claims about “democratizing investing” or opening up access to areas previously only available to an elite group.
Investors who buy into publicly traded stocks or bonds are getting both transparency about what they’re investing in plus a ready source of liquidity. Private capital investments, on the other hand, are often opaque and illiquid by design.
“The first people who invested in private equity got the filet mignon and the lobster tails, and the Vanguards and Fidelities of this world are going to wind up with tuna noodle casserole.” – Bill Bernstein
So, just beware of what is to be unleashed ok?
When you hear claims about the virtues of open access to areas that were once off-limits, it’s worth thinking carefully about who’s really benefiting. As passively managed funds with rock-bottom expense ratios continue to gain market share, asset management firms are under pressure to find new sources of high-margin revenue. And that new source of revenue, in many cases, is you.
I am adding this link for my son and his friends who read my blog. Looking back, 2019 was a hell of a year to graduate from college with a software engineering degree. I feel for the kids who are graduating this year: Goodbye, $165,000 Tech Jobs. Student Coders Seek Work at Chipotle. As companies like Amazon and Microsoft lay off workers and embrace A.I. coding tools, computer science graduates say they’re struggling to land tech jobs.
Among college graduates ages 22 to 27, computer science and computer engineering majors are facing some of the highest unemployment rates, 6.1 percent and 7.5 percent respectively…
I really enjoyed this podcast interviewing Redfin’s CEO: Why Housing Feels Hopeless.
Interesting visual: 25 Richest Countries in the World, by Three Metrics.
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
Another crypto asshole pleads guilty and likely heading to prison for several years. Unless he changes his tune soon and starts angling for a pardon that is: Crypto Entrepreneur Do Kwon Pleads Guilty to Fraud Charges Stemming From Crypto Crash. And this guy was one arrogant prick indeed. Founder of TerraUSD and Luna digital tokens faces as many as 25 years in prison.
MUST READ, just take some time to read this: Bored. So much to excerpt that I just can not pick a few passages. Heck, I could do a separate post about this just one piece. I subscribed to this newsletter by the way. Absolute writing gem. What is this about? Ok, just two short excerpts below to give you an idea:
Americans currently enjoy more leisure time than at any point in history; yet 83% of us report spending none of this time whatsoever “relaxing or thinking”. Instead, we are trapped in a casino of likes, retweets and dopamine-soaked drudgery— consuming content so hyper-stimulating that relaxing is impossible and thinking is unnecessary. The average American, today, spends 6 hours awake “consuming content”, checks their phone 205 times a day (once every five minutes) and lives in a house with 17 internet-connected screens.
Americans today feel more anxious, more adrift and more unhappy. We are also— never bored.
And it just gets better diving into our boredom condition…
What a story, Toronto Life does it again. Becoming El Jefe. Before Ryan Wedding landed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list as a high-level associate of El Chapo, he was a bright-eyed kid from Thunder Bay. The inside story of how an Olympic snowboarding prodigy became one of the world’s most dangerous and powerful drug lords. Wow, this guy is still out there…
ODDZ & ENDZ
Maybe this one belonged in the previous section about Tech. But I am taking the liberty of sticking it into this section. Because I can as I have no sponsors or anything like that to dictate what I do in my own blog here. And I am proud of that you know. So, here we go: I Was Diagnosed with Incurable Cancer. This Futuristic Treatment Could Save Me. I’ve endured numerous rounds of radiation and taken thousands of pills—but CAR-T is the most effective therapy I’ve completed yet. I had never heard of CAR-T therapy before. And, you know, blogging here goes a long way to satisfy my eternal curiosity and unparalleled thirst for knowledge. Maybe this is a reason I am still blogging?.
CAR-T therapy involves harvesting T cells from your bloodstream, then sending them to a lab where a protein called a chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, is added to the surface of the T cells (hence the acronym “CAR-T”). The CAR protein helps the T cells recognize antigens found on the surface of specific cancer cells, in my case myeloma cells, so the T cells can target and kill the malignant cells. The CAR-charged T cells are then infused back into your body intravenously to do their work.
We all have watched some of these videos on YouTube. Very interesting article about the guys doing this for a living: Knife throwing and cheeseburger spinning: the agony and ecstasy of being a viral trickshot video star. Think you could throw a basketball off a 540ft dam, into a hoop – while blindfolded? Meet the talented and ludicrously patient people putting hours into the internet’s most joyful (and pointless) clips. Yeah, but after you watch a few clips, you should start wondering what is the point smh.
Crazy story: How Did a Pair of Football Buddies From Utah Join a Coup in the Congo? The creation of two unlikely soldiers of fortune. How can some people think and behave this way? Ok, let’s not go there please.
Wow, what a video, I did not know about this kid: The boy who shot the Vietnam war. By 1968, 12-year-old Lo Manh Hung (aka Jimmy) was already a seasoned photographer, following his photojournalist father into some of the Vietnam War’s most dangerous situations. Their work documented the protracted and bloody conflict in their homeland for national and international news outlets. The young boy eventually became the family’s main breadwinner – constantly put his life on the line to provide his family with a vital means of survival. It’s thought that many of his negatives were lost during the fall of Saigon, as his life was about to enter a new chapter far from his native country.
Absolutely amazing photography: The earliest photos of America will amaze you.
TRAVEL
Shocking how this airline was making so much money before Covid. And now? Spirit Airlines warns it might not be able to survive a year without more cash. For an even deeper analysis by The Crankly Flier, see: Spirit’s Survival Hopes Dim After Posting Awful Q2 Results. Yikes.
Yes, we can finally exclude Basic Economy tickets on Google Flights, hooray! Google Flights Officially Adds Basic Economy Filter, Teases New AI-Powered ‘Flight Deals’ Search. Oh, skip that AI thing, it sucks.
If you are into camping: 23 Most Scenic Places to Camp in the United States.
The obligatory Thailand link: These are the 11 Best Hotels in Thailand.
Never seen this before: The Most Turbulent Flight in Each Continent. Yep, I totally expected Kathmandu, Nepal – Lhasa, Tibet to be on this list.
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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.
Some interesting choices by American Airlines expanding with these new Europe routes: American Goes Retro and Opportunistic With 2026 Europe Routes. Which includes Dallas – Athens, Greece.
Register for the latest IHG One Rewards promotion HERE to earn up to 30,000 bonus points.
Typical ridiculous Marriott Bonvoy promotion: Earn Double Points on only Homes & Villas properties. Through December 31, 2025. But wait, there is more, only on stays of 3+ night rentals lol. Well, if you think you may stay in one of these properties, might as well register to earn some Bonvoy points HERE.
If you are going to fly on United soon, go ahead and see if you get any offers to earn some bonus miles in its ongoing MilePlay promotion HERE. Lower your expectations and be pleasantly surprised when they get credited. And definitely do not go out of your way to do this. I enrolled everyone in my family and the best I got was to earn 4,500 United miles if I buy AND fly on two trips that cost over $100 each by October 7, 2025.
There have been some weird hotel brands lately. And this one from Hyatt is up there: Bunkhouse Hotels. We would be interested to hear your views if you recently stayed here.
Love this ongoing battle between Alaska and Delta: Battle for Seattle: Can Delta Keep Dominating International Flights?
The latest on this front: Current Status Match Opportunities For Various Airline & Hotel Loyalty Programs.
TRAVEL REWARDS CREDIT CARDS
First, we have an actual improvement: Capital One Venture X and Venture Cardholders Get 4th Night Free at Premier and Lifestyle Collection Hotels. No big deal in the big picture, unless you book independent hotels. If we could book Hyatt properties with this and get elite night credit points for it while enjoying elite status, oh yeah baby we can dream I guess. But still, the point is, after repeated beatings in this space this represents an actual improvement.
As we are all waiting for the refreshing of the Amex Platinum cards to arrive, here we go with the leaks/rumors: New American Express Platinum $600 FHR Credit Coming ($300 Semi Annual). Good to see this in the Business Platinum card. Because the annual fee on it is coming up for me soon on September 1st so I may be able to sneak in with $695 one final year. I think I may keep it because I need to feel important lol. Seriously, $200 airline credit, most of $200 Hilton credit and now $150 Dell credit (already got $200 Dell credit earlier this year). And maybe I can use these new FHR credits in the next year or so. So, do you think Amex is going with $895 or $995? Oh, decisions decisions. I will try to make time in Greece to chat with an Amex rep to get me another retention bonus of course.
Looks like we have a new name: Atmos Rewards The New Combined Program For Alaska Airlines & Hawaiian. Oh wait, we now have details about the new Alaska Airlines New Premium card to be titled Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card. Interesting offer if everything holds true, we will see when it comes out. At least Bank of America, it appears, is going with a 100,000 Signup Bonus, not like the stingy 80k Citi Strata Elite offer. Then again, the caliber of BofA vs Citi is, well, not much different so I am not going to celebrate yet another 100k offer for us. Which means the signup bonus offer may end up being 60k lol. I always found airline companion awards to be awful as awful as the mental bandwidth expended on using credit card credits. Eight lounge and wifi passes each year is really good. And earning 1 “status” point per 2 dollars means, for high spenders, you can spend your way to top elite status. For committed Alaska Airlines flyers this card may be a keeper imho.
If at least 100k SUB, it is definitely worthy to get for the first year. But I am not sure in its present rumored form this is going to be a keeper for most who don’t fly this airline much. I guess we’ll decide when the new program comes out on August 20th to make a better judgement call on it. As far as earning rates go, it is good to see it with 3x on dining. And seeing one of the most intriguing earning categories for a travel rewards credit card, the 3x on foreign purchases. When I move to Thailand this may become my go to card. As with all expats? This has potential for abuse so I expect BofA to nerf it. It will start with security texts to approve each micro transaction at 7 Eleven stores overseas lol until you are texted to death lol.
NEW OFFERS:
We have a great REFERRAL offer from Capital One: 75,000 Points + $300 Travel Credit Capital One Venture. Previous best offer had the same number of points and only $250 travel credit. I got this card with the $250 travel credit and now feel like the bank owes me $50 lol. If you value simplicity, this card earns 2x points everywhere (and 5x on hotels and rental cars booked on the Capital One travel portal) with a $95 annual fee. No foreign transactions fees, Visa Signature benefits and credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck.
Capital One is at it again with a revised offer for the Capital One Spark Cash Business Card $1,000 Signup Bonus With $10,000 Spend. The card has its annual $95 fee WAIVED for the first year. No annoying credits to deal with, it just earns 2 points everywhere. And you can earn 5x on hotels and rental cars booked on the Capital One travel portal too. And when you have a Capital One Venture X or the Venture card above, the $1,000 can be turned into 100,000 miles. The interesting thing about this card is that the signup bonus went DOWN from $1,500/150,000 points. But the actual minimum spend also went down to $10,000 from $15,000. I am starting to wonder if we are finally seeing a decrease in minimum spend requirements due to the softening economy? This Spark card version DOES get reported to all three credit bureaus (the Spark Plus version of the card does not). Maybe one day we will see Capital One stop doing this ridiculous 3 credit bureau pull thingie, how annoying!
EXPIRING OFFERS:
We have an expiration date finally for the Chase Sapphire Reserve: 100,000 Point + $500 Sign Up Bonus, New $795 Annual Fee & More. It ends AUGUST 21, hurry! Chase remains my favorite bank #hint.
After waiting for Citi to introduce a premium credit card, it finally arrived. Please click the link below to get all the info you need about the card and email me if you want to apply.
Citi Strata Elite Review: 80,000 Points Bonus, $595 Annual Fee, $300 Hotel & $200 Splurge Credit
Citi has a new offer for 30,000 Thank You points for its Strata no annual fee card. It replaces the Citi Rewards+ card. Very good earning rates for a no annual fee card: 5x on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked on cititravel.com, 3x spent at Supermarkets, Select Transit, Gas & EV Charging Stations, 3x spent on an eligible Self-Select Category of your choice, 2x spent at Restaurants and 1x on All Other Purchases. Email me if interested.
Chase Southwest Personal Cards: 100,000 Points with $4,000 Spend In 5 Months. 100k Signup bonus for all 3 personal cards is excellent. If you like 100k bonuses and free bags it makes sense too 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 still favorite bank Chase is at it again. We have two new 100k 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. Ends November 5, 2025.
Speaking of 100k offers, the United Quest card offer ends August 20, 2025: Chase United Quest Card: 100,000 + Up To 15,000 Miles Signup Bonus Offer.
If you are into Marriott Bonvoy, we have two worthy elevated and best ever offers and you know where you can find them:
Marriott Bonvoy Bevy: Earn 155,000 Bonvoy points after $5k minimum spend within the first 6 months, $250 Annual Fee
Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant: Earn 185,000 Bonvoy points after $6k minimum spend within the first 6 months, $650 Annual Fee
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
So much going on. Guess where we will be tonight? Yep, spending one night at the Hyatt Place in East Lansing, Michigan. At 8,000 World of Hyatt points per night. This will be the 2nd of the three nights I expect to stay in Hyatt Place hotels before the end of a promotion to earn 3,000 World of Hyatt points back. Short drive away and we are having dim sum in Lansing tomorrow with another couple. And tonight we will go back to the Blume restaurant inside the Hilton Garden Inn to eat $50 worth of food for “free” using my Amex Hilton Surpass card to use the $50 Hilton quarterly credit #winning. I verified the Amex card Hilton credits still work here by checking this Google Sheets database. And next week looking forward to eating at Ruth’s Chris steakhouse in Grand Rapids finally using some of my $50 Hilton gift cards I got for free earlier this year before we caused that vendor to choke lol. We will do our best to choke on some big fat steaks instead, thanks Amex woohoo.
I have not done much on my big two trips to Greece and Thailand. Actually, Turkish Airlines canceled my wife’s Istanbul to Bangkok flight and rebooked her the next day. That was not going to fly so I canceled her paid ticket and got refund back. So, back to another alert built in Points Yeah looking to burn some miles to fly her to Kuala Lumpur. Before she joins us in Bangkok in November.
I also gifted one World of Hyatt Guest of Honor certificate to my son and booked another room for our stay at the Thessaloniki Greece Hyatt Regency as I found out that three is the maximum number of guests allowed. Just 8,000 points spent and we will all get breakfast and lounge access. And have more room too. And, this is important, I do get another elite night credit to add to my dash to requalify as World of Hyatt Globalist. Latest projected elite night credit now stands at 56. I think I have at least one more night at the same Hyatt Regency. Or two. And could leave as the closer another two night credits from the $5k personal World of Hyatt Visa regular spend.
Son finally gave me an update on his Air Canada Aeroplan account he is handling alone. Well, he is down to just 500 miles after he booked several trips. He sent me a screenshot and had to guess the trips with each deduction from his Aeroplan account. I think 58,300 miles were used to fly himself from Detroit to Montreal and his girlfriend from Honolulu to Montreal. Then he used 13,700 miles to fly back to Detroit from Montreal and I see another one for 26,800 miles to do the same flight in business class. These miles had landed in Aeroplan after taking advantage of Chase to Aeroplan transfer bonuses.
Third Chase Ink Business Preferred card has been closed. Good to have some breathing space as we soon embark on two long family trips and have no bandwidth to apply for more cards in the meantime. That recent 200k+ score from the Chase Sapphire Reserve business card felt good though.
Been super busy shifting work from September to this month so I don’t drive my familia crazy in Greece lol. Also, we are all in having design meetings for our mega kitchen and master bathroom remodeling projects. So many decisions to make is kind of a little bit too much, first world problems.
No time for movies. I may go see Nobody 2 and I do have the feeling that I will be disappointed because, you know, sequels and all.
Going in for a cortisone injection shot targeting the S1 nerve on Monday morning, cross fingers this actually does something to improve the weird feet issues I have had for 2+ years now.
This GOAT pole vaulter just keeps breaking his own world records, no one is even close, amazing: Mondo Duplantis sets pole vault world record for 13th time. This time was at 6.29 meters (or 20.636 feet), crazy! Actually, the second best pole vaulter is a Greek guy who always goes to congratulate him as they are great friends. Man, it must be tiring lol.
I DO have a separate page listing my other affiliate links HERE including: Rakuten and Top Cash Back.
I am giving myself a challenge for the summer, average 5 credit card sales and 15 Buy Me a Coffee sales per month.
June:
Credit card sales: 7 Buy me a Coffee sales: 1
July:
Credit card sales: 6 Buy me a Coffee sales: 24
August:
Credit card sales: 6 Buy me a Coffee sales: 3
Update: Thank you to blog readers for the support. I guess you don’t want me to quit. I thought I had a good shot of failing the challenge above so I can gracefully move on. I am going to keep this challenge going and roll of the earlier month as we go forward. Going to hit year 13 blogging here in three months #wow.
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS:
200k CHASE Sapphire Reserve Business, 100k CHASE Sapphire Reserve AND $500 Travel Credit (ENDS 8/21), 175k AMEX Platinum, 100k CHASE Southwest Plus/Premier/Priority (ENDS 9/17), 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 100k CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash, 150k AMEX Business Platinum, 200k CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash Plus, 75k CHASE Sapphire Preferred, 100k AMEX Gold, 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 1,170,067 miles/points year to date (2,027,816 in 2024) and have 4,324,336 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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Good morning Buzz,
Thanks for the great post and enjoy your weekend.
The El Jefe story, crikey
Possible gold for the desert rats…
Silver! For the Pacific Northwest! I think that Marathon runner was in 1911, not 2011, George!
Lots of great reading to do this weekend! Yay!
Much appreciated and enjoyed!
There goes my bonus, shit!
Sorry I’m late! I’ll bring a note from the archivist …
The tuna casserole struck a nerve. I mentioned “tuna helper” once and students
almost passed out! Different worlds.
Thanks for the weekend reading material!
One of the nice things about not being a kid is I don’t have to eat tuna casserole anymore.
Going to have some tuna sometime this week now…
Atmos doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue does it? Wonder which brilliant genius got paid millions of $s to come up with that?
See The Standard Hua Hin is included in the list of best Thai hotels. I am getting tempted to try it if we do actually go through with out Christmas Thailand trip which has been off/on just about on a daily basis. Nothing booked yet, but that’s how we roll, make it up on the spot and go with it.
Interesting that you haven’t burnt more points this year. So far I am only at about 1/3 of my burn rate for the past 2 years and not sure if that’s because it is harder to find redemptions or due to my declining points balances. It’s been a dire year for Hyatt bonuses that’s for sure. We have 14 nights at GH Singapore next month so praying for a bonus offer before then but expecting zilch.
Will respond tomorrow. Need to take a break after losing another email list subscriber. Feel so disappointed every time this happens…hurt actually. I think I publish great content here and then bang smh.
Amazing to see Iceland ranked #5 in GDP considering how hard the financial crisis hit the country in 2008. Mondo is more dominant than Sergey Bubka….
CAR-T is amazing, still easier to treat liquid tumors than solid.
@ David: First by several miles, congrats. You win…not sure what, lol.
@ Carl: Fixed that typo right away, thanks. Will let the intern keep the imaginary bonus lol.
@ DML: Is archivist note today’s “dog ate my homework” excuse? 🙂
@ Vicky: I am ok with Atmos. It is certainly unique. And it derives, like all human language lol, by a Greek word. Which has a meaning of “air”…hope it is not all hot air woohoo. I have seen pics of The Standard in Hua Hin and I am just not that awed by it at all, let along seeing in that best of list. I think the one in Bangkok looks nicer in the Mahanakhon building, hope an earthquake when we stay there, it is a looooong way down to the ground. Yeah, the lack of meaningful Hyatt bonuses (especially no double elite night credit promos) has made requalifying for Globalist hitting 60 nights an act that is sure taking its too. In other words, certainly feeling it this year. And it is certainly harder to find redemptions. Not sure PointsYeah is that good, will likely not renew it.
@ ABC: Yeah, especially when you consider the shenanigans by the banks in Iceland were even more outlandish than the cream of the US banks. Amazing comeback indeed. Did know much about CAR-T, certainly do now.
“Invest like the 1%”… Who could possibly have foreseen this outcome?
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/18/yieldstreet-real-estate-bets-customer-losses.html
Gee, I sure hope this doesn’t happen when they allow riskier stuff in 401ks…
This fits the blog mission, thank you!
“Invest” Like the 1%. Let me rewrite that:
Lose Like the 1%.
World of Hyatt customer services has deteriorated bigly.
Check your reservations.
We decided to cancel one and…it was nowhere to be found. Apparently the rep had already canceled it for us when I had instructed her to update it to the previous night. WTF!
Atmos
In case you missed it lol.