Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as the US debt reckoning, the industries leveraging AI, scuba diving and roller coasters destinations, the new 80k CITI Strata Elite card, the $4 Million girlfriend experience with stolen money, private assets are coming to raid your 401k plans, crypto kidnapping is thriving, musicians are suffering, shoe laces and ADHD and solar power, tourism deep dive and Bangkok wiki, 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.
Due to new severe credit card affiliate restrictions, there will not be any credit card links in the body of the blog posts other than Capital One Bank and personal referral links going forward. You can always get to my credit card links by clicking on “CREDIT CARDS’ at the menu on the top of the homepage or the big beautiful “We make finding a new credit card simple” banner on the right sidebar. Or, preferably, you can receive new offers in your email inbox by signing up to receive alerts HERE to avoid clicking to find the one credit card you want to apply for. Or you can always email me, thanks for your support.
BLOG HOUSEKEEPING
This is truly a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts. I know this may sound a little repetitive by now but it is still true after all these years.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Well, it is August 1st and here we go with more tariff nonsense smh…
With the recent passage of the new tax law it is time to start planning how you donate to charity: Get Ready for New Rules on Tax Breaks for Charitable Giving. Donors have several months to plan their contributions before changes from the One Big Beautiful Bill kick in.
At least we have Jason Zweig at the Wall Street Journal looking out for regular people. Please be careful of what is coming: Wall Street’s Big Bad Idea for Your 401k. Recent moves by some alternative funds highlight the flaws of offering private assets to public investors.
Because private assets don’t trade, it’s the fund managers—not the market—that determine what they’re worth. That enables the managers to report much fewer and lower fluctuations than public funds do. Then they get to declare that private funds are low risk. That’s ridiculous. In the real world, risk is the chance of losing money, which has nothing to do with how often prices are reported.
In short, an alternative fund can claim to be low risk and to be at least partly liquid—but, sooner or later, it won’t be able to sustain both claims at once. That’s true here, and for all the other funds hoping to rope in a much wider base of everyday investors. Remember that as politicians ease the way for alternative funds to land in your retirement plan.
At some point the debt will matter. Debt Reckoning. Don’t read this if you want to stay happy enjoying your summer, ok?
For now, some hope remains in the fact that the U.S. economy is still growing, in the idea that perhaps we can somehow grow fast enough to outrun our debt—that old American exceptionalism.
One big structural deficiency in the US economic system (if not the world) is this: The Decline of U.S. Housing Affordability (1967–2023).
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
Sometimes Toronto Life has these awesome in depth articles about, well, certain slippery situations. And this one stood out: The $4-Million Girlfriend Experience. Stephanie Sahler was a cam girl. Ralph Puglisi was a man willing to pay anything for her doting attention. It was the perfect arrangement—until she realized that every penny he sent her was stolen. I have seen a lot and I must admit this one shocked me. So much to excerpt here but I’ll let you enjoy this read all on your own. Picture an accountant working at a university without any decent accounting internal controls leaving him in charge. Add previous divorces, two adult daughters and one getting married, aging mother with health issues, a disabled brother, a new love and…you won’t believe what happened next. Currently resting comfortably in a federal prison after being sentenced to 10 years. Sometimes I wonder if he ever seriously thought he could get away with it…
And here goes another fraudster. But this guy went on to scam a billionaire instead making the accountant above look like peanuts: How to Extract $400 Million From a Billionaire: Use a Gilded Age Family Name. He called himself Gregory Mitchell and worked for what looked like an Astor family fund. But who was he really? Reading this I was wondering if some people were born to scam and how in the world a billionaire can fall for this wtf! On top of it all, the fraudster was answering emails from Wall Street Journal reporters, oh the brazeness.
BREAKING: After more than 15 years ever since some dude named Satoshi (we still don’t know who he is by the way) came out of nowhere with his bitcoin paper, we finally have a consumer app to go with it, just kidding. Drum roll: “Wrench attacks”. Say what?
The kidnappings are part of a wider category of incidents known as “wrench attacks” — when perpetrators attack their victims in the real world as a means of acquiring their cryptocurrencies. The term “wrench attack” comes from a comic where two figures talk about stealing someone’s cryptocurrency by hitting them with a “$5 wrench.”
Anyway, the gory details of some truly remarkable arrogant assholes getting pummeled after showing off are here: Crypto kidnapping: How armed gangs are hunting the internet’s high rollers. You know, seeing that dude drive that luxury car in his dirt poor village in Uganda or the Pakistani crypto influencer crying, you know, I don’t feel bad at all that this happened to them. I know, I know, I am sorry. Moral of the story: Keep your mouth shut if you got lucky with crypto. But then again keeping quiet while holding crypto just do not go together.
Nothing really stands out in the latest monthly July 2025 Ponzi Scheme Roundup. Just the usual crypto and real estate schemes, promising crazy returns and stuff like that. Oh, expensive wines ponzi was new. Anyway, NEVER invest in anything that does not come with having your money in an independent custodian (think Schwab or Fidelity) where you have access 24/7 to check in if your money is still intact. Which of course it means NEVER sending money to the salesperson asking you to invest, ONLY to an independent third party you have heard of and can check up on.
You may say this excludes you from joining all the big shots who (supposedly) make so much money in direct real estate investments, start ups, hedge funds, etc. Yes I do say exactly that. And it is perfectly okay and WAY safer to do so. Don’t fall for the sex appeal of these things you can brag about at the next party you are invited to. Stay under the radar, invest in boring low cost index ETFs and focus on what is important, you’ll be glad you did while your friends end up tangled in one of the future Ponzi Scheme roundups lol.
Tough break on college students graduating these days. As it appears many of the job tasks they were hired for AI is taking care of them. Or so they say. Nevertheless, very interesting link: The Industries Leveraging AI The Most. Based on a “survey”, percent of workers using gen AI in one or more functions are:
Technology: 80%
Professional services: 80%
Advanced Industries: 79%
Media/Telecom: 79%
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ODDZ & ENDZ
If you are interested in music, this is a must read: The Death of the Middle-Class Musician. It’s easier than ever to make music, and harder than ever to make a living from it. I knew it was bad but not to this extent.
While Spotify paid out a record $10 billion (US) in royalties in 2024, fewer than 1 percent of artists made more than $6,000 from the platform. In 2021, according to SOCAN, the average Canadian songwriter earned just $67 from streaming that year.
There are some unique websites out there. Like this one: Ian’s Shoelace Site. Fun, fashion & science in the Internet’s #1 website about shoelaces – and home of the Ian Knot, the world’s fastest shoelace knot. If you want to lace shoes, tie shoes or learn about shoelaces – this is the place!
Fantastic read on the subject: The seven things that make ADHD much worse. Experts point to a range of lifestyle and environmental triggers that can worsen this neurodevelopmental disorder. Here’s how to fix them.
Amazing photography in this article, check it out: The Scale of China’s Solar-Power Projects.
The graph below stood out with me last week, we are missing serial killers…oh wait, that did not come out right, lol. I guess the last two decades they have been too busy posting crap on social media in combination with great scientific advances, such as DNA stuff. Or, in scientific terms the name is IGG, Investigative Genetic Genealogy. Which helped track down that ice cold mfer in the Idaho student killings.
TRAVEL
Deep thoughts on the subject: No Country Ever Got Rich From Tourism. What do you think?
Tourism is not a path to prosperity for Southern Europe or likely any nation with a more than trivial population because of the very nature of the activity: for a relatively limited financial reward, it is intensive in both labor and capital while being effectively a zero-sum competition between countries—in which any given country has very limited ability to compete through ingenuity or differentiation—all the while having pretty much only cascading negative externalities on the rest of the economy and society, from overcrowding cities to disincentivizing skilled labor.
I am not into scuba diving. Maybe it is because I almost drowned twice. But maybe you are: 20 Best Scuba Diving Destinations in the World.
Do you like roller coasters? Well, I have THE link for you, you are welcome: Roller Coaster Database. It covers the world by the way. Did you know that as of drafting this post right now there were 6,594 extant and 6,021 defunct roller coasters? Will this link inspire you to Buy me a dozen coffees? If not, well, you can always read my blog for free I guess.
The love affair with Thailand continues, great resource to bookmark: Bangkok Wikitravel.
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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.
The BIG development in this space last week was this: You Can Now Transfer ThankYou Points to American Airlines. At a 1:1 ratio. It came at the same time with Citi finally releasing its own premium credit card that it has been working on for years, more on this in its own section under Travel Rewards Credit Cards below. Many bloggers are cheering this development. Will they still be cheering when American Airlines does a colossal devaluation? It is not a matter of if but when. And to continue on the same theme: Now transfer from most Citi cards to most ThankYou partners (even from Custom Cash).
Is this where we are now you guys? For the Privileged Few, Airport Food Hits a New Height of Luxury. In pursuit of well-heeled fliers, airlines and credit card companies are stocking their elite lounges with caviar, sushi bars and big-name chefs. And this is why the refreshed Amex Platinum may reach $995!
The escalating opulence of lounge food — and the mediocrity of the other offerings in airports — is a sign of just how wide the American wealth gap has grown, said Cecilia L. Ridgeway, a professor emeritus of social sciences at Stanford University. Airline travel itself used to be a symbol of luxury. As more people fly and it becomes less expensive, she said, the wealthy still want to feel distinguished from the general public in visible ways. “We need more signs and symbols that you are doing OK, that people are seeing it, that you are moving up.”
When I first saw this I thought it was another stupid JetBlue flying related promotion. Actually, it is not: TrueBlue Partner Passport Challenge – Earn Up To 7,500 Points. Other than the Avis/Budget car rental, the rest are fairly easy and we do get three months to get these done. Hopefully the airline is still alive then lol.
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Dunkin 500 bonus points – When you opt in for JetBlue x Dunkin’ partnership emails by 10/28.
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Avis/Budget 500 bonus points – When you complete a qualifying Avis/Budget rental 7/28 – 10/28/25.
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TrueBlue Dining 500 bonus points – When you spend $25+ on one dine with a TrueBlue Dining partner (app download and activation required).
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TrueBlue Shopping 500 bonus points – When you spend $50+ at one of TrueBlue Shopping’s 1000+ retailers.
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Airport Rewards 500 bonus points – When you spend $5+ with an Airport Rewards shopping, dining or parking partner.
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Bonus Points 5000 bonus points – When you complete all 5 challenges.
These points are becoming more relevant/in the news lately: Best Uses for Citi ThankYou Points.
Finally, Southwest Airlines makes a positive move as it Partners With Peete’s Coffee. I think we can agree this will be the best coffee in the air. Ok, second best to the coffee Austrian Airlines makes.
Easy. 500 Free IHG One Rewards Points for Downloading the IHG App. Perfect if your IHG points are about to expire.
The hits keep on coming. Are we nearing that inflection point where we say phuck it, I am out? Ouch: Emirates Slaps Award Tickets to Europe & Colombia with Nasty Fee Hikes. I really wanted to fly that Newark to Athens Emirates flight, oh well.
TRAVEL REWARDS CREDIT CARDS
See separate “80k CITI Strata Elite” section below under NEW OFFERS.
The shocking development with the release of the new Citi Strata Elite card is that Citi decided not to mess with the Prestige card: No Changes to Citi Prestige Card and Its Benefits. And the Prestige card now allows transfers 1:1 to American Airlines as well. I bet my July month blog revenue that this is not going to last past 2025. Then again, who knows with dysfunctional Citi.
Talking about dysfunctional banks, hold my beer. Here comes US Bank [Varies By Cardholder] U.S. Bank To Nerf Existing Smartly Cardholders On September 15. We all knew this was coming but the bank somehow wanted to lose millions first before reversing course. I would not be shocked if they totally kill this card by the end of the year. Not that smartly lol.
Wait, US Bank is not done yet. It is time to cull the pain it appears: U.S. Bank To Make Negative Changes To U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve (Travel Transfers, 1¢ Per Point Instead of 1.5¢). Maybe it is time to move on from this bank finally if you happen to still be around?
- Card will earn 10x points on hotel and car rentals and 5x points on flights booked using the U.S. Bank travel center
- Ability to transfer points to other loyalty programs
- 5% discount on gift card redemptions
- Card will earn 3x on mobile wallet purchases on the first $5,000 each billing cycle, then 1x
- Points will be worth 1¢ when redeeming against travel (currently 1.5¢)
- $325 annual credit can only be used for travel through the travel center (previously available on all travel and dining purchases)
And somewhere along the bang so many institutions are getting from jumping into the crypto and stablecoins train, here comes JP Morgan Chase Bank. Remember when its CEO Jamie (I call him Jamie, I can’t help myself) Dimon not too long ago called bitcoin a bunch of BS. And here we go smh: JPMorgan Teams Up With Coinbase. I could do a special post on just this alone but this is getting way too long already so I pass. I just have this feeling that this may not end well.
And if it wasn’t only that, here comes Jamie again doing something that would be unthinkable a few years ago. JPMorgan Chase Nears a Deal to Take Over Apple’s Credit-Card Program. Wtf is wrong with this guy all of a sudden? My guess is he wants to retire with a bang and…move on to replace Jerome Powell as Fed President soon. You heard it here first. Huge compromises by both sides to come to an agreement will have to be made. What stood out was this:
JPMorgan and Apple have been negotiating since early last year… [Early 2024, wow!]
Chase has turned a corner and the trend to make its cards worse will continue, this is coming for sure: [Rumor] Chase To Increase Chase Sapphire Preferred Annual Fee To $150.
I am looking forward to see what the new Bank of America Alaska Airlines premium card will look like. And I am kind of not looking forward to learn the details of the new combined Alaska/Hawaiian Airlines program. Oh, I guess Barclays bank will keep its Hawaiian Airlines card alive for who knows for how long. And who cares really, we got them, charged a few coffees and got the SUB and closed via secured message online; way too easy.
80k CITI Strata Elite
After waiting for this so many years, it finally arrived. And, in a true CITI form, it was deflating:
Citi Strata Elite Review: 80,000 Points Bonus, $595 Annual Fee, $300 Hotel & $200 Splurge Credit
I could paste the info in the link above but it will make this post even longer than it is already. So please click the link above to get all the info you need about it.
I warned to lower your expectations when it comes to Citi. And I was not wrong. I mean, it even got the timing wrong with the Chase Sapphire Reserve marketing blitz still going strong. So, you come out with just 80k SUB, seriously? And to make the point that the bank still has financial issues that it is working through for so many years…it allows a 100k SUB if you endure the pain to go to a branch smh. Ok, the $200 Splurge credit I guess could be easily spent on Best Buy or American Airlines, assuming you activate AND adhere to the fine print (yes, this is a warning). I mean, ok, maybe you can get the full $300 value in that 2 night hotel stay as well, at least it is an annual coupon. But the rest of the couponized benefits are just shit. 1stDibs and Blacklane? Where did the bankers come up with them wtf!
Citi credit cards always had good earning rates. And the new elite card even breaks that too! All the travel purchases now have to go through the subpar Citi travel portal, boo! And dining is at 3x. I mean, ride the Prestige if you have it as long as the Citi allows it (not for long) or just get/keep the $95 Strata Premier card. And restricting the date/time to earn 6x on dining ONLY on Friday and Saturday nights from 6 pm to 6 am EST is just bonkers.
At least we won’t be lounging in Strata lounges anytime soon. And I guess 4 passes into American Airlines Admiral Clubs is better than nothing. But lower your expectations about them too lol.
Am I going for this card? Nope. But when I get back from Thailand in December I might if the SUB is at least 80k so I can TRIPLE dip the hotel/Splurge credits for one annual fee 😉
Good analysis here at the Frequent Miler: Citi Strata Elite now live (with AA transfers!). Complete details and my personal analysis.
Finally, Dans Deals has likely sold “a few” more of these cards than me (none to date lol) with a blog post featuring this absolutely spectacular headline: “Earn 80,000 ThankYou® Points With The New Citi Strata Elite℠ Card, Enough For 16 AA Flights, 8 United Flights To Hawaii, Or Other Awesome Redemptions!”.
Email with any questions about this card, cough.
NEW OFFERS:
If you can somehow make these links come up, go ahead and click at your own risk: Increased Offers Showing Up Again for Amex Business Platinum (250K) and Business Gold (200K).
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 naf 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.
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
EXPIRING OFFERS:
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 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.
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
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MY ACTION AND BLOG BUZZING
Are you noticing a pessimistic tone in my miles and points content today? You are not mistaken. This space needs a recession, sad. The banks are getting the upper hand too. Taking away our birth given right to travel for free lol.
No time for any miles/points burning this past week. And I am now really starting to feel the pressure with the trip to Greece getting closer. Hopefully this weekend I can sit down and book something. I just need to get comfortable doing this last minute booking thing, which was never my strong point. The planner DNA in me I guess…
Getting closer to finishing the big minimum spend on the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business, looking forward to scoring another 230k Chase Ultimate Rewards points soon. Getting to a point where anything below 100k barely makes me blink.
I got a second opinion on my feet issue. The new doc thinks the issue is at my lower back and specifically the S1 nerve root and recommended a cortisone injection specifically targeting that area. Will give it another shot (pun intended) in a few weeks to see if it makes a difference. Coming to terms that a lot of what is happening is connected to, cough, aging. I am sticking with lifting weights, biking and more walking sprinkled here and there with slow jogging. I had signed up for the Toronto Half Marathon as did my wife who is also having aging related spine/disc issues lately. I guess those intense hiking travel plans are behind us? Is it time to shift to cruising with the old geezers?
I reminded my kids who live in Honolulu and Seattle that in Michigan we do not have any tsunamis at all.
The trailer of the movie Together looks terrifying.
It’s been super hot this past week. Naturally, it brought to mind one of my favorite songs titled: Inferno.
Been craving for a steak lately and it was worth it. Oh, I need to visit my barber unless I audition for a Santa Claus movie 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. 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: 6 Buy me a Coffee sales: 24
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 4,167,450 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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First.
Marking everyone tardy!
I think I agree that “No Country Ever Got Rich From Tourism.” Louisiana’s a state, not a country, but we’re a decent example of how this has been tested over decades since we went from oil & gas being the #1 industry in the 1970s to tourism being the #1 industry since the early 1980s.Young talent is forced out of the state because the opportunities just aren’t here.
Can I bring a note to excuse my lateness?
All sorts of interesting links today! You’re right about the wine ponzi! I’ve never
read about such a move.
Wow! There’s always a lot of good stuff here but this week’s post is exceptional! Gonna have to start waking up on East coast time instead of west coast, I guess. I don’t like being tardy but I don’t work and I sleep in so it is what it is!
Apparently there are links out there floating around for a 100K offer on the new Citi Strata Elite so one doesn’t have to call in to a bank. I don’t know where they ever got that goofy name for that line of cards though. I guess because Strata = levels?
That steak looks dang good!
While I largely agree with the basic premise of the “No Country Ever Got Rich From Tourism.” concept, I think we’re missing the forest by staring at a tree. Tourism is not necessarily evil and actually helps the standard of living in a lot of places. I visit Bali a lot and while there are unquestionably some serious drawbacks to the heavy tourism there the standard of living is notably higher than in the rest of Indonesia. Likewise, the Bahamas has pretty much no natural resources so if not for tourism it might be a lot closer to Haiti in their standard of living.
Regarding your trip to Greece I’d say that if you’re flying Monday-Thursday you may want to look at Lufthansa, particularly in first class. I just did that myself for the first time, leaving the week before last to Prague for a week, and it was really nice and not all that much over business class at 100K Aeroplan miles each way on a 747 transatlantic. I figure that first class is a dying breed – particularly on awards touching the USA – and the Queen Of The Skies is likewise vanishing so I wanted to try it out. I was quite happy. If you can position to where Lufthansa has availability a couple of days ahead it’s a fun thing to do.
@ peachfront: Could be relevant for Greece too I think. The country lost so many doctors in the past 15 years.
@ DML: TBB Board of Directors will consider your idea about the validity of the note you are referring to in the next Board meting, thank you 🙂 Yeah, wine ponzi took the cake on that monthly ponzi summary, nothing came close.
@ Carl: Well, I think exceptional fits, not to brag 🙂 Strata: If you took out tr and replaced it with a k, it means shit in Greek lol. I really enjoyed that steak, had been a while.
@ Christian: Valid points on tourism. Sometimes I wonder if Greece did not have tourism to save itself every year where would it be? Maybe the country would redirect resources to more sustainable industry development? Yeah, it is a complicated subject indeed. Good point on the Lufthansa FC last minute availability. I would have done that I think easily if the Detroit-Frankfurt had FC but LH has really downgraded that route for a long time. And I am just not up to taking positioning flights, something I tend to avoid.
@ All:
If you are looking for Citi/Strata cards, email me.
Just had another one who unsubscribed…Averaging losing one every week. That just BLOWS! Exceptional Carl said above. If true, why am I not adding and only losing…Ugggh.
Going for coffee and time to let blog go for the weekend to keep my sanity.
Wait, what, you’ve got to tell us the story of the multiple near death scuba diving incidents
Just two, nothing to do with scuba diving. Just regular swimming, one when I was around 6 or 7. And one in Cancun outside one of those Hyatt all inclusives, forgot the name, Zilara or something, the one for adults. Rip tide almost got me, barely made it out on shore, I think I saw Jesus swimming my heart out.
Wow that’s crazy. I would expect a high-end resort like that to have lifeguards.
That story about the USF guy stealing millions was shocking. I can’t believe it wasn’t caught sooner and seeing as how the cost of college has outpaced inflation for several decades it makes me wonder how much waste is buried in college budgets.
Speaking of scams that use a famous name, did you ever hear about “Clark Rockefeller”? I read a book about him a long time ago, he was quite the scammer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Gerhartsreiter
The name does sound familiar but can’t recall exactly. Maybe it is because he has been locked up for so long. Ok, just googled his picture, definitely did not know about him. Thanks.
Hello from Tallinn, Estonia. Been out of Greece for a few weeks. Ended up taking an overnight ferry to Rhodes and flying to Helsinki on Finnair. Since then been to Helsinki, Bergen, Trondheim, Riga, and now Tallinn. Been missing those Greek air conditioners. They are few and far between in Northern Europe. I think it was a few days in the 90s when I was in Norway. Had to take a cold shower before going to sleep for a few days!
Re:“No Country Ever Got Rich From Tourism” I would agree. If the country is expensive, ie. have a higher cost of living, they naturally have an economy that doesn’t need tourism and they charge accordingly. If a country isn’t as wealthy or they need tourists to visit, it’s going to be cheaper.
Best case scenario? Capital comes streaming in to the country to prop up the tourist industry. It trickles down to feed real estate companies, banks, hospitality businesses, transportation, etc. But then, your cost of living also goes up which means you’re less competitive than your neighbors. If it was suddenly 20% more expensive to visit than your last trip, you’re probably going some place else or stay for less amount of time to fit a budget.
Then as we know with capital cycles, you over-invest expecting the boom to last and suddenly another place becomes a hot spot or your country becomes fascist and the bust happens and you’re right back where you started. If you know economic cycles and when countries get ‘hot’ you can also figure out why the hotels you visit in Greece, Thailand, or Japan seem a bit dated. That’s because they most likely got built during the boom times and they’ve never got around to having the capital to upgrade them.
A great book to read if you never have is called ‘Capital Returns: Investing Through the Capital Cycle: A Money Manager’s Reports 2002-15’. A book that I always keep coming back to, I probably read it at least once a year.
I was in Rhodes in the summer of 1986, you won’t believe what happened back then lol.
Is this that hot up there in Scandinavia? Wow.
Good points about countries doing tourism. I remember when some time ago Turkey’s President pulled out another “trick” which caused the currency to implode and suddenly Greek tourism took a deep dive as tourists shifted to Turkey because, well, it was almost 50% off.
Sounds like an interesting book. Also, there may be parallels between over investing in tourism… and now AI?
For sure! The prequel to that book is Capital Account which covers the late 90s’ internet and TMT bubbles. Tons of parallels to today.
Can I interest you in another sordid crypto tale? https://www.wsj.com/us-news/crypto-duplessie-woeltz-kidnap-torture-aae24e88?st=jTY2Rs
Nick,
Seriously, I would feel very comfortable selling my blog to you, I am sure we can work something out lol. Why? Because we think alike. THIS article was already in the draft for next TBB post. Leading the Scams/Crypto/AI/Tech/ section. Because, how could it not? I think you will like my incendiary commentary about it. Boarding Area will never let me express my true feelings so I blog here independently 🙂
BREAKING: I have the first cc sale for August. Well, it is not an actual sale. But a referral. From Amex! Which I think it may be the first referral ever after so many years? Thank you to the reader who used my Amex referral link, much appreciated.
As the annual fee on my Amex Business Platinum is coming up…and the thought of moving on from them Centurion lounges and joining the common people in restaurants nearby with better food and no lines (and paying for it)…I think this referral credit will enter my brain process to justify keeping it for another year smh.
Hey Buzz, good afternoon. Yes, you could say I’m a tad tardy for the last two weeks. Been busy trying to figure out if we’re actually staying in business or not after 39 years. This administration is doing a helluva job…barfff.
Naturally we just experienced our best 4 years ever only to see it come to a screeching halt.
I actually had a delusional customer tell me how happy he was that gas for his Toyota truck was now costing him 50% of what is used to cost under Biden. The price dropped 10 cents a gallon for a few weeks. I’m guessing it would be a bad idea to hire my customer as my financial adviser. To top it off, diesel just increased about 75 cents a gallon. Yes, my customer is still drinking the Kool Aid.
And lest we forget, he’s still a rapist, this time I’m not referencing my customer. Oops I said that out loud didn’t I…
I am thinking that it’s definitely time to retire and travel a bit, go see your team play in Larissa and try the winter in SE Asia.
Fascinating post from last Friday. The USF article is absolutely nutty. I had a gander at Toronto Life and read the article about the snowboarder turned cartel general…WTF. Don’t know if you saw it, bust just as incredible.
bob, thanks for the tip regarding the book Capital Returns.
I spent a lot of time in 3rd world countries in the 80’s & 90’s. I’d have to say that tourism helped somewhat until the backpackers found other countries to spend time in. Of course Central America has been hit very hard ever since due to the rise of the cartels and our insatiable appetite for their drugs…smh.
I can hardly wait till the dollar is backed by crypto…oh boy!
Thanks again Buzz for another great post. Have a great week. Coffee coming soon.
Hi Dimitri, Vladimir here 🙂
I am finding it increasingly pointless to change their minds, they are drunk with Kool-Aid. Hopefully enough have some brains left to vote better next time. But at this point I am not that hopeful. Man, we have 41.5 months to go with this shit…
On that retiring thing, I hear you. And I am still going to catch at least two season games in Larissa soon. And 3+ weeks in Thailand. I am not complaining but yeah, thinking more about it. Time to start clearing some credit cards off my plate slowly…
Yeah, that USF article, how can they call that Accounting Dept with basic internal audit controls is unreal.
Waking up and now seeing that the dotard is not done inflicting pain…may be requiring something like $15k bond for tourists coming to the US. To the voters relying on foreign tourists, vote better next time. Can’t be blaming Biden or Pelosi again, it’s all on you.
Visited client’s new home yesterday. Their dream home. After I encouraged them to go for it for several years. Felt good to see them so happy.
Thanks to one new email subscriber, the slide has been halted, hooray!
Capital One credit card sales post once a month for sales done two months prior. So good to have 2 more sales credited in June getting cc sales for that month up to 7. And June cc sales are now up to 6 (with Capital One sales to be credited in September). And in August we are already up to 3 cc sales. Thank you so much to the readers, I am sensing you guys don’t want me to quit. Will roll on…for a while. I have a post almost ready for the time I would be in Greece, maybe I can have another one to make it two. So I can cut down on the time spent to produce the content here and devote it, you know, to family matters instead for a while in Greece!
Anyway, this Friday’s post is going to be awesome. Then again I am biased.