Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
From a popular blogger offering consultations for those giving what they can to a wish list for what consumers could demand in exchange for big bailouts, strategy for investing given the current market situation, and more. Read on for this weekend’s Frequent Miler week in review around the web.
GSTP OFFERING TRAVEL AND POINTS E-CONSULTATIONS, FOR CHARITY…
Gilbert Ott at God Save the Points is offering 30-minute miles-and-points consultations to raise money for charity for those in need given the current economic environment and I think it’s awesome. I encourage those in a position to help to do so and applaud Gilbert’s efforts to drum up support.
My 2¢ on the Coronavirus, Stock Market, and Other Fun
While I link to FIRE-related blogs now and then in our week in review posts (Financial Independence, Retire Early for the uninitiated), I’ve often noted that I’m not a FIRE guy myself. That said, I’ve had some money in the markets and been looking to strategize. Lee Huffman from Bald Thoughts posted something on social media the other day saying that you make most of your money in a bear market, you just don’t realize it at the time. For those in the financial position to invest now, this take from Route to Retire makes sense to me. In fact, I set up some buy orders for Monday morning and have been slowly trying to invest the cash I intend to sock away for a few years with faith in the long-term market.
EC261 & Coronavirus: Does It Apply?
It should come as no surprise that EC261 protection for European flights is not going to get you a payout of 600 Euros when your flight is canceled because of travel bans and closed airports — this is obviously an unprecedented event and not the original intent of the legal protection. However, One Mile at a Time notes that it should entitle you to a refund — so if an airline isn’t playing ball in terms of refunding your money for a canceled flight, know your rights.
If You And I Bail Out The Airlines, Hotels, And Boeing, What Should We Ask For In Return?
Dan’s Deals lists the pipe dream that we should all have in terms of what consumers should get out of bailing out the travel industry. Of course, it’s hard to predict at the present moment what any kind of bailout will look like given these unheard of times. Still, I would like to see some consumer protections — perhaps bearing some similarity to EC261 — tied to accepting public money. Dan gives a nice dream list, but I think it makes sense to push for something in return.
The Critical Points: How TPG readers are handling being stuck abroad
I feel terrible for the folks caught abroad without a way home right now (and we posted last night about what One Mile at a Time is doing to help people in that situation as best they can). I decided to include this new post from Richard Kerr at The Points Guy highlighting some of those stories as a stark contrast to his take on the situation just two weeks ago when he wrote The Critical Points: Why I’m not slowing down my travel during coronavirus. Richard’s take on this has rightly changed with more information and perspective (he updated the original post eventually), but the contrast here serves to remind that this situation is fast moving and unknown territory that can’t be easily predicted based on other past experience. I don’t know when things will return to normal, but even when they do I’ll likely plan for trips differently and I think we’ll all have a very different perspective on the worst case scenario.
That’s is for this week around the web. Check back soon for this week’s last chance deals.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
@Greg Can we please recognize @Nick Reyes as the GOAT of investing?
Those buy orders he mentioned in this article for Monday were the market lows. I’ve thought about this for weeks now and didn’t see anyone talking about this so wanted to recognize credit where credit is due.
Maybe the recent pod about cashing out UR for 1.5 cpp needs an additional analysis for the time value of sitting on UR instead of 7% annual expected market returns.
Matt
I think that recognizing Nick as the GOAT of anything sets a dangerous precedent.
In this case, I’m half serious because the last thing we need is people complaining to us about bad stock market advice when things go awry.
See if you can redo ur loans if u have any . The banks may start lowering ur CL or canceling ur cards . I got 3 on my block gone under last year so 6 months from now it will be a zillion like 2010 .
Glad I took the time to travel before now .
LOL
CHEERs
I am sorry what? The travelers are not bailing out the airlines. The tax payers are. Nobody gives a crap what traveler’s want. They might be one and the same. But the capital owners should be the ones dictating terms, whuxh means ownership in the airline’s and high interest rates.
Also
“Lee Huffman from Bald Thoughts posted something on social media the other day saying that you make most of your money in a bear market,”
Lee Huffman better attribute that quote to the rightful person or he will be termed as plagiarizer which in trump’s world is not a big deal considering all the other things he gets forgiven for.
Maybe he did – truth be told, I saw it in passing as I scrolled by, so entirely possible I missed it.
I think the quote is attributed to well respected investor Shelby Davis.
Dan’s wish list is pretty spot-on, but frankly I’d guess that zero items on the list will make the cut. Trump has repeatedly made clear that he really doesn’t care about the problems of normal people, so it seems unlikely that he would suddenly impose these consumer-friendly conditions to benefit the traveling public.