I visited the AA Admirals Club in MIA at D30 when it was being remodeled (see Admirals Club MIA: Under Construction). Not much has changed since then. It’s as crowded as ever. And they serve the same insult to my grandmother’s hummus and the same stalks of celery.
Since they won’t change, neither did I. I ordered a Bloody Mary made with complimentary Finlandia vodka along with a Miller Lite.
Overall
What was remodeled? It’s still chaos.
In 2013, I attended the Final Four in Atlanta and saw Michigan lose to Louisville. The post was titled Final 4 Free. In 2018, I went to San Antonio and watched them lose to Villanova. The post was titled Go Blue! Left Blue. Thirteen years later, I am writing again about how I went to see Michigan play for the championship. Only this time the result was different.
The first step was to book a flight from SJU-IND. That cost 13,500 AA points and $5.60. I did so before Arizona played Michigan, knowing that I could cancel up to the time of departure if Michigan lost. I also booked a return flight for 13,500 AA points and $5.60. The retail cost per flight was $1,100.
The third step was to find somewhere to stay. I could not do that in advance as all the hotels had a non-refundable policy. After Michigan beat Arizona, I found myself sitting at the airport at 1 AM Sunday morning searching for hotels. The prospect of finding somewhere to lay my head looked bleak. All I found was phantom availability in downtown Indianapolis or the unenviable option of staying at an airport hotel.
Not one to panic, I kept hitting fresh. At 3:24 AM, the Residence Inn Indianapolis Downtown on the Canal opened up for Monday night. I redeemed 39,000 Marriott points instead of $1,053. At 3:39 AM, the Aloft Indianapolis opened up for Sunday night. I used a stay certificate worth 35k + 8k Marriott points to snag a hotel that retailed for $825. Finally, I used 8,000 Hyatt points to stay at the Hyatt Place Indianapolis Airport on the recovery day after the game, instead of paying $174.
The actual retail price of this showcase showdown was $8,503.70. Out of pocket, I paid $22.40.
Check out all of my Bus-Ted Itineraries here.
Get with it TPOL. Time to post more. Here’s what I did post from April.
Have you seen this commercial?
This man got a stand mixer for $56.10 instead of $461! Seeing the commercial over and over again has brought me nowhere close to figuring out how Dealdash.com works. It has, however, inspired this latest purchase and, in turn, this blog post.
No Affiliate Disclaimer: I wish I were paid for promoting Williams-Sonoma.
What does a pasta maker and spiral mixer have to do with points travel? It’s simple. These transactions are used to reach the minimum spends on credit cards, making them rational purchases versus #wastefraudabuse. Somehow, I have convinced myself that having two Amex Business Platinum cards with an annual fee of $895, back-to-back, with a 20k minimum spend to hit the 200k bonus, is worth it (see 2025 What I Spent (And Received) in Annual Fees).
In the old days, I would MS my way to points balances, but today the Corleone family is completely legitimate (see I’m Done with Manufactured Spending). Now, I rationalize my excess believing that points + toys > points + shame of Vanilla Reloading (see I’m in Manufacturing, Spending).
The old rule for churning was to never carry a credit balance and only churn what you can burn. While I am doing a good job with the first, I am struggling to keep up with the second.
The new rule for churning is to stop spending, knowing that cash is king, not pizza.
I wrote this post: Thank You Trump! SYD-NAN-DFW Cancelled. Here was the reaction on X, formerly known as Twitter:
Tom obviously knows nothing. He doesn’t appreciate the challenge of award availability on Fiji. Sanjay only reads headlines. I wonder if he saw this headline about his Arsenal team conceding a goal.
Festivus retorts aside, I am happy that the people at Fiji Airways are a lot kinder than my blog readers. Despite no award availability showing, Fiji rebooked me on the SYD-NAN-LAX route, keeping my dreams of visiting American Samoa alive (see I Blew It: Missing Blowholes in Samoa And Tuna in America).
Bula!
I have written extensively about the luxury of having points and being able to attend otherwise cost-prohibitive Sports Events. When Michigan made the National Championship game this year, I had to go. I had spent enough money (and points) attending the previous two National Championships, both of which resulted in an L (see Final 4 Free & Final Four San Antonio: Go Blue! Left Blue).
In this report, I will cover the following challenges:
Go Blue!
Remember when the Straits of Hormuz were open? Of course, you do not, because it was not something the average person concerned himself with. Now, everyone is a geopolitical expert on Iran. And now, the average person is starting to feel the effects of our Buffoon in Chief’s war.
My comeuppance for moving to Puerto Rico in 2018 (see Despacito! TPOL Is Moving to Puerto Rico! Effective Inmediatamente) instead of running for Senator came by way of email yesterday:
Bula from Fiji Airways,
We are contacting you to advise of an important update to your upcoming booking with Fiji Airways.
Due to ongoing developments in the Middle East and the associated operational impacts, including fuel cost challenges, we have taken the difficult decision to suspend our Nadi- Dallas services effective September 7th. As a result, the flight on which you are currently booked will no longer operate.
TPOL went from 35th place to 4th place as Michigan beat UConn to make my life great again. Whether A777Neo will visit Puerto Rico is the outstanding question. Next up: TPOL’s Final Four Trip Report.
Four years later, the Trip Report from World Cup 2022 is still incomplete. Four years later, I find myself attending another World Cup. Refusing to be extorted, I decided that the only way I would go was if Iraq qualified and if I could live in a big city in North America during the tournament for my next Residency (see TPOL in Madrid: Why A Second Residency?).
On Tuesday, March 31st, 2026, the Lions of Mesopotamia took on Bolivia. Despite giving up 16 corners, Iraq held on 2-1 to advance to the World Cup for the first time in 40 years. As luck would have it, Iraq was also scheduled to play in Toronto, a city that I used to love that has fallen on hard times (see What Happened to Toronto?), but is still on the Residency List (see Vote for Where TPOL Will Move Next And…).
Now, I needed to find tickets to the game and a place to live. Using the lessons learned from purchasing tickets in Doha (see The Guide to Buying Tickets for the World Cup And Other Big Events), I waited for the last-chance tickets to go on sale on FIFA’s website on Wednesday at 11AM.
And wait, I did.
Four hours later, I was finally let in. My first objective was to buy Category 1 tickets for Iraq vs. Senegal. The face value was $450 each. I added them to my cart.
TPOL’s Trivia: How many people do you know who have been to two World Cup games to see Senegal (see World Cup Day 2: England vs. Senegal)?
The second was to see if there were any other games in Toronto worth attending. Canada vs. Bosnia did not sound exciting, nor did Ghana vs. Panama, especially for $390 (Category 2) to $450 (Category 1) per ticket.
Satisfied, I proceeded to check out.
Like booking an awards flight, I was worried that something would go wrong. To no surprise, my credit card kept getting declined. Fortunately, FIFA takes Apple Pay, and the transaction finally went through.
Just when I was about to declare ‘mission accomplished,’ buyer’s remorse set in. I looked up which other teams were in Iraq’s group. I was disheartened to find out that it includes Norway, which features Erling Haaland, and France who features Kylian Mbappé. My Mesopotamian cubs do not stand a chance against those two. Worse still, those two games will be played before Iraq vs. Senegal. It is highly likely that Iraq will be playing solely for pride at that point, having been demolished by both Norway and France. It is also likely that Senegal will also be playing for pride, having been demolished by both Norway and France.
This brings me back to buyer’s remorse. What are the chances that come game day, two Category 1 tickets for Iraq vs. Senegal will be sold for pennies on the loonie? How mad will I be if that is the case? My friend said I should not think about that and enjoy that I get to see my home country play on the world’s largest stage. That statement has done nothing to quell my anxiety.
Currently, the only thing that makes me feel good is that the resale market is ballooning out of control. Minutes after making my purchase, I found these two tickets for sale:
And that’s not the only game that has gone up.
Looking at that, I am not sure if I should have bought tickets to that game and resold them for a profit.
TPOL’s Tip: TPOL is not in the ticket scalping business but has written extensively on the subject (see Ticket Scalping Guide).
Which brings me back to my purchase of tickets for Iraq vs. Senegal. Should I sell these two and wait for the market to tank or hold on to them and confidently declare, ‘mission accomplished’?
Don’t Smoke Crack- Lawrence Taylor
That quote is a great way to begin my review of St. Lucia’s Carnival. After the excellent time in Trinidad for Carnival in 2019 (see Last Minute Trinidad Carnival Guide! Everything You Need to Know And Stuff You Will Figure Out On Your Own!), I thought I could replicate the high of that experience by attending other carnivals while seeing more islands in the Caribbean (see Rum Rum Caribbean Castaway). My first attempt was in Jamaica. It fell short of my expectations (see My Fault Or Miserable Party?). My second attempt was St. Lucia, a beautiful island that would be better for R&R than making party.
Costume
I paid $419 for two days of open bar and these board shorts.
Day 1
I went to a breakfast party that started far later than anyone has breakfast. Since the party had no energy and since I had no patience, I returned to my hotel to watch Spain beat England in the UEFA championship.
TPOL’s Tax: The price of the affair was $145.
Day 2
Perhaps the breakfast party wasn’t great, but surely the road march would be. I woke up to rain clouds. The delay to the party continued as the traffic to the march was insufferable. After an hour, we were dropped off at the start. From there, we waited in the rain for the march to begin. Unlike Trinidad, more people were walking than dancing.
Day 3
Since I had paid for the event and since I don’t give up easily, I decided to return to the march the following day. I tried my best to get excited, but could not get going. At the airport, I found a taxi to deliver me from my boredom, Geoffrey Butler style.
Overall
This was not a great carnival. However, it did provide the requisite footage for my inaugural vlog (see 7 Lessons Learned from FAILING at My 1st Vlog: St. Lucia Carnival).
