TravelBloggerBuzz

An eclectic journey through the Travel Miles/Points blogosphere

Emirates flies from US to Greece, Hilton Tapestry, Central Newfoundland, RIP Ink Plus

By

We bring you the news that Emirates flies from US to Greece, a new Hilton Tapestry brand, visit Central Newfoundland, learn about world capitals and robots, laugh at protest signs, more jobs in blogs, more selling of plastic, we say RIP to Ink Plus and more for you. Thank you for allowing me to be your BS filter!

TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order!

You can support TBB by applying for CREDIT CARDS, shopping with our AMAZON AFFILIATE LINK & clicking our REFERRAL LINKS. Thank you!

 

You know it is a slow day on the blogs when the story that is repeated the most is Emirates adding a direct daily flight from Newark to Athens, Greece. Well, it is certainly great to see that. I’ll let the “experts” whine on about what it all means and how other airlines will react blah blah blah while they take a momentary break from selling yet again more travel rewards credit cards. For best analysis of these news, read THIS post by Running With Miles who flies to/from there regularly and knows something about fares/connections/routes. Too bad they are not using the A380 so I can finally take a shower onboard. I mean, who am I to blog about this stuff if I haven’t done that yet hey?

The hotel brands just keep on coming, wow! Hilton is launching numero 14. Its name: Tapestry. I guess they have a long way to catch up to 30 brands  like Marriott. It is supposed to be “contemporary”. Whatever the hell that means. Judging from a few promotional images, like this super ridiculous one of a guy going to work on a skateboard (WTF!), it is probably not aimed to my demographic.

Not sure how this guy keeps coming up with interesting stuff: The Two Countries Without Capitals. Can you guess which ones?  I sure didn’t! Wait, there is more. South Africa has three capitals while twelve nations share two capitals!

This is excellent, just real facts 😉 67 Numbers That Define the Obama Era.

And we are off, tax e-filing has opened, hooray! Five Things Early Tax Filers Need to Know. And please don’t go for those scammy tax refund “loans”/advances.

Exploring Central Newfoundland. Wow, looks amazing!

Newfoundland

Concentration of robots by country. Very interesting.

50 Amazing Signs from Women’s Marches Around the Globe. Love most of these!

best funny creative signs from womens march 2017 36 50 Amazing Signs from Womens Marches Across the Globe

BLOG BUZZ

For advanced level players and miles & points blog reader addicts…

Amazing that 95 people applied for a full time position at Frequent Miler! The winner has this as part of his bio “…is a (fairly) regular guy with an animalistic passion for maximizing the value of miles…”. Animalistic? Seriously? Rest is fine but….that.word.reminds.me.Animal.house 🙂

Looks like two top SPG Florida properties just left the building…

Holy crap, The Points Guy Inc. hired another one, Angelina of Angelina Travels. Who is going to be next? Holy crap, that is a whole lot of credit cards sold wow. Just wait when he finds out my price hehe.

When every blogger tries to sell the same credit card you need to be creative 😉 All these writers need to EAT! I lost count how many times I saw a similar pump post around the blogosphere for the same freaking card that only newbies can get the signup bonus and need to spend $15k…yikes!

Ladies and gentlemen, a moment of silence, to say goodbye to one of our own, the one and only Chase Ink Plus card, a valued piece of plastic that is not coming back. So so super sad!

Here we go, increased AMEX offers are live again. Why this type of post NEVER makes it into a The Points Guy post huh? Oh, no dinero you say? Who cares about the readers, sell to them and keep them in the dark because these writers need to get paid…Whatever.

United Business class awards to Europe are 57,500 miles one way in its own metal (versus 70,000 miles flying its partners). Here is some open award space this summer, hey American Airlines how about you doing the same huh?

Some interesting thoughts on Travel Hacking alternative facts. I never said big blogs do not care about their readers, I just said that some of them ALWAYS put their pocketbooks FIRST while many of them still would not give a shit about their readers other than their conversion potential, so there 🙂

Thanks to the readers who are clicking on my links, I appreciate the support. If it wasn’t for that I would have been gone a long time ago or hired by The Points Guy too woohoo.

And I leave you with this…

16115074_10102516999360107_1618104431133219658_n.nocrop.w710.h2147483647.2xCheck out my updated blog lists: Blogs I Love, Blogs I Like, Blogs To Ignore

TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com

Follow TBB on Twitter @FlyerTalkerinA2

You can subscribe to TBB below, winners only!

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.

 

Filed Under: TBB

Comments

    • TBBTheDude says

      I should have a contest to guess when #15 drops.

      Winner gets either a Southwest drink coupon or #1 in comments here hehe.

  3. Charlie says

    Thanks for the link, George! To be honest, if time does not matter, I would probably be more tempted to book the Athens to JFK through Dubai which is normally available at the same price. That business class is on the A380 so a bit nicer. Plus, more miles! 🙂
    But, really glad to see a year-round alternative direct to the US. BTW, did you hear about the German firm that is upgrading SKG airport? Within the next couple of years, they will have actual gates here and are making the runway large enough for a heavy – direct from SKG-JFK? 🙂

    • TBBTheDude says

      I thought the Germans bought all the smaller airports. I did not know they also bought SKG. This is great! I trust them they will get it done 😉

  4. Ryan says

    I like trivia such as the no capitals article. I clicked through to his trip report on Nauru, the least visited country – I feel like I want to go there now…I hate that they’re so under-visited!

    I was finally approved last week for the CSR that I applied for through your link back on 7 Jan. I knew I’d have to call in and reallocate credit lines as I always do for Chase, but had been too busy and/or lazy to call. Looks like the card is arriving today, I’m excited.

    I never understood all these damn brands for the hotels. Maybe that’s why I don’t work in marketing.

    • bluecat says

      Agreed about the too-many-damn-brands. Things I care about when booking:

      1) Can I book with points? Or is it cheap and can I earn points?
      2) Do I get a free breakfast?
      3) Is the A/C gonna be a damn noisy wall mount unit or not?

      Too many brands make my head spin…

      • TBBTheDude says

        I love Geography. I think I said that before 🙂

        I bet you even Marriott’s CEO could not name all 30 brands. That just still makes me shake my head!

        Thanks Ryan, saw it, thanks!

  5. flyernick says

    Don’t mind about the Ink+. I just today got pre-approved in branch and then approved for Ink Preferred. 80000 Yays! Suck it, 5/24 rule and CSR!

    • TBBTheDude says

      I am so jealous. A pre-appoval at a Chase branch is like trying to find a Saver award seat on AA to Europe this summer (from/to a convenient airport) or to/from Hawaii 🙂 #noluck

  6. MileageUpdate says

    67 numbers. I would think the most important would have been $9Trillion Dollars added to our debt since 2008.

    • Sam says

      “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter”.

      Vice President Dick Cheney, 2002

      (Unless a Democrat is President)

    • ABC says

      Time to cut military spending. Build that Mexican border wall and the US will be safe again. No need to spend ~20% of the budget on that.

    • TBBTheDude says

      I agree, that number belonged in the 68. I don’t like it too. But a big chunk of it was already in motion from the financial crisis.

      Funny how Trump was talking with the 3 Big Three auto company CEOs that Obama saved their ass when if he had listened to the “free market” Republicans would have let die.

      Annual budget deficits cut and number of govt workers DOWN under Obama.

      And we are about to try the same formula:
      Lower Taxes
      Build infrastructure
      Strengthen military
      Cut regulations

      And with now added:
      Win on trade

      Yikes

      I think Trump is clinically insane. I am serious.

      I can’t wait for the day you come here and admit you made a mistake for voting for Trump.
      I will do the same. Deal?

      • MileageUpdate says

        Well thankfully you wont get the chance to find out about whether Hillary is any good at POTUS or not. I’ll be happy to say Trump sucks if/when he does and wont vote for him again if he stinks. Im certainly not a partisan voter. But i dont know what you are talking about Annual Budget def cuts and less govt workers under Obama?

      • MileageUpdate says

        and i still think you are confusing the vote. It wasnt that Trump will worshipped like Obama was and people think he was fantastic. He was the better choice than Clinton. Whether it works out or not? I have no idea. My voting for Trump only tells you how bad I thought the option of Hillary as Pres was.

        • TravelBloggerBuzz says

          Damn illegal voters cost him the popular vote!!! How do you keep excusing this insane egotistical behavior is beyond me.

          Dems must find somebody to run in 4 years. Who????

          • MileageUpdate says

            honestly who really cared about the popular vote? I would think someone would have spent more time in CA TX and NY if they were interested in the popular vote. Not 10-15 trips to ea of NH MI PA and OH. Weird you would bring up the popular vote. What does that have to do with a POTUS election?

    • DiffPaul says

      …aaaand this just in…..:

      In the next 10 years the debt will increase by ~9 trillion ***no matter who is President*** because of fixed commitments and interest.

      @MileageUpdate, I only take deficit hawks seriously when:
      –they don’t point the finger at President X for decisions made previously under President A, B, and C (unfunded wars, inherited (Great) Recession, interest on the debt)
      –they believe in cutting our ridiculously bloated military budget by double-digit percentages
      –they understand that sometimes deficit spending is better in the long term

      …otherwise, @MileageUpdate, I dismiss such people as hopelessly partisan trolls to be dismissed in intelligent discourse. Or blog surfing.

  7. Peteco says

    Aargh the Key West property was a great use for 15k. I loved it there. Well, it’s never the crappy ones that leave the brand..

Subscribe to TBB!

Subscribe to TBB!

You get all the blog posts & the occasional hot subscriber-only deal in your email inbox.

You have Successfully Subscribed!