[Please note that TBB is traveling! Blog posts during this time will vary greatly in length and quality. In other words, some posts may be mistaken as filler/mailed in 
]
I will NOT be adding the usual section titles in my blog posts while traveling. So I am just going to throw at you whatever I noticed that was worthy letting you know about. I may miss things so please don’t judge I have no idea when next blog post will appear so keep checking every hour so I can drive up my site numbers and $$$$ by using my credit card links buahahahhahaaha.
Is Status Worth it? The Case for American Airlines by Hack My Trip. I think it is a pretty thorough analysis. There are also links about the same subject for Delta, Alaska and United.
Frequent Traveler University FTU will be held in Seattle April 25-27, 2014. Tickets are $100 each and the same old speakers frequenting these events will be speaking again 🙂 You can buy tickets here with my link. For every ticket sold TBB receives a Southwest drink coupon (just kidding).
Making the Most of United Miles in 2014. By Milenomics. Excellent content again. Most down to earth and logical/practical in your face advice!
Loyalty Lobby wrote “The Economist: A short history of Hotels“. Fantastic find! And LL’s commentary is great! Such as this: “… the W brand is left in the 1990′s with fake glitch and glamor without any deeper substance. Likely works best with insecure guests.” I agree and love it!
The Big Picture – Thoughts of a Travel Blogger by Saverocity. When a blog post starts out with “I started writing a post today to pimp a link”…The rationale of a blogger who tries hard to do the right thing when so many others have succumbed to become sellout link pimps 🙂 Darn system rewarding the link pumpers, fight the system! (flashing my revolutionary intentions there for a moment sentence lol).
Another Friday interview at Million Mile Secrets, yet another new blog that offers the same old stuff gazillion others currently doing the same! Interview starts with “I first started back in 2011….with the British Airways 100k card”…Shaking my head.
2013: The Year in Photos September-December:
What This Artist Does with a Simple Rake will Blow your Mind. By Twisted Sifter. Wow!
Eaten by the Waves. By Bored Daddy
This has already been posted before but here it is again. Chuck Norris does the splits like Jean Claude van Damme did in the Volvo commercial! Kind of epic if you ask me 🙂
And I leave you with this, hiiiiiya!
Join over 2,200 TBB followers on Twitter @ FlyerTalkerinA2 and add TBB on Google+
I just love this site! Keep on going TBB !!!
Thanks! I am sitting at a smoky Greek cafe (again) to use the wifi and decided to order something different this time….a Freddo! Just another overpriced coffee drink, 3 euros, no refills! I can’t wait to come back and go to my local Panera Bread store 🙂
I love Greek coffee and savored the one cup I got in a cafe in Thessaloniki in October, because I certainly wasn’t going to buy another one! First Freddo I ever had was made for me by a Greek woman from Piraeus who I met in France at a conference. She actually traveled with her special Greek coffee making products so she could have her cold Greek coffee on the road! Travel, among other things, sharpens our notion of what we appreciate about where we live on the planet. Coffee refills and smoke free establishments are great examples, and being able to appreciate them can be a result of experiencing something else. Savor your time in Greece! Safe travels back…
When I came to the States i had one of those coffee making products with me too! Well, after a while, I grew out of it 🙂
This country these days has some SERIOUS deep issues to deal with. And I am not sure the system here can grow out of the hole they are all in…It’s this system that needs to be demolished and restarted. Look to see Greece and riots again in your CNN screen in mid 2014…#greektragedy
I know…I love Greece. Have been there many times. Love the country, history, food, culture, people. Taught ancient Greek culture as part of a course much of my career, so I know a good bit about it. I am sorry about the structural issues. Have watched them deteriorate for years. Not sure what the answer is, but agree that it is not a rosy outlook for the future. Must be hard to witness for you.
It’s really really sad to watch. A former Transportation minister was just caught driving with fake license plates (to avoid paying the annual dues) and instead of appearing in court he got an extension so he does not miss his Christmas vacations in…Malaysia (staying at a Sheraton by the way). Stuff like this prompts people to just say “phuck it, I am going to do it too”. I called a plumber to fix mother’s sink the other day. First thing he tells me is “35 euros cash. If you want a receipt, it will be 43 euros (extra is the Value Added Tax”. This crap has been going on for generations! It was all covered up masterfully with borrowed money from elsewere…until the charade stopped. So now, instead of the country uniting and rolling up their sleeves to dig out of the giant hole they are in…they are more divided and bitchy than ever! I have wasted the last two mornings waiting in line at a bank to take care of a few things for my mother….greek productivity. The only businesses doing well here are…cafes 🙂
Joke time:
-What’s the biggest export of Greece?
Hard working Greeks 🙂
Merry Christmas!
And it’s merely a glimpse ahead at the U.S. in another couple years! We’re absolutely heading there now!! I’d head for the hills, but the drones can find me there too! {disgusted}
US is not Greece.
I am very optimistic about the US. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well here! In Greece if you do well everyone looks down on you and thinks you are either a cheater or got political connections.
We are talking about two completely different societies. Greece’s foundation is just…rotten. Hurts to say it but…
Dang those Germans for closing the tap on free flowing debt. What was completely or conveniently forgotten after the Greek collapse is the role Goldmann Sachs and other banks played in cooking the books with the Europeans so more debt could be issued (with the commission going to the same banks). Example: http://www.risk.net/risk-magazine/news/1593054/corrigan-goldman-sachs-consulted-eurostat-greece-currency-swaps
God knows what is going on in Turkey and other BRIC countries with little oversight and plenty of money printed by the fed being pumped there by US investors. How quickly the cash flow subsided this fall when the Fed hinted at a tapering 😮
Pussy Riot is freed! Wonder how DP feels about it 🙂
Maybe Putin reads TBB? Hehe
Dude, while I agree they didn’t deserve 2 years in jail, we are talking about the same people who had a group sex in a museum–in front of kids and everyone! And they did get away with that too. I’m all for political protests and Russia could use more of them, but there are limits to what I’m prepared to tolerate.
Seriously, I’m more pleased with Khodorkovsky’s release than these broads’. And besides, their “music” is simply horrific! So there…
Pussy Riot
best name of a band EVER! With a name like that and defiant stance I am all for them. 2 years is beyond ridiculous. They should be celebrated while Khodorkovsky can do himself…he still has many millions stashed away he “conveniently” accumulated back in the wild Soviet days. He will also conveniently shut up while Pussy Riot can still go wild.
I love it when Putin gets pissed off and I love it even more Pussy Riot does it…brave women!
I don’t like their music either by the way…which is intentionally “bad” lol
Andy, this is for you:
http://www.juancole.com/2013/12/members-russia-without.html
The World needs more Pussy Riots 🙂
Reading TBB as I listen to a meeting at Go To Meeting. I wish there were links here to distract me.
The Chuck Norris link was not enough of a distraction? 😉
Well Buzz, BoardingArea has a new Blog call MALTAPOINTS! Talk about serving a niche. I would be hard pressed to find Malta on an unlabeled World Map……Coming soon to BoardingArea……………DJIBOUTI FRUGAL MOMMY TRAVELER……. Everything a Mom living in Djibouti needs to know about points and mile hacking……………………………………….I actually been to Djibouti, Djibouti (so nice they named it twice, just like NYNY). We were making a fuel stop there on the way to Mogadishu, with a 747 Military Charter for the Army in 1990 (3 years before Black Hawk Down). When I walked down the Djibouti portable jetstairs, I was standing face to face with an old man holding a spear and wearing a loincloth, straight out of a Tarzan movie. He scared the crap outta me. I kid you not…………Went on to Mogadishu where they were just beginning to create a US military buildup. Pretty cool scene, felt like we were in the middle of an Oliver Stone war movie. We were all running around the decrepit tarmac taking pictures of each other until an MP came over and told us a sniper shot someone at the airport the day before. When TWA found out that the planes we exposed to gunfire, they cancelled all the other contracted MAC charters there.
>>>>>>>DJIBOUTI FRUGAL MOMMY TRAVELER
Hahahahahahahhahaahhaa
3 years before Black Hawk down, wow! That was a hell of a movie by the way. Sounds like a rough place, I would be so scared too! Glad the sniper was on strike that day!
I was more afraid of the man holding a spear at the Djibouti airport. It was in an unlit area and he came out of the bushes. My life past before me, as I guess I’ve watched too many Indiana Jones movies. He just wanted to see the big white bird, as the 747 was painted completely white without any livery. This was done for the Desert Storm and Desert Shield MAC charters also. Those were pretty exciting and meaningful trips too. The Military even gave us medals.
Thank you for your service Ramsey 🙂
And Merry Christmas!
found this on your Chuck Norris link…… http://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/12.gif…..thanks, Buzz. Nice.
That is….mesmerizing…
Merry merry Christmas 🙂
Can’t say I’ve ever seen a W hotel I wanted to stay at.
The average W can be annoying but there are some exceptions…W Vieques comes to mind – nice, romantic retreat – reasonably priced as well. I have a soft corner for the W LA as well.
At one time I was staying in the same W as Lucky. It was the Santiago W…He had the room with the tub in the middle of the room 🙂
I stayed at the Seattle one because it was the same cost as the other SPGs, and I could load up on Bliss products. Plus, free Acura shuttle around town.
I stayed at the Seattle Westin last year and it sucked! Had no idea about the Acura shuttle!
I won’t stay at the W because the name brings back bad memories of you know who………….Merry Christmas Buzz, I’m sure your family misses you, but it’s important to spend time with Mom while you can. George you are a good man…………..ps..what do Greek spare ribs taste like? …..C.R.
I like the W Lakeshore Chicago, its affordable at the pwc corporate rate 😉
Good to know, thanks.
i can assure you Greeks have not forgotten about the role of Goldman Sachs. Yeah, it was so easily and conveniently forgotten, wasn’t it? As far as emerging markets go….it always happens like this, it’s so cyclical 🙂
I got my mother a pizza today. 12 euros for a large one from Pizza “Napolitano” down the street.
In the meantime, I am getting fat eating what she cooks for me: spinach pies, salads, tzatziki, several dishes with potatoes/steaks/veggies, soups, etc etc. I am also on a major spree of gyros, cream pie and crepe eating when I go out. My NY resolution will be to lose weight 🙂
No need for spare ribs, at least on this trip…
What’s the deal with the Acura shuttle? We’ll be at the W in Seattle next week….
Free shuttle within 3mi, in an Acura MDX. Took it to La Petit Toulouse for breakfast. Even had a car seat for the kid. It was a while ago, dunno if the promo is still going.
Hey, thanks! With a free SPG night we had to use before it expired, we decided a quick road trip to Seattle was the way to go and we opted for the “W” over the Westin. I will check this out although we’ll have our car…. We plan to see lots of work by Dale Chihuly, an amazing glassblower. Happy New Year!