ON MY MIND
Stock market had another market high yesterday. If you sold in May and went away you now look like a ______(fill in blank).
I need to find me a different groove in doing the blog. So much time going through so many blogs and not much making it through here. Maybe delete some blogs in my RSS feeds. Or post every other day. Or something.
Any recommendations for a Paris CDG airport hotel for a 9.25 am flight? Or you think making it to the airport from Paris center is doable? I have connected at that airport, definitely not a pleasant experience!
Settling on the Intercontinetal Le Grand and Radisson Blu Metropolitan…for now. I am sending Mrs. TBB and daughter for her birthday. I wonder if the girls will get an epic suite upgrade like we did last August in the Buenos Aires Hilton, look at the size of this closet!
TRAVEL
Did you know Turkmenistan holds the Guiness record for having the highest density of white marble buildings in the world? Neither did I! Actually, 543 new buildings with over 48 million square feet of marble. Clearly WTF territory if you ask me! By the way, Turkmenistan was ranked the fifth most miserable country in the world. Here are the top 25 most miserable countries in the world.
I had no idea about this Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series competition. Watch the 1 minute very cool video on Gadling.
MILES/POINTS
One Mile at a Time had another good post about his five favorite first class beds in the sky. I fully expect a post about the amazing Chase Ink Bold and Plus cards any day now:-)
This must be a first for TBB! Extra Pack of Peanuts has a great post on which airlines charge a fuel surcharge. An excellent graphic to go with it. Nice job.
Points Summary had a nice post on how to improve on your hotel upgrades. Good info on how to track down GM addresses and, most importantly, very nice templates to use!
The Points Guy shows us how to notify Chase when we travel abroad. Very useful.
First2Board is starting its own type of “seminar”. More of a DO than seminar! It is at Charleston Sep 6-8, 2013.
BLOG BUZZ
I am sorry but can’t help it. The Points Guy again stretches to tell us about the Top 10 Benefits of the Ink Bold and Plus cards. I think I can recite them all benefits now in my sleep!
Oh here we go again with that same old AMEX Extended Payment Option…What a great way to push some more credit card links.
If I had a dollar for every Chase credit card app my eyes have seen you would see me at the Forbes 400 list of richest people…guaranteed!
I still find it so weird to post about charitable intentions and matching donations and all that. It is probably just me, I am not a normal person as you probably noticed:-)
I am getting kind of tired reading about Uber and everyone trying to pass their own referral link!
ODDZ & ENDZ
Storm chasers (crazies) record this insane video as the Oklahoma tornado rams into them.
Firestorm. STUNNING Multimedia piece about a family’s struggle to survive a violent bushfire in Tasmania. WOW, I have not seen anything like this. This is not a short piece.
Hey George, thanks to your blog and posts you made on FT, I was stubbornly persistent with the so-called recon folks at US Bank, and after multiple calls of being told there was nothing, absolutely nothing that could be done, I finally spoke to a rep who agreed to send it back to underwriting. And if the letter that came today is to be believed, I triumphed! Too bad you don’t have any affiliate links I can click on for next time 😉 . How are your eyebrows doing?
This is GREAT, so happy to hear it! Yeah, US Bank is sure weird to deal with. Perseverance pays off with them!
Can I take rain check on the affiliate links? 🙂 One day maybe…I am afraid I will become a Chase Ink Bold pumping machine if I enter the circus:-)
(That’s Club Carlson I am talking about!)
Yes. Others should take note. Do NOT give up with US Bank, keep pestering them and keep asking for “manual review” by a human being!
The time it finally worked was when I began the call saying “I am a Carlson Gold Member and I keep getting email inviting me to get the Club Carlson card.” (Both true.) I went on to explain the three pulls on my credit report in the last three months as the result of my wish to change the way I use point/mile earning credit cards following a time-consuming mess when I tried to use points accumulated on a Wells Fargo card last summer. (Also true.) The three pulls, I speculated, must be from two airline cards and one hotel card; Club Carlson would round out the picture. (It would. There was no need to say I would continue to apply for cards and that further speculation might suggest that the pulls were consolidated from a total seven card apps.) I stressed my near 800 credit score and that a small credit limit was fine. I name dropped my Gold status a couple of times as I talked. The rep asked me a few questions and sent to app “back to underwriting.” (Maybe she thought my next call was to complain to Club Carlson, although I did not plan that and can’t imagine it would help.) So, assuming a card actually arrives after they sent me the 10 page credit agreement with a Welcome to Club Carlson sentence at the top, we are on our way to a few more almost-free hotel nights. George is right – keep calling them! I probably spoke to three reps and two supervisors before this rep finally saw the light.
I also talked to three or four. I even got the Twitter folks involved who must have pushed some buttons. I kept expressing my outstanding credit score and the fact I have never been denied for a credit card. Gold Club Carlson, intend to make it my go to card. The fact that my wife was instantly approved and we have similar credit scores. Basically I threw the kitchen sink at them until one rep relented. Kept pushing “manual review please” “have a pair of eyes instead of a computer take a look at my app and that I have no doubt that I will be approved because I belong in the credit risk category your well run bank aspires to have as clients”
I must admit…I almost gave up…but kept soldiering on!
And I am keeping one of the two cards we have, 5x on everything!
If they’re staying at the Intercontinental Le Grand, it would be ridiculous not to take the RoissyBus to the airport in the morning. It’ll take you direct to the airport, and the stop is virtually outside the hotel (Rue Scribe y Rue Auber). 10€ each, nice big bus with luggage space, starts at 5:45AM, then every 15 minutes. Takes 45-60 minutes. From the Intercontinental it would require Trocadero->Havre Caumatin plus ~2 blocks walking. Not as convenient.
This is great info, thank you so much! Tickets can be bought on the bus with cash? Credit card? I am afraid they get stuck on traffic and get to CDG late. And navigating that airport is, well, not that easy:-)
Used my Chip & Signature Hyatt Visa, probably cash too. The driver had a handheld machine. There’s also a kiosk at the stop.
I think even in bad traffic it’s an hour and half, but they should be leaving before rush hour (8AM-10AM) and going against the traffic. Have them ask their concierge, ours said no problem. Our flight was 11:30A, we left on the 8:00A bus (a Thursday in July), and had way too much time at the airport.
Talked with Mrs. TBB. She does not want to be in any rush so she told me to look for airport hotel. They will rest their feet and try to sleep in a little bit the last night. Great info on the bus, they will take it then the day before departure.
Read the reviews carefully about the airport hotels/shuttles, with CDG being the worst laid out airport ever. Ben from One Mile at a Time said in a trip report the Hyatt CDG shuttle took 30min to get to his terminal!
Really don’t understand your jealousy of TPG & VFTW. Why so serious-uh? Angries much?
VFTW post was great! That is 10k in free points per card if you have the card already, so no big deal in terms of revenue for him?
Don’t tase them bro!
Hey, no one said it is science what gets posted on TBB.
That amex extended payment option has been around for ever. I just found it convenient to post it again and add the affiliate links in the post…Happens all the time in the blogosphere. Getting tired of the same old thing…
Seemed fair to me since (1) it’s been like a year, (2) it was posted in response to another blog suggesting 1500 points so it probably protected a lot of readers. Just because it isn’t new to YOU (or to us ‘angries’) doesn’t mean it isn’t value-added for most. I think we sometimes forget that in our rush to bash the blogs.
No, not a year…more like a month, tops two. You will see it again…soon:-)
I write from a veteran perspective and yes I am quite biased…Maybe I should focus on the newbie market…where the BIG money is lol.
I would have let it go but squeezing in the CHASE Ink Bold app really ticked me off, fyi.
Ok that part was fair to be tinked at!!
The interesting thing will be to see if the points actually posted. I tried for the 10k with my Amex Plat, and it accepted it, but it also says you need to be targeted. I got 5k for my Biz Gold a few months back when I was targeted, but I’m not going to be extremely surprised if the 10k doesn’t show up.
If they post it will be a bonus. I had these bonuses post before but I have been shut out lately. AMEX is not what it used to be, they are becoming quite difficult in “getting” bonus points like these.
Uber is great. $35 free credit for readers is great. Without referral links they’d get only $25. When a referral link is better than no referral link I have no issue with it.
I agree. I just get tired of looking at it…that’s all.
Sounds like a personal problem to me!
Sure is. My therapist is worth it. And she takes credit cards. I am working on getting her into Google Wallet too;-)
Can’t you just pay her with points? You got plenty of them. And you can make the argument that 1UR=2cents. OMAAT is an “expert” in evaluating the value of a point.
It gets complicated, she prefers money. She is really in hot demand;-)
If you sold in May and go away. You gonna be vindicated here shortly. New Highs? I aint buying up here
My crystal ball does not work:-)
No need for a crystal ball. Just a daily and 15min chart.
Don’t do charts:-)
Hi George!
Looks like you are full time blogger now 🙂 Very nice. I guess a few affiliate links are missing 😛 So much has changed since our MR days, it is unbelievable. Remember the look on the agent in Kona, HI who was collecting our tickets as we exited and came right back? Ha ha I still do even after almost 8 years, she was kinda cute too.
ferrari_fan
Well it certainly feels like full time blogging!
I do remember that Kona agent and the look in her face seeing us get back on the plane after…10 or 15 mins on the ground. Priceless:-)
No affiliate links as of now…and the very near future. No time to deal with that stuff, so confusing and so…corrupting:-)
George, title says Tanzania, but the fires are in Tasmania, as your paragraph and the article note.
Agreed that the TPG post on Chase travel notification was decent, though I’m surprised he just found it. It has been around a long while. I also prefer to call, as I can make sure that Chase knows the specific dates I’m travelling, and they can see that charges from country X are invalid after a certain date (when I have left that country). You can’t do that online. Good job also to EP of Peanuts. (And in praising these posts, yes, I feel like we’re grading on an easy curve. It’s like praising a chronically incontinent dog for not peeing on the rug.)
harvson3
Tasmania, good catch, thanks!
I also prefer to call too. But for short trips in one place this may be helpful for some really lazy readers:-)
Easy curve…lol.
Looks like MMS is “re-evaluating his censoring policy”
Give me a T!
Give me a P!
Give me a G!
Expect this “re-evaluation” to determine that he should have a similar policy to DP, FTG or MV.
Such “re-evaluations” always determine that’s the best course of action
And they often come hand in hand with going from original content to outsourcing CC linkfests
Censoring and outrageous CC pimping are joined at the hip
Next he’ll probably “re-evaluate” his CC disclosure policies
I hope not.
TBB, time to face reality that the snake oil you purchased from the salesman was never any good. I say dump it and demand your money back.
What money? 🙂
Only five comments on today’s Lufthansa installment. All five comments are complimentary. Must be censoring the angries.
Among those 5 comments, how many unique people do you think there are
over/under 1.5
LOL!!
5X OD by buying Amazon GC!!! Hurry.
Checked two hours ago. It was six comments.
Paris CDG airport: WHAT??!?! You are not going to make your wife and kid wander around the baggage claim area at CDG, looking for cheap hotel vouchers, AKA “the BFD secret!”? Shame on you! 😉
No need for that…I did get the joke;-)
Did someone put a hit on the PickleMeister, there is no posting of more TOP SECRETS YOU CAN NEVER REVEAL . I could barely sleep last night waiting in anticipation. And YOU are another one sir I have a bone to pick with, it’s only ONE word a day you have to come up with. What is the word of the day? If its too much for you to come up with one word, maybe you can hire Drew ;)…….I would like to set something else straight, I go to McDonalds for the Filet-O-Fish.
And I thought you went there for the McRib….if you can find it that is;-)
So the word of the day is McRib?…… I like that, well played sir, well played.
MMS saying “I haven’t deleted many comments, but it is time to revisit my comments policy”
Here is a rundown of all the times in blog-o-sphere history where “revisit my comments policy” wasn’t just double talk for “censoring”:
No comment:-)
When are you going to call out FLYERTALK the way that you call out bloggers? And FT Moderators? And users? There are WAY too many fake posts on Flyertalk meant to confuse and mislead people into not taking advantage of deals and saving them for the chosen few. Flyertalk’s moderators shut down conversation. And most are on the take — having received (renewed, even!) top tier elite status from a hotel chain, among other benefits. where’s the transparency? More importantly, where’s the outrage??
I was asked to be a Moderator and I refused due to lack of time. If I knew elite status from a hotel chain was a benefit I may had 2nd thoughts:-)
I need to keep this manageable. It’s Blogger Buzz. Not community buzz…that goes to a whole different level! Hard to know everything. I just comment on what I see, I pick the ones worthy to comment on. Not a science, definitely an art. Doing this in my spare time, please understand that.
Why don’t you start a blog. Flyer Talk Buzz:-)
Hmm, First2Board Buzz…Wow:-)