December 24, 2012 – Twitter is awesome, partying with Zeus, #Bluebird…

Hello from Upper Saddle River in New Jersey. I am typing this from my brother in law’s house where  the internet connection reminds me of dial up modem speed times! So, this blog post may take a lot more time than it usually does, so please bear with me!

TBB may be going on a trip so posting this week may be a bit sporadic. We do expect the bloggers will slow down too. We wish to everyone Happy Holidays!!!

Now, let’s get on with the show, shall we?

BEST OF

Registration is open for Hilton Honors 1st Quarter promotion. It is the regular Double Points or Double Miles. TBB always goes for the points! Notice the link with the ridiculously long list of NON participating hotels, wow!

Barclays Bank is appearing to be making some headway into the loyalty cards, both One View from the Wing and Mommy Points blogged about.  It is mostly about spending bonuses and not signing bonuses. And I have seen so much variation on denials, churning, etc…It’s not an easy bank to work with. And their website is very clunky too! So beware and prepare for some extra patience!

Points Miles and Martinis wrote “How to link Chase Business and Personal Credits Online“. As so many of  you now probably have a Chase Business credit card this may come in handy. I like to keep them separate, it is a bit extra work but I can handle it.

Very Good Points had a really funny blog post “Dear traveler, you might be breaking the law” about the weird laws in the books that references a USA Today article. Some of these are hilariously idiotic.  If I ever move to Georgia I will make sure I do not keep my donkey in the bathtub, only my pet giraffe!

Come on, admit it, you always wanted to find out the difference between Netherlands and Holland. This short video will explain it all and you can show off to your friends that you always knew that!

DC Rainmaker had only 40 minutes for a run in the “An Istanbul Runaround“.  TBB visited Istanbul this past June, lovely place! It appears Turkish Air has plenty of good fares lately, perhaps you should visit. I only flew Business Class from Thessaloniki, Greece SKG to Istanbul on TK and it was still fantastic, great food on board!

The Points Guy has a good post  on “Which Credit Card Sign-up Bonuses You Can Get Multiple Times“. Good info nuggets here, this is an always moving target…with high doses of ymmv (especially Barclays!). He manages to serve 9 different credit card app links and TBB so despises that there is no disclosure in the body of the posts that there may be a financial relationship involved!

The Wandering Aramean reports that Air Berlin sold off Topbonus loyalty program to…Etihad which is attempting some type of global loyalty management platform that covers multiple airlines. So far, only Air Berlin, Etihad and Air Seychelles are covered so I would not bet that a sea change is remotely possible in the near future. This is a long term play and it will be interesting to see how it all works out in the end.

Gary highlights some cash back cards and has a pretty good rationale comparing them vs the miles/points cards.

Loyalty Lobby has a thorough discussion on the Pros & Cons of the Priority club (InterContinental Hotels Group).

Rapid Travel Chai has an interesting strategy on “Club Carlson Visa – match and rollover strategy for Concierge Elite chasers“.  He refers to a little known feature of the cards: a one-time credit of 15 nights per card! Therefore, if you get the Business card too you could get a total of 30 eligibe nights and then if you have another 45 nights you can make Concierge Elite status (you need 75 nights!).  For road warriors this could be a good fit. You likely know that the spend on Club Carlson hotels with its own cards can be obscene! And Club Carlson matches Gold frequently too!
And thanks for calling my blog irrepressible, I dig it!

Gary (again, does he ever take a break???) had a blog post on how some could get the United Visa card for up to 55k signing bonus. The TBB household is so busy cranking up the Ink Plus minimum spends right now, we must focus focus focus on them!

Travel Summary has a follow up post on “Twitter Matters in the Points Game, Part 2“. I had the privilege to enjoy the awesome twitter team at @AmericanAir who managed to get me on a flight and save me 7 hours sitting around the airport today. Thanks for the mentions too! I LOVE Twitter! Follow me @FlyerTalkerinA2
UPDATE: I was just notified I was the winner of 60,000 Starwood SPG points from a Twitter contest by @theVacationGals. Best Christmas gift I can remember in a very long time! Did I say I REALLY LOVE Twitter!!!

NOT SO BEST OF

I had an awfully hard time to find anything. I attribute this to the holidays and, perhaps, a tiny change in bloggers’ tactics that TBB is watching….yeah, right:-)

It hurts me to include this article here of my former idol. Points Envy wrote this “Tips for Dealing with Fear of Flying” at his new digs at the Million Mile Secrets website. Definitely below par. This is proof that the satire sharpness quality goes way down when you write for a site you used to make fun of. I wonder if an article making fun of the Bora Bora endless trip report will ever pass the MMS editorial review…I guess not. #sayitisnt’so

ODDZ & ENDZ

“Guns in America: 45 Years on the Treadmill”  Yeah, we definitely have way too many guns in the country and the solution is definitely NOT to throw more guns to the problem. I was not surprised at all at the delusion exhibited by the NRA dude; I actually expected nothing less! If I was an NRA member I would be totally embarassed by him! Then again, I am not a gun owner. I am a lover, not a fighter, lol.

Failing to Prosecute White Collar Crime Guarantees a Weak and Unstable Economy … and Future Financial Crashes This is from a colleague of mine. I just wanted to add it here and state that I am in complete agreement. We need to hold them bankers accountable and throw some of their asses in jail. On this the Obama administration has totally failed.