Travel Blogger Buzz – November 29, 2012

This was a very long and extremely busy day. All of a sudden, things started flying at me from all directions. When I get into these types of situations, I focus like a laser beam, get my James Bond Craig face on and charge ahead attacking each and every task with gusto! Just to give you an idea how the day started…my cell phone decided it was not going to turn on past the opening screens. Several soft resets did not help. Off to the Sprint store. I am informed that it looks like it can be fixed only after a hard reset which basically wipes out all the apps and all the setups I had! Rep informed me I can upgrade and was about to buy the Samsung Galaxy III only to be told that my two year contact anniversary is on December 1st. No exceptions! So, hard reset it was. Hard resets are so harsh, boo!

So my day was going great, client meetings, phone calls, emails, taxi driver to my cute entitled kids. I was not online as much as usual and noticed some tweets regarding a Marriott $50 gift card. I thought someone was referring to yet another contest bloggers usually have. After a brutal bootcamp personal training session that had me almost fainted, a fabulous dinner by my wife (greek salad and chicken curry soup, yummm thanks honey have fun with the kids this weekend!), I started going through what I find myself spending lots of time these days…going through all the blog postings in my Google Reader.

A note to FTU participants: I get into LAX at 12.30 pm on Thursday. I will hang out in some lounge until about 2 pm. I will get a car from National (free, nautually) and drive myself to Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica. Anyone around to get some dinner/drinks in Santa Monica? Email or tweet me or show up around 7 pm at the Fairmont lobby. I hear it is very nice. I will enjoy my mega suite Friday night (upgraded as Platinum, naturally) and have a majestic breakfast (free, naturally) and head over to LAX to drop off the car around 1 pm or so. Then I will check into the Radisson for two nights (super low rate, earn 1 free night promo…naturally). I plan to attend the party on Friday night.

ANGRY MOSQUITOES:
After a gazillion mentions of the 2013 Quarterly Chase Freedom Category bonuses, the now daily obligatory credit card push posts and several trip reports, I noticed this “Mosquitoes: A Life Lesson Learned“. When I saw the title I thought my friend Rick or one of the other people who write in his blog was attacked by mosquitoes and I expected some links to some mosquitoe repellant creams or something (come on, I know you are laughing, making fun of yourself is liberating, you should try it some more, we do it all the time here at TBB).

Instead, my friend Rick again surprises me with a mega rant about the “angries” (very original indeed) that makes my anti credit card rants look like child’s play! Rick, for the life of me, I have no idea why you would spend time on FlyerTalk fighting with the “angries” (rhymes with crazies and zombies…hmm). I attributed your comments on my blog to having a bad day or two, we ALL do from time to time. I forgot all about it actually, there are more important things in life! As you say this hobby has grown so much that it amazes old timers. I must admit I REALLY despise the relentless credit card pushing that has infiltrated our space. Mostly because of what I do for a living. I fully understand that people should be responsible and bloggers should get compensated for their hard work. I FULLY realize now difficult it is to come with good quality content and do so on a consistent basis! But I also know that it can be done with class or not. It would be nice if you can take constructive criticism better my friend, you sound angry! It’s okay, maybe you need a vacation? 🙂

BUILDING WELLS IN HAITI

This appears to be a great cause, please donate here!

BEST OF THE BLOGS

A kind reader emailed me about adding a category picking the best posts. When we mean best we talk about original content and not something you can find in many other blogs. A lot of work went into these posts and they were VERY helpful. I can not help having the veteran view on these, okay? And these will always be VERY highly subjective! Of course our incendiary commentary will remain original as always, lol.

Milevalue on Free One Way Awards on United
I will attend your sessions as I am very interested to learn about this! As I have always said, “I know earning, I suck in burning”  lol. Looking forward to meet you too! And all the best in your move to Buenos Aires. We visited in August and loved it! Be careful, they run the country even worse than the Greeks do Greece, mega lol.

Frequent Miler on “Bluebird vs Serve”
Do you all remember the commercial about not doing drugs? You know the eggs and “this is your brain on drugs” scene? Well, in this hobby/market/industry/space/asylum (take your pick), we should have the same scene and say this instead when we talk about FM’s posts: “THIS is content”. You add to the consistent top quality content a VERY classy way of offering credit card app links in his page (hint hint hint to all other bloggers who are probably adding another cc link RIGHT NOW, lol) and all the reasons for mega rants in my blog will be eliminated. And then I may have nothing to blog about! I don’t worry, I know Delta Points will never disappoint me:-)

Points, Miles & Martinis on “Denver, the New Amsterdam”

Very funny! So who will organize the Mile HIGH DO:-)

Heels First on “Is Chris Elliott Sexist?”

I am starting to feel sorry about Chris. No I am not!

“I was eating Tyson’s Microwavable Chicken Strips“. Really Jeanne, really! 🙂

Travel Summary on “The Personality of a Points Addict“

This line had me rolling: I’m sure we all know people that we shake our heads at because of their purchasing decisions. You know, the ones that we see paying cash (gasp!), paying MSRP at Banana Republic (omg!), or even combining the two (WTF!).”

Lovely post. I am running out of time so I pasted below my response in the comments:

TravelBloggerBuzz: I think you are reading my mind about what I am thinking about writing in my blog! I was thinking of writing about this being a way of life, like Mr. Pickles once said. Some people get high on drugs, exercise, team sports, cooking (not me), eating, stamp collecting, soccer (me me me), flying, you name it. When they engage in these activities, the dopamine in their brain gets stimulated (or something like that, not a scientist at all!). It’s that HIGH feeling. It’s like the high you get when you buy a stock and you see it triple…there is NO feeling like it. So……,in our little hobby, we get high in scoring deals & traveling in such a manner that is at a fraction of the costs that OTHERS traveling with us are paying! When I lay out in my first class seat and see others go past me back to coach…I get HIGH by that. Of course upgrading to the FC seat and others next to me may have paid thousands of dollars is dopamine friendly too! Same with luxury hotels. Same with visits to Office Depots and scoring everything 5x. Same with cringing with others who just don’t get it! It is about MAXIMIZING your experience at the least possible cost. Being a rebel, beating the system….Of course some take it too far (hogs!) and should be stoned to death, just kidding. I also agree with the time constraints. I could afford the trips and the stuff…I just enjoy the hunt and the “scores”, it is our dopamine. I tried to quit, could not do it. I think I will die with this disease. Sometimes I think it is ridiculous what we do…Maybe I will write a post about that, the most ridiculous things I ever did for miles.
Bluebird

NY Times Frugal Traveler on “The Argument Against Pound Foolish Travel“

Since Travel Summary started these posts, I am adding this one here. I agree with most in this article. LOVED the end “I’m all for being a miser, but not if it makes you miserable.”

Grumpy Traveler on “How to Get Revenge on Noisy Neighbours in Hotels and Hostels“

Fantastic article! Must read and try some of this stuff if you get in such a situation and you do not ask to change rooms (we would take that action first).

ODDZ & ENDZ

Review: Assholes: A Theory

Ok, we like far out stuff we admit. A review of this book is hilarious.

“… the author spends 214 quite convincing pages arguing that “assholeness” is less inattention than a permanent state of mind, and that assholes are more than numerous enough to be called out in book form.” [LOL]

The true asshole, James writes, “is immunized by his sense of entitlement against the complaints of other people.” He is narcissistic, self-absorbed, impolite, and permanently thoughtless to those around him—and it is almost always a him—nearly to the point of sociopathy. [LOLOL…please don’t stop!]

Unlike Communism, which in practice engendered a small, elite group of assholes, James believes unbridled capitalism, stripped of those virtue-engendering values that assholes disdain, is an ideal system through which many assholes can band together to completely tilt the game in their favour. Does he make a case? Hint: his main target is the U.S. banking system, and the disaster it provoked in 2008. It almost writes itself. [Thanks bloggers, cough cough…sorry I just could not resist!! Please do not get angry! If you do, may I suggest Angry Birds instead?]

That’s all for now. I always welcome your comments, questions, ideas to improve, insults, whatever. And see some of you in Los Angeles.

To Infinity and Beyond!

Bluebird