Some things are not sustainable. Like all deals that get out to the masses eventually always come to a crashing halt, the frequency of daily updates of this blog is in danger. Why? It is Thanksgiving and our time will be spent with family and friends eating turkey, trying to avoid eating more than one piece of pie and watching the Lions on TV. As a Detroit Lions fan I still believe my team can make the playoffs by winning all six final games. Yes, insanity rules around here! In addition, we are traveling to the Westin Trillium House at Blue Mountain ski resort near Toronto Canada for the weekend. So expect some light updates over the weekend. We have a few cousins staying behind to watch our house and they are armed and dangerous and have orders to shoot to kill:-)
PointsEnvy is having the “First Annual if Christopher Elliott Can do it Anyone Can Travel Blog” Contest. At TBB we appreciate the humor at PE a lot. This title had us rolling on the floor laughing! The different categories and participants are a riot. For example: “Best Partnership with a Major Bank:
Since we are talking about “best credit card pusher” category, I will tell you my experience. Apparently, there were three new offers from Citiblank coming with new affiliate credit card app links. Guess which bloggers were out first with them links? Maybe I should add a ridiculous prize to anyone who needs, say 6 Southwest drink coupons, to the first commenter who identifies the two fast guns. Ok, this is not a joke actually! I rarely fly Southwest and I usually do not drink on board (unless I am sitting in First Class and served champagne). I am sensing the biggest card referrers get the aff links first? And then they go out to all others? Or they are just the ones hungriest for the $$ referral money? I don’t know and I don’t care at this point. I am trying to control myself around issues that set me off ranting. Getting blasted repeatedly with new cc offers just gets to me. Don’t read those blogs then?? NO,this is what we do here at TBB ALL FREAKING DAY LONG, it’s the reason we exist! Did I mention it is therapeutic? We feel so much better after each and every rant. You don’t like it, YOU don’t read TBB! It’s not like we will lose your cc app referral money you know [MEGA LOL].
This type of post drives TBB totally nuts! How to get a business credit card: your questions answered. Not even ONE reference to use credit wisely, pay off balance. I can’t believe I am even adding a link here, I feel so dirty:-) A few references from his post to show you what we are dealing with:
I’ve gotten flooded with emails over the last week about people interested in getting the Chase Ink Bold or Chase Ink Plus now that the minimum spend requirement has dropped to $5,000 in 3 months. Everyone wants the cards, and for good reason. They absolutely rock! [Note: the two cc references were actual aff app links of course, they were edited out! Are you kidding me? So convenient you got flooded with emails for just these two cards that happen to have the highest commissions! “I want cards that absolutely rock”: LOL. Unbelievable! Near the end both same links are served again. I understand the guy put a lot of work into this. This is another example of a blog that would not be in existence if the lure of the easy affiliate credti card referral money was not present. There are MANY out there now!
I really hope your mother is well. I am sorry you misunderstood my well meaning message!
The Points Guy has a very useful list of the airline fees for last minute award ticketing. I reproduce the table below:
Air Canada: $0
Alaska: $0
American: $75 for tickets booked within 21 days of departure: waived for all AA elites)
British Airways: $0 (BA is partners with American, so it may make sense to use Avios for last minute AA awards- especially for short and mid-haul flights which may require less miles).
Delta: $0
JetBlue: $0
Southwest: $0
United: $75 for non-elites, $50 for Silver, $25 for Gold, $0 for 1k, Global Services, Platinum
US Airways: $75, waived for Gold, Platinum and Chairman’s Preferred members.
Virgin America: $0
If you have a Starwood AMEXBusiness credit card you should take a closer look at your “Supplement to the Card Member Agreement” and especially under “Eligibile Purchases do NOT include” [thanks to alert twitter follower @JeffTheWanderer who brought this to my attention!]
I would like to thank all at the crazy people participating in the “Blogs killing deals” in Flyetalk thread for providing me with such great material again!
AlohaDaveKennedy:The deals die because inadequate attention has been placed toward internal controls. The institutions have yet to have one of us become one of them to keep all of us in check. They still don’t get the fact that feeding a school of hungry pirahna (440,000+) is done differently than feeding your pet goldfish (15,000). When diving we never feed sharks without the chain mail, but we have certainly seen Ms. Cartera wade into the water in just a Bikini carrying a tray of raw meat.
amolkold: Okay, which blogger killed the Hawaiian redemption on Virgin Atlantic deal? 
At the end of the day, all we are talking about here is really not important! I hope you are enjoying my blog. I hope you are managing to laugh a little with my stupid quirky sense of humor and you are learning somehing in the process too. I wanted to do something original because I always thought of myself as a rebel [ lol]. I hope bloggers do not take me seriously, I certainly do not! Rest assured I will always write what’s on my mind. Please let me know what’s on your mind by emailing me at:
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com I am always looking for feedback! I also take constructive criticism (including insults) very well. Just the fact you are taking the time to insult me speaks volumes of how much you care and want me to improve. And remember, I do love everybody:-)
Happy Thanskgiving. It is my favorite holiday. So many things to be thankful for.
Man, last week I’m called “this dude” and this week “this guy”. You know you don’t even rate with TBB when you can’t even get your name published! Looks like I need a lot less credit card links and a lot more cocky in a self-deprecating way humor to get on your good side!
Travis, you put in a LOT of work in your product, I do admire hard work and wish you the best of luck. And as others have told me about this blogging thing, any PR is good PR:-) You have some funny stuff in your “About Me” page too;-) But, as you know, them credit card links make me lose it! Not that I have anything left to lose, lol. As always, nothing personal. Happy Thanksgiving!
Not sure why you Hat Tipped TPG when taking his content
It’s not like he gives credit when doing that
George, far be it from me to question such a long time and experienced blogger with details, RE your writing but I thought I should point out to you that FULL DISCLOSURE of financial relationships with those we receive commissions from is an FTC requirement. Now I know you could never had made the mistake of asking for FULL DISCLOSURE and not have seen that bloggers including FTG place these disclosures on the bottom of their blog posts in some cases, or on other pages of their blogs. So you must be requesting that we all personally “beg or pimp” for the readers to use our links with each affiliate link post we do? Please be advised. We give our readers more credit than that and only make the required disclosure in a way that is not further selling our links. We allow our readers to click on the links they want, from the bloggers they want, without extra coercion. We will not be following your requested procedure, and instead be following the letter of the law. Also please be advised the editorial board of FTG, which I am only one vote of three, has taken note of this seemingly unfortunate misrepresentation regarding our full disclosure. Happy Thanksgiving George
@Anonymous: TBB will always give credit! In cases we don’t, it will be in case of an unfortunate accident or extreme laziness. If it is brought to our attention we will correct it asap.
@ Rick: Thanks for taking the time to comment.
I loved your “long time and experienced blogger with details” comment. Not even two weeks long, give me time to learn, I am getting there:-)
I am COMPLETELY CONFUSED by your post. This is NOT unusual for me, I am generally confused at all times! I am not sure what is the letter of the law here, would love to learn. I am GUESSING that as long as you state SOMEWHERE on the website (think privacy policy type notices where nobody has the time to search AND read) that there is ANY form of financial relationship involved you are complying with the letter of the law. That is fine of course, you HAVE to do this of course (I have not found it in your website because I have not taken the time to find it, I am too busy wasting my time reviewing more and more blogs!)I am talking about the SPIRIT of the law. If you offer something (a cc link) and almost always say “apply here”, a simple statement of fact that there is a financial gain if the cc app is successful SHOULD BE present AND visible! When an email is sent out the SAME practice should be practiced. I have never seen anything like this in your email blasts (yes I can unsubscribe, I already did 2 out of 3 but kept one because I know what is the next hot cc offer, lol].
Of course I would NEVER expect that regulators would make you state EXACTLY HOW MUCH you and your affiliate marketing company are paid. I also believe that consumers SHOULD have a RIGHT to know these numbers to make a more informed decision. If that ever happens in this country….yeah, right, we can all dream.
>>>>>>>>>>We give our readers more credit than that and only make the required disclosure in a way that is not further selling our links.
You definitely give your readers a heck of a lot more credit than they had before, lol. Sorry, I could not resist:-) I really appreciate the dialogue and learning from you! Learning in general. TBB is all about coninous improvement! We are fully disclosing that we are losing our time, capital and minds doing this new blogging thing lol.
Please someone point me to the required disclosure!! And if someone knows the legal requirements covering this issue I would LOVE to learn what they are.
From the bottom of my heart, I wish you and your family the Happiest Thanksgiving ever!