We teach newbies how to go about Churning the right way, learn all the Avios award prices from London, get super excited about Chase Sapphire Preferred Week, hold up our noses at more Delta crap, celebrate about the news of a new airport at La Guardia, jump up (not really) on the news about the new Best Western cards, visit (just kidding) the resort of North Sentinel Island, shake our heads at what fiasco the building of the Berlin Airport has been and much more!
TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order!
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This is a great thread at the Churning Reddit forum (see boys and girls I can write this word!). How a 19 year old is doing getting into this hobby The Hobby. Took a month to study this stuff first! Great tutorials on the right hand side. You are welcome newbie. Get educated. Don’t be greedy. Never break any laws. And click my links lol.
Great table of all Avios award prices originating in…London via Head For Points.
It’s Chase Sapphire Preferred Week at Personal Finance Digest, woohoo! So exciting, I mean, isn’t it always exciting when CSP is mentioned? You won’t believe the excitement when each CSP card is sold! Get me excited you guys too lol. Actually thinking about getting my wife to excite me by…applying for the CSP card (long shot…need to check her app history lol).
You know the end is near when even mainstream media like the Los Angeles Times get it: “Delta Air Lines to alter reward program; other airlines may follow“. May? Apparently they are also doing some phony upgrade stuff for the executives’ families, something about upgrading to personal jets or something…yeah right…spare me the BS por favor!
It looks like the national embarrassment of an airport at La Guardia may be no more. That’s great news…we shall see what happens!
Some great thoughts and nice chart of the “Dilemma of the Free Annual Hotel Nights” by Running with Miles.
And the news you have been waiting for…The Best Western Debuts New Credit Cards. By First Bankcard, a division of First National Bank of Omaha. Hey, wait a minute, isn’t that the bank that used to give away an ugly teddy bear as a signing bonus for some other rewards card I can’t even remember. Correction: Doctor of Credit let me know in the comments that these have been out since late April, oopsie! And I had even linked to his card review back then. Man, I must be losing it. Is it age or just too much time pumping 35 affiliate links in a single post or something LOL
29 Breathtaking Cliffs To See In Your Lifetime
The Gate wrote about daring us to visit North Sentinel Island. Visiting areas occupied by ISIS seems like a walk in the park instead! He links to this fascinating article about this island that appeared in neatorama titled: “The Forbidden Island“.
How Berlin’s Futuristic Airport Became a $6 billion Embarrassment via Bloomberg. You know it is a mega bomb when article’s subtitle includes the words “Greek-like fiasco” lol.
23 of the Most Amazingly Successful Introverts in History. Fascinating article at Inc. This hobby attracts lots of introverts. When you become amazingly successful buy me out please lol. As long as I have last word on the content that is #notgreedy #credibility
For Frederick Weis, Knick’s Infamous Pick, Boos Began a Greater Struggle via The New York Times. As an NBA fan this was a fascinating article on this guy. What a story, mostly sad. Amazing how life turns out sometimes. Then again, not sure it was as infamous as Joe Dumars picking Darko Milicic WTF!
Good Enough – Why Rules of Thumb Beat Precision via The Motley Fool. This is a MUST read personal finance article! And I am all in favor for this approach.
And I leave you to ponder about…
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Pics of that Pulpit Rock always make my b**ls twinge, sorry that’s kind of crude yet true !
Pulpit Rock is effing awesome!
http://travelbloggerbuzz.com/travel-reports/norway/
George, what are you talking about? The new Best Western cards have been out since late April. You even linked to several of my reviews about them…
I saw that today and I thought they were picked up by this bank. You know I am no Best Western kind of guy, lol. Thanks.
FNBO took over the card portfolio from Barclaycard, but that happened before the new cards were released. New cards have always been issued by FNBO. Pretty decent credit card issuer, secured products usually don’t suck and free FICO score.
We had some credit card-related news around here today. Apparently Barclaycard is bringing around 1500 new jobs for a call center. Funny quote: “Barclaycard issues Visa and MasterCard credit cards and co-branded credit cards through partnerships with about 60 companies and institutions such as American Airlines, L.L. Bean and Apple” (What, no Frontier? Apparently they and Allegiant made CVG go from most expensive to cheapest airport in the US). Thus when you’re calling for reconsideration or trying to get Barclays to throw you a bone, you may be talking to one of our locals in the future. http://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2015/07/27/ohio-tax-credits-barclays/30732229/
Good to see that! Love hearing news about jobs…job gains that is!
F Hitler? is that allowed?
I hope I didn’t mess up my chances of winning the One Direction Boy Band contest yesterday. They are so much more way way hotter than NSync, Backside Boys or even The New Kids on the Block.
Next blog post will have another media score…Oh, I would turn down money to avoid seeing these bands! 🙂
I hiked to Pulpit Rock 3 weeks ago! Just me, my wife and son—-and 5000 other strangers. So peaceful….not!
Oh, yeah, for my next crowded Norway hike, it’s this place http://nextstopnorway.com/explore/hiking-to-kjerag-and-kjeragbolten/
I hear you have to wait up to an hour in a queue to get your picture taken on the rock,
Ahhhh….
This is why I went in mid April! I took the risk there would be lots of snow on the ground. There was some but I got lucky and it was amazing being there with maybe 30 more people tops. I should point that out in my trip report about the summer crowds. Thanks.
Via Eric Holthaus’s Twitter feed, now it’s the Economist’s turn to feel bad for Lucky. http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2015/07/professional-air-mile-collectors?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/LivingThehighlife
Darn it harvson3, I was leading with this in the new TBB blog post…Now I don’t feel as original 🙂
” Such is his rock-star status within the airline industry that on one flight a member of cabin crew ushered him into an empty aisle and pleasured him.”
THAT quote will live in infamy, wow!
And so it begins ….
Email from a Head for Points reader: “I have recently found your site in my effort to wrap my head around collecting miles and entering the world of “the Hobbyist.” …….”
Well it will get worse since Ben aka Krug and Tug (Hat tip to FT) was on Nightline last night. This is not good at all on so many levels.
The PR mega blitz continues, just posted new blog post. The guy is unreal, wow! I wonder what the hell all the Bankrate staff at TPG are doing!!!
I’ve been to the Cliffs of Moher! And went rock climbing in Donegal — definitely some great cliffs there.
I want to talk to you about Cliffs of Moher over lunch!
New reader to the blog!
Hello, I just recently discovered your blog via FT and find it thoroughly entertaining (definitely comedic) and educational. I really like the little tidbits of financial wisdom too and the common sense portrayed here. I am a newbie in the points and miles game aka The Hobby (LOL) and learning quite a bit. I kind of followed a “titan” aka “The Points Guy” for a minute, but realized the blog is lackluster and not that informative. It’s just a pretty facade/face/GUI is all, but underneath the hood, gutless with no quality. I’ve actually learned a lot more on your blog and FT. I’ve briefly seen some of the other “titans” blogs and it’s kind of hard to avoid them when you Google about “The Hobby,” probably due to “superior SEO.” I find the art of “pushing a sell/affiliate links” highly annoying, so I never fell into the trap of clicking on them. I always went to the source for links. I know blogging takes a lot of time, but it’s appreciated and thanks for the blog and information that you put out.
– A fellow introvert
Welcome aboard!
Comedic and educational: music to my ears, thanks!
I think you nailed it about the “superior SEO”. They got the online marketing mechanics down pat…to a science. You know why they keep pumping? Because it works! Wished all the newbies were like you 🙂
Some are in it for the true passion. Many are in it for the money and are posers. Some got in it for the passion, tasted the money and have been doing what is necessary for the money. I think readers should value content quality and having bloggers put the interests of their readers FIRST and not put their own pockets and banks’ interests first. There is a fine line to balance indeed.
TBB mission all along has been and continues to help the smaller blogs who provide quality content to help readers FIRST. You are just not going to get that from the big commercial blogs in the TBB Blogs To Ignore list. They thrive on, well, newbies who have had no credit cards yet 😉 I mean, there is one out there that STILL sells newbies 7 travel reward cards at a time instead of 1 cash back card they ask for….What is insane is that blog’s founder comes around here often and whines about ME pumping LOL. Oh the insanity of this space sometimes…
So comments like yours make my day so thank you!
It seems, according to Ben’s Mom, that all other travel bloggers are his apprentices. How does that feel George 🙂
Sometimes I wonder and want to scream WTF alone in my room drinking (not Krug) cheap wine…