TRAVEL
The Ultimate Itinerary: How to visit the 25 least visited countries in one go. By Gunnar Garfors. More details on how to visit these countries.
Couchsurfing’s downfall is a stark lesson in choosing profits over a do-gooder customer base. By Quartz. Intensely interesting commentary in this article. This excerpt says a lot: “Unfortunately, we live in a society obsessed with growth, and the Couchsurfing management team fell into this same trap. The millionth member joined in 2009. Now, there are 5 million users, mass media coverage, and even mentions in Lonely Planet. Was it inevitable? Probably. Could it have been done in a way that respected the values that spurred Couchsurfing’s initial organic growth. Definitely.” TBB does not want to fall into the same trap of focusing on growth of dinero after joining the ranks circus of affiliate income. If you know of an affiliate company that will allow me complete editorial independence and not push me with quotas or edicts please let me know, thanks:-)
Great, there is now a first class lounge for dogs at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. By Gadling. Can we get a trip report please, anyone?
Where Google Street View ends.
MILES/POINTS
You can get 55k Delta Skymiles (including 20k elite miles) for $150 annual fee (NOT waived) after “spending” $5k in the first three months. Rapid Travel Chai has the short and thorough post. No attempt was made in the post to push other affiliate links!
If you will open an account with Rocketmiles, open it through View from the Wing‘s referral link because you get MORE miles this way. Avoid all the others who are selfishly pushing their own links! Then check out the stackable promo to earn a nice stack of Virgin America miles with your first Rocketmiles booking.
I have had this on my desk for days to post here. In the last issue of Inside Flyer, I saw more references to award related sites: AwardChart.com (needs work), Miles4Flights.com (nice website) and AwardPlanners.com (website did not load). If you have any comments on these websites please leave a comment.
BLOG BUZZ
The Chase Ink cards assault continues. If we all had a dollar for every time we read about the benefits of these cards we would all be filthy rich! You can tell a lot about bloggers watching them beat up themselves trying to find ANY angle/excuse to generate these mega $$ commission generator apps. It has become unbelievably disgusting. Reminds me of the same Jehova’s witness guy who keeps coming by my house trying to save me. He keeps trying to catch me at home even though I told him I am certain that I am going to hell and I am taking the Hell Express baby!
Like I said it before, if I said something for all the Ink related crap I see I would be doing this 24/7 and I clearly ain’t got time for dat!
From the four Chase Business cards “on sale” this week there is no affiliate link for one of them, the Ink Classic. Nice job One Mile at a Time to pound the other three links. There goes another one off my Top 10 list. I promise to post this list sometime in 2013…it keeps shrinking:-)
You know how I feel about bloggers pushing charity. Here goes the Frugal Travel Guy blog pushing AccountNow accounts and they give it all to charity. So nice of them. I wonder if they give away the tax deduction too while at it. I took a quick look at the Account Now terms & conditions and their fees are on the high side! In my own opinion only. How about this idea: Donate to the charity YOU want and get the full tax deduction too while at it (use a credit card if allowed of course). I also despise posting glowing congratulatory messages too! You know the type “oh my god you are awesome, you changed my life blah blah blah”? TBB will never publicize self congratulatory material, we see NOTHING of value doing this to my readers, nada! Yes I do get them too along with hilarious hate mail! I must say the hate mail is so much more fun to read, please make an effort to make it more colorful, thanks!
Miles Momma, in all CAPS (please do not do that!!!!), pushes the Lufthansa card and tries to get you to earn miles by getting your mortgage at Chase. Here is one word of advice: Never get your mortgage to get miles.
At the end of the day there was a flurry of posts coming from Boarding Area telling us that the site will be under maintenance. How do you dare Randy Petersen to do this at this time and take the bread out of your bloggers’ mouths huh? So a bunch of them had “site under maintenance this weekend” blog posts and some tried to squeeze some more Chase Ink links…shame on the latter ones! Like you haven’t pushed the freaking cards enough to your readers already? Booooo!!!! Seeing View from the Wing‘s headline “Last Call” was quite disappointing. And ugh!!
ON MY MIND
Miami Heat won the NBA Championship. They will now become even more arrogant. The happiest person is probably Mile Nerd who is attempting to trademark the name “Three-heat”.
Today is my birthday. Happy Birthday to me. Every year that passes seems faster than the previous one. It’s weird.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Absolutely mesmerizing; 22 Best Wildlife Photos From National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest.
Only in Florida. Hilarious pics. Here are a few:
yikes, Three-Heat is going to be ka-ching for Mile Nerd!
That dude is pretty smart, out of the box thinking at its finest!
Happy Birthday!
Thank you!
Happy birthday to you, George!
Disgusting, eh? Wonder where I heard that descriptive word before…
I agree about the hate mail. I get my share too — despite not pushing credit card affiliate links or blatantly advertising my weblogs. You just cannot please everyone, I suppose.
Sounds like you have a new buddy with that Jehovah’s Witness, George. Tell him that you might — just might — consider listening to him if he uses your affiliate links…
Thanks.
In today’s world haters are expected. If there were no haters there must be something seriously wrong:-) I think it adds to diversity and we can all learn from them too. Besides, it makes it even more entertaining, at least for me. I don’t take things personally!
I engaged the Jehovah’s witness a few times mostly because I felt for him…I wanted to save him too! Our kids go to the same high school. He is a really nice guy. But oh boy are they persistent!
Almost 8 months after starting my blog I am beginning to make my first steps to learn about this affiliate stuff. $$$ expenses of the blog have now exceeded four figures and $25 of income ain’t going to justify my tax decuctions:-) Yes, I am highly aware of the murkiness of this step. I feel dirty even inquiring about it:-) #developingveryslow
Well — at the detriment of your readership — you could consider selling advertising space to cover your costs, and then offer readers the option of subscribing to an advertisement-free experience.
I know I would personally understand if you took that step.
Your costs have to be covered somehow…
I am not sure that is a viable model. This ain’t no FT lol. Besides technically I wouldn’t know how to accomplish it. And I would like to keep it ad free…hate the crap cluttering the screen!
I don’t mind the countless hours but losing my own dough too on top is a little too much…so I am looking VERY slowly at different avenues.
I’ve run a relatively large website for over a decade and it costs ~$1/day for hosting (and that’s with a very expensive). How did you reach 4 figures?
Web designer to hand hold me. She lives nearby, I like the handholding. I don’t have the time to get into the techie stuff so I just…keep going.
#developingveryslowly I am in this for 8 months already and I just now got some info on this affiliate stuff.
I just need to take my time to figure it all out and do it in a classy way. By the time I figure it out this whole bubble with the huge cc signing bonuses may have burst!
good to see mile nerd get paid. good things come to those who don’t sell out to affilates. not actually pending though. i think he already owns that trademark.
Do you consider Frequent Miler a sellout? I sure don’t. Hack My Trip,Online Travel Review and Rapid Travel Chai too. If I ever join the ranks I want to do it their way. (FM method preferred). And yes I realize my haters will come out in force lol.
I thought Mile Nerd’s trademark was not finalized. I have no idea how this is going to play out. I think I am going to add my two highly endorsed (Capital One/ebates) referral links to the right hand side like he does. I would not dare to add my TopCashBack referral link there, no way!
Happy birthday George. You are now older than me — until November
Thank you Sir. With NBA over we are going to be spending some time at the Top of the Park events. Music and movies…Free!
Happy Birthday…and I feel you. I just had mine and the years do seem faster. I think it’s seeing the kids age with you. Their growth is like a physical manifestation of your own decay.
Thank you very much!
>>>>>Their growth is like a physical manifestation of your own decay.
Lol, so true so true!
Happy Birthday, George!
Thank you very much!
Happy birthday George. Last night was tough to watch. The Spurs beat themselves more than anything. That was two games in a row they could have won, but last night was even tougher because half the team didn’t show up to play.
You know what I think the Spurs need as a consolation? Chase Ink cards!!!! Ding ding ding! I wonder if they know the benefits?
Yeah, Green and Ginobli were awful. They lost it themselves.
I think we need a blog post to tell the Heat that you can get 2 points per dollar for Travel!
Lol
Happy Birthday to my brother from another Muther.
Thank you brother.
I will have some ribs for you!
Happy Birthday George.
Thank you very much. Thanks for reading too!
No need to thank, your blog is awesome and a good alternative to MMS and the likes who cant seem to keep their greed in control.
Greed: I can think of many others other than MMS:-)
I tend to be more lenient on bloggers doing this full time and providing food for their families.
I need to figure out how to cover my costs and keep finding a way for readers to keep telling me “your blog is awesome”. That’s priceless to me, thank you.
(more original content) Dwayne Wade now says he changed his name and only wants to be addressed as ” Three “…………………Sorry dude but I am going to call you the same name as always ” Douche “……………..are you getting a clown or magician or an inflatable jump thing for your birthday party?
Love your handle:-)
I can not afford a clown or magician or inflatable jump thing as the money went to the web designer and to Go Daddy:-)
The inflatable jump thing sure sounds like fun though;-)
Thanks for the heckling, I sure appreciate it!
Happy Birthday George 🙂
Thanks a lot! Think you are in Texas now right? Sorry for the Spurs loss…so tough and so classy.
Yes sir. In Tejas now (Dallas). Not a Spurs fan but obviously preferred them over Miami.
Classy is overrated in this day and age my friend.
Happy birthday, George. I must say I envy you for having a birthday on the longest day of the year. Hopefully you had some beautiful weather and time to enjoy it.
Weather was beautiful. Daughter arranged sleepover with 3 girlfriends. Having 4 ten year old girls running around the house was not part of the plan. so I have to make it up somehow on Saturday!
Happy Birthday! It was good to see carpet bloggers able to post up to the last minute on BoardingArea (I believe user comments had been disabled before some of these posts were made). Here’s one for all the carpet bloggers out there (with apologies to OxiFresh):
How to Remove Ultimate Rewards From Your Carpet
Step 1
Take a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Freedom to carefully scoop up as much of the Ultimate Rewards as possible (do not use a Chase Ink for this purpose as it may permanently stain your carpet).
Step 2
Mix 1/4 teaspoon Vanilla with 4 cups of cold water. Stir with AMEX or Visa gift cards. Wet a towel in the solution and wring it out until it’s damp.
Step 3
Use the towel to blot the Ultimate Rewards, working from the outside edge toward the center. Don’t scrub, just gently blot. Continue blotting until no more of the Ultimate Rewards comes up.
Step 4
Using a spritzer with 2% TCB solution, rinse and then thoroughly blot the area.
Step 5
Lay a dry towel over the spot. Lay as many Chase Ink cards as possible over the towel and then place a heavy weight on top. Let it sit for about eight hours so the Chase Ink cards can soak up any remaining Ultimate Rewards.
HikerT: I think it’s time for you to start your own blog too;-) Imagination and creativity you are NOT lacking;-)
Happy Birthday George.
Thank you Mr. Karma. All Karma back to you!
FTG posted on FT that the ink deal has been extended for two days. Two thoughts come to mind (1) did he post that just to mess with the “angries”? That would seem a good bet and I think its funny. Or (2) is he telling the truth and no other blogger has said anything because now they have another post for tomorrow! I guess we will know the answer soon enough.
Really? I would not be surprised Chase would do this. Might as well take the inflow of the apps for the whole weekend. He is connected so it may well be true. At this point it does not matter anymore, all of us can recite every detail about these cards now:-)
Happy Birthday!
Thank you Amol, keep rocking!