We show you how to get United Business Class awards to Europe, how to transfer Avios between Iberia & British Airways, the latest on Hyatt & Hilton Diamond status matches, travel to Patagonia and much more!
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This MileCards site continues to amaze me with its excellent content. “Deep award space: United Business Class to Europe For 9+ People Per Flight For Summer 2016“. Which means you can be commercial and not be a hideous pumping machine like so many other blogs in this space! Some just copy these posts and post a tiny HT in the very end when we all know the attention of readers’ is like a hamster and never get to read to the end. Suggestion: please don’t copy the pics as well, come on!
Ok, I lost the bet again because I didn’t know this either! 3 Methods to Transfer Avios Between Iberia and British Airways.
Looks like Kimpton’s Karma loyalty program will survive in 2016 because IHG Rewards is just way too slow to get their act together, especially its IT department hehe. So, look for no more Karma starting in 2017 #sosad. Actually, I could care less!
Mrs. TBB already got one already, heads up! Marriott Rewards expiration date emails are out! Watch what activity qualifies, these guys are sneaky!
Latest update on the Diamond Status matches by Hyatt and Hilton HHonors. If you thought Hyatt’s handling of this was pathetic, these guys are not done yet! They are now, it appears, only matching SPG Platinums showing 20 nights or more…Or making it up as they go along. Over at the Hilton camp, they just awarded #156,789 Diamond status, good luck with them upgrades boys and girls and prepare for a mega dilution of the benefits. I smell a killing of the Silver status and then an introduction of a mega status level; in other words, all new Diamonds…welcome to Gold 🙂
PSA on using Discover Apple Pay on Best Buy! I did not have a good experience with Discover Bank and I am back at Capital One 360 which still remains flawless and it’s just fine it pays a little less interest. I don’t like Discover’s recent crap about the gift cards either. Maybe it is time to eliminate yet another institution. I am in the process of simplifying my life, getting rid of many boxes to Salvation Army and killing institutions (bye bye Discover Bank and Bankdirect) and out to kill some more. I guess no more SPG and Fairmont Presidents Club soon too and I am so sad about them too!
Get 1,100 Free Le Club Accor points, done, so easy!
Play Starbucks for Life. You can play twice per day. You don’t have to visit Starbucks either, just click on “How To Play” on the top right, fill in the info & you will get emailed a code to use! (HT: Carolina Travel Girl)
Incredible collection of photographs showing decay and stuff like that.
Wild and remote Patagonia, what a beautiful video. Song too!
Sunrise in Manarola, Italy.
Our addiction to technology is real…
The jobs and workers of tomorrow. This is really good stuff!
And I leave you with this…
Big project coming up in my real work life. Email hosting provider is making us move to Microsoft Exchange or something like that. No way! So I am moving to Google Apps. Wish me luck!
I burned 3k SPG points for a night at a hotel next to the Detroit airport to catch a 6 am flight and park the car until pickup when I get back. Just 3k SPG points, a rounding error really! Burn, burn, burn!
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TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
Let me be the first to say, Happy Sunday the 13th!
Same to you, you are golden!
Looks like rest of TBB readers are sleeping in!
On the occupations chart:
Construction and “extraction”
Is that like ditch-digging? I may have a future after all…
All the best! 🙂
I’ll gladly take second… We were in Manarola on thanksgiving this year, but not quite early enough for sunrise. It’s hard to capture the beauty of that place in a picture.
I always thought it may be not real…mega photoshop case…maybe not it appears, wow.
TBB’s comment at a FlyerTalk thread about Mommy Points, see comment #40, pasted below:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/external-miles-points-resources/1730313-mommy-points-chase-affiliate-links-ending-3.html#post25856412
We will all be better off when all banks leave the “I started this blog to show my friends and family how to fly for free, look at me in my First Class lie flat bed seat eating caviar and drinking Krug on my way to the over the water bungalow in the Maldives and you can do it too by clicking on my credit cards, hurry!” “travel” blogger market…
Anyways, something I just noticed as I type this comments. On the bottom of the page (and pretty much ALL OVER Boarding Area) you see the ads selling the Amex Platinum for just a 40k signing bonus when we all (should) know that there are much better ways to get the card! And nobody says anything. The other day OMAAT made a separate post pumping the crap out of it and then it amuses me when people complain about my pumping and then even link to these blog posts!
At the top of this page I see an ad for MileCards. I am not sure who is behind this operation but here is a site that offers original and helpful content that respects its readers.
One of these days I will install an ad blocker
Mountain Trader: Thanks a lot for the kind words.
Recently, I linked to this blog post that I think explains a lot about blogging in general:
http://financialuproar.com/2015/11/3…cial-blogging/
One thing about Mommy Points I admired is the way she interacted with complaining “angry’s”, always level headed with respect.
At the end of the day, we are down to big three legacy airlines, we are losing SPG, Fairmont and Kimpton, and banks are making it harder for us churners along with continued large devaluations as MS deals are getting restricted left and right. Still value in this game? Yes. But not as much…At this rate…
“..we all (should) know that there are much better ways to get the card”
Such as?
Pay someone at DDF? Upgrade Gold? Or what else?
Start clicking on the links on the top, you know, incognitioing, clearing cache/cookies, different browsers, try the Match Tool…u may get lucky!
http://www.milenerd.com/best-credit-cards/
Further down, you see the Benz version as well.
DDF paying works as well from what I hear 😉
Or it is always the Ameriprise version, anyone feel free to post link here.
That was an awesome link to FT. I didn’t realize that was your handle there Buzz and I was thinking YES that was beautiful. Lovely endorsement of your blog by MT, this is the blog I check every day. I also take a look at FT Premium Fare Deals forum.
Re Manarola — Just learned about the Cinque Terra prior to my first trip to Europe which was in May. I couldn’t shoehorn it into my intinerary and I had a sore foot anyway. The photo reminded me of a short story by W.S. Maugham, “Salvatore”. So is the place as nice as it was before RIck Steves and others popularized it, or is it just overrun with tourists and overpriced now like so many other places ?
Last questions — you can actually get a room for only 3,000 SPG points ? Which of the hotel awards programs would you consider if you were a budgety type of traveler ?
I have never been there. I always thought pics of that place can’t be real. But maybe it is indeed and would love to see it oneday.
SPG Category 1 hotels, yes (or is it Cat 2?). There are many. Best value for the bang, if you don’t care about the experience, say you are in a conference all day or have a 6 am flight, are these lower category SPG hotels with points. Sadly Marriott will kill them.
IHG Rewards with Pointbreaks hotels costing just 5k per night remain the best hotel awards, value speaking. But the best rated hotels on the list go FAST!
Actually Club Carlson lower level categories are a great value too.
Never had any interest for Best Western, La Quinta and Wyndham as I always had enough points with the rest of the major chains. But losing SPG is a major major hit. And, to me, losing Fairmont is like ripping my heart of my body 🙂
In the meantime, MMS paid a ghost staffer to click a few buttons to repeat a post about which credit card to use for airfare and managed to pump 32 affiliate links in a single post and then haters have a problem with me. The ridiculousness of this space is mind boggling smh.
And thanks for the kind words again!
For the Cinque Terre, on Thanksgiving it wasn’t terribly busy, but I’m sure during the peak season it gets pretty overrun. However, without any real hotels it’s mostly people staying on airbnb or private rentals, so at night I think it’s somewhat peaceful. This was my second time in Italy during the fall, so with how busy it was, I can’t imagine going there during the summer.
Great info, thanks!
Easy to endorse TBB.
The best is the best. Then there’s the rest.
I declare this the best comment from the best reader!
Thanks!
The Holiday Inn credit card beginner’s guide. Nice post at Personal Finance Digest:
https://saverocity.com/pfdigest/the-holiday-inn-credit-card-beginners-guide/
Thanks George! It’s fun to write for noobs every now and then. Plus it’s been dead lately so…
A few days ago, I made my soccer predictions. If you recall my genius, it was Portland for MLS, Stanford for NCAA, Leicester City for Premier League, and Hungary for making it to elimination round.
Yeah, Stanford!
FIRST TWO PREDICTIONS CAME TRUE! Hey, I should start a stock picking service!
Screw stock picking service, start a hedge fund!
Ego boost, and last (via Twitter link).