TRAVEL
Cutest ad of the year according to Adweek is this one by Ibis hotels (HT to A Luxury Travel Blog)
Saverocity had a great piece on cruise ship jobs “A Rough Guide to Cruise Ship Hierarchy and Cruise Ship Mafia“. Matt used to work on cruise ships so he has an inside knowledge. At times, growing up, I thought it would be a riot to have a job on a cruise ship. The “Love Boat” and all!
Please do NOT go swimming in Quingdao, China. You may be confronted by older Chinese women in bandit masks and too much algae!
Per Wall Street Journal‘s “Airline Fees Keep Climbing” by Susan Carey: “Actual ticket prices account for just 70% of the revenue at major airlines, down from 84% in 2000, according to the Department of Transportation. Fees tacked on for checked luggage and reservation changes alone rose to a record $6.1 billion in fees last year, up from $5.7 billion the year before. Overall revenue was $159.5 billion last year.”
The guy who built a 1970s Pan Am 747 airplane in his garage. By Messy Nessy Chick. Wow, this guy sure qualifies as an “airplane nerd” all right:-) And check out the video with a quick tour!
I have never bought travel insurance. It is very likely I will never buy it. Only insure catastrophic losses in general. Let’s move on.
Southwest told its pilots and flight attendants to get their passports by the end of 2013. By the Airline Biz blog at the Dallas Morning News.
MILES/POINTS
If you are interested to learn all about the latest Aeroplan program devaluations changes, you should check out this post by Canadian Kilometers. It is split into four parts (see links on top).
Mattress running in…Egypt? Anyone? Anyone?
I can not remember the last time I used cash! Less than a month to go for me pulling out the Chase Freedom card to get the 10 points per transaction goodie. August 1st is the magic date when the Chase Freedom cards turns into a 10% dividend card at the end of each year (how boring!). Now I will have to start thinking again how to maximize the points for purchases under $10. Grrrr….the problems we face in this hobby:-)
ON MY MIND
I have moved the Blog Buzz section to the bottom of the blog posts. And I made a note at the top of it that the section pertains to the veterans of this hobby who follow most miles/points blogs. And I will include links to the stories and my digs when they are justified and constructive. If my comment is to make fun or critique a blog posts (usually because of its reason of existence was just to push another credit card to its unsuspecting readers) I won’t be adding the link. I think that is more fair and could convert some reader who is not into miles/points to understand where I am coming from and….just make a little better sense of it all.
Excuse the Blog Roll on the right hand side of the site. I just never got back to that section after the web designer showed me how to play with it. I am not that narcissistic to only have my website up there…I just move SLOW. Priority is to sift through the blogs and feature the ones I find worthy here. If I take time away from THAT…I feel like I let you down.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Toilet paper roll art. By Anastasia Elias. Found at memolition. Wow, talk about unique art!
Haunting Black and White Portraits of Homeless People by Lee Jeffries. Found at Bored Panda. I am haunted for sure!
BLOG BUZZ
Note: This section is intended for long time readers and miles/points addicts who follow the blogs in this space. Readers not familiar with this crazy hobby could skip this section!
Oh great, another youngster interviewed at Million Mile Secrets who discovered Frequent Miler his hero…in March of 2012! Welcome to blogging Grant, you have NO IDEA what you are getting yourself into! So, let’s see how fast YOU get affiliate links:-)
Thank God the Hawaii trip report by Million Mile Secrets is over! Final installment ended with a picture of warm nuts and suspenseful colorful commentary such as ” I loved the mashed potatoes!” and “There was a built-in remote control.” and “Soon we took off, and it was time for the warm nuts.”
OMG! It has been now TWO days in A ROW that Frugal Travel Guy (the blog) did NOT have any affiliate links in the body of the post (unless I missed them). WTH is going on??? What am I going to be writing about here, come on? Is FTG (the blog) messing with my livelihood? I can’t believe it. Should I buy some Internet Brands stock and then start complaining that the blog is not maximizing profits for its shareholders? Lol.
Delta Points asked “want to know the 10 most viewed Delta Points posts from DELTA Corp?”. Since you asked, nope!
#1
No fair…you can’t be #1 when its your blog!!
Lol. If someone else becomes #1 I will have to give him/her a prize: How about a Southwest drink coupon? 🙂
George, SW drink coupon is a great “prize” 🙂 It was the very first prize (only prize so far) that I won when I started to read about travel blogs …lol… Oh, may I suggest that you give your fans five or ten minutes before you post your #1 status? Thanks.
I should give you all 5 or 10 minutes but hold off for an hour or two to increase my hits:-)
Oh, that is so unfair 🙂 I had tried to “check in” for the last ten minutes and got distract for a moment. BTW, nice comments on MMS and Wing. Thanks.
I have a feeling that GL will not take up my offer;-)
Great post tonight. Lots of things resonated for me, the Panam 747 being one of them, of course. Growing up we always thought of Panam as the Competition with a capital C. I sure hope someone has a TWA plane in his or her garage. But I will not be persuaded to sell them my original Royal Ambassador wine glasses. I still remember my dad proudly tapping them with his finger so I could hear the ring of fine glass.
I had an uncle back then who took great photos. He did an extraordinary series of what were then called, simply, bums. He used to go down to the Bowery in NYC and give people a buck or two to allow him to take their pictures. He never did much with the photos but show them to friends and family – he long preceded the whole starting a blog for F & F shtick. The series now hangs in the hallway of his daughter’s home.
Those women with algae make me think of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Meanwhile, Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit is happening in Portland right now. It has been sold out for months but I have only been able to find a handful of PDXers who have even heard of it and only one who is actually planning to go. I met a few of the attendees at a travel hacking meetup yesterday that piggybacked on the summit. Eclectic bunch. I am realizing I am not such a newbie….
Thank you! I knew that Pan Am piece will get you commenting about it:-)
I will never forget the day as a young kid who got into the plane of a fighter jet. My pilot uncle took me inside it and still remember it like it was yesterday!
Those bandit masks gave me nightmares last night, so so scary!
Those pics with the homeless are indeed quite haunting!
I am aware of Chris and his World Domination summit. I just don’t know much about him. It is impressive what he has managed to do, that’s for sure.
You are no newbie anymore!
Some early memories do stick, don’t they?
When I was about 11 or 12, my dad took me into the TWA hangar at JFK (well, it was Idlewild then) to see the first plane that ever flew coast to coast. It was quite small and to my mind pretty rickety. He explained that the pilot used the railroad lines to navigate, and that they flew only during daylight. At night they’d land and stay in a hotel until they could resume the trip the next day.
I was scheduled to fly to SFO, my first solo trip, to visit with cousins, and I suddenly found myself reluctant to go. It took a few weeks until the images of that plane receded and I was ready to board the 707. I sat in an almost empty first class cabin and still remember that I spent much of the time sewing doll clothes, with the occasional help and companionship of a hostess who had time on her hands or perhaps was told to keep an eye on this non-rev kid!
We are all a product of our childhoods:-)
What a coincidence…SFO and the Asiana crash today! Amazing they all got out alive, wow!
Great move George de emphasizing your A___r (4 spaces). Your photos should become your trademark not your ______ (6 spaces). They are terrific. Good move with the disclaimer as well.
And nice move getting the right hand blog column up and running. Get your readers ready for the possible upcoming onslaught 😉
Ok, fill me in with the word puzzles, you know I am slow.
What disclaimer? I need to learn how to slip it in to the footer in each page just to be legal;-)
“possible oncoming onslaught” – Lol, good one. Aggressive marketing (or any marketing) is just not my cup of tea.
No rush. Trying to have fun and make a difference;-)
“Anchor”
“asides”
What do I win?
We need to let FTG (the person, not the blog) confirm you are a winner.
No idea what the prize is! And I am all out of Southwest drink coupons too! 😉
How can TPG write — days later, mind you — about 1500 free Air Berlin miles and about UberChopper without crediting the blogs where he learned about these things? This is a blog with an actual history of plagiarism (posts taken down when called out for it), you would think he would be extra careful to give credit where it’s due.
Why are you asking me? 🙂
I have said it before: With all the staff aboard TPG, they should be first with these kind of news!
From what I can remember, there was one instance that a post was taken down.
I have become used to the lag of news at TPG.
It is impossible to prove plagiarism….so I won’t be going there. Besides, last time I checked, I have no staff at the TBB Legal Department lol.
G- What is the deal with Bloggers and discussing Warm Nuts? I am trying to be serious here, but why do they always emphasize it? Schlappy raves about it…so does Gary…MMS does as well…I don’t understand. Who sits around the house and eats this stuff all day? Gross. Maybe it is code for something else (probably is when dealing with some of these lame-o’s)…I don’t know, but I politely refuse them when I am served on a flight.
It’s like “ooh, I really want some cashews with my scotch!”…NOT.
LOl…yeah, I don’t know what’s the fascination about them nuts! I was quite disappointed to see MMS get on the “nuts” bandwagon in his last mega installment trip report.
If anyone knows of a code about nuts please let us know here!
I am not sure if I prefer pics of nuts or wet towels. Lol!
With regard to the MMS Friday interview:
“Mike” and “Robert Hanson” should get together for a series of Lincoln-Douglas debates, and the winner could be the last audience member remaining hours later. That is, if they aren’t the same person.
The worst part of that photo isn’t the masks; I understand why they use them . The worst part is that they’re swimming in an algae bloom.
Also, my favorite line from this week about the hobby, from Saverocity:
“Part of the fun about travel is visiting new places and seeing new things. In fact I would say that was the entire fun about travel but I am sure some cantankerous points hounds would disagree with me; apparently its often quite fun to sit in First Class sipping on Dom Perignon Champagne whilst strapped into a dentist’s chair.”
Robert Hanson would beat TBB in a heartbeat as MMS cheerleader…
Harvson3, Totally agree about the algae photo and the conditions in which some people live in China. On a China trip a few years ago, in one of the remote autonomous regions, we visited a village where most of the people made a living producing fabric. The dye vats were dumped into a small canal within site of where others were washing clothes and vegetables.
On another topic, George, I do not agree with you about travel insurance. My 20something son who has taken several months-long international trips was twice sent home – business class mind you! – courtesy of his travel insurance policies. He is into adventure sports like climbing, mountain biking and surfing and is very athletic. In Chile he hurt his back and could not continue the trip and in Israel he broke a toe playing soccer on the beach in TLV. Both times he saw multiple docs, and tried to wait it out, but after a week or so of travel that was not quite what he had in mind, he activated the insurance and was quickly and efficiently sent home. The doctor bills that our insurance did not cover were completely covered by the travel insurance including many PT appointments for his back. Frankly I would not allow this adventurous child to travel anywhere out of the US without travel insurance.
OTOH, my husband and I rarely buy it, because we figure between the credit card coverage we have already for lost bags, etc. and a policy we have through his job that can help get us medical help/evacuation abroad, it is better to just self-insure.
harvson3: Your comments here are sometimes better than my blog incendiary commentary:-) Thanks.
Anonymous: Great, phew!
TWA44: I am not that adventurous. I am sure travel insurance is a good fit for some…like your son.
Buzz, ____ ____ and ____. I ____ you as____ _____ ____!! What do you think?
I am in;-)
Speaking of MMS… I’m fond of Darius. He seems like a nice kid. Anyone younger than me (60) is a kid.
Don’t know if TBB noticed, but MMS seems to be stuck at 10,000 readers. I wonder if this means something for his blog and other bloggers?
George, do tell. What’s your readership count?
I believe that the 10,000 number refers to the email subscribers. I am not sure many of them actually read or ever visit the site. I have seen arguments for and against adding an email list. I am too lazy and not high on my priority list. Any experienced blogger wants to comment on this?
I just recently installed google analytics in my wordpress site. So, I took one day (July 2nd) and here are my numbers:
Unique Visitors for July 2: 310
Visits: 489
Pageviews; 1,111
% New Visits: 15%
The BIG number is the first one, Unique visitors. I am shocked my tiny site has over 300! I would like one day to find out what this number is for TPG, MMS, FM, VFTW, OMAT etc.
Yes I know I am leaving money on the table I have been told numerous times. I just ran across the last MMS interviewee who I even linked to and commented on the MMS site saying something to the effect of “Let’s see how fast it will be before YOU add affiliate links…&…I hope you have something to offer”…Well, just two days later here he comes with the brilliant advice “don’t pay $349 for United’s no fee for checked bags for a year” and here comes with the affiliate link. Yikes!
I need to move up this item on my priority list…this is just getting ridiculous!
I spent several hours yesterday updating my private family blog from February to June. Mrs and son clearly fell down on the job of taking this task away from me. I am now off dishes and laundry for a whole year, YES!!!
Good numbers there George – keep up the good work! Regarding the list it is a little case by case I believe. The general consensus is that the list is an asset that you can later monetize through things like eBooks and direct marketing.
Initially I was sending out an email for every new post, just linked to RSS and on auto… now I am just sending out a newsletter type email every week or so with updates from the blog on several new posts that have happened so if there are readers that have dropped off the radar they might want to click through.
I use mailchimp for this, it is free for the first 2000 subscribers then starts charging, which is good as you get to keep costs low as you build up your readership, and once some sort of value has been seen by the service it is an easy choice to upgrade to a paid model. It also has internal analytics that inform you of email open rate and click rate to see if they are engaging with you.
Regarding comps – take a look at Quantcast.com and punch the name in, it isn’t totally accurate but should give a general idea, it is off about 20-30% for my numbers, and that was similar for another more popular blogger I was speaking with about this. None of these sites are perfect (but they are a lot better than Alexa).
Harvson3 – cheers, glad you liked it! I also wrote a piece for you recently called Capital Loss Harvesting for the Index Investor since you are a Boglehead.
Matt: As always, thank you very much. I added mailchimp and quantcast to my equally ridiculously long to get to/do/research list:-)
Why do we have to sign up with Disquss to comment on your blog? I go to log in with my twitter account, it proceeds and then it hits with prompt to register for discqus account. Would rather not get yet another online account, I am drowning:-)
Hey George, not sure why that would happen – but basically signing up or signing in with twitter for Disqus should be simple, it may ask you to sign up first time around, but once done you just hit ‘sign in with twitter’ and can comment without issue.
It is a separate program, but can be managed through just your twitter/facebook logins if you chose.
Nice to see some more comments. Things went pretty quiet here yesterday evening, maybe as we all tried to digest the news of the crash. I haven’t seen all the blogging on the crash but I thought Seth’s Hawaiian shirt piece was good. I typically have my passport in my purse and my husband rarely puts his shoes back on until we are taxiing to the gate. I think we may change that and appreciate Seth’s comments on it.
Yes it was good. Still…hawaiian shirts tend to be loose so I would never put my passport there, it would not stick:-)
What I found incredible from the crash it was some reports saying some passengers were seen walking away with their rollaboards. Guess they were ready for passport control and customs?? Unbelievable!! I would still be sprinting fearing the plane will blow up any second!
TBB, saw someone that looked like you and kids at Vancouver, BC Fairmont on Sat. Was it?
Nope. Going to Calgary area in late July. Banff Springs and Lake Louise. Thought about combining Vancouver to the trip but it was a bit unrealistic.
I thought you were at least getting over 1,000 unique views. Good job, your blog is still entertaining. If you want to know some of my stats, DM me.. 🙂
I can’t believe you thought my blog was getting over 1,000 unique views! I can’t believe it either that I had 300. I thought it was maybe a dozen, mostly friends and family;-)
I ‘ll see you on Twitter I am sure one of these days…