We bring you a primer on teenager credit, Necker Island Irma aftermath, more blog dogs, learn about lost penis work comp, more Avios Bookings and more Chase Ultimate Rewards points for the TBB team, visit Belarus and abandoned hotels in Japan, go to North Korea where they can certainly use some sex robots and tacos, a reference post on how to use Alaska Airline miles, the latest hotel promos and much more. Always freeeeee!
TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order!
You can support TBB by applying for CREDIT CARDS, shopping with our AMAZON AFFILIATE LINK & clicking our REFERRAL LINKS. Thank you!
My wife applied for the Chase Ink Business Preferred card last night, the day after she came off the now dreaded 5/24 restriction. Got a 30 day notice online. Called reconsideration line, answered a few questions and bang, approved. Just in time to pay several insurance policies that come due this month (home, auto, umbrella).
She has also become an expert award booker. Actually, only one currency: British Airways Avios. And only one route: Detroit – New York City La Guardia. Another 3 RT tickets booked over Christmas at 15k each. I am so glad to see AA availability again in this route. Even after award price moved up to 15k from 9k…still a workhorse redemption in our household!
Newbies: Nothing is free. Even these “free” tickets cost $5.60 per each leg for fees. We do this to save money first and foremost.
Year to date miles/points burned: 601,500.
Latest miles/points balance: 3,369,401 Trying really hard to get it under 3 million you guys…
Apparently, the 50k Barclaycard Arrival offer will not be around for long. [Note to intern: Draw big red arrow to the site’s plastic links. And make it snappy, gracias!]
Great reference post: Alaska MileagePlan Cheat Sheet – How to Use Your Miles for Flights.
Updated list of major hotel chain promotions. Before you go, check it so you don’t leave any points behind!
Building (and viewing) teenage credit. Well, my son is now 19 and I have gotten him some cards. But he shows no interest in travel hacking at all but keeps asking for a free ticket to South Korea! I have offered to show him how to use his AA miles and Chase Ultimate Rewards points….still waiting. Most people are not cut out for this hobby. Well, with this attitude you know I am not suited to selling credit cards here like the plastic pumping boys and girls…
Screw the Amazon retail apocalypse. Retail in airports is booming! Blame your misery flying…sigh.
…revenues from U.S. and Canadian airport retailing should rise from about $4.2 billion in 2015 to nearly $10 billion by 2020—an impressive compound annual growth rate of nearly 20 percent.
Frequent Miler‘s favorite place in the world, Necker Island, was devastated by hurricane Irma. Richard Branson stayed (what an idiot) and here he shows the damage. Thankfully, it was not as bad as predicted in Florida. Here are all the meteorological records Irma has broken so far.
If your blog does not have a troll or two, it doesn’t really exist. Somebody told me that a few years ago, I forgot who. Very true. And now this about trolls: Internet trolls are often psychopaths and narcissists — here’s one reason they choose to insult others anonymously. I actually enjoy dealing with trolls, I find it fun shaking my head saying WTF!
This is serious. There are established ways to value losing an arm or a leg or both while at the job. But what happens if you lose your penis at work? Of course, hope it does not happen to you! Even to you trolls…hmmm.
When I go I want to go softly this way…by sex robots!
The Norwegian dude Gunnar Garfors goes back to North Korea 8 years later. At last, some honest commentary! And I like his suggestions for Doritos fan Kim dude too.
I like ruins, it fits my personality. That was an attempt at a joke. Whatever. Japan’s Abandoned Hotels Are Being Reclaimed by Nature.
I like posts like this instead of 346 reasons I love the Chase Sapphire Preferred card (I don’t, but if I did number one reason nobody admits is the fat sales commission!). To each his own I guess. It may explain why this site has sold two (maybe it is three) CSP cards here lol. Capturing the forgotten communities of Belarus.
BLOG BUZZ
This section is for advanced level hobbyists and veteran blog readers & personal rants & stuff
Is it just me or is the credit card shilling has gone off the scales lately? With the continued restrictions by the banks it is getting really hard to sell credit cards to the hacking crowd. Therefore, the continued change of direction of the big commercial blogs to rope in more newbies who never had a Chase credit card before or Amex cards on sale, sad!
I did get Equifax credit reports for the three adult family members in my household and placed calendar item to remind me to get Experian ones 122 days later. And so forth…They all looked fine, phew! So many closed ones and then a huge drop off about two years ago. Oh, the good old days….Will they ever return? Nope….But you never know with them US banks you guys #hopeneverdies
What’s up with all them Bankrate blog dogs and names starting with M, WTF! Have you seen the TBB dog 🙂
I am trying not to comment on these blogs but…let me just say that I wasted 47 seconds of my life watching this video at MMS that “will change everything”. This is 47 seconds I will never ever get back. Do NOT do the same mistake. You have been warned!
If you applied for the Hilton Surpass credit card with my links on September 7th, you were approved. Thanks for being FIRST this month dear reader! And thanks for the Amazon clicks this month as well.
And I leave you with this…
Check out my updated blog lists: Blogs I Love, Blogs I Like, Blogs To Ignore
TBB
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Nice cat gif!
It is!
Richard Branson will be fine. Every day workers travel from neighboring islands to make a living on his paradise island. There are only so many opportunities in the BVI. It will take a few months until that gig is available again.
He could have been anywhere. He stayed. I think the dude is nuts.
Can you stay in the island for free if you help out rebuilding it?
No
What happened to Moore’s law?
Laptops aren’t getting cheaper and faster anymore.
And now iphones are getting more expensive. My rotary phone was just $10.
Is this a serious comment? Do you have any idea what it would have cost to build a phone in the 1970’s as powerful as the smart phones today?
The Moore’s law comment is serious. Laptop power and cost has not changes in the last 3-4 years. And Intel has slowed down it’s development in this area.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601102/intel-puts-the-brakes-on-moores-law/
As for Iphone, I would have expected the prices to slowly trickle down over the last 10 years. The general rule in technology is that over time you get more for less. It happened with most electronic devices including Nokia’s and Ericsson’s phones. It happened with solar power. I did not expect iphone prices to reach $1000. But Iphone is a status symbol. Apple is a luxury brand. And the company has trained their consumers to pay more and more.
“Do you have any idea what it would have cost to build a phone in the 1970’s as powerful as the smart phones today?”
Ridiculous comment. The technology wasn’t there in the 70s. And cheap labor from China and Eastern Europe had yet to impact Western economies.
I agree with ABC on this one…
Apple could market a 3 oz dog turd for $500 bucks and sell out their whole supply in an hour.
true that. As an AAPL holder since long before the 7:1 split. I say “keep buy them phones sucka”
I say the same about Bitcoin.
I’m still not sure I even understand Bitcoin #oldgeezer
This is the best Bitcoin article I’ve read
https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/why-bitcoin-matters/
Does this mean you guys won’t be all in on my synthetic rhino horn election pills ICO….
Tough crowd here, tough crowd….
Well, at least my wife is all in on this woohoo!
Havent iphone prices gone down over time? Granted it is an old statistic but here is a look at how the 3-5 models of the iphone have gone down with time. http://www.asymco.com/2013/08/12/how-will-iphones-5s-and-5c-be-priced/
How can you possibly expect something that has more ‘bells and whistles’ to be priced cheaper than its predecessor? That’s like saying that 4k TVs should be priced cheaper than cathode ray tube TVs because of ‘Moore’s law’. It takes time to drive prices down from an equivalency standpoint. If you don’t want cell phones to reach 1k then dont buy one with face recognition technology or super high def cameras or fast processors (the real impact of Moore’ law….). Go buy a cheap Motorola flip phone or stick to your rotary phone for $10. Just don’t complain that costs are going up but fail to mention all of the technological advances that come with the higher price tag.
I miss my Nokia flip phone so much 🙂
Regarding bitcoin. I am not buying it. Along with the other shit that spun off from this technology some mysterious dude invented. Hope you don’t get your coins hacked, CFPB won’t help you 🙂 I am going to sit this one out. Best of luck to you!
No need to worry. I have no need for luxury items, unless Citi (ATT) is willing to help out.
Apple is unique in that you pay a premium price for a luxury brand. Accordingly they focus on design and create marking buzz with technologies like “face recognition technology”. Password of finger print recognition has worked pretty well for a few billion users.The first three generations showed great overall improvement. The last five, not so much. The underlying product is aging and from that perspective prices should normally go down.
Moore’s law is slowly dying (or as Randy would say “going inactive”).
You do realize that Moore’s law has nothing to do with price? According to wikipedia (I know, not the best source for this kind of thing but it still gets the job done…), it is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. Sure there are arguments that this ‘law’ is coming to an end (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601441/moores-law-is-dead-now-what/) but that still doesn’t guarantee a lowering in price like it seems you want it to. If the iphone 7 or 8 or X has some multiple greater processing power than the iphone 3, then that supports Moore’s law: the iphone has stayed in generally the same dimensions from the model 3 to the model 8 even though the processing power of it has increased dramatically, i.e. there are much more transistors on the same integrated circuit. Said another way: to build an equivalent model 8 from model 3 technology it would require a much larger phone. That is Moore’s law at work: an increase in processing power for an equivalent sized integrated circuit.
There is nothing in Moore’s law guaranteeing a decrease in cost for a widget with greater capabilities. Generally the cost of EQUIVALENT goods go down with costs over time, which is why the rotary phone is cheaper today than when it was first introduced (I don’t have any stats on that). But, that is generally due to economies of scale and manufacturing improvements and more competition. I just don’t think it is sound or prudent to conflate the cost of a new widget with greater capabilities and its cost and Moore’s law.
Moore predicted in 1965 that technological innovation would double the number of transistors in an integrated circuit every two years without raising cost. Not only is the cost of chips reduced but fewer chips required, thus the cost of goods decreases.
For most, if not all technologies, you have since the beginning of the industrial revolution received more and more bang for the buck. Be it solar power, sequencing of your genome, computing power or battery performance.
Again, the Iphone is not a widget as much as a luxury item. It has a premium pricing in order to encourage favorable perceptions among buyers (and to generate a fantastic margin for Apple). The Iphone is what Bang & Olufsen was to TVs in the 80s (just much smaller).
“Not only is the cost of chips reduced but fewer chips required, thus the cost of goods decreases.”
But this statement has nothing to do with the iphone models. This would only be accurate if ONLY the processor changed from model to model and nothing else. How do you expect Apple or Samsung or any other company to keep adding features to a cell phone and have the cost go down? You aren’t comparing apples to apples here. You are drawing a comparison between a technologically superior product that has more bells and whistles than just a faster processor and more transistors, like Moore’s law supports.
“you have since the beginning of the industrial revolution received more and more bang for the buck”. How have you not received more bang for your buck? The question is whether or not it is worth it to you. You are getting a computer in your pocket that is more powerful than the one that was first desktop at a fraction of the cost. Not only it is more powerful from a processing standpoint but also has a TON more features. Yet for some unknown reason you want it to cost less than previous generations. Look at my previous post and you will see that yes, indeed the cost of an iphone model has gone down over time. In fact the intro price for an iphone has essentially remained the same from the model 3 to the model 5 (all that the link shows) over the span of years. And for all of that, not only has there been an increase in the processing capability (Moore’s law) BUT ALSO an increase in the capabilities and other incorporated technologies. So yes, you have gotten more bang for your buck. You could buy an iphone 3 for the same introductory price as an iphone 5 (~$650) and received much more bang, such as processing speed, cameras, etc. in the later model than the earlier model.
There was a vagina fashion show at NYFW
http://nypost.com/2017/09/10/there-was-a-vagina-fashion-show-at-nyfw/
Waiting for the shocking video on VFTW.
Actually, Compliance Departments have a problem with the world vagina…
It seems Marriott status is worth more than I thought:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/09/12/marriott-sent-a-rescue-ship-to-the-caribbean-after-irma-and-left-non-guests-on-the-dock/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_marriott1044pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.82300ae9f36b
Yikes
Thank you for blogging, this was a great one today — much appreciated. The Alaska miles link is a great refresher, I personally recently redeemed some for JAL J-Class award, still a great value in my opinion. The North Korea link is great as well.
All the best,
PedroNY
Maybe you should thank my wife for getting the Chase Ink Business Preferred card 🙂
Enjoy my blog while it lasts everyone!
Buzz-
Did she use the TBB link?
Best.Customer.Ever 🙂
So, the following cards are ending soon…
Southwest cards 60k
Barclaycard Arrival 50k
Watching Greece play Russia in the Eurobasket. Quarterfinal
espn3.com
Great content today! The AS tutorial will be handy – I’m still learning the program and building up miles.
Internet trolls, ugh! And can someone explain to me why some of the worst offenders on FT are given “Evangelist”, titles, etc??
I can’t tell you how many people (friends, co-workers, etc.) have asked how we travel so much and wish they could do the same. I briefly tell them how and offer to help them figure out at least a starting strategy of their own…they never take me up on it either, just like your son.
Tough to come up with actual numbers….I am guessing only 10% of adults will be interested and qualified to do this. Of those, 5% will lose interest after the first card. Of the remaining 5%, about half will go on to make a nice travel “career” out of it. I think you are all here 🙂
Based on the cheerfulness of the Titans…they make it sound like it is sooooo easy and free and all that marketing stuff to…make more sales.
Well, at least my wife is buying here lol.
I chuckled at the Evangelist FT mention 😉
Have not gone to MMS for months. Saw that video and left again immediately. So she’s pregnant from another man and put a video on her ex-husband’s blog to celebrate? I don’t understand. Also I don’t care.
WTF was that? All that staff and make this moronic video? Unbelievable.
I guess I should start making some videos.
I suggested to my wife to do an Emily parody pic/video thingie to attract viewers but…she just won’t go for it 🙂
Yeah unbelievable is a good word. Even by MMS low bar standards that was very weird.
That would be funny! And your wife is much prettier than Emily too so it would be a better video to watch too!
Just had a nightmarish thought….
My wife—->pregnant
After doing it twice, NO MAS!
now that you arent outnumbered in the home, you can start again!
Oh dear God nooooooooooooo!
Had to stop by to comment –
Haven’t read FTG in a month or more, and the 1 time I do, there’s a trip report from Holly Johnson about a stay at the Four Seasons Bora Bora. One of her frugal tips? To save money, she checked a 12-pack of Miller Light and a box of Franzia wine through Customs for the trip!
I think I’m in love…
In this competitive landscape….I am surprised FTG is still alive actually!
Warning:
Emily at MMS is pregnant. Pic of her on Twitter.
I repeat. This is a warning!
Dan at DansDeals: Your diaper deals posts are about to be annihilated!
Who is the Daddy? Single mommy? Will mother approve?
In other news, the plastic pumping there is making FTG look well behaved.
Oh wait…
TPG pic in ad with barefeet on top of table. How come Gary Leff did not take a shocking vide of that huh?
Hola amigos, it’s been a while.
AS miles are awesome, but really hard to accumulate for me. 30k from BoA only get so far. Moving SPG also too expensive. Would love to churn cards like the AA Plat to get them. One day maybe….
The churning days, the good old days…
Will they ever come back?
Not until some Titans go away to sell other merchandise, sad!
Sweaty palms video: this Chinese barber shaving somebody’s eye.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwxRtpkRehU&feature=youtu.be
Hey wait, I think I saw this guy cutting some chicken at his shop behind the alley over there 🙂
What if Emily baby’s father is Darauis?
I doubt mother AND mother-in-law will ever approve that!
Can you imagine? Omg!
“This is some weird shit” – GWBush
I always thought MMS was “their blog”, before and after the divorce. With that, announcement and (tasteful) video make sense to me. She can also take credit for all the rest of they print over there.
For those who want some comments on wives’ attractiveness, please post here a revealing photo of your wife on Friday night. We’ll give Buzz a weekend of hits he’ll love.