Airport Smokers, Flying Messes With Our Minds, Accor Loyalty Sucks, Kyrgyzstan Yurts

We bring you places to meet airport smokers, how flying messes with our minds, how Accor loyalty sucks, travel to see Kyrgyzstan yurts, go inside Soviet nuclear bases, learn how Venenzuela got to where it is today, the plight of some dogs in Tibet, travel to Iceland to check out some of its green mossy lava fields, the click bait-ism in Boarding Area continues to get worse, and lots more for you.

TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order!

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The 100k tiered British Airways Visa offer may be ending on September 30. Key word is “may”. This card is not subject to the 5/24 restriction. And the Southwest 60k card offers may be ending on October 1 or October 4. If I had a CSP app every time I saw a post about the Southwest Companion pass #sigh. I want to say use my links again but I won’t, instead I will hint on it and go do my thing, okay?

The site FatWallet is shutting down, RIP.

You know Accor Hotels bought Fairmont Hotels and with that my beloved (Lifetime) Platinum President’s Club Elite status. We Platinum Elites all dread the day Accor management kills FPC and consolidates it into its own loyalty program. Which absolutely sucks! You want proof? This is proof!

I am not a smoker. Anymore that is. I smoked my last cigarette on December 31, 2001. But if you are…I am going to make  your life more deadly comfortable with the website: Airportsmokers.com You are welcome!

Where to smoke at airports, areas to light up at airports, smoking in transit and places to smoke after security. Over 800 airports now reviewed.

This is serious. Warning to the bloggers who keep flying and selling credit cards: How flying seriously messes with your mind. Looking at you Ben, Matthew and Gilbert at Boarding Area. You have been warned, you are welcome!

An emerging body of research is suggesting that soaring 35,000ft (10km) above the ground inside a sealed metal tube can do strange things to our minds, altering our mood, changing how our senses work and even making us itch more.

A number of studies has shown spending time at altitude can increase negative emotions like tension, make people less friendly, decrease their energy levels and affect their ability to deal with stress.

If flights do alter our immune systems it could not only leave us more vulnerable to picking up infections, but it could alter our mood too. Increases in inflammation triggered by the immune system are thought to be linked to depression.

The Venezuela tragedy continues to unfold. Like a bad dream. Makes Greece look like a paradise (thanks to the European Union and the Germans lol). How Venezuela went from a rich democracy to a dictatorship on the brink of collapse. Very fair account of what happened. Very educational post!

Interesting take on the 10 most confusing words in the English language. Okay, we all knew affect/effect would be on the list. But…love? Seriously?

I had no ideas that the Tibetan mastiffs dogs were part of a hot market. Which eventually collapsed. Thousands of huge, aggressive dogs are roaming Tibet after their rich Chinese owners abandoned them. Warning: VERY disturbing pictures. Especially if you love dogs!

Another excellent personal finance post. I have no idea how this guy cranks these out constantly, very impressive. Income Alpha. Some things I fully agree with:

Investors spend an inordinate amount of time and effort trying to outperform the markets or their peers. For most people, that time would be better spent investing in themselves to increase their income. Saving more is often your best investment decision and the best way to supercharge your savings is to earn more money. [See the tables of what saving your raises can compound like! Sometimes I wonder if all these aspiring bloggers spent their efforts investing in themselves instead…]

If you don’t invest in yourself, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle when trying to increase your earning power.

No one is guaranteed the returns they want or need from the markets. But an increase in earnings, and thus savings, can have a significant impact on your bottom line. And unlike market returns, this is something you actually have control over.

I was always intrigued by those pictures of yurts and iconic traditional costumes in the Stan countries. Dead Goat Polo & Yurts: An Unlikely Festival in Kyrgyzstan.

Yomadic goes down inside a Soviet era nuclear missile base.

Iceland’s Mossy Lava Fields. The Eldraun Lava field is the best of them all.

BLOG BUZZ

This section is for advanced level hobbyists and veteran blog readers & personal rants & stuff

There are MANY posers who fly off the radar of the miles and points crowd. They make the Titans look good actually. But they are OFF the scale in bad content AND pumpiness, to put it mildly. I struggle whether to even mention them here as that may lead to more traffic for them. Which is the exact opposite of what this blog is about, to reward GOOD content! Every once in a while I may mention one to warn you to STAY away! So, if you ever click on topmiles I will ban your ass here!

So the expert travel blogger at Points With a Crew let his readers know that he is half way to the moon with all the flying he has done. It appears to be just 132k miles in his LIFETIME. Let that sink in for a moment. My kids had more miles flown by the time they started school I think.

I read so many miles and points blogs that I now have a bucket  near me. Barf bucket. For totally travel thought leader -ish posts like this:

Woman Runs Down Aisle With Pants Down, Tries to Bite Flight Attendant, Sues Airline – View From The Wing

If you click on this stuff, YOU are part of the problem. As posts like this dominate lately…I guess, many readers must be clicking. So so sad!

I am still angry about how the Detroit Lions lost!

And I leave you with this…

Check out my updated blog lists: Blogs I Love, Blogs I Like, Blogs To Ignore