We bring you the sad news of how Fairmont President’s Club dies, Lufthansa going revenue based, stack rewards via business card spend, Hilton and IHG Rewards club have issues, visit some awesome places on Earth, get a superb jobs report, the best personal finance blog post of the previous day and the awesome Blog Buzzing section where we blog about stuff that nobody else does and continue to kill any conversions this blog may get, sad!
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The hits in this hobby just keep on coming. This was not surprising of course but it is still devastating. My beloved Fairmont President’s Club is ending and merging into the extremely underwhelming Le Club owned by Accor Hotels. More details about the transition are found here in this fancy web page. And the “enhancements” done to FPC members are awful! I am very surprised they are doing this mid year and not at the beginning of a regular year each March 1st, I was hoping I could squeeze another year in my Lifetime Platinum membership. Oh, I need to find out what’s up with that but it just does not look good…I first saw the news here in this FlyerTalk post. How did I get Lifetime Platinum? I am glad you asked, this describes one of my most exciting days in this hobby đ
Lufthansa is also going the revenue based way. Credit card salesmen bloggers can bitch all they want about how bad this is for the airlines. It is not! Welcome to the new underwhelming travel hacking world, sad!
Good reference post on how to stack rewards via business cards spend, I always forget about these! I am thinking to give Frequent Miler a new nickname: The Stacker. You know, like The Closer lol.
Hilton introduced a new benefit recently, pooling of your points that is. It sounds great and it can come in very handy. But it appears there may be some glitches with it? As in getting your accounts closed, WTF! So be careful before you do that and follow the advice in the post.
I did not know about this…The Dark Legacy of Gruinard Island. Think anthrax and stuff like that.
Must read, especially for younger people! LinkedInâs 2017 U.S. Emerging Jobs Report. My son will be all right, I need to get my daughter to get interested in something more concrete than just “Marketing” in Business.
The future is so scary you guys…AI-Assisted Fake Porn that is, this changes everything! If you are new here and this shocks you…you are reading the wrong blog!
Excellent personal finance post: The Double-Edged Sword.
The point is that speculation is an inherently risky game that usually ruins most people financiallyâŚif they donât stop playing.
- If you find yourself getting rich quickly with an investment, this is usually a sign of luck. Iâd recommend realizing your winnings and getting out so you can diversify your wealth. If you still have a fear of missing further gains, try selling a portion of your assets as they appreciate. This is a kind of hedge where you can realize some gains while reducing your FOMO at the same time. If done correctly, you will have realized some profit even if your risky asset eventually goes to $0.
- Sometimes others will beat you even when they are following the absolute worst strategies. Donât feel bad, just stick to your sound investment plan. If their strategies are really that toxic, the double-edged sword will cut them down in the long run.
- Stay humble and rational. Losing strategies sometimes win and winning strategies sometimes lose. Nothing will ever change this, but you can change how you react to such events.
You can vote for the 2017 Finance Charlatan of the Year. I voted for James Altucher.
These are great, a few new ones for me. World’s Most Unearthly Landscapes.
Lenin in the Southern Pole, WTF!
BLOG BUZZ
This section is for advanced level hobbyists and veteran blog readers & personal rants & stuff
In this hobby, there are some people who are hitting deals so hard it will BLOW you away. They are usually very quiet and just go and do their thing, stuff that you never even dreamed it was possible. I know some of them. They make A LOT of money doing it. Okay, this is a craft all right đ Apparently, one now wants to write a book and sell it for $100 a piece. He is one of them who apparently made a nice career out of this hobby. He is asking Mile Nerd about it. I have mixed feelings about this as this will only lead people to get hurt imho. To me, this has always been a hobby. That is being destroyed ever since Ingy sold his first credit card. Oh, hi Ingy… I should have a contest who the author is? Update: Decided not to go for it. I agree. And the dude got more publicity about it than he ever dreamed of, watch what happens next…
I find it absolutely incredible IHG Rewards Club still uses 4 digit PINs, wow! If your account is hacked (check often!!!) here is what you should do about it and good luck to us all!
I never booked a hotel with Virtuoso. But if you want to consider it, this is a good post what you get.
Probably the best writer in this space uncovering stuff that big bloggers “discover” and copy without shame: The 30% American Express Transfer Bonus to Virgin Atlantic Is Gone, But Values Remain â Part 3: Air New Zealand Business Class to New Zealand / South Pacific.
View From The Wing always says he blogs about things that interest him…Like shit, affectionately called poop. And then always goes back to what he does best, selling the CSP card!
Mommy Points is doing so many pro Hyatt posts. Legitimate question: Does Hyatt pay her? I am just wondering out loud…
Sometimes, I sit and wonder, if my wife…Oopsie, maybe they took that post down or something. Or they blocked me finally. Yep it was a woman holding plastic again…
And I leave you with this…Best.Dog.Ever?
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.
El primero.
Day starts with GodSaveThePoints doing a blog post about palm tree being decorated as Christmas trees. I tweeted that image out earlier in the day…Coincidence?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V-uZHnqD24
The AI porn thing is scary. The days of skynet are nearing…
He’s another poser.
Speaking of which, wonder how the Gary Mini Me and Lucky are doing with their LX F Aeroplan complaints.
I can’t wait to see someone fake _____ (enter blogger) in some porn…I hope it is not meeee, woohoo. Joking aside, this is VERY serious and out of control. Skynet is coming up faster than we thought…well, I keep warning you guys about this AI. Sex robots tooooo!
We get another post by Mini Me “Aeroplan called me”…I did not click on it.
When Mile Nerd’s friend offers to sell The Knowledge for $100 per, one suspects It is a rapidly depreciating asset. I’d bet a $100 the first three buyers would be AEx, Chase and Citi. Very rapid depreciation!
I have a feeling that his asset was an approach or mindset that also benefits each of those companies. I also think that the price tag was just to keep people away that wouldn’t take it seriously. I think about anyone I’ve ever talked to that couldn’t fathom the responsibility of having to remember another credit card login. As much as I want to help people with what i know, I basically just put it out there and let them come to me. I’ve wasted too many hours explaining things to people that were never going to go for it …
Something about that whole thing rubbed me off the wrong way.
$100, seriously?
MN got two blog posts out of it. The dude got a lot of publicity. I am sure he is not done trying to tell us how he did it. He should start a blog and make everyone get several CSP cards before they get a copy of it đ
I have long given up trying to get some people to get it. MOST people will not bother. But the commercial blogs will do their BEST pumping to target these people and seduce them to get into debt so they “can travel for free” like rockstars. Like TPG and Emily and Gary taking pics of others in Maldives. Or Ben locked up in his room banging away (in his keyboards) producing super boring trip reports, zzzzzzz.
“If you find yourself getting rich quickly with an investment, this is usually a sign of luck. Iâd recommend realizing your winnings and getting out so you can diversify your wealth.”
Huh ! How about that !!!!
GOOD ADVICE MY BROTHER
Ingy of course I would pay $100 (see MILENERD) to see how you got rich, who wouldn’t?
ps I am no longer a GANGMEMBER of TBB, I find him to be very disrespectful of our President.
Become a miles and points blogger, get approved for credit card links long before everyone else, and get the f__k out when everybody else figures it out. First in. First out. Make America Great Again
To everyone:
The personal finance post I linked to revolved around a financial asset (you know, a stock/mutualfund/ETF/bond/etc.). Not a business interest actively engaged in it. Amazing to admit all that “free advice” and helping others, even showing Nightline TV crews the “secrets” had an ulterior motive, sad.
There are two universal truths in this space:
-It’s all about conversions (to companies masquerading as “experts” marketing bank credit cards to anyone who can breathe and apply for one).
-Frugal Travel Guy sold out soooo early and left a COVFEFE amount of dinero on the table, sooooooo sad!
Now, excuse me, I need to get back to the basement and work on my credit score. Bwahahahahaha.
Punk music will never die!
Its obvious to all that advice you give and support, will become null and void it I agree with it. I invested my time in that blog, it was a business and I got out because I was lucky to be the first and got out at the right time no matter how many times you say otherwise. Like I realized last year, you are nothing but a punk and your reply above confirms it once again.
BTW I would much rather sell out early or on my own timeline with several $M’s in my pocket, than beg, plead and whine for 5 years for minimum wage or less. The one with shitty timing is obviously you Punkadopolous. Why not have the balls to just admit? We all know it as fact!!!!!
PS ready for your next spin, deflection or line of bullshit. That’s all you got and all you have EVER shown
Dear readers:
Give me a C
Give me an S
Give me a P
Click
Because…this is entertainment for freeeeeee…
Pulling out early, so sad!
I admit I would probably not be TBBing if it was not for my #1 fan…troll I mean!
Like I said: Spin, and Deflect and BS. Same old nothing
That Shelli the Blogging Barista over at Travel By Grant, seems like she would be a perfect fit to be the next MRS. GLEFF.
Today she is WHINING about her HYATT CONCIERGE!
I would like to go to the coffee shop she works at, just to complain to her Boss about her artwork on the top of my Capicino Foam.
and if you missed it Buzz, looks like Gleff has a FASCINATING POST on George CLOONEY. No I didn’t read it, just saw the headline on MileFeed. I would never read the Blogs of GLEFF, Best of Emily’s Photos or the GoFundMe Millionaire. NEVER!
We agree on your reading habits…
On Trump, see below…
let me know if you are interested in SEXUAL HARASSMENT at 39,000 FEET. I have 27 years of stories, and they are not what you are thinking.
Ramsey’s working for TPG now.
The Sexual Harassment Chronicles by Ramsey, Former TWA Flight Attendant
“Juicy stories from the air, they will shock you”.
Dude, there is a market for that book these days! Write an incident a day! Do ebook or something. I will offer it here (with my Amazon link) of course đ
I know but they are all about the Dudes I worked with who grabbed my Buttocks in the galley, my Balls while on the jumpseat making announcements or offering sexual flavors in the lav. Sorry boys, I don’t swing that way.
Once I got old and fat, that all stopped…….and I (my ego) missed it
Who said you have to tell the truth?
Now you can relive it imagining they were gender neutral.
Lol
i used to run into one guy at WMs who i suspect was making six figures a month from MS. probably not the mile nerd reader with the book but one of those types. never said much but he was there every day for an hour.
True heroes…
who will never write a book and try to sell it for $100 a piece.
WTF!
I think MN made the right call.
Yes.
Imho, he would not ever offer him all this free PR.
But if that guy wants to do a guest post without any identity revealed or plug for the book…Call me maybe.
Or email me preferably.
I am sure if the following
1. MommyPT does a lot of consulting (paid) work for various programs ….
2. Bloomberg has a story on MS at WM once it dies. If they donât, I will provide them with my first draft of âhow Dodd Frank bought my first class ticketsâ article.
The pro Hyatt posts just keep coming non stop, WOW!
Bless you, George, no one has ever called me the best writer, LOL. Well, I’m not, in all seriousness, but I don’t mind saying that 25K in J to Africa was a good find indeed, and somehow none of those who’ve “suddenly” discovered this route in the recent days felt the slightest urge for HT.
I noticed that. Pretty sad and unfair!
There is a lot of this crap going on in this space.
Hope you are well. Maybe I go to Fincon next year.
It is pretty rad when fairly conservative and never rock boat type of media outfit..like USA Today publishes a DEVASTATING anti Trump editorial. WOW!!!!
Here it is:
http://www.businessinsider.com/usa-today-trump-not-fit-to-clean-toilets-after-gillibrand-tweet-2017-12?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=webfeeds
A president who’d all but call a senator a whore is unfit to clean toilets in Obama’s presidential library or to shine George W. Bush’s shoes: Our view
With his latest tweet, clearly implying that a United States senator would trade sexual favors for campaign cash, President Trump has shown he is not fit for office. Rock bottom is no impediment for a president who can always find room for a new low.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday dismissed the president’s smear as a misunderstanding because he used similar language about men. Of course, words used about men and women are different. When candidate Trump said a journalist was bleeding from her “wherever,” he didn’t mean her nose.
And as is the case with all of Trump’s digital provocations, the president’s words were deliberate. He pours the gasoline of sexist language and lights the match gleefully knowing how it will burst into flame in a country reeling from the #MeToo moment.
A president who would all but call Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush.
This isnât about the policy differences we have with all presidents or our disappointment in some of their decisions. Obama and Bush both failed in many ways. They broke promises and told untruths, but the basic decency of each man was never in doubt.
Donald Trump, the man, on the other hand, is uniquely awful. His sickening behavior is corrosive to the enterprise of a shared governance based on common values and the consent of the governed.
It should surprise no one how low he went with Gillibrand. When accused during the campaign of sexually harassing or molesting women in the past, Trumpâs response was to belittle the looks of his accusers. Last October, Trump suggested that he never would have groped Jessica Leeds on an airplane decades ago: âBelieve me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you.â Trump mocked another accuser, former People reporter Natasha Stoynoff, âCheck out her Facebook, youâll understand.â Other celebrities and politicians have denied accusations, but none has stooped as low as suggesting that their accusers werenât attractive enough to be honored with their gropes.
If recent history is any guide, the unique awfulness of the Trump era in U.S. politics is only going to get worse. Trumpâs utter lack of morality, ethics and simple humanity has been underscored during his 11 months in office. Let us count the ways:
He is enthusiastically supporting Alabama’s Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused of pursuing â and in one case molesting and in another assaulting â teenagers as young as 14 when Moore was a county prosecutor in his 30s. On Tuesday, Trump summed up his willingness to support a man accused of criminal conduct: âRoy Moore will always vote with us.â
Trump apparently is going for some sort of record for lying while in office. As of mid-November, he had made 1,628 misleading or false statements in 298 days in office. Thatâs 5.5 false claims per day, according to a count kept by The Washington Postâs fact-checkers.
Trump takes advantage of any occasion â even Mondayâs failed terrorist attack in New York â to stir racial, religious or ethnic strife. Congress âmust end chain migration,â he said Monday, because the terror suspect âentered our country through extended-family chain migration, which is incompatible with national security.â So because one man â 27-year-old Akayed Ullah, a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. who came from Bangladesh on a family immigrant visa in 2011 â is accused of attacking America, all immigrants brought to this country by family are suspect? Trump might have some credibility if his criticism of immigrants was solely about terrorists. It isnât. It makes no difference to him if an immigrant is a terrorist or a federal judge. He once smeared an Indiana-born judge whose parents emigrated from Mexico. Itâs all the same to this president.
A man who clearly wants to put his stamp on the government, Trump hasnât even done his job when it comes to filling key government positions that require Senate confirmation. As of last week, Trump had failed to nominate anyone for 60% of 1,200 key positions he can fill to keep the government running smoothly.
Trump has shown contempt for ethical strictures that have bound every president in recent memory. He has refused to release his tax returns, with the absurd excuse that itâs because he is under audit. He has refused to put his multibillion dollar business interests in a blind trust and peddles the fiction that putting them in the hands of his sons does the same thing.
Not to mention calling white supremacists “very fine people,” pardoning a lawless sheriff, firing a respected FBI director, and pushing the Justice Department to investigate his political foes.
It is a shock that only six Democratic senators are calling for our unstable president to resign.
The nation doesnât seek nor expect perfect presidents, and some have certainly been deeply flawed. But a president who shows such disrespect for the truth, for ethics, for the basic duties of the job and for decency toward others fails at the very essence of what has always made America great.
USA TODAY’s editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff. Most editorials are coupled with an opposing view â a unique USA TODAY feature.
he is not unstable to me…..he is doing God’s work
Do you have a horse?
Like Roy? đ
WHO CARES!!! His wife and daughter are HOT!……..And because of his deregulation and pro country/pro business decree, i am shopping for a new Model S 99d. TRUMP RALLY and the synchronized global expansion are creating wealth, jobs and making you looking like the world’s best financial planer to your clients.
If I wanted Trump Bashing I would turn on CNN.
LONG LIVE THE KING……………………..and party on.
Don’t forget about the bitcoin rally.
Trump today:
The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!
I mean, is this guy EVER wrong? Webster’s Dictionary just inserted Donald’s face in the entry for asshole.
Unbelievable…well, after all this non stop shit for almost a year now…we are not surprised.
MMS – Best No-Annual-Fee Business Card: AMEX or Chase?
MMS – Reader Daniel Earns Miles & Points With His Consulting Business to Help Him & His Wife Travel the World for Nearly Free!
UpgradedPoints – 41 Valuable Benefits of the Business PlatinumÂŽ Card from American Express OPEN [the next addition to the Blogs To Ignore list for sure now!]
And TBB is still looking for his 2nd conversion for the month…Oh, hi Ingy
So Georgie Boy, How about some TRUTH?. Why don’t you think your readers support you?
Although you like to post about bloggers pimping to anybody, (it seems you forgot all the articles about 700+ scores and above, keeping your utilization ratio low, spacing your inquiries with a plan) it seems you are the one offering secured credit cards, the whining about no support by readers and never giving an explanation why they don’t use your links?
Are they underage? live at home with no job? lousy credit scores?
You can’t say they have too many cards, I applied for about a dozen this year (none from you) and got approvals. And I’ve been playing this game so long, I remember being your favorite blogger đ
Come on George, why don’t your readers support you? Have the guts punk.
I am not a fan of ingy at all. He’s a smug selfish bad blogger. But he has a point this time. George your own readers arent even supporting your links. It makes you sound like a bad credit card pusher. Why do you think so many of your old readers from the comment section all took off from here? Ingy might be bad but he at least admits he was a card pusher. You are the guy who criticizes other people for doing the same thing you do.
Truth
Underage
Telling us abt how to play the game !!!!!
U live at home. With no job. Hey, u forgot the basement dude!!!
Can u imagine if I went on a pumping spree like them….Ingy will flip out even more…if that was even remotely possible!
Was there ever any doubt I am a bad credit card pusher? WTF!
Life moves on, readers come and go. I am still in touch with many of them, most still read my blog.
Oh crap, i have not started tomorrow’s post yet!
Dinner time…Why people bitch on blogs they cant stand is really phucked up.
Harvard should do some studies about trolls. They have you say? Oh, hi Ingy.
If you are a bad credit card pusher (which you are) why not give it up and do the blog without the hypocrisy of pimping, and begging for clicks you are so well known for.
Why not show a little personal integrity that you claim others have so little of? Why not practice what you pretend to preach?
Because you are all talk and no action
What’s so different than you bitching about blogs you can’t stand and yet practice the same card pimping techniques yourself? Except you do it everyday, and add begging and whining.
And did you answer Sad Clown George with the truth yet? NOPE
Credit cards that pay out more than 1 point per dollar spent – Frugal Travel Guy
Legacy!!!
I am staying in my basement…so warm down here. I need to read up on how to improve my credit score bwahahahaha.
Hey, @TBB… I forget where the discussion was but I saw the Nick Cave movie, 20000 Days on Earth. It was great, a lot of stuff about his creative process, so you might enjoy it even though it isn’t really a bio or a concert film…
I hate guys who want to sell how something used to be done for $100 a pop. If they had sold it for $100 a pop five years ago, it might have been worth something. Now, it’s just sad.
Great, I will look to watch it one day, thank you.
Since you mentioned Nick I am playing this right now:
https://youtu.be/kzTCbaZj5HA
I discovered the guy when he first came out of Australia with Birthday Party…lets just say he was a little angry back then, just very raw sheer rage đ
Oh, cool, that’s one of the songs in the film!!!
Ingy gems:
why not give it up
hypocrisy of pimping
show a little personal integrity
you are all talk and no action
practice the same card pimping techniques yourself
you do it everyday, and add begging and whining
the truth
Thank you for supporting the TBB blog mission…It starts with “To entertain…”
In my basement clicking on a secured card right NOW đ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPBPa2BQFRM&feature=youtu.be&t=0s
well, looks like I’ll be hitting your links pretty hard in January per our Ingy deal…
#winning
At this rate Ingy will ask me for his cut lol.
Thanks.
As a proud, successful, recent applicant for an SPG Business Card, applied through the TBB link.
Iâd like to amend a post I wrote last week. In that post, I proposed that FTU honor Ingy by making a blow-up doll that looks like him, and then hoist it up the flagpole outside the hotel at each FTU event. I also speculated that perhaps the doll could drop down credit card applications which might earn Ingy a few bucks that I imagine he could use.
Iâve reflected on that post and I have a Mia Culpa-I now see that my post might have been just a little disrespectful.
You see, Ingyâs right in that he was one of the first in and one of (maybe the) first to sell out. I now see that to have only a life-sized doll swinging outside a Holiday Inn Express wouldnât properly honor one of the original âLegends of Pumpâ.
That night, I was watching a TV show about the top news stories of 2017, and they had a clip about the Confederate statues coming down. And then it hit me: Most of those statues have the hero riding his horse into battle. I said to myself (who else would listen?)-Why not give Ingy his due (or is that âdoâ, as in get together), and have his blow-up doll be on a horse. A blow-up horse.?
So off I went to find a horse that would send the right message. Bingo:
https://thumb1.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/507037/143319160/stock-vector-horse-cartoon-mascot-character-holding-a-banner-vector-illustration-143319160.jpg
The banner the horse is holding could be inscribed:
The (real) Frugal Travel Guy
and
The Horse He Rode In On
P.S. Tip to our favorite troll: âAs I saidâ sounds much more refined than âLike I saidâ.
What a great way to start the day before I start pumping plastic again in a very bad way of course.
I am laughing so hard I spilled coffee back in the coffee cup…I think I need to dump it and get a new refill. Freeeeeeeee!
Blow up horse and that inscription…Some things in life are priceless amigo!
Thanks a lot.
Maybe he can join Roy’s horse…who has a Twitter account lol.