TravelBloggerBuzz

An eclectic journey through the Travel Miles/Points blogosphere

EVEN Hotels, Fastest Trains, Internet Minute, Delta Award Sale, Hospital Food

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We bring you a review of EVEN hotels, show you the fastest trains around the world, what happens in one Internet minute, burn Skymiles in a Delta award sale, look at hospital food, travel to Sinai, get a mental health assessment for free, ride some Colombian donkeys, the latest industry survey on redeeming frequent flyer miles, eat some cockroaches…ok, just kidding about that last one, and lots more freeeee!

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

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Delta has a flash sale RT 48k Skymiles to Europe.

I don’t hold surveys in the industry in high regard. Like the latest survey telling us all that it is getting easier to redeem frequent flyer miles. How about it is getting easier to do so while using more miles huh? Very interesting comment by a Southwest Airlines executive who said that expanding to Hawaii is done in part to “ignite credit card applications”. Wow, sometimes I wonder if my site will ever have a cc click ignition problem lol.

IHG Rewards has this new EVEN brand. Wellness theme and stuff like that. Here is review of the New York property in PartI and PartDos.

I keep track of many sites for you so I can bring you these TBB Buzz posts. Which includes reading the Greek press. And sometimes you find out some stuff that is relevant. I found out that Saudi Arabia has a low cost airline named Flynas. And it is expanding its flights to Athens for the summer. They are not the only ones, add WIZZ Air, Primera Air, Cyprus Airways and Georgian Airways to the list. And Marriott is back in Athens after it left in 2013 after taking over the former Metropolitan hotel and renaming it, please sit down, Athens Marriott Hotel. Oh, it pumped $15 million dollars into it to renovate it. Thank the Olympus Gods for tourism. Did you know I could see Olympus from my house growing up?

These look awesome: 7 of the world’s fastest trains and where they can take you.

Another Ramen review: Japan’s Ippudo Ramen. Tonkotsu (pork broth) is my favorite!

Lets get back to inspiring: The amazing donkeys of Colombia.

Nick Collison, of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder, had a nice career and he recently called it quits. Nice career retrospective.

If you do not like cockroaches, I suggest you do not click this link: A giant indoor farm in China is breeding 6 billion cockroaches a year. Here’s why. I had no idea about all the medicinal qualities of them, wow!

Get your own mental health assessment done HERE!

Great personal finance post: Great Things Take Time

I used to think that most of my early 20s was “wasted time” because I did nothing productive outside of my career. However, looking back now I realized that I was consuming information that would eventually help with this blog. The information you consume will likely one day provide you with some benefit, you just don’t know where yet. It just takes time.

The analogy I like to use is building a fire. Most of your life you gather firewood. It’s not useful by itself, but it has potential. You keep gathering. You keep storing away information, memories, thoughts, opinions. You do this until one day you get a spark of inspiration and decide to start a fire. Your fire starts small. A few people see it, but most ignore it. You keep throwing more logs on the fire and it burns brighter. Maybe more see it and take notice, but it’s still mostly unknown. You keep at it day by day, night by night until you have a roaring blaze. Then they can’t ignore you. Build your fire.

What happens in an Internet minute. Wow, this is really something!

What Happens in an Internet Minute in 2018?

Not sure many tourists go to Sinai these days but this site is quite impressive: Saint Catherine’s Monastery And The World’s Oldest Library.

st-catherines-monastery-3
Photo credit: Shawn Clover/Flickr

Well, this is kind of neat. And educational as well. What’s on the menu in hospitals around the world – in pictures.

Mexico hospital food
Mexico. Pictures by Sunbelt Staffing

Here we go with another TBB fav song…May be moving out of the angry punk phase you guys 🙂

DJ Shadow – Building steam with a grain of salt

Milenomics has an existential type post 🙂 Swim Upstream: Identify That Which Makes You Unique & Find Your School.

Mile Nerd got shafted. Is this happening to all who apply with “no lifetime” type links?

Looks like Moneygram is on a roll to smash these weird MS guys…

Poor The Free-quent Flyer who got brutally attacked for posting about a trick that was “out there” (meaning, it was not!). We all make mistakes. But the vitriol against a blogger who never pretended to be doing it to help friends and family travel for free by pumping them left and right with credit card sales is, you know, a little misguided. I agree with the comment “Please Use Slack :)” by the way, for the record. These whiners are probably the same people who admire kiss up the Titans becoming successful in this hobby business, sigh.

And I leave you with this…The state of blogging about travel hacking…

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.

Filed Under: TBB

Comments

  3. Sam says

    What happened to Mile Nerd’s CFPB complaint? He doesn’t provide any details and I can’t figure out how to comment over there to ask him.

    I disagree on Free-quent Flyer. He ‘s an interesting, brainy and good (so I hear) guy but there’s no reason to put out little tricks like that when you have to know it will just get it shut down. Is doing it to show off, get clicks or whatever reason really any better than doing it to sell credit cards? Shuts ‘em down in any event.

    How do you pronunce “Flynas”?

    • TravelBloggerBuzz says

      Judging by the latest in CFPB…I don’t think they are in the business of protecting consumers anymore…you know, regulations are out, sad!

      We all have momentary lapses. I know a guy very well who has had plenty #hint. Free-quent Flyers stays on the Like List! But some of the comments there were very entertaining for sure. Like that guy who got sued by Chase…trust him. LOL.

      Flynas: Flyanass?

    • Ryan says

      The way I understood it, the CFPB was in agreement with him but Amex still told him to pound sand. (Not sure if my understanding is correct) AMEX is not what it used to be.

      Supposedly some folks are getting AMEX MR accounts frozen for “review” just after getting a referral or new card bonus. You guys heard anything about that?

      St. Catherines would be incredible to see.

      • TBBTheDude says

        Amex RAT is by far the best RATeam out there 🙂 I have not heard anything about that..yet

      • Sexy_kitten7 says

        There’s no such thing as “CFPB agreement.” They just forward your complaint to the EO. They are gloried carrier pigeons. Nowadays I mostly skip them and move on to demand letters.

        Amex doesn’t give 2 s**ts (pardon my french) regardless. As I always say, these banks are too big to care. See my shutdown story below.

        I also find it bizarre that no one can comment on kiddo’s post. I’d be happy to give him/her advice but I can’t.

        https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28243997-post117.html

  4. Sam says

    I agree with Free-quent Flyer staying on the Like list. Though Milenomics got kicked off for less.

    • TBBTheDude says

      Whenever I am about to add them back…that traumatic MMS Friday interview comes back into my brain…

      Plus, not posting as regularly…

      It takes time to get back…just ask Doctor of Credit about that…who just linked to OMAAT again…he just can’t cut these guys off because he loves to send them to sites for getting all caught on getting pumped by plastic and the latest hideous shocking video…

      • bluecat says

        Sam, you don’t need TBB’s BlogsILike list. You can have Bluecat’s list, free of charge.

        Here it is: DoC and TBB. Doc gives you all the discounts and deals and TBB gives you all the best of all the others. I also like Milenomics and a few others that post sporadically.

        (I’m trying very hard to get rid of Dan’sDeals from my reader because he has so many time wasting posts but, every time I get ready to take him off the list, he comes through with some useful time-sensitive deal.)

        • Anonymous says

          Thank Bluecat for free access to you Like list.

          I’m with you on Dan. He throws so much spaghetti against the wall that sooner or later something sticks. I just don’t have time to sort through the rest to deal with his blog.

          • Sam says

            I cleared my cookies and wound up posting as Anohymous. I am not the Anonymous who posted Sunday, complaining of Dan’s religious hypocrisy and telling me ‘and the horse you rode in on’.

            Speaking of horses….

  5. flyernick says

    I had a similar thing happen as milenerd with Amex. I had upgraded my free HH to Surpass, got the bonus, then downgraded. Soon after, Amex SENT ME an email offering the same old upgrade offer, with no lifetime language, so I took it. (I think it was just their standard email offer, not targeted, but it came to me.) Met the spend requirement and they flat out refused to give me the points. Their eventual excuse was something along the lines of invoking a “if, at our discretion, we decide you’re trying to ‘game’ points, we can refuse the bonus” clause. So much for easy HH points & status…

      • Usernamechuck says

        Same as milenerd on same card. Haven’t complained yet. Still thinking through

        • Sexy_kitten7 says

          SOL on contracts is 4 years. Send ’em to the cleaners!

          These big banks are so ethical it’s ridiculous. They know that the average American is not going to sue them (in court or arb- which no one’s ever heard of!). If everyone filed suit, banks wouldn’t be so quick to give us the finger.

  8. Bond007 says

    Bethany is the new Mark at Miles to Memories!!!

    Everybody pumping their Plastiq links lately. And TBB does not?

    Hobby has become so boring lately…Shocked not many pumping blogs have not quit yet

    • Charlie says

      They reached out to me about being a partner but I never heard back after I asked them to roll my referral into a special offer for the first month for readers. Oh well!
      I do have something like that soon though if there are any of you yet who have not signed up for TCB 🙂

    • TBBTheDude says

      Will they ever sentence this George guy so my Google alert does not blow up all the time? 🙂

      Speaking of cards, I predict these two sites will merge one day, you know, cut overhead!

      The Best Credit Cards With Lounge Access – MMS
      Should I Upgrade My Existing Card or Apply for a New One? – TPG

  11. Charlie says

    Btw, did you hear that flyDubai will launch flights to Thessaloniki June 15? Can be booked through Emirates or flyDubai. That joins Qatar’s 4-times weekly flights fo SKG. Just saw that one land for the first time today.
    Just waiting for the first non-stop to the US from SKG! I think it would work great for delta to move one of theirs from athens to here. It would help then since they don’t have a partner that flies inside of Greece.

    • TBBTheDude says

      So, flyDubai is not in any alliance I take it then.

      Defintely going to try to get to SKG wit Qatar next time!

      I will not bet any money on Delta doing these moves…

      • Charlie says

        Nor am I. I think it would be a smart move as there are loads of passengers flying into SKG for this whole region – Bulgari, FYROM, Albania, and even Turkey. Granted, Delta may not want all of those passengers but they do buy tickets. 🙂
        Having 2 flights into Athens from JFK just hours apart doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me though so obviously I am not smart enough for route decisions. 🙂

      • Charlie says

        One thing to note – you will have a 17 hour layover in Doha from Chicago and you cannot get the overnight deal with them since you will have two separate reservations (pretty sure that it has to be a single res)

  12. TBBTheDude says

    Lastworldproblem: What do I do with the 85 cents this blog earned yesterday?

    🙂

  14. Bond007 says

    Checking to see if Secret Flying made the Ignore list yet, come on!

    Naked passenger running up and down aisle on Alaska Airlines flight detained – Secret Flying

    • Bond007 says

      This guy’s place in the Ignore list is secure though…

      130,000 Miles: Two Big Improved Offers for American Airlines Credit Cards – View From The Wing

      #neverstopselling

      • Bond007 says

        I give up man….I am bombarded by Amex card affiliate links today!

        And you don’t have them yet.

        You are a joke TBB!

        Advice on what to do with your 85 cents? Roll them over to the nearest dollar and…PROFIT!

        • TravelBloggerBuzz says

          Them Amex links finally made it to my links. And the Citi AA 60k and 70k (Business) card too.

          Tomorrow’s post:

          “You can get 430,000 miles and points this way if you act NOW. If not, you are a moron. You are not a moron, so start clicking and travel for freeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

          Just kidding

  16. james says

    Did Hilton increase their sign up bonus? Not sure even though its mentioned in about 250 F$)$(% BLOGS today!

      • Charlie says

        Hey, in fairness, I was the first BA blog to post about them! The other Johnny-come-latelys had to wait for their affiliate links to turn on. 🙂

        • Brian Cohen says

          Sorry, Charlie.

          An article on the increased Hilton credit card bonuses was already posted at The Gate before yours appeared — and no, there were no affiliate links.

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