August 30, 2013: Lakes in Poland, Gogobot, Military freebies, Shawarmas Master, & best blog Buzz (with Cyrus!)

TBB Mission: To Entertain, Educate and Inspire. Aim to at least do one well!

 

If you like what you see here, please let others know by passing them a link to my blog, thank you!

 

TRAVEL

Stunning Aerial Photos of Poland’s Lakes.

 

Jeff at Canadian Kilometers wrote “The most insane flight of my life“. Wow! Wear your seat belts! Ouch:

Fastest growing travel site is Gogobot where friends and experts plan your vacation. When I hear of travel startups my eyes start to roll. Most will disappear so why invest the time and energy to get involved unless it is something really unique that can add value to your busy life? This one appears to be taking hold. Anyone using it? How do you like it?

A North Korea Link Fest by Rapid Travel Chai

 

MILES/POINTS

Frequent Miler wrote “Top 10 things I’do if I were in the military” (original post by Military Frequent Flyer at Boarding Area. I had scanned it quickly and just missed including it here, my bad!). I am actually thinking about joining the military now so I can get ALL of these cards without the annual fee, woohoo! Will FM’s posting of this “loophole” lead to increased recruiting by the US Armed Forces? Will we see a booth at the next FTU or Chicago or Charleston seminars with a big “We want YOU for the US Army” sing? We are all patriots, getting the Amex Platinum card for free has absolutely nothing to do with it! Do we also blame FM for killing this deal if they stop it like the fine folks at Marriott stopped the Platinum status challenge?  Oh, one more thing. Guess how many affiliate cc links were in the body of the post? Zero, zilch, nada. Guess how many would your other favorite bloggers have if they made such post? Hmm, Class discuss!

GE will spin off the unit that issues consumer credit cards to 55 million Americans (mostly store cards,, think Wal Mart, Gap, Banana Republic, etc . ). Reason given is that GE wants to focus on its industrial business.  Interesting development.

New blogger: Milenomics (like the name) at First2Board. Good first piece “The Only Air Travel Tip That Matters; Skip Elite Status“. Say what? Actually, I think he is saying be a free agent like TBB 🙂

 

ON MY MIND

Can’t wait to get the kids to school. Actually, it is kind of sad the summer went by so fast!

“What are you waiting for to get affiliate links?” another email came in. I don’t know but I am done waiting for son to do anything now. He lost interest when the AdNonSense money went poof. Thank you for all the support, you have no idea how much I appreciate the kind words. If it weren’t for them TBB would have folded like a cheap suit months ago. With the onslaught of blogs that keep coming, keeping up this pace is certainly…insane! “It takes a toll but I like it”. I need to focus on the content, content, content. That is what should matter. Details like monetization stuff can wait…to see if I get there before I burn out!

Have a lovely weekend, make it count!

 

ODDZ & ENDZ

Meet the Shawarma Master. 1.09 video. This dude is da bomb! Oh, I love shawarmas!

The Weirdest Things About America, according to an Indian International Student. This was a fun read.

 

BLOG BUZZ

I am learning so much about the SPG program…NOT!

The comments in some blogs appeared weird. Smaller fonts, some totally gone. Am I now seeing things?

Mommy Points decided to tell us about some SPG family friendly hotel redemption options. Well, at least she did not mail it in like some other bloggers. And I saw a few properties that piqued my interest too.

The Points Guy wrote “Amtrak Guest Rewards World Mastercard Offering 12,000 Bonus Points – But Why You Shouldn’t Get it”  I am now just used to seeing these “innovative” angles to keep selling the same darn cards day in day out. A reader left this comment and I can’t believe it is still there: “This blog should be renamed “The Credit Card Guy” “Why shouldn’t you get the Amtrak card? Because Chase pays me a boatload of money when my readers apply to the credit cards I pimp 10 times a day”.  I have had the Amtrak card for many years and last year I had to sacrifice it to get me another Chase card at reconsideration. It hurt. Mrs. TBB still has hers. We have not used them…in years!

Delta Points passed around a few SPG promotions and SPG Amex links. And then some type of joke about Ryan Air you may have understood it better if you were Swedish.

I told you yesterday. Frugal Travel Guy (the corporate owned blog) card #2 is the Chase INK Bold card. Looks like top paying card AMEX Platinum has already been picked. So, is it the Chase INK Plus as Numero Uno? Or will we get surprised by a radical choice, such as the Barclays Arrival Card? Or, maybe it is the SPG Amex afterall. Anyway, does anyone care? And FTG writer Bryce (who is only 23 years old!) wrote his last post for the site. Hmm, wonder if we will have yet another blog to review here soon? Email me if you want to know who pays the most 🙂

Business model of Boarding Area per FTG (the person): “BA uses a CPM model for their ads. So much per thousand impressions ( not clicks), just impressions. The more blogs, the more readers, the more MONEY”. That is good info for readers to know, thank you!? Found at post #43 in this Flyer Talk thread here.

Point me to the Plane gets right to the point: “Reminder – Final Few Days AMEX SPG 30k Sign-up bonus – Ending September 3rd”. While at it, he suggests getting the Chase British Airways Visa too!

Finally, a nice interview with Mile Adventures at Million Mile Secrets. This adventure and miles combination has not been filled. Nice niche I think. Until we start seeing trip reports on how to fly First Class to the Maldives by getting the Chase Ink Bold 🙂

 

Ok, I will leave you with this to ponder about the meaning of life, lol.