TBB Mission: To Entertain, Educate and Inspire. Aim to at least do one well!
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TRAVEL
A World Heritage Site Railway Route through the Swiss Alps. By Twisted Sifter. Totally stunning views here!
Exploring the World’s Greatest Libraries. By the Huffington Post.
MILES/POINTS
How the Rube Goldbergs of Credit Cards Fly First Class for Free. At Vice.com. Wow, a whole bunch of bloggers we know are quoted here. The quotes by Million Mile Secrets are, well, ridiculous in my humble opinion about the touchy subject of “killing deals”.
One Mile at a Time wrote “Best Economy Cabin Mileage Awards“. There used to be a lot more articles like this in this blog’s former days…Then later the same day sent the blogosphere to a frenzy when he blogged “Book Now! Lufthansa First Class Award for Next Summer with United Miles” I only have about 200k UA miles right now and my trip to Greece is already booked on Lufthansa Business class. I was not going to blow away the miles trying Lufthansa First Class, Business is just fine. Last time I checked 200k still could potentially be 8 domestic UA tickets!
DansDeals recaps 13 wonderful months of Bluebird in our lives. Memo to bloggers: Dan does add value to his readers and does not mail in posts finds excuses to throw up some more cc links! He gets away with it and we find it acceptable. Maybe it is because he never pretended he is doing it to help friends and family and/or maybe he does know what he is talking about. Ooops, for a moment there, I thought I was in the Blog Buzz section 🙂
Wait for it, wait for it. Be prepared, be prepared. A link to Frugal Travel Guy (the blog) appears here next! Yes yes, it’s true! 6 Best Low-Category Hotel Redemptions by Drew Macomber. Excellent post with some super hotel bargain awards! Who said TBB is biased? Well, wait for the Blog Buzz section #tobecontinued I feel sorry for Egypt…
ON MY MIND
Nothing, always running out of time to do anything else on the blog other than finishing another post! The W bed is not helping either 😀
WordPress question: Every time I create a new blog post I cut and paste the intro, section headlines, etc. Is there a way to have a template so with each post all that stuff is waiting for me? Anyone?
ODDZ & ENDZ
Totally insane soccer ball juggling by a kid in an outdoor market. I can do this…in my dreams! At Liveleak.com
Liu Bolin: The Invisible Man. By The Atlantic. You have not seen an artist like this, I guarantee it!
21st World Memory Championships. Memory what?
Perfectly timed dogbird. By Twisted Sifter.
Beautiful video story about a Michigan middle school football team and what they did for one of their own. Just beautiful. We like to once in a while bring out the inspiring stuff too!
BLOG BUZZ
Note: This section is intended for long time readers and miles/points addicts who follow the blogs in this space. TBB reviews blogs and tries to entertain above all. Don’t take this section too seriously or personally, it’s mostly entertainment!
Shocking News: The 50k Southwest cards promotion that were to expire on October 31st, someway somehow, are STILL alive! You wouldn’t know that from many bloggers who were hysterical telling us to apply by October 31st only to continue their pump pump pump job. Milevalue screams you can save $3,142 doing it his way. No cautions on the Business card application now, whatever happened to making money on Ebay huh? (or how Chase is pickier now approving Business apps). Can you imagine a newbie sweating to do all that spend?
Million Mile Secrets continues its mega slide. I let reader Steve comment on the latest post about the incredibly massive change in Chase’s website to allow cardholders to click on a button to see how many Ultimate Rewards points they earned:
Wow, MMS post on the CSP today was all kinds of terrible. Let’s count the ways
1) Topic is old news that has been covered ad-nauseum last week. I didn’t even realize there was a blogger who didn’t cover this year
2) It’s really not that newsworthy and wouldn’t see the light of day if not for the affiliate links
3) “Previously, you had to do the calculations yourself to see how many Ultimate Rewards points you earned” – Yeah, because people wasted their time seeing if the 12 bonus point from lunch yesterday were added
4) “Emily: I can’t imagine checking each transaction every month to see if I earned double points. Good thing that Daraius likes doing these things!” – seriously, what the hell was the point of this paragraph? Has there ever been 2 less relevant sentences posted in the history of the internet?
5) Darius response to a commenter who opined that the post treats readers like their idiots (it was a superb comment by her. Possibly featur-worthy when you surely highlight the post tomorrow): “Some folks are visual learners and some aren’t” – so someone who can’t figure out how to log into their chase account without seeing a screenshot of the Chase homepage with a giant red arrow pointing to the button that says “Log into account” ISN’T an idiot?
Delta Points blog absolutely makes me ________ (self censored proudly lol). DP is a huge VISA fan by the way, thank you and enjoy your trip to Sweden!
Sad to see two veterans, View from the Wing and One Mile at a Time, lately turning into Chase spokesmen/salesmen. What’s up guys? Come on, you both know better!
In a typical Frugal Travel Guy (the blog) fashion, the inferior US Air affiliate card offer manages to find its way in a post. Clicking on it gets you to a place where 40,000 US Air miles are prominently displayed that will set the reader back $89. Below it, in just two sentences, the non affiliate offer at Flyertalk is mentioned as “there may be a higher 35,000 offer”. Well, 40,000 sure sounds like it is higher than just 35,000! Perhaps you should have made sure that it is 30,000 and NOT 35,000? Your readers sure can use all the help they can get and they may be even inclined to do the balance transfer to get the 40,000 US Air miles, lol. That would be awful right? Why not protect them? Oh, stop using that stupid Flyertalk link, the first link on it is dead (that will sure scare the mega newbie who dared to go for the “higher” 35,000 mile offer and not the 40,000 offer!). Perhaps direct them to the wiki link instead, maybe a few will READ and GET the differences and may even save the $89 to fly around the world in prices THEY can afford? But that would not keep the lights on….Steve, stop being so negative 🙂 FTG (the blog) is not as blatant as the Milevalue blog, I give you that but still if you wanted to REALLY help your readers FIRST you would…never mind.
Running for Status is joining First2Board. So now they have two runner bloggers (along with Will Run for Miles). That leaves only Running with Miles in Boarding Area. There is a lot of running going on it appears!
#1, go Real Salt Lake!
I actually watched some of the game, including all of over time! Great job. I don’t like LA.
Which is ironic since I live in LA. Grew up in SLC though so RSL all the way. Portland will make it a great series though
I was expecting a stronger performance from the Galaxy. Oh well…
I am well known for my anti Laker views…I like to call them Flakers 🙂
BOOOOOOOO!!!!
Nothing personal lol.
I like to call them “the 15-time NBA Champion” Lakers, so, again, we disagree on some matters.
I am a Detroit Pistons fan, we will rise again!
I’m hoping Portland Timbers are first!
I am surprised and happy to see the game so popular up in the Northwest!
The atmosphere at Sounders games is seriously comparable to Europe. Good excuse for a trip!
Next month I am going to try to catch a game with my hometown team in Greece, there is nothing like it…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk3SzK4eslY
There is no try…
Looks awesome.
Have you been to a Timbers home game??? 🙂
Timbers won tonight and the Timbers Army was crazed at its finest. My professor husband had a student who wrote a thesis on how the Timbers fans imported the European model of avid fans who rally round their team. My son ended up next to the Timbers COO Mike Golub when he was flown home Bus class (courtesy of his travel insurance) after he broke his toe playing soccer on the beach in TLV a few years ago. Said son is a fantastic networker and he maintains contact with him (Golub) who was kind enough to invite son and his dad to come see a game. I hope the Timbers go all the way as it will be great for the team and great for the town.
The typhoon that just slammed into the Philippines is one scary storm. I am worried for the people there. There will be many victims and lots of destruction. I have no doubt climate change in real.
On a happier note, loved the library photos. In another life I was a librarian.
I would love to go see Timbers army game one day! I I have been to a Columbus Crew game and it was great fun!
Probably right on the climate change. Some satellite images of the typhoon were unreal!
Incredible library buildings indeed!
Timbers have a great atmosphere and they’d probably be the team I support if it weren’t for RSL. Should be a great series and I predict whomever wins it will be bringing home MLS Cup.
Go to sleep people.
This bull market has some ways to go it appears 😉
Just a correction, George – Will Run for Miles is on First2Board, I am on BoardingArea 🙂
Oops, fixed now!
It’s okay – I’d like to think that I was running so fast you missed me 🙂
And it’s Running WITH Miles 🙂 At least I know this means I am not on your list to read and burn! lol
Updated. Again. Sorry. Too much running going on, can’t keep up with you guys!
Dan’s Deals as a good blog shows that you really don’t know what you’re talking about. Dan hasn’t mentioned the better British Airways offer for 100K like your favorite whipping boys – TPG, MMS & MP.
He displays a link to the inferior 50K BA offer on the side of the blog. No mention of the better AMEX MB Platinum and scarce mentions of better offers which conflict with his affiliate links.
I can’t explain it, and it seems neither can Buzz. But it just feels different with him – part of it is probably because he has been very forthcoming about him doing it due to it being his full time job and he needs to feed his family as opposed to others who get defensive any time they get criticized (have you see Ingy’s posts on this blog?), or worse yet, censor any mention of it. And part of it is probably because he’s really the only blogger whose filler cc-pushes (and he pushes A LOT!) aren’t really filler posts – they usually contain actual value-add content in them
I agree your points are valid, but I think those are more the reason he is only in the “blogs I like” and not “blogs I love” section – it’s not like he’s MV shoving the 30K US link down everyone’s throats day after day after day, and then censoring even the most benign criticisms of that
p.s. the BA offer is nothing special. 20K spend for 100K Avios? That’s a lot more minimum spend than I want to waste on 1 credit card
And one other thing about Dan – he’s one of the few bloggers who despite the proliferation of affiliate links has actually stayed true to his “niche”
DeltaPoints barely even covers Delta anymore
MommyPoints went from a family blogger who talked about credit cards when it was relevant to family travel, to a credit card blogger who talks about family travel when it’s relevant to credit cards (check out the current Chase orgy at the top of her blog)
MileValue has long since stopped being a blog that valued miles. Now it’s just a blog that pushes the same 2 or 3 credit cards
Dan at the root of it does a great job catering to the Jewish/kosher traveler. All the cheap TLV fares, using miles to get to Israel, all the detailed reviews of kosher restaurants in his trip reports (now that 90% of Lucky’s TR’s are basically just Cathay F or the LH FCT, I’d argue Dan has the best TR’s). Yeah he pushes a ton of card. But he’ll usually push it in a way where it adds value to his readership
Steve, I will sell out my blog to you only 🙂
I am in complete agreement again with everything you just said…I can’t explain it 😀
TBB, I don’t understand why you are giving him a free pass on the disclosure policy. When anyone pushes an item, I want to know if they are promoting it because they believe that the value is really good or if they is getting money off of it. Simple.
Yes, he has good info at times. But there is a lot of chaff there.
This was the issue that kept DD from shooting up to the Blogs I Love. That and no idea why the dude is so fascinated with watches lol.
Hey, you forgot the shirts by Joseph Banks!
I covered the BA offer in this post:
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/36068
Frankly you can do much better with 20K spend unless you’ve been suckered to believe the BA companion pass holds value.
Also in the comments on that post is a far more interesting play with the BA card.
Wow..had to strain the eyeballs to find mention of it. I guess—-technically—-he DID cover the card in that post but, let’s face it, this is not his usual writeup. Is 20K spend really so much for those that play the manufactured spend game?
I’m with Dan, it’s a mediocre offer
The normal offer is 50K for 2K spend. So you’re spending an extra 18K to get that final 50K
Why would you do that when you can get up to 90K Avios by putting the 18K on a CIB or CIP?
This is a case where the sign-up bonus wouldn’t even get you more miles than you can do on normal CC spend with a different card
This post is a LOT of win.
“LOT of win”? Are we talking in code??? 🙂
CIB? CIP?
“I have no doubt climate change in real.”
You know, contrary to all the media lying (what? the media lie?!), the vast, vast majority of what they call “climate change deniers” (<– perfect propaganda to shut down any actual discussion) do not "deny" that the Earth is heating up! We just do not agree with their putative "cause." (We don't deny, we haven't been offered any decent, *non-manipulated* (someone slap Mann with a damned hockey stick!) (insider allusion) data showing humanity could actually possibly cause it!) And most of us FER SHURE do not agree with the "fixes" {gag} that are being offered!
Easy objection: why is MARS heating up the same way, at the same time? Sympathy pangs?!
Until the "New World" political operatives posing as scientists actually cough up some NON-manipulated data, fire the lying cheats running the allegedly "juried" journals, and start addressing our logical, reasoned, and reasonable objections to their fear- (and hate!-)mongering — we'll continue to try to be a force against them!!
(Just a bit of a rant for you this morning, George…. Hope it's entertaining)
El
Ranting is under rated. Let it all out of your system, it is therapeutic 🙂
What did Mann do that was improper? And was he cleared?
Here, I’ll answer my own question and yours.
Mann was investigated by Penn State University, as required by the NSF. The NSF takes data falsification, which Mann was accused of, very seriously. Penn State University cleared him of all accusations of wrongdoing.
The subject of whether or not Mars is cooling is an interesting one, and led me to learn all about the work of the author most cited in the accusation that Mars is warming. She studies the movements of sand dunes on Mars, which is really awesome. It turns out that planet-wide sand storms occur on Mars, and lead to a heating of the atmosphere but a cooling of the surface because solar radiation can’t reach the surface. That’s rad. I also read all about orbital eccentricity, which is the degree to which planets revolve in an elliptical rather than pure circular pattern. It’s approximately five times higher for Mars than for Earth, and even explains a short-lived warming trend on Pluto. That’s also awesome.
In short, warming can work through other mechanisms but analogous processes, but it’s not certain that Mars is warming or cooling. It does have awesome dust storms.
In short, science is awesome. Don’t throw shade on the scientific method and peer-review process. You wouldn’t go to the doctor and ask him not to use anything in diagnosing a malady and prescribing a cure that relied on peer-reviewed evidence. That would be crazy! The idea that thousands of scientists are hiding information and all in on a lie is equally crazy! Think of the money a whistleblower could make.
Oh, and here’s a video that led me down the rabbit hole. It’s a bit harsh, in that it uses the term “denier.” If you’d like help accessing peer-reviewed publications, please let me know; I have library access from the college. (Or you can probably get it at your local public institute of higher ed.)
This stuff is way beyond my intellectual capacity which has certainly diminished ever since I started blogging lol!
Sigh. Facts are global temps have barely budged in over a decade (in stark contrast to the hysterical alarmist AGW predictions and “scientific” models).
There is record ice pack in the Antarctic – how come nary a mention in media?
We know the Hockey Stick graph was a fabricated cynical lie.
Finally, the same data and “scientists” (who can’t correctly predict the weather for next week), were predicting an Ice Age 20 years ago. Now we are to believe their (broken) climate models (that have been wrong for a decade) will accurately predict temps a century from now?
It would be laughable if it weren’t such a contempously pathetic money grab by “scientists” who’d otherwise be flipping burgers.
Citations please! Show me the predictions and show me the data. I see this.
Yes, there is record sea ice in Antarctica. There are falling amounts of land ice, which is much less subject to cyclical and seasonal variations. I encourage you to explore the difference – it’s an interesting story.
We do? What evidence do we have for this?
Yes, back in the 1970s there was much greater uncertainty about long-term trends. There were a range of papers. Here’s a review of those papers on what a range of predictions there were. If you read through that paper, however, you’ll see that while some papers predicted cooling, the majority still predicted warming.
When we do science, we learn, and we revise our previous beliefs.
That’s nothing. Medical science used to recommend HRT – hormone replacement therapy – for post-menopausal women up until the early 2000s. A long-term panel study – the WHI, if you’d like to look it up – was stopped early because of convincing evidence that HRT was killing women. It’s no longer a widespread recommendation for women. We learned, then we adjust, then we learn some more, and we adjust. That’s how science works.
Hahahaha! Good one! I have friends who work in finance or as consultants or run their own businesses and have since college. I have friends who work in academia as professors after years of work to get PhDs. Guess which group drives fancy cars?
Every year my graduate institution hosts campus visits from Goldman Sachs and the like; they need quants to build models on Wall Street for far more lucrative purposes; stay in academia can’t pay nearly as much.
Given the lack of appreciation here over Lori Fenton’s work on sand dunes on Mars, I’m done with this thread now. M-A-R-S, Mars, bitches!
I just want you to know that I work in finance and do not drive fancy cars. We have a 2011 Ford Edge and a 2001 Toyota Camry with 183k miles on it, the darn thing just does not want to die. Aiming to keep it to give to son who turns 16 next month.
I only drive fancy cars (like a Benz) when I get paid for it lol 😉
I am the true frugal guy.
Global warming is real, I know this much.
Mars on!
Thanks, Harvson3 for taking up the challenge. Much appreciated!
The dude memorizing cards should be at a blackjack table in Vegas…….Lets face it , if Drew M. is not writing for FTG, FTG is about as relevant as Pack o’ Peanuts. Sorry Ingy but todays 5 things to do in New Orleans is a sad excuse of content…………..Buzz, perhaps Steve could be that guest TBB blogger you could use on days you are on vacation or getting eyebrow implants ( I kid because I love, quoting Don Rickles)……….’Behind The Candelabra’ starring Micheal Douglas/Matt Damon comes out on DVD in 2 weeks, it’s about OUR guy Liberace. But I guess you already saw it in the theaters.
The champion had memorized about 1,100 cards. I think these guys are probably banned in Vegas lol.
Missed the Liberace movie. I have missed many since I started blogging, boo me!
I’m a full time commenter
I don’t have the natural ability to blog
I’m much like Ingy in those 2 areas
You can comment here all you want.
Please do not put quotes if the said person did not actually say those words. Of course we all know what you meant but some people can get very sensitive about such issues.
I will stop here and check my email…tomorrow 😉
Ramsey, thanks for the comment. Please be advised again, I don’t choose the stuff run on FTG nor the writers although several I recommended and are still writing for the blog and I’m they are. I am not involved in the link policy other than to recommend that the best offer be available on the blog and lastly I do not own the blog anymore. On January 20th, 2012, Internet Brands took over ownership and control of the FTG blog.
The blog is now more directed towards the newbie market but has articles of interest to all in the game. During my ownership I directed the content towards all levels of expertise and tried to concentrate on maximizing miles earned from credit cards.
“happy they are” Sorry brain cramp
It happens to all of us. I mean the brain cramps 😉
“WordPress question: Every time I create a new blog post I cut and paste the intro, section headlines, etc.”
There are a few plugins that can duplicate posts. Some haves pros/cons. I would recommend that you just copy and paste the HTML template into a text file and use that. You might be better off that way.
That sounds complicated, I do the cut and paste now anyways
C’mon Lucky, Gary already got his Chase filler post up today. Where is yours?
Just saw on Feedly a title about getting a business card. So I bet that was it. Little late today 🙂
Let’s see if Delta can beat United’s devaluation.
As easy as a:
layup in BB or an extra point attempt in football
Wow, lots of guys from LA! Go Lakers! Not really, I stopped watching after the big Malone/Payton fiasco, that was just terrible to watch, I’m sure George enjoyed it… Last year was so awful, I feel bad for Kobe, such a great talent, wasted with that front office moron…
Anyway, I’m searching through what I can burn my United miles on and noticed quite good availability for the direct LA-FRA 747-8 Lufthansa flight in business. This flight is usually impossible to book, it’s the new business class, but for some reason next few months I’m seeing it available everywhere.
moses malone/payton manning??? what fiasco???
Didn’t Kobe rape someone in ’03? Pretty sure if Kobe wasn’t rich and famous he’d be a parolee from Colorado prison.
Loved Ron Artest or meta peace hashtage or whatever his name is now…
Whatever happened to “Travel by Points”? Just noticed the blog had died out a half year ago. I kinda liked it…..
Maybe he will resurface on MMS?
I am not sure. His wife was also blogging at travelwhimsy.com. She recently resurfaced but not Jimmy. Very nice couple indeed, I met them in Chicago I think.
You know, things happen in life and blogs get way down in priority list. I can’t believe I am still here!
It’s been a nice ride.
I am going to keep going until I go back to Greece for two weeks in mid December. Then quarter-end & year end work will hit me hard. And tax season. I did it last year but…who knows. I take a day at a time.
Its really easy to skip blogging for a day, then it becomes two, then before you know it, a few days have gone by. Everyone deserves a break for a few days.
Nice post! I wonder how many people are waiting for January 15th to book the last possible Lufthansa First Class award. I’m certainly hoping I can make one last trip happen with United Miles before the February 1st deadline!