ON MY MIND
The most ever comments in yesterday’s blog post, 78 and counting! I think you will find them very educational and quite entertaining. I love it. An old friend stops by too!
This blog is becoming an obsession. I am so glad the weekend is here, I need a break:-)
I feel for the people in Oklahoma. I am so glad I live in Michigan, we hardly ever get any of these natural disasters! No post on Sunday, I need to work on my other blog. I turned down another potential client. That makes two. Could be about $10 – $12k per year. Just goes to show you that this hobby is not free lol. I kept thinking they will take time away from me answering the comments in my blog:-) Actually, both were not the greatest fit for my practice at this time. I went to the gym, pain. Getting the air conditioning going again for the summer, it’s time! No burning…again. love it when it rains and I don’t have to take the car to the car wash!
You all have a great weekend! Thank you for reading my blog.
TRAVEL
This story by Rapid Travel Chai of how ridiculously hard it was to get a visa to Saudi Arabia pretty much assures me not wanting to there EVER!
MILES/POINTS
Citibank is on attack mode closing accounts and confiscating the earned points! See relevant thread on Flyer Talk. Growing so fast it resembles the growth of Chase credit card apps in the blogosphere:-) What is disturbing is that Thank you Points are also confiscated left and right. Apparently some may have been going a little crazy on gift card manufactured spend me thinks? Anyway, there is quite a bit of outrage brewing and there is even a petition you can sign here! The TBB household signed it in support of our fellow miles/points addicts. Together we can overcome, kumbaya:-) Frequent Miler has the gory details and makes them a bit entertaining to read to soften the pain. View from the Wing also follows up with more details.
Oh, and stop buying gift cards for a while…with Citicrap cards!
You think we are done with Citibank? Not quite! If that was not enough, we can all pretty much confirm another end of an era with this bank: The END of the 50k AA offers! Yes, it has come to this. Don’t let any blogger fool you though to sign up for an affiliate Citi AA link. The best one is still a non affiliate link for “only” 40k AA miles. If there is only one thing to read to keep up with the latest in these fast moving developments it is the wiki (top post) in this Flyer Talk thread. MUST READ. For the readers who did not know this, you are very welcome.
If you blog, DO NO HARM (passing on to readers inferior crappy offers just because YOU get paid).
The saying “Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered” comes to the front once again…I say spread the spend among several cards and try to NOT spike activity on a specific (CVS or office supply or grocery stores) type of vendor. You stay under the radar and stay IN THE GAME longer without hassles (AMEX Financial Reviews, closed accounts, banned from banks, etc.). Ignore the bragging stories by others who will make you feel like you need to keep up with the Joneses (in real life too!). This goes contrary to an airfare or hotel deal that it is likely to die a very quick death these days. There, the modus operandi used to be: Book fast and ask questions later. Lately it has become (with some airfare deals): Book fast and head to the airport pronto to fly it:-)
BLOG BUZZ
The most ever comments in yesterday’s blog post, 78 and counting. I think you will find them very educational and quite entertaining. I love it.
Just copied that from the top. Filler of two lines, give me a break por favor:-)
I did not mark any pure credit card affiliate link assault blog posts…or maybe I am getting so used to them I don’t bother?
ODDZ & ENDZ
Life in Your Early Twenties Vs. Your Late Twenties Oh, I wish I can go back to my twenties and give it a go another time, don’t we all? 🙂
11 of the strangest fads throughout history. THIS was fashionable? WTF!! I want my mommy!!!
For inspiration, I leave you with this picture:
The banks are more profitable now so Citi is tightening things up with their credit card operations because they don’t need to be as generous. I think recent events with the Thank You point cards goes along with the moves in February making it harder to get multiple Citi credit cards and lowering the bonuses. I think this is the current direction.
I am afraid you are right on!
Time to discuss about FlyFasterFlyFarther on Flyertalk. A very very sneaky blogger posting with an alias in Flyertalk and has the tendency to divert the discussion about accountability of bloggers and the general criticism of anything related to travel blogs. He has 94 posts so far and has been enjoying a free ride for the most part and manages to attack most who are against the blogging practices.
Almost 100% of his posts are about blogs and defense of blogs. Check him out please. Anyone has any ideas about who he might be going by writing style? Another angry defender is ma91pmh.
Like I posted yesterday, just because some of these bloggers are able to write a little bit about miles and points and travel hacking, most are horrible horrible businessmen and lack the genuine entrepreneurial spirit that is needed. Simply attacking those who don’t like your servings doesn’t make them angries. It is the bloggers getting angry because easy money is become tougher everyday with more awareness among the readers.
Not buying it. I was suspect at first because FlyFasterFlyFarther was a new member on Flyertalk spending time in the blog thread when it was in MilesBuzz, and arguing against the creation of a forum.
But there are also plenty of negative comments about bloggers and credit card pimping by that member. Too much snark about blogs.
It’s either a duplicate for a non-blogger Flyertalker, or someone that’s been around awhile but hasn’t posted much until now.
FFFF seems more like an angry to me than a blogger.
Well not all bloggers are in love with each other. This is a nice way to take it out, whatever he is doing.
And who says we are angry 🙂 We are customers discussing blogging practices. We know fully well that the bloggers losing easy money are the angries. Not all bloggers are angries either, the ones with good business acumen are always going to be confident and not attack their potential customers. They know they are in long term.
@Anon 7.25 AM: I have seen FFFF’s posts but do not recall if he has a specific agenda. I will take a closer look from now on. I have no idea who he is.
I know ma91pmh, he is cool. We may not agree all the time but I certainly respect his opinion.
I think you make a good point with “It is the bloggers getting angry because easy money is become tougher everyday with more awareness among the readers.” – And as it should be I may add…the more awareness part:-)
@ Anon at 8.24 AM: Nobody is angry other than you know who bloggers. Stop using the term por favor:-)
Anon 10.17 AM: LOVE YOUR COMMENT! Wow, MVP Material…I need to find a way to feature this somehow…but then I get lost and don’t know how to find it:-)
“We are customers discussing blogging practices. We know fully well that the bloggers losing easy money are the angries. Not all bloggers are angries either, the ones with good business acumen are always going to be confident and not attack their potential customers. They know they are in long term.” – AMEN!
There are plenty of people that hit Citi REALLY HARD before getting shut down. They may not have a Citi relationship anymore but don’t let the outrage fool you. They DON’T CARE. They got that many miles.
For any program that doesn’t have your social security number, it’s even easier. Hit hard and fast. And use account(s) that you aren’t really vested in.
When Priority Club let you download their toolbar over and over last year, people used new/fake accounts and generated hundreds of thousands and even millions of points. That thing was going to get shut down fast. Accounts that did it were going to get closed. Anyone that waited to redeem got nothing.
But the quick generated the points, and redeemed them for electronic gift certificates, which they then spent at Amazon for things that would SHIP. All over the weekend, all before Priority Club did anything about it.
People who redeemed for rooms in the future, or even for airline tickets in the future got those cut off and their accounts killed.
But people who redeemed for COMPUTERS that had ALREADY BEEN SHIPPED wound up getting THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS out of the deal. Do you think they cared that their ‘throwaway’ Priority Club accounts were cancelled? No.
And guess what? Then they opened new throwaway accounts, just to be ready for next time.
Hit hard and fast. And it’s only accounts that match up to SS#s that you can’t just rinse, repeat easily. With the banks you have to consider whether the juice is worth the squeeze, because you have a limited opportunity to go big.
Yes I know and I always cringed when I heard of such “triumphs”. Actually my stomach turned and almost threw up. It has happened quite a lot:-)
I know they are out there. And I think they will always be out there. I get great pleasure when they get nailed and laugh at their cries about injustice, unfairness and all that jazz. If you reader do it please keep it to yourself and please please do not tell me, thank you:-)
Thank you so much for bringing this up.
My consciousness is clear, I sleep easily at night (when I am not up answering blog comments lol)
Disappointed to hear you get “pleasure” when other FF’ers fail at something.
The real eye opener about the dimensions such feeding frenzies become was when 26 angry folks sued cartera, Hawaiian et al for ‘loosing’ 120 million miles 😮
@oliver2002 – you don’t know what you are talking about. Cartera wasn’t involved in those shopping portals at all.
@Mileage Update: Maybe “get Pleasure” were strong words. How about they get no sympathy from me,will this work? 🙂
To Oliver2002 and Anon: Seeing those names hurt. This is how you put small businesses out of business, they should know better. We are talking about jobs and livelhoods! I feel so bad for those poor folks at that bank still! It’s Sunday morning, don’t make angry so early lol
George, thanks for the heads up on the Rapid Travel Chai post. He seems to have an interesting/different niche from the rest and his stories are worth reading.
RTC, definitely a different type of blogger than most out there. Always interesting and very into quirky traveling adventures.
¿Dónde está el senor Pickles? Todavía no está y no ha dicho ni una palabra. Muy decepcionante, pero no sorprendente … .Buenos Nachos ………………………………… . Fajitas.
It’s sad. Because though I thought it was pretty scummy of him to post something that was told to him with the request he wouldn’t share it, I really just wanted to watch the train wreck unfold. No question he’s the (only?) interesting blogger at F2B.
Es Mr. Pickles muertos? Está en la clandestinidad? ¿Tiene pequeños cojones? Mr. Pickles ¿dónde estás?
Mr Pickles esta en Toronto #TBEX conferencia. Mr. Pickles vivir y beber muchas cervezas. Mr. Pickles es muy interesante hombre.
TBB murdering espanol
🙂
Bluebird
Word!
have you heard? The bird is the word…
TBB will respond to all comments later on Saturday. Greater tasks are at hand today…Oh boy do I have things to say about them BIG HITTERS…I am VERY aware of them (and that infamous PC toolbar thing). I am not joining them in hell:-)
Something bothers me even more than credit card pimping bloggers (you already know who THEY are! And maybe I’ve just gotten numb to them?).
I’ve come to learn that there are Flyertalk moderators that participate in some of the off-Flyertalk secret forums. And have even used their Flyertalk moderator power to delete posts that don’t violate the TOS — but just expose deals their friends on the Flyertalk forum don’t want shared.
There are also TalkBoard members that participate in those secret forums. Their goals aren’t the same as Flyertalk members, since they want to keep deals OFF of Flyertalk.
We know that most Flyertalk moderators have taken top tier status for free from at least one program WITHOUT DISCLOSURE as well.
I think George needs to start FlyertalkModeratorBuzz for all us angries too!!!
First of all, it is not healthy being angry, don’t feed on the crap by a few bloggers to stick us all with that very inappropriate term, THEY are angry:-)
I understand your point. FT moderators do put into this a lot of time and if they got a top tier status bonus is perfectly fine (hope it is not Best Western…and nobody told me that when I was asked to be a moderator damnit).
I am surprised that IB has not gone nuts on the censoring and just changing the spirit of FT. Yes it has changed a little but, imho, for the most part, the same old spirit is there. And I find this remarkable since the site became part of a public owned entity.
Different beast than blogs. FT mods do more good than harm. imho.
Thanks for the comments. I agree about disclosure. It would be nice…
Back in 2011, when Hyatt was out to get some social meja loove (remember SMD3 and FTUs), about 30 mods got Hyatt Diamond. I don’t see how tha gift skews the work they do for free for IB keeping FT in shape, but the black helicopter theories about FT mods exists since 1998 😉
And your status was renewed, right?
You accept free status from a hotel chain and as far as I know that’s the first time it’s been publicly disclosed by any moderator.
There’s a Hyatt forum, right? That forum gets moderated, with moderators deciding what posts to allow to stand and not, right?
I actually think FT mods should get paid:-)
#lovestirringthepot
@TBB – please no union scale, though.
For-profit internet brands should pay its employees (actually since the site isn’t non-profit, and moderators can’t reasonably be described as apprentices, I wonder why the Fair Labor Standards Act wouldn’t apply and why minimum wages shouldn’t be mandated by the Department of Labor? Hmm… A federal complaint in the making I think!)
Once moderators are paid they should also be reviewed for performance/quality/how well they serve their customers.
I would love TBB to make minimum wage so…I can at least justify the tax deductions damnit.:-)
At the end of the day, FT did not go to hell after IB took over. I still go and post there daily. Moderators work hard. Maybe they should get some stock options in IB stock as they do contribute to its success.
But FT is a different animal, this site is all about blogs, not the FT buzzzzzzz;-)
Yesterday’s post contained eight things to eliminate from your daily routine.
Number 3 was “Think about people who don’t make any difference in my life.”
It’s now clear that there are certain bloggers who feel they have nothing to be ashamed about and nothing to change as long as the revenue and the flattery of newbies flow in.
So farewell to that. I’ll offer advice to bloggers on what I think might make their blogs better. (And who doesn’t love unsolicited advice from a jerk?) Others, well, godspeed to them.
Also, there’s growing evidence that the ratio of niches/tricks/takes/perspectives to blogs in existence in this hobby is tipping below 1:1, if it hasn’t already.
Some under-covered topics I’d like to see covered:
1. Mitigating the environmental impact of your travel and how this might be optimized.
2. A complete strategy to churning as a long-term sustainable endeavor. You’re going to have to hold onto cards to age your accounts; how does this figure into plans?
3. Responsible tourism that respects local traditions and maximizes the revenue staying in-country.
No time to organize a Buffalo DO (and I don’t live there). Sorry. But rest assured that you don’t actually want to meet me.
Browstrong.
Remember that cancelled cards continue to age until they fall off of your report. Holding onto some cards helps if you really want to boost average age, but every card will eventually hit 7 years even if cancelled after 6 months.
Yup. No disagreement there. (discoverwithandy.com/my-foray-into-travel-hacking-using-credit-cards-with-airline-miles-for-free-flights-part-1/ – remember those kids?)
It’s an average, and having a long right-tail should allow for better front-loading of churnable cards.
Browstrong!
I hope bloggers read your advice!
Yeah, the blog explosion is unbelievable.
No time for a Buffalo DO either:-)
And spot on to both of you about the points (pun intended) about cancelled cards!
Ok, this is weird. Lucky doesn’t have a single affiliate link in any of his posts on the front page of his blog. Gary lists like twice as many posts on his front page, and there’s only one post there that contains any links. What’s going on??
I don’t know but it is the beginning of the month and I am sure that top 5 or top 10 posts are queued up:-)
All kidding aside, those two are two bloggers who would still be blogging even if no affiliate cc income was present. I have no doubt about that. They still GIVE a lot more than most other bloggers in this space.
I really do think you need to publish your list of best bloggers. Highlight the best along with the worst and not just day-by-day. That might help, even spur a little competition to be GOOD and not just short-term fly-by-night credit card mooches.
I think MMS shares things he shouldn’t, with too many arrows, and the recent kerfuffle notwithstanding he’s been a contender for the list even if he really is a bit too heavy on the marketing schlock.
TPG used to be. FTG used to be. I don’t think either of them makes it anymore.
Frequent Milers, without a doubt. He’s niche, not one of the best for the broader world. But great for ‘our’ world for sure.
Matthew Klint, if he posted more. RTC has potential. Wandering Aramean sometimes good, but kind of uneven.
Who am I missing?
Who should the blogger angries be trying to emulate (with the majority of their blogging, not necessarily their credit carding-ing)?
I have my top 10 but lots of them are NOT miles/points related! I may need to stretch to get to 10:-)
I am afraid if I ever post my bottom 10 I may make some bloggers even angrier:-)
For example, I have yomadic in my Top 10. Definitely not into miles/points but I personally love his stuff…Goes without saying that these lists are in my own humble opinion.
I will when I get around to it…sorry. This remains a part time labor of love so far. I try my best.
I wish there were 48 hours in a day/night:-)
I agree with pretty much everything you stated, especially this: ” That might help, even spur a little competition to be GOOD and not just short-term fly-by-night credit card mooches.”
It will take big cojones to publish the Bottom 10. You do realize that I am pretty much going to be black listed from many cozy blogger circles? It is like committing blogger suicide…But what do I care really? It is not like I am going to lose my lucrative Bent Offers affiliate links or something:-)
If I ever post my Bottom 10 I will depend on you, my dear readers, to contribute to my defense fund.
It has been on my To Do list for a very long time…it may remain there.
I know you are not angry:-)
I am going to Starbucks…
Have fun at Starbucks. They have wifi. Post your Best 10. Worry about the bottom 10 later. It can be quirky, YOUR preferences, just post the list. I bet that will get a TON of comment explosion as people debate who is on it, why, and who is off it and why. Your commenters can put together their own bottom 10 by omission. Then you can quote YOUR READERS and it’s not even your fault…
I think that is a brilliant idea! And I think, based on the number of comments posted in my blog, it would not be that hard to come up with the bottom 10:-)
I don’t want to go to the polling method because that can easily be messed/hacked with you know;-)
Thanks!
Totally agree with these from Harvson3:
“Some under-covered topics I’d like to see covered:
1. Mitigating the environmental impact of your travel and how this might be optimized.
2. A complete strategy to churning as a long-term sustainable endeavor. You’re going to have to hold onto cards to age your accounts; how does this figure into plans?
3. Responsible tourism that respects local traditions and maximizes the revenue staying in-country.”
I am amazed at some of the selfishness, me-first attitudes I see in this community – people flying hither and yon, day after day, often for no other reason than to get status, with not a care in the world for the impact on the planet, not to mention the folks in the back of the plane. How can I get through security faster? How can I get my upgrade? How can I get the absolute most from an airline/hotel if I am the least little bit inconvenienced? People staying exclusively in chain hotels to pump the points up when the profits go to some multi-national rather than a smaller, locally owned hotel. I am not saying to never do these things – just to be more mindful of what you are doing and of some alternatives to implement at least some of the time. Mattress runs cost us all money in the water used to clean to sheets, the energy used to vacuum the rugs, etc.
I learned recently that it takes 400 gallons of water to make one t-shirt. Some analysts say that is a low estimate. Blew me away. I will never look at a t-shirt the same way again. We must be more mindful of the impact of our choices and buying habits. Saverocity did a piece a few weeks ago on carbon offsets. It was the first mention I saw on that anywhere since I started reading blogs and FT and such in later November.
I was really turned off by Mr. Pickles’ multiple WOWs all over Twitter that led to how should he give away silk PJs to people who play this game. I agree that my initial “send the stuff to Moore, OK” was probably foolish – yes, $$ is better – but I also suggested a trip to a women’s shelter or shelter for the homeless. Such a trip with all the bootie was extremely doable, and he could have tried to convince whomever gave him the stuff to buy in to that. But no – they’ll go to people who win a silly contest or show up at a DO or seminar or whatever. In my town, schools and churches have collection boxes for the mini-bottles of stuff we all shlep home from hotels, and they get donated routinely to shelters. His amenity kits could be put to great use by people who truly need the stuff. Keep the bags if you wish and give them away – but shelters always need staples like shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste and the like.
OK. I’ll get off my high horse now.
Hi TWA44:
The longer you stick around this community, the thicker the skin that you will develop. I have seen things that make me totally ashamed. But I have seen feats of extreme generocity too. You just learn to roll with the punches and as long as you are fine with the standards you have set for yourself, all is cool.
Yes, selfishness and greediness are very present in this “hobby”. It resembles life in a way. You do not have to join in to fit in. I sure don’t.
If I was greedy I would be pumping you guys up non stop with amazing Chase cc links because, you know, you can get 5x in office supply stores LOL.
Off to eat some gyros and baklavas ((will try to limit me to just one…piece, not tray lol)
While mini shampoo bottles may be of some use in a homeless shelter, I doubt a Liberace style Turkish C PJ is of any use there…?
there is a new movie about Liberace out soon, looks pretty good. I miss Liberace:-)
Oops…I deleted a comment I did NOT mean to delete! I was about to delete another phuckinspam comment and I guess when I do that it deletes the good reply attached to it.
Very sorry! Got your message. If I had a dollar for every spam message I delete I would not ever need affiliate links, hehe. I will take a rain check from you on your offer, ok? Gracias.
Oh God, the Daily Getaways deals are starting to be announced
Get ready for endless filler posts by endless bloggers giving the exact same analysis (but for some reason, not being able to just link to the first person who does that analysis), over deals that don’t require more than a token weekly announcement to say what the deals for the upcoming week are. All but maybe one or 2 of the deals not even worthy of mentioning.
MommyPoints, MMS and others are salivating at the opportunity to mail in their filler posts over the next month
Yeah, I already expressed my feelings about these. I hope it contributes to eventually having less bandwidth wasted on these “deals”.
pgary’s website is one of the worst looking, aesthetically ugly blog. He claims he wants to help people travel for freeeeeee….well that will be the last place I would send anyone in my friend circle to learn about travel hacking. I am afraid they will be put off so much they would never want to ever deal with travel blogs.
Rock Bottom 10 worthy where his cohort MMS is waiting for him.
It used to be the place to go about 10-12 yrs ago.
It is still a useful compilation of deals. Who cares what it looks like?
Yeah, Gary should put some $$ into it and improve the design. Or get his cat some tranining:-)
Absolutely not worth for Bottom 10 imho. I still go there and click on “What’s New” just to see if I missed anything. And I do the audience rewards questions from his site.
Cοuld do with some moге ѕtuff οn this – any
thoughtѕ as to anything Ι could read or ωhat forumѕ ӏ might ϳoin?
qxwgrckvpjm sac à main longchamp