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| Yes, this is an actual picture at the Citi Field in Queens, New York at the Mets game. Found here |
TRAVEL
Awesome video “Watchtower of Morocco“. So well made it should win some award. Oh wait, it did win Vimeo Staff Pick! Found at Gadling
Excellent blog post on “What to Expect from Airbnb” at BarrelHopping! If you think about trying it out, read this first!
An amazing new underwater hotel is being built in Dubai. It is designed by Deep Ocean Technology and it looks so Star Trek like! Story with pics and short video at A Luxury Travel Blog.
Bed Bugs-A traveler’s worst nightmare. By Eye & Pen. Thorough post on the subject. Have not had the honor of being blessed with one of their bites. Hope I keep it that way!
If you have a family with young kids, the profile of Jason Steele’s family may be very helpful to you in his guest blog at Mommy Points. Before you bust my chops I have favorites please read my whole post before you go ranting at the comments:-) I am so glad my two kids are not that young anymore! I must say that they were good traveling kids except one infamous flight. In 2004 on Air Tahiti Nui Los Angeles to Papeete in French Polynesia (Tahiti)…my 2 year old daughter cried a bit and a very mean passenger let us have it. I looked at her husband and I said “I am so sorry”. What a royal bitch, we still talk about it to this day! Part of life I guess, only parents can fully understand.
Then I ran across the post by Indulge the Wanderlust about his very kid friendly experience at LAN and the first commenter, I am certain, it was the same person on my Air Tahiti Nui flight! Still out there tormenting parents! Never can understand that it is us parents being tormented the most when it is our kids doing this!
MILES/POINTS
Delta is praying again on its passengers who just don’t know any better! An international Voluntary Denied Boarding VDB for $125, are you kidding me? It is repeated insults like this that made me say to Delta Adios and Good Riddance! For the horrific picture, check out this post at Loyalty Lobby.
If you are in Chicago and want a real seminar (without all the social activities) go sign up (if there is still space left) for a DansDeals seminar. After packing the house in the East Coast for two seminars he is bringing his show to Chicago. And ALL the ticket price goes to a Jewish Educational charity. If there was a financial relationship involved between me and Dan you are damn right I will let you know. I am not that advanced yet:-)
One Mile at a Time wrote “My 10 best mileage award redemptions ever“. Oh so nice to burn. I miss it quite a bit:-)
I debated whether I should feature this here as I have mixed feelings about it. Oh shucks, here it goes. Mr. Pickles wrote “SECRETS That Travel Bloggers Don’t Want Me To Tell“. First, this “secret” was no secret as I have known about it for years. At the FTU LAX event I found it kind of ridiculous to have a session with bloggers giving their “secrets” to a room of almost 500 people and asking them to keep it secret! It is like posting a deal on Flyer Talk and telling others not to go overboard (you know some will do it!!). Of course, as I was present, I still would not go ahead and publish it. I am not sure what is the logic behind Mr. Pickle’s post but he promises more secrets outing. These “secrets” sessions are for the newbies’ sake, not for veteran hobbyists! Well, the Wandering Aramean did not like this post and let the author know in the comments and on Twitter. All I can say is…Ribs! 🙂 And Peace!
Will Run for Miles wrote “7,500 Miles for Sitting Next to Passenger of Size“. Tough situation indeed. My comment there was “This is one of those topics, you know, like abortion and affiliate links lol…that passions are running high and, I am afraid, there will ALWAYS be! I am sorry it happened to you and I am sorry when it happens to everyone.” Just Another Points Traveler also wrote “Touchy Subject – Passengers of size” about the very touchy subject.
Holy Mother of God…since when does the Director of Product Development at Google Wallet congratulate us for a job well done helping Google Wallet take off? Well, he did at DansDeals!
BLOGGER BUZZ
Mommy Points told us how to rack up Hyatt points. Naturally the usual Chase Bank card suspects were all lined up, just seven of them. I saw the headline, scanned it, saw them all lined up and…updated this blog post. Get over it.
I was going to say something about Delta Points but I am getting bored.
Miles Momma had a credit card dump post “Best Credit Card Bonuses of 2013”. About 20 of them. Such original content!
You see, this buzz stuff is getting me bored and tired. Feel free to rant in my comments. As long as you are not angry;-)
Very quiet at the blogosphere. I am afraid Tuesday will be a super pay day, get ready for them Chase Ink Bold credit card apps everyone!
ON MY MIND
Had a relaxing weekend. Some of my eyebrow hair appears to be growing back…so that’s a positive! I still have come to terms that my modeling career at Tajikistan is clearly over. It was good while it lasted!
The Hangover III was the worst of the tree films by far!
Still researching Paris hotels, thanks a lot for your suggestions! Keep them coming. Thinking about getting wife and daughter to stay at an airport hotel as they have an early flight out at 9.25 am. Is this a good idea?
This is how TBB starts his day in the morning
ODDZ & ENDZ
35 super cute and funky baby clothes. Adorable baby pics at Fransesco Mugnai
This is what happens when you give and then take the lollipop away from a kid. So cruel! At Bored Panda.
What, not even a mention of First2Board’s taking the plunge into credit cards? Why are you protecting them?
My journalistic integrity (lol) prevents me from commenting on rumors so I wait for the official announcement:-)
Well I don’t think TPG or Delta Points ever ‘announced’!
It’s hardly rumors when they’ve published it on their site!
Strange how you seem to want to protect some from scrutiny 🙁
give me a break por favor. I am not going to make this a FT gig:-)
Loyalty Lobby has never once credited another blogger for finding a deal or writing about something first. Never once. Even though there have frequently been posts on topics covered elsewhere earlier. It’s simply not credible to believe they weren’t seen on other blogs first, or that post ideas have never come from other blogs. Shitty practice. I see other blogs credit to Loyalty Lobby all the time, but never the other way around. 🙁
I have seen him doing HT but yes not so much as others. But you must realize he lives in SE Asia and is one of the very few bloggers who breaks news hours or days before any others “discover” them:-)
I think I’m too old for that Watchtower movie. Anyway not used to that editing style should have some Dramamine nearby…
Yes, kind of unique. I needed to sit down myself
Man that slippery slope at F2B is starting to gain speed. So much for no “schemes” or anything of the sort. Just more talk out of one side of their mouth as they rake in ad revenue and get ready to publish their bent offer credit card links.
I noticed the disclosure in MrPickles page is about credit cards…NOt sure if it was already there or he is getting ready…Hmmmm
“I was going to say something about Delta Points but I am getting bored.”
I’l say it!
Swag. Swag! Swag. Credit card link. Swag. Swag. Complaint. Swag. Affiliate link. Swag. Swag. Swag. Swag!!
Thank you:-)
Wandering Aramean…..can someone give me the pronunciation on this and what is an Aramean?
Just curious….. And why the link to FREETRAVELGENIUS? Is this a joke or does FTG II have compromising pictures of WA. Anyway I am getting a kick of of the new feud he has Mr Dill and I am looking forward to Wednesdays top secret giveaway extravaganza. And of course, the fall out. My wife Mandy Pepperidge always says the comments are often better than the blogs……is the WORD OF THE DAY Ribs again? Are you allowed to do that………….AUTHORGATE, is it over? Nothing is over until we decide it is. Was it over when then Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?………..http://youtu.be/V8lT1o0sDwI
Your wife Mandy Pepperidge..LOL!
I am looking forward to Wednesday too!
I am so depressed…I had bought ribs to grill on Monday and it has not stopped raining since Sunday night. I just put the ribs back in the freezer and admitted defeat!
I like to bring Authorgate and MMS agenda. I must be the lone guy 🙂 Plus it makes you antsy, so it is even more fun haha
George —> “Leave Britney(MMS) Alone!!!
I keep wondering what would his mother-in-law think about authorgate? Guess he doesn’t care about that anymore.
Who is Britney? And why should we leave her alone?……. How come I am the only one who gives grief to Pack OF Nuts? What is the deep psychological problem behind his use of LEGOS. Who is his target demographic market?
Who is John Galt? What are sloppy seconds? If opinions are LIKE assholes, why do assholes HAVE them?
Who the f*** is Alice?
Have we been reading about Daraius’s mother-in-law, or has it been Drew’s mother-in-law all along? Has Drew written all of the mother-in-law articles? Or just some of them? Does either of them really have a mother-in-law, or is she just a device used to sell more credit cards? Is Emily really Daraius wife, or the woman who works at CVS and likes posing for pictures? Has any of it been true? Has it all a big deception? Trust us, we’re salesmen.
My guess: Wandering and Free Travel Genius are at least acquaintances in real life. They’re both 30-something Cornell alumni living in New York.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Oh my…who is Britney? John Galt? FTG 2? Are mother in laws a front? Is Emily a front? WTF is going on! I am mad as hell…I am not going to take it anymore…
Insanity…
Refreezing thawed meat might not be such a good idea, George… think what a food poisoning may do to your eyebrows!
Was just joking. It was taken care of;-)
Curious George. Can you tell us the secret behind why the bloggers like to hype the W-STORE sale when the W Queen Plush Bed gets discounted? What’s up with that? Saw at least half dozen this past weekend for the Memorial Day Sale with links. Sounds like I must have one! Is it a requirement for status?
I ‘ve been thinking about that one for a while…By the time I get to it the 40% is gone:-)
I have no idea if there is an affiliate % revenue behind it, I don’t think so…
40% off is still there. It’s been 35% for the past few sales, so 40% is newsworthy.
No affiliate money, just a bed that is awesome and saves you from dealing with mattress salesmen (only 1 step up from used car salesmen).
The DD seminar in Chi-town is merely an excuse to eat BBQ at Milt’s…probably the first ever kosher restaurant featured in an airline magazine: http://hub.aa.com/en/aw/its-all-kosher
RIBS!
And the 9K Avios flight and a free Fairmont suite makes it easy to give everything back to local charity/education.
I ‘ll just wait for the next 40% off then…
I hear the Chicago Fairmont is not that great.
I love Ribs!
Lol, the current 40% off is no good?
It may not be great but free is free 😀
♪We eat ribs with this dude, but we didn’t have a clue♪
Gotta venture downtown and find Chuck one of these days…
No I am getting ready to make some estimated tax payments and I am a little light.
I am sure you ‘ll find Chuck at a McDonalds lol
You start your day walking down an escalator being passed by someone dressed as Superman? Okay. Keep Ann Arbor funky.
I learned today that bedbug bites are in a row because bed bugs are bad at locating veins. I had always heard that the bites are in a row because the bug returns to feed from multiple points along the same vein.
I brought bed bugs back to my college dorm room from Peru many years ago (Pension Ibarra, Lima). Simply awful pests. No bad luck since, but I still remember to check every bed.
@Bluto: the reference to Britney is an internet-famous overly hysterical video that a fan made imploring people to stop harassing Britney Spears.
My favorite part of that MilesMomma post is the use of the name “Barclay.” To her credit, she doesn’t push the lesser AA offer.
I don’t really have a burning need to read First2Board, or the Boarding Area front page. So LAN lets families board early? That’s nice, I guess. I have about five blogs in my RSS feed, and they and FT pretty much cover all I need to know.
One of the more notable recent items in an otherwise quiet hobby world is the shock by the MegaDo organizers that people didn’t want to spend $1200 to fly from Toronto to Tucson to SFO in an A321. No me digas! Still plenty of good coach seats available!
I’ve start to grow impatient waiting for the SPG 30K offer to come around again in July/August.
harvson3
No I am Superman….Superman with disappearing eyebrows:-)
I chuckled when I saw Barclay too!
What are your top five, would love to know to see if they are the same as mine:-)
I am waiting for the SMD free seats to be given away as contests again to score another freebie. I am surprised it is not sold out…even at $1,200!
I ‘ve been waiting for the 30k SPG offer too!
Gotta run
I got bed bugs from staying at the KCourt in Ann Arbor back in 2010, so they are pretty close to you, my friend…!
Really? Good to know!
It’s amazing that people still talk about MMS as if the only questionable tactic with “authorgate” is that he hired someone else to write an article on his website. That’s actually the least of the concerns.
Lets count the different things that MMS has done which if any individual one of these things were done by someone else, you’d be all over it (and have been in the past)….
1) Hires someone to write 10 part CC orgy for him (ok, this ones shady but not something many bloggers don’t do unfortunately)
2) Changes the “author” of the post, so people won’t know someone else wrote it (verified with screenshots)
3) Writing style in the post gives off the false impression to readers that he wrote it (“my mother in law”)
4) Puts in CC’s that have nothing to do with Lufthansa
5) Censoring comments
6) Ignoring simple (and reasonable) yes or no questions on whether he wrote it…. including yours
7) In the comments sections, readers compliment him on how hard he worked and say they’ll click his links because of it. He says “thanks”, but makes no mention that he didn’t really work that hard on it
8) Doubles down on FlyerTalk, while still ignoring the yes or no questions
9) Still to this date has not disclosed that him and Drew made a financial relationship on this…. despite constantly humping on about his transparent disclosure policies
A lot of them are just standing by their good old crack dealer. Agree with your post in its entirety. Are you the “one guy with an agenda” he keeps talking about everywhere LOL
Please sir, how me the evidence. Please be fair and balanced and don’t rush to judgement. Look at both sides of the story. Be compassionate. God Bless you. Rush Linbaugh
@anon 4:32
LOL I’m not the “one guy”, but I am one of the commenters that got censored on the MMS part 3 thread (same handle)
He tried to block my IP from his site. Unfortunately for him we’re in the 21st century
Rob, you make some very valid points.
I do feel a bit let down by MMS, I must admit that. At the back of my mind…I am hoping he did that on purpose to get you guys to go wild to prove a point…
All I know is he did not reply to my email to confirm. Silence does say a lot. Do I do the interview on his site now? Do I take him off my Top 10? Do you see doing how tough the Top and Bottom 10 is????
I hear you.
It is impossible to stay clean in this space…The lure of the easy $$$ is just way too much. I am scared I may get infected too…Hope it happens before I lose all my eyebrows lol.
I also believe applying pressure and CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM is good for the community!
For each of those 9 points above, if TPG did them, this is how much you would tear into them on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being mention it in passing, and 10 dedicating an entire daily post tearing into him
1) 4
2) 5
3) 5
4) 9
5) 10
6) 3
7) 5
8) 7
9) 8
You seem to be taking MMS doing this far more mildly
At the very least, any future bragging of his disclosure tactics should be roundly mocked, any affiliate linkfest should be considered outsourced, and any mother-in-law references assumed to be a load of crap
My point about the MMS blog has been this:
1) The disclosure practices ARE better than many bloggers!
2) He writes well…I mean he explains things so clearly even cavemen can do it! That is a talent. And no I am NOT talking about the trip reports!
The fact remains the LH award stuff DID have original content and added to the knowledge in this space.
Having said all that, if he did not write it himself, not disclosing it, pretending he did write it…well, everything you mention in fact…It was a grave mistake and the blog would (and should) suffer.
But we all make mistakes, come on, we are human. Lets see what happens from here on.
I think you have a lot to say on the subject…You should start your own blog:-) Or do a guest blog here. You send me material, if I like it I post it. Or feel free to comment here. I do NOT censor!
Peace…or maybe better….Ribs!
The interesting decision Daraius has now is does he continue posting the 8 part Lufthansa series one part per day and continue to get asked who wrote it after every post? Or does he drop the series and just hope everyone forgets? Or run the remaining parts of the series all in one day to try and get Authorgate over with and buried and hope his readers forget? The other choice would be to come clean about the authorship but so far he hasn’t given any indication that he is willing to do that.
1) Are they better than many bloggers?
Because this is about as big a failure on the disclosure front as any
For CC comparison, this would be the equivalent of a blogger not only leaving out whether he gets affiliate $$$, but lying about it
2) Does he? How do you know which posts he wrote and which he didn’t? How many commenters praised him on how well “he wrote” this LH series?
And he’s far past “mistake” point. “making a mistake” is not disclosing it, and when a commenter asks him about it, owns up, adds drews name to the author (or cites him) and carries on with his CC-hit piece (yes, that’s what it is. Lets not be naive)
When you double down, actively lie, and continue to dodge, you’re far past “made an honest mistake of poor judgement” phase…
Looks like now the open-ness of the comment section is gone. He is moderating the comments and manually approving them if he likes it.
He has always been dodgy and mildly arrogant about his ways. I think he is taking this too hard on himself because of all that jazz built over the last few months.
He’s gone full on censor the past few days
It’s like he wants to see how poorly he can do everything else every other blogger gets ripped for before TBB will actually tear into him instead of giving a “woe is him. everybody makes mistakes” stance on it
Next thing you know, he’ll test TBB’s consistency by pimping inferior Delta cards and giving away luggage tags
“@THEFRUGALMOMPOINTSMILESHACKINGNEWBTRAVELER @Gary Steiger – FreeFrequentFlyerMiles – I haven’t deleted many comments, but it is time to revisit my comments policy.”
Or as we refer to it in everyday speak, “time to start the censoring”
It is fascinating though watching the moment in time when a blog makes the decision to turn to the dark side. Remember when MileValue suddenly changed and started pushing that inferior U.S. Airways link and deleting comments? It was kind of a wow moment, an obvious change in blog philosophy. This may be the moment that we look back on as the turning point for Million Mile Secrets.
>>>>>>he’ll test TBB’s consistency by pimping inferior Delta cards and giving away luggage tags
No, that will make me lose it completely LOL
Guys, this generated way too many comments. I guess it is good for my blog’s numbers, thank you. I wish I had some revenue or something…
All I know is I am putting way too much time on this darn blog…and it is getting to me…way too many beautiful eyebrow hair is now gone and I am not sure if it is ever coming back…
I need to sleep:-)
The irony of F2B …
1. Lufthansa Flyer (and Stacy) leave Boarding Area because, they say, they don’t like their useful blog posts being surrounded by credit card pumping filler.
2. Barclays launched a huge bonus and a fat affiliate payment on its Lufthansa credit card
3. Lufthansa Flyer, who would have been well placed to cash in on this, cannot participate in this sign-up orgy because of F2B’s policies
4. F2B changes its policies to allow card pushing
Even better is now the FT thread on F2B changing their editorial policies is temporarily closed. Guess F2B sent out the bat signal and told all of their people to swarm as usual to complain when people actually call them out on their bs.
#1 is just silly. They didn’t like BoardingArea design. They thought they could do it better. They thought they could make money at it like Randy does.
Their quality content surrounded by filler? These were two of the loser blogs on Boarding Area. Yeah, their great posts were being brought down by VFTW and Lucky. Hah.
Because they’ve now surrounded themselves with even better posts than Gary’s and Ben’s — Giddy for Points’ and the Deal Mommy’s!
Well…competition is good I say!
Let’s see what happens…I enjoy watching it develop. It DOES take cojones to start a new venture. Lets wait for the official announcement. Sorry I have not been back to that FT thread you mentioned.
Feel free to comment here and let me know. It is getting really hard to keep up with it all. I am not Superman. And I am losing my eyebrows too!
The post-credits scene in Hangover 3 is what the entire movie should have been like.
But instead what we got was Melissa Mccarthy sucking on Galifianakis’ lollipop. Ugh.
Yeah, it was bad. And now I feel like an idiot for missing the post credit scenes!!!Damnit!
Oh man, you really missed out! That last scene was worth sitting thru’ the entire movie, I kid you not!
Shatila Baklava.
Ooook, I know baklava…who/what is Shatila??
Shatila Baklava is made in your own backyard, Dearborn. I get it mailed all the way out here to Portland ( not one good Greek Diner or Restaurant here either). I was going to send a gift box to your Hospital room, but it looks like you will only be a day patient. Shatila.com…..check it out
Oh yeah…shatila is the Arab version of baklava, I was just not that familiar with the name. That’s all. Baklava goes so well after…Ribs!!!
“Since when does the Director of Product Development at Google Wallet congratulate us for a job well done helping Google Wallet take off? Well, he did at DansDeals!”
And does it again: http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/31131/comment-page-1#comment-268679
Seems like a great guy running the product.
I wonder if he will still get the love when he starts closing accounts when your readers, you know, test GW limits;-)
Pretty refreshing attitude by a Google exec, I am impressed. They may have a shot against Paypal. But, who knows, they may kill it like Google Reader…can’t rely on these guys lately!