Lets take a ride through the top hotel promos, best uses for Alaska miles, best write up for credit cards for dummies, make a few comments on the recent credit card sales, how to get your hotel status match with Club Carlson, talk about the fading romance of miles, and also shoot the breeze with my number #1 fan who finally admits he loves my entertaining blog because he is bored out of his mind in retirement 🙂
You can support TBB by clicking/forwarding any of our Referral Links and starting your online shopping at our Amazon affiliate link . Or click on the Amazon Banner on the right, thank you!
Loyalty Lobby lists his top 5 current hotel promotions. I am surprised to see Hilton at the top but hey, it’s his blog! For my friend Antony, here is the Megabonus I talked to you about!
DansDeals on “Credit cards for Dummies: 10 Frequently Asked Questions“. For educational content like this, affiliate links are okay in my book. But maybe it’s just me, the guy who complains a lot lol. I see lots of bloggers targeting newbies in the future. Maybe I should start a series on newbies or pick a day to do a post for them. Yeah, right…there are only 24 hours in a day.
Today was just one of those days that I think broke the record in blog posts trying to sell readers credit cards. What with the Hawaiian card that recently went on sale and the Amex Platinum card (for 40,000 Membership Rewards points, are you serious blogger trying to sell that with so many higher bonuses that come regularly and potentially more coming soon with the churning faucet clogged as of May 1st?). This stuff irritates me. You are only doing it to stuff your own pocket, you are not doing it to help your readers. If you were trying to help them, you would not stop everything and make a post about these two crappy offers and make them sound like the best thing since, well, the Ink Bold! You would be working on other stuff, umm I don’t know. How come I see a flood of posts on just these two cards? I mean, some bloggers are pretty much left for dead and then bang, they post about these amazing offers suddenly all at once. Absolutely disgusting. This is what I want to avoid….will I become them if I get on this path one day? Then again I am not sure my site will ever pass inspection with pictures of 800 condoms in a box LOL.
In case you missed it, the American Airlines and Jet Blue partnership is ending March 31st. Have you noticed that there are almost daily announcements by AA and Parker putting things into shape in the new company. The Parkerization of AA has begun, fear Elites fear! On a positive note for Detroiters, it is great to see Jet Blue in Detroit flying to Boston and compete against Delta’s ridiculously high fares (last time I checked…long time ago!).
Loyalty Lobby shows how you can get a status match to Club Carlson Elite Status. In case of a reader who does not have it yet, get it if you can! Maximize the bennies from your stay, this is what it’s about in this game!
Award Magic booking service has worked out an arrangement to be featured at First2Board. These guys are everywhere! I always want help with awards I have no time to look for. Since the Amazon links don’t bring in enough revenue how about some free advice and I mention your site ONLY if you dazzle me with your service? Contact me for details. Or not if you are scared for my admittedly high quality standards 🙂 Unless you buy a banner ad here lol.
Really good post about the “Best Uses of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Miles” by One Mile at a Time. OMG, another post featured here with affiliate links! Would rather not have them in the body of the post but the quality of the content always comes first! I learned something from this one. Oh, I learned nothing of the next post about the Hawaiian card, could not resist I guess. Oh crap, next one was the amazing Amex Platinum card with the whole lot of 40k MR points, yipppee!
The Internet Gave This Homeless Man $32,000 For Being Incredibly Selfless. Okay, this is a really good feel video. I got emotional about it. This one fills the “Inspire” part of my blog’s mission.
It appears the long standing IHG Rewards offer for 80k points may be over too! The wiki on top is required reading!
Hey Delta flyers who are sticking with Delta because you love the Skypesos which are becoming Zimbabwean whatever. When the partnership with Alaska Airlines ends where are you going to credit your flights huh? You must admit it sure is not looking good between these two!
View from the Wing wrote “How Delta’s New Revenue-Based Points Earning Destroys the Romance of Miles“. I think Gary is depressed. “Destroys the romance“. Exsqueeze me? Who ever said that these programs were there to offer romantic moments? They are there to perhaps one day treat the whole family to the trip to Disneyland in coach. Stop whining and be happy about it. Remember what Robertson had told you? “These programs at their present form are just not sustainable”. So, they are chipping away, where are you gonna go now? Smisek at United already targets the opportunist types (us!) and I am sure Parker at AA is slowly chipping away at the nonsense with the pace likely to accelerate.
Gary Leff has always been a defender of the miles world. And he has been wrong I think many times because he always fights the battle to preserve the status quo. “Most successful marketing innovation in history?” I guess. But last time I checked planes were always full and fees were up the wazoo and devaluations happen as frequently as we eat breakfast! I think the era of flat beds with caviar and champagne is coming to an end slowly but surely. I am a very optimistic person by nature but I think we have had it good for a long time and the situation has radically changed on the ground. I have adapted: Free agent, cash back cards in much higher priority and manufactured spending as much time allows me (not much, thank God for my four Bluebirds!). He goes on: “But the real storm is what’s to come, as they break the emotional bonds they’ve built with their customers over decades.” Hahaha, come on! Most will bitch and stay. Some will leave. Delta will do fine. And this: “In this monkey see, monkey do industry other programs follow Delta’s lead at their peril.“. What? First, the real storm to come. And then the others will follow the lead and create their own storm too, huh? I am sorry to be the downer here, people like us are being blown away. Yes, I hate it too man. Thank God I don’t have any credit cards to sell lol.
You know it has become a zoo when mainstream travel bloggers start pushing cards the day they come out. What’s up with this Johnny Jet guy? Looks like a nice guy but why is he so popular? He starts the post about the Hawaiian card with “Great News!”. Maybe for him.
Have you noticed how bloggers get so excited with these cards on sale that come…frequently? They always end the titles of their blog posts with exclamation marks! I thought exclamation marks was my thing only because I am always excited.
The Frugal Travel Guy (the blog) has just become a place to sell credit cards in every post it appears! I find it sad. Don’t read too much into it, I am just expressing myself here! Milenerd understands me, we are both artists at heart 🙂
Breaking News: The Frugal Travel Guy (the person) is coming back to write more at FTG (the blog). Perhaps Internet Brands is trying to get him out of spending so much time reading and commenting in my blog! In yesterday’s blog post, I was called a meatball and I replied I was a leaner meatball now that I have lost 12 lbs (and counting). I thought that was a step up from “gutless coward”. He also admitted that my blog entertains him in retirement and that makes me so happy because, you know, entertainment is my blog’s mission! I would like to get a thank you card from him for all the entertainment my blog provides because, and we agree here (omg), things were getting a little bit boring. I mean, what is FTG (the blog) going to do now? Start an interview series? Improve the tool by adding a true cash back card like Fidelity’s 2%? Hire a Director of Reader Engagement to increase the comments at the site ? I hear more comments, more conversions! wink (Hey, I am available for consulting on the subject…bwhahahahahaha). I don’t hold grudges by the way. I love everyone, especially my readers. Love me too by trying to get that Bezos to finally turn a profit for Amazon shareholders for a change please 🙂 He wants me to star with him in a Reality TV show about the state of the blogosphere. Sounds interesting, I may need to speak to my agent to see if he agrees and can fit me in my tight schedule. I have never watched a reality tv show, I always thought they were fake. How about this: “We volunteer our faces to be attacked with pies by Chicago seminar attendees …for charity of course! 🙂 I know you come here first before you check out FTG (the blog). I love you despite all the names, we all make mistakes.
Zach Galifianakis interviews Barack Obama. Bwahahahhahhaha.
I want to fly away. Found at Twisted Sifter
The Perfectly Dangerous Thing Your Clients Want. An excellent article about diversification. This was written recently by a colleague. Plus he throws Michelle Pfeiffer in it for emphasis!
My daughter in front of Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
I leave you with this…
Check out my updated blog lists: Blogs I Love, Blogs I Like, Blogs I Ignore
Thank you for reading and supporting my blog!
Please pass my blog link to your friends and family if you think they will enjoy it too.
George
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
Join over 2,495 TBB followers on Twitter @ FlyerTalkerinA2 and add TBB on Google+
First?
Try again. first?
First twice, that’s a first!
LOL. My phone seemed to freeze both times I tried to post. Then I gave up. Obviously they both posted.
Yup, looks like it 😉 !!
I talked to the TBB Tech Support Dept this morning and gave them clear instructions to fix this so John can post only once from now on successfully to avoid others accusing TBB of padding comment number counts! hehe
Yeah, the Parkerization has me really worried. Trying to figure out whether to go for EXP again or not as we speak. Have only missed two upgrades in two years. Spoiled, I guess. And hubcaptive in a town with one airline. Haven’t yet embraced “be your own elite” concept. So I got unlucky by waiting a day and managed to get the Arrival just hours after it was $3K not $1K spend. But lucky because in the AOR, I managed to snag the 80K IHG Visa in what was its last days (who knew?) as well as the FlexPerks during the Olympic medal promotion. So, all the doomsday warnings about the Arrival spend going up at least motivated me (too late) to get going on a round of apps. So, I just love the Cretan couch potato. And the between two ferns guy, how did I not know about him? Hilarious. Saw it yesterday. No one is posting about the MAS flight on the blogs. Something doesn’t add up about it all and I guess we are all spooked. I know I am.
I think Parkerization will continue. The question is at what pace. Maybe not as fast for the rest of the year as the focus is clearly on the merger. I think EXPs have had it very good and the airline will make it harder to requalify and reward the top customers, you know like Delta 😉
Yes it is easy to get spoiled, no doubt! But, in my case, I decided this is not good for my pocket and flying coach domestically will not kill me so the alternatives out of Detroit so far (Southwest and AA) have been manageable and if I may…I am kind of enjoying Southwest as long as I get on the A group 🙂
These Zach interviews are just hilarious! He is awesome, love them! Fits my personality a little bit. “Who gave you permission to film in the Diplomatic room?” “Bush” LOL
The MAS flight is something that just bothers me whenever I think about it. How can this happen? What happened? And Malaysia is definitely not looking good with how they are handling it. But this is unprecedented. My guess is a luggage with a bomb made it on board.
Good moves on the cards. The former US Air and now IHG 80k cards had been out there for years it is kind of weird not to have them around!
Thanks! I think it is going to be a long time before they figure out what happened to that plane. The story only gets interrupted on CNN when there is an explosion in Manhattan or a development in Ukraine. So, please change the name of your list to TBB Hall of Shame, as you are hardly ignoring them:)
Ah Buzz. I knew you always cared. Hey here is some great news from FTG. During “Toolgate” there was as expected a small bump in visits as your audience checked out the tool. But surprisingly from this crowd it looks like a bump in income as well occurred 🙂 I guess some found it useful huh George. and I appreciate the publicity. Just goes to show any publicity is good publicity. Thanks.
That’s what led me to think about the reality TV idea. Heck if we can pick up a few extra clicks and revenue with this little audience, imagine you and me up Duck Dynasty or Swamp People?
AND I’m figuring we’ve got an “in” with the cost model as well. I’d take mine as a small share after production costs are covered and, hell, we all know you’ll work for comments 🙂
Why not have your people, call my people
I used to think Rick was on George’s payroll, but now it’s become clear to me that George is on Rick’s payroll.
Or–if I may go further down the rabbit hole–maybe George doesn’t even exist? Maybe “George” is just a persona concocted by Rick… who himself is a persona concocted by MILLION MILE SECRETS!
I need more sleep.
…which then leads to Emily, the true mastermind!
Mark, astute observation. The gals are always the masterminds. Just ask mrs. Buzz
To take it one step further, MMS is ghost-written by Drew, so he is the mastermind behind all of this!
Lol, you guys. Is this entertainment or what? 🙂
I should start a new blog about the wives of bloggers woohoo!
Ok, here I go. The following is for PURE COMEDIC PURPOSES. If you get offended, perhaps, just maybe, you take life way too seriously!
Katy: Rick is at TBB comments again, WTF!
Emily: Daraius is God
Carrie: (Drew’s): He is checking to see if the next Pointbreaks list is live yet
Lee (mine): I thought this was going to be a fun short stint, this is getting ridiculous! No curry for you!
Nick’s wife: Time to feed the baby again
Matt’s wife: Preparing for the baby shower with spreadsheets borrowed from Matt whilst checking out the post on Mommy Points how to travel with a baby
Gary Leff’s wife: Who is she, does she exist? Thank God the romance with miles is over, thanks TBB!
Frequent Miler’s wife: Where are you going? Kohl’s? Again??
Rapid Travel Chai’s wife: You are going WHERE?
I was going to say something about DP’s wife but he can’t take a joke so I took a pass.
Ok, seriously I need to leave
We are getting pummeled with snow AGAIN, snow day. Wife stayed home with the kids, I am at my office at Panera!
Dan’s wife: Don’t you think it’s a little too soon to be doing app-o-ramas for the kids?
Lisa (DP’s wife): Will you ever take me to the Maldives? I am sick of going to the Cayman Islands again and again!
MIles Abound’s wife: Honey, come on step it up and book our next trip to the Maldives…we haven’t been there for two months!
Steve, do you work for the NSA or something?
A few in the works that will get a bit more than “WHERE?!”
@ ingy: I keep you entertained in retirement so well I wonder if you will invite us over for Thanksgiving. Or maybe at least a thank you card. When IB buys out TBB you will be the ad spokesman “When I retired, I kept myself entertained at TBB. You should too!”. You can be like that Thompson guy pushing reverse mortgages on cable TV late at nights, I am sure the money is good. Or you could do it for charity for your pal 🙂
You know how I feel about gambling. Gambling is evil. Are you wondering where I am going with this? I know you are…OK, here it is. I NEVER bet on anything UNLESS I am 100% sure I will win the bet! And I will gladly bet that there was NO TBB reader who actually applied for a credit card from the FTG tool! No way. It was likely some driveby noobie who got suckered into it. It happens a lot I hear at that site!
For the 2nd time you ignore my proposal to offer our faces for others to deliver pies on for charity. Are you scared? I will pay TBB readers to come to Chicago and will match their donation lol. Right now Delta Points is salivating to get the opportunity to do just that (please be gentle…please). I have no doubt you will do the same for me. We can raise a lot of money this way for charity and then we can take a picture with a big fat check held by both of us with pie stuff all over our faces. Look at the publicity, maybe we can get some more TV crews to publicize FTG and TBB, woohoo!
I am open to anything that will enhance people’s lives. But if the primary goal is to make money don’t bother. If we can do good and somehow money makes it, hey its’ great, I am not a communist! I am sure the IB people can find my agent. Heck, I will talk to them for free how to improve FTG for its readers…whoever is left. If the criterion of success is number of conversions only…don’t bother me.
I now need to focus because that other tabloid Journal has given us just a few days for new material, I hate when that happens!
Have a good day.
I am excited about the next travel challenge! What will it be, Duluth MN?
Mention that all money from pie contest goes to military servicemen. How can Ingy say no to our servicemen?
Hey, if TBB doesn’t want it, I’m happy to take pies in the face in Chicago for charity with you! 😉
We actually put bike guy in charge of a dunk tank for bloggers last year but it never happened. Yes it was for charity as well. With all the bloggers in the space and attending Chicago if we put you in the tank, we could really clean up. Soap in your mouth and cash in the coffers
You know we’ll be there! I’d be happy to help and be involved 🙂
I was surprised as well. But when the bean counters tells me “statistically significant” and toolgate was all that was happening, well I’m gonna believe it and will spend the money;)
By “statistically significant”, you mean 100% dontcha? (ie, a single person signed up using the card pimping autobot, er, “tool”?)
When I released my Top 5 Hotel promos a few days prior to Jon last week at
http://blog.frequentflyerbonuses.com/2014/03/top-5-hotel-stay-bonus-point-offers-for.html
I had a tough time choosing between Hilton and Choice as the fifth promo. I went with the latter since you can technically get a enough points for a ‘free’ night with a lot less spend/stays when compared to the Hilton promo.
Sorry about that, missed it. Yeah, I have no idea how the Hilton promo made it to the top of the list.
He put it at the top because you can combine it with a couple of Conrad and Waldorf Astoria promos. Problem is those two promos are targeted so you may not be guaranteed the bonus.
If there were no targeted promos that site would not have as much content 😉
Meatball/Buzz there won’t be any snarky comments here from Paisano Ramsey about the new Italian language Boarding Area Blog, FAMMI VOLARE. I don’t want to wake up in the morning next to a horse head in my bed, or have dead fish delivered to me wrapped up in newspaper. Or even worst of all, a burning bag of dog doody left on my front door by someone who rang the doorbell and ran away……………………………………………………………………………….for the record I am of Italian decent which probably explains the immaturity.
Down the street from my house, there is a restaurant Paesanos. It is very popular. They even sponsor some trips to Italy for culinary events and stuff like that. When I looked at the prices they were totally INSANE…over $10k for 2 weeks (not including airfare!). WtF! They go on tours to eat with chefs who prepare meals for them. I guess there is a market for that, I pass.
I have two maps I am going to post soon: Maps of Europe according to the Greeks and the French. They are hilarious and I bet the Greek one is very similar to the Italian one!
I gotta go invent a TBB clone to type for me here 🙂
I like how everybody pimping the Amex Platinum card is ending off their posts with (paraphrasing) “oh by the way, there is currently a better offer out there, and has been out there for a while now”
Well except MileValue. He didn’t even bother mentioning it in the post. Got an SPG link in there though!
It’s a good thing most bloggers are on trying to follow the literal letter of the law when it comes to “I only present the best offers” and not the spirit of it
Because unless you take it literally, one might think that dedicating several paragraphs to an inferior offer, and only a brief footnote at the end mentioning there is a better offer doesn’t comply with the spirit of it
Words fail me….No they do not actually!
Has anyone tried to pull up the Mercedes-Benz offer today? VFTW linked to it but said that clicking through to the application wasn’t working. He appears to be right. Is it gone? He seems to suggest this has happened before and it has started working again.
Here it is – https://www304.americanexpress.com/personal-card-application/mercedes-benz-platinum-card/16597-10-0
However, it also has that new language to it – about not having a Platinum card before…
It has happened!
AMEX has started shutting down churners!
From the MB platinum link above-
“Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have or have had a Platinum Card® account enrolled in the Membership Rewards® program.”
And on the Platinum link-
“If we identify you as currently having an American Express® Card account, you may not be eligible for this welcome bonus offer. This offer is also not available to applicants who have or have had a Platinum Card® account enrolled in the Membership Rewards® program.”
https://www304.americanexpress.com/personal-card-application/platinum-charge-card/25330-10-0?intlink=us-ccsg-viewallcards-Plat-Apply
;( ;(
Buzz covered this the other day, as did many bloggers. Dans deals broke it last week, I think.
I know that.
The big news is that it’s already 100% confirmed for some products. And that it started way before May 1st.
That’s because he’s using the old link. I think the TBB lists need some updating after this week….
If you click through to the actual page to apply you get the message, “Currently, our systems are not responding”
I want to apply for the MB Plat, unfortunately I had the 100k bonus last year so I’m probably shut out anyway.
We’re flattered 🙂
While we can’t offer free services, we’d be happy to discuss a way in which we’d be able to help out your clients with their award booking needs!
Contrary to what you eluded to in your post, non of our publicity on other blogs came through a “we’ll give you free services” or “talk us up and we’ll give you $____” types of discussions.
Our belief is if you’re going to do something, you should strive to be the best. Whether it’s our customer service or our ability to find space on difficult routings/flights, we pride ourselves in being among the best on the industry!
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Ps. Booo!! You couldn’t even hyperlink out name?! Lol. It’s ok, we forgive you. 😉
Darn it, I thought maybe we can work something out, your time vs my promotion of your site IF you dazzle me with your service. Part of your marketing budget because, you know, TBB does not bring in enough to have cash expenses for stuff like that lol.
Since you mention some of your arrangements with other sites, can you please tell us what IS the arrangement with F2B? Are they doing it on a complimentary basis?
Transparency por favor #hint
As far as the linking to your website, I thought linking to the F2B site was fair as I am trying to help them to prevent more bloggers leaving. My readers are knowledgeable enough to know how to click over to your site, they don’t need any arrows or stuff like that;-)
I thought the news was significant for Blog Buzz purposes, needed to show that F2B has some life still in it.
Cheers
Again, we’d love to work something out, but bartering in a service-exchange agreement isn’t really in our business plan at the moment.
As for transparency, I’m sorry. The only “transparency” available here is that I can proudly say “yes, we have partnered with F2B.” We also have some private label deals around the interwebs which I can’t talk about 😉
We certainly weren’t asking for money for anything, so there’s no need for you to “have cash expenses” for “stuff” like us! That said, we wouldn’t be able to do pro-bono work here.
Hope you can forgive us! For now though, back to making splashes around the industry!
Thanks again 🙂
TBB, good job today and the last few days with the “entertain” part of the mission. I’m digging a lot of those links to the weird/neat/funny stuff.
Great, glad to hear. I love positive feedback. Negative feedback is welcome too.
Important Update: My blog hit a new record of page views yesterday! Which I find it interesting. There is probably a relationship between that and conversions 🙂
On a serious note now….Suddenly it hit me. I received a very thoughtful email by a reader who convinced me to not continue the “fight” with FTG. It was entertainment for a while which we both enjoyed. But, you know, I am starting to get tired of it now because it is obvious to me the dude has way too much time in his hands and is so out there that I am clearly now diminishing my own credibility continuing on. I better listen to Grandpa TBB’s advice, he was a wise man indeed.
I will continue to speak out and blog about what I find worthy and stick to the TBB mission. I know some of you will be really disappointed but I highly encourage you to ignore trolls. Responding to them only encourages them to go on trolling.
For readers who were turned off by how long this went on, I apologize. I enjoyed the back and forth and did my best to make it entertaining. But I feel it has now gotten….OLD and just not funny anymore. Let him troll here all by himself. He will get tired and leave one day. Who knows, maybe he will spend some time improving the Tool and the Travel Challenges.
Please ignore these blogs http://travelbloggerbuzz.com/blog-reviews/blogs-i-ignore/
Thank you.
George
TBB CEO 🙂
You should offer a $50 Marriott gift card for every time you respond to Grandpa Ingy. It worked for him with his pledge against the angries, didn’t it?
Glad to hear it! Remember, you cannot control anyone’s behavior except your own. If you need a support group to keep you from baiting, I am available. But seriously, you both were looking bad, but he looked worse, and may or may not stop the behavior. And you certainly cannot control others who comment unless you censor, which is against your ethics. Good luck with this! Not easy, but take the high road. It is better in the long run. And I am a wife, not a dude, so please listen:)
Sorry about the dude reference, my apologies. Keep me accountable por favor.
George, Seems fair to me. Just keep your bulldogs from making unnecessary negative comments about people. They serve no purpose. If you want to criticize a product, ( a blog) please try to do it in a respectful manner and we will be just fine. When you rant, you encourage others to follow suit. They idolize you George. And discussions of sexual orientation, drug accusations etc should really be discouraged and or removed.
BTW, you get an offhanded reference on FTG tomorrow. Try to stay calm. I wrote it prior to your request. I’m all for truce if you are.
but still no response from your people about renewing the war of words on Reality TV?
I wish US the best.
Rick
George,
Whomever emailed you about not responding with Angry Ingy needs to pound sand. You can see how much people appreciate the entertainment = record views. Keep feeding the troll, it’s funny, and sometimes hilarious. I get more laughs out of the comments here than anywhere else on the blogosphere.
Personally, I think you are paying Angry Ingy to post. Nobody has that much “free” time on their hands to be so angry…
Steve, FFHigh, or you have your own group of trolls believe me
If my aim was to keep making new records I will play along, it is so easy. But after reading the latest tirades I got this uncomfortable feeling in my stomach, it just wasn’t entertaining TO ME anymore. Yeah, the reader’s email probably assisted in that decision too.
Please do not feed trolls who are trying to stay relevant by treating their readers as tools of the banks. Like in the latest “Travel Challenge” trying to get their readers to apply for cards to burn 25k Delta Skypesos from SAV to Alaska. Bwahahhahahahahahahahahahahaaha. And did anyone tell them that the IHG 80k offer is not around most likely? Who cares if some converted?
Ok, here I go again….I better stop or I will have to be paying myself a $50 Marriott gift card every time 😉
Paul? George?!?
Where is John and Ringo?!?
I have been told twice that I looked like John Lennon! One was at a Greek island back in high school. After I experienced the wonders of the meal plan in college, nobody told me I looked like John Lennon #gotfat!
How many inches of snow have you had? Meatball, I don’t want to rub it in but I just finished washing the cars out in the driveway in my Richard Simmons short shorts. Go West young man!!!
Almost forgot…anyone naive enough to think that Ramsey of the future lookalike, Chris Christy would be a more middle of the road Presidential candidate should not be fooled. Its still big business over the welfare of the people. Today he knocked down Tesla’s ability to have direct sales in his State. Screw the consumer, the environment and cutting our dependence on foreign oil but supports the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers, political contributors.
Yup, I was going to mention the amazing spring weather we are having here.
I finally got to read the post on using Alaska points. Really good info. I just wish it wasn’t a BofA card. I know, it gives us another bank but I just hate their website and the pretty clueless reps I get when the website is misbehaving. I swore it might even keep me from getting more Alaska cards but I may just have to put up with the crummy website given the value of the points, esp. as a PNWer. Thanks for pointing the post out; I would have missed it otherwise.
I too was tiring of the Ingy interactions, mainly because they get so repetitive. And you know, content is king 😉 . I was one TTB reader who went over to check the tool out. It was not working when I tried but rest assured that, even if it was, I never in a million years would have used a link there.
And I’d also like to know what is happening over at F2B…
Got some info I hadn’t known, that I can move points from my husband’s Club Carlson account to mine, which will allow me to then cancel his Club Carlson card. We really don’t need two, esp. with his fee about to kick in. Too bad I don’t impersonate him well because I have to wait until he can give the rep permission to speak to me. He is making trouble at the university today as the faculty gear up to strike. The last time he was involved in a strike on campus was when the grad students at the U of M went on strike!
Back to Club Carlson, here’s a content idea for some enterprising blogger: a list of hotel loyalty clubs noting which will allow spouses/family members/life partners to move points from one account to another.
To add my 3 * 1.14 cents:
1. We’re keeping two Club Carlson cards because we can get much more value out of 2+2 free nights annually for $150 than we can 1+1 free nights for $98 with the IHG card. We have a favorite Carlson hotel in Toronto so far that costs approx 40K.
2. I too was tired of George feeding his troll. I only visit FTG if the headline at flyertalk’s front page is sufficiently interesting (read: it looks like Andy wrote an article).
3. Blizzard conditions continuing here. Please send bananas; we’re out.
Response to: “And I’d also like to know what is happening over at F2B…”
I don’t know the full story, what I do know is they now have a GREAT new partner for award bookings! 😉
@ Ramsey: About six to seven inches. School canceled. Soft fluffy kind of snow. Started melting already. Not too bad at all, hope this was the final snow fall.I like it here. Yeah, this year was a bit much but been living here 27 years and I have no desire to move. Yes I like visiting West 🙂 I used to like Christy, not anymore. I don’t like bullies!
@ TWA44: I like the BofA website actually. I can send money from Business to Personal checking accounts so easy. And Bill Pay works flawlessly too ( I only use it for one vendor now). And the app is awesome depositing checks. No experience with its credit cards. A bit deliberately because I do not want to merge my go to bank with credit cards because I may get carried away. I can not afford them to drop me! Oh, cash advances also work flawlessly from myvanilladebit card but I have not done those in a while.I am debating whether to keep wife’s Club Carlson Visa. I see Harvson3’s points but…still, it’s not like we are dying to stay in their hotels or something.
@harvson3: I see your point about the Club Carlson Visa, it makes sense if you know you will use the free night feature (which amazingly it is still there!). What is your favorite Club Carlson property in Toronto? We got about six inches of snow, not bad at all actually.
@ Award Magic: OK. I guess you are not interested. It’s okay.
Harbourfront. Not special but worth 37.50/night and we wouldn’t care to stay in T dot O dot for just one night.
12 inches and counting. 3-5 more overnight.
Thanks, good to know. Ouch, you have it much worse than us. Hang in there, I predict this was the final snowstorm of the season. #please
Totally laughed at your comparison of sky miles to Zimbabwean “whatever”. How apropos. My hubby and I have a bunch of worthless kwacha left over from our trip to Zim that we are kicking ourselves for not exchanging before we left the country. South Africa didn’t want them, US certainly wouldn’t exchange!
Clearing out our delta miles this year and hoping the AA merger is good for us that live in Phoenix and are loyal to US Air…not cause they’re good but because there’s a hub here and it’s convenient. Shame on Doug Parker for moving the ops from Tempe to DFW!
This is why I enjoy blogging…learning new stuff. Kwacha is the name of the Zimbabwean currency.Does not sound very attractive, doesn’t it? So you brought back a few billion of them? 🙂
Look at the satellite image, appears that MMS found the Malaysia flight wreckage!
http://upgrd.com/matthew/malaysia-airlines-flight-370-wreckage-found.html?
Sure looked like it. I tried to laugh but I stopped myself. This is a tragic story. I always thought the plane turning back to Malaca straight never made any sense.
@Harvson3 – Gosh, your reply makes me really happy I mentioned the Club Carlson card in my comment. I plumb forgot that we get those 40,000 points on renewal! You are right – we got two nights in TLV in September for just 44,000 points. It was not the Conrad Hilton but it was just fine and really well located for us. While the gotta-fly-first-class crowd would probably find it lacking, we’d certainly say there again. And stays like that will make it a keeper for me. Thank you! And my husband (who hates having to make any of these phone calls) would thank you if he knew you’d just saved him that chore!
@TBB – The CC part of the BofA site sure must be different. It’s the only bank website that irritates me!
Yeah, we’ll probably keep it too at renewal time…anyone successfully get any retention bonuses from this bank?
FTG is good for nothing. Only thing he has to offer is some “very basic” approach to going somewhere (get 50K UR to go somewhere. What’s so enlightening about that?) and some interviews who probably has more knowledge than him. FTG has no deep understanding or insights into the reward program like the other bloggers.
BTW, CC is good for Europe vacation where typical hotel costs can be >$400!