We of course talk about the widely expected United changes to its loyalty Mileage Plus program, get warned about gift card fraud, show foreigners how to get credit cards, learn about hotel loyalty programs, living in a Boeing 727 in the woods, visit Normandy beach, Caribbean nude resorts, learn now to book bands, watch dominoes fall, read what a North Korean Defector said on Reddit and end with an incredible rant on gun violence!
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Apparently there were just a few news on Monday. Uber and Amex got into some earn/burn partnership, US and AA will get the upgrades working (so they say) starting June 11, and US Air adjusted slightly its First Class awards to align with American Airlines. Completely boring stuff, yawn. As reader VC commented: “Imagine how AMAZING!!!! that partnership would be if amex still paid out…” So true, so true!
And then early Tuesday morning all hell broke loose with United’s announcement that they are going revenue based (award miles based on how much you spend and not based on the miles you actually fly). Which I found hilarious to watch the bloggers go nuts expressing their horror and displeasure to this “shocking” development. TBB readers have been warned repeatedly that this is coming so spare me all the surprise BS. This announcement was as expected as the next round of credit card promotions for bloggers to pump to their readers non stop. I ‘ve been pounding at this theme for the past two years: It is a completely different environment the airlines are operating in, they are all going revenue based in earn AND burn eventually, the true road warriors and buyers of expensive tickets will get all the bennies as they should and not the mileage running cheapies like us, airlines have the upper hand and will continue to squeeze us, luxury aspirational trips will soon be priced out of most sane people in this hobby, cash back rules, manufactured spending is where it’s at (mostly due to earning many miles fast offsetting the eventual impact of more devaluations), expect more fees including wider expansion of selling upgrades instead of giving them to elites, and on and on). Heck, I am not even an expert and no media called me about the changes, instead they called the Points Guy “expert”. I should have been born more photogenic or could afford PR staff #sadface.
Online Travel Review had the best write up on the United Mileage Plus changes. Entertaining as well considering the macabre “news” and I agree with his take.
I have this nagging feeling that AA’s CEO Parker has a crack team working on the NEW AAdvantage program which will put to shame all previous bitching done about “enhancements” from all airlines combined. Why do I have this feeling? I don’t know, I just have it. My therapist says to express myself this is why I am telling you! Or maybe they will postpone it enough to capture some pissed off UA elites, get them in the fold and then stick a knife at them within a year. What are they gonna do? Go back to United lol? View from the Wing is again screaming off the top of his lungs that this is a bad move for all the same reasons while trying to preserve his bread and butter. I do not agree. United is right for doing this and all big three will be doing it the way it was supposed to be for them to make money and transport the passengers safely and treat the ones who deserve it better while having many members be thankful for managing that free trip to Orlando, Las Vegas or San Diego (if you get lucky). In coach of course. It’s okay you entitled elite, you will survive it.
The Complete Guide to United Miles. By Travel is Free. A solid summary of the subject. Umm, not the greatest timing Drew, sorry!
Frauded! US Bank Mastercard Gift Cards Hacked and Drained. By Milenomics. Be careful out there!
7 ways to get a Credit Card without a SSN. By Matt at Saverocity. This may help a reader in this situation. I was on an F1 student visa, then H1, then green card and then naturalized US Citizen. Been voting and paying taxes while bitching about it ever since! 🙂 And congrats to Matt and Allison who became parents of a baby boy yesterday!
My biased view of hotel loyalty programs. By Frequent Miler. An excellent basic review of the main hotel loyalty programs.
Man Lives in a Boeing 727 in the Middle of the Woods. By Bored Panda. Crazy, how do you transport the darn thing??
9,000 Fallen Soldiers Etched into the Sand on Normandy Beach to Commemorate Peace Day. At thisiscolossal.com
Caribbean in the buff: Top nude resorts. By USA Today. We are all for informative articles. Hoping to get the attention of someone at these places to offer me an all paid trip and you know I will have for you a “revealing” trip report. I thought about it…but not going to kickstarter this…oh wait…thinking about it. “I know it’s ridiculous but, you know, would love to review this for you guys!”. Can you imagine if I was in bed (pun intended) with Amex they would be cutting me off pronto, woohoo!
Crazy facts about flying: Pilots and flight attendants confess dark secrets. By The CHIVE.
Watch 22,000 Dominoes Drop in 100 Seconds. At Twisted Sifter. Mesmerizing!
North Korean Defector on Reddit describes here crazy escape and adjustment to modern life. Needless to say, this is wildly fascinating to me!
How much does it cost to book your favorite band? Let’s just say I won’t be inviting any of these bands to sing in my birthday bash!
Explaining American Gun Violence to Your Foreign Friends and Family. By Nerd’s Eye View. Fantastic rant and I so agree! Here is what to tell them when they ask us: “What the fuck is wrong with you people?”
Here’s your answer:
“We are assholes. We are out of our fucking minds. We think it’s more important to protect the “rights” of a guy who needs a semi-automatic weapon to go buy cookies at Target than it is to protect the lives of our children. We are such assholes that we sacrifice kindergarten kids and their teachers, we sacrifice college girls and boys, we sacrifice law enforcement officers while they eat their lunch.
Our government is so weak and selfish that they respond to these repeated events not with action, but by saying “Our thoughts are with the families of those affected,” when really their thoughts are in protecting their gun lobby money for reelection.
Given recent events and our utter lack of national will to legislate even the most reasonable of gun control initiatives, I can’t guarantee there’s not going to be another shooting tomorrow. I took a bunch of time off work for the duration of your visit, but you know what? Cancel your flights, I’m coming to see you in Brisbane instead. Wayne LaPierre in 2016, bitches!”
TABLOID BUZZARD EXPRESS:
Things that jumped at me…This is the apex of ridiculousness. Only the cream of the crop, like the cherry on top! If you take things personally, maybe this blogging business is not for you. This is intended to be satire. You are free to make fun of me and my ridiculous blog. Since we are talking about cherries, how about a banana!
Well, I knew that the TBB resident troll ingy (the founder and current writer at Frugal Travel Guy blog) would not stay away for long. Talk about creating devoted readers! If you want to read them, they are here! You are welcome!
I added RoboForm to the Support TBB page and a banner below my Amazon banner. I LOVE Roboform, best darn piece of software on the internet. I could not function online without it. I should do a mega blog post about it and pump it properly. Rest assured that if I did not highly approve of it, it would not show up here! Now why do I feel sleazy if I inserted the affiliate link for it right in this sentence? And others drop 40 affiliate links in a blog post without blinking an eye? Hmm, I ‘ll let you decide!
On with the show!
The Points Guy – 10 of the Best Credit Cards for Travel- June 2014 Edition [ Fantastic education…I think this is pretty much the same as the previous month right?…click my links! Wait, here is a comment by 5on5 “Translation: this is a posting of some (note: but not all! Click on the link!) of the most lucrative credit card payouts that the points guy blog currently touts, regardless of whether or not these cards are the best deals.
Just another shill blog for bank rate…but its okay! They’re giving away an amenity kit and a gift card!”
One Mile at a Time – Which Credit Card To Use For Airline Ticket Purchases? [Time to pump it boys and girls, this full time hotel living ain’t cheap! Dropped 20 credit card links in just one post about which credit card to use for…airfare. Isn’t this ridiculous or what? What is next? Which credit card to use for…flogging? Oh wait reader AgendaGuy left this comment: “I just flogged myself. I deserve it for being part of this “hobby”. Unfortunately it left some blisters in the back. What card can I use to buy myself some lotion to take care of the blisters?“]
Million Mile Secrets – Do You Have the Card That Gets You Unlimited Boingo Wi-Fi Access? [Added this to the disclosure “American Express is a blog advertising partner.” At least you can actually read it. Ever tried to find the disclosures of the other bloggers? Good luck with that! Took out mother in law, added Amex. Looks like a fair trade to me, lol! Not even one comment…maybe the newbies here are just getting tired being sold to EVERY freaking day!]
Frugal Travel Guy – When Redeeming Points & Miles Doesn’t Line Up With Your Goals [Howie’s turn to sell more credit cards. Hey, this is the blog associated with that effort to mentor newbies…cough, wonder, cough again, why? Self-flogging time! ]
The Miles Professor – How To Visit Four South American Cities on One 60,000 Lufthansa Award (and No Fuel Surcharges!) [ I keep finding ways to write about the amazing Lufthansa card so click my link]
Points, Miles and Martinis – Hyatt’s Key Lime Waffle – Better Than Lemmon Poppy Seed Or Home Made Donuts? [ Deep. Why does this deserve a separate blog post? I could do posts like these one every hour but I respect my readers’ time!]
Browsing Flyer Talk I found this thread: “Why Delta Points is my favorite blogger“. I have not posted a comment there! So I am definitely not one of the “angry’s”! This blog is primarily about entertainment! Update: FT moderator Oliver2002 (who is a TBB reader and comments here) closed it to new comments. I am not surprised. Or maybe it was an order from KKR (the new owners of Flyertalk?). Just kidding 😉
I went to a local meetup with Frequent Miler and three others in downtown Ann Arbor. Two were very new to this hobby. I asked them how much they thought bloggers make selling credit cards. They didn’t know. I asked them to guess. They answered with $10 dollars or something. I told them they need to read this, so here it is for you! The “Travel” Miles/Points Blogosphere Has Turned Into a Giant Credit Card Pumpization Scheme!
Be careful at the gym!
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First! Thank goodness you posted, now I can shower. 🙂
It says it in the article, but in case people don’t click through …. even though smoking is prohibited on planes, lavatories still have ashtrays because if someone decides to break the law, they’d rather have them keep the cigarette in an ashtray rather than in the trash, where it’ll combust with paper and start a fire. One plane in the 1970s crashed because of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varig_Flight_820
Golden second . Hey for the first time:)
Nope:( Amol beat me.
First
@Helixcardinal: I should just post a comment the second I press “Publish” and enter your handle and be done with it lol.
@Amol: Thanks for that, I did not know that! Wow, how tragic!
@ Kumar: Missed it…by that much! Actually…less than a minute!
@bayguy: Hope you are joking. If not, please refresh your browser screen before you comment 🙂
I was surprised by how nice the 727 looked from the inside, I was expecting it to look a lot worse than it did. I’d probably make a few changes if it was mine, but you can definitely tell he is an engineer.
Now back to work so I can afford to refit a double decker bus.
Yeah, he has done an awesome job maintaining it. I still don’t know how he was able to transport it. Maybe we should have a DO there!
I don’t know if he is an engineer, did you see how the landing gear, front and rear, is stacked up on a bunch of wood blocks. Not exactly earth quake proof. That is how I fix the furniture around here when my rowdy boys broke everything they touched……Buzz, I know where this guy lives, lets sneak over one night and play ring and run.
Would love to find out what it cost him to buy it and, most importantly, transport it there. What if we go and take away…a few bricks? 🙂
I dont know what law is going to stop someone from using a gun in the commission of a crime unless you remove every gun from the world. Also I have a hard time taking any rant seriously that claims that restricting a “right” or reducing your liberty can make you safe.
Well, how about we try to remove all the guns? Australia did it a few years ago – and zero mass shootings since. Instead we get crazy gun nutz walking around with loaded semi automatic guns in Target stores – and a mass murder in a school about once a month.
“82 children under five years old died from firearms in 2010 compared with 58 law enforcement officers killed by firearms in the line of duty (sources: CDF, CDC, FBI)”
“One person is killed by a firearm every 17 minutes, 87 people are killed during an average day, and 609 are killed every week. (source: CDC)”
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/16/16547690-just-the-facts-gun-violence-in-america?lite
Nobody does and no sane person would claim there can be such a law!
A reasonable and proven approach often works well in a developed society. The Australian model can be used. Sure you can always claim that the degree of baseline violence in America has always been higher and thus claim that “it won’t work here” (American exceptionalism!).
The premise that taking away even a tiny bit of your freedom and then promising you that you’ll be safer is foolish thinking.
Mileage Update, I just watched some of the videos of the man who killed 2 cops in Las Vegas. He said pretty much what you just said.Dude was scary!……………..IMHO there is no need for assault rifles/ military grade weapons/ cop killer armor piercing bullets or even automatic weapons. Hunting and self protection are another matter.
Please note I am anti killing anything (hunting) but since I moved out here to PDX 24 years ago I made lots of local friends that do it. I understand it is part of their heritage and passed down, as their ancestors walked here on the Oregon Trail and hunting was a way of survival.
Well Im certainly not scary. But I am for the Constitution. And against the notion that giving up your liberty will get you a perceived amount of safety.
I believe there are already currently laws making assault rifles and automatic weapons illegal. (Except for certain exemptions)
I think the Constitution can use a little bit of updating. I mean, there was no wifi back then!
The federal assault weapons ban expired and hasn’t been renewed; some states have laws.
Not in Michigan…. 🙂 and with a proper federal stamp, automatic weapons are relatively easy to get. Expensive, but possible.
I have very strong anti gun, anti NRA feelings. I am sick of these mass shootings. I am sick that anyone can go into WalMart and not load Bluebird and go straight to the counter and buy a machine gun! There are too many guns in this country and too easily accessible. And too strong lobbies that have hijacked the political process to change. I agree with Pam’s stance. I am still not going to Australia as I don’t have time to unload my Delta miles there as I have hard time finding two seats from Detroit to LAX 🙂
Because, due to my Greek heritage, I am a lover not a fighter….wooohooooo!
Come on George you cant buy a machine guy or “Assault Rifle” at Walmart.
Actually the whole concept of going to Wal Mart to buy a gun just never made any sense to me. The whole concept of holding gun shows and pretty much anyone can go and buy a gun just never made any sense to me.
I wonder what it would take for everyone who thinks Constitution’s 2nd amendment comes first?
May I ask you would you think differently if you were personally affected by one of these school shootings?
I just saw this on twitter by the way:
http://www.vox.com/2014/6/10/5797306/map-school-shooting-sandy-hook
I am anti hunting too….never cared to shoot animals for pleasure.
I agree with George. There is no need for so many guns in this country or any other country. But then this country and the world has so many nuclear weapons to destroy all the planets in the universe that we live, if it wants. What the heck? The mankind has no brains to live. They just dont know how to live. Most of us belong to where we came from – monkeys:). They will kill animals and even humans for pleasure or for whatever stupid reason their mind comes up with. These people just dont know how to love, live and let live. Hmm, just my 2 cents. What else can i do except to laugh at the stupidity of humanity.
The End is Near! 😉
Nope. I didnt mean that way, George. Common sense will prevail but then incidents like these really irritate that is all.
What about shooting animals to eat?
If there is nothing left to eat I guess it’s okay. We are talking about survival.
I am not a vegetarian but I should be. Remember seeing a documentary about how meat is “processed” and it was very disturbing.
This is like the abortion argument. I just made my feelings known. With each mass shooting I feel stronger about the subject.
I have never fired a real gun…because, as previously stated, I am a lover not a fighter LOL.
One of my favorite topics. Well, I personally feel vegetarianism happens to be one of the most important hurdle in human intelligence that mankind was able to cross. I consider myself fortunate to have born a vegetarian and will continue to be vegetarian out of my conscience till I die. The reason is mainly out of kindness to other living beings. Well, plants have life but they don’t have blood or bones or flesh. I will kill an animal or an insect only if it tries to hurt me. Not for pleasure or even food when so many plants are around. Even those who are not vegetarians and love and respect any other living beings should definitely consider switching. And George, I am looking at you :). I can continue on but I don’t want to divert the focus of this community – entertainment.
Count me in as one of the anti-gun people. Yeah, I know guns don’t kill people, people kill people but I do feel much safer in Australia because guns aren’t freely available. And I don’t think it comes as any surprise that I am anti hunting for pleasure, never mind those #$%^@s who hunt animals and birds for the wildlife trade.
LOL, that “All by Myself” video has just been shown on the morning news here! Must be a slow day!
Why not buy an assault weapon at a Walmart when Chase Freedom has 5x on groceries and then resell it at a local gun show with a profit :p
Oliver2002, don’t be ridiculous. Chase Freedom hasn’t had 5x on groceries in ages.
It worked at Cabela’s though…..
Question becomes: If you don’t 5x, do you really exist? 🙂
nope, I’m just a figment of my imagination……
“Our government is so weak and selfish…”
Perhaps you should ask your therapist about psychological projection re: Greece.
Ben, thanks for the comment. I am a little hard on you lately because I know you can do better.
Anyways, the Greek govt is so full of assholes it makes the people in the US govt look like saints!
I posted a rant about Greece when I couldn’t sleep on that Lufthansa Business Class flat bed as I couldn’t afford the First Class seat (I could, just did not want to burn the extra miles):
http://travelbloggerbuzz.com/current-state-greece/
Any post on hotel loyalty programs needs to mention (and Drew and Greg didn’t) that hotel guests can get 15% in cash back + future stay credit at hotels.com + portal. For infrequent travelers, no loyalty program provides that rate of return.
What The Onion said.
Hey everyone! You can take a vacation on credit card rewards! And mileage run on Delta!
Great point on hotels.com.
Both links you had were awesome. The second one was written by someone at…Bankrate (which owns bentoffers!). How appropriate is that!
Agree that Hotels.com + portal = big savings, but neither post was about the cheapest way to score a room. The posts were about hotel loyalty programs. I’ll keep it in mind for a future post though
Cool.
Steve … you still suck. George we all don’t suck. While steve sucks, you’re just a spitball throwing d-bag.
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Greetings from CMH! I always enjoy sampling exotic local cuisine, so today I had my first-ever Tim Horton’s doughnut.
Tim Horton’s is great. Great coffee too!
Nick, if you want really good biscuits and gravy, go to Tasi Cafe.
You can’t compare the effectiveness of Australian gun laws to any potential American gun laws. It is almost as easy to obtain illegal guns in america as it is pot. It’s a lot easier to “ban guns” in a country that is in the middle of nowhere than it is in a country that has a de-facto open border policy with a country where lawlessness and firearms are a way of life
Trying to fix the gun problem within the borders of the USA will do nothing until it stops becoming too easy to bring guns into said borders. America isn’t afforded the luxury that Australia has of not having to be considered about lawlessness on it’s border.
“It’s a lot easier to “ban guns” in a country that is in the middle of nowhere than it is in a country that has a de-facto open border policy with a country where lawlessness and firearms are a way of life”
I agree, banning guns in Mexico would be hard.
Most of the guns used in Mexico are manufactured in and carried in from the United States.
Mexico does not manufacture guns or ammunition on anywhere near the scale that the United States does.
http://catcher.sandiego.edu/items/peacestudies/way_of_the_gun.pdf
That was my point (albeit sarcastic one). Clearly Steve doesn’t understand much about the gun trade.
It’s getting tough to stomach even Gary’s non-filler posts
He has shown himself to be completely incapable of analyzing United’s changes in a manner that acknowledges people like him and us are the vast minority of United’s clientele. I hate the changes too, but at least I’m capable of separating wishful-thinking about this hurting the airlines from reality
At the end of the day, the average client loves mileage programs love programs like Southwest and Jetblue and hates the legacy programs where they perceive they can never use their miles. You don’t need 7 book report length posts to analyze that Delta and United aligning their programs with heavily profitable and popular airlines probably makes business sense for them. You just need to admit that people like us are the exception and not the rule. Gary can’t do that.
Bingo, I think you nailed it. This one about Gary I mean.
On the gun thing, not sure the importing of guns from Mexico contributes to a substantial degree to the gun culture here. I am sure it does not help of course.
I am just so sick of mass shootings. Like that disturbed kid who got a bunch of guns from his gun enthusiast mom in Sandy Hook who, I think, got him a gun for his birthday. WTF!!!!!!!!!!
“contributes to a substantial degree to the gun culture here”
It doesn’t contribute to a substantial degree the culture – gangs and poverty do that
What it does contribute to is for the easyness of people who embrace that culture to obtain guns.
And these “mass shootings” are just a small minority of murders in the country. And oftentime, they don’t often come to mean “mass” murders so much as a shooting that wasn’t an inner-city gang shooting. If 2 people get shot in a Wal-Mart, it’s a mass shooting. If 6 gang members get shot in a turf war, it wouldn’t even be news.
different day, same trolling
http://travelbloggerbuzz.com/1700-first-class-deal-star-alliance-awards-ihg-rewards-terror-evolve-scariest-hikes-1964-nerds-eye-view-3x-first-friday-dining-selling-business-credit-cards-crappy-pajamas/#comment-165112
Entertainment. For free. TBB
Do you really need to call attention to his rantings? It’s obvious that *ngy is never going to understand what you are doing. Trying to reason with him is like trying to get him to change religions, or political parties. I’m sure that he is intransigent there as well.
I know it’s hard to ignore him: he gets pleasure from poking at you and getting a rise out of you. I suggest that you never answer him: he will continue to post because that’s how he gets his jollies but you will leave him unsatisfied with your lack of response. Besides, it’s not really a true dialogue, is it? It’s like the “interviews” on Crossfire or Hannity…. 🙁
I have given up long ago to reason with this guy! I ignore his angry rants and his obsession with my little failing blog (but not in comments lol). I just now sit back and get entertained and just point out to readers so they can get entertained too.
Feedly is down so I have not seen any blogs at all today…so so weird.
I am going to finish the watermelon for lunch now!
Is Feedly still down? I can’t get it to load, it’s been down for at least 12 hours.
As of 5.40 pm it is still down!
OMG, my life has been interrupted. You all have no idea how my days is full of Feedly. I am having withdrawal symptoms! It may be the end of TBB and I will blame it on Feedly!
I found out why! http://www.fastcompany.com/3031789/fast-feed/feedly-refuses-to-pay-ransom-to-hackers-holding-its-service-hostage
I hope they get it sorted soon, it takes too damn long to visit each blog individually-if I can even remember which ones I have! I usually just scroll past the headlines and click on the interesting ones and finish in 10 minutes.
UA’s revenue earning thing is a non-event for me and my niche.
As of 8.32 pm still no Feedly for me! The weirdest day of my life since…I started TBB. Kind of liberating actually. If Feedly dies TBB dies…
been waiting for the resurrection.
I so miss Google Reader…and Northwest…and US Mint coins….and VRs at Office Depot and CVS…I could go on for ever.
“Trying to reason with him is like trying to get him to change religions”
I disagree with that
I can certainly see him ceasing to worship at the altar of Chase if he stops getting paid to do so
I can’t see Darius and Emily continuing to knock on doors and handing out pamphlets about the virtues of Chasehova’s Witnesses unless the CSP keeps bringing in the dinero
Let me leave you George with this idea to think about from this second in your life forward. You have created a business model where you drive more income to the people you suggest “ignoring” than you earn yourself from the blog. Like I said, its like fighting a guy with one hand behind his back.
Every time you rant about another blog you do so fafter looking at their site. And your angry readers visit those sites as well so they will have something negative to contribute to your blog. More than half the comments here are in regards to other blogs your readers are not really ignoring but in actuality visiting so they can contribute to the insanity here. I love it.
And each time you or one of your readers goes to one of “those ignore blogs” you are providing impressions in their CPM compensation model. Every time you or they visit it pays the blogs you suggest they ignore. Don’t you love it George. The perfect Greek Tragedy. The bigger your blog gets, the more income the other guys derive from your ranting I would venture to say based on the number of comments your readers make about the “Ignore blogs” they are probably making more off your blog than you are.
Now THAT is an LOL
Keep up the good work George. The other bloggers appreciate your readers impressions.
Perfect. Just Perfect !!!!!!!!!!!
It’s all about Money. Money. Money. Money. Money. Money. Money…….right, *ngy?
Always!
No this is about the irony of the other bloggers making more than George because of George’s efforts. The amounts mean nothing, just the irony of his business model.
Keep on ranting.
Haters gonna hate
I see George has now started deleting comments? Let’s try again. It’s not the amount of money involved. It’s the fact that George by encouraging the ranting is feeding the other bloggers he so despises. I get a kick out of that.
and on top of that he chose to pick the topic of his blog to try complain about people that are providing links to readers to gain more miles than in any other form in the hobby. another brilliant marketing move. and then, tries to sell the idea that the bloggers are cheating the readers, but yet the only ones that complain are the readers here on the tabloid.
call me senile. Call me a sociopath. It doesn’t matter. I just state the truth in plain and simple UNspun English.
Yes, ad impressions is where the Ignore’d bloggers are making their big money. Sure. That’s some solid Delta Points logic right there. Sorry, *Rene’s* Delta Points logic.
The funny thing is I do not provide the links to the Ignore blogs so my readers would have to go out of their way to visit those sites. In case they do (no need for arrows to figure out how to do it you know) they can increase the CPM revenue by a ridiculously low amount while the site reeks of credit card pumping 24/7. It is so pathetically sad imho.
Hey look at the Roboform banner omg, I am such a pimp, pumping it up every day.
For new readers, regarding the Frugal Travel Guy Travel Challenge, they have a template and just slot in the credit cards they sell that week and pick a destination and voila….another Travel Challenge.
The mega embarrassing feature is the credit card “tool” that recommends rookie travelers to sign up for seven cards at once. Even if you wanted just a cash back card!
“Let me leave you George”
I don’t think you could’ve started off your post with 5 falser words if you tried
And count me as one of the few commenters here who are happy about it – these boards badly need a senile sociopath.
If we had a $50 gift card every time that…
never mind 🙂
I am really confused. Can someone clear my doubt? IS INGY REALLY ANGRY or is he pretending to be angry?? 🙂
Ingy is really laughing
Ignore trolls
TBB Management
Rick has actually posted in other words what I posted here, George:
You might want to be careful with your “Blogs I Ignore” list, George, as it is starting to look like the “Who’s Who” of travel, miles and points “blogging” to which others may actually aspire instead of avoid…
Very scary..
Lol, good one!
Is it just me, or is Izzy sounding more and more like Ingy? Nahh…
He keeps signing in with different handles…so I keep changing to ingy. I am waiting for Delta Points to accuse me of censorship any minute now 🙂
In other (minor) news, we now know DP’s real name – Rene deLambert. It wouldn’t be news except he never will tell anyone (except media people, apparently) what it is.
Yep, this is the first time I see it too! All this anonymity huh? 🙂
He reveled his name in another article in February: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/travel/deltas-revamped-mileage-program-may-end-travel-hacking-n39696
Thanks Hua, I had missed that one full of experts. So that makes…two!
Yes George Papadapoulous we are all out in the open and being quoted in the major media. Well I am anyway! I am sure you will edit this as you do censor comments. Oh, btw, thanks for the Amazon tips! I should clear 50k a year with the new links! 🙂
.
Also love your comments on the WSJ: http://topics.wsj.com/person/P/george-papadopoulos/7189
I just received an email by a blog reader who wants to talk to me about financial planning and feels I can be trusted. Thank you!
So, when are you going to threaten to sue me again? It’s been a while.
Giggles
That comment by VC is the best. As best I could do, here is what the Uber news would have looked like if Amex still paid:
“EXCITING NEWS: Uber and American Express Partner up!!!”
As I’m sure most of you saw, the car service for all hipsters, Uber, has teamed up with our favorite credit card partner, American Express (link).
If you haven’t heard of Uber, you are basically a loser, as they just got valued at 18 BILLION DOLLARS. More than United Airlines!!
I tried out their service in Minneapolis and it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had using a car service!
[/insert picture of significant other getting into Uber car. Smiling. Euphoria]
One of the things I always hated about Uber was having to not being able to pay for the service with my American Express Platinum Card (link) using my mobile phone.
WELL GUESS WHAT, now American Express has teamed up with Uber so that you can pay USING YOUR AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD on your phone! This is great for families too! (no reason or research to support this).
I tested it out yesterday and it was so easy. I timed my experience paying at 16.34 seconds, but I bet some of you will do it faster!
[insert screen shots with arrows and highlights]
I used my SPG American Express card (link) but you can use ANY American express card, including these:
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
If you don’t have a Uber account, you really are living a lesser life than everyone on Earth. So get in on this deal. It might be limited, NO ONE IS SURE!!
As always, you can use my credit card consultation services to pick the best American Express card for you, but no one is stopping you from getting MORE American Express cards and basically selling your car, and just using Uber for all of you trips. I haven’t run the numbers, but it might be worth it, even for families!
Note: Eric Jensen gets no commissions for any links in this comment and is purely satire.
Excellent…and not far from the truth.
Actually, as the mega cc pushers FTG, MMS, and TPG kept their Amex links I would expect to see it shortly. At FTG they like templates and this one sure looks like a great one to pump some more!
16.34 seconds—->LOL
Hey, George
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/external-miles-points-resources/1584503-delta-points-had-change-logo.html
Thank you for that! Rene’s Delta Points sure does not sound as authoritative! Giggles
Here’s a question for Rick since he is over here so often:
In your post on FTG of June 9 you said you carry and use a Bank of America debit card.
Why?
I love the ATM for depositing MOs and throw in a cup of coffee every now and then as well.
Won’t your money orders get ruined if you throw in a cup of coffee when you deposit them? Plus the coffee can’t be good for the ATM’s internal workings…
I had a BoA debit card because it offers free ATM cash withdrawals abroad with some select partners. Plus it was useful playing the US DM grand slam withe US branded BoA debit card 🙂
Howie pushing inferior spg offers in the Travel Challenge
If they didn’t have contempt for their readers, they might remind the 1st person to get the SPG card to “refer” the 2nd person to get the SPG card – thus adding 5,000 points to their account (to make no mention of the 1st person helping out a friend by being referred as well)
Shhhh…. be vewy vewy quiet
Can’t have that, we need to get paid!
Check yesterday’s comments. Rene is back too!
You will giggle tons
He never really left – unlike newbies eventually moving away from sites like FTG and DP once they realize those bloggers are used car salesmen, your readers are engaged and loyal
Don’t expect any lawsuits – the cost of ambulance chasers these days are very expensive. You can’t afford one on merely a “Barclays” income
“Hi, George Pimpadopoulos here for Robotform. Is your robot listless and not performing up to par? When the moment is right does your robot have what it takes to perform? When you are faced with a great affiliate link from TPG, MMS or FTG can your robot get that stuff inserted in the app quickly, without failing and finish the job of applying for that card?
I’m here to tell you about Robotform, the old fashion way to get things done with the punch you need to earn those miles and spread those affiliate commissions.
With this limited time offer Robotfrom can be yours for only $13.95 instead of the standard price of $7.95 as offered by other websites. That is a $6 ripoff premium, if you act now only through my link.
Don’t miss your chance to perform up to your old standards when applying for affiliate links. The miles are all yours and the commission all theirs.
Subject of course to my ripoff premium and 30% commission of the standard $7.95 purchase price.
ACT NOW”
Thank you for taking the time to comment and participating in our daily entertainment. Or whatever was that. Yawn
Rick, I can’t believe you got offended when I said ‘at least I know when I’m a dick’
You raise a fair and interesting point about robo form – though when I checked it it was 9.95 vs 7.95 for a year, and I believe only on the pro version. There is a good conversation to be had there indeed.
But seriously, you are a dick 🙂
I agree 🙂
What are those dollar figures for anyway? Robo form is worth EVERY penny! I am just lost without it. Plus, it has helped me win so many prizes over the years! Best darn piece of software for me. Who are you going to believe, me or Rick? Lol
Anyways…you should be practicing changing diapers. I hated it!
On a serious note, I can not get Feedly to work. I did not read any blogs at all all day. If Feedly does not come back there is no way in hell I am adding 500 blogs back. Plus, I will be busy watching World Cup games anyway.
To all: I have cleared the cash, I have refreshed the cache DNS. Feedly is still not coming up! What do I do? Help me save TBB!
I can’t help with Feedly, but yeah, I can get better at diapers… it is a learning curve 🙂 He comes home today which is very exciting, it will be poop central around here for the next couple of days, then we are moving upstate for some time to relax.
Isn’t “poop central” another name for “Blogs I Ignore”?
Reading Renae deLambert and Rick’s comments made me think of the following movie scene. Not sure why, my mind is warped that way. Anywho, this clip is from one of the greatest movies of all time. I offer this clip because I think it can easily be applied to Angries, BA Bloggers, and Rick/Ingy. I leave you to decide who is who in this heartfelt speech.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32iCWzpDpKs
I am on the floor, rolling, I can’t get up (mostly because I am still sore the asshole personal trainer almost killed my abs two days ago!)…need that late night cable TV product “The Clapper” to get up.
Thanks for that, I appreciated it. It’s okay if you don’t click on my two links…tomorrow LOL
103 comments in 24 hours, wow!
And so many laughs money can’t buy.
Feedly still down, SOS!
No Ingy, TBB does not send me to the blogs on his ignore list. I have been reading this blog since almost the beginning. George thinks like me and I trust him. He has great insights and so I let him do the ugly work of looking at the blogs and giving the truth on TBB. This blog saves me a lot of time and clicking!
I’m really happy for you. But the fact remains most angries go on their own to the ignore blogs so they can contribute here and take place in the whining.
I’m sure the CPM bloggers have renamed their morning cup of Joe to a cup of George in honor of his support.
I do love coming here. The concept of whining about points and miles blogs is a great service to us all, and one hell of a business model 😉
Thanks, it’s me, appreciate that.
Who do you trust more, me or Ingy/Delta Points? 🙂
I trust DeltaPoints more, because I *know* what he is. TBB is a wolf in sheep’s clothing!!! 😀
104.
Pray for Feedly!
Back for me as of 9.40 am. The count is only: 841
Back to “work” for your entertainment, education and inspiration.
I never really migrated to a reader post-Google Reader… Apparently now is not the time to investigate Feedly!
It just came back for me as of 9.40 am Thursday!
Latest trolling around 4 am and 9 am. “Only come here once in a while”
bwahahahhahhahahahaha
Trolling at 3.56 am…
Feedly is up!!!
Only 841 blogs unread. Which is surprisingly low. Which leads me to believe Feedly must have lost track of many during this interruption. So if I missed your blog post I am sorry.
Back to “work” for you.
Brazil 2 Croatia 1 prediction
Learn to read George. 8:56am
CPM calculation:
BoardingArea $8 per 1000 impressions split between Randy and the Blogger. Crappier blogs earn less of a split. Let’s look at a crappier blog at say 60% rev share blogger favor:
I’ll generously give 50 click throughs from here to crappy boarding area blogs (total):
($8/1000) * 50 * 60%= 24 cents.
Now, I am not saying that is 24 cents to every crappy blog, I am estimating total, so share that up between the crappy ones… what is it a nickle?
The reason the CTR is estimated (generously) at 50 is there are no links to crappy blogs in the body of the post – it is the same methodology between putting cc links into the body of the post, makes it easier to click. Here people have to make a conscious effort to find the site, which many will not.
Just spitballing some estimates here – tell me if I am off – and where I can get a cup of Joe for a nickel 🙂
there you go with your “logic” and all…
george, keep up your great work. its because of your site that i’ve discovered so many more good blogs – thank you for bringing them to my attention!
matt – saverocity has become one of my go to must reads bc of the awesome content it constantly produces on finance AND travel (without the junk filler). keep rocking it, i’ll make an effort to support that site anyway i can!
Thanks James. That’s the TBB Vision (you know what the mission is): Improve the blog space by praising the good blogs and bringing attention to the awful blogs to save the newbies from drowning in their manure.
Help the good blogs. Ignore the bad blogs. – TBB
Just made that up actually…i like it!
Damn Feedly. After going through 841 blog posts, marking the ones for further review…it hanged up on me….so not sure if it held my markings…..this is just getting absolutely ridiculous.
Damn you Google for killing Google Reader!
Thanks Matt for the educational comment!
Good luck with the move and the poop mayhem…Savor every moment. People say it goes so fast….it is SO true!
And don’t spend too much prioritizing work. You don’t want your son to be looking up “Bad dads: 19 songs about shitty fathers”. http://www.avclub.com/article/bad-dads-19-songs-about-shitty-fathers-205398
The first one, Harry Chapin, “Cat’s In The Cradle” is very sad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUwjNBjqR-c
Good advice for new dads 🙂
Heck Steve checks in on everybody fifty times per day himself. Add the other angries here and all the ba bloggers earn a Cup of George per day easy
Nice math but I thought it was closer to $15? And who cares about click throughs? You go on your own so you can report in on the atrocities committed by p and m blogs. Tragic
Right on ingy! Let’s hope Steve keeps clicking on FTG to get you that free donut every morning!
You guys gotta learn to read. I never said I got CPM. I don’t eat donuts and sure as hell don’t post at 3:56 am unless I’m in a time zone change that you guys can’t figure out.
You guys can dish it out but sure hate getting it back don’t ya?
Haters gonna hate!!!!!
Bear claws then? I mean clearly you don’t partake in a low cal diet….
Thought provoking commentary here on the Tabloid. Brilliant
Bear claws were my favorite! I used to get them with my Chase Sapphire Preferred card to get 3x points every First Friday. Thank God for FTG which let me know about it early in the last week of the month 🙂
Then I decided I better get back in shape. So I cut down on my trolling in the internet and hit the gym instead! And started eating healthier and less. #hint
Hit new record in weight loss, down 22 lbs as of Friday. High Five!!!
If trolling a board at 3:56 AM is what goes for “enjoying retirement”, then I plan on working forever
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m also a big fan of George’s blog, but every so often I like to take some time doing other critical human activities like eating, sleeping and otherwise remaining emotionally stable
Funny thing is….every time the troll goes off my blog’s traffic explodes! Which I find truly hilarious!
For new readers:
ingy is the founder of Frugal Travel Guy blog. It is one of the blogs listed in the TBB Blogs to Ignore. He has been trolling my blog for over a year. It is just sad to watch.
I thought about going back and finding the “Top 10 Gem Comments by ingy” but my good friend smittytabb will get mad at me again.
Darn you Feedly, they are experiencing a 2nd DofS attack today….So, Buzz post will be severely limited if they don’t get their act together soon!
George, please don’t be sad. I get a kick out of watching you tackle such an earth shattering topic as travel blogs.
I enjoy the banter and constant whining of your readers. I mean what the heck, they are traveling for virtually free and yet still complaining. You’ve got yourself a unique .2% niche here George that nobody else will ever touch. It is all yours buddy.
and so nice of you to be feeding those you wish your readers to ignore.
I’ll have to check if FTG readership goes up when i post here. Last time I checked they picked up a couple of extra applications IIRC. Just think what fun that would be? I could get extra compensation for coming here. Now that would be a retirement dream come true:)
George to Steve: “Jump”
Steve: “How high?”
TBB The Movie…..who do we cast to play Ingy? my suggestion http://www.irwincorey.org/………..any other casting suggestions out there?
I should go back and list the times of the different comments…but I need to go to lunch first.
You know how I feel about your links but will refrain from commenting on it because someone may get angrier.
“TBB The Movie…..who do we cast to play Ingy?”
That’s easy – Gary Busey
Ingy would be a very natural role for him
Gary Busey. 100% no question… Gary Busey.
Perfect fit: http://youtu.be/nzUbawNqyCg
After watching that video Busey it has to be!! Who is he torturing in it, his son? ……………………..how bout Scarlett Johansson as Svetlana? She says hi George, BTW.
Glad we all agreed on my #1 actor – it would’ve been difficult to retain my #2 choice Grandpa Simpson