We get an excellent primer on the differences between Bluebird & Target Redbird, DansDeals turns 10, attack the IHG Rewards Pointbreaks hotels & how to get 20 Nights FREE, watch Japanese monkeys in a spa, and much more! Hey, we are not mailing it in, we care about what we produce here! Maybe too much when you compare it to the dough TBB brings in. Hey, it’s about the mission (enter huge red arrow below!).
TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order!
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It was one of the most boring weekends in the miles/points world. You know it is slow when the Korean Air disappearance from the Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers list becomes a blog post several times around the blogosphere. Or many bloggers have to do separate blog posts about the new IHG Rewards Pointbreaks list. So excuse me while we focused on other more important things this weekend…
Bluebird vs Redbird (Target Prepaid Redcard) – Which is Better for Manufactured Spend? – Travel Summary I usually avoid highlighting posts about Manufactured Spending. But this one is written very well and some readers will benefit. I now wait for Marathon Man to indict me 🙂
Trip Notes Brazil Part 1: 10 Years Of Travel And Deal Blogging And A Return To Where It All Began – DansDeals If you wanted to learn more about this unique character in the miles/points world this is it! Hard to believe he is only 30 years old! And pretty hard to not be awed by what he has been able to accomplish in this space doing it in his own style. Most commercial bloggers have moved on and now just pretend to be deal experts when Dan has managed to stay in touch with the true hobbyists and monetized to high levels. Sponsored tweets too man, come on! I am in that Fairmont Lifetime Platinum status story he describes by the way…
The IHG Rewards Pointbreaks list for hotel awards with only 5,000 IHG Rewards points per night can be accessed HERE sometime in the morning of November 24, 2014. You could get up to 20 FREE Pointbreak nights if you get the IHG Rewards Mastercard credit card by using the link in the top of the wiki (on top) in THIS PAGE. Here is what you get:
- 80,000 bonus points after spending $1000 in first 3 months.
- Free night every year at any IHG hotels. (Cert may be redeemed online.)
- 5 points per $ spent at IHG hotels
- 2 points per $ spent on gas,groceries and dining
- 1 point per $ on everything else
- 10% points rebate on any redemptions. (“Please allow 4 to 6 weeks after Reward Night stay for rebated points to be deposited into your account”)
- No fee 1st year, then $49.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- IHG Platinum status for as long as you hold the card.
This is a non-affiliate link. If you applied for the 60,000 IHG Rewards points card from your different blogger please stalk him/her for a refund 🙂
I can’t believe I have burned over 1 million miles/points in 2014 and Award Wallet let me know today that my stash stands at 3,802,357. Whatz up with that???
Amazing Video Of Japanese Monkeys Having A Spa Day In The Wild Yes it is amazing. It would not be here if it was not!
The North Face – Your Land The Adventure Blog Amazingly inspiring video! Outdoor athletes doing what they love, just 1.51 minutes.
30 Uplifting Photos Of Entrepreneurs In The Developing World Incredible pictures featured here, I picked two, both from Vietnam!
The stock market doesn’t care how you feel – MarketWatch Really good article. Must focus on the long term because making decisions focusing on what happens in the markets over a short period of time can drive you insane…and possibly poor. Of course there is always that one guy who times everything perfectly every single time lol.
The free site CapGainsValet keeps track of all mutual fund capital gains estimates. Can be very handy for your buying or selling that mutual fund you have been thinking about and for tax projections.
Looks like our old troll Ingy/Rick/FrugalTravelGuy Founder was back yesterday in the comments sharing his niceties about my blog hiding behind an anonymous handle…What can I say, TBB is about entertainment and we miss his entertaining comments! Must be so boring in that blog almost nobody comments on unless it is to give away some crap!. Should just be pumping the Big Crumbs links a little more…yikes! Anyways, where am I going with this? Here is a great article about “A Brief History of Failure“. Don’t let TBB join that list you guys, click my links (still feel shy of entering the link to the credit card tab right here lol). Let’s prove this guy wrong that you can win without selling out and becoming this!
Ok, lets move on to some blog buzz action! This section is intended to be satire and is mainly targeted to long time miles/points hobbyists. Do not take anything personally but if you do, I advise you get a therapist. No I do not have a referral link for a therapist but thank you for asking!
“I Was Buying and Selling Dell Computers on eBay to Pay for College” – Million Mile Secrets Same questions since eternity in this Friday interview feature. This guy started collecting miles in, wait for it, January 2014! We are reaching way deep now…”Don’t shake your head TBB hold it for more, you don’t want it to fall off dude” (my alter ego screaming!). My readers pretty much spoke about what they thought of this one and it was not pretty.
Three Credit Cards for Mid-Tier Hotel Award Nights – The Points Guy Hired writer Jason Steele at it again. Of course they are not just three credit cards. How about 19 credit cards? Reel them in with the catchy title and bombard them like sitting ducks. The ever present dilemma: The pumpers keep pumping and get to keep the best links. The non pumpers (me and a horde of others) are shy pumping and we get no clicks. Blogging my inner voices you guys.
Chase Freedom 20,000 Point Limited Time Credit Card Offer! – Deals We Like Standard fare for this site. Template job most likely.
Get 4th Night Free And $250 Statement Credit With Citi ThankYou® Prestige Card – Points, Miles & Martinis Copy paste job. And 17 SEVENTEEN links of the same three Cit cards!!! Told you I shake my head a lot going through Feedly with this stuff!
Passive Point Earning Opportunities – Frugal Travel Guy Standard fare. Credit cards, personal Big Crumbs referral links. Wow, so deep….Breaking News: There was One comment, must be First and Last 🙂
50k Bonus Miles on CitiBusiness AAdvantage Card – Milevalue When you have oranges, you sell oranges. Forgot how the saying goes…7 credit card links because one or two are not enough. Treating readers like ____ (insert your own word).
When Must I Meet the Spend Threshold for a Sign-Up Bonus? – The Points Inc TBB Answer: Read the ^%ing paper, are you illiterate? TPG answer: On video. Barclaycard Arrival Plus, British Airways Visa. Click.
Bye bye, behave!
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First!
Odell Beckham catch 2nd
One of our patients has escaped and we are asking anyone with information to contact us. Very old white male, babbles nonsense endlessly and answers to the name Ingy. He is wearing a white straight jacket, white pants and shoes and no underwear. Please call H.H.I.S.L.F.T.S. 971-332-0980, there is no reward and feel free to keep him.
You’re late to the party, Buzz, Chase is bringing back Korean transfers. Gary posted that it was gone first, and that it’s coming back first and Ben followed minutes later both times! What’s up with that? Guess Ben’s busy with his dad!
Thanks for the Dans Deals link, that’s a stunning of deals and he’s sure taken advantage of many of them. I wish I was around back in the day.
@MilesMath: First First? You should be proud 🙂
@Spencer F: What a catch, WOW!
@ HHISLCFTS: I see this 20 years from now for me “Very old white male, babbles nonsense endlessly sprinkled with WTFs and answers to the name TBB. He is wearing a T shirt with “Legalise it” plastered all over it and has a permanent smile in his face. Closest resemblance is the “Dumber” character in “Dumb and Dumber”. Please call 69SMOKETHIS, there is a reward: a RT trip to Topeka, Kansas on Delta” 🙂
@ No Way Jose: My Feedly records show Lucky being first mentioning it. And then Gary saying it is a temp issue with Lucky following up saying the same thing. I swear these two have an alert reading and copying each other!
Wow. Seeing the PointsBreaks list in its raw form makes me think John at LoyaltyLobby was right to be pissed at bloggers lazily copying and pasting his work. On a related note, there’s San Luis Potosí for the winter! (It’s probably gone by now.)
And this is why LL is on the TBB Like list 🙂
I made one too finally. Going to a party near it so instead of driving home I may take a ride to the hotel and crash…5k pts…pfft!
Found this TPG picture on Instagram – http://instagram.com/p/uwB4Klt71y/?modal=true
A) it is clear just from this that a 3rd party bankrolls the site because no private individual would fund this sort of thing
b) obviously I am a tiny bit jealous that I don’t get to hang out like this 🙂
Wow, what a find! I want to be TPG…on a second thought, rather not!
APOLOGIES FOR THE KOREAN AIRLINES THING, BUT IT’S A SLOW TIME OF YEAR AND WE HAD TO GIVE THE BLOGGERS SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT. LATER THIS WEEK, WE’RE INCREASING THE MINIMUM SPEND ON THE CHASE SAPPHIRE PREFERRED BY ANOTHER $100.
Still the greatest card. Nothing can take the #1 spot from you. Love u 4ever!
I predict the legendary Hawaiian is lurking and will do something BIG? On a triple thought, has Hawaiian actually done something big in the last decade? Lol
Multiple card signup bonuses converted to pre-devalued Hilton points at a 2:1 ratio wasn’t a big deal? You, sir, are tough to please.
Oh yeah…forgot about that…been so long…everything so blurry these days 🙂
Loved the Dan’s Deal link. Thanks; I would have missed it. Talk about never buying retail….
That guy with the contact at USA Today who was instrumental in making Fairmont honor the deal was…moi. Or I just like to think that I was instrumental 🙂
Pay retail?
They would take away my jew card 😉
Instrument is just another type of Tool 😉
That Fairmont deal was one for the books. Good on you for getting the press involved. I just remember liasoning between Fairmont SF, Fairmont Corp, and LS.
Was a really crazy day. Amazing that it all worked out and they haven’t tried to weasel out of it yet.
I remember the excitement of that day, good times.
I think they will try to weasel out of it when they merge with Four Seasons…we need to be ready lol.
Dan’s post was depressing. You live your life, think it might amount to something and then you read about the dude and the things he had achieved BEFORE he turned 30? GRRRR!!! And to add insult to injury, I’m out of tequila. 🙂 🙁
Lol, L’chaim Andy.
L’chaim Dan 🙂
Hi all, I wrote a step by step guide on how to load gift cards to Redbird with the new Target registers (K8): https://plus.google.com/u/0/+NoonRadar/posts/82eSPgNCGi5
If you’ve already loaded with the new POS, please take a look at my post and if you see something that I missed, or if you had a different experience, let me know via a comment there so I can update the guide. Thank you.
Chinese people believe that, as the Spring Festival is the begin of a new year, what you do
then will impact your luck in the coming year.