We learn of one blogger’s credit card application strategy, a very interesting 50k Amex PRG card offer with just $1k Min Spend, we visit Patagonia, Antarctica, Zakynthos, and almost 100 pumping blog post entries make me lose it and go off on Twitter…
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My Credit Card Application Strategy – Doctor of Credit This blog is on fire, another very educational post explaining how he goes about it.
A 50,000 point American Express Premier Rewards Gold offer for new members? – Milecards A very interesting offer for 50k for just $1k in minimum spending. Please READ all the cautionary language! Who are these guys?
A Line Across The Sky – Climbing in Patagonia with Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell – The Adventure Blog This is epic!
I’m A Climbing Photographer Who Loves Taking Pictures In The Polish Tatra Mountains – Bored Panda Amazing pictures!
How to travel to Antarctica – Gunnar Garfors: Travel and Media We only feature quality blog posts here if you have not figured it out.
10 Alternative Destinations That Are Less Traveled – Travel Is Free I need to get to that Zakynthos island in my homeland!
The 2014 Financial Market Awards – A Wealth Of Common Sense Some really good stuff here again. Love the Bill Gross picture who left Pimco suddenly for Janus.
The Terrifying Story Of A Man Who Was Misdiagnosed As A ‘Vegetable’ For More Than A Decade I must admit this was one the most bizarre and touching stories I have seen.
BUZZING IT UP:
I am adding again this section with interesting developments in the blogosphere & personal stuff. Please note that this section will generally NOT be for new readers in the hobby! So far the main “negative” rant will appear in the Blog Buzz once a week…if we can get to it as the plastic pumping is totally out of control!
First, there is yet another new blog in the minor leagues Prior2Boarding of Boarding Area. Some 20 year old Canadian kid who will tell us all about the Canadian markets as he tries to take readers away from the other Canadian Lifemiles deal killer youngster. And guess what, he already has the Credit Cards tab up but he says he is different than all other blogs as he states right next to the credit card link if it is referral or not. Wow! He also says he is doing it because he wants some compensation for his work. This is all on the first post by the way, oh the nerve! Anyways, the name of the blog is, sit down please, “don’t call the airline“. Not sure if it is a dig on the Canadian Kilometers guy lol. I bet my Amazon revenue that it will appear on a Friday interview at Million Mile Secrets soon. Good luck kid. Maybe you should just stick with Law school and..study? If I had a dollar for every time I saw this occur….
Well, about that Blog Buzz I am not sure it is happening. You know why? Because I have already marked 85 blog posts since Sunday that appear worthy of being ridiculed in Blog Buzz. And until Saturday we are talking about a Blog Buzz that is not humanely possible! The hideous pumping and total crap that keeps going and going like that energizer bunny is just…surreal. It totally disgusts me so I take it out on Twitter when I get stressed with tweets like this:
Titan Truths:”I always tell you the best offer. But if I blog about something that offers a card that does not pay me, I keep my mouth shut”
Titan Truths: “I will gladly sell my mother in law if I can get you to click on one of my credit cards”. Heck, you can take mine for FREE!
#Titanism “Be nice, never stop selling, monetize your breath if you can, take advantage of newbies by keeping them in the dark”
You can waste your time at blogs pumping you with plastic non stop pretending they are expert travelers. Or you can follow #iran4real <——–Yomadic’s photos from Iran!
#Titanism: “Do you breathe? You need to get the Southwest cards so you can breathe together w/ your companion!” #CompanionPass
#Titanism “Don’t eat anything all month & then EAT EVERYTHING you can charge on your ChaseSapphireCard on the First Friday”
So u write abt all things Hyatt but never mention how readers can stay there for free w/ its credit card. Because it does not pay u Asshole!
But u do not miss mentioning cards that pay u several times a day.Are u experts or just greedy assholes! Following therapist’s advice #rant
I completed the FAFSA application online that colleges use for Financial Aid purposes. Everyone said it is is so complex. Actually, it was pretty easy! I think a lot has to do with because I am organized.
Managed to get to the mall and WalMart to finish off some gift carding because…I think I am an addict. I need to get away from my home office because sometimes I just need to get away. No time for mileage running anymore!
I need to spend less time here…I keep saying but not happening. Tax avalanche is coming…
Update: 11.45 pm I pulled the trigger on the trip to Greece for all four of us! 120k AA miles and 120k UA miles. Crazy routings! Overnights in Dusseldorf and Frankfurt with very early flights the next day. Any airport hotel recommendations? I am familiar with the FRA Sheraton. I need to also spend a night at the Thessaloniki Hyatt again! Update on the update: Booked the room for 12k Hyatt points!
Check out my updated blog lists: Blogs I Love, Blogs I Like, Blogs To Ignore
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Sunglasses at night 1st
What a lame offer from Amex for the PRG. Thankfully my wife got targeted with that same offer but no strings attached.
I stayed at the SPG next to Dusseldorf Airport. Nice property and easy access to the airport.
Third
Meh…the 20-year old maple leaf miler needs to find another angle or move south (college age = Florida State?). I can’t imagine that the % of Canadian frequent flyers who are seriously into miles/points/MS is more than a couple hundred people. That’s not a very big audience to monetize. Maybe there is a market for Canadian Tire points discussion or Tim Horton’s roll-up-the-rim strategies? Possibly start a family and perhaps make fun of the US for our pitiful parental leave policies? 🙂
Would you rather have half of a market of 35m potential readers or the be the 200th US blog serving 200m people?
I do 600k page views a month from 110k uniques in the UK which has twice the population of Canada. I reckon I can get to 1m page views per month over 2 years so that would mean a top notch Canadian site could get 500k monthly views over 3-4 years.
You like to throw these numbers out that I think are a pipe dream for a site like mine. Then again I never really focused on this aspect of blogging. Last time I checked google analytics was in November. I stopped visiting Alexa as I now wait for the TBB troll to give me an update as he obviously cares for it much more than, well, everyone lol.
I wasn’t suggesting TBB could get that – I am saying that a generalist miles and points site in Canada which is aimed at the average business traveller could do that. Easily.
Hey, so when are you coming here? AA miles are quite difficult to use for here. It’s really bad in the winter! But, the only way to get here with Delta is using TAROM through Romania – I like to stick with United miles 🙂
(There is the cityliner on Alitalia through Rome but never space on it)
I just came back from Antarctica. The article you feature is terribly outdated and misinformed.
Never rely on TBB for quality content…. if the sites has pretty photo-shopped pictures it gets featured here 😉
Haters gonna hate 🙂
LOL Happy New Year 😉
I’m just gonna shake
9th? I dunno.. Lost count 🙂 Anyhow, having an annoying time finding new options to burn GCs 🙁
Thanks for the mega LOL: “Don’t eat anything all month & then EAT EVERYTHING you can charge on your ChaseSapphireCard on the First Friday”
Surely you can eat every day if you just buy six months worth of gift cards on First Friday. You’ve got to load up, because 3x for First Friday Dining could be ENDING SOON!!!!!!
@ Spencer F: Your comments always make me smile here!
@ Scott: Are you saying there was no min spend in your wife’s offer? I am not sure what Amex is doing here…
@ Grant: Thanks! Looks like it will be Sheratons for us then in Germany. I did not like the FRA Sheraton but I guess you can’t expect much from airport hotels…
@ Fan_Of_Beaver: I wish the kid good luck, I think he is a little late to the party. Then again, he ‘ll figure it out and pump like the CK and Johny Jet dudes do. At least we avoided the “started blogging for friends and family” mantra 🙂 I won a large coffee once in the Tim Hortons Roll-Up-The-Rim promo!
@ Charlie: I ‘ll contact you later. I wanted to use us some AA miles and preserve some UA miles. The routing is DTW-LGA and JFK-MAD-DUS-SKG Still hard to believe I was able to get 4 seats! All coach. On the return with UA is SKG-MUN-FRA-DTW. Looking forward to one more night at the SKG Hyatt.
@ Asar: Well, so much about quality blog posts. I still think it was a quality blog post…I never said not outdated 🙂 I wish there was a way to do Antarctica with miles. Every time I looked at it (not seriously) it cost lot of money. If you would like to share how you did it I will share for TBB readers. And thanks for the feedback!
@ Hua: Lots of this MS stuff is going underground…I only make time for my Birdies…which are still all Blue in the face 🙂
@ucipass and State University College of Malibu Adjacent: If First Friday goes it will be a DEVASTATING blow to all the plastic pumping machines! I thought maybe I can be a diet guru introducing the revolutionary “First Friday Diet” with a twist….Lose weight and fly for free…okay, I need to fill up my coffee at Panera, do love the FREE refills here but the darn fireplace is still broken and it’s freezing in here!
By no strings I meant that weird language about not having an amex card before. I agree I’m not sure what amex’s deal is. Don’t banks loosen the belt when the economy starts to heat up?
Banks are coming out with not so stellar quarterly earning results, especially Chase…almost $1 Billion in legal costs, OUCH! Maybe that is the reason for stepping away from the Ink Plus links…sans Titans of course. Amex has been quite erratic lately….not sure what’s going on
When you say legal costs are you meaning fines or attorney fees? If it’s attorney fees, I joined the wrong practice.
I am sensing it was legal fees, not 100% clear:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2823576-legal-battles-continue-to-drag-on-jpmorgans-profit
as i think they must track fines separately 😉
Love the link to Antarctica. Thank you! Though it will be many years before I get the chance to go there, it is high on my travel bucket list.
Just found that former neighbor’s son traveled there recently. Hope I see him soon to get more details. Definitely a dream destination.
TBB, The Hilton in FRA is nice, just behind the Sheraton and connected to the terminal as well. I stayed there a few times and as Gold got lounge access which was very nice, didnt need to go out to eat or drink for the layover 🙂
FRA Hilton Garden Inn (contiguous to Hilton) inside the airport/train complex, is also 100% acceptable, albeit small rooms. Newer, clean, efficient. Was given very decent gold breakfast in restaurant.
Agreed. Burned some worthless Hilton points here when the rate was over $250
Thank you very much! Coming in late at night around 10.30 pm and flight to Detroit is 10.15 am so looking for practicality & best deal in points….Will check later and compare award rates. I still remember the SPG points burned at the Sheraton were totally not worth it. I actually stayed in that one twice, 2nd time was during StarMegaDO for free!
OMATs article today pissed me off. Does he realize it was he and his blogger brethren that are largely responsible for killing the 1st class redemption’s on Emirates? Here is their game plan: Pump my readers with images of first class showers, then pump credit cards to get them to those showers, in turn pumps my wallet full of cash, repeat and repeat until sweet spots in this game are gone completely and I can retire comfortably with all the moola I’ve made from my naive readers.
I personally couldn’t give a sht about Emirates first class showers, but it’s representative of what is happening to our hobby and I’m fed up with it. I remember when it wasn’t all about the money and credit cards and I miss those days very much. FML.
Looks at the idiots he caters to. There seems to be a huge demand for it.
I dislike him as well and he really is a over entitled prick but the idiots still click his credit card links and look up to him.
Seth: Welcome to my world. I see this crap daily in Feedly. I have now marked over 100 blog posts that would not exist at all if there were no cc $$ involved. SINCE SUNDAY!!! It is out of control. And you know what? If you say something or critique, you are slotted into the “angry” crowd automatically. We are talking about totally warped minds. I have seen the development of OMAT over the years and still remember this young kid who did not know what a credit card was and now has become an expert at them.
I miss the days when this hobby was small and full of quirky people. Still attracts them but now has hit the big time with TPG, MMS, MommyPoints on Nightline and a bunch of “look at me in my flat bed downing Krug and eating caviar traveling for free and you can do it too! by clicking on my credit cards”. It is simple economics. I reserve myself a “reveal all” post with actual $$ numbers when they kick me out for being so…subversive and not going along with the system like so many sellouts. It all started when FTG cashed the first commission check & tasted the money. It’s been downhill ever since. My blog is my way to cope with it lol.
@ Chris: Milions have been made praying on naive people who don’t know any better and fall for “expert” advice. I need to step away from my computer. I should take a screen shot of all the pimpy blog posts since SUNDAY. Actually, I need SEVERAL screen shots to fit them all
Insanity!
Well, I don’t dislike the guy and I do consider him an expert (don’t throw things at me). I can weed through the haystack of credit card filth to find good articles on his site but the post earlier today reminded me of how this stuff is getting out of control. I do dislike the greed that is going around and the fact that the credit card companies are enabling certain bloggers by throwing huge sums of money at them, in turn influencing the content and ruining deals!
Actually, what is funny is that I’m not even sure if the AS card pays commissions to them or not but that doesn’t matter. How many times have you seen an add for the Ink Bold filled with photos of Lufthansa or Singapore first class? More times than I can count and that is my point.
>>>>>>in turn influencing the content and ruining deals!
>>>>>>How many times have you seen an add for the Ink Bold filled with photos of Lufthansa or Singapore first class? More times than I can count and that is my point.
Because it pays the most! This one and the Platinum Amex. 🙂
The key thing to understand is the bandwidth devoted to cards that pay bloggers vs cards that do not pay the bloggers. It is is so one-sided that is…, well, sickening. If that does not make anyone in this hobby angry is incredible. Of course the newbies, the bread and butter of these pumping bloggers, would have no idea what you are talking about and they will continue to be reeled in to these “experts” by SEO and other online marketing techniques.
SPEAK UP. Let’s fight back! Spread the word. Do your part to stop rewarding pumping! It only encourages more of it.
And now I am going to eat greek yogurt with a banana, hone, blueberries and almonds. Yummy!
I agree with you and in addition I will add that I don’t mind affiliate links as long as they’re handled tastefully and the percentage of them is within reason relative to other blog content. Some bloggers such as FM, TIF, TBB, etc respect this boundary but for others who succumb to the forces of greed it’s more links more $ (or is it $$$$$$??). They’re ruining our spare-time fun and enough is enough already.
They don’t care about you, they think you are just one of the “angrys”. They are on to fresh newbie meat, the hunt never stops 🙂
The Canadian ‘don’t call the airline’ blog has been around for a while and just recently moved to mini BA.
Thanks! Now that you mention I do remember it. It may have been in that mega Feedly massacre day when I pared them down from 600.
someone please post the Gleff commercial, I missed it.
http://www.marketmenot.com/ally-bank-sure-thing-commercial/ ………………….. this man can act
You guys…behave…(in Austin Powers mode)
That’s the ultra corrupt lawyer from The Wire. BEST! SHOW! EVER!
What are your thoughts on the AMEX 50k PRG offer? If I
1) have SPG card
2) had Delta card
3) never had any Membership Rewards cards
am I good?
I don’t know! Since I know I can’t get it again I thought it was a very interesting offer with just $1k min spend and all the restrictions.
It is late, i need to get some sleep.
Anyone?
I’m writing a post about AMEX stupidity right now in regard to their policy language. I’m going to test this with my cousin on Saturday (he’s had a few AMEX cards, but not this one, and he’s aware of the “risks”), but I have a feeling it should work, and they are just doing something stupid. What a ridiculous stipulation!
Wait till Sat, and I’ll report.if he gets instant approval.
In the meantime, EXPERIENCED BLOGGERS, please take a look at my blog and tell me what’s screwing up my layout. I didn’t do anything, and it just happened yesterday night out of blue! I’m at my wits end. 🙁
OK, never mind, it’s working again. I don’t know what I did (if anything). :-O