We bring you more on Alaska Airlines awards, insist on getting you free Amex points, visit Teufelsberg in Berlin, learn about Hyatt empathy, get the latest on the Travel Is Free blog, bring you a new site that is supposed to help you book with ITA matrix itineraries, learn about the most international airports, bring you a rare Warren Buffett interview, travel to Alaska and to Beirut before the bombs started falling & more!
TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order!
TBB Comments Moderator Policy: I received an email from a reader recently saying that they will no longer read my blog because I was censoring them in the comments section. What made it even more painful was that they compared me to Milevalue who is known for deleting comments that are not positive. I was surprised shocked! I do not censor comments other than the obvious spam! I have an intense dislike hate of censoring. Express yourself freely. Be respectful, participate and learn from each other. TBB comments are an integral part of the TBB experience (lol).
If you EVER make a comment and it does not appear, PLEASE email me and let me know about it by telling me your handle and approximate time. I will then go find your comment in the amazingly awesome spam blocker I use and mark it non spam and it should never happen again. If you do not let me know, I will NOT know your legitimate comment was caught in the spam filter! No, I will NOT go through the spam filter proactively, it is a ZOO in there, talking about hundreds of spam comments per DAY! If only those were actual credit card and Amazon clicks #orgasmicthoughts
Travel Is Free finally made a post letting readers know what’s up and the reasons behind the drastically reduced posting in the blog. I left a comment there if you are interested. Apparently, it was “the only negative comment“! I would love to add the blog again in the Love or Like blogs list one day. Wishing them all the best in the new venture. You can read about the new venture sometime today here. Just one more thing for all bloggers: EMBRACE constructive criticism, IGNORE asshole haters…and distinguish between the two by developing a thicker skin, you will need it in blogging and in life in general!
Enough, lets move on, so much material to catch up over the weekend!
Maybe you can still get them 10k AmexMembershipReward points, give it a click/call!
How to Find Award Space Using the Alaska Airlines Website. Travel Codex is becoming THE go to site for everything about Alaska Airlines!
Hyatt tries to redesign the check in experience. To add more empathy. Going from 143 key strokes to just three strokes on a tablet. Hmmm, interesting, will see how successful this is in the near future. Lets see in how many sites this will show up now…
Anyone used BookWithMatrix? New site that takes your ITA matrix search results and takes you to book them…Feedback appreciated. If this works well…I will bookmark it and add it to my arsenal of awesome tools!
The World’s Most International Airports. They are:
1. Istanbul Ataturk IST 115 countries
2. Paris Charles de Gaulle CDG 105 countries
3. Dubai DXB 98 countries
3. Frankfurt FRA 98 countries
5. Amsterdam Airport Chipol AMS 83 countries
6. London Heathrow LHR 77 countries
For my fellow Michigan based readers, I want to bring your attention to two new Hilton hotels in our state: Homewood Suites in downtown Grand Rapids and a deal was inked to bring a Home2 Suites to the Holland area. Exciting!
Always interesting Warren Buffet interview, from 2012. The key tips:
- Keep low overhead
- When something works, just do it
- Wait for the right pitch
- Use the right tools
- Pattern recognition
Stunning photos of Alaska. Yes on my bucket list. My bucket list is so large I need several buckets! Photo by Nitish Kumar Meena
Berlin’s Devil’s Mountain Teufelsberg. Another abandoned cold war structure now occupied by anarchists and graffiti artists. (HT: GringoLoco)
Beirut before the bombs started falling…
And I leave you with this…Great camera work lol.
My girls are home from China, hooray!
Please help bloggers you appreciate & make a positive difference in your life by spreading the word about their blogs, emailing and commenting and using their few $ links, thank you!
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TBB
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You can subscribe to TBB below, winners only!
I guess I can claim gold for once ๐
You should read this thread before you go test BookWithMatrix
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-discussion/1472834-how-do-you-guys-book-ita-matrix-flight.html
oh wow…this is why I threw it out there to you guys…
won’t feature this link again, thanks!
Rats, I got the 10k email, but cancelled my Amex Ameriprise Plat this week. ๐ฎ
Beirut is still a nice city, bombs fell ages ago…
Drew is finally using his skills for something lasting. Not really convinced by all this ‘Fortune 100 CEO Kellogs MBA Dell’ COO crap, normally when I see such consultants I switch to cocktail small talk mode and keep them as far away as possible from my work stuff, much less share my business startup idea with them.
Ha!
Buzz, Schipol.
Was recently in western Michigan. To the uninitiated, it’s the part with Amway, furniture makers, rabid Calvinism, Republicans, low ethnic diversity, and Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Shut out an all Amex cards for the 10k. Did not call. I used to pre TBB ๐
West Michigan is like a whole different world compared to the East. I have a few clients in Grand Rapids. Very nice people. Very family oriented. Yeah, on the conservative side…but we get along well. That lake coastal area and Sleeping Bear Dunes is just beautiful!
Close comments on posts older than 7 or 14 days old. Under Settings – Discussion.
No one comments on old posts but the spam bots still post there with abandon. You should reduce the amount of stuff which Akismet has to handle and you have more chance of occasionally spotting a real one which slips through.
Done! Left it at default 21 days.
Love that Akismet plugin! Almost as much as I love Roboform!
Okay, TIF’s start up news is out:
http://travelisfree.com/2016/07/18/new-startup/
Oh dear, another sharing economy project. In the world largest consumer driven economy. :facepalm:
I love to share and rent (usually cars and home improvement tools), but do it in Europe. The US is not ready for this.
The renting out tools thing has been tried before, presumably Drew’s approach is different than what’s been tried. I would guess there’s potential there, but who knows…
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/01/23/airbnb-and-the-unstoppable-rise-of-the-share-economy/#5a27bb506790
Wish him and his lovely wife the best!
Why so negative?!?!
Hey we all love FrequentMiler and most of us have rewarded his hard work with numerous card applications using his link. BUT TALK ABOUT DISAPPOINTMENT!!! After reading his Monday morning post on Harry Potter (WTF), I realize now fully that the hobby is dead. R.I.P. FM 7/18/2016, The day FM “Jumped the Shark”
TBB readers I invite you to read my blog … The Korean Klock Lady’s Free Travel Secret’s Others Are Afraid To Tell You….I will never give you… a Harry Potter review, pictures on my husband, pictures of me in a flat bed or F/C bathroom, toilet bowl pictures, pictures of pancakes or hotel hallways with room service trays, ask you for kickstarter money I do not need, post a gravatar of myself wearing a pilot headset, offer a personal consultation for money, tell you I am a foremost authority or embellish my bio, use big fat red arrows or post info without acknowledging who did the hard work in researching it. ๊ณ ๋ง์ต๋๋ค
์ข์ ํ๋ฃจ ๋์ธ์
I don’t love him and feel his blog went downhill over a year ago.
We dont all love FM. He was one a “Once-ler” of the Lorax fame. Destroying all around him until the MS forest was gone. The day he is forced to shut down and go back to a 9to5 job will be a good day for MS.
That video link and listening to her say the world “clock” is priceless.
I love everybody….unless they make it into the TBB Blogs to Ignore list lol.
Thank you all for the kind words, anyone need their cock fixed?
He’s got “David, the smartest guy he’s ever met who graduated from MBA Kellogg and used to be a senior guy at Booz Allen, who was introduced by *a used car salesman*”
What could go wrong?
All jokes aside, best of luck to him.
My brother in law is an MBA who was a partner at Booz (and is still there in its new incarnation). He understands the nuts and bolts pretty well but couldn’t innovate his way out of a paper bag. He would make a good COO though.
No more AA lounge access with Cit Prestige card after June 20, 2017
Parker, you suck!
It will be harder selling this fabulous card with a $450 annul fee.
What happened to Howie, over at FTG? Lots of new writers, but no Howie.
He is probably out then…
Don’t go there anymore. Is Rick I. still writing there?