TBB Mission: To Entertain, Educate and Inspire. Aim to at least do one well!
If you like what you see here, please let others know by passing them a link to my blog, thank you!
TRAVEL
Cologne Cathedral during World War II. Stunning.
If you wanted to learn everything about bringing wines on cruises, Saverocity has all the info you need…all of it!
Hidden islands you have never heard of. By USA Today. Has anyone not heard of the Azores?
MILES/POINTS
Well, it was quiet an exciting morning! I made a separate post about the AA Fuel Surcharge Debacle! Hope you like it and laugh. If not, maybe you have issues or just do not have a sense of humor. Tell me I suck in the comments, you know you want to (you know who you are!). Update: Wow. This post is about to become my most viewed post! I think I captured the drama well. At least I like to think so. I am proud of it. I think TBB may morph into something like that. Deranged posts showing the madness of this hobby or whatever.
Mile Nerd shows how to get Hyatt Diamond Status for at least 60 days.
Another hotel program matching status. Voila Hotel Rewards. Get the details here by Frequent Flyer Bonuses
ON MY MIND
I am going to pare down my Feedly even more and really be even more eclectic from now on so I can keep doing this.
One day this site will look into monetizing, I need to recover from the trauma of my first failed attempt with AdNonSense. Or it will fold like a cheap suit because of a divine intervention (health issue, family intervention, real job demands, or a combination, etc.)
Tip: Do not leave your car in your garage for five months without at least starting it a few times! My old beat up Toyota Camry that just does not want to die would not start as I was having fun with my free Mercedes Benz. I gotta tell you my Camry almost never gets a second look. Miss the Benz…Still spending the $200 cash I got for driving it for…science!
My girls are back from Paris. Sanity has returned in the household to balance out my insanity. I should have taped my daughter’s response to my questions: Tell me your top 3 things you liked about the trip, how were the flights, the Radisson Blue Metropolitan, the Intercontinental Le Grand, the Hilton Charles de Gaulle Airport, the food?, etc. For the record, they excelled in window shopping, you do not get shopping deals in Paris!
ODDZ & ENDZ
Switzerland’s new “drive-in” brothels. Lol
Surreal self-portraits by Chhristian Hopkins as a coping mechanism for depression. Omg, these are fantastically depressing! The one shown below portrays how I feel when I attempt to burn my Skypesos lol.
BLOG BUZZ
They all do it. This is how bloggers get paid. We have to live with posts like this. Latest “Best Credit Card Sign-up Offers” post by Mommy Points. Two excerpts I like to comment on:
“I try not to post a list of the best credit card offers too frequently, since you can get them here any time you want, but given some recent changes I think it is time for a refresher post” – Oh, come on. The list has not changed much at all. Why not just tell us the change and then link back to the previous “best card” post since it is a cut and paste job anyway! Just tell us you are only doing this and promoting the links because you need to…eat. We are not that dumb like some other blogs’ readers 😉
Numero Uno! You missed out Dansdeals today…
The TLV deals? Replied to your comment yesterday. Seems a bit complicated for his target market. The ones been around to his site have benefited. Yeah, the calling thing is funny…
Not true about no shopping deals in Paris! 🙂
As I discussed when I went to Milan, you can save about 30% on luxury handbags over prices in the US as the exchange rate is below the price conversion and you do not have to pay the Value Added Tax with an ex-EU passport if departing within 90 days. In fact, taking this into account, the cheapest place to buy a new, authentic LV bag is in Paris. 😉
You might also like this: http://www.featherfactor.com/2011/09/chanel-255-vs-warren-buffett-update.html
(Of course, it’s only a deal if it’s something you already want and value and would pay full price for… so if you’re just as happy with Guess as LV, then 80% isn’t a “deal” either… I clarify this in case my opening comment isn’t taken in jest.)
You are hereby appointed as the authority in miles and…bags 🙂
Helpful info, thanks a lot! Loved the article by the way;-)
i think my household has enough bags. Never understood women’s fascination with them. Then again,I am still trying to figure out a women, it’s a process lol.
I would have thought that the US was cheaper. Many go from EU to US mainly for shopping. On a related note, please don’t forget to pay taxes to uncle sam when you bring back that bag.
Oh…the use tax that everyone pays here…
Breaking News
Telegraph.co.uk
Kim Jong-un’s ex-lover ‘executed by firing squad’
Telegraph.co.uk – 2 hours ago
Hyon Song-wol, a singer, rumoured to be a former lover of the North Korean leader, is said to have been arrested on Aug 17 with 11 others for violating laws against pornography
Yeah I saw that. Sometimes I wonder about this type of reports. You usually cant find anything to report out of that country and all of a sudden we have detailed reports of executions. I certainly do not discount them but I also have a hard time believing them too.
Thank you George for your time & effort, I read it first in the morning and had nice laugh today.
Well, thank you so much bayguy. If it was not for the positive feedback from my readers, TBB would have folded like a cheap suit a long time ago!
I’m not in the business of judging other blogs or bloggers, or calling out what I may not like from time to time on other sites (I’m sure there is plenty of stuff others don’t like on my site), so I have no interest in listing blogs that have a difference stance on credit card offers than I do. Everyone does things differently.
However, I know I have an audience with a fair share of folks new to the hobby, so I think it is appropriate to include a statement that there are different offers for the same cards out there at the same time, and that not every blog always displays the best offers. Even newbies need to learn to do their homework – sometimes even if you have the best intentions on giving the best info/offers mistakes get made.
I’ll leave the judging of other sites to you, but I do think it is appropriate to at least plant that seed for the new folks, as I would hate for them to unknowingly miss out on getting as many miles and points as possible when getting a new card.
“Even newbies need to learn to do their homework”
….. except when it comes to non-affiliate links
Sure didn’t look like you were making your readers do much homework when it came to the 60K CIB/CIP offer or 30K SPG offer….. between the 500 posts you (and everybody else) made on each offer, seems you covered every little facet of the topics in class
*except when it comes to AFFILIATE links
MP:I always really enjoy your way of addressing constructive feedback aimed at your blog business.
Just a few things off the top of my head. You are “not in the business of judging other blogs or bloggers”. Exactly! Because doing that is just not good for business. But, playing devils advocate (you know I like it), how about the reader’s well being? If you could save a reader from a bad decision (especially the ones new to the hobby who find your site) shouldn’t that be a worthwhile accomplishment? Shouldn’t readers be educated at every opportunity, they are looking up to you the blogger as a trustworthy source to advise them and improve the quality of their lives, right? I am just thinking out loud here. So why just plant a seed when you can plant the whole tree and tell them what they should hear 🙂
But doing that will blacklist you from the cushy world of blogger brotherhood/sisterhood. And that is just NOT good business. I get it.
I just wished that content was not driven so much by what pays bloggers but every blogger was rewarded based on the quality of their content and positive improvements to readers’ quality of their lives and contribution to a better world.
Then again, I was always kind of a dreamer…
Maybe I should write a “I have a dream” post about this hobby which is really a big business now.
I am hungry, I have this craving for a watermelon.
I disagree. I try (and sometimes fail) to not judge what others do in all walks…not just in the blogging business, so a “blogging brotherhood” (if there is such a thing) is not what does or does not cause me list out any sites. I think it is my job to offer a little education to my readers about the reality of different offers, but I wouldn’t want to unnecessarily turn someone off to a blog that may treat card offers differently, but still has a bunch to offer otherwise. Affiliate links are a complex world, and I am happy with my decision on how to handle them, but I know every site’s situation is different.
Heck, I’m sure my own site shows offers that aren’t the best sometimes in the ads section. I think it is far more useful to teach readers to evaluate the offers than to simply make “a list” and it is certainly not purely a business decision not to do that.
To all bloggers: This is how you handle criticism and can win new fans!
Thank you for always displaying a cool manner disagreeing with others!
What if that blog did NOT have anything to offer otherwise and treated the cards in a way you did not agree with? This is what I meant with the term “brotherhood” which is probably not the best term to explain the “caramaderie” that exists among miles/points bloggers. I get it. But…is it additive to the greater good by staying silent? I do not think so. So we disagree and I respect that we do so and maybe we learned something (and taught something) from each other.
TBB is a different animal. TBB reviews blogs and speaks its independent mind. I am Siskel/Consumer Reports/60 Minutes…you get my drift. TBB is not accountable to anyone. Dishes out advice, praise and constructive criticism where TBB deems it necessary to Entertain, Educate and/or inspire my readers.
And this is the primary reason I have held off jumping into the cc stuff. I am afraid I am going to compromise my content and start tailoring it to keep satisfying the $$ providers who make a killing on folks who get roped into the hobby by non stop encouragement (look at me in my flat bed suite and ridiculous Presidential suite, etc etc) instead of my readers!
Sounds like a challenge and one day I hope to have Steve here reading me daily and looking for a TBB slip and,…not finding it 🙂
Always stuff to learn from each other for sure. 😉 I haven’t ran across a site yet that had absolutely nothing to offer (though I don’t read anywhere near as many blogs as you do), but if a site truly had nothing to offer then I suspect most folks wouldn’t stick around very long anyway. I don’t think I stayed silent on the different offers issue, but perhaps we do disagree on how much should be said, and in what manner.
As a side note, my husband said the other day I should be well qualified by this point to work in a company’s complaint department…I said he clearly lost his mind as that sounds like the worst job on the planet!
Mommy Points is good enough to be Presidential Press Secretary or a high paid Public Relations Spokesperson for a company like BP. She is good. BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT she had a toilet bowl picture in her trip report “une grand faux pas”
We are clearly not all perfect 🙂
Shut up if that’s the best excuse you can come up with for shamelessly pimping your affiliate links
FTG is showing once again what a pioneer he is in the blog-o-sphere
Now people like MMS are copying (does MMS do anything besides copy?) his Churning Challenge crap which is basically just an excuse to put in a few more plugs for the SPG Amex
And speaking of copying, MommyPoints gave a review of the Park Hyatt Tokyo. Because if there’s one thing there was a shortage of on the blogs, it’s reviews of the Park Hyatt Tokyo
Milevalue with another mailed-in post where he answers a perfectly lobbed softball his way. It’s amazing how the reader questions that MV, TPG etc. get are always about the same 4 or 5 cards! Looks like no one has had any questions about the Hyatt card recently…. looks like any outstanding questions readers had got cleared up around the time it stopped paying $$$
I think we do not have enough reviews of the Vendome actually lol.
I have been writing about this stuff for so long I have made so many enemies, even Frequent Miler is against me now!
I write what I feel like at the moment. I care about this hobby. It hurts me seeing it become a free for all…It’s disgusting actually.
Had the same reaction to the FM 110K post as you. Glad you called him on it.
Surprise of the day? Learning that my new nephew-in-law is co-owner of a new ice cream shop. And yes, of course we stopped by and yes, of course he refused our offer to pay! It was yummy!
So some folks here are lining up for gas masks and then others for ice cream!
Sometimes, I sneakingly, without telling anyone, I do the unthinkable…I go to McDonalds and buy a dipped cone for $1 something. Probably super bad for my health but darn it, I really enjoy eating it! #confessions
Heh, I guess the dozen or so disclaimers I wrote weren’t enough.
In my own humble opinion, they were not enough. None have been written in bold font and/or underlined/larger font. What I see in bold font is all the references on MQMs and how often/years Diamond status can be achieved. If I was FM (which I am not, you are in your own league of bloggers, I bow to your majesty!) I would put this warning disclaimers on the VERY TOP of your post with bold/underlined/larger font so NO ONE will miss the point that this is a VERY dangerous game and people get hurt by it. Stuff happens in life. Most people live paycheck to paycheck and do not have ANY money to float at all!I trust your readers are more advanced but some may not be and only think “Diamond, diamond…spend, spend, spend”.
My 2 cents.
Left a comment on your spam question. I owe lots to Raffles who convinced me to install Akismet plugin in WordPress. It is the reason I am still here. I was drowning in spam…CHOKING!
I think that’s a fair argument. I don’t plan to go back to the post to edit it, but for similar posts in the future I’ll consider making the warnings more obvious.
Regarding Akismet, sadly it isn’t enough to save me. BoardingArea has been using Akismet for a long time (the paid version). Apparently some spammers do figure out ways around even good filters like Akismet and they target high traffic sites like BoardingArea.
Thanks for the response and also thanks for taking my points into consideration.
Maybe the Akismet free version is better? 🙂
So, sounds like it is a high traffic issue then. Another reason for me not to join BA yet (Delta Points is jumping up and down from pure joy right now)…Do all of you have the same issue If yes, oh boy, do I feel for you. This spam was driving me insane when I moved to WP from the Blogger platform!
I don’t know whether or not others at BA are getting hit as bad as I was before the CAPTCHA solution. Are any other BA bloggers reading this? If so, how has your spam been?
First off I added TBB to my SPAM filter so all good there! Next, the day TBB “joins” BA is the day I leave BA. But that day will never happen as you need to create content not just copy others content to be on BA. BA has kicked those who just copy content off in the past 😉
“But that day will never happen as you need to create content not just copy others content to be on BA.”
Joke of the day.
Welcome back DP, 6 months went very quickly.
>>>>>>First off I added TBB to my SPAM filter so all good there!
Let me guess….proudly?
>>>>>>>Next, the day TBB “joins” BA is the day I leave BA.
Lol. I doubt it. And lose your chase links? No way Jose! You are probably “working” on editing cc links right now!
>>>>>>>>But that day will never happen as you need to create content not just copy others content to be on BA
Well, I guess I will let others judge the quality of our content. smh.
>>>>>>>>>BA has kicked those who just copy content off in the past
Yeah, I know.
Thanks as always for reading me every day and for reading all comments and you are welcome for letting you proudly exercise your right to express yourself. Too bad that does not happen in your own site. Anyone else see the irony of that?
Hope you tried to help FM privately!
@ABC – yep std Tabloid Buzzard B reader IQ of… please re-read.. wait, never mind.
@TBB – 🙂
Mi amigo Rene spends a lot of time here! Glad to have you around, thanks for reading and taking the time to comment. DP is an integral part in the mission of TBB to entertain its readers.
Proudly not throwing you in the Spam list like you did to me when I congratulated you (no joke) for your Randy interview.
Muchas gracias.
Maybe I should ask Randy to place TBB next to DP in the BA lineup…
Entertainment.For Free.TBB
@DP, torr humor?
TBB, join now!
If I do that, DP will not leave BA. Them Chase links are pure gold!
Funny how most bloggers posting about the reduced AA mileage awards to Hawaii don’t mention the 50K AA signup link. For consistency, you would think that if a SPG post warrants mentioning the 30K SPG offer, an AA post would warrant mentioning the 50K AA offer. I’m sure it has nothing to do with not getting paid to mention it.
Because “even newbies need to learn to do their homework”, especially when there is no affiliate link available. When there is one, oh well…
Great points imho.
Oh the cynicism. Love it.
Regarding Trip Reports and Credit Card Reviews.
I am not sure that even all the bloggers who do this realize the value, because a lot of these folks seem to not always be the brightest penny, but they are very powerful additions to a site.
When building a sites value it is important to create indexed search posts within the google Panda framework. Bloggers who combine Authorship with SEO can hit high on the search terms for ‘Park Hyatt Tokyo’ and once they start reaching the first page of google can draw in a lot of search traffic.
Being keyword searchable is key to building a more diverse readership and increasing in ‘expertise’ in the field. Not writing such posts means that you will not appear when people want to know more about hotel X or card Y.
In the flip side your regular audience (much smaller) will get annoyed with repetitive information, but that is a sacrifice bloggers should make in order to grow the audience.
Though, frankly, I think most bloggers write trip reports because they fly to far off lands and have nothing exciting at all to do or say about them, so we hear about a lounge experience where they get free kibble and Coors Lite.
Yeah, I wondered for a while why some keep pounding them out. I now know why. Makes sense I guess. Just not my cup of tea here. I just do them to justify some…tax deductions lol.
Im more concerned with your “Are we adding anything to society by spending $110k” commment. Seems a little too preachy to me. I hope you arent saying something in the vein of knowing whats best for someone else.
Thank you for your concern with what I say on my blog 🙂 Sometimes I think… (that is funny right?) thoughts like:
-we are encouraging folks to spend $110k to achieve highest status on an airline that treats its members’ miles like a Zimbabwean currency
-fantastically bright students get lured by hedge funds or quant shops and they come up with junk that then gets shoved down suckers’ throats all over the world and almost bringing down the whole financial system when…they could be doing something more productive, let’s say…hmm, BUILD something.
-we all make our own decisions. What we do has consequences. And we have to live with them.
-I have no idea where I am going with this. I just like to type stuff in my own blog. Sometimes I like to censor myself but I will not do that because censoring is so North Korea like.
Lunch time:-)
From MMS on continuing SPG promotion ( tongue in cheek )
You must be kicking yourself for reading the first 6 articles on the very best ways to use then SPG, but don’t you worry, it will ALL be over soon
Until the next promotion…