We say bye bye to US Airways, we learn about cheap hotel redemptions, AMEX Membership Rewards and Chase Southwest cards, we learn about the “new” Wyndham Rewards program, visit Hungary and Nauru and get mind blown away by Hakanai!
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I am trying to stick to featuring just ten links but…
What US Airways fliers should know now that Dividend Miles is gone – 6 good and 3 bad – Mile Cards Very well said/done.
Monday Funday – Mile Nerd A collection of the latest offers for you…
Unbelievable Cheap Hotel Redemptions – Travel Is Free Excellent collection! Went to Evernote vault.
30+ Best Uses of American Express Membership Rewards Points – Travel Is Free Some good ideas here. I currently have about 300k in two accounts and hoooooolding. I should transfer them out at some point, waiting on a juicy non Avios bonus but getting tired of waiting.
15 Things Everybody Should Know About American Express – Doctor of Credit How come the Titans can’t publish this good content but can publish dozens of affiliate credit cards in a post huh?
Round Up Of All The Current Chase Southwest Bonuses – Doctor of Credit Nice summary of all Southwest card offers. For the love of God, do NOT get the Southwest cards with my links!
Big changes for Wyndham Rewards May 11 – Loyalty Traveler Look it here, the Cartera of hotels wants to become relevant again….Hmmm, let me wait until the smoke clears…Here is a review of the Wyndham credit cards by Doctor of Credit. I repeat, proceed with caution due to the atrocious history of this hotel company! I have enough hotel points for the moment, not going to mess around with Wyndhams and Red Roof Inns. Heck, I even have 9k something La Quinta points that expire in June, any idea what to do with them or how can I extend their life?
12 beautiful photos to make you wonder why you haven’t visited Hungary yet – Matador Network Fantastic collection of pictures here!
No Way But Nauru – Roads & Kingdoms Very educational piece!
A man lost 50 pounds hiking 2,660 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail — and he made an awesome time-lapse video of selfies to prove it I despise selfies in general but this one was very cool. If you need to lose weight get your butt moving…or hiking!
These are the times during life when people are happiest Holy Jesus, I guess I have a few more years before I start being happier lol.
This is exactly why likable people are so likeable – Quartz There is lots of wisdom here.
Light Bending Dance Performance Will Touch Your Soul – Twisted Sifter Hakanai. Complete mind bending experience. Wow!
I would like to apologize publicly here for being a douche bag to include Big Crumbs in the TBB Support links. That company was an MLM scheme, just an online version of Amway crap. It had been attacked by hackers and was down for over a month. Or so they say. Until today when they sent an email that they are not coming back but, wait for it, they are morphing back into another company built on the same ponzi scheme principles. Barf harder than eating durian! It appears the early ones got some money and the late entrants got left holding the bag. Yeah I know it worked great for Amex gift cards. Hope you didn’t have too much dinero left in there. And oh the audacity to launch another one with the same sleazy tactics. Wait for the TBB troll to shout how much money he made lol. Please stay away from the successor website! Thank you. Stand for something!
HUGE meeting later today. No, not with Chase, relax!
TBB
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Sam says
First. Again.
TravelBloggerBuzz says
I am impressed. At this rate you may surpass the sporadic Helixcardinal.
Him and Spencer F are just slacking lately, come on you guys!
William Charles says
Hey George,
Thanks for the links. Does earning activity extend the life of La Quinta points? If so you might still have time to complete this offer: https://www.returns-enewsletter.com/nimblefish.jsp
If not, don’t worry it comes back every couple of months. If earning activity doesn’t extend the life, I got no idea sorry. Surprised the 60k Southwest business card hasn’t got more play considering you can just call in to get it and then pair that with another 50k bonus to instantly get the companion pass.
Might have to do another post to make it clearer that anybody can call in and get it.
TravelBloggerBuzz says
I was an hour late it appears as the link expired March 31. Story of my life lol. Thanks. Darn LQ points, what a nuisance to bother with.
You are putting some great stuff lately, I am very impressed.
Tara says
I don’t know what happened with LQ. In 2013, they had a cash & points thing so I used 8k points & $49 to book an 18k property near my Mom’s house. It seems they don’t do it anymore. The 300 points comes around roughly every quarter and they had a Facebook game at the end of 2013 which resulted in a lot of free points.
I’m gonna miss US! When I wrote my nostalgic look back on my blog, I was shocked at how many trips we actually got just from USDM promos!
ctbarron says
3rd – this is easier when on the west coast.
That Big Crumbs email was hysterical. Sadly people are dumb enough to try again.
TravelBloggerBuzz says
Yeah, I saved it so I can laugh when I need one…Oh the balls the guy had. And the 10% bonus in case the company gets bought out LOL. And the most egregious omission, not a SINGLE word for any money in members’ accounts…wow just wow. Looks very fishy to me…more like he spend the entire month cleaning out everything for good…Sensing we may not have heard the last from this episode…
TravelBloggerBuzz says
TBB readers: It is the 1st of the quarter and TBB has to stay away from online to take care of an important activity, as in feeding my family! And then off to a very important meeting that if it comes through it gets me closer to being a Titan in my own terms doing something I also love and not have to do it the usual pumping style of the miles Titans lol.
Stay tuned…
John says
George, don’t despise selfies, not all of us have a built in family to help out with the dumb photos
TravelBloggerBuzz says
I am mostly referring to people who keep taking pictures of themselves. I think it is perfectly fine to take some when you travel alone. But the ones I see online of people who keep posting pics of themselves in the bathroom, eating or whatever….non stop, I think they have a narcissistic problem.
PedroNY says
George, I know that I mentioned it before, but I will again. I used to value MR points for their transfer value (mostly to Continental), but then it dawned on me — once you hit 7 digit miles balances, and maintain them, do you really need MR points for transfer? Since then, water heater, insulation, furniture, washer and dryer, vacuum cleaner, garbage can, grill other appliances, have been acquired through gift cards to Home Depot and other stores at $.01 per point. You should consider it as a cash substitute, worth close to $.015 each once you account for non payment of fed/stare/Medicare taxes. Ponder on it. With a signup bonuses for plat and gold biz offers per year x2, you can easily generate ~$3,000-$4,000 tax free towards housing expenses, and still travel with all of your other miles and points.
Cheers,
PedroNY
ABC says
Stay on message. Do you know how hard it is to sell CCs? Penis measurement exercised a la frequent miler/One mile at a time makes my life much easier.
Some may say that what you’re doing makes sense, but why would you want your penis to be so small, when it could be so much BIGGER. It’s not about how you actually use them, it’s about HOW you could use them.
TravelBloggerBuzz says
@PedroNY: You are right, at some point trying to maximize the transfers out of MR and just have them sit there waiting for the next deval does not make much sense either…But ya know, it’s the principle, the hacker culture or something. More like a mental block 🙂
@ ABC: You cracker
Andrew says
Don’t you feel like blogs are dying… Except a couple of titans, there is barely anything posted
on most of them, some don’t have any updates, some post some meaningless garbage
like deltapoints etc. Even some bigger ones like mommypoints seem to be on a down movement…
Some which used to be very active are completely dead.
I think after the climax of 2013/2014, it seems to be over.
Tara says
Seriously Andrew, I have noticed that as well. I think it’s because no one dares to blog about hot deals on MS and FDs openly, and the programs aren’t giving any new promo material. We’ve all seen buy points promos a hundred times, we all know what credit cards are there and the last icon of the past – Daily Getaways is a snoozefest without the Wyndham-airline miles to leverage. Wyndham isn’t even in it this year are they? Choice is good for European stays only, they’re a rip off just about anywhere else like Australia or South America.
TravelBloggerBuzz says
I agree with both of you. Darn economy is primarily responsible for the lack of excitement. The move to rev based earning and redeeming is continuing and of course the devaluations are continuing non stop (RIP Club Carlson). The plastic salesmen have to stay on topic to keep converting the sheep newbies. They are not allowed to post lots of stuff as they are scared to death they may get a Compliance Violation. I think some are realizing that this blogging thing is exhausting and there can only be a few Titans and are seeing the writing on the wall. Never underestimate the simplicity of having a decent job, with good benefits, a 401k Plan and you know learn valuable marketing skills in our fast paced world. Of course you lose the flexibility but if the time/payoff is not there you clearly can do it only for so long…
To make BIG hits to attract readers/converters is you got to give away the store sometimes…which contributes to the deals being killed….and on it goes.
I now am going to go refill my Panera coffee for free…