Let’s go on a wild ride through posts on credit card dangers, PFDigest with some good stuff on IHG Rewards and Starwood, adoption update, miles valuations, Bajau Laut people, Skylines, Insane Maps and look at kissing animals and stuff like that.
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TBB Board, at the very last minute, decided to pull the Tabloid Buzzard Express section from this blog post and will create an epic rant in a separate blog post, hopefully later on Friday. If not Friday, it will be Saturday! Frankly, I don’t know for sure. All I know is you need to keep checking here to build site traffic so I can shake down some advertisers to finally buy a banner ad! Just kidding. I have lots to say so it will be a good one! To the few readers who offered me pro bono legal advice please stand by 🙂
Some excellent advice from Personal Finance Digest. Like his tip on the 80,000 IHG Rewards credit card. And stay away from that Starwood Platinum “trick”. If you get canned and you sue you are probably a douchebag!
Credit Card Danger – It’s Real Money. By Mileage Update. Must read if you have debt issues. If you do, YOU are responsible for us good money handlers for traveling for free for many years. We thank YOU but PLEASE please get some help! Bloggers who pump credit cards to line up their own pockets don’t give a damn about your debts or problems controlling yourself AFTER you get a credit card from their links!
Travel is Free with an Adoption Update video. Please consider donating. If you donated to Lucky’s ridiculous kickstarter you should at least match it here, come on!
I really liked the approach by Free-quent Flyer on “Frequent Miler’s wrongheaded approach to redemption values” and I agree with it. Makes more sense to me than FM’s wonkish approach to come up with specific numbers to assign to them. That’s all, no big deal. Too much bandwidth is wasted on valuation issues! We are all different, burn them the way it pleases you!
Found here. Photo by Danny Green.
The Bajau Laut is a group of seafaring Southeast Asian nomads who had survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami with almost no casualties. I had no idea about them. Their story and photos are fascinating.
34 Insanely Detailed Maps of the World. By Matador Network. Some of these are way too fascinating!
Animals kissing. Way too adorable to describe!
10 401(k) Facts Everyone Should Know. Decent article by a personal finance writer I like. Maybe one day I will do a blog post on my favorite personal finance writers.
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First?
2ndd!
3rd. Prepare for an onslaught of Chase Freedom posts, the big bloggers are just waiting for their affiliate links go live!
So which blog is the first to feature William Wallace scream “FRREEEEEEDDDOOOOMMMM!!!!!”?
Thanks for the marketing angle.
I guess the other bloggers are all sleeping in today?
I think Gary’s comments for VFTW’s umpteenth Ink post are classic:
“Hi Jay, I do benefit from signups for this card, I also think it’s a fantastic offer — I’ve long said this is the best card overall, and it’s an offer we’ve only seen once before, plus we have a defined end date.
Certainly the benefit to me, combined with it’s genuinely good advice, influences my thinking(I never give advice I wouldn’t consider to be strong regardless of financial incentive, I turn down a ton of things in front of me because I wouldn’t do it myself and don’t see of value to readers).”
Yeah, like encouraging readers to apply for the 30K Ink offers the day before. That was genuinely bad advice influenced by the referral. Given the ability to churn biz cards with a new EIN there is no reason apply for a 30K offer.
You can’t just churn them with a new EIN, have you actually tried doing that before?
No one should churn business credit cards by creating fake businesses with fake EIN. That’s asking for pain, If you do have a few legit businesses on the other hand, yes, you can have more than one business card for each of them.
As if the vast majority applying for Inks have a real biz.
Even with real businesses it’s a pain getting multiple business CCs.
Happy to be
Number 3
Wow… VTFW appears to have hit rock bottom in terms of his standards for “content” on his blog… At least DP (unintentionally) entertains with a phenomenal review of a HMS Host location at DTW. Oh, and it doesn’t look like OMAT will be experienceing Etihad’s Residences courtesy of donors, so that’s something to be happy about! lol
Awwww! Technically they are allo-preening but kissing is close enough! Those are Sun Conures, native to Brazil and Guyana.
(Puts on Ingy mask) There goes George again, spreading misinformation and criticizing others when he’ s the one calling a Sun Conure allo-preen a parrot kiss!
Lol…I could take it from here and go on, you know, being angry and all 😉
Angry bird?
Can anyone give a brief summary of what Jeff/Canadian Kms did that upset so many? It’s something about a DOT complaint after being denied boarding, but I’m fuzzy on the details (and on whether we should care).
He booked a ticket knowing it would have cabotage issues. Got denied boarding, decided to go with DOT. LM got slapped with a fine, he got a decent compensation.
As a result, a good amount of the loopholes were plugged. Those who are upset think that the attention he brought to the loopholes combined with the big fine made LM plug those holes.
He booked a trick with LM. I think it was the GUM trick. He used LM for booking west coast to to an island in the pacific with a stop in Japan. Trick is to get off in Japan and because the island in the pacific is considered a part of north america the ticket is super cheap. LM basically considered it a domestic ticket. When it came time to fly he was not allowed to board because it violates cabotage rules. He had a tantrum because even though he knew it was an illegal booking LM let him do it so he felt he was entitled to it. He complained to DOT. Now the trick is dead.
TBB, if I was too specific with the trick feel free to edit, but since that particular trick is dead I thought it was ok.
It’s dead now so no point holding back. He was going to fly the hello kitty planes on Eva through Taiwan.
Unbelievable he called the DOT. a BUNCH of LM tricks got closed down immediately after – since they had to fix that one they fixed a bunch. Really ruined it for a lot of ppl
Read the threads on FT. He still hunks what he did was right despite knowing it would close down loopholes. Unreal.
Jeff definitely wins the prize for being the biggest douchebag blogger out there. Or is it asshole?
Amazingly he still proclaims to be in the right.
TBB, why have you not taken him to task?
Can’t quite work out if he’s a douche or asshole either, but either way a big one
Ah… now I see that US-Japan/Taiwan-US was the cabotage issue. Thanks for the replies and info everyone.
Why are we struggling with this one?
Asshole vs douchebag was covered by TBB just a few posts ago.
This is clearly asshole behaviour.
As a long time fan of Butthole surfers I’m an expert in this space.
George – you clearly lack marketing skills like your poor amazon link. Had it been another blogger, there could have been a contest to vote if Jeff is AH or DB and the winner getting a BIG FAT 5$ Amazon certificate or something. By the way, a panel of “experts” will be setup by your “marketing team” to decide the winner based on non-transparent rules:)
>>>>>>>>>>>TBB, why have you not taken him to task?
Because he is a kid. Sometimes the silent treatment is better to avoid mental scars 🙂
Hope it was a learning experience for him. I have told him to listen to his mother and stick to Accounting 🙂
Sorry. He’s not a kid. He can drink and smoke in his home country. He can join the military and die on the battlefield. He can vote. He runs a business, with links and advertising revenue. If he commits a crime, the courts view him as an adult.
People on the boards told him not to file with the DOT. He did so anyways. He killed a lot of good deals, for selfish reasons.
I think you are being way to easy on him, perhaps for personal reasons
Yes #hintlastsentence
What do you expect. He is a typical millennial, part of the Me, Me, Me generation like the other kickstarted blogger.
Actually the millennial generational issue you raise is probably on the mark.
Reader sent me the email he sent out to everyone who donated very smoothly asking them to pimp it, you know, finish strong!
Does the DOT rules protect him? He is Canadian after all. 🙂
Yes, he was denied boarding at LAX, so it is covered by DOT.
Thanks for the Bajau article, hadn’t heard of those people before. I assume everybody here is familiar with North Sentinel Island?
http://www.odditycentral.com/travel/north-sentinel-island-the-worlds-hardest-place-to-visit-2.html
Wow, what friendly people. Thanks for this.
A big plus of blogging is: Learning new stuff!
Or as Ingy would call them, TBB readers…
Well the website of the “world’s expert in traveling free” wins todays bonehead post award
FTG posted the reminder for “First Friday”… a week early. Too bad we are still in may. You’ll have to remind your readers again next week to get those 30 extra friday points (worth about 60 cents) – http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/2014/05/sapphire-preferred-first-friday-bonus-3x-on-dining.html
whoops. Guess avios isn’t the only thing too complicated to figure out. the gregorian calendar is as well!
Well now they have changed it that they are reminding us for next Friday. How nice of them. I mentioned this in the comments over there – What a joke.
Nice revisionist history over there…
Thanks FTG for the helpful reminder that in 8 days we can earn an extra point. That’s helpful advice there….
I think I will get to Chicago to get the inside scoop on this deal.
Just kidding 🙂
For a blog that schedules out all of their posts (Monday Rick posts, Tuesday Howie posts, Wednesday is the travel challenge…) you’d think that the editor would pay more attention to the calendar.
Perhaps she is too busy standing in line at Walmart and writing about it on her own blog to pay much attention to what she’s paid to do?
Monday was a holiday. Maybe they are off schedule???
IT HAS COME TO OUR ATTENTION THAT SOME OF YOU HAVE ONLY ONE CHASE INK CARD. THIS IS UNFORTUNATE. WHY NOT GET A SECOND CARD? PLEASE REPORT TO BOARDINGAREA.COM FOR MORE DETAILS.
This is fast turning out to be my favorite commentor on TBB
Gary’s posts about INK are absolutely annoying, but I have to give him a little credit in that he is honest about “financial incentive.” I won’t be using his links, but he is a tad bit more transparent about the fact that he’s getting paid and that it influences his writing than others out there. For every hateful comment, he is getting thousands to help salve the wound, so he’s the one who is fat and happy in the end. Notice in the comments Gary denies it’s $500 per sign-up. How much is it?
Compare Gary’s “financial incentive” admission to the statement from OMAAT in his Kickstarter appeal wherein he says:
“Unless you’re into falconry, have maids’ quarters in your home, your private jet is being repaired, and qualify for one of the “special” titles when signing up for an Etihad Guest account, chances are you can’t afford it. And I sure as hell can’t.”
The “and I sure as hell can’t” line is a blatant lie; Ben can absolutely afford to pay cash for that flight with his multiple hundred thousand dollar income (apologies if it has hit 7 figures this year; no offense meant). That was terribly misleading and similar to one of MMS’s favorite lines: “Emily and I could never afford to travel like this without miles and points.” OH, YES YOU COULD…but not without your affiliate links.
@ Andrew: Congrats, you da man!
@ M A: You should be proud, Silver is not too shabby!
@ William Charles: Third means medal! Oh…at this point I am so dazed and confused by the Chase card barrage…I am just numb!
@ Smith: Funny you quote THAT as I also quoted it in my mega rant post already! What a quote, smh.
@ It’s me: You should be happy to be…number 5 🙂
@ Hua: I agree on everything you said 🙂 And thanks for the update on the kickstarter. I am surprised he is not covering the shortfall. Perhaps that is not allowed?
@ Tara: Thanks for the correction. I have no idea about birds. You are the true expert!
@ harvson3 & John and Scott: Kid is young. This will stay with him. Does not realize how credibility is earned. Live and learn I guess. Funny how a Canadian turned on to US federal agency for “justice” 🙂
@ James and Ralph: I mentioned this in last Buzz post in the comments. Thanks to a very alert reader who let me in on it. I had marked it of course and had totally missed the date connection! Absolutely ridiculous imho.
@ THE CHASE MARKETING MACHINE and The common man: Yes 🙂
@ R_y: The Ink cards pay somewhere between $170 and $180 my Snowden-like sources say.
Absolutely AGREE that the two quotes you stated are LIES:
OMAAT: ““Unless you’re into falconry, have maids’ quarters in your home, your private jet is being repaired, and qualify for one of the “special” titles when signing up for an Etihad Guest account, chances are you can’t afford it. And I sure as hell can’t.”
MMS: ““Emily and I could never afford to travel like this without miles and points.”
Hey, it helps SELL cards. Which is priority Number 1. The reader is definitely NOT number 1.
I am preparing the MEGA rant on this stuff but it may take me a while. It will be LONG and worth it I think. In the meantime, my eye sockets are about to be destroyed again by the Ink pimping that continues…
sigh
TBB
never angry, occasionally pissed off by marketing machines posing as “experts”
Commission rates vary based on volume, there is no way Chase is paying anywhere near $500 an approved application though.
$170-$180 sounds about right, probably lower for non-volume affiliates and higher for your MMS, FTGs & TPGs.
If it was $500 again my cat Fluffy would attack me with his killer paws if I was still screwing around with the Amazon link lol.
I know for a fact that the high end Chase and Amex cards pay $300+ per conversion.
Maybe some are getting volume bonuses? 🙂
As I’m sure he’s putting an epic rant together as well, can you collaborate with MileNerd to put together the rant to end all rants?
I’ll treat you out to a Big Mac next Friday if you do
I think we can get more miles if we splurged in Subway $5 foot longs!
Have you ever thought of ….TBB, THE PODCAST?….You can hire Wack Pack O’ Nuts to direct it for you. It would be bigger than Adam Carolla’s podcast………The Podcast theme music… We’re Not Goin to Take It by Twisted Sister, of course.
Let me get first to figure out how to do a newsletter. Then how to do a Facebook page. In other words, I wouldn’t expect a podcast around here for years.
Twisted Sister…lol…wonder what ever happened to them!
Today’s Tip…..If you are a loser like me, you probably have a handful of gift cards lying around with .67 cents, .89 cents, $1.08 ect……..what a pain in the arse to try and spend these. But no more, you can buy an Amazon E Gift Card for as little as a nickel and send it to yourself……………….I hope Marathon Man dosen’t get pissed at me for writing this…… HT to anyone who wrote this before me………Buzz, has anyone told you that you are lazy lately? 600 on your feedly, cmon man, pick it up Flabio. (said with love, I love you man)……………………………….pss Doctor of Credit you have my blessing to steal this tip.
This new boardingarea blog ThreadTripping looks veeeeeery interesting!! ok i’m done for the day.
Somebody is messing with me buying $0.01 items with my Amazon link, hope it is not you! Not even a dollar so I can get a few pennies in revenue. $0.01 purchases WTF! Oh wait, must have something to do with MS probably. Or maybe it is Marathon Man screwing with me for continuing to give him crap for presenting in Chicago.
Thread Tripping is in my Feedly list already. Not sure what to think of it yet but I am sure the Chase links will work their way in there somehow sooner or later;-)
That’s odd, I didn’t know you could do transactions in $.01 increments from Amazon. You used to be able to buy gift cards at $.01 a pop, but Amazon changed the minimum to $.15, perhaps because too many people were using them for credit/debit accounts with per-reward transactions and/or minimum transaction levels. Too bad you can’t see what people are buying, it sounds like someone might have discovered something.
It’s that yuneeq guy, I am sure he is up to something…always is 🙂
Maybe he has the Amex EveryDay Preferred and is trying to get his “30” this month?
Yep, it is definitely something like that…
We’ve already talked about Amazon gift cards on the site before. It’s one of the most common ways to meet minimum debit card transactions for bank account bonuses. Thanks though!
I am out of the country right now. Does anyone know what time zone Chase uses to cut off the 60k bonuses? If not, maybe Buzz could give Gary a call over at VFTW headquarters and find out for me.
Thanks much, and I really everyone has a marvelous weekend.
I just called my local Chase branch and while they didn’t know for sure, they said the business day ends officially at 11PM EST. So on the west coast, I was advised to get a deposit in before 8PM to have it credited that same day. Now that may or may not be the same for CC apps. But if it were me, I wouldn’t be applying at 11:30PM EST or PST, if I could help it.
I was also told that once you get into Saturday May 31, it is technically considered the next business day, which is June 2. I can’t see how that applies to CC apps but thought I’d mention it anyway.
No, I am not a shill for Chase. I just have my own private banker there 😉 and frankly that has made many transactions a lot easier. Good luck!
I should then stop adding items to my mega rant blog post and hurry up and get wife a new Ink Bold. She has finally decided to open a new business cooking for corporate meetings or something like that, cough!
Loved the link to the Bajau Laut. Great photos and informative text. If you scrolled to the end like I did, did you also click on the chicken beauty contests link?
More seriously, I hate the way outsiders have introduced them to such destructive fishing methods. Reminds me of the stories we heard about the fishing industry when we visited Newfoundland. BTW that is pronounced NewfoundLAND if you ever go. They also are a half hour ahead in their own little time zone. It is a really remote and fascinating province. Maybe we should do a kickstarter to send Jeff there.
Some may call us angries, but I must say I really like and admire nearly all the commenters here. As a group, not only are you creatively funny and superior satirists, but you know about things like allo-preening and the correct term for the calendar we follow. Kudos all around.
OK, TBB, we are warmed up and ready for the rant!
That kickstarter reference was funny!
I have no idea why people refer this blog to an angry nest. Maybe it is THEY who have no humor and prefer not to be challenged so they can go on and on and on about the wonders of the 8th miracle in the world: the Chase Ink cards!
ON a second thought….I have a severe case of Spring fever today so this mega rant post may wait for next week. It may involve a play by play satire on the last four days before June 1st and all the Chase Ink mega pump posts!
Just a quick correction – the United Nations had an emergency meeting and decided that rather than to name the Chase Ink cards the 8th wonder, it would instead become the 1st wonder with the other 7 wonders sliding down a notch
Frankly, the Egyptians should demolish the great pyramid and rebuild it entirely out of Chase cards
The CSP’s metal would be good for internal structural support. Hey, another use for the CSP! Click my link!
The Freedom links are out too! It’s a Chase orgy!
Gentelmen, start your engines!
The Chase Freedom affiliate link is officially live! Now they can start blogging about it, and not pretend that the offer was up yesterday
Gary was surely holding out on today’s Chase filler post until the link went live. Now that it did, he can post a recycled Freedom post where he “reminds” us how to get the most value of it….
Had my Freedom post up at 10:30 this morning. Do I win a prize
😛
Of course you did, not only is shabbos coming but there’s a chag next week too 😉 ! Kidding aside, enjoy!
(He meant to say ‘Kiddush aside’)
Oy vey!
How do you always get the Chase links a few hours before the rest of the bloggers?
This happened with the CIB and CIP too – you had a morning post up, then dead silence accross the blogosphere for a few hours, and then bam! within a 10 minute span in the afternoon, the rest of the blogosphere goes scorched earth with the Ink posts
MP, OMAT, MMS and FTG and probably countless others all now have the links up within the past few minutes. Gary is just prepping todays Chase filler post, but he’ll have it up shortly
If I said Baksheesh would you believe me 😉
Lots of different networks to work with out there besides bentoffers.
I like Dan’s network. One day I will check them out too 🙂
STOP THE PRESSES! Inside Flyer just broke the news about the La Quinta Visa – 20,000 points after first spend, 2 room upgrade certificates with Gold status (there are upgrades at La Quinta?) and another 20,000 points with $10k spend. 20,000 points is almost enough for a free night at the La Quinta Inn and Suites Secaucus (Meadowlands)! Could this be the new ink bold?
What, Inside Flyer had this? Just made mental note not to renew. Heck, 95% of the info in the magazine is so stale anyways!
Great, another hot deal overexposed and ruined by greedy bloggers.
Frequent Miler, View from the wing, & Boarding area hit the NOOB jackpot. Yahoo has a feature on how to earn 1 million miles, while only spending $1k. Some of the comments are TBB gold standard worthy… you even got a shout out!
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/how-to-earn-a-million-frequent-flier-miles-and-only-87263990337.html
“Those people posting there are the prime targets of the blogs in my Ignore list” – TBB
🙂
On Boardingarea.com right now, the four promoted blog postings are the following:
30,000 Points Starwood Preferred Guest Amex Offer Is Back for Limited Time Via Referrals!
Starwood Credit Card 30,000 Point Offer is Back!
Starwood AmEx 30,000 Point Sign-Up Bonus is Back!
30,000 SPG offer is back via referral! 35,000 total SPG points after spend!
I took a screenshot and wondered what the recent graduates of Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (search on youtube and you’ll see some highlights) would think about this type of marketing.
Thanks for the heads up! I got a screen shot too and may use it. Every after mauling readers non stop with the Ink cards, then the Freedom card….they can’t give it a rest for the Amex referrals that pay them just 5k spg points. I was going to pimp the hell out of this myself but they are determined to pound me to…submission!
Hell No, TBB Won’t Go!
All together now!
I need to fill up my glass 🙂
It has started:
https://twitter.com/Mommy_Points/status/472550542510530560
She is in! I just need to stop messing around in the comments and writing the legendarily Marathon Man like Tabloid Buzzard Express post on the latest Chase link feast to edit the Ignore page 🙂
Remember…the increased sign up bonus for the Ink expires tomorrow, but sometimes they take down the links early so get it today! Plus you can now apply for the 20K Freedom offer at the same time!
Thanks for the reminder lol.
didn’t Travel Summary use to have you on his blog roll or am i just getting old? Travel Summary if you read this why did you remove TBB … wtf.isupwitdat?
What? OMG? The TBB Editorial Board was just notified for an Emergency Meeting to discuss this urgent matter! If true, the link of TS in the Blogs I Like will mysteriously and suddenly disappear. We are not slow here, we are on top of everything! Decision may be influenced by the purchase of a banner ad #hint
lots of activity on CREDIT CARD WHORE ISLAND today. N’EST-CE PAS?
I started doing a post about the increasing credit card pumpization of this space sometime on Thursday. I paste the headline and then I add my insightful as always commentary. I was going to do it for a day, max two to make my point. Well, guess what I am STILL going at it. I will see the end of the 60k Chase Ink offer now that I have lasted so long!
VERY long, Marathon Man will be more than impressed.
I take no prisoners, I type what’s on my mind. I start out with “I do not like financial product salespeople”…
They keep coming…unbelievable really. Disgusting and sickening will be an understatement.
Not sure when I will post it. Maybe Monday morning?
What will it take for Gary to be introduced to “Blogs I ignore”?
If there is anything you should act quickly on, it’s credit cards. Every financially responsible citizen knows that.
Not even Ryanair would treat their customers like that and I’ve been offered many lottery tickets in just a 2h flight.
Ugh.
Milevalue – “INCREDIBLE: 30,000 Bonus Starpoints on SPG Personal and Business Cards”
Buzz, what is this letter from Coins that you speak of? Any chance you might be able to post it here? I have the pocporn all warmed up and ready since Friday waiting for your mega-rant. Need my TBB fix after the Ink/Freedom/SPG assault on the senses!
I too would like to see it. Pimp my flight….
I need to get permission from the reader who sent it to me. It is past midnight on Saturday night. I think it’s late to text and I am almost done with my Sunday Comments Gem filler post. It would have been a nice addition to it. May make it on Monday’s Buzz post if this person gives the ok. Not that big of a deal but….entertaining nevertheless
100 🙂
100 is the new First!