It was a fantastic yesterday here in Los Angeles! The dinner on Thursday night, the Friday breakfast and lunches at the FairmontMiramar have all been wonderful! I absolutely adore my FairmontLifetimePlatinum status, I call it the status that keeps on giving! Thanks to Angelina, who writes Just Another Points Traveler, for joining me for lunch and the deep discussion about all silly things we miles/points addicts like to talk about. I am still getting used to the idea that I am now one of the “bloggers”!
After dropping off my Chrysler 300c at the National Car Rental office, I checked in the LAX Radisson for two nights. I immediately proceeded to pour my indisputable charm to the front desk check in rep and I ended up with a fantastic suite, 2 breakfast coupons and a lovely fruit basket as a…Gold Club Carlson member (see pic above). Points to Points B watched my performance and was left speechless: “Wow, you need to teach me how to do this”. I immediately thought about this may be the way for me to monetize my blog to compensate for the loss of numerous hours and insults thrown at me. Actually, my fears of being physically attacked proved to be false. The positive and encouraging feedback given to me when people find out I am the person behind Travel Blogger Buzz has been absolutely incredible! One person was brave enough to tell me in my face “Wow, you are a really nice guy, I thought you were a grumpy a**hole”. The rest of you were probably thinking about it. It is okay, I understand. I was actually waiting for someone to come up to me & tell me “Hey, are you the “angries” blogger? You don’t seem angry & you smile a lot”.
Bottom line is, this group of people resembles (may be a strong word) a…Cult! We are all just not normal people! We have our own language, our own success stories (oh let me tell you we all love to recite our grandest accomplishments), our own tricks (be careful what you say or they may be featured in a blog early next week served with some slick credit card links) and a maddening obsession with mileage runs/elite status/upgrades/dealscores! A big warning to all newbies attending FTU: Are you really up for this hobby? There is a high probability you will likely be infected! The disease has a high probability of not being curable. It will dominate your life, you will think about how miles/points affect everything you do! The travel you are about to do for free is a big lie! Nothing is for free! It may be highly discounted of course but nothing is free. It will cost you your time to keep up and accomplish the necessary tasks. Should you spend your time doing something else? Should I be spending my time doing other things other than devoting my time reviewing other blogs and writing about them and only receiving the occasional positive feedback and insult (love both!)? Yes of course! But I ENJOY everything about points/miles ever since I got my Northwest Silver Elite card in the mid 1990s. It has been an absolute maddening love fest ever since. It is a true PASSION! It DID change my life by allowing memorable trips that I would never ever pay out of pocket because, deep down, I am as cheap as most of you! It is, if you look at it from this point of view, a cult…a bit easy to join and so hard to leave! It is stronger than crack! This hobby is NOT for the majority of people out there! Ok, I feel a major anti credit card ranting building right now….I better cut it off before I let myself go:-)
Ok, thanks to a follower on twitter (@Tsqueeze678) who alerted me to the virtues of the new Club Carlson Card! OMG, this is a REAL competitor to the other chains! Ok, they may not have a great consistency in their properties but come on…look at what this cards get you! What, you want it spoon fed to you? We don’t do that around here! Just click on the link and go there and READ…Don’t worry, it is not an affiliate link! Straight to mamma! Club Carlson continues the relentless pursuit of being worthy to be mentioned along with the main hotel chains! Very welcome development, need to shake things up a bit in the cozy hotel world, we have not had any big time promos lately (other than…Club Carlson’s!)
Ok, on to have some fun! Thank God most bloggers are here at Frequent Flyer University in LAX so not many blogs posts to review.
Travel Summary writes about “How to Pick the Affiliate Link to Apply to?” I need to hurry up and finish this blog post as it is already 1 am LA time! I just wanted to say that the Spirit credit card app link that is public is indeed the best one out there:-)
Hack my Trip did a Side by Side Comparisons of Airline Elite Status Impressively time consuming and useful blog post!
Miles from Blighty had FIVE different hotel review posts about ONE property (Andaz Amsterdam)! Five! Come on, could we combine into one please, max two? Thanks to one of my biggest fans on tweeter for the heads up, you know who you are!
Great work as usual, and thanks for the shout out!
Stop patting those guys on the back. You’re going to encourage others to get in the game (sorry Rick). LOL.
dhammer
@Tim: Thanks you!
Anonymous: Ok, I will try my best. I am behaving myself here at the FTU in LA because I fear for my physical safety. when I am back home surrounded by my family who loves me I am going to come out swinging
Geez, I can’t believe you got the “preferential blogger room upgrade treatment” already and you’ve only been blogging less than a month. You never would have gotten that suite upgrade if they didn’t know you were a blogger and think you were gonna post about it. 😉 You’re as bad as the rest of those bloggers taking the free handouts!!!! J/K
Well, I am two for two in awesome upgrades since I started my career as a blogger. You may be on to something. There must be a ocde entered in our loyalty accounts to “take care of this blogger before he/she makes all look like fools on the internet”
good thing that photo is dim, because you know that suite at the Radisson LAX sucked! I know because I had one too!
For Radisson standards, as a Gold CC, getting this BIG room, breakfast cert, lake checkout at 6 pm, promo points plus free night, 1k CC pts on Foursquare, next to conference hotel, good shuttle, excellent service by all employees, WATER at all times (lol) was Great! Add to the fact of the amazing Miss California competition being held at the hotel and it was a heavenly…stay. Mine was in the 12th floor, lower floors suites were not as “renovated” perhaps? Oh, free wifi that rocked too plus amazing views!
Sorry you didn’t like the Andaz Amsterdam Review format – I normally do one review per hotel, but as this was the first Hyatt in the Netherlands and a very contraversial hotel, I felt it needed more. There were plenty of pictures in the posts.