There were some extensive efforts done yesterday to book an award for two either on Delta or Avios with no success. I must admit I have had good luck booking last minute trips with my Skymiles, excuse me, I meant Skypesos. But this time I simply waited too long to book something and the Christmas holidays was probably asking too much as expected. I was just not going to pay 60k miles to Las Vegas or 305k miles to Sydney! Spending 45k miles to Mexico City was quite attractive but we really wanted to get somewhere warm! This was going to be a quick getaway trip leaving the kids behind. It was not meant to be. I am taking advantage of the break to get tons of work done, wife and kids are happy here at brother in law’s in New Jersey. And the beat goes on…
BEST OF
The Mileage Junkie’s Guide to Staying Healthy This is a GREAT article! HT to MommyPoints for bringing it to my attention! It also references this blog as: “another way to relax is vent”. I have no idea why the author feels this way, lol. MUST read for the hardcore miles/points addict! To author: Such gem does not belong in a website for nursing degrees! For write ups like this, I would love you to guest post in my blog! I wish I could offer you 5% of my gazillions in revenue rolling in from devoted readers clicking on my affiliate links, lol! So, drop everything and enjoy this read and nod affirmatively if you recognize yourselves…I sure did!
Hack My Trip wrote an interesting piece on “Hotel Annoyances, and a Few Benefits of Elite Status” Gary adds to the discussion with “Some of the Good and Bad of Hotel Hospitality“. I find myself agreeing with Scott on every point he raised, scary:-)
Ben’s epic trip report of Emirates First Class from London Heathrow to Dubai is finally here. TBB is ecstatic that the wet towel pics are BACK, yeah!
Ben is going for status at Kimpton Hotels. I have never stayed in a Kimpton hotel yet but I have always heard great things about them too! If you thought that Hyatt is small you probably would not like Kimpton as they have only about 50 hotels ONLY in the US! I wonder if they do status matches…Hoping for an update on this soon, please be patient!
An excellent summary again by Loyalty Lobby of the Pros and Cons of Marriott Rewards. I do not like Marriotts, period! Ridiculous elite requirements and no porn allowed, that is too far! :–)
Delta Points (!!!) has an informative post on the 10 Delta Q&As before & after year end that always come up. Probably the best DP blog post since I started my blog! The most shocking is how he controlled himself in not adding a single credit card link in the body of the post, wow!
Gary Leff writes about how Autoslash can still be useful for car rentals. And he gives a few more tips on saving on car rentals through other avenues. I personaly have had good experiences with Carrentalsavers.com. Also Priceline & Hotwire too if I don’t end up with National again.
Yes Virginia, you can buy Vanilla Reloads in Walgreens. There are VERY rare so you may likely run out of gas while you find one. When you find one, please be gentle and do not buy $20k at once!
Gadling wrote “What Hotels Offer a Free Breakfast“.
Barefoot Nomad has the “10 Gifts of Travel Inspiration” We are total suckers for inspirational travel stuff!
NOT SO BEST OF
Frugal Travel Guy pushed hard for the crappy US Air credit card deals today, even AFTER so much has been written about it. Even he himself had written about how inferior this offer is to the non affiliate link offer when it first came out. Or was this churning “challenge” written by another contributor or was it just written by Flex Offers or Internet Brands and published here without his knowledge now that he sold the blog? The bottom line is that the advice here is just WRONG and there is only one explanation why this is published here! Unbelievable!
WorldWanderlusting also pushes the crappy US Air credit card. He starts out talking about buddy passes and then bang, he comes to the rescue of his readers by this “Awesome” deal. Shameful indeed! Pimping at its finest I guess!
This probably does not belong here as it causes absolutely no harm. It is here because I find it absolutely incredible that the epic Bora Bora trip report by Million Mile Secrets is STILL not over! In my long experience, I have NEVER seen a trip report be broken down into so many segments! A bit moderation/consolidation would be very welcome, imho. And now watch how he will extend it to another 20 additional segments to hit back at me:-) Next installment soon: “Is Water expensive in Bora Bora? Comparing the different options for water”, lol.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Sweet Brown’s Cold Pop Escape I first discovered this hilarious video at Ben’s One Mile at a Time
blog.
And then @AZTravelGuy mentioned this even MORE hilarious video spoofing Sweet Brown remix. I have not laughed so hard in a long time!
Dog Kikko is dead meat now with a $2 million dollar in its head!
And now for something a lot more serious. This article here, imho of course, is right on and this is one of the main reasons I despise all the pimping going on behalf of the big banks! “It’s Not a Tax or Spending Problem…It’s a Devolution into Lawlesness“
Fact Check: Guns in America: Come on, where is my NRA buddy to light up the comments again, I miss him as much as Ben misses Frank, lol.
The 100 Best Lists of All Time
THE END
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There is salt water which doesn’t earn any points. Fresh water that can be had at stores in bottles. Bottled water at the resort that I would appreciate if you buy as E and I earn affiliate income off of that purchase. Thanks you guys are the best blog readers in the world as long as you continue to line E and I’s pockets with affiliate income!
love that article – mileage junkies guide to staying healthy!!!!
Love those oddz and endz. Keep it up!
Great article on the healthy mileage junkies! One more sign of losing it – laughing at how many of those things sound like you while you read it to people who have a perpetual blank look on their face at the content!
@Anonymous: At this rate I expect “We take our grandson #1 to Bora Bora bungalow”…
@Kathy: Yep, loved it!
@bluecat: I am trying, please click on my ads, lol.
@Charlie: Oh, so true!
At least FTG mentiones the better offer. Some bloggers won’t even do that. One of the worst offenders IMO is milevalue. Check out his post today. He’s still pushing the lesser US offer. I repied to his post yesterday about the expired citi AA offers, commenting (very politely) that the US offer was still alive, and asked why not highlight that offer too? Instead of responding it appears he chose to censor my comment as it no longer appears. Today at the end of his affiliate link fest he states: “Now it’s your turn to live up to your part of the bargain”. I thought his bargain when he added affiliate links was that he would always promote the best offers. Looks like you just can’t keep some bloggers honest.
@ HikerT: I just got to his post today about an hour ago. Reading it I immediately put it in my “Best Of” category. When I got to the end & STILL saw the crappy US Air offer I almost threw up…so he is going go to be featured in the “Not so Best Of” category now and I will speak my mind. FTG started out in the right side but then….several days later (trying to get under the radar perhaps), got back to the old pimping ways. Recommending an inferior offer is horribly wrong and there ONLY two explanations: 1) They are just too greedy & don’t care about their readers (or appeal to their ignorance) or 2) They are terribly minsinformed (hard to believe but I am sure it exists). Milevalue still can produce some killer content: It would have been nice if he comes out and says ‘Hey look, I spend lots of time producing this content, if it has been helpful to you please visit my credit cards page (link) and help me out to help me keep going. My gut feeling is that he is still under a trial period from Flex Offers and is freaking out contemplating he may lose the links…therefore the relentless pimping.
My 2 cents and I stand by it as always in MY blog:-)
Thanks for reading. Maybe the pressure (wishful thinking) can raise the ethics bar in this space that has so totally changed in the past few years!
Ratz! I hate being on the “good guy” side of your blog. I get tons more hits when on the bottom of your page. I will try to up my posts the rest of the year with 10x as many links to make up for it! 🙂 (But I hate to say it Tamara’s Friday post will likely be Up not Down on TBB)
BTW, I would love to know, if someone follows the advice of some, and get’s a card when they are not eligible per the T&C (or even worse commits outright fraud by changing code), and they happen to say get ZERO points, will those yelling about these links pay up the points themselves? Or?
@DP: I think there will be plenty of times you will get at the bottom of my page:-) Tamara is a nice gal but for her to make it to the top will take something…monumental, I just don’t see it. I would love it though, I love original helpful content!
The superior US Air cc offer has been working for YEARS. I think the title on the very top is misleading as it is definitely NOT intended for Chairman Preferred members! Regarding manipulating/changing code is wrong in my book, I would never do it or will I ever recommend it! The only reason the aff US Air cc offer is pushed is because of the aff dough, you know it. I think that as a disservice to own blog readers, especially when the guy stated publicly that he will never do such a thing!
@TBB – dang-it! Why to you have to be so reasonable and level headed (it makes it so hard to disagree with you)! I agree, other offers should be mentioned (maybe/maybe not linked) and I give you HUGE kudos for standing up against fraud (changing code)!
Thanks:-) Regarding your Advantage Rental Car question, I have rented with them twice and had no issues. One time I had to wait in line a long time, only one rep working. I think I have had issues with Alamo more than 50% of the time! I think you will be fine but, you know, ymmv.
Great and txs; getting good feedback from readers too. Good or bad will make for a good blog post (I am sure you now see that value ♥ )!
I remember a time when MileValue walked a mile uphill (each way!) to write original content in every post and there were no affiliate links. Those were the days…
BTW, love this blog of yours.
Yeah, those were the days indeed…
Thanks for the compliment, it really means a lot!
You might wanna check out Zalyn.com. I like the fact that its not simply a static list of a bunch of coupons. Based on where and when you’re going, they only show coupons that are applicable. Moreover, you can signup and add your AAA, Costco and other memberships.