TravelBloggerBuzz

An eclectic journey through the Travel Miles/Points blogosphere

Etihad First Class, Discover Deals, Iran, Remote Places, Haiti

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We learn how to book Etihad First Class with our AA miles, losing patience with the Discover Deals portal, visit Iran, other remote places & Haiti and more!

 

TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order!

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Great post at Travel Codex comparing Partner Awards Booked with Alaska vs. American Airlines miles.

How to search Etihad First Class awards availability and book with American Airlines AAdvantage miles, now on video at Andy’s Travel Blog. Hurry! Suggestion: It would help if video showed the screen closer so we can clearly see where the mouse pointer is!

Miles To Memories thinks the Discover Deals Shopping Portal has issues and I agree!

This is absolutely ridiculous. Watch this airplane take off in this super tiny airfield in the French Alps. Wow, just wow! I had to rub my eyes before realizing this is indeed real….so how did they land on it in the first place? The runway is only 537 meters long!!!

Why you should visit Iran by Yomadic. When someone makes a joke like the one below, features such awesome photography and intelligent writing…it means they are kept in the Blogs I Love list, a special place!

Joke: …click-bait distraction (“37 Things the Kardashians have Actually Swallowed, You Won’t Believe Number 23”) <——-So much LOLing!

minaret iran yazd view


The most remote places in the world. Some incredible locations along with amazing pictures featured here.

And while they may all provide a form of escape, each remote place has its own distinctions. "Some [of the places] are more striking in location and absolute solitude ... others are extremely intimate and cozy ... and others are super relaxing and ultra-deluxe," Debbie said.
Dar Azawad Dune Camp in Sahara, Morocco. Courtesy of David de Vleeschawer

 

Mitch Albom in Haiti in one of the orphanages he runs. Or yet another way to indict what today’s media age has done to our attentions spans.

 

Preparing For Lower Returns. Great piece by The Irrelevant Investor.

lower

 

The mother of all mushrooms found in Vietnam! It has seven branches and is believed to be thousands of years old.

The giant mushroom, weighing 11 stone and thought to be worth around £3,000, was found in Vietnam

 

And I leave you with this…

https://twistedsifter.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/shirky-turkey-12.jpg
Thought about inserting my ebates link in here and telling you to hurry so I can donate the proceeds on the first three conversions to some charity with 40% administrative costs lol. Found here.

 

Got bored, got me another card that gives me two weekend nights at Hilton and plan to book the Conrad Tokyo next summer. Thanks townbank for the 25k credit limit. Visited the mall & Wal Mart and knocked out that Hyatt targeted spending promo (spend $3k, get 6k points). Trying to slow down my crack miles habit but, you know, how it is 🙂

TBB household is now debt free. This is only the beginning!

Thank you for making TBB a part of your life, I am honored! Help bloggers you appreciate & make a positive difference in your life by spreading the word about their blogs, emailing and commenting and using their few $ links.

Check out my updated blog lists: Blogs I Love, Blogs I Like, Blogs To Ignore

 

TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com

 

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Comments

  2. TBBBreakingNews says

    Good morning TBBers!

    Excuse the technical glitch again in WordPress that delayed the posting of today’s post at 6.30 am. Darn WordPress “missed schedule” again!

    Hilton HHonors Americas Up To 30% Off Cyber Week Flash Sale For Stays December 20 – February 29, 2016 (Book November 30 – December 2)
    http://loyaltylobby.com/2015/12/01/book-now-hilton-hhonors-americas-up-to-30-off-cyber-week-flash-sale-for-stays-december-20-february-29-2016-book-november-30-december-2/

    Club Carlson’s Today’s CYBERTASTIC TUESDAY deal is 20,000 bonus points, when you stay 2 nights at a Radisson hotel.
    http://willrunformiles.boardingarea.com/club-carlson-20000-points-for-2-night-stay/#sthash.m9JnLXDX.dpbs

  4. Jay says

    SECOND the idea about Ebates and charity. Maybe OMAAT is raising money to fly first class. That is a charity and would qualify for a tax write-off. Right? 🙂

    • TravelBloggerBuzz says

      Thought about stating I will triple all revenues in my site and donate to my favorite charity…but I just can’t do this. I prefer to just donate in private and shut up 🙂

  5. TBBBreakingNews says

    Doctor of Credit reviews the new Barclay CashForward card:

    http://www.doctorofcredit.com/barclay-launces-cashforward-1-5-cashback-our-review/

    Why bother with a card that earns 1.50% cash back when you can get the Citi DoubleCash card earning 2% cash back?? #makesnosense

    TBB will fire my ass, please someone get a freaking credit card, nearing 40 days without a single sale, the troll is laughing while is cashing in his ebates referrals for….charity lol.

    Breaking: TBB may be going to Iran #developing

        • Charlie says

          I could see you enjoying a personal tour more, possibly. There are some very good deals to be had, even for personal tours. Plus, the hotels were nice and unique! 🙂 Shoot me an email if you want the info.
          As for flights, Aegean now flies from Athens to Tehran so you could mix a trip to the homeland in with it! 🙂

          • TravelBloggerBuzz says

            I did not know Aegean flies direct to Tehran, thanks! Certainly doable. I will have to learn how to fly out of Shiraz. So much to learn and attend to…it’s nuts! I may have more questions later on.

  7. Enrico Palazzo's Miles Points and Pasta's says

    I agree with you on TIF’s new rating on your list. Personally I have downgraded it from a daily look with my morning coffee to a once a week peek. …… sorry I don’t have any stories about a man who saved someone else’s life and then asked him for $2000 and was turn down (to illustrate this personal downgrade). But I do have a limerick for you “There once was a man from Kent whose XXXXX was quite bent…………..Also Buzz, I forgot to mention last week that another Blogger is now on my Shat List (along w/Gleff) for trying to get a service employee fired. Last week (11/23) Pointchaser posted how she tried to report a Walmart Service Center worker to the store manager. What a SELF ENTITLED JERK! Pointchaser lives in Walmarts getting M.O.’s, she should know better than anyone how hard these employees work, the customers they have to deal with and the low pay scale the receive. I feel compassion for the employees at Walmart and go out of my way to be extra nice. Let’s face it, our Hobby makes more work for them in addition to all the Wacko’s they face on a daily basis. I wonder if she ever reported the HOTEL ROOM SERVICE DELIVERY PERSON to the hotel manager for not picking up dirty room service trays left in the hall.

    • TravelBloggerBuzz says

      We all need to be mindful that employees are people and they have bad days like all of us. I sometimes have caught myself doing exactly that and feel awful about it I was such a jerk.

      Oh man, WM…I was in there yesterday, getting in touch with real life 🙂

  9. PedroNY says

    Congrats on being debt free!

    Keep on spending down those miles/points accounts. 🙂

    Cheers,

    PedroNY

    • TravelBloggerBuzz says

      I may be asking for help for award booking to Tehran and from Shiraz, Iran #developing

      Thanks. It is a great feeling indeed. That was major goal by age 50. It happened at 48 and five months #winning

  10. enrico, ramsey... whatever says

    Buzz, sorry to take up so much space today. There is a story today all over the internet today about an AA F/A having a meltdown on board a flight. Hell, I have so many stories of that we could go on for hours, but here is a quick one………. Was not working this flight but told of from someone else who was……A pain in the ass passenger in F/C kept asking for more and more of everything was complaining about everything on a TWA flight to TLV from JFK. When he asked the burned out F/A for more peas, she went in the galley and returned with a whole pan of peas taken from the warming oven. She then exclaimed “you want more peas, here!” and proceeded to throw the entire pan of peas (enough for 20 people) at the passenger. True story. FYI, F/A was not fired but put on leave to get some therapy.

  12. MIke says

    Hello all.

    I liked that post about Alaska Mileage Plan, Travel Codex makes it sound quite appealing, and I’m wondering if I should start thinking about getting points with them, after I hit my max with Ultimate Rewards. Are they really that great ?

    Let me go over to the Buzz cc links and see what’s on offer. I’m only up to 2 out of 5 new cc’s, been saving a little room for Chase’s 5 card limit.

    • TravelBloggerBuzz says

      There may be a little better offers out there on Alaska Airlines credit cards. Always check Mile Nerd’s card update to make sure you get the best offer.

      Don’t get stretched with too many kinds of miles. Start with a destination and work backwards to get the cards that will fill that goal. Or you can go nuts, this stuff takes a lot of mental real estate.

      Focus, focus, focus 🙂

      • ABC says

        “Start with a destination and work backwards ” That sounds so right, but Shittybank got in the way of that plan.

  13. harvson3 says

    Ways to have fewer wounded warriors:

    1. Stop voting for politicians that start wars.
    2. Reduce one’s consumption of resources, especially fossil fuels. Starve the Saudi regime, the Emirates monarchies, and the other supporters of terrorism. Start by flying less.
    3. Donate to charities that provide services and improve life for the vulnerable and insecure in countries (and refugee camps) that are ripe for terrorist recruitment. Show compassion.

    And fundraising overhead less than forty percent!

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