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| From Twisted Sifter, see link below |
ON MY MIND
I thank you for reading and contributing to the quality of my life! I have a very demanding job and this Travel miles/points game has always been a fun “escape” for me. All I ask you is to click on my affiliate links…ooops, sorry about that;-) If you like what you read here please forward my url to others. If you don’t like what you read here that is fine too. Please let me know in the comments! Yes I know you are all missing the “Not So Best Of'” section… me too! Just no time for it.
I made yet another enhancement of my blog design! I added “An eclectic journey of the Travel Miles/Points blogosphere“. I came up with it myself, I like it! Last enhancement was in 2012 I believe. I am making fun of my non existent web skills folks!
The minimum spend for one of the AA cards is done. I would have done the other one but it started snowing pretty bad…so I would take care of it tomorrow. I put the US Air card away with the one charge for two Gatorades.
I still did not find time to burn any miles…which is always expected it appears lately!
MILES/POINTS
The Points Guy has a “10 Ways to Burn Your Hilton Points Before D(evaluation) Day March 28, 2013“. Ok, lots of us were wondering about this! I must say one of the best memories my family had was in the Rome Cavalieri. Amazingly, not even one credit card link in the body of the post!
TRAVEL
An Urban Exploration Journey with Chris Luckhardt. From Twisted Sifter. I LOVE these pictures!
Chris Elliott flat out asks for money in his “You’re going to want to see this” post. Wow, what can I say? The Wandering Aramean takes him to task with “Apparently being a consumer advocate involves begging“. Ouch. A bit harsh perhaps? Life is tougher without them affiliate links:-) Very interesting comments too.
ODDZ & ENDZ
20 Worst Advertising Placement Fails. From Bored Panda. If you do not laugh, you have issues, lol.
Does Frugal Travel Guy even bother keeping up with the subjects he writes about?
Today’s ‘Churning Challenge’ for the Superbowl recommends getting 2 AA cards through the two browser trick, which has been dead for a month.
And of course he hasn’t “thoroughly checked award availability to ensure that these dates are open” which means of course that he hasn’t checked them *at all* since of course the airline schedules aren’t open for the travel dates discussed.
Still no disclosure of a financial relationship although at least he mentions better offers than just the affiliate ones. Progress, I guess, and likely attributable to the efforts of this blog – so thank you!
I don’t know why I go back and read FTG though, I don’t think I’ve picked up anything useful there in about two years?
I don’t think FTG even writes his blog anymore. If you go back a couple of years and read some of his posts, you will notice a definite change in style and content. It was a great blog for several years, and it is sad to see the direction it has taken. He has obviously moved on to other interests.
Thanks for the 20 Worst from Bored Panda. Hilarious.
FTG is a genius. He made a ton of money pimping credit cards before everyone even realized what that was. Then he saw the writing on the wall of new competition, decided this blogging this is “hard” and realized he didn’t need to do it anymore. He sold his site to Internet Brands for a ton of money. Readers fleeced, sure, but he laughed all the way to a retirement fortune. You almost have to respect it in a sick sort of way, as long as you don’t actually force yourself to read him anymore.
I did indeed sell the blog to Internet Brands in January of 2012. I contribute an article every Monday. In regard to your comment a out fleecing readers, I don’t believe any reader ever paid me a dime for my suggestions or information, nor for the thousands of emails I answered over the years.
Last time I checked, the United States of America is still a capitalistic society.
Agree, FTG has been fleecing readers for a while. Just today, he’s showing just how simple it is to get to NYC for the Super Bowl! See, you all can do it too!*
*I haven’t checked whether you can actually do it
Wow, he actually comes here and doesn’t disagree he is providing very bad advice for his own personal gain — he’s saying it’s ok for him to do it because the readers aren’t paying him for that advice.
I think we all already knew it. I just can’t believe he actually copped to it.
TBB should reproduce that comment in the next post.
I am enjoying the comments here.
Rick, your timing was pure genius! You will always be the Frugal Travel Guy, including the “churning challenges” signed by “The Frugal Travel Guy” which are properly characterized (in my humble opinion) by my smart readers above!
I better stop here because I may get angry:-)
He already admitted it on the infamous FlyerTalk thread
It’s ok for him to lie, fudge numbers, and withhold important information to his readers, because they’re not paying him. He has no problem if we all know he is a slimy used car salesman…. as long as his target audience (the NY Times readers) don’t know this
The churning challenge is a weekly reminder of that…. he “shows” you how to do it, without actually checking to see if you can do it
2 browser trick doesn’t work anymore? Sheraton Meadowlands completely sold out every day around the Super Bowl? Hogwash! First click his links, and worry later
And…. just like that, the Frugal Mosquito Guy takes down his post
Not sure why, as the crap he pulled this week isn’t really that much different than what he did every other week. It’s certainly not the first time he listed a sold out hotel, or gave bad CC advice
George, I’ll have the byline issue cleaned up for your very astute readers. I post under the name “Rick” only
I saw the correction on the AA cards, much better!
I think View From The Wing had the best treatment out of anyone’s posts on the hotel points devaluation phenomenon, running the numbers on how the different hotel programs reward free nights.
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/2013/02/26/which-hotel-program-is-most-rewarding-for-free-nights-the-results-will-surprise-you/
Definitely a “Best Of”
I agree that Gary’s post was helpful, if you want to compare loyalty programs. I also think that, for leisure travelers, none of these programs beat searching for the best hotel on hotels.com and getting 15% back (per Seth’s post), using card sign-up bonuses, or using priceline NYOP. Aside from the card sign-up deals (and the $49 PC Visa annual fee), I’m done with hotel loyalty programs.
One more note on quasi-DYKWIA blogging moments from the last few days: I’d have respect for Big Important Business Card Matt and Chris Elliott if, instead of complaining about security theater and post-9/11 security paranoia and TSA invasiveness on their silly niche blogs (and then patting themselves on the back), they announced that they were forming a lobbying/watchdog group to de-fund or change airport security. Any idiot can complaint about the TSA on his or her blog. That’s not “keeping them honest,” or even changing the situation. The fact of the matter is that the companies that make the machines and all the tools of contemporary security lobby hard to keep the status quo, and no one lobbies against, and nothing is going to change just because some people express their anger. Heck, the airlines (read: the airports’ main tenants) are probably just fine with the TSA, else they might try to change things. If we’re going to end the song-and-dance, it will take collective action. Until then, get over your Very Important Blog; it means nothing.
harvson3
I am fast becoming a free agent lately. Burn miles/points and/or go for whatever makes $$ sense. No longer chasing Elite airline status and will use whatever status I can get w/out paying for hotels. Priceline works great most of the time!
Hey George, when you stayed at Rome Cavalieri, how did you do for the family of four? The stardard room reward has 1 KB or 2 TWB, allowing 2 adults max per room. Do I need two rooms? My boy is 12, girl 8. Thanks. – AY
I never got two rooms in Europe! I go with my son and wife and daughter know how to conveniently walk around the lobby/go to the bathroom/hang out outside/go shopping nearby. Once we get the keys we never had any problems. Just be nice at check in and NEVER all 4 at checkin together! ymmv
4 ppl in a king sized won’t work much longer. Nor in 2xqueens.
2 queens works for us still. We usually get upgraded and room has a couch or two so we are fine:-)
I actually just booked Rome Cavalieri for my parents. One night on my mon’s name and I’ll book the second one under my name once my points post. It’s crazy – went up from 50,000 to 126,000+ on the website but on the phone they gave me 50,000 just fine.
Did you do any of their “experiences”? I figured I’ll check out the Gladiator School (seemed free) and the Tea time thing. Is the Art Gallery free to browse or do you have to do it with their guide? Anything else you suggest doing there? At the hotel, not in Rome 🙂
I did not do any of the”experiences”. I believe the Art Gallery was free to browse, not a big deal. The lounge is AWESOME! I remember I had to pour my charm on at check in to get access as Gold as I was getting a flaky front desk person. The view from the top is awesome. Nice pools too. I would not burn 50k pts here if no lounge access, it made all the difference! Also, not a great location, you will use the convenient shuttle quite a bit.
The Gladiator school was certainly not free. Unless you can shill as many CC’s as TPG, it’s probably out of your price range
The art “gallery” is just lots of pictures throughout the halls. All free, but nothing particularly amazing. Just a lot of artwork throughout the hotel
It’s amazing what I learn from TPG! Hilton points are about to be devalued. So what do I need to do? Get Hilton credit cards. Like NOW!!! Before the points I’ll get become worth a whole lot less next month!
In April he’ll tell us that the devaluation is no big deal… we just need twice as many credit cards to redeem our room nights!
This may surprise you, but I contributed to Chris Elliot. Dropping his name definitely helped me out with BA, and I respect good work. Even when I slammed him for his views on miles, I still gave him an A+ on ombudsman-ship. He always replied to my tweets CC British airways within 2 minutes, and he also got back to me via email so I could CC him in my official complaint letters.
The guy should keep away from miles related topics and rants against FTers:-) Yes, ombudsman-ship work is fine, he is needed indeed. But he does make it sound like humanity won’t be as good with him not doing this and I disagree with that view:-) So…whatever happened with BA. You got something but it wasn’t anywhere near as what you expected I believe.