TBB Mission: To Entertain, Educate and Inspire. Aim to at least do one well!
This blog has been a labor of love so far. If you like what you see here, please let others know by passing them a link to my blog, thank you! Enjoy reading it and have a super nice day!
TRAVEL
The Odessa Catacombs in Ukraine. By The Bohemian Blog. Wow, this is chilling. I heard about these some time ago and knew they were large, like 250 kms. But nooooo, total length is 2,500 kms!!!! Got that? Makes them longer “…than the famous catacombs found beneath Rome (300km) and Paris (500km)… in fact, if these Ukrainian tunnels were stretched out to full length, they’d reach further than the distance between Odessa and Paris.”
More stunning pictures from National Geographic. “Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013 Competition”
30 Images of Morocco. By Matador Network
El Cielo De La Palmas, Canary Islands. STUNNING timelapse video. Found here. I bet you have never seen clouds like this!
El Cielo de La Palma from Daniel López on Vimeo.
The 10 Strangest Visa Questions From Around the World. “Describe your mustache/beard” or “How many wives do you intend to bring?”
MILES/POINTS
Frequent Miler had a good summary on debit cards “Easy debit rewards, from home“. I am not messing with my Bank of America checking accounts, they are my primary bank (not by choice, by acquisition). I want to keep it that way.
The Flyertalk community lost another veteran member: chemist 661 Tim. I met him in Chicago; while his speech was a bit impaired I could tell he LOVED this stuff and he was very sharp! The Gate had a nice tribute. RIP “Life goes on & happy travels!!”
Chris Elliott must have lost his wife to a mileage runner or got beat up by one really bad 🙂 “Why loss of ‘mileage’ runners would hurt us all“. By USA Today. I agree with him by the way.
“Tim Duncan Urges Teammates To Be Patient With Frequent-Flyer Miles” By The Onion. Good stuff Tim! ‘It’s Best To Build Them Up For One Big Trip,’ All-Star Says
There is a United promotion for double miles for the next month. Quite a few restrictions. Learn more here and register here.
Everything you needed to know about British Airways Household accounts. If not everything, most of it for sure. By Head for Points
Travel is Free had two very interesting posts: one long mega rant about what is Travel and whether it is Free and then another one telling us he will be posting complete cost information. TBB welcomes the transparency!
ON MY MIND
A blogger reader showed me a screenshot with the traffic stats after I featured his blog post. Wow, I was impressed. My little blog can sure drive some traffic to other little blogs. Of course the big blogs could care less. I say “We were all newbies once too!’
Going to a conference is great to learn new things, meet new people and eat/drink. But when you come back you are faced with an avalanche of work you neglected…still digging my way out.
ODDZ & ENDZ
PFDigest found an opportunity to make up to $40 on a class action lawsuit against AMEX. The way to file a claim is surprisingly easy online. Me and Mrs. TBB already filed claims! In a few years we may be surprised by a small check as most of the settlement sure went to the attorneys.
North Korean Propaganda Artists Painted These Incredible Pictures Of China As A Socialist Utopia. These are, well, as usual, totally bizarre!
BLOG BUZZ
Note: This section is intended for long time readers and miles/points addicts who follow the blogs in this space. TBB reviews blogs and tries to entertain above all. Don’t take this section too seriously or personally, it’s mostly entertainment!
Delta Points discovered a way to fly FREE (yes in caps!) one ways on Delta by wasting time doing surveys on erewards to earn Air France Flying Blue Miles. But if it is taking you for ever to get enough miles to redeem, don’t worry!! You can transfer miles to your Flying Blue account from two AMEX credit cards…Poor souls wasting time to complete these dumb surveys.
Noob Traveler, nice meeting you in St. Louis. I am not going to roast you for coming back and telling us about the Lufthansa card 😉
The Points Guy tells us all his top 10 credit cards. We were all anticipating this type of post for so long #shootmenow
What the heck happened to all the nifty Lufthansa 50k cc links, huh? Can somebody email me a link? 🙂
Frugal Travel Guy (the blog) is improving. But that corporate “feel” to it is very hard to shake.
If you missed Frugal Travel Guy (the person) he is contributing in the TBB comments. We entertain the TBB audience well around here.
Mrs. TBB: “I caught up with all the comments over my lunch today honey, you are right, it is good entertainment!”
Broke all time TBB record with 133 comments in last post (and counting!)
Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined the numbers of comments my blog will generate. Thank you!
Update: Ingy sent me a very thoughtful and long email with genuine advice about the future direction of my blog. I thanked him and replied in kind. Deep, deeeeep down we still like each other. I think we both morph into personas we do not resemble in real life. Blogging can change people 🙂 Bottom line: Are you all entertained? I am!
first 🙂
You are Number 1!
Thanks for the information on the Amex. Love the picture of the crocodile, and always enjoy reading the comments. Thanks. Second?
You are second…you try harder like Avis 🙂
You are welcome as always.
… If only you could monetize comments, you would be the richest blogger in all the land.
You should see the traffic generated from a MMS friday interview (850+) or from a FM link (600+). I still appreciate your link traffic as well 🙂
You need to install JetPack, you have no idea what excitement you are missing.
Monetize comments, hmmmm. Sounds good to me! Research it for me, I have no time.
JetPack will be installed when i get around to it!
OMG, I now see how small I am. Thank you for making me feel small. I should do the MMS interview but you guys will give me grief if he does not make the next list lol
#dilemma
i don’t get very many clicks from george.
I dont either. Especially since I didnt make his ” Top 10 reading list”. As for your alt persona as a blogger? Who you kidding George, this is the real you. 🙂
I have a small wild side that comes out as TBB 🙂
I’m not sure if JetPack is some WordPress tool … or Grant’s custom photoshopping program giving him the leading software for his works of art? I’ll keep researching.
You should go for a TBB MMS interview…all the hottest bloggers are doing it lately. 😉
George, I will do a Thursday night interview on you 🙂
Mark, my Photoshopping skills are below average by my Microsoft Paint skills are above average which leads to some crazy pictures.
It’s a plug in that was a recommended as a “must have” in the blogging conference I went. I will get to it…one day.
I have had a standing offer for an interview at MMS. If traffic was my number 1 priority I would have done it by now. I find the questions very boring and my affect my brand lol. I still may do it. Debating whether to add MMS to my next list. Content has fallen off a cliff lately but I do like the disclosure practices. Newbies love him. I can definitely see the other ‘kills deals” too…so I am torn. Allowing interviews creates goodwill. I despise these conflicts of interest, as in “if I do the interview and get all the traffic it may influence me in my reviews”…so this is the reason I stayed away from it. I am torn 🙂
You have been saying “of late” for the last 7-8 months and this despite knowing that it was well before that. Contrary to your presumption, I have never once said I have an agenda against the guy. It was an obvious satire to him banning me and others saying we have an agenda against him. (I do not). What he wanted was to continue being a shithole and people not laugh at him or call him out for it. Sorry, not going to work in an internet life. The man has incredible shortsightedness. You will see in a few years time what I mean.
You have been conflicted since December of last year, probably the time period when he was one of the first bloggers to befriend you or accept you for what you were doing, when other gunslingers (cough FTG) were looking down on you. It would have been far more transparent to come out and say it like it is back then. On the other hand you continued to just roundabout avoid the conflict despite me giving you a hard time. Some of your worst support in the form or comments or Blogg Buzz feature (which typically end in a smiley when it came to MMS) was
1) “He is busy developing Online Shopping Maximizer”. Please George. Not only were you blatantly being a pompomer, you were actually taking credit away from the real guys who are developing this. Who cares that “this thing has potential”?
2) “He is busy traveling”. You can’t be serious???
“Mother-in-law”, “Emily”, this guy know how to sell used cars more than used car salesmen. One of the biggest reasons this hobby has developed a lot of cancer. I could go on and on, but I know it is not going to make a difference. It is this attitude of yours that actually made the dislike for that blog even more. I think I would have gotten over it had it not been for the conflict of interest here and I did consider myself to be loyal TBB reader at that time.
TBB reader Steve has no conflicts of interest and has pointed out the BS multiple times.
I will leave you with one question. Guess who took advantage of you deciding to just be a wrist slapper when it came to MMS with the third highest number of CC links this year.
I was wrong with Online Shopping Maximizer. They contacted me too to add it to my site. I thought MMS was working on it. My bad.
MMS is good with marketing, no doubt about that. I also think he does much better featuring the best offer available and disclosing up top than many other bloggers. Do not add mothers and Emilys in this.
I was wrong about the traveling part too.
He made a business decision to knock off some commenters. I don’t like it. It’s his blog.
What I DO mind is the “killing deals” part that has become part of his business plan. He has cornered the newbie market pretty good.
Is your last question a trick question? MMS?
Remember, the lists I publish are my OWN lists. I am wavering whether the MMS blogs is worthy to avoid. But if the content keeps it up as it has been the last 2 months I need to be. Damn, here I go costing me a gazillion views and potential readers…Thanks guys!
#developingalwaysIt’saJourney
Within the context of your answer, if you substitute MMS with FTG, will your opinion change about FTG ?
You are shortchanging yourself. I am with Nick here VERY serious. You should do a self interview. Come up with a template to get started. Then
we need FM and few other bloggers trto follow and you will have more traffic than you can handle. Yah the world will not skip a beat if FTG never shows up for an interview. Pretty sure rest of the blogosphere will embrace you.
AgendaGuy:
>>>>>>>>Within the context of your answer, if you substitute MMS with FTG, will your opinion change about FTG ?
I am not following. One thing is certain though: FTG was not into killing deals (by revealing “hacks” in glowing pics and arrows detail).
Regarding self-interview: Hmm, can you elaborate? Are you saying to do one with questions I would like to ask of the bloggers and start with myself? I guarantee you most will avoid answering my template, they are afraid of me as they are opening themselves up for (sometimes harsh, sometimes unfair, mostly well deserved) criticism. Interesting idea. I am not into softball questions full of mutual congratulating adulation like DP does in BA.
Everyone is different, hard to nail down universal questions. It would be fun to attempt to come up with such a questionnaire…
Why don’t you just run an interview with yourself instead? The questions would probably be a lot better.
Yeah, I talk to myself all the time, I hear voices too 🙂
sorry to hear about chemist. i remember clearly reading that “trip report” back in march and commenting then. never knew the guy, but you could feel his positive spirit in his story. i love to hear the backstory of people on FT and how they got into the hobby (aka addiction).
Thanks for the comments. It all started with me when I received a Northwest silver elite card in the mail back in the 90s. I had a trip to Greece and several domestic business trips when I started working. So, I set out to learn all about what this Elite stuff was. Light bulbs started going off…I ate this stuff up, the more I learned the more hooked I became. Then I found FT and it was all over 🙂
I like the crocodile pics too! And Morocco!
I had never seen crocodile babies, so cute!
Good morning my angries …… We should get shirts !!!
Ya George, make some shirts on Vista Print. They have 30-50% promos literally every other day. Think of something creative.
I do not want to pound on the “angry” theme for TBB, come on! I am not angry, you are not angry. We just want entertainment 🙂
Tee shirt:
TBB: Entertainment
We’re NOT angry!!
My ten favorite credit cards are all Barclays cards! What a coincidence! Though for some reason I don’t like the Lufthansa card anymore. It was weird, I was just sitting around minding my own business yesterday when this wave of revulsion toward that card suddenly swept over me.
You crack me up, I like your sense of humor, thanks.
He’s funny right? Nick, you are a funny man! Very dry sense of humor. Are you another Brit? Must be at least a closet one
Chris Elliott inhabits an alternative travel world from me. He claims that “[w]ith fewer mileage runners out there — with fewer elites, probably — airlines will try to groom an ever smaller group of “special” customers. The result? More exclusive and spectacular first-class sections featuring lie-flat seats, even on domestic routes . . . and more fawning service for a select few.”
I sure hope so. I’ve got lifetime 1K status at UA and, so far, they keep making the service worse — at least domestically. First, they downsized the quality, quantity and frequency of first class food. Then, they made it much more difficult to get upgraded to first class — and made coach less bearable by completely eliminating any free food. Now they’ve made their lounges so bare bones that you have to pay for your drinks unless you’re willing to drink Bud Light. I would appreciate some new “fawning service” — or at least an experience that didn’t suck!
That Chris guy is really something. I think this is his marketing thing…controversy towards mileage runners to create havoc and comments and on and on. This whole space is in major flux right now. I think eventually what he is saying will prove right. We are in the phase of “moving away from the noprofit mileage running crowd” and eventually really stepping it up to the crowd that pays the big bucks (true road warriors). The economy continues its recovery and that is where it is going. Then again I can be all wrong, been there before. Or an unforeseen shock happens and then it is back to luring any business to our benefit 😉
Chris Elliot to clueless travelers is like Dave Ramsey to the credit-impaired. Both know all too well that their “preachings” ain’t right for everyone, yet both keep at it to increase the army of believers and drive up their ratings. I personally don’t mind, more goodies for me. But it’s really interesting to study their business models.
On a totally unrelated matter, and considering that 2 out of 2.5 here are bloggers–one of my pages has gone missing, and I have no idea when or what i might’ve done. I can see it when I’m logged on, and it’s not found the moment I’m out, The URL seems to be the same too. I asked on WP support and a few other forums, but the replies are all Greek to me (sorry George, but you know if they were Cyrillic, I would understand:)). Please throw me a rope here. Thanks.
If you are asking me for tech support you are asking the wrong guy 🙂
Are you saying that it is gone gone inside WP? Or gone as it does NOT show up on the website to everyone? If you have backups maybe you can go back and try to restore it from an older archive? (have not done that yet but it does sound smart, doesn’t it?)
Draft vs. Published. Actually, I am winging it, I have no idea!
Actually, the question was for anyone here who’d be willing to help.
Yes, when I’m logged on to my blog, I can open and see all pages. When I’m logged out, the “About Me” gives me the Oops message. I have no idea how long it’s been missing, because the only reason I opened it was to edit something.
Must be something wrong with the code then. What do you get when you click on Preview (after you save Draft)? If you get the page to come up, it should be there when you Publish it. If not, maybe delete everything (use Text instead of Visual in upper right corner of the WP page box) and then cut and paste the About me content again. Click on Preview.
The more you play with it, the better you get. This stuff is just endless!
“The more you play with it, the better you get”.
Well, not me:(
Keep playing it…eventually the aha comment will come. Persistence wins!
Chris Elliott will get you out of fees that are clearly stated if you whine and play “dumb” well enough. Chris Elliott is a hero to the ignorant and the manipulative.
I didn’t comment at yesterday’s epic back and forth because of my “don’t engage with those trolling” policy. Also, I was busy.
I like that policy. Actually, Im a little ashamed of myself posting using a different handle yesterday. Just felt I needed to chime in stronger, but TBB can take care of himself quite well. My new policy is to only use my regular handle.
Me and FTG (the person) exchanged a few emails last night. He gave me some great advice actually on what to do with my blog. The thing is…it interferes with my inner rebel and panders to market forces 🙂
One thing for sure, I think the comments add greatly to the entertainment part of the mission 🙂
bluecat: no big deal, don’t worry about it.
Actually, I have to disagree. That advice was solid, and he appeared to have helped the guy. Delta is actually not that bad about customer service as opposed to their atrocious award program. They did change my flights at the last minute and waived the fees when there was flooding in Prague, even though they didn’t have to.
Not everything in life is predictable. When circumstances suddenly change, there is no shame in asking for some extra consideration.
Facts:
1. Author bought tickets for additional child to travel with them.
2. Additional child’s parents refused to get him/her a passport, which meant the child couldn’t travel.
3. So the author decided to bring another, different additional child instead. Delta requested a change/re-deposit fee for switch to a new passenger.
4. Author was shocked, shocked, that you can’t just substitute passengers’ names on an award ticket (or any ticket). So she complained to Chris Elliott, who got Delta to waive re-ticketing fees for fear of Chris/bad publicity/whatever reason.
If I decide I want to take my nephew instead of my niece on a trip, I have to pay for the change to re-deposit and re-issue. It’s been that way for a long time. But apparently complaining to Chris can get companies to waive their fees. The advice on buying insurance/refundable tickets may be solid, but the use of ridiculous “consumer advocacy” to get around policies everyone else has to follow is lousy.
The commenters had better advice: ask the first additional child’s parents to pay the change fee, or leave them off future Christmas card lists and potluck lists.
I hear you! However, while I won’t write to Chris, I don’t really feel ashamed to ask for a special consideration in some cases. Because, let’s face it, charging $150 plus extra 75K miles to change the name on a ticket is bullshit. Seriously. When a Delta agent spent 2.5 hrs with me on the phone to re-book me on another flight, and then waived the fee, that was when I felt a little guilty. Still not too much, though:)
I have no sympathy when it comes to Delta. Here is a company that deliberately screws its Skymiles members when it comes time to use their miles.
It may be bullshit to you and me, but it adds up to a $1.3 billion profit for Delta’s shareholders.
Admittedly I’ve had fees waived here and there too. I attribute it to luck, which I wish would be better deployed in other facets of my life.
Well said 🙂 Made me chuckle!
Delta is already doing with their car service for their top tier customers. As they get better at extracting relevant data they will be able to better target their perks at what they consider to be their best customers. Also I expect the ranks of the high level to be thinned out as they keep increasing the dollar spend.
As for first class they will continue to not invest in it while trying to monetize it instead of giving it away.
I think you are right on. Latest financial results show that they are executing a pretty nice strategy designed to maximize shareholder returns. It is that, in the process, we mileagerunning type customers get the shaft 🙂
The bloggers need the LH 50K offer to be up until at least next Friday so that when they do their “since sign-up bonuses are constantly changing, here are the top 10 sign-up bonuses for November”, one of the 14 credit cards they list (they can never stop at just 10) will have actually changed.
I am still waiting for that link to hit my inbox, come on guys, help a brother out! lol
For some odd reason, MV has taken a break from LH humping
I wonder if his Malaysia Airlines A380 first class ticket was bought with 30K US miles, 25K SPG points, 50K LH miles or $440 in cash back from the Arrival Card
Because I’m not aware of any other ways out there to accrue miles
I dread the day we start seeing Ink Bold 🙂
Actually yes. 25k SPG transfers to 30k Avios.
“These offers change quickly, the Lufthansa 50,000 mile bonus even came and when since I put this together last so I thought I had better hurry up and bring you the latest. These offers can change at any time. Don’t delay, apply today!”
Panera Bread Counter help: ” Good Morning George. Having your usual breakfast?”
George: “Why yes, thank you.”
Panera Bread Counter Help: ” Here ya go George. That will be 6 comments please”
George: ” Here are 7 comments. Keep the change. It was a big night last night :)”
I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there.
I didn’t realize Panera takes payment in the form of comments. Guess FTG bloggers may need to eat elsewhere…. 🙂
Panera Bread Counter: Good morning Ingy, How can I help you?
Ingy: What is your last name?
Panera Bread Counter: What? Why do you need my last name? What would you like to order?
Ingy: No, I want your last name. How can you be credible enough to serve me if you cant provide full disclosure of your name.
Panera Manager: Sir, would you please kindly GFTO.
GFTO! Dyslexic Panera managers, unite!
GFTO????
Ingy: That was funny! Would be totally awesome if I can pay with comments, I wish!
Actually, it is more like this:
Me: Good morning Bridget or Jim or Jaime or some newbie
PB person: Hi, you are late this morning [I am never early!] Here is your small cup of coffee [why buy large when you will stick around for free refills!]
Me: I give my paneral bread loyalty card and whatever card I need to use that day
PB person: Thank you, see you tomorrow.
Me: We sure will! Then I go hang out and play with my phone and ipad for an hour or so surfing around the web and reading TBB comments lol.
I have at least four cups, sometimes five. At least once a week they bring me a shoufle (sp?) as they have to throw them out by a certain time. Free of course. Spinach bacon is my favorite
I also visit the bathroom at least once, sometimes twice. I find that I visit it more often as I age 🙂
Guys: No need for these acronyms
Ok once again Rick’s comment is very funny and yours is … er… a comment. Come on Rick is your non-compete done? We need a new blog – the anti “anti-blogger” blog. Really should be between you and Nick @ PFDigest for the humorous comments
Is there any possibility to apply and get same bonus for a targeted offer after the deadline date? Has anyone been successful in getting the bonus after applying past the deadline date? Also how often are these targeted offers sent out if the person does not apply the first time?
It depends on the bank and what offer. Usually a targeted offer is…well, targeted. Sometimes it is openly targeted (like a widely available link) or sometimes it is really targeted (like in a an email in your inbox). No guarantees you will get it in the second example. In other words, this is very highly ymmv.
Were you in St. Louis? Totally missed you. Was trying to connect with Jason Steele while there, but too many interruptions. Also, I think this post is sorely missing affiliate links. Think you could add a couple?
Yes I was in St. Louis and really enjoyed the conference. A lot! So much I think I will do my best to attend next year!
I hear you about the interruptions. I connected with Jason. He did the ignite event one of the nights.
What made a big impression on me (still see myself as a newbie hobbyist blogger) was how common the affiliation links and monetizing in general were. I guess I just have not been around the blog world very long. Anyway, I promised I will shut up talking about it and here I was again.
Glad you took the time to leave a comment, I am very honored!
I am trying to very gently blend my two worlds…very gently blending in my two passions: Money and Miles!
George
CMJ (Certified Mileage Junkie) 🙂
Awesome, I was at ignite as well. Actually, I presented. I was the guy with the presentation that was directed at the wrong audience when I wrote it (was supposed to be for money newbies), but I delivered it with conviction anyways. You may remember the part about how I called everyone in the room liars, and how I did a budget for a guy who wanted to spend $1400 a month on weed.
Anyways, great to stop by here (found you on Flyertalk and Saverocity). I’m thinking of putting together a side project travel blog (been into churning/miles for a year now, thoroughly addicted), as I’m passionate about both money and miles as well. You vets intimidate me though…hmmm…
Oh yeah the weed guy, that was awesome. You had all us rolling (pun intended).
Oh, a side project travel blog. Let me guess: to help friends and family fly for free too 🙂
Dude, there are soooooooo many out there now. It resembles the crowds of personal finance bloggers (I had no idea there were so many out there!).
Yes, we can be a bit intimidating, sorry. It is because we see so much crap everyday 🙂 Take a look at my Blog Reviews on top for the blogs I Love and Like. If you can bring something different you are very welcome here!
I have not monetized my site yet. You all at Fincon13 thought I was an idiot. I was probably the only one who did not know who Pat Flynn was too! Very interesting crowd.
Thanks for the (sort of) open invite. And yes, mostly to help people enjoy the same perks of free travel that we all do. Except less deal killing, and probably a bit less technical. I haven’t sorted out all the details, but definitely understand the importance of not being a carbon copy of everything out there.
Which is kinda what my finance site is. Hah! The irony.
I’ll check out the list when I’m not passing out, thanks for the warm welcome. I’m sure my lashings will come later
I liked that too. Weed planners are awesome.
Thanks Andy. Potheads need a budget too!
Tabloid Blogger Buzz Finally Monetizes
In recent financial developments, the world currency markets hit a bump yesterday when George (no last name provided) declared a value for the comments on his blog.
according to Mr. _________________, the blog owner, using the old adage ” a penny for your thoughts” TBB earned an impressive $1.33 in yesterday’s market. Mexican authorities responded with outrage as the valuation further devalued the peso on world markets.
When asked about the validity of the “comment” valuation, ex blogger Frugal Travel Guy thoughtfully responded: ” Who can be sure, this is a new paradigm in the currency market. But on the high end, the “comments” value certainly can’t exceed a plugged nickel.
In further news, major toll roads and toll booths worldwide are under pressure to quickly install “Comments only” toll lanes, to compliment the new currency. It seems commenters believe they are in a world of their own.
LOL
You made me laugh…TWICE in one day. This is a historic development in the development of the TBB Blog!
$1.33, Mexican authorities, new paradigm, plugged nickel, tolls, etc.
This is brilliant stuff man!
A “comments only” toll lane that you need to shout a great insult to open the gate. I would never fail to open the gates as I would have this website up and running:
http://www.insultgenerator.org/
If someone blogs about the website, give me an HT link please so I can up my worth to $1.49, Gracias!!!
At a buck thirty three a day and left over souffle’ You deserve a laugh or two.
Sorry for the delay in responding to you. I was out #milking