Lets go on another ride through some Hilton HHonors promo & credit cards, learn about hotels in Iceland, hack Spirit, rejoice in the revival of Citi Thank You Points with more airline transfers, learn of Green Dot developments, hack South America awards, laugh at travel hacking jargon, learn of the faster hotel Wi-fi, learn of the secret password at Kimpton, learn more about missiles, Vendoming and the latest Blog Buzz we cover like no one else!
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MILES/POINTS
MSing for Hilton HHonors 4 credit card comparison and Reykjavic, Iceland Hotel Options. By Travel With Grant. There is a fantastic table (shown below) and some good information about Reykjavic hotel options which I was interested in! So, it worked for me but I would probably split these in two separate blog posts. Nice work, this is definitely not a lazy Hang up and Call Again type post like other blogger “experts”!
The Definitive Guide to Gaming Spirit. Part 3: Tips and Tricks. By Andy Shurman at The Lazy Traveler’s Handbook. Nice series on our “favorite” airline. Actually, I learned stuff here I did not know before and could work out some real bargains. I have never flown Spirit but I am not opposed to it some day. And it is well balanced as you can see in the last paragraph with “When things go wrong with Spirit, your trip might be very seriously interrupted” and more so beware!
Citi Thank You Points now transferable to select airlines. By DansDeals. Probably the biggest development in recent times. It is remarkable because it is a true enhancement and very welcome to see Citibank…alive and kind of still trying to fight back Chase’s prominence in the travel rewards game. Dan has all you need to know while many others are still in the “OMG, no more 7% dividend on the CSP” click my links mode! The only decent airline to transfer out is Singapore and brace yourselves for some more silly pictures in suites and stuff like that. Here is the relevant page at Citibank. I do not have any Thank You Points by the way. I got good value out of the program years ago. Something shocking happened to me a year ago which still bothers me….I was denied for a TYP credit card, still hurts. I may be back soon 🙂
Register now for Hilton Honors Double (Mon/Tue/Wed/Thu) and Triple (Fr/Sat/Sun) points for stays August 1 to October 31. The non participating hotel list will eventually come out so make sure the hotel you are considering is not on it. REGISTER HERE Oh wait, Loyalty Lobby found the non participating hotel list. OMG, there are 1,362 hotels on it…what a joke!
Green Dot Ending MoneyPak PIN Reloads to Fight Fraud. This made NBC News so I guess this fraud thing is, you know, concerning. I have seen with my own eyes someone buy loads of gift cards and paying with $100 crisp bills. I thought momentarily to say “Hi, I am from the IRS” (or FBI) and see his reaction. Then again I thought he may have a heart attack…or pull out a gun and shoot me or something so….I pretended I was doing something on my smart phone! (HT to Mileage Update).
Hacking Award Seats to South America at Hack My Trip. The outstanding series continues. Thanks a lot for the research guys, much appreciated. Links to the other parts of the series on top (love this). One of the few Boarding Area blogs that truly stand out for its quality content while others drown in mediocrity and non stop credit card marketing the same cards repeatedly to their readers.
The wife of Kenny at Miles4More gets into it with “Jargon and Non-Travel Hacking Spouse” and the result is an originally hilarious post trying to make sense of the codes we use in this hobby. Such as EWR=Early Work Release LOL.
TRAVEL
Which hotels have the fastest wi-fi? At Hotel Chatter. Not sure how reliable this is but…I find it interesting the winner is….drum roll please…Red Roof Inn.
If you are staying in a Kimpton hotel before September 29, 2014 you can tell the check in person the secret password. As this blog does not kill deals, we make an exception to this dear readers and will indeed give you a “secret”. Just say “Summer of Karma”. (HT to Frugal Travel Lawyer). Come to think of it, I will say “Summer of Kama Sutra” and wink and see the reaction and then…”correct” myself. Woohoo!
ODDZ & ENDZ
39 Stunning photos of the human race. At THE CHIVE
How High can a Missile Reach? This is a cool (and very depressing) interactive graph!
How to Avoid the Biggest 401(k) Mistakes
BLOG BUZZ
Note: This section is for long time followers of this hobby and references to blogs/bloggers may not make much sense to you if you are new to this. You are welcome to stay and read it of course but if you go WTF just remember this note!
If a blog (Airline Miles Experts) allows a glowingly ridiculous interview of a blogger in the Ignore list (Milevalue) to grace its website all it tells me is you have no clue of what an airline expert is! Oneway this dude!
The Flight Deal is having a meet & greet in NYC on August 19 which filled up fast! I wish I could be there and meet the people behind this operation.
The TBB resident ex troll Frugal Travel Guy mailed in his Monday blog post serving the readers the credit cards applied for (with the affiliate links you silly!) while telling us that a new business is solidly in the black and producing profits every month. Crap, I guess gave up trying to educate us all what coward/charlatan/etc I am! Them profits must be so nice; apparently I am assuming that website for funding charities was not that profitable, shucks!
Travel Summary reveals why it is taking so long to move to Prior2Boarding area. It’s because these guys are so darn busy with all the blogs they lined up already! This was interesting: “Randy Petersen, who owns BoardingArea (among other things), told me that blogs that perform well on Prior2Boarding will be moved to the BoardingArea main page.”
Barbara Delollis, the former USA Today hotel writer, joined Boarding Area. Well, that is a major coup indeed. Sure getting crowded in there!
Milevalue is still pimping the….Hawaiian Airlines credit cards. Never fails to rise to…new lows!
When it comes to credit card changes I think giving it a little more time always works to see what happens. All posts pondering changes (the 7% CSP dividend, the Fairmont cards on the Chase website, etc.) is an exercise in futility (like predicting what the Dow Jones Industrial average will be in a specific date) and it always acts as another excuse for bloggers in the credit card selling business to sell more product. And we have so much of that going on we certainly do not need anymore! Don’t be a tool!
Let’s clear something up once and for all. Dia, The Deal Mommy, came up with the (hilarious) “Vendoming” term. If you read some other blogger adopting this term as their own well…you know what to do! And I enjoyed reading the comments about it in this post .
I like to have fun on Twitter and go all out tweeting whatever comes to me so maybe you should follow me. If not, that’s okay too.
One day I will have an email subscriber list. Everything I read tells me that’s where the money is. Or maybe that is why I haven’t done one lol! Sometimes I yell to myself WTF TBB, get it together!
One thing I am most proud is I am still standing. Okay, just joking about that, come on! What I am most proud is that no institution has told me what to do here at my blog. I cherish my independence. Hope I can continue doing it as long as I can! Support the responsible bloggers please, we make the world a better place…when we are not angry lol. Just to give you an idea what we are talking about, do you think Chase will ever allow me to have this?
Ok, one more. If you laugh you are now hypnotized to click on the amazing TBB Amazon link. If you did not laugh, all I can say is WTF is wrong with you????? 🙂
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First?
Yes!
Doh!
I guess that I grabbed the bronze medal?
Does anyone think it is funny that “vendoming” seems to have struck a nerve but all the various posts decrying the practice of pimpin’ haven’t elicited the same response? (Or maybe that topic is just a dead horse that everyone is tired of beating?)
Seems to have struck a nerve, huh! The best part to me is that so far the response is 90/10 positive, with the 10 being mainstream points bloggers!
Exactly…I was surprised at some of the defensive posturing but I think a few people missed your original point.
Thanks for the link to George. I realize Hilton credit cards and Iceland hotels do not have much in common, but the comments section has a few good pieces of info, in case you didn’t read those yet. I would rather group 2 unrelated posts together than post them separately. #toolazy
I saw cheap airfare from SEA or YVR (Vancouver) stopping in Reykjavik (for a few days) and continuing to Scandinavian countries for around $400-$500. Might be a good deal next spring/summer.
can you share some of those sample dates…not finding it!
The whole month of April had flights from SEA to KEF to Scandinavia for around $460, check out this screenshot (sorted from longest layover in Reykjavik to shortest): http://travelwithgrant.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/SEA-KEF-Europe-Icelandair.png
Buzz – I need to warn you that there will be a SQ Suites review on Head for Points this week.
However, as it was an overnight from JFK to FRA and I slept for most of it, it will be limited.
Luckily no plans to the hit the Vendome in the near future but I am in LeGrand – nicer hotel in my view – again in a few weeks ….
So prior2boarding is the farm team for boardingarea? Interesting. I wonder if it’s also possible to get demoted from boardingarea to prior2boarding.
I finally realized where those names come from.
Beginners: prior2boarding => Experts: boardingarea => Pros: view from the wing
They will probably add ticketingcounter.com later for amateurs.
@ The Sterling Traveler: Congrats, how does it feel? 🙂
@ Shaun: That was probably THE closest one ever. I got here less than half a minute later after I hit publish and saw three comments already posted, crazy! If FTG got these many comments in a post they would throw an office party!
@ Erik: Yeah, bronze is a medal, better than no medal! Vendoming is just inherently funny when pimpin’ has a negative connotation. I feel for the true pimps who work hard out in the streets hustling business who may be offended….Ok, this may come off like a bad joke…It is way to early and just finishing my first cup of coffee…at Panera of course. Gosh, the music here gets worse and worse and forgot my headphones!
@ Dia: I laugh whenever I see this Vendoming term thrown out. It brings me visions of too many bloggers bitching about the inhumane treatment they get in some of these hotels….”that pancake in the middle was a bit saggy” etc.
@ Grant: That was a good post, deserved a place here. If you are going to pump a little, it’s okay. Just ignore me. And this goes to all other bloggers who work hard producing good stuff. What bugs me is ones who mail it in and keep pumping 🙂
@ Raffles: Sent my wife and daughter last August to Paris and sent them to the Le Grand too…I just thought it was a better deal over all and was low on Hyatt points at the time. Shhh, don’t tell anyone 😉
@ Nick PFD: Yeah, it sure looks like it. I believe the main BA blogs have to commit to a certain number of posts per week. I just think it is getting awfully crowded in there to distinguish yourself. I wonder hwy big names like Barbara go there to be one among tens of bloggers. What are they enticed with? I hear that there is a bump in traffic but it is not lasting if you post crap. Also, what happens if you screw up, do they kick you out completely or just demote you? I doubt it, I think all you need to do is the required number of post to be in the BA and to have a shot to be featured blogger or something. If Matt doubles what Randy promised Barbara I am coming over to you guys lol. Actually, I just need to get a life and regroup myself lol.
Maybe we can do a #icelandDO next summer and book up all the nice hotels 🙂
See you there?
George, great news! I just spoke with Matt, and he has agreed to give you a trial run on prior2saverocity.com!
LOL….good one, gracias!
Just to throw my two cents in on a topic that will otherwise be overlooked…but stayed at a Red Roof Inn last Friday and can agree the internet was fast. Plus plenty of outlets in the room! Don’t expect luxury bedding or toiletries, but a clean room for $48 isn’t shabby.
Just wanted to chime in here saying I am a fan of your blog – thanks for all the great work, and hope your leap out of regular employment has proved to be fun thus far (it has proved great fun for the readers – I can tell you that).
@The common man, feel free to comment over there anytime 🙂
I have never stayed in a Red Roof Inn. There is one near my house, I drive by it every day…just never went in! Looks all right.
@TBB, I actually stayed at a Red Roof in Ann Arbor last summer. Possibly the same one?
Yep, that’s the one! If you visit again let me know and we’ll do lunch or breakfast or coffee. Maybe we can go the mall and Wal Mart together lol.
So, how was the hotel?
Not like there’s a high bar for quality on the BoardingArea front page…
Should add notallowedtoboardarea.com
LOL !
Buzz, just to clear something up – I often hear folks wondering how gleff manages all of his blogging on top of a full-time job (I think you said so on twitter yourself). Just a minor correction there – he spends 20 hours a week at his regular job so I think it is not a “full-time” job in the way we use that term typically (just look at the 990 for details).
I dont mean to take anything away from his output – I think it is prodigious and I definitely wonder how he manages to churn out so many posts (many of which are timely unlike a full-time blogger like TPG) and I find that really impressive…but thought I should probably point this out as well.
I think he says it is FT, did not think about looking at the 990. Since I do one as a volunteer for a local non profit, not sure those hours stated there are perfectly estimated.
I see this every day, prodigious to a degree that is beyond impressive! Something comes out and he has a post ready before everyone (most times). And consistently. It is like a machine. Which gets me to think evil thoughts:
1) Due to the access he gets, I wonder if he prepares posts in draft mode about changes he knows they are coming before they become public.
2) We all know by now there is quite a bit of outsourced writing going on. MMS is a ghostwriting machine. I wonder if any of this is going on at VFTW. I don’t think so as the writing style appears consistent but who knows.
I stopped reading Gary. Too much pimping made me withdraw. Then i realized there wasn’t much substance and I get my essential information from other places. Now VFTW reminds me of Huffington Post (sensational header to attract point addicts) but heavily influenced by Chase/Amex/Citi/Barclay.
>>>>>>> Now VFTW reminds me of Huffington Post (sensational header to attract point addicts) but heavily influenced by Chase/Amex/Citi/Barclay.
Think you nailed it!
Ah, the CVS credit card swipe screen. That brings back memories.
Haven’t been to a CVS since the infamous memo.
Yeah, missed that place…Not really, I always liked Walgreens better as a drugstore (you know…for stuff other than cards lol) so I am back to them.
George, thanks for the mention. Spirit can be a very nice surprise or a nightmare, but if all goes well, it’s the best domestic first class that miles and money can buy. Lots of interesting non-stop destinations from Detroit, too; you should certainly look into it.
Any thoughts about going to TBEX? I’m pretty sure many bloggers from your Feedly list are going (I believe Beckiy is), and they are doing it at the Moon Palace, which is one of the best AI Cancun property. Think of it as one giant lounge with premium tequila flowing through, to the delight of mucho drunken bloggers. 🙂
One day I will fly Spirit but will have to put it off as long as I can 🙂
Not sure I will fit in with the rest of the attendees at TBEX. Looks very commercialized to me. For party purposes it sure looks great. But have had my share of partying with Charlotte/Ann Arbor/Phoenix gatherings this year. Now the TBEX in Athens looked great for me and then I realized I had booked my trip to Hong Kong during that one. One day I will go to one of these just to meet some people and learn a little bit. But not ready yet. Need to stay above the comped trips murky stuff…unless they want to send me to the Maldives and make me stay in an over the water bungalow…Well, then, I may have to take one for the TBB readers. Woooohoooo!