Hotel Internet, Tokyo Fish Market, Tourist Scams, HSAs, College Map and Blog Buzz musings!

We get a state of the hotel Internet address, visit the Tokyo Fish Market, learn about tourist scams, Health Savings Accounts, College Map and Blog Buzz musings!

 

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Free Internet Rules for 2015 across major hotel brands  – Loyalty Traveler     Nice wrap up of the latest wifi situation. Wifi should be free!

Amazing video asks, “what if we lived the way we travel?”  –  Matador Network     Pretty cool.

Surreal Video Shows Freediver Riding an Underwater Ocean Current  –  Twisted Sifter     This is even cooler, wow!

Witnessing the Last Days of Blue Fin Tuna at the Tokyo Fish Market  –  Medium    For some reason, this place has been featured many times in travel blogs…

 

Here’s how you’re going to get scammed in each of the world’s biggest cities  –  Matador Network    This is huge infographic, all the scams are here!

If America Had 100 College Students, Here’s What The Student Body Would Look Like

 

How To Boost Your Retirement Kitty — Without Contributing To Your 401(k)  –  Forbes    Health Savings Accounts are great!

 

Entering BLOG BUZZ area, please wear your helmets. Please note that this section is for long time miles hobbyists and is for entertainment only. If you are new please feel free to skip it. We like to expose the unvarnished truth around here! Don’t be a Tool! Only pick the blog posts that made me really angry

In case you have not figured it out, this blog started as an avenue to express myself as a long time hobbyist who saw this obscure hobby grow and grow that it recently reached a level so large that I thought there was a niche for a blog to review all these blogs that have sprung up wanting you to fly for free and click their links. And do it in an entertaining manner. I have long ago stated numerous times that I don’t care much about rankings and making lots of money, thank God the day job is doing well and there has never been any intention to go full time. I just thought I had something to offer, needed a new challenge and have fun doing it expressing myself here. Never in a million years I expected to be here still at it 27 months later, wow! And never in a billion years I ever expected to be read by more than “friends and family” hehe.

Sadly, my dear hobby has been invaded by all kinds of charlatans and credit card shills who just sell fake expertise 24/7. Even more sadly, some of them had credibility but I have seen their progress in selling out and how they have become mega pumping machines.  I tweeted this earlier yesterday: “For the record, I am NOT against affiliate links. Never was, never will be. But constantly pumping them & pretending to be experts is CRAP!”. And AZTravelGuy expertly added this: “Claiming no bias as the level of pumping increases, at expense of useful content – that’s the problem.” Yep, THAT IS THE PROBLEM in this space! But I digress.

I am finding a blogging groove lately. I still go through Feedly as it has become a habit and need material to share in my other professional twitter account anyway. I mark blog posts to save them. When I get some down time (bathroom, Panera, eating lunch, at gym) I go through the saved blog posts and if it is worthy I bookmark it. I arrange the bookmarked ones in sequence as they are going to appear in the next TBB post. Then I open Notepad and copy/paste the headlines (to clean the stupid formatting codes that sometimes WordPress kept and drove me crazy cleaning them up!). Then at night around 9 pm I copy/paste from Notepad to a new blog post in WordPress, add the links, bring over some pictures and clean it up. Aiming to be done by 10 pm. Works for me and hope works for you guys. Thank you for all the encouraging emails not to give up, they make me very happy that someone is listening. I aim to be the voice of reason in this space. And I always aim to be funny….unless I get angry…briefly that is lol.

Do people read the trip reports of mileage runs on Delta and the latest review of a Skyclub in DFW? With tiny pictures you must click on to actually see them (and double the website hits). Apparently they do over at Delta Points.

Extra Pack of Peanuts had a podcast titled: How Peanut Can Save the World. Don’t ask!

With so much to blog about, you know, the blogs in the world famous and spectacularly accurate TBB Ignore list, find ways to keep pumping credit cards to their readers. It still amazes me how many times and how many excuses they will come up with to sell more product. The only innovation coming from them for sure! Here is a sample you guys:

Deals We Like – Hotel Credit Cards That Will Earn You Status    [Woke up one day and decided to write about these cards. Again…smh. You can rest assured bloggers would not be writing so much about these if it wasn’t for the $$]

Million Mile Secrets  –  Save 10% AND Get Hotel Points & Benefits With StayFaster!   – [Love pumping brand new unproven ways to make some more dough!]

Million Mile Secrets  –  Good News for Southwest Companion Pass, You Can Now Buy More Choice Hotel Points  [ This has to be post #2,345,698 on the Southwest Companion Pass I swear!]

Points Miles & Martinis  –  1,750 TrueBlue Or Rapid Rewards Bonus With Flowers Order    [Hey, lets make some money selling flowers. We love taking stuff from others and inserting affiliate links!]

Mommy Points   –  Free Nights and More via 4 Favorite Hotel Credit Cards!    [Again. Hold Nose. ]

Frugal Travel Guy  –  Reader Request: Credit Card Advice for Getting to Australia First Class      [FTG. Exists to sell plastic. Every day. Non stop. Watch your “Wallet”, it’s your personal responsibility…it’s true sucka!]

The Reward Boss  –  Top 5 Credit Cards For Travel Rewards ✦ February 2015    [This blog started big and was posting a lot. Looks like these days it pops up every few days or so to pass some $$$ links. Hey dude get Amazon you ‘ll make a killing on toilet paper LOL]

I do not like seeing people I like writing for blogs I despise. For the record.

But the progress of the View from the Wing blog from one of the best and most trusted in this space to one that just keeps reaching new lows every day has been incredible and…sad.  Check out these headlines and shake your head in unison with me:

Yesterday I Suggested 4 Credit Cards. Here’s What to Do If You Just Want One

The Card I Don’t Have — But Would Never Give Up If I Did

Reader S. left this comment about View from the Wing: Gary’s site has been officially removed from my bookmarks after approximately 5 years. It has been getting worse over time but now it is non-stop credit card vomit. He went and destroyed his once great website. I call that selling out whether he still runs his blog or not. Some people will do ANYTHING for money. Makes me sick.  

 

This is just a VERY small sample my eyeballs have to scroll by each day. It is like a giant orgy out there, beware! Save the newbies, they are not irresponsible, they just don’t know and easily trust slick salesmen! I was so upset I burned 48,888 Arrival points for about $543 in AA taxes and fees for family trip to Greece in the summer. And then I was so distraught by the parade of pumping posts I booked two nights at the Fairmont Chicago in May. Hey, expiring certs. Room rates in the $400’s, must be a big event or something. Need to wait for my new Plat suite upgrade certs next 🙂