BEST OF
Gary Leff posted about “Buying Money for Money for the Miles“. This posts shows the INCREDIBLE effect the prepaid cards have brought into our hobby! It is basically a GOLD rush! This was being mentioned in DansDeals forums lately and was brought to my attention there but I just did not have time to study it thoroughly (like I have time to do anything anymore other than reading blogs for my readers these days!!!!). And now it is OUT to the masses. In other words, get some miles before the mega hitters kill it! And this brings up the shut down Flyer Talk thread “Blogs killing deals”:-) I will definitely look for these cards now next time I am out trying to take care of my 3 Ink cards. And this looks like will add to the pace of getting more cards…Maybe it is time to go for the Club Carlson cards and give them a shot as soon as my mortgage guy puts together a mortgage refi (again!).
5 Trends to look for in travel this year. Yep, higher fares, more fees, more consolidation, some relief in gasoline prices, more passenger protections. I am going out on a limb that after the AA and US air merger the market probably can take another merger and I therefore predict Delta and Alaska Air getting together (not so sure now after the Delta-Virgin Atlantic partnership). Commence the insults now just like you all did when I made the prediction of Delta buying Northwest and US Air merging with AA way before they actually happened! #trackrecordbaby
Raffles at Head for Points flogs Priority Club for not officially announcing to its members that ONLY base points qualify for the 60,000 points needed for Platinum elite qualification. “It is inexcusable”. And I agree! So, the good old days of scoring mega points from rampant promotions and so easily requalifying for Platinum appear to be over. Not like Platinum made any huge difference in your stays anyway! If you want it, go for the Chase Priority club Visa. There is an offer that gives out 80k PC points. Yep, it is a non affiliate offer. It still works according to this FT thread (link is on Post #1). Just got the wife one on its way as shockingly, after a thorough audit, I discovered, to my sheer horror, she never had this card before:-)
Ruffin on the Road goes to Cappadocia.Wow!
You can get 2,500 miles for opening a Jet Airways miles account. I am not linking here, I am not doing this myself. You need 4,000 miles for a free intra India flight and I am not sure I want to fly this airline anyways! Let me know if you want the link. I think I saw it at Mile Nerd or Miles Momma? Sorry there is so much coming my way every day, I need to prioritize!
Chris Elliott explains why he is so cranky lately: “I’ve been in a dark mood since they canceled my Frommers column” and offers an apology. We accept it! He also says: “I do have another bombshell announcement that I hope to make in the next few days and that will affect everything you see here in 2013. More on that soon.” If it is affiliate links, THAT’S IT…I am retiring from blogging or I am adding them too, lol!
The 24 Worst Celebrity Air Rage Incidents! Yikes!
Online shopping/rewards malls bore me! But I did get into that amazing Valuemags promo many years ago;-) When/if something like that happens again, expect me to link to it along with my incendiary commentary as always, ha!
NOT SO BEST OF
Ok, this probably does not belong here but it certainly does not belong in the best of and absolutely not in the Oddz & Endz categories. Milevalue gives his 2013 Travel Resolutions. Actually, I don’t really have much time for each blogger’s 2013 resolutions and 2012 summaries. I do scan them all of course for my readers but I almost never find anything to feature here! So, Milevalue informs us that his blog’s resolutions include “Increase my content on earning miles” and More hotel content.”. My first thought was: “Great, like we needed more blogs pounding on the same stuff!”. This blog had great award booking information and it was why I have been following it. So, expect much less award booking info, more on earning and hotels that you can find somewhere else and a whole lot of airline and hotel credit card affiliate links ( they go with the “earning” part you see).
Not done yet! Then there was another post about the “lucrative” US Air card bonus offers that are being sent out to cardholders. He even references a FlyerTalk thread about it, wow, talk about research! Somehow, we find, naturally, several links to the crappy affiliate US Air credit card offer (getting tired of this bloggers!!!!). Then at the very end, we at least get the much superior US Air cc link with the qualifier “(may have a 10k annual bonus, though I was told by an agent it did not, also targeted to top-tier elites and employees)”. Thanks for adding this link at least, it is an improvement! Come on, there IS a 10k annual bonus, there is NO annual fee for the first year and is NOT targeted to top-tier elites and employees! It is Barclays, they have no idea what Chairman even is people! Here is the better card, it is a no brainer! And here is the 121 page Flyer Talk thread if you bloggers want to do NON selective research!
Delta Points has the obligatory topic of starting over with Elite miles and, for the 534th time, he reminds us we can get Delta Elite Miles by getting the Delta credit cards and serves us (shocking!!!) the credit card links, how conveeeenient! Wow, I am so glad I learned something “new” today, thanks!
ODDZ & ENDZ
2012: Things I have learned. This is a MUST read! A few things that can be associated with the blog world I am covering here:
-All you have is your name and your word. [Hey all of you “I will never promote an inferior card offer”!]
– Be able to look yourself in the eyes each day when you brush your teeth. [Wonder how many bloggers can do that these days!!]
-If you do the right thing long enough, someone will eventually take notice. [ hear, hear!]
10 things you should do everyday to improve your life. I need to try out this meditation thing this year! And keep touching, lol.
This is from a colleague of mine and it is so important for all of us to do. I know it is not the most cheerful thing to do but we should all work on our “Three Resolutions for the End of Life“
Heeey, what do you have against Jet Airways? They are probably the best carrier in India. And those Thai/Turkish F suites that everyone loves/loved on the 77W are actually leased from Jet Airways. Though their mileage program isn’t that great.
Oops, you are right! I was thinking Kinfisher for some reason, they have been in the news a lot lately. And it was late and I had been drinking. I may update my post if I get around to it, thanks!
Kingfisher! Dang it, I didn’t really drink that much last night, lol
Maybe you were drinking Kingfisher Beer — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingfisher_%28beer%29 (yes, same company!)
No wonder:-)
TPG’s latest post might deserve it’s own wing of the TBB Hall of Shame
I count 23 affiliate links in the post, no fewer than 3 of them being inferior offers to what is currently available (there’s probably others too), of course with no disclosure of that fact
And obviously none of the unaffiliated credit cards found their way into his post. So don’t expect to see anything on Club Carlson et al
I am sure I will get to it & will take your comments into accout,thanks!
Looks like TPG was shamed into including the better offers
However going through the comments section of that post, it’s disheartening how many newbies are getting suckered by TPG
I bitched on his comment role too. How can he sleep knowing that he is pushing inferior products to the people that trust him for advice?
On one hand, we tell the newbies to “do their research” and that we’re not going to spoonfeed these things to them – so in a sense you don’t feel bad when they got suckered by TPG into an inferior offer
On the other hand, if a newbie sees his post, how is he supposed to have any idea that research needs to be done? He’ll see the shiny 40K US miles for only $89 and have absolutely zero indication whatsoever (unless he looked in the comments section) that there is one very big “yeah, but….”
The big money in this space is milking the newbies. There is an infinite supply of them, they keep coming in seminars after being reeled in quick PR pieces so many bloggers have become and are getting better at. My blog will still focus towards the bit more advanced enthusiast;-)
Some people are so way into believing their own crap…they can justify anything! I could not sleep if I did this, you can bank on that (haha, pun intended)
Check tomorrow my comments on DP’s latest post on how to “construct mileage runs”. Come again???
Great blog. I made some critiques of your blogs in its early days, and I see you’ve really made great strides in some areas (i.e. when you first started out, you were constantly pimping your blog in the comments section).
I love the current format of your posts – dividing into different sections. One suggestion – keep the comments briefer. MV absolutely deserves heavy criticism for the garbage he’s pulling, but keep it to a few concise sentences. My attention started wandering by the 4th line of that rant.
Otherwise, nice to see the quality of the blog improve over time. Especially when you see other travel blogs deteriorate with age
Thanks! I think I remember you. I read and try to respond to every comment. Regarding my long comments….I had the EXACT same feeling when I posted it last night…that these may be way too long, thanks for confirming it!
When I decide to dive into something I am very quality oriented kind of guy, either give it your best effort or not even start!
I am learning slowly!
One more suggestion
Make a tab somewhere (similar to how many bloggers have a “best credit cards” section at the top) dividing up all the major bloggers into different buckets. This is to say absolutely nothing about the quality of their blogs or day to day content… just merely a fact based list of what to expect from each major blogger on the CC affiliate front. And it can be updated as circumstances (i.e. MileValue’s drastic shift) change
As an example:
Bloggers who don’t do affiliate links (i.e. Loyalty Traveler)
Bloggers who do affiliate links but with minimal pimping (i.e. Frequent Miler)
Bloggers who do a lot of pimping but always give appropriate disclosure to better offers and financial relationships (i.e. Gary)
Bloggers who kinda/sorta let people know that there’s a better offer out there but word it in a way that would make the unbeknownst hesitant (i.e. MommyPoints)
Bloggers who do no disclosure whatsoever and/or push inferior links and/or give deceitfully bad advice (i.e. Delta Points)
Maybe make it a 1-10 rating with 10 being someone who does no affiliate pimping at all and a 1 being someone who gives intentionally gives bad advice for his own financial gain
Yes…I know, I have that in mind too. I am focusing in real life first of course and then keeping up with the daily updates of all the blog action. Not much time is left, believe me! I am in the process of moving to own domain on WordPress and have a 7 step checklist I am supposed to do. I am stuck on Step 2 for a while…
I am focusing on content, content, content. The rest will come together eventually as my (very limited) time allows it.
I do not want this to become a “real” job, not fun that way!
Thanks again, I love your suggestions.
I think a great idea to go along with this is a mentioning of the commission these people make, like the $200 per Chase approval they make ??? A great way to value passive income–LOL
I am not a betting man but I bet you we would not be seeing anything like this anytime soon as it is expressly prohibited;-)
I really like this guys idea of an “honor roll” for the other bloggers. Case in point: today was a churn day for me and I had to look around to see who I wanted to give my ref link business to. The one blog I was really hoping to help, the flight deal, didnt have any links!
I saw in TPG’s comments section that you were going to throw churn $$$ his way. Are you crazy? Just about any other blogger short of FTG or Delta Points would be better to click on their links
Yeah the honor roll is a great idea but I move so slow it won’t happen for months! Yes, flifhtdeal is awesome, I agree!
You saw in TPG’s MY comment I was going to click on his links??? It wasn’t me, I can assure you of that! To keep blog integrity, I find direct non affiliate links ever since I started it. I sleep easier this way knowing I did not favor one over the other.
Was talking about BlueCat, not you TBB
Ooops, sorry about that! I thought maybe someone was impersonating me or something:-) Yeah, this blogspot format here sucks I know! One day I will move…one day!
Don’t worry about the formatting.
Get the content fully refined first, and then take care of the aesthetics
@Anonymous, yeah, I figured I still owe him one more referral for a great post of his way back when. After this, I owe him zilch. (Well, I am using the same math as I use for determining when something is “over the line”…it’s personal and doesn’t always make sense).
For the record, I also paid back Dan’s Deals and FTG this way. Wont do it again. MMS is still okay in my book, albeit a little tiresome at times. (e.g., “Where to take a dump in Tahiti”)
I guess if you’re really desperate to look for a silver lining in that horrific TPG thread today, it’s that he hasn’t censored critical comments
So while that post might’ve set blogospheres back 20 years, he has that going for him
I am running behind today, so much real work to do…I will get to it, I promise!
Our 2nd honeymoon in Bora Bora part 12 to the 24th power: Why isn’t “Bora Bora” hyphenated?
I am laughing so hard with your creativity! You are at pre sell out Points Envy territory!