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| Battle of the Oranges, Ivrea, Italy as seen at Gadling |
There were a lot of blogs posts thrown at me today, it was hard keeping up! I thought it may be my longest post ever but, as it turned out, it may be the shortest as so much of what I reviewed did not pass the amazingly tough TBB screens!
So, here we go…
THE END OF THE CVS/VANILLA ICE CREAM RUNS…
I was alerted on Twitter of the consumer press getting a hold of the CVS/VR/BB “hack” and I think the end is near. Food, Wine and Miles has the short right on target post. Can you believe the author recommends to call the store, WTF!!! In the preblog days this could last…oh, never mind. Thank God I did not get in the AMEX 75k card with $10k minimum spend, phew! Well, as they say…game is not over until it’s over!
You can follow me on Twitter by clicking here @FlyerTalkerinA2 .
BEST OF MILES/POINTS
The new Priority Club Pointbreaks list is out! It’s good for stays through May 31, 2013. Priority Club Insider nails it when he says: “Is it possible to have a list of properties that’s even worse than last time?“
Million Miles Secrets wrote “Using Paypal “My Cash” Reloads to Earn Miles & Points, Fund Bluebird, Pay Taxes & More“. As always, brilliantly explained even a Caveman can do it:-)
Gary of View from View from the Wing had a brilliantly simple blog post titled “Monday Open Thread” What’s on your mind? Share it in the comments. That’s it. I prefer this than yet another filler post as most other bloggers do! I think bloggers can get a feel of what their readers think by giving them the floor and perhaps they can answer some of the questions…which is providing real value…assuming the questions are answered!
NOT SO BEST OF
Delta Points again manages to find a way to embed 11 affiliate links in the body of the post telling readers how he pays his bills. I wish all bloggers disclosed on the top of each post which are affiliate links! You know, FULL disclosure! If you had avoided so many affiliate links this could have been a candidate for the “Best Of” category…maybe. I absolutely despise Ameriprise, I am shocked you can not do better shopping around! Ameriprise employees sued their own company because the 401k is filled with crappy…Ameriprise funds, lol.
Million Mile Secrets, in a first at TBB, makes both categories here for the same blog post! Why, how come is this possible? Well, here is my take on it. I do not think readers should mess with Paypal, the company is ruthless to deal with. I really appreciate the warnings all over the post but….some knucklehead will go ahead and test Paypal and likely get burned. Peace of mind to me is priceless…Paypal is the Cartera of online payments:-)
BEST OF TRAVEL
“How to Protect Yourself from Antiquated Airline Computers That Could Ruin Your Trip” From PT Money. Some pretty good info here.
“The Secret Lives of North Korea“. From the former UK Ambassador there.
Chicago’s Freezing Fire. AMAZING pictures!
tnooz reports that “Trip Advisor launches system for hotels faced with blackmail from guests“. WOW! Probably overdue…
Gadling has an awesome HD video from “Italy’s Biggest Food Fight“.
Sea Foam Blankets Australian Beach Town video. This is so bizarre!
ODDZ & ENDZ
“Crazy video of a truck in China tipping over and nearly flattening a guy“. Please hold all the Asians can’t drive jokes:-)
Ok, I first thought this was a joke…but it appears it is not! “BangWithFriends” HT to Jetset Farryn.
She writes “It was only a matter of time until social and sex joined forces. Enter Bang With Friends, a bloody brilliant and ballsy first step towards socially driven sex. Connect, click your catch, and hope for a response.” I am still shaking my head…
bang with friends LOL!!
This was probably started by someone in Los Angeles;-)
It doesn’t say “MVP”, but since it’s above the “Best of” section does that make it the MVP post of the day? 😉
Well…as it was at the top, might as well be perceived as MVP post of the day if it makes you feel better:-)
I’ll take it! I need some hardware for my mantel 🙂
TPG’S Travel Tuesday Top 10…. Reasons to get a Business Card
Yep, you know where this is going
And is that an affiliate link to the AMEX BRG with no sign-up bonus at the top?
I will get to it, thanks for the heads up!
Here’s the thing about TPG’s 10 reasons to get a business card..
Look at #9 .. protections. Consumer protections are a REASON to get a business card, when he acknowledges that in general those protections are WEAKER than with a personal card. In other words he’s giving advice that he acknowledges is bad — unless it is a reason to get a business card rather than paying cash, for folks who refuse to get a personal card?
Some protections such as on rental cars can be stronger with business cards, but he doesn’t know enough about that to make the case. And he doesn’t understand business credit well enough to explain how you’re building business credit when you don’t have a business, don’t have a business tax ID, and the business card’s spending isn’t being reported on your personal credit each month (unless you default, natch).
It’s advice that TPG doesn’t understand. But when he understands it, he recognizes it’s bad advice. And doesn’t care.
See, THESE are the kinds of posts that deserve to be called out. They’re gratuitous. There’s no disclosure. And the advice is neither original nor accurate.
Who cares if our eyeballs hurt from repetitive credit card shilling, when the advise is actually good for someone that hasn’t read it before. That’s a whole different world from this garbage.
Most bloggers are too polite to call others out for it. Thank goodness we have TBB!
This is great, thanks for writing in and the heads up! Most newbies who get there from the travel shows have no idea about this stuff…they are just super easy targets for credit card apps. And that’s where the money is. What you say, there is no disclosure? Of course there is…you just won’t find it so easily. Having a prominent disclosure keeps revenue down and I have seen studies confirming this! So…they just bury it somewhere on the site and not in the body of the post…Probably it is required by Bent Offers or something!
I agree with you that eye sockets will be fine if the information provided is constructive and/or original. But when you offer bad advice that has been repeated infinite times by so many bloggers AND serve gazillion affiliate links…expect to be called out here at TBB and maybe bloggers can change such practices and improve this space…Otherwise, it is starting to get totally disgusting with the continued pimping going on. But you know what…I think most like it being featured here in the “Not so Best of” as it raises exposure and it is yet another link in the web to their site (helps with google rankings/searches).
It is only 9.40 anm EST and already have one entry in the Not So Best of for tomorrow…Can’t help it, they make TBB’s mission too easy.
Nobody has the balls to say what I say here. Being silent, to me, is going along with such awuful practices. Well, it is NOT okay. If bloggers do not like what I do here they are free to bust their butt to get featured in the Best Of category or even try for an MVP post. I think I am being fair…I try to be, this is an art, not a science.
At the end of the day, it is my blog and I can do what I want:-)
Number one goal of the blog is to give my readers a good read by making it entertaining/educational and maybe inspiring once in a while. If the whole community can be improved in the meantime, it is great! Plus it keeps my therapist’s bills way down as I am too busy reviewing blogs, lol.
Thank you for reading and commenting here, it is certainly appreciated!
Holy holy crap!!!! TPG has so many cc links in his ‘helpful’ posting about business cc’s that I wanted to open my window and shout as loud as i could “I’m made as hell and I’m not going to read it anymore!!!!!!” Do something George!!
Gary reporting that it looks like the 2 browser AA trick is dead. So far the comments in his post seem to validate
This is great news for bloggers since it now looks less bad that they’re not pushing the first thing every single travel newbie should do – get 100K easy AA miles
I had a go at this last week but it was the 4th app I did that day and I got denied on both AA Citi apps. Actually they both got flagged for human review and the humans saw all the other apps and denied me. Maybe I should have done Citi first but I didn’t realize they could see the inquiries I had done just minutes before.
I wonder if the whole app-o-rama thing is changing. I’ve seen people get 6-7 credit cards approved in one day but maybe the software has changed to be faster and they can now see inquiries even if they are only done minutes before.
Inquiries have updated pretty much instantly for quite some time. I don’t think that has anything to do with it.
I sensed this was happening last night and I thought about posting it…but I decided to wait. Looks like this run is over…I am really behind today and I may not catch up as I have not even packed for my flight in 7 hours!!
I am just sensing something major is brewing in “established churning” practices…
We are being attacked from all sides it seems. On a positive note I carried a bunch of cash from Chase to BankofAmerica today (hint:debit icecream). Worked flawlessly. Going to kill it in February as the vanilla run is definitely in its last legs!!
Regarding the top post on FTG’s site now about “Medical Mileage Runs”
Um…. wtf?
How about not giving advice that suggests mileage runs should play a role in dictating medical decisions?
When you’re making a medical decision, “how many miles can I get for it” is about #5,000,000 on the list of things I factor in
I know the author and, trust me, she knows all about mileage runs! I think she only refers to cosmetic/minor stuff…and I think it’s good advice if they can be combined. Of course no way should anyone consider mileage runs with MAJOR medical procedures, that would be nuts and a guaranteed spot in my Not So Best of category…hehe