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| Priekestolen, Norway as seen in MatadorNetwork (see below) |
By the time you read this I am on a Delta flight to San Diego via Salt Lake City. One of the last flights as a Delta Platinum and the upgrade has not cleared! I think Delta may have been reading my blog? I am at a conference until Saturday night. I will try to keep up the Buzz posts but I will likely fall short. There will be at least one guest post one of these days while I am gone. Thanks for understanding.
I have some good stuff for you today, especially in the Best of Travel section!
BEST OF MILES/POINTS
Gary Leff of View from the Wing is killing it with his brilliant post from the other day to ask readers what is on their minds. He has started answering the questions, including “Citibank “Two Browser Trick” Dead (or on Life Support).” I actually sensed something was up on Sunday night…and waited before I opened my mouth. I am running hehind on FT posts so please let me know what the consensus appears to be…Are the banks slowly killing all non affiliate “zombie” links? Oh noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Travel Playbook wrote “[Coach’s Huddle] The Dirty Side of Travel Blogging” Hey, it is not only me who did not like the post on Business Cards by the Points Guy! Yes all bloggers are contributing to the country’s borrowing problem/culture!! And yes undoubtedly people let things spiral out of control and…banks can continue these practices. Please allow me to go off in my Not So Best section below, thank you!
When I hear or read about a rewards program I immediately take notice. Here is a new one: Belly Bites. Free samples anyone? If there were rewards given to people who eat the samples at Whole Foods stores I would be Lifetime Titanium Elite Plus by now!!
NOT SO BEST OF
The Points Guy has a major chaching post with “Travel Tuesday Top 10: Reasons to Get a Business Credit Card“. You don’t have to stretch to reach ten points you know each Tuesday! I would love to see a disclosure post on the top for a change saying “Guys, going on safaris in South Africa is REALLY expensive! If you think I provide some value to you please click the s**t out of my credit card links because this is how I get paid. Thank you and if I ever run into you I would love to buy you dinner/lunch/breakfast not just coffee”. Shaking my head…
Milevalue wrote “Best Practices for Maximizing the PointBreaks List for $35 a Night Hotels“. Ok, this was actually VERY well written so why is it here? This “trick” has been around for some time and has been written about many times. It did not even have a single credit card affiliate link, hooray! So why TBB why here? Because of this: “If you think you want to stay at the InterContinental Fiji for five nights before March 31 during a two week period, but you’re not sure which five nights, book 14 one-night stays.” Please please don’t do that, this is so wrong! How about the fellow traveler who wants to book the hotel only to find out it was sold out in three hours because some selfish (to put it mildly) people booked every single night! This crap just drives me nuts, please don’t do it. How would like to be on the other end huh?
TBB is above all. I have managed to piss off friends here and I will likely continue to do so! When I find posts I do not like I will feature them here. Nothing personal, it is all about your blog:-)
Ok, welcome Points, Miles & Martinis who wrote “Even More 100,000 Business Platinum Offers from American Express“. Ok, the title interested me as it appears I am the only one who never gets these offers and have had an Amex for almost 20 years! And the post was fine..and then BANG (BA Visa), BANG (Chase Ink Bold), BANG (Chase Ink Plus). Hold on…BANG (non affiliate AMEX OPEN w/ no signing bonus, seriously??) and BANG (AMEX Business Gold Rewards).
Unbelievable…
When I saw “The Bluebird Financial Experiment: Manage Family Spending” post by guest Cajun Mama at TravelingMamas I immediately thought “Oh boy, here we go with yet another Bluebird type post!”. And then I started reading it…and it felt like a commercial…and at the end “This was a sponsored experiment and compensation was received. It in no way affected the opinion of the author.” Yeah…right! TBB will NEVER have sponsored posts here! Nobody ever offered me one anyways…oh well. Then it hit me…there are lots of mamas on this part of the internet, lol.
BEST OF TRAVEL
MatadorNetwork has “50 places you can’t reach without climbing“. AMAZINGLY AWESOME pictures! This one went into my Evernote!
tnooz has videos with the the “top 10 heavenly descents/airport approaches“. For all my airline geek readers, enjoy!
Yomadic is at it again with “Snow Covered Hrelic Flea Market, Zagreb. This sure beats the Mall.” My wife will definitely disagree with the mall statement;-) I LOVE the every day life snippets and the amazing pics of common people. I actually prefer these trip reports to the numerous First Class/Lounges/Suites trip reports most other miles/points bloggers post.
LLWorld Tour reports that Marriott will build the only four star hotel in Haiti!
Very Good Points, the Thailand expert, wrote “Bangkok’s Most Unique Hotels“. The “River Nest” with its…floating bed and its description “ It’s a unique but simple concept, float a bed on the gentle river and sleep there for the night. The tides rock you to sleep and the morning sun rise is your alarm clock.” Interesting but I will only do it if they pay ME:-)
A Luxury Travel Blog shows us the “Top 10 Places in Europe to take your loved one this Valentine’s“. Nice to window shop…no hotel points, boo!
Air Canada flight attendants, crew and some passengers lip sync to “Call Me Maybe?”. This is actualy kind of fun video, nice job! HT to Jaunted.
Migrationology has “16 Incredible Photos of Kolkata, India“
ODDZ & ENDZ
This is for the bloggers, you all need it:-) 22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue. Awesome infographic from Copyblogger.
SNL’s Rosetta Stone “ad” This is major LOL stuff! If you do not laugh I will give up 10% of today’s cha ching credit card affiliate income that hit my bank account…ok, just to make sure you are laughing!
From Marc and Angel Hack Life: 8 Happy Ways to Spend 80 Years Guess what is number 1? Travel Often!
I used to follow The Points Guy and all the other similar bloggers on Twitter until I realised that it brings so little value (flooding the Twitter with worthless tweets and only rarely posting something useful for the usual traveller).
I’m still following you as I find this daily summary very useful
Thank you so much!
Is MileValue rewriting all of MMS’ posts? How quickly CAN a blog go downhill?
There are so many blogs, duplication is unavoidable…
There are certain foundation posts my blog needs for me to refer back to in other posts for beginners who don’t have all the building blocks. MMS has already written a lot of those building block posts as have other bloggers. I also constantly write things no one else is writing about–like how to actually redeem miles.
Yes you do that is why I don’t rip you here as much as I do others:-)
I’m still laughing re: the “bang” website you posted about yesterday!
Me too:-)
–PointsBreaks List– So some people make multiple speculative 5k reservations at the ‘best’ hotels? And when I try to make legitimate reservations, all the award nights are gone? And Milevalue encourages people to ‘lock up’ all the award nights with speculative reservations? Wow! I guess some people follow “every man for himself”…..
Reminds me of last June when I posted on another blog which OD I was getting my VR’s at. The next day someone came in and purchased 20K worth and that was the end of VR’s in my area…..
The “every man for himself” syndrome has been an issue in this hobby for a little while…the speed it spreads lately is just getting faster and faster!
Unless you are sharing your miles and points with us, arent we really all on our own in this hobby? So many diff goals, dreams and means to get there.
Well, this issues has been around for a long time. If you go all out and think “I am on my own and am going to kill it”…well, it won’t be long that the deal is over and the rest of us do not benefit as much. There will always be a few hog types, always. But the latest developments are leading to more and faster…hog types exploiting a deal. I prefer the easy go slower route so we can all milk the deals for much longer:-)
Thanks for linking, even if you didn’t like the post. Great roundup and I’ll be coming back to see what else you find in the travel blogosphere. Safe travels to you!
Please never hard feelings, never personal! I am in good terms with most of the bloggers I “gently” rip on here, well most of them anyway;-) I run across that post of yours because of Bluebird…this baby has been talked about a whole lot in this crazy miles/points subset of travel blogs! We are all using it..and some of us use it a LOT!
No hard feelings at all, even for the crazya$$ that left a comment on the post (which I approved and left public btw). What do you really think of the service? They approached me to trial and write about it and since I’m funding most of my own travel these days I was NOT about to turn down the offer. Still have a few more topics to cover about it, but curious if it works for others also.
Let me just say that we miles/points addicts ADORE Bluebird. I better stop there:-)
I think it is the best prepaid card due to the lowest fees. I am sure after they grab the most market share they will increaser the fees!
The TPG post is definitely worthy of worst of. He even deleted my comment when I posted a comment about the profit driven motive of the post. I guess he doesn’t want the newbies to catch on to what he is up to. TPG is so sad to me. That used to be such a great website and then when he went full time I think he brought his wall street ethics to blogging and the site took a nose dive. I agree Mile Value appears to be going in the same direction.
I’ve had a comment on TPG deleted recently. Pretty sad as he never used to be a censorer to the best of my knowledge. At least my comments never got deleted, and it was pretty tame compared to the smack down that Wandering Aramean laid last week
Don’t worry guys, he will write off his South African safari as a business expense. Not that he has to worry about state income taxes anyway….
Brian has built the highest traffic website. That takes hard work and some skill. And his PR skills are truly amazing. He just appeals less and less to the more experienced crowd and he should stop pretending he is targeting us….I think it is done to build credibility and then…gently hammer the newbies with some more credit cards;-)
As usual, FTG’s churning challenge is a slam dunk terrible post (that and TPG’s top 10 should be weekly fixtures on the “not so best of”
On his churn, he uses the non-affiliate US card so that his “out of pocket costs” will be $0, but if you click the link, it takes you to a page which pimps the inferior version, and gives off the impression that there’s zero difference between the cards, but that the affiliate version “is open to everyone” (his words)
Um…. the Chaiarmans version was and still is open to everyone. And much better than your crappy link
It actually gets worse
“As a side note, we’ve gotten some comments questioning why we use particular cards for each churn”
Ahh quite refreshing of FTG, finally responding to all the questions of why he is pushing credit cards that seemed to be bad advice.
Wait, what’s that?
“This week, we single out one specific way to fly to Los Angeles, but we also show other ways it can be done with other cards” [insert 4 more affiliate links downthread]
Yes, he used questions about why he was pushing a Delta card for travel to Phoenix as an excuse to push even more links in his “challenge” than he already did
Sidenote: In showing us that “other ways it can be done” he of course doesn’t show us how it can be done with the non-affiliate AA cards (a sign up by each parent is 100K miles = 4 tickets), but of course shows us how it can be done with the Delta cards (lol at finding 4 saver tickets)
I’d settle for knowing the criteria for the winners of those AA tip contests on FTG. It seems like the same few people win over and over again. I’m starting to think they are his relatives or something. I don’t have a lot of options to collect AA miles and my husband’s account is around 1500 miles short of an award so I have been trying for weeks to win some. There was one time last month, I posted something about FTD flowers, didn’t win. The following week someone else posted the exact same thing and won.
I will get to it later…just running on fumes all day after sleeping 3 hrs and traveling all day.
I never bothered FTG’s contest of the day, I have no idea what the criteria to win is, looks perfectly subjective to me.
TPG is shameless for something else too, not just the credit card pimping.
He takes everyone else’s posts and re-writes them, and almost never gives any credit to the source.
It’s been noted here in the comments before. Now this morning I see this:
http://thepointsguy.com/2013/01/airline-status-match-and-challenge-information-for-2013
Compare to this post from Gary three weeks ago:
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/2013/01/07/getting-another-airline-to-give-you-status-based-on-the-status-you-hold-with-your-current-carrier/
No one blogger has a monopoly on any topic. But one imagines that TPG at least saw that earlier post, but he’s rarely willing to give even a modest nod in the direction of other blogs for even the idea of a post let alone any of the content.
Shame.
It’s long been noted. He is the absolute worst on the H/T front
About 2 weeks after FM had his famous “one card to rule them all” post, one of TPG’s “interns” made a long post about how you get get 5 points with VR’s purchased at OD
No H/T whatsoever. Then when he gets bashed in the comments on it (FM has a very devoted fanbase lol), he tries to double down by saying he figured this out himself and it was common knowledge for some time
Always stealing work, always pimping CC’s, and now apparently he’s censoring comments too.
It’s the crappy blogger trifecta!
The link to the TPG post I was mentioning. Note that when the post first came out, it didn’t have the FM H/T at the top (and still doesn’t actually H/T him for figuring out this deal)
http://thepointsguy.com/2012/07/maximizing-chase-ink-bold-spending-bonuses-at-office-supply-stores/
I do remember reading that and my first thought was “Wow…it takes some balls…” and then I moved on. There are so many bloggers and so little original content…so we get everyone to repeat. It is unavoidable!
I think you’re personal bias towards TPG is clouding your judgement
Of course, the point isn’t just that he’s dupicating work…. it’s that he’s taking it without giving credit. Even to this very day, he hasn’t credited FM for figuring out the OD/VR 5 points per dollar trick
Funny because I just posted on Leffs blog about it.
I found better links than ones we’ve had for a while – the old ones we all thought were dead (50k + $150 + 2 AC passes for $3k spend). And I had two friends double dip the AA cards and get approved. Other people in the same thread posted instant approvals on both THIS WEEK. How can it be dead?
So why are people whining? Because SOME people were declined for one of the two. It may be coincidence, but the decline had called right away, where my friends ALSO received pending but DID NOT CALL and later received both cards in the mail.
Maybe agents are getting smarter and we’re getting dumber.
Actually I do have your post bookmarked and waiting for my mortgage guy to finally close the refi to get with it! I am sensing something is changing…I just can not exactly put my finger on what exactly…time will tell!
True. People are still applying. When no one gets approved… then I’ll cry.
Deal of the day! A pretty good Seattle – Detroit fare on United. That was actually even gone before it was blogged (verified myself, but also posted on Flyertalk with a timestamp long before the blog post).
And this time it wasn’t even RICK that was doing the phoning it in. It’s one of the outsource blog posts. Just. Doesn’t. Even. Care. Anymore.
http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/2013/01/deal-of-the-day-awardwallet-january-30-2013.html?
I don’t read the Deal of the Day…by the time it makes it here…it’s old news. If still going…just not enough. I pass
Oh lord, now TPG is rolling out “Wine Wednesdays”
That now makes 4 days in the week where he now has a weekly series used as an excuse to pimp CC’s
The weekly Sunday Reader Question about the CSP and other cards
The travel Tuesday top 10 (at least 2 or 3 of the 10 will be dedicated to CC links)
The Destination of the week (A lot of One World airlines fly here, so get the BA Visa)
Now Wine Country (here’s a list of all the Visa Signature Cards)
I look forward to the inevitable filler posts he has planned for Monday, Saturday and Thursday
“Thursdays indigenous mammal of the week”
If he does, he better hat tip me! I already have an “animal of the week” though I’ve been neglecting it. I also have a section for parrots specifically and one for other birds. Of course it’s an eco-tourism blog so appropriate.
That was funny MTTW adding he wants a HT for the “mamal of the week” feature…lol
LOL touche MTTW
Although you haven’t successfully travel blogged about animals, until you’ve found a way to connect the Eclectus Parrot to the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
That’s the stuff they teach you at BAcon…
LOL, at least I have my official Bluebird post! http://www.milestothewild.com/bluebird/
OK Anonymous, I met your challenge AND I raised you one video which contains (to be polite) romantic promiscuity.
So throw that BAcon back into the frying pan and let it sizzle a bit!
Full Disclosure: TBB LOVES Bacon…for breakfast!!
Milevalue is going downhill. Worse and worse. A post about Frontier airlines… I’m scrolling down… wait for it… and here’s an a affiliate link! Cha-ching!
I will get to it…I hope
Look, Scott gets a pass, and should get a pass for mores stuff than TPG or FTG for instance due to the free one ways and his budget tourist stuff – like the air New Zealand standby trick. No one else knows about that. He has obviously decided to take his blog to the next level and make it a part time business. Good for him and hopefully he can keep the bullshyt posts to a minimum. Then again, new people are new people and need to have their hand held. Once they have miles, a lot of new people still have no clue how to use them or want to go to popular destinations – like Paris or London. The Frankfurt tokyo Hong Kong open jaw Chang Mai trips will always be available one way or another. It takes 3-4 months of daily reading to get comfortable with even dreaming of something like that.
Is he as terrible as FTG or TPG right now? Absolutely not – but really, that doesn’t say much.
And it’s pretty clear the trajectory he’s headed towards. It’s like a TPG remake, 3 years later. Soon he’ll be a full time blogger, then will come the weekly CC pimping features, then will come the completely giving up on original content
The worst 3 words you can hear in the travel blogosphere is “Welcome NYT readers!”
I don’t think TPG has come up with anything on HIS OWN that doesn’t involve elite fliers. MileValue did.
Actual useful travel tip from a blogger! Wonders never cease!
A good reminder that tomorrow is the last day to extend expiring United confirmed upgrades. They will extend them all and for a full year..!
http://www.heelsfirsttravel.com/2013/01/30/successfully-extending-my-united-global-premier-upgrades-with-one-day-to-spare
(Funny, where are all of the elite United bloggers and why aren’t they touting this? What, United doesn’t pay them a commission for each GPU extended??)
I have that blog post marked for review. I see your point of course. Most NYT readers or Nightline viewers do not:-)
A must read article for a North Korean connoisseur such as yourself TBB…
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/google-releases-detailed-map-north-korea-article-1.1251358
Of course I read it! I already had lots of things to share that day so I passed on it. Thanks for reading. Check Onion piece about North Koreans wildly celebrating that the new leader managed to be the first human to walk on the Moon!
Wow, approximately 50 comments in this post
Or as it’s known in FTG circles, “a busy month”
If only the numbers of comments in my blog posts were parallel to FTG’s income from his blog:-)
Actually, half of the comments are mine as I try to respond to every single one or most of them.
George, if you’d like some helpful suggestions on how to increase readership, I’d be glad to help?
Love Rick’s skin – it’s thick!
Thanks for the offer. I don’t have the time to improve how the blog looks…how am I going to have time to add ways to increase readership? I have some other things brewing in my real job that may make this little labor of love a very nice memory. #developing