Soap Box Alert!
I need to make a few things very clear: This is my own blog. I post whatever I feel like it here and everything is my own opinion and is protected by the First Amendment!
My blog’s mission is to review other travel blogs. I highlight some great content in the “Best Of” category and I also highlight some “Not so Best of” content. The former wildly outnumbers the latter! I hope you find some of the content inspiring, educational and useful in your life. I especially love original content and finding some material you may have missed. I also like to highlight some blog posts that, in my own opinion as always, are not up to par and will always imply/suggest ways for improvement. Everything in my blog should not be taken that seriously and will always have an entertaining tone because I think humor is important! I also give my veteran commentary when I feel like it. My goal is to add value to your life and reduce my therapist bills as she always encourages me to “release” what’s inside me and tells me to never hold back, so there!:-)
If you are a blogger, please please be aware I have nothing personal against you! Without you TBB would not exist so I thank you for my existence, lol. If I find something I like, you will be praised. If I find something I do not like, I will say so in a constructive way. If I find something that really turns me off, I may lose it temporarily and go off on a mini rant…I can’t help it ok, I do have “issues”, I am working on it! Get over it, you are not really that important, check your ego at the door (or should I say your browser or smart phone or ipad?) It is OKAY to make fun of ourselves, keeps you really humble, try it. In my sick mind, I feel like I may be able to have an impact on this space and IMPROVE it! I am seeing some improvement lately, let’s keep it going!
Off the soap box and on with the show!
PREPAID CARD MADNESS
I was driving yesterday and on the radio comes Morgan Freeman to pitch a…prepaid card! Watch out Justin Bieber!
The Dirty Little Secret Behind Wal Mart’s Bluebird Cards. Yep, when the two big gorillas corner the whole prepaid market expect fees to go up, way up! And do not forget that money in these accounts is not FDIC insured…so do not leave much money inside them, use it!
I have never been inside my local drugstores and OfficeDepot as much as I have the last several months!
BEST OF
Excellent post by Amol at Hack My Trip on “Getting Elite Status – To Spend or to Fly“. I certainly will miss my domestic upgrades on Delta come March 1st:-( And then Scott follows up with his take on “Mileage Runs for Fun and Profit“. That’s great stuff guys!
Excellent Beginners Guide to Redeeming British Airways Avios points by Travel Summary. Well done. The key with this stuff is to read things over and over and it will start sinking in. Then, after YOU attemp to do it, it REALLY starts sinking in!
List of the official payment processors allowed by the IRS (HT to Gary at Free Frequent Flyer Miles ). Do NOT do the tax payment with a credit card. But please consider doing it with a mileage earning debit card (not that many left outthere!)!
Gary Leff wrote about “Common Tourist Scams and How to Avoid Them“. Wow, must read! One of the most useful blog posts recently! When I am reincarnated I want to return as Gary Leff:-)
Really good information on Getting Injured Abroad at Very Good Points. Good to know…I have been very lucky not to seek any medical attention in travels, hope it continues! I have never bought travel insurance, maybe I should! Get better soon Stacey!
Is Points Envy back in form after selling out? The “Professional Churning for Amateurs” was much funnier than the last two posts. Maybe he is getting back in the groove? Maybe there is hope after selling out? And there is a mention about Apple products…hmm. Yet another secret revealed about PE’s true identity;-)
Delta Points writes about “The reasons against Delta going revenue based this year“. Nice effort! Time will tell who is right. I think we will see this effective in 2014 or 2015.
Point me to the Plane produces a Delta internal memo. Wow, nice find. SkyMiles is NEVER mentioned. That just goes to show you how Delta LOVES how members burn 150k Skypesos to fly coach to Hawaii!
Good to see Pizza In Motion post some original content. Here he gives us details on the elusive BusinessExtraAA American Express card. Even I did not know about this card! After reading more about it, it is a non event. No signing bonus and they make it very tough to apply…have to call and interact with another human being? No thanks!
The Points Guy tells us how Citi ThankYou Points can now be transferred to Hilton HHonors points!
And thanks Brian for HTing Flyertalk where I first learned about this and was looking to break it all out in the blogosphere myself for all the glory, lol. This is VERY welcome news to see Citibank competing with Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express. It is not going to make me go get a Thank you points card right away but if they continue adding partners I certainly will!
NOT SO BEST OF
A Day in Papeete Ok, this is only here because it is the longest trip report ever! I find absolutely nothing wrong with the trip report from a place I have very good memories, I actually enjoy reading them! I just think it could have been over many posts ago, that is all! Thankfully, D & E are now on the plane out….woohoo! 🙂
Thanks for the well wishes! Getting better every day!
One point about the first amendment, one of my geeky hobbies 🙂 studying government.
The first amendment doesn’t give people the right to say anything. The amendment actually forbids congress from passing any law that would abridge the freedom of speech. Even the courts have had a hard time determining what is protected and what isn’t. However, a few things they’ve ruled aren’t allowed (and would pertain to blogging) are:
The right to:
Incite actions that would harm others (e.g. “[S]hout[ing] ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”).
Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919).
Make or distribute obscene materials.
Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957).
What’s interesting to me is that the amendment actually allows courts to decide what speech, both direct (words, written or spoken) or symbolic (actions) are entitled to first amendment protections, or not. Most people assume you can say anything, and you can, but the courts can decide if what you say is protected or not. Not travel related, but interesting none the less. Better than Vietnam or China I guess where you have to assume you can’t say anything.
now that’s some interesting info!
And this is why I like blogging even though it can be so time sucky, to learn new stuff! Thanks for the comments, very interesting. I admit law is not my thing. I got my only C in college in a law class, that was the only C in my life, lol.
Hmm, what is considered “obscene”??
I am going to sleep on that right now!
Hope the shoulder is fine soon. I have just now managed to put full weight on my right ankle after almost a whole month! Bones heal so much slower the older you get, it’s true!
Thanks for the positive mention!
I disagree, don’t think PointsEnvy’s post was funny at all
His work is clearly suffering from the fact that some topics are probably off limits now that he posts on MMS’ blog. i.e. no more satirizing other bloggers (which was often his best schtick)
And don’t count your chickens before they hatch with MMS’ trip report. It’s a long flight home – expect at least 7 posts on it
Did they increase the commission on the SPG card recently? That was the affiliate link at the end of today’s FTG filler post for the 3rd time since Friday (his son Andrews post at on that remote island was far better than anything FTG writes these days, although that doesn’t say much)
I thought that PE’s post was much better than the first two posts for BMS. So maybe there is hope to find his sharpness again…time will tell.
MMS is on the plane out of French Polynesia, it has to be almost over:-)
No comment on your last paragraph;-)
Oh boy
As soon as I saw TPG’s thread title (“Choosing the best site and Credit Card for Purchasing Airfare), I knew what was coming
And he didn’t disappoint
I count at least 40 unique CC’s pimped in that post, many which were linked multiple times
In fact, I can’t think of a single CC that didn’t get mentioned, except of course the ones that don’t offer him affiliate $$$
Lufthansa MC? In. Frotier card? In. Hilton and Marriot cards (despite them having zero to do with the thread topic)? In. Sapphire (the regular one)? In.
Club Carlson cards? LOL, surely you jest
Of course it goes without saying that he put all the inferior offers out there where applicable.
I counted 45 total cc links, NEW record!
It did have some good info. I learned something I did not know, that I could add the ticket number in the Delta Skybonus website, shame on me. And he did have the non affiliate US Air offer.
I still think, imho, having no disclosures at all in the body of the posts is an awful practice!
The post actually started off promising. Until the barrage of CC’s started about halfway through, it had the makings of a quality post.
Could the title of the post have made it any more obvious what was forthcoming?
And I disagree with you about the worst CC practice is – I don’t care about the disclosures so long as they’re always providing the best offers, and that the link wasn’t provided just because he felt like it (i.e. Gary’s biweekly CC filler posts)
What I despise much more is when they push CC’s that frequently run better offers, but not actually mention this tidbit in their CC pushing.
For example, nobody should be pushing the 25K Southwest CC right now. And if you absolutely had to push it, it better come with a very strong caveat that they frequently run 50K bonuses through the year, so you should hold off unless you absolutely need the card this instance.
I said awful, not the worst:-) I agree with your statement!
My eye sockets will take days to recover from the second half of TPG’s post!
I think this is only going to get worse, read tomorrow’s blog;-)
K2o
I thought PE’s post was very lame and hate that they dumb down their stuff now to post on BMS. That acronym seems to fit as we know what BM s are.
It was better than the first two, so maybe there is some hope…hopefully, lol.
You should have the first TBB giveaway every
Free Spirit Airlines lounge passes to the first commenter who can name up with an affiliate CC that The Points Guy DIDN’T include in the latest post
Does the Fidelity card have an affiliate link? That’s the closest I can think of.
There will be a $50 gift card TBB giveaway soon…
Hey, at least no Disney or Royal Caribbean cards:-)
Hey, I thought you promised that the bloggers would all be pushing the British Airways Visa on us. Where’s the onslaught? Would love to know why I haven’t seen anything on that. It’s a 100,000 mile offer!! Shouldn’t they be pushing it? Have their affiliate links been pulled?
I know, not sure why…sometimes I am wrong or they are afraid of me, lol
why is it that anonymous posters are so often recognizable?
p.s. I hear the Ace Hardware Visa is really good…. http://www.acerewardsvisa.com/credit/welcome.do
Hey, there is a 10% back on “popular categories” along with a 5% back on own Ace Hardware purchases with NO annual fee! If we could get some affiliate links maybe bloggers can push some apps towards Ace Hardware! If I see that I would …[fillinownblank] 🙂
Oh you guys….You are so sneaky!!