TRAVEL
15 National Parks you need to see before you die.
Supermoon over Earth. Wow!!!!
Iceland. In 5 Vimeo videos & an amazing pic below:
MILES/POINTS
From the Inside Flyer July 2013 edition I read some this weekend: Frequent Miler will do an ebook with Randy Petersen on his recent 1 Million Mile Madness. Randy compared him to ” a modern day Pudding Guy”. Which I found hilarious!
Travel Summary wrote “Points, Miles and Credit Cards: A Primer for True Beginners” This captures why we do what we do. There is a method to our madness:-) And yes it still has a lot of value even though it feels lately we have been under siege from all directions!
CHASE INK/BOLD ONGOING DEAL TO OBLIVION!
The Chase Ink/Bold madness continued. Thank you Randy Petersen for taking Boarding Area down for most of the weekend and spared us from more assaults! This post by josephstern in Flyertalk (post #9) pretty much spells out all that is wrong in this hobby these days:
They weren’t for naught at all! The situation worked to give every blogger two more opportunities for shameless posts.
Post 1 – “I hear something is coming next week!”
Post 2 – “It’s here! Use my link!”
Post 3 – “Here are ten ways to use the points”
Post 4 – “Ten more ways!”
Post 5 – “The end is coming this weekend!”
Post 6 – “The end is almost here – get in fast – BoardingArea will be in maintenance mode but my links will still work”
Post 7 – “NOW! Extended!” And we await more posts.
So…as soon as Boarding Area was restored we had the usual alarming posts. Look at these headline gems:
View from the Wing: 60,000 Point Ink Bold/Plus Signup Bonus Offer Hasn’t Been Pulled Yet
One Mile at a Time: Chase Ink increased sign-up bonuses extended for one more day!
Unroad Warrior: Chase 60,000 Point offer ending this weekend. Previous blog post on May 1st to hawk more credit cards. WTF!!!!!!
Deals We Like: Last Day for Chase Ink Bold and Plus 60,000 Point Offer
The Wandering Aramean wrote “Was the Chase 60k biz card offer really that big?“. Very interesting comments too! Look at the list of 80+ posts on this offer. It’s RIDICULOUS! No need to post it more than once, maybe at most twice. Posting it more than that is pure sell, sell, sell mode. Personally, I despise sales people looking to sell me things non stop! Like that Jehova’s Witness guy who is still after me to offer me Salvation!
Really guys, really? Like we have not had enough of this crap! Dear readers, beware who tried to squeeze yet one more post of this “deal” that has been blogged to oblivion!
BLOG BUZZ
Saw this somewhere on FT: “Citibank AA cards are like potato chips…once you have one, you’ll soon want more!” – Lol!
Milevalue continued to come up with obsure award routes that require finding a way to get somewhere and come back from somewhere else. Putting it all together ain’t no deal. And thanks for pounding us mercilessly with the Lufthansa card, we can’t take it anymore!
The Do It For The Points blogger has a weird obsession with…doughnuts!
Delta Points compares Delta Silver Medallion with the Delta AMEX Platinum card. My head is still intact, thank you for your concern!
ON MY MIND
I enjoyed taking a day off from blogging and catching up on many things. Unfortunately, learning about affiliates did not make it in my priority list…again! So you are all safe…again!
Darn flooding in Calgary is interfering with my vacation plans in Banff Springs and Lake Louise next month. I hope everything is back to normal by then!
ODDZ & ENDZ
Worst eyebrows ever. For a while I thought my eyebrows will also show up here lol.
OMG. An Iraq War veteran’s suicide note. One of the most heart crushing things I’ve read! This is what war is like:-(
do you think the chase 60k offer will be extended for a few more days??
I hope not. Then again, I predict more promos like this:-)
Guten Morgen!
Grüß Gott
You have a great week!
Saverocity was OK in my book till he threw the “angry” jargons here yesterday. How about we give a name to these dumb businessmen that attack their own potential customers?
Cue is that these dumbos are actually more angry and defensive. Who all make the all-defensive team?
No need for name calling, you sound “angry” yourself:-) I never understood why bloggers go all the way on defensive rants…it just does not look good. I prefer to say thank you to the person who takes the time to comment and take his/her comments into consideration. And move on…
George, Here’s what I like about your blog. You call out all the ‘you better hurry and click on my link’ credit card sign up offers. Duh, as if we didn’t know. :>)
You’re leaving a lot of $$$ on the table by not offering links.
I know I am…I am getting there in my own super slow way. Other friends are telling me to get this issue way up on the priority list. I feel very funny devoting time to this endeavor and not spending it elsewhere…Looks like I have a mental block about the whole thing or I am just the original idiot.
Trying to reconcile this issue and figure it out in my own way…
Please be patient:-)
Only one-half of our blogging team has an obsession with doughnuts. Though…I have never met a doughnut I haven’t enjoyed.
Seeing all the doughnut pics reminded me of all the airline meal pics I see…It’s just different:-)
Looking like terrible news
I saw Lucky do a thorough analysis of the Club Carlson cards. I was thinking “wow, what a refreshing take! Finally one of the mainstream bloggers giving it coverage”
Then I was why….
“In the interest of full disclosure, I earn a referral bonus for anyone approved through the above links for the Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature Card”
The Carlson card now earns referral $$$? As soon as the CIB/CIP madness finally ends, watch a parade of bloggers magically “discover” the usefulness of this card
The introduction of affiliate links to credit cards is directly proportional to the number of blog posts suddenly discovering such cards. Mind you there has not been a single benefit that was ADDED to the card. Too many of such posts lately by OMAAT. Where was this glowing post about the CC cards BEFORE getting paid for it? Maybe there was a post that I missed but I am confident it was not so glowing! This blog is off my top 10 list. VFTW is getting there…shouting about the same promo more than twice (60k Ink cards) is overkill in my book and only done due to greed.
Of course imho.
I’m sure Lucky has mentioned it in the past, but he sure as heck didn’t give it a thorough, glowing review until today
If they will in fact start getting affiliate $$$ for it, expect the Carlson card to go from getting AA credit card coverage (aka, the AA 50K signup will get 1/10 the attention of the far inferior 50K Lufthansa signup) to CSP/CIB coverage (aka weekly glowing posts rehashing the same exact things, and finding creative ways to insert the links into posts that have nothing to do with it)
Does the average BoardingArea reader even know that there are at least 3-4 credit cards that have better retention bonuses than the Hyatt Category 1-4 bonus that always gets coverage?
I agree with the sentiment here, but I do feel compelled to point out that we haven’t had an affiliate link for the Hyatt card for a long time.
I do love the Club Carlson card (and have written about it often) but the better deal is the business version of the card (for which we still do not have affiliate links)
Now that I think about it, anyone remember the last time a glowing piece on the Hyatt card has been done?
2 free nights at [insert all the usual park hyatt’s that cost $1000 a night]!!!!!!!!!!!!
Worse than that, many bloggers pushed inferior versions of the Hyatt when they had the better offer with the statement credit
for full disclosure: I have never had the Hyatt card! Yeah shocking I know:-) Have enough hotel points. Maybe I will wait until I get two free nights AND 10,000 points lol
When I first saw Lucky’s Club Carlson post this morning, I missed the affiliate disclosure and appreciated it as a useful post. But as soon as I saw Frugal Travel Guy’s Club Carlson post this afternoon, it immediately became clear what was happening.
This has the potential to be more annoying than the Ink hype — at least with the Ink cards, there was a new limited time offer. Not so with the Club Carlson cards. Its hard not to lose respect for those jumping on the bandwagon now….
I don’t know what it says about a blogger that only starts to give the Club Carlson card attention once affiliate credit is offered..
See posts on this further down. May be the latest promo for the salesmen.
Hey George, if Edward Snowden is traveling on Aeroflot but the ticket is being bought by Vladimir Putin, does Snowden get to keep the miles in his SU or SkyTeam account? I imagine he will be traveling to a lot of countries within the sphere of SU or CU so he might need the miles for an upgrade in the future…
BTW: I am heading to Edmonton, Jasper, Canmore, and Lake Louise myself over the 4th…I really, really hope the flooding recedes and doesn’t mess-up my plans either.
Also, Andy Rooney had the best eyebrows in history. 😉
I posted a question about this in the FT Fairmont forum, check it out!
If we ever see an Eyebrow Hall of Fame, Andy Rooney will be the first one inducted. I should be up for nomination at some point too lol.
Or maybe Snowden finally cashed in his mile of RTW trip:-)
Atleast Snowden doesn’t have to worry about how many % of his SU miles will credit to his DL Skypeso account 🙂
We just got back after being turned away as the Trans Canada Highway washed away in several spots. I don’t think it is a matter of the floodwaters receding. It is more a matter if they can rebuild the roads in time. BTW both the Fairmont’s gladly gave us our award nights back, Budget was great with the shortened car rental and the AA exec Plat line got us home after a one day delay.
I am so sorry you had to do this! Here is a question I posted in the FT Fairmont forum:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/fairmont-presidents-club/1478645-calgary-area-flooding-upcoming-stay-banff-springs-lake-louise.html
I am not canceling as of yet but I am certainly watching. Friends are supposed to also visit in two weeks and I want to see what they say. My award tickets are on United and have no status with them so it is…tough!
Hard to look at the flood photos of Calgary and the area, which I remember well from a trip there and to Banff a few years ago. Hope you do get to go.
A bit disappointed to see you tweet about a contest involving Hyatt after the comments on yesterday’s blog about how Hyatt is pretty awful to their workers….
Yeah, you bet that I am following the situation in Calgary! I am not canceling but sure watching it.
I am sorry about the Hyatt RT. The points prize temporarily blinded me. I want you to know that I have only stayed in Hyatts a few times over the years, we just never got along. I have not had the Hyatt card and do not plan to get it anytime soon. My few Hyatt stays have been free/awards/Priceline.
Good to hear. I too found myself reaching to click for the contest but then caught myself realizing I’d prefer not to support Hyatt. I imagine some are just laughing, figuring their chances of winning just went up! But my dad helped wrote some of the first union contracts for the mechanics at TWA and we are a household that supports workers rights – hey, we went to school in A2 – and Hyatt is playing hardball with the workers in ways I do not like. Choosing to enter and lose some other contest is an easy one!
Yeah, Ann Arbor has always been very liberal and progressive. I like it here:-)
post by josephstern in Flyertalk is awesome but missed one last thing.
Post 8 – now 60k Ink is gone but the 50k is still good/ here are 50 other “better” cards links
Yes, so true so true. Excellent addition:-)
Frugal Travel Guy is such a train wreck.
This morning was Rick’s weekly. He wrote about how it was time to get a Business Platinum (ka-ching!) since the annual fee was coming due on the personal Platinum. Guess he gave himself bad advice and didn’t get in on the Amex Platinum 100k offer.
Then up comes their ‘deal of the day’ post. I suppose they didn’t actually didn’t want that to bump a credit card referral post from the top spot, so the posts were re-ordered. Amex Platinum came first, but is still on top.
So what are the deals of the day? Try this one — 3000 AA miles + a 35% discount!
This is an offer that has been around since February. Why is it the deal of the day?
Earning 3000 miles requires a 5+ day rental. Gee, it’s not nearly as good as the headline made it sound, is it?
And the “up to 35% savings” doesn’t usually generate the best price, often isn’t even a good price, and isn’t even necessary to get the miles. Why promote the American AIrlines AWD number?
It’s almost as though FTG is a parody site. Has IB hired Points Envy to write for them? That might explain why we haven’t heard from Points Envy in awhile?
The Points Guy already started bringing Carlson links into his SRQ/affiliate fest rotation (what a strange coincidence that just this week somebody asked a question about that card!)
Expect FTG to suddenly recommend that card in his Wednesday Churning challenge
But don’t expect the bad advice to stop
I still have not seen a real deal at that FTG “Deal of the Day” feature. Then again I really have not seen an actual churning challenge which is all a cut and paste job!
Whatever happened to Points Envy? Vanished!
I marvel at the amazing TPG link fests!
I can see it now “Top 10 reasons to get the Club Carlson card” lol
It’s quite an amazing coincidence indeed that not a single person emailed TPG about a Club Carlson question until the moment when the credit card started paying out affiliate $$$!
You would think somewhere in between the dozens and dozens of readers who asked some variation of “CSP or Amex PRG”, you would think somebody would ask TPG about all the different complexities of the Carlson cards.
I’ve told you several times TBB….. there’s more to “good blogging ethics” than just not pushing inferior offers. Good blogging ethics is also not ignoring superior ones just because it doesn’t pay affiliate $$$
Someone isn’t a good blogger just because they don’t post a 30K AA offer, if they’re also giving 0 coverage to a 50K offer (while pounding our sockets with inferior Lufthansa cards).
>>>>>there’s more to “good blogging ethics” than just not pushing inferior offers. Good blogging ethics is also not ignoring superior ones just because it doesn’t pay affiliate $$$
Absolutely agree. For them to keep doing it…it must be working. Sad indeed, so much ignorance out there. Then again look at how many people were following that psycho woman who cut up her boyfriend, forget her name…yikes!
@Anonymous 4:57pm “Expect FTG to suddenly recommend that card in his Wednesday Churning challenge”
You don’t have to wait for Wednesday. It’s already up!!
“Club Carlson Redemption Ideas”
Oy.
That was super fast, amazing!
So 35 comments and not one mention of the Iraq War veteran’s suicide note?
For all the anger and outrage over bloggers, affiliate links, and changes to loyalty programs, I wonder if our priorities aren’t just a little misplaced…
I read that note and messed me up for a while. One of the most heart wrenching things I ever read. If that does not portray the horror of war I don’t know what else can do so! Thanks for bringing it up and for reading it. It sure made me sit back and consider what we are here. Actually, I had nightmares about it last night and hope my son never sees war!
So it goes.