Let’s go on a wild ride through kickstarter projects, the ridiculous things that happen in WalMart, rip on the stupid Daily Getaways, get a little angry with the giant Chase Ink card pump fest going on, look at more amazing World War I photos, learn of an American defector to North Korea (WTF!!!!) and more stuff you have learned to enjoy (or so I heard in Charlotte, thank you!)
TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order
You can support TBB by clicking/forwarding any of our Referral Links and starting your online shopping at our Amazon affiliate link . Or click on the Amazon Banner on the right, thank YOU!
First, as you know, I am trying to catch up after a great weekend in Charlotte. I am getting there…
Stop the presses! Please consider donating to this cause by Drew of Travel is Free to help his sister in law’s family adopt two special needs kids from Ukraine. Or you can help Ben fly in the Etihad ridiculous suite (By the way that project appears to have stalled at around $12k and this page shows Ben having not backed a single Kickstarter project himself, interesting!). The choice is yours. You know where I donated and that’s all you are going to hear from me about my charitable donations and this will probably be the last request for donations ever on my site! I always felt that should be done privately. I am making an exception here to show the contrast between the two projects. One can change lives! And quit bitching about non important stuff such as your angled bed or not having your pre departure drink, etc. (bitching about mega marketing blogs who post Chase Ink credit card affiliate links all day every day is of course allowed , always in a non angry manner lol).
In case you missed it, I posted my review of the Charlotte MileMadness meeting here.
Please read to the end as I left the Online Travel Review post near the bottom. Must read. Seriously!
A big part of what we do around here is…entertainment! And this Buzz post contains lots of it. So, prepare to laugh a lot, I sure did!
Reader KennyB posted this in the TBB Comments: “This Guy Just Made The Staff At Wal Mart Lose Their Minds…This is Genius“. It is the FUNNIEST READ I have had recently. I was on the floor laughing uncontrollably for a very long time…Since many of us like WalMart for “spending”, can you imagine if we were standing in line and the guy in front of us signed this way. LOL. Thanks KennyB!
Personal Finance Digest is attempting his own ridiculous Kickstarter: “A Hostile Takover of Citibank“. Hilarious! This link appeared in this post.
Big Habitat with 5-9-14 Charlotte DO – Into the Devil’s Lair?; Rejected BigHabitat Speech Topics Topic 7 was my favorite! Good stuff amigo!
Your Kickstarter sucks (thanks to TBB reader Harvson3 for passing this ridiculous link lol)
Miles to Memories interviewed photographer Edin Chavez. So welcome to have another type of interview and the quality of the photographs is super awesome!
Give all your details to Marriott so you can like/spam your friends to earn a few points to a program I don’t really care for ever since it abolished porn from its hotel rooms (just kidding of course, come on!).
Brace yourselves for a ridiculous number of blog posts about the Daily Getaways. Easy content, easy way to pump some more credit card links. When it comes to daily getaways, I yawn and save my fingers from breaking trying to get in on it the “deals”.
If you hear some airline executive say that this or that merger is good for the consumer tell him/her to take a hike:
Pizza in Motion is joining Boarding Area. So is The Miles Professor. Travel Blogger Buzz is considering to join only to see Delta Points leave Boarding Area as he promised if this ever happens 🙂
The Hyatt Diamond Challenge has been blogged about before. I took advantage of it in our family’s stay at the Andeaz in Maui. It’s good for 60 days and you get the full Diamond benefits. Running with Miles has a comprehensive post about it. Consider doing this sooner rather than later (if you can use if of course) as I just don’t see it lasting too long (actually shocked it has lasted this long!). I will end with only two paid nights so the Diamond status is off my record as you read this. I will get over it, thank you for your concern.
Looks like Delta Points got the Chase Ink credit card affiliate links back. They now show on top of the credit cards page of course and even made it in a SWAG blog post! Guess what links will be pushed from now on? Hmmm.
It appears Chase is on a giant spree in approving Ink cards lately. It is like a GIANT “Click my Link” orgy going on lately in the blogosphere. Bunch of travel bloggers pushing credit cards. I wonder if the Ink cards pay $500 per app again? (Bunch of bloggers just decided to start travel blogs!…phuckme!) And then you wonder why you see so many Chase Ink links lately? They know it and they will do anything to sell more of them. Content you say huh? Sure….but will include Chase Ink cards…you just watch! SHUN THESE SITES, their pocket comes first not YOU. Tomorrow we ‘ll talk about the “wonderful tool” at Frugal Travel Guy (the blog) again as it apparently is still there and it appears no changes have been made (not shocked). Even View from the Wing finds a way to pump the Ink credit card links in a post about Korean Air miles! Shortly after that Million Mile Secrets pumped the same exact cards! Others will follow…
And here I go catching myself. To new readers: For one year straight I called out this crap. I got tired because THERE IS SO MUCH PUMPING GOING ON I CAN NOT KEEP UP WITH IT! If I say something about this blog I would have to say something about the other blog just to be fair! It’s nonsense. So, let’s rewind, I am back on reserving my commentary to crap that really reaches the top of Crapdom! And as I was getting ready to press “Publish”, Online Travel Review wrote this MUST READ: “It’s Starting to Feel Like Tom Vu Out There in Blog World: If you Don’t Get Credit Cards, You A Loser” which pretty much captures the incredible crapdom this space has become full of Tom Vu clones. Now wait for the troll to come and call us all angrys LOL.
Wake up the newbies around you and don’t let them click on affiliate links from blogs who pump cards day in day out. Tell them to Buzz off (pun intended ha). Oops, I just now got a little angry, just a little. I need to get me more wine, I ‘ll be right back!
Ok, lighter on the eclectic stuff so far…so here are some more amazing pictures from World War I:
The obligatory North Korea story of this American soldier who defected to North Korea, married a Japanese woman abducted by the North Koreans and then returned!
Personal Finance link: “A financial advisor’s No. 1 job isn’t making you money“. Interesting food for thought.
Check out my updated blog lists: Blogs I Love, Blogs I Like, Blogs I Ignore
Thank you for reading and supporting my blog!
Please pass my blog link to your friends and family if you think they will enjoy it too.
George
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
Join over 2,691 TBB followers on Twitter @ FlyerTalkerinA2 and add TBB on Google+
FIRST
You are special now!
Not sure why Mr. Kickstarter didn’t just contact the Etihad press team himself to get comped the Residence. The whole thing is a massive media play, so I guess having him do the Kickstarter has actually worked out better for them.
I’m going to donate some money to Drew, but we really need to do something about the adoption process in the US. It’s a shame that so many are feeling the need to go overseas (and rightfully so, the adoption system here sucks) when all they are trying to do is give somebody in need a home.
That would be too blogger entitly to do 🙂
Do not know enough about the US Adoption system. I always found this to be so remarkable.
Mr. Charles is there any truth to the rumor that you are really Grant? Or the rumor that Grant is your Mentor, your Svengali, your Silly Rabbit? The people need to know.
Doc, you mock Ben with the name Mr. Kickstarter yet I read in your comments to him that you are in for $10. wtf? Are there any blogs you do not comment on? The Grant Method of self promotion…..I just annoy Buzz and his readers testing his patience and kindness daily (just like Ingy)………………….Hey Buzz I heard Ingy tried to sneak in to the Charlotte gig by scratching/knocking on the outside of the fire exit doors, hoping someone would open it. Did he ever sneak in?
Nope, security was on it and the DO was saved from hearing how you can apply for 7 travel reward credit cards all at once when you were just looking for cash back cards alone 🙂
The red arrows over at MMS seem to be getting bigger and bigger. Maybe his inspiration was Matt’s presentation….
Some very promising tracking tools over at Milenomics.
Never been to Naples, FL but that photo makes me want to visit. But I cannot say the same about the locale of the final photo.
It was a probably a Wal Mart LOL
The southwest coast of Florida is my favorite part of the state. Well, that and the Keys. Definitely worth a visit.
I’m going to actually miss getting up at 3am in BNE to buy Wyndham points (with US based Amex). Shame they devalued them. It was good fun refreshing over and over, waiting for them to go live then trying to snag a package!
These were blogged to death that now are just not good values anymore and so hard to get. Layup of content to sell cards.
1. I am so signing up for the Hyatt Diamond challenge, also known as screw the challenge and I will just take the free trial for 60 days. I have a stay at the Park Hyatt Vendome (yea that’s right, I have to see what the hype is all about) and why not go all in with Diamond status and get the true faux 1%er treatment.
2. For anyone interested in WWI. Hardcore History podcast is in the middle of a series about WWI, it is absolutely fascinating. http://www.dancarlin.com/disp.php/hharchive. I will be in Brussels and Paris in June and I’m keeping my fingers crossed I can make time to make it out to Ypres.
I loved being Diamond Hyatt in the Andaz Maui, the breakfast for four was just awesome! So…it appears you will be Vendomed 🙂 And thanks for the interesting link too!
I did the same for our stay in Maui last year. Very nice to be a diamond on my birthday at Hyatt Regency Maui even though I knew I would never meet the challenge. Beautiful ocean/pool/flamingo views and the cupcakes were great!
How does that Club Carlson Twitter thing work? Are we supposed to answer questions or what?
Quick, hurry! No, just tweet with @clubcarlson and #HashtagHotelPromo, anything
FM has a terrific post today on the Hyatt Diamond challenge. I think I will do it too and time it for our trip back east in early Sept and my getaway to Hawaii in November.
Oops, I meant VFTW with the Hyatt post. But FM was on my mind because I thought his 5% everywhere post today was super. Really, really helpful, as usual!
I was busy reading Delta Points and shaking my head uncontrollably reading what lengths bloggers will go to sell the Ink cards 🙂
Did you know only 24% of DP’s readers have INK cards? The travesty!
That headline really rubbed me the wrong way.
Gosh you sound Angry again! Txs for reading the blog. Oh, btw:
.
Definition of IGNORE
transitive verb
“To refuse to take notice of ”
.
The blog you must reader very day seems to be DeltaPoints!
You give bad advice, or you are bad at math. Your current top post suggests that people get ready to transfer UR points from an Ink card to IHG for PointBreak hotels. As the price at which one can purchase IHG points is still 0.7 cents, and thus PointBreak hotels are $35/night. Transferring out 5,000 UR points to IHG for $35 in value is less than one could get either buying airfare through the UR portal or just getting a $50 Amazon gift certificate.
TBB once noted that he doesn’t actually ignore the blogs on his ignore list. He advises readers to ignore them, or he simply hasn’t come up with a better adjective.
DP is a train wreck. Who wants to ignore that!
The mission to Entertain always comes first here at TBB. And thank you for providing it! Have a nice Ink day.
Congratulations on being ranked #8.
Thanks. That was unexpected. Takes time away from blogging and MSing lol.
Just got my “FREE INGY” t-shirt in the mail, gee it is really super great. Thanks Mr. Ingersoll!
What? Free is good 🙂
OMG, ROTFLMAO with the Penis signature. I am sitting here roaring. Your other links were very funny also.
I don’t think Etihad would comp him. They have gotten so much publicity prior to his begging and now since so why buy the cow if you get the milk for free. The other thing I wonder about is if he is still working for the travel agency. If he is and gets commission back on his personal paid bookings if this thing comes about he can also make money that way. While US airlines no longer pay commission to travel agents, many Global airlines still do.
Yeah that Wal mart penis signature still has me laughing…what a story!
I do not think Ben works for the travel agency any longer but I am not sure. I would be shocked if he is…since why do that when Chase Ink credit cards pay so much?
Ditto on the WalMart signature thing but…
You forgot the NSFW!!! I opened this up with about 5 people crowded around my cubicle this morning. Needless to say I got some very strange looks so I had to send the link to them to show them after they saw me. Awkward…. lol.
You are right, sorry about that! I thought about inserting the signature pic in my blog post but I was afraid Chase may take away my links LOL!
You owe an apology to Delta Points for accusing him of pushing inferior affiliate links to his readers to screw them over
Judging by his pointsbreaks post, it appears he also pushes inferior non-affiliate links too
Yesterday I made the following comment on your blog:
Is there any doubt that Chase will eventually announce an end date which will lead to post titles such as:
1) Last day to sign up for CIB and CIP with 60K bonus is ______ (posted on day of announcement)
2) Reminder: 1 week left to sign up for CIB and CIP 60K offer (posted with 1 week left)
3) HURRY!!!! Last chance to sign up for CIB and CIP (posted with 1 day left
4) CHASE EXTENDS 60K CIB and CIP OFFER!!!! HURRY!!!! (posted right after Chase “decides” to extend their original date another 2 weeks. Cue blogger acting surprised)
5) CIB and CIP 50K offer drops to 50K. It’s still the greatest thing in the history of mankind
Well, as predicted, here we go folks:
Gary today – Act Soon: 60,000 Point Chase Ink Offers Now Expected to Disappear May 31
So now we have the official timeline down
May 13th – HURRY!!!! OFFER ENDS 5/31
May 24th – ONE WEEK LEFT!!!!! ACT FAST!!!!
May 30th – ONE DAY LEFT!!!! DON’T WAIT!!!!
June 1st (after the offer gets extended): BREAKING!!!! OFFER EXTENDED!!!! I TOTALLY DID NOT SEE THIS COMING!!!!
June 8th: 60K is gone, but still, 50K [insert link] is a nice bonus
The June 1st entry was the funniest (as in totally did not see it coming lol).
Funniest one was Mileavalue HTing TPG for the $15 Frontier fares in IAD while selling the Frontier card. If you have to HT TPG you sure know you are so late in posting about something!
Hey everyone please thank TPG for the update that you now have to pay the BA fuel surcharges on US Air awards.
Why is Marathon Man going to share the stage with so many in TBB’s Ignore list in Chicago? Just does not seem right to me.
Watching this whole space keep sinking in bank cheerleading mode is sad. The Mile Madness DO gave me some hope that there are true gamer experts out there still doing it for the love of it all and who are not willing to do anything for a buck, you know, who think credibility is more important than pumping the crap out of the same damn cards day in and day out!
There, I feel better now. I am going to the gym!
Thanks for the mention on the Hyatt piece, George. So far, I am enjoying it as well! I should be able to complete it so really looking forward to having some great stays through 2016!
Sounds cool. I liked the Hyatt house in CLT. And you know I like the Hyatt in SKG too! I still won’t complete it, I have enough points to last me for a while!
Nice of you to post about Drew’s fund raising, George. Really sad to see no other blogger, except Doctor of Credit, including my other favorite bloggers not doing this. I see that they have managed to raise just 10% of what Ben has raised so far. Shame on humanity. Come on bloggers and readers – have we become so cold hearted? Cant those who contributed to Ben at least match their contribution to Drew’s better cause? Cant you evaluate and see the difference yourself? Just give it a thought. Just see those two children in the photo. Dont they deserve better lives? We are so used to seeing only the positive side of life – penis and all those laughing stuff about which we react is good to have but i think we must give back something back to humanity. Come on George, for a change allow me to be angry. Hah, who cares about my anger. Let me read some of your genuine humour blogs before i go to sleep. At least i have done my part of contribution and i contributed only for Drew’s cause.
Thanks a lot for the contribution! It’s okay to be angry 🙂