We go on a wild tour of Latin America for FREE, learn about Chase Ultimate Rewards Points, the latest Hotel Promotions, visit Newport Beach for some surfing, see what some kids around the world do to get to school and end with the best personal finance articles and the NEW shorter more subdued Blog Buzz section ( I am sorry folks but that was way too time consuming with negligible pay…”pay”——->LOLOLOL)
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!
MILES/POINTS
$0 Trip to Latin America: Introduction. By Travel is Free. Excellent recap on how to actually do it for free!
Hotel Promotions Guide September 2014. By Loyalty Traveler. Scan it if you need it. Leaving points behind is a crime. Or it should be anyway. Banks would not let me write crime and felony in posts selling their credit cards #justsaying
TRAVEL
If You’re Born In The Sky, What’s Your Nationality? An Airplane Puzzler. At NPR’s Krulwich Wonders. This is quite the scenario: “Imagine you are very, very pregnant. For the purposes of this mind game, you are a married American woman (with an American spouse) and you are about to board a plane and, pregnant as you are, they let you on. Your flight, on Lufthansa Airlines, will leave Frankfurt, Germany, and travel nonstop to the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. Germany is cold, wet and unhappy-making, and you crave the aquamarine waters, the balmy skies of the Maldives. You take off. Then, hours later, just as your plane passes 37,000 feet above Karachi, Pakistan, heading south, your baby, in an inconvenient act of impetuosity, decides she wants to be born right then, right there — and so in row 13, business class seat 13B, you give birth to a healthy, somewhat surprised baby girl. The moment of birth happens as you are directly above Pakistani territory. Karachi is passing below as she emits her first cry.” Some fascinating questions and answers ensue. Well, at least I thought they were fascinating. How was she let on the plane if she was “very, very pregnant”? Hmmm. Ymmv.
Aerial drone footage of surfers in Newport Beach is beautiful. At Matador Network. The footage here is magical!
Yomadic is on the road again! “My Travel Plans for The Forseeable Future. No Hookers, Some Stan’s.” Looking forward to his posts!
25 Of The Most Dangerous And Unusual Journeys To School In The World. At BoredPanda. Please shut up about your pre departure drink being late.
PERSONAL FINANCE
5 Investing Myths May Stop You From Retiring On Time. At US News and World Report. In complete agreement!
What is the Savings Rate in Other Countries? At DQYDJ.net. I was surprised to see the French rank up there!
Retire at 62: 5 Simple Reasons Why You Shouldn’t. At The Motley Fool.
BLOG BUZZ
Note: This section is for long time followers of this hobby and references to blogs/bloggers may not make much sense if you are new to this. You are welcome to stay and read it of course but if you go WTF just remember this note! I think of TBB as the SNL of miles/points blogs and the content here is intended to be satire. If you get hurt I can refer you to my therapist!
Drew of Travel is Free took a lot of crap online after he wrote a post calling some credit cards crap and how readers should stop listening to bloggers. Among them was Frequent Miler who wrote “He was wrong, these cards don’t suck“. Personal Finance Digest also took a shot with Travel Is Free is completely wrong about the Citi Double Cash! Plus a couple of BoardingArea word clouds The sharp TBB readers in the comments had things to say. Among them msmsmotown who wrote the following points which I tend to agree with:
– …the powers that be at the cesspool known as Boarding Area felt the need to send out one of the few bloggers they have left with any credibility to do a “swift boat” attack on the blogger with more integrity than anyone.
–I can’t ever recall FM calling out by name GLeff, Lucky or any of the other BA pumpers for their far more egregious posts.
-I’m just kind of taken aback that FM, and PFD, feel the need to cut fine hairs to dispute a post whose basic point they agree with.
I guess we will need to define “sucks” and the degree of suckiness 🙂 Drew came back with a follow up: Am I wrong about the Citi 2% Cashback card sucking? Best or Worst?
Where do I stand in all this? I am not getting the new Citi card. I am sticking with the Arrival card. I still think there may be surprises (not pleasant) from this card when it finally rolls out for good and we learn from it. Why rush to get it or convert to it? I also find all this back and forth kind of a time waste but also generated good discussion. Many elaborated on their points and others learned from seeing their point of view. Ok, I need to keep this section smaller to keep my sanity as promised!
The most ridiculous post in the blogosphere was the one by Canadian Kilometers who posted about the Buy 100% bonus Lifemiles promotion. And linked to his “Lifemiles Tricks and Strategy” post. Oh what nerve!
Another one that set me off (to the point to make it into Blog Buzz) was renowned miles expert Johnny Jet who wrote “Travel Tip of the Day: Last Chance to Earn 50,000 Miles” It’s a tiny paragraph linking to an earlier anal-ysis of this card with this gem “One of my favorite travel credit card offers of the past year ends at 4:30 pm ET today“. Wait a minute, I thought it was the SPG Starwood Amex card when that was on sale. %^$&*$@
Well, my RoboForm AFFILIATE link has brought in a big fat zero to TBB coffers! I obviously completely suck in this online selling thing. I am beginning to think the sure way to make money online is to just add 35 plus affiliate credit card links in blog posts, do this every freaking day and make it sound like the products you are selling are the best thing since sliced bread (who the hell came up with this stupid analogy I wonder!). In other words exaggerate and/or lie a lot! And here I am trying to sell the best darn piece of software I have ever used and can not live without (TBB reader on twitter called RoboForm a “lifesaver” which is completely true!) and can’t even sell ONE! Completely disappointed as I can’t be doing the lying link pumping, just not my thing. Well, at least I stopped wasting my time making fun of the blogs that used to be so prominent here. Something has to give and I think it will have to be….me! Expect shorter posts folks. I think I am finally running out of steam after 22 months. Or my real job, son’s college/scholarship search and realization of losing my touch in earning (and burning!) is finally taking a toll…#developing #learning #evolving
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Whoa, I’m not seeing any comments. Am I first? If so it will be my second first.
and my first second!
You’re too mainstream George!
So hard to get “first” these days.
This was the earliest post so I am not surprised not to see Helixcardinal, Spencer and NIck not being in the top 3. Me mainstream? Lol…oh my, I have now gone that route, it’s now all downhill! Pretty soon the suits will send me a manager to manage and maximize the “opportunities” lol.
First 4th!
cinco
de mayo!
I prefer mustard.
I prefer Honey Mustard, it’s my favorite!
I prefer Honey Badgers.
The U.S. and Canada are unique in automatically granting citizenship by virtue of being born “on soil” automatically. Besides with two married American parents the child automatically is a U.S. citizen by birth anyway. (One has resided at least a day in the U.S.)
Yes, the baby would be an American citizen but could the baby ever be president?
Yes, if born to an American mother then the baby gets US citizenship automatically, no matter the location. I’d be interested on how they complete the birth certificate, because surely “Boeing 747 over Pakistan airspace” is not an option (That might complicate any future presidential runs!) I would guess that the originating city in Germany is listed as the birthplace on the certificate because the plane is registered in Germany and German laws applied until the plane lands. But it’s difficult to say if the baby would also get German citizenship. As far as I know, normally the baby has to be born to a German citizen or to someone who has been a permanent resident for like 8-10 years. Even if an American couple were in the middle of a 2-week vacation to Germany and gave birth, I don’t think the baby would qualify as a German citizen.
What if the plane was Ryan Air…can you imagine the delivery fee, cutting the cord fee, clean up fee, etc?
Fascinating scenario I thought. No doubt about being American citizen…
I amt trying to find something else snarky to type but…can’t think of anything….so so ready for bed….zzzzzz
It’s not quite automatic, U.S. citizenship transmission depends on a number of factors including born/conceived in/out of wedlock, number of consecutive days parents lived in U.S. before and after certain ages, etc.
There are a good number of American Citizen parents who come to a consular window abroad and are sadly upset to discover their baby is not automatically a citizen because they were.
U.S. Consular Reports of Birth Abroad record place of birth as where a doctor can certify it, so where the plane landed usually. Same with reports of death in the air.
-Your friendly Diplomat and Consular Officer.
Very interesting info Lonetree, thanks for taking the time to comment!
It may not be automatic if a baby is born with US citizen parents? Other than formalities (producing birth certificates, proof of own citizenship status, etc) how can it not be? Can you give us an example of a case when it was not (eventually) granted?
So I guess it matters where you land much more than where the plane takes off from and what airline it is. Makes sense…I guess.
Fascinating stuff 🙂
Just write what you normally write and put 35 affiliated links at the bottom. I will definitely click one of those some day 😛
I should do a post about Robo Form..
Robo Form is the best
Robo Form is a lifesaver
Robo Form will save you time and you know time is money
Robo Form will allow you to have more sex
Robo Form is against ISIS thugs
and on an on and on….35 lines. Every line with its own affilate link!
If nobody clicks THEN I ….QUIT!!!
Enough is enough
I bet you it would draw the clicks and confirm my theory perfectly!
About 15 years ago, during the go go days of startups in Silicon Valley, a guy I used to work with went out on his own and created a of the first versions of a “password manager”, like Robo-form. The guy was a techno-idiot but a savvy salesman, selling his idea for millions to another company.
The thing is that his tool was crashing all the time and easy to hack. That memory, along with nudie pics of celebrities (due to hacking), and Target and now Home Depot hacking, makes me worry about how safe my passwords really are. Do you really trust these guys to store your passwords to your bank accounts, etc., on the cloud? What will they pay you if they are compromised?
No thanks!
After many years of storing these in my own computer with RoboForm I just recently opted to use the Anywhere feature.
As I said, I simply could not function online without Roboform! I am wary of trusting others and avoid it. I killed Plink that way.
I am a lot more worried about Award Wallet than RoboForm. And yes nobody has bought it from me, which is very sad as I truly LOVE the product.
I see your point. We all do what makes us feel comfortable…and more productive….I could never do so much online as I do with RoboForm. Maybe I eat broccoli one day.
Might be that another popular password manager, last pass, offered a free 1 year of premium membership last week. They honored the deal even after they ran out of authorization codes, which won me over. Your post was about 12 hours too late for me, setting up those sorts of things is a huge time suck.
Off topic: read something that made me think of you just now. “If you’re producing garbage articles just to dupe people into clicking, you’ve earned a special place in content marketer hell.” From ignite social media blog.
Oh yes I remember seeing the Last Pass promo now, stupid timing of me! Which is not unusual lol.
I have heard good things about Last Pass but I doubt it does all the things RoboForm does!
Great quote! I bet you it may be content marketer hell but pockets are overflowing as newbies keep applying for cc’s as they Google drive by 🙂
“I’m just kind of taken aback that FM, and PFD, feel the need to cut fine hairs to dispute a post whose basic point they agree with.”
I was not splitting hairs and I most certainly did not agree with Drew’s basic point, which was that the Citi 2% and some other cards suck. I’m not sure why anybody would be taken aback over disagreement over the utility of a credit card,
What if Citibank just sucks? Oh wait, they all kind of suck! At least it doesn’t suck as much as Wells Facko! I think his point was…”out of so many things to write and so many injustices why pick on Drew?” 🙂
That tweet about the Eskimos was awesome. Wanted to RT it but had to cut way too many characters so I didn’t.
Citibank does indeed suck, I think we can all agree on that.
” I also find all this back and forth kind of a time waste…” This. Also, one gets the Angries doing it. Better to belly laugh at the Stud! 🙂
I am still laughing at the pic about the Stud!
I was offered $30 for someone to write a guest post on…rental cars in my blog. I deleted it.
MommyPoints just announced that she’s naming her next kid Amex
But I swear, it has nothing to do with Amex paying her!!!! She totally would’ve named the kid Amex anyways!!!
The only thing missing from MP’s latest ______ (I know people hate using the word “whoring” or “pimping”, so find me an equally accurate yet less offensive word for this) out to Amex is a reminder to her readers that she is only doing it as a favor to them, and that her glowing review has nothing to do with the _____ out to Amex.
Oh and by the way, just a friendly reminder of how you can accumulate points to stay here! (a reminder that she oddly enough didn’t give her readers back when Amex wasn’t paying her to _____ herself out to them
pumping?
Thanks for the warning not to even bother. I am not bothering with most now and my day is so bright. I do read Delta Points in Feedly to just exercise my neck muscles screaming out loud “How does he come up with this stuff!!!!!”
There’s no wondering here how she came up with that stuff
AMEX pays her (in free flights and 5* accomodations) to rent space in her blog. Not an ad on the side panel…. space in the actual blog itself. I would say they pretty much wrote the post for her, but that would be doing a disservice 90% of her posts which are similarly written by the banks
And because of her glowing review, just like her glowing review of every other property Amex put her up for free in, she’ll get “invited” back to the program next year. Remember when the blog used to be about family travel?
Even staying within the SPG portfolio, wouldnt the Westin Princeville (located very close to the St Regis) be a better fit for family travel? The rooms come equipped with kitchens and if you have a large-ish family, you are better off with a 2BR unit at the Westin.
Not only do MP’s posts read like they were written as a mouthpiece of Amex, they are also blatantly inconsistent with her blog’s purported focus on family travel, when the vast majority of families dont travel in that manner. If there is one blogger that has drunk the “blogger lifestyle” cool-aid the most, it is MP. At least the others are not in denial.
Oh, and prepare yourself for another Amex-sponsored post re: the US Open which is surely coming up on her blog.
“Then luck intervened and myself and a few other bloggers were invited to again participate in the American Express SPG Stars program”
Yeah, that’s what it was – luck intervening
I would’ve thought for sure Amex would drop MommyPoints after those press releases …. er sorry, I mean “blog posts” she wrote last year which couldn’t have been better spinned if it were written directly by the Amex propoganda department
The worst part is that some idiots still click on her links to support her lifestyle. When the thought of spending $700 a night to stay at the Park Hyatt NYC comes through your mind, you are completely out of touch with your readership.
Why would Amex kick anyone away if they are “in compliance” and hitting internal sales targets?
Nobody invites me to these things!
“The worst part is that some idiots still click on her links to support her lifestyle. When the thought of spending $700 a night to stay at the Park Hyatt NYC comes through your mind, you are completely out of touch with your readership”
Those 30,000 points she spent for a night there will be well worth it so that she can “remind” her readers how they can accumulate points to stay there (while of course the actual Hyatt card itself won’t be mentioned at all or will be buried below the moneymakers)
“Nobody invites me to these things!”
That’s because you wouldn’t be willing to turn your blog into a press-release for the sponsor
MommyPoints doesn’t get invited because “luck intervenes”. She gets invited becuase Amex knows it can count on her to give her “honest review wink wink” which what do you know….. turns out to always be glowing!
So nice to know I can spend a week with a client, a few days on holiday, visit friends in California and see that all of you assholes will still be here bitching and moaning like a bunch of crybabies that you are.
George you have really set the standard and good to see that Steve is pumping the same shit and drivel as always.
Well done dipshits.
@ STEVESUCKS./Rene…YOU HAVE A CLIENT?. I cannot believe anyone would do business with someone so sophisticated and intelligent and classy, er I mean assy like yourself. Give Steve a break and pick on me, tool.
I don’t believe that you were visiting friends in California. No way you have any friends.
“George you have really set the standard”
Agreed 100%
Criticizing terrible blogger ethics was mostly constrained to FT until George started this blog. Now even rockstar blogs such as Drew and Saverocity will call out blogger filth
Thanks George for setting the standard
Bloggers are part of a brothehood (and sisterhood) so it does not make much sense calling each other out. It’s like committing professional suicide. It’s kind of like a cult and I always despised being part of cults 🙂
I have never set out to establish any standards. TBB acts like an escape and a creative outlet and a small part in making the world a better place by helping people. I see educating people about blog crap posing as “expert” advice to help friends and family travel for free while being a marketing arm of banks to sell more credit cards is part of helping people. An educated consumer is a powerful thing and we all benefit, society benefits! Of course I realize it is kind of utopian of me to think this way but it does make me feel better and reduces therapist’s bills lol. Or maybe I am just an asshole.
By the way, full disclosure: I do not recline my plane seat because I am considerate of the person who sits behind me.
TBB
Standard Setter extraordinaire (just not in fashion!)
Some of us are coping with the loss of the TD Bank Go Card today.
I like that bank by the way
I did it!!! George!! 🙂
OMG, you serious? Thanks for placing that order with the Amazon link! TBB staff will have a party to celebrate, like we needed another reason lol. Do it again and again…or better yet, get your family to do it too. Empower them to be First too!
I wonder if Delta Points counts this comments as me shamelessly shilling the Amazon link…LOL!
Thank you very much!
Gotta love IHG and their ass-backwards model bonus structure where IHG nobodies like me get easy challenges
6 nights at a Holiday Inn will net me 20K points and 2 free nights at any IHG property (plus whatever points normally received for stays)
Meanwhile 100 night RA’s on Loyalty Lobby are (rightfully) complaining about how their challenges are something like “stay every friday and saturday night for the next 6 months and get a free IHG notepad”
🙂
IHG Rewards promos make me shake my head, they make no sense!
George – please do check Drew’s IHG guide and FT link in particular before letting this go. I sense at least 50% off rates overall (if you have IHG card), if you have the need and if utilized properly 🙂
Will do, thanks
Steve – you may want to double check – it is either points OR nights, not points AND nights. Make sure your bonus is good enough before you proceed with the challenge. 20k looks low to me. In your case, 2 nights might work better. For me it was something like 54k or 2 nights when i complete 4 activities. Also please refer to Drew’s IHG guide and the FT referral link there to see how you can maximise with other bonus codes 😉
No, it’s either some points and nights, or lots of points and no nights
my offer involves about 20K in bonus points if I complete the tasks I plan to complete, and ‘then’ once I do that, a choice between 29K points or 2 free nights
So 20K + 2 free nights, or 50K and no free nights. In my case, happen to have a few vacations coming up where there are some excellent IC’s, so this works out lovely for me
As for the bonus codes, what’s the latest on those? Used to benefit from them tremendously, but now there are lots of people reporting shudowns – and I have a lot more to lose than to gain by risking it. Thoughts?
I just left that query in Drew’s post today and another reader named Jakob had left a comment that all the 2014 codes still work and he was able to register them as valid till Dec end. I am yet to do that myself but i trust Drew’s readers and plan to give it a try.
Since I will have a hard time holding back on signing up for them codes, the thought of getting my accounts canned leaves me afraid. My motto is “don’t be greedy, stay in the game as long as possible” so I may just avoid this as I did the last one. I miss the much more lucractive Big Wins from earlier years 🙂
During the one hour webinar with Drew recently, there was a question on risk of shutdown while using the codes and he did mention that he personally has not seen any. We both trust him 🙂 . If you still dont want to risk, just hack the system by creating another account and register the codes 😉
Does anyone know if the 2 nights need to be used by a certain date and if they are good in ALL categories.
My offer is 23,900 pts (!!!!) or 2 free nights for essentially 4 nights/stays
Wife’s offer is interesting. Two step offer: 1) 1 nights or 25k pts for 2 nights/stays or 2) 50k or 2 free nights for 3 nights/stays
All in Holiday Inns. Considering wife’s offer…
That is still unclear in the T&C, George. That is what Drew also had to say in his article. “There doesn’t seem to be a lot of info in the terms and conditions but if you’re able to earn two free nights at any hotel, that could potentially be more value. ” I felt i should get the points rather than the nights, and i could use my IHG card and effectively get a 10% return on the points to turn it in to 3 nights offer in a decent hotel that i would actually end up using.
Well George, it is any property as per Drew’s new post 🙂 . And he has many new points to add. Also please read all the comments and responses to his two posts. Plenty of info there too. This is great offer if used properly.
Yeah I see it. Now please research the cheapest HIs in SE Michigan with dates and tell me about them 🙂
Hah, indeed i was trying 2 near my workplace – one in Jackson and one in Chelsea – both suck George, with rates like 140+ per night. I can use my corporate code to get it down to 110 but still they suck 🙁 I can mail it to you if you are interested though 🙂 . Please let me know.
I added 7 points to Lucky’s tally in the “which blogger is most out of touch with reality” contest
Not concerned that the flight attendants who were working his flight are essentially indentured servants to the totalitarian government that funds the airline he was flying….. but the fact that he ONLY got a single 3 course meal on his flight? UNACCEPTABLE!!!!
This has to be the most unacceptable moment in aviation history since that time Lucky’s flight was delayed on the ground for an hour, and they only refilled his glass of champagne once the entire time
Just saw the headline: “They Ran Out Of Food In Etihad First Class… AGAIN!!!” and some obscenities escaped my mouth. Seriously thinking to do a kickstarter to fund a TBB clone to just rant on other bloggers 24/7 🙂
I don’t know if anyone else say gleff’s tweet mentioning spirit and naked pictures of Jennifer Lawrence. The tweet was down right slimy. Has he always been pervy or is this just a recent phenomena? What a sleaze.