Lets go on a ride discussing luxury air travel, how we rocked Amex Small Business Saturday, fly with a drone over Utrecht, marvel at beautiful sunsets and the oldest living things, get advice from the Harvard Business School’s Class of 1963, laugh at stupid things finance people say and more!
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It was a great day in the TBB household. We went all out on the American Small Business Saturday promotion. We decided to split our targets to three different eating establishments: Seoul Garden, Cardamom and Elevation Burger. Confirmation emails were received for every card for every $10 charge just a few seconds after the swipe. Pretty darn impressive Amex, thank you!
There is still time to grab an easy $100 from Capital One by opening a Savings account AND help keep TBB going. More details on the promo HERE and this is what we wrote yesterday. Next time we include a direct link about this inside a blog post will be when the promotion comes back around the July 4th holiday!
Why luxury air travel is taking off again – Financial Times Interesting read. Of course View from the Wing did not miss the opportunity to rage against the Coachization of air travel and find solace to finally seeing some positive signs that this luxury air travel is not dead. But, come on, if it wasn’t for the airlines in the Middle East that are pissing down money from oil stupidly competing against each other for bragging rights…how much of this luxury travel is going to be here to stay? I am not burning so many United miles to experience Lufthansa First Class….screw that. Of course these other bloggers will gladly do it or pay for it and keep the “expert” (look at me in my flat bed & champagne & what not, you can fly for free too…click my cards!) theme going….Zzzzzzz. (H/T: Mileage Update)
Drone Soars Above the Dom Tower of Utrecht on a Foggy Day – Twisted Sifter OMG, this is chilling! Epic site! Drones are changing our lives. I should work on a TBB drone to zap bloggers with high dosage of electricity for every ridiculous pump, hehe.
My Favorite Sunsets Around The World – Wild Junket Wow, these are soooooo pretty!
Gallery: The Oldest Living Things In The World – TED Holy Ted, these things are super old!
If I Knew Then – Advice from Harvard Business School’s Class of 1963 Very interesting stuff, makes for great Sunday morning reading…
Stupid Things Finance People Say – Motley Fool This is great stuff! Some are classic, like this one:
“He predicted the market crash in 2008.”
He also predicted a crash in 2006, 2004, 2003, 2001, 1998, 1997, 1995, 1992, 1989, 1984, 1971…
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Firstest!
Seconded
Thirdy.
Was just on 3 week safari in Botswana’s Okavanga Delta and saw some excellent sunsets. Helped on by the annual grass burning (in anticipation of the upcoming rains to help make the new grass “sweeter”) causing much of the country to have worse air quality than LA on a bad day for weeks at a time. #progress
Sadly, here in Colorado we get our best sunsets in the summer when there’s some massive Forest fire burning :-/
Did you use “Delta” points?!
I’m here all week, folks.
I am around the world living it up on the way to/from Hong Kong for a week starting Wednesday 🙂
My favorite read was
“Devil’s Advocates
Thanks to conservative Supreme Court rulings, the government must support the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Satanic Temple.”
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/11/atheist_humanist_and_pastafarian_holiday_displays_on_public_land_satanic.html
Look out for Pastafarians,the world’s fastest growing carbohydrate based religion!
Thanks to the top three, medals were just ordered with the “amazingly” lucrative (for me) TBB link 🙂
@P: If I ever make it to Botswana I will make sure not to be there during the rains…which may affect the sunsets’ quality…Worse than LA in a bad day, wow!
@ABC: WOW, that is wild…Funny and sad and WTF at the same time, thanks for sharing!
I am on board with the Stopping Pre-mature Christmas Decorations Campaign. I live next door to Clark Griswald Jr. who goes insane decorating his home and our entire cul-de-sac. He starts at Thanksgiving but turns everything off the day after Christmas (WTF). He decorates every tree lining the sidewalks of our court, it gets so crazy here you could charge all the folks who drive by for a look. I don’t think this is what Baby Jesus had in mind for Christmas.
It is out of control dude!
Ramsey couldn’t possibly live in a cul de sac. Just doesn’t seem to fit the persona….
Sounds like you have your own personal Peacock Lane. Could Xmas ships be next?
I have to say that I think the concept of Small Business Saturday is great. Truly is a great concept to get some people in the door of the small business who would otherwise be forgotten by shoppers during these chaotic shopping days.
With that said, the people over at Boarding Area have zero idea what the day is all about. Let’s use our AMEX cards at 25 different small business for $10 each so we can get stuff for free. You are supposed to support small businesses, and not make them pay more CC fees because of your greediness. AMEX is trying to hook up a little incentive to go and spend money at these places instead of doing all of your holiday shopping at Target. Am I the only one that is a bit pissed off reading “I bought $240 in Amazon gift cards and $30 in gas in 3x $10 increments?” I feel this is just dirty, and mean in a way to let greed trump us. I used my Small Business discount for things I would have bought at the big chain stores for a bit cheaper usually, but now they weren’t. I spent $22 at one store, $53 at another and $15 for lunch…real purchases instead of stupid gift cards for the big stores again.
Yes, small businesses sell gift cards, but I feel like this just defeats the purpose of what AMEX is trying to show here, and is morally wrong. Does anyone else feel the same as me, or am I crazy?
I don’t think Amex is a benevolent participant in this promotion. Amex uses the holiday to throw a few crumbs back to the merchants who, in truth, should not be accepting Amex cards with their high swipe fees. In the days when high-net-worth individuals can get equivalent cardmember perks and services from a Visa or Mastercard, why willingly accept cards that take away 1-1.5% more of your revenue? On the consumer side, you’d be a moron (or a high-net-worth moron) to carry only an Amex around.
In thanks for taking a larger share of swipe fees, Amex gives small businesses a one-day promotion each year. That’s hardly generous. I don’t think there’s more to “what the day is all about,” but I could be missing something.
Personally, I bought a number of gift certificates to pizza and coffee places we frequent anyway. I held back on maximizing all cards because it was a huge hassle for the employees working there, and I felt ridiculous.
But ya see here, you bought gift cards to the store! Something that seems perfectly fine.
Also, how do we know that AMEX charges more than Visa or Mastercard? Where is the proof? I am not a small business owner, I admit, but I thought they would all be the same this day in age because of competition. Am I incorrect? If so, that is kind of a terrible business plan.
You can always ask the merchant. I’ve asked a few small retailers and they are all in approximate agreement with the following post
“Amex charges a retailer around 3.5% whenever a customer pays with one of their cards; by contrast, Visa and MasterCard charge around 2-3%”
http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/tips/rewards-credit-card-tips/retailers-accept-american-express/
And this is also why AMEX is harder to use in ROW.
Yeah I frequent chinese food places and most of them do not like Amex “tooexpensif” 🙂
I love taking money from banks, especially Amex lol
I totally agree with you Andrew. I think SBS should be about supporting small businesses, rather than trying to get as much free money from AMEX as possible. I shared my thoughts in this post: http://travelwithgrant.com/2014/11/30/big-lessons-from-small-business-saturday-and-the-strange-stuff-i-bought/
I think you’re missing the point. You’re getting a customer into the store who otherwise wouldn’t be there. The merchant’s margin is slightly less, sure, but it’s still profit they would be foolish to throw back. I am a merchant (well, service provider) too, and I will gladly accept whatever credit card you want to throw at me. I’ve always felt that those merchants who make all this fuss about AMEX high fees are acting a bit ridiculous. Just build it into your pricing structure.
What I find really strange, though, is that small businesses are so unaware about the event, even though it has been happening for a few years.
>>>>>You’re getting a customer into the store who otherwise wouldn’t be there.
Bingo!
I missed your explanation to the statement “Get $100 FREE by opening a Capital One 360 SAVINGS account with $1,000. Open by December 1st. New customers only. Do NOT open the Checking Account, only the SAVINGS account!”
Why open the savings account and not the checking account?
checking account is a hard pull on your credit UNLESS you opt out from Overdraft protection.
savings accounts is never a hard pull. free money. Sadly, as I am typing this you have 27 minutes left…It says by November 1st…not sure if this includes all of Monday. Try clicking on the link anyway to see if offer is still alive.