Let’s go on a wild ride through marijuana-friendly Colorado hotels, get a map of all the Club Carlson hotels, fly in wingsuits over the Alps, see some stunning photos in 21st Century China, travel to Burj Al Arab as posers, learn about building wealth, cutting corners and happiness and, of course, we always end with the Best Blog Buzz in the blogosphere!
TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order
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MILES/POINTS
I must admit that I was surprised to learn that American Airlines is not going to go to a revenue based frequent flyer program for a while. I thought that they will say “Screw it, let’s start out with a brand new one”. I still think it is coming. Not as of January 2015…maybe January 2016? Time will tell. Or maybe AA CEO Doug Parker is messing with us all 🙂
Marijuana-friendly Colorado hotels and lodging. By Loyalty Traveler. Wow, this is moving fast: “Bud and Breakfast”, “My420Tours weed-tourism packages” and a few not awe inspiring hotels mentioned that you burn hotel points. It will be a really fun place to hold a DO in an establishment like this lol! #hint Comment #1 is by a Colorado based lawyer and it’s really good.
Complete Map of Club Carlson Hotels. By Travel is Free. Another one that goes into my Evernote files to bring up again when I need to in the future.
Please tell me why I should open an AirBerlin Tobonus frequent flyer account and then register for an account here to get 1,000 miles. I know this hobby is an addiction but I just don’t see how I can ever use these miles or get any benefit out of them. Please feel free to change my mind in the comments!
TRAVEL
Wingsuits in formation over the Alps video at The Adventure Blog. WOW!!!
Scenes from 21st Century China. At The Atlantic. Incredible to watch watch what is happening there so fast…
How I Had Afternoon Tea at the Burj Al Arab: A Guide for Posers. By Andy’s Travel Blog. I liked this quality review and great pictures and especially the narrative along with the headline, you know, about posers lol.
ODDZ & ENDZ
The simplest secret to happiness you’ll ever find. By The Week. Savor the moment! I do it every morning at my local Panera drinking coffee and reading TBB comments 🙂
Spread Your Wealth or Lose It. By Bloomberg View. Great read on the benefits of diversifying!
Cutting Corners. By Vanguard Blog. Love this graph!
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!
Thank you to all who came out in the first TBB Blog reader meetup in Brooklyn! I really enjoyed your company and a good time was had by all.
The Points Guy got a little defensive when they called him out for not mentioning the 80k IHG Rewards credit card offer. Apparently, he was not aware of the better offer. And THAT is the problem! I am not the expert here, you are! Or you market yourself as one…I better stop now.
Personal Finance Digest wrote a post a long time ago “Chase screwed up over its affiliate marketers yesterday“. Then, out of the blue, this dude Brad comes out and goes totally beserk. I mean, this is what it must have felt here as former TBB resident troll was reigning supreme trying to get us all angry juveniles how to behave lol. Anyways, I must admit, it was amusing to read this stuff. Thank you Brad for the laughs. Email me for a referral to my therapist…if she agrees to work with you. This hobby sure attracts some really angry people, wow!
I post some stuff here that magically finds its way to other blogs afterward. With no HT. I am not complaining. After a while you start wondering…”again?”. But I just let it go shaking my head and blogging about my feelings here.
After a while the gifs One Mile at a Time posts are just not funny anymore. And you know how I feel about them duckies…
I was going to take Extra Pack of Peanuts off the Ignore list because, well, he has been busy doing these podcasts and traveling. But cash must be running low so we have another version of the EPOP “Frequent Flyer Bootcamp”. It’s on sale again! From $499 to just $299! No word on whether you get a set of knives as a bonus when you sign up for the course. Everything so nicely packaged, polished and…so expertly! If only my blog looked like this I would have Amazon revenue streaming to me 24/7!
There is a blog titled “Efficient Asian Man“. I am so tempted to reply to him in a comment as “Inefficient White Guy”. Just for the hell of it 🙂
Andy’s Travel Blog had this fascinating and so relevant graph below in “Travel Blogger Bingo”
Ariana, who also runs Pointchaser, left Frugal Travel Guy! Credibility, per TBB management, shot way up 🙂 Nice personal post here. Wish her the best! Would love a “tell all” interview but probably there is a non compete or some other type of deal sealed. I have never seen a blogger adjust her writing style so much to do what FTG really stands for: Pump more credit cards, preferably seven at a time! I am guessing the next family member they will use to sell more credit cards will be a great grandfather of a writer? (all others have been maxed out!) Dead or alive, who cares? It’s ALL ABOUT CONVERSIONS. I feel better and I am not angry. I wonder who will be the new editor! How about rebranding as “Credit Card Sell Guy, you know, something more relevant to what the site is all about.
Only one blog screams and makes a separate blog post (with pictures of the cards even!) that a certain Vanilla card is working again in America’s favorite retail establishment and then tries to sell the Discover IT card (WTF!) and a few shopping portals for referrals. Still continues to fool readers by leading them to its page of Barclays affiliate credit cards by getting them to click on links such as: “Chase Freedom” and “AMEX Delta credit cards” and, guess this, “Delta Reserve card holders” when no such links appear on that credit card page!!!!!!! This deal actually has been going on for over a week and blog expert just figured it out saw it on FlyerTalk? Somebody needs to call this crap out…I DON’T want to waste my time writing about this blog! Oh, forgot to name the blog: Delta Points. Be careful, don’t get caught with your pants down too many of these gift cards on hand!
Milevalue wrote a post: “Should you Buy Thank You Points?”. Like he gives a crap if you buy some or not…as long as you buy the credit card from the site! Amazingly, the affiliate link was inserted in just four different places in the body of the blog post that could have been done with just two words: HELL NO!
When I saw this headline at Million Mile Secrets “Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Worth the $95 Annual Fee, If You Already Have the Chase Ink Plus?” I immediately started playing a mind game with myself (dangerous). I estimate how many credit card affiliate links the writer (whoever it actually is) managed to slip in. I FAILED. I was thinking this would be good to drop about 20 of the Chase links. It was 29….Twenty Nine Chase card links in a single post, the same ones over and over and over and over. Hey I guess MMS readers like to be sold like sheep. Beeeeeeee…Stay Chase-y my friend. See Chase-y live in Chicago Seminars, the premier destination of the mega Chase-y blogs of the TBB Blogs To Ignore list!
A Rebecca S., desperate to make $25, sent in her “Reader Success Story” to Frugal Travel Guy to get posted. Then the “FTG Staff” does what it does best. It expertly inserts a few credit card affiliate links that will make the owners of this business enterprise multiples of the $25 of course. Nothing wrong with that I guess, we all know what to expect here by now. But, for crying out loud, why don’t we get some links to some cards mentioned that do NOT pay the site if the intent truly was to help the readers get more miles/points and travel “frugally”? What? Never mind…
Amazingly the word “churning” does not appear even once in a post at The Points Guy titled “Do You Pick a Date Every 3 Months for Card Applications?”. I found that interesting. Can someone please ask him ? 🙂 Catch this one at the Chicago Seminars too! While attending the amazing credit card presentations, why don’t you ask questions such as: ‘How much do you get paid for a Chase Ink card, Amex and so forth”. Should be fun to watch…
Someone called out this Travel Skills dude who keeps pushing the inferior United MileageExplorer Visa card and he responded saying that the better offer “is a good deal”. Conveniently, he never updated the body of the blog post. Then included a link to the post with the affiliate crappier offer in yet another blog post. Amazingly, a few people wonder why I get angry? How can you not be when you see this crap going on with all these “credit card experts” posing as miles/points travel bloggers who fool their readers. Ok….I need to breathe now.
Miles Abound, the Maldives expert, reviews the Conrad very well. What I found hilarious was a pic of a toilet and the caption “This is for Ramsey”, long time TBB reader. So Ramsey you have been warned!
Returning to Detroit Monday night and looks like I will be trying Uber for the first time. I should throw the affiliate link in here but I feel bad for inserting it once last week. I am just so horrible at pimping my links!
The Points Jock joined First2Board.
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First?
My first first!
Yes, but who are you?
DREW YOU ARE FIRST IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE.
Darn it, my template failed. j/k 😛
Congrats Drew.
Sorry I couldn’t make the TBB Brooklyn meet today. I like it when initials and Brooklyn go together. Imagine the combinations… TBB, BRT. 😉
Wife and kids are sleeping in. I am at the Panera on 86th Street (between 4th and 5th Ave) unitl they call me. Good bet we will go somewhere to lunch around this neighborhood before we Uber it to LGA around 3 pm. Hmm,,.TBB BRT, maybe next year. By that time TBB will have enough from Amazon link to sponsor it….and that was a joke!
This proves my points that templates suck 🙂 This stuff can not be automated, it comes from the heart!
Drew: Congrats! How does it feel to be a first First? 🙂
I bet 2/3rds of the blog posts were pumping the Chase cards the last few weeks. This weekend I cancelled my CSP and Chase Marriott. Last Summer, I was convinced that I had to have the CSP according to the blogs. The 40k was nice, but the card isn’t all that special. Chase Ink is much better for my spend. I’m not so Chase-y anymore. I’m a Barclay’s girl now.
Lol….” I’m not so Chase-y anymore. I’m a Barclay’s girl now.” That sure made me laugh, classic!
You’ve heard of Wallet Slot. Some of us are just Card Sluts.
This slut just verified the UA MileageExplorer card, then did the Amazon Payments thingie and BOOO, 57k UA miles are coming 🙂
No Bingo for me. I enjoyed the meme in response to Gary’s score.
http://makeameme.org/meme/i-couldnt-complete
Lol..awesome!
So… if I can’t be first first then I can be first to ask the inevitable question: Who is Drew? LOL
No, not again….Drew is first by the way 🙂
OK. That Miles Abound toilet post might finally get me off the pot and start a travel blog niche that hasn’t been properly exploited. Calling it “Toilet Travel Guy. How to dump in First Class Style in amazing places! For freeeeeeee! Just click here and here and here!” I’ll give detailed reports and report the outcome…giddy thinking about having the niche all to myself. I’ll market it to friends and family, cause, you know, they all want to know how I dump in such style and amazingly places for free…
Urine luck, as I am flushed with envy that I am not the number one person to figure out that niche myself.
I suppose I can no longer put a lid on it. You really bowled me over with this one…
Like I said, TBB comments enhance my life…Thanks for the laugh guys! I need to get me a template to insert hilarious comments like these in the “TBB Comments Gems” filler posts 🙂
Hey, haven’t been around much but glad to see you’re still going full-speed ahead. I did use your link to order a USB charger, so don’t spend that $.17 (probably more like $.03) all in one place! Bummed that I missed the get together, but if things continue in their current direction I might be in a more geographically desirable locale to make an eastern or Midwest event.
BTW, I attempted to comment on the Travel Skills farticle pushing the Explorer card… I tried pointing out that there were other current and recent 50k+ offers but I am shocked… SHOCKED I tell you… to see that the affiliate marketer/farticle author/farthor took a classic “play from René” and censored my helpful comment. 🙁
Hey Hua, where have you been? NIce to see you posting again. Thanks for the Amazon order! I agree about your assessments about those two “expert” miles/points blogs 🙂
Juggling some travel arrangements with a possible move, looking at places, etc. Hopefully will result in a fair number of miles plus new status in a program or two!
EAM (eff asian man) has a great blog…very TBBS (travel blogger buzz style!). Add him to your list!
Ok if you say so Ryan 🙂 It’s not bad…I don’t love it, like it or ignore it #hint
Brad and SteveSucks should meet up. They could talk about their intelligence and all the readers that blogs have helped. And how Steve is a huge colostomy bag or something similar.
Yeah really….Just ran across this gem at Frugal Travel Guy: “Brought to you by Hertz” LOL
MMS and VIEW FROM THE PLATE (VFTW) simultaneously write an article on that the Barclay Arrival signup bonus can be used to offset the minimum spend required to earn the bonus. Brilliant minds and in this case Credit Card Salesman OFTEN sell alike………………….Looks like toilet bowl pictures are back in style. Here is my picture for Ramsey …………………………………………………………….http://www.funnychill.com/media/1301/Toilet_Cleaning/
Ha, made a reference already on that Barclay card arrival sales job for Wednesday’s Buzz post.
Link is not working…I know Ramsey is dying to check out yet another toilet lol.
Geez, that Travel Blogger Bingo tells it all. They travel in style thanks to the clicks from naive newbies.
I suggest a new version: I’m-Not-A-Travel-Blogger Bingo. Or perhaps I’m-A-Newbie Bingo. Hey, why not both? Squares will include accomplishments like:
> I fly Spirit!
> I have a Frontier CC!
> I was stuck next to a Person of Size who spilled from the middle seat into my window seat, nearly suffocating me, for 3.5 hours 🙁
> I have Gate Lice Elite Status!
> Never got an amenity kit ;(
> I pick up amenity kits people left behind as I exit through first class.
> What’s an amenity kit?
> I have absolutely no idea who Drew is.
> I used my CSP UR points to get $400!
> I used my United points to get a suitcase!
> The WM clerks can never help me no matter how many questions I ask them 🙁
> Uh, what’s a skypeso?
> I have never taken a picture of a toilet to post on a blog.
> I have never taken a picture of two pieces of toast to show my readers what toast looks like at this particular breakfast buffet.
> I did not attend the Charlotte DO.
> I will not attend the WestCoastDO.
> What’s a DO?
And, for the center square:
> I just got 7 credit cards. Can someone help me book award tickets to the Maldives?
As you can see, we have a lot more bingo squares to fill, so step to it!
LOL…Brilliant! Thanks for the laughs I got out of this!
I have more of these than I do of the blogger card. Maybe I should have stuck to being a commenter/FT poster. 😉
Buzz, you missed the punchline on that Kim Jung Un picture: he’s at a lube factory, inspecting the product.
The worker next to him looks horrified 🙂
For you, George:
http://news.yahoo.com/enter-pyongyang-north-korea-timelapse-video-132954078.html
Yep, already added it to the “TBB Travel” section to be posted. Fantastic video! Actually probably way better than it probably is, colors are so wonderful 🙂
My thought was: that worker looks TERRIFIED!
Bad enough (or merely annoying enough, depending on what country you’re in?) when your boss comes to “watch you work” — how about a boss who can order your death if you smile at the wrong time, or don’t smile at all?!? EEK!
I’m changing the name of my blog to “One diarrhea at a time”.
I’m gonna focus on how to get “there” in style…
Oh gosh please no, don’t do it. At least show a Japanese toilet? lol
Buzz tell us about your Brooklyn meetup, did they fill up the venue?
It was standing room only. Thought about charging money for tickets, you know, for charity but I didn’t lol
Newsflash:
This just came into the newsroom:
The Vendome hotel property is relocating to the Maldives.
Guests must have a minimum of seven affiliate credit cards to pay their room rate and incidentals.
That is all…
If every attendee got 7 credit cards from my site for a DO in the Maldives I would not charge an entrance fee hehe.
Next evolution in blogosphere…”Brought to you by Hertz”
Frugal Travel Guy always showing the $$$$ way.
Actually Spirit may be interested in my site based on the gif I am posting in the next Buzz post.
Warning: It invcludes…vibrations
So who is going to be the first to review the new PH in New York, we should take bets here?
Hmmm…I only bet when I am absolutely certain I am going to win. With so many luxury travel miles/travels blogger “experts” this is getting to be a little difficult.
Just saw the Hertz post as well. Not even a new product. Next will be “Top 5 credit cards brought to you by Chase.” Naturally Amex, Citi and Barclays won’t make the list.
I am sure that one coming up…Shaking my head.
check the thread on FT… looks like that “post” and tweet from the FTG violated FTC rules.
they’ll be an excuse i’m sure… perhaps howie was just so excited about this hertz thing he just completely forgot – i mean its happened before.
but don’t worry – ingy will accept whoever’s to blame’s apology, and then it will be fine! after all, its just the FTC.
” I want to remind you I no longer own the blog.”
I will find that FT thread eventually….trying to get back in my routine after returning from New York trip to the inlaws.
linky?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/external-miles-points-resources/1602117-did-recent-post-ftg-violate-ftc-rules.html
It won’t “be fine! after all” — it will be A fine, when the FTC is done!
Sadly, FTC has no teeth!
I hate those free 1,000 mile Top Bonus posts because even though I know like you TBB they are useless to me it causes my mind to think for thirty or sixty seconds of any possibility I may need them, thus wasting such seconds of my life.
I know exactly what you mean, I feel your pain of losing those precious seconds. My mind even aimlessly wondered if I can exchange them in that awful points.com site for some account that may be expiring or something…what a waste. No I didn’t go for them…I may regret but I am fine with my decision lol
You are my travel blogger idol George but my comedy idol is gone 🙁
Yeah…stunned about the news too.
This is funny……………………………………………………………………………………………….http://news.yahoo.com/hilarious-video-compilation-botched-fedex-deliveries-laugh-cry-141015530.html
Yikes! LOL
What an informative article at FTG on Expedia rewards. “As someone who books a TON of hotel nights….” in the main article. However in only answer to a question, here is the response – “I have earned airline miles through Expedia, but not hotel loyalty points”. What nonsense? George, WTF? As Freequent Flyer correctly tweeted, author so excited for 0.14% rewards? Readers, please note the bias. I recently booked through chase UR portal and chose Hotwire which currently gives 3 bonus points as against expedia’s 1 bonus point. The FTG author was promoting Expedia.
It was probably “Brought to you by Expedia Rewards” too like the Hertz one lol.
Fifty-sixth (and hopefully last).
Good one. I always have the last laugh here. I just wanted you to know that 😉