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This was one of the slowest weekends I can remember in the miles/points blogosphere. Not much was happening anywhere else other than the TBB Comments section here [143 comments and counting, new record! Yes I am proud of it!] and here.[Selected gems from the comments] Thank you to everyone who contributes to the entertainment part of the TBB mission. If your feelings are fragile and do not have a sense of (sometimes edgy, always quirky) humor you clearly do not belong here. Why do people continue to read blogs they can not stand and get angry is inexplicable.
Pizza in Motion has a good tip on how to search for the “My Hyatt Elite Rate“. Good to know!
Hack My Trip wrote “Pass On These Credit Card Offers“. These are the offers that give bloggers fits. I wish there was a way they were all uniform across the board and then consumers clicked primarily based on (wow!) quality content and stuff like that. In truly sad news, the non affiliate US Air 35k offer is no longer working, RIP!
Miles to the Wild continues her newbie guide with “Credit Card Sign-on Bonuses – Taking It Up A Notch“.
We were commenting about the Friday interviews at the Million Miles Secrets blog (you know the last B in TBB stands for Buzz!). I think I told you guys that we were going to see one soon with: “Hey I started in the miles hobby in February of 2013”. Additionally, I had guessed the latest marathon trip report to be broken into 16 parts. Obviously, I was way off as we just saw Part 17 and I think we may not be halfway there. They are so exciting! How about stuff like this? “cakes and pastries. We then see a pic of mundane cakes and pastries with the caption “The Buffet included cakes and pastries””. Are you kidding me? You know I have many trip reports of my own to post…if i had broken them down the same way I could have content here to eternity!
I went to see the new movie Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Not going to win any Oscars but was all right for a few hours. In the movie the Russians were portrayed as evil assholes hell bent on teaching USA a lesson. I was so embarrassed and ashamed by such portrayal I thought about going on a long rant against the director for not going all positive and shamelessly aiming to get eyeballs from a bunch of angry moviegoers who just like to piss and moan about Russians all the time. What is this world coming to? If you have nothing good to film just don’t film it! 🙂
Heads up, trip report alert! Here is a trip report from someone not in this hobby who flies Lufthansa Business Class. This guy is Henry Blodget, you remember him from the internet stock go go days? If not, it’s just the guy who coined the term “put lipstick on a pig”! Actually he has done a pretty good job of reinventing himself since those crazy days. Anyways, it was interesting to see the reaction of someone not living this stuff having this reaction after going flat bed “I don’t know how else to say this…it’s an absolute miracle”. Until you realize the trip was comped so the super exciting expressions may be biased a little:-)
Interesting website I bookmarked: RefAround.com which aspires to be the site for all friend referrals. I found this at this post at Hack My Trip. I was under the impression that the Chase card referrals feature was discontinued. This gives me great ideas to expand my Referral links sections at the Support TBB page. I will get to it someday. In the meantime, if you are looking for a referral for the personal SPG Amex cards just email me. In addition, if you have not opened loyalty accounts at Amtrak, Hilton and Marriott and plan to use/stay also email me, thank you! You know I appreciate it. I hope these get the best offers for the people who sign up; if not, I could not live with myself so please warn me if this is not the case!
Loyalty Lobby comments on the latest Chris Elliott article. Loved this sentence which captures it all imho: “these loyalty programs went awry, when their main purpose changed from rewarding fliers and hotel guests to selling miles and points to third parties and when they became profit centers.”
Amazing video capturing the raw beauty of Angels Landing in Zion National Park, wow! Found at The Adventure Blog.
Fantastic piece with gorgeous photographs at the New York Times: “52 Places to Go in 2014“. These pieces combine more than just text and still pictures and it makes for a more visually stunning experience imho, way cool! This is a must click. It went into my Evernote file for future reference.
33 More Perfectly Timed Photos. By Bored Panda
Baby squirrel found frozen and then rescued. By Viralnova. This is so the cutest, love how the dogs adopted it!
And I leave you with this cat who resembles crazy TBB’s cat, the one and only, Fluffy! Meow!
Check out my updated blog lists: Blogs I Love, Blogs I Like, Blogs I Ignore
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George
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It feels gooood to be First 🙂
Amazing, I’m 2nd!
Doh! And in my excitement to be 2nd I forgot to put my name on it!
That was probably the FASTEST first ever!
Raffles, like Avis, always tries harder 🙂
Now I need a break to read the post. I’ll be back soon 😉
The videographer / creator of that Angel’s Landing video is a good friend and former roommate of mine. This video was just featured at GoPro’s video of the day a couple days ago!
On a related note, I “got into this game” (i.e. became obsessive about it) a while back (2009 maybe? 2010?) when he and I were debating the merits of signing up for a Continental card just for the 50K sign-up bonus. Eventually found our way to FTG and the rest was history 🙂
That is wild, what a small world!
If I was refunded 50% of the money I sent FTG over the years I would not have to be pimping my Amazon link non stop lol.
Down with forestry!
Free bikinis!
Henry Blodget should be in jail instead of First Class.
Yeah, sad that not many of those pumpers went to jail. Instead we got the MCI dude and that Tyco CEO who spent $64k for a shower curtain rod….oh, he just got out. Dudes like Blodget did so much more harm to consumers. Don’t get me angry now 🙂
For clarification, I don’t know if Chase’s referral program is still running …but the website certainly seems to be working.
Let me know if you find out more on this. If you remember that is. It’s ok if not, I am not going to get angry 🙂
I generally hate reading trip reports by mile and point bloggers. Generally speaking their style of travel is so different than mine. A plane ride and a hotel is all a means to an end for me. I really don’t care how the food was on the plane, how awesome the amenity kit was, and how cool your hotel room was. I travel for the destination not to ride a plane and stay in a pretty room.
There are some aspects of MMS’ trip reports I do like, but most parts I find incredibly boring. I’m ok with a post about food, that is a part of the culture you are visiting. A trip report that is 17+ parts and counting, including posts just about your hotel? Come on. And why do mile and point bloggers always order f-ing room service? You’re in Italy dude. I know it’s not because you were being lazy, your wife managed to get dressed up, WTF. Get out of that fancy hotel. Eat breakfast like an Italian: coffee, pastry, and a cigarette. Also if you are at an italian restaurant in Italy and your waiter suggests a german dessert wine with the main course, he is ripping you off.
The only reason I will stay in a chain hotel instead of a family run B&B or a pensione is because it’s free. Otherwise I would rather stay in a family run place and connect with the culture and people. I always felt like chain hotels are a barrier to really experiencing a culture and its people, probably because they offer room service.
I think MMS’ trip reports provide a valuable service
I had no idea what a fast food restaurant looked like until Darius showed a picture of it
I thought folks in this community only had caviar and Dom.
Caviar and Dom can be had for reasonable($$$$) price at home. Great memories can’t be, no old person ever says they wish to travel less, or spend time less time with their family.
I personally do not like both caviar and champagne!
Absolutely agree with: “no old person ever says they wish to travel less, or spend time less time with their family.”
I don’t judge, we are all different. Some people are just aviation geeks and/or hotel enthusiasts 🙂
I am a destination guy but I must admit I do get a high flying up front and staying in a very nice hotel with my family (when I am alone I don’t really care!), hopefully chowing down everything we can find at the lounge or a nice (free) breakfast of course. What I like about such “snobbish” behavior is that I like to score a deal. With UA’s mega devaluation flying up front with partners makes it highly unlikely I will be burning those miles this way because, well, they are NOT a deal anymore! I need to find me some time before Feb 1 and book me a desired trip trying out some F “product” (hate it when bloggers talk about “product”) lol.
The other comment I would like to make is that most bloggers make their living primarily selling financial products. The key word is SELL. Showing off flat beds, shower selfies, cavia and Dom for FREE SELLS damn well. Why do you think that heart doc at the latest MMS interview got into the game, show his friends and family how to travel for free huh? 🙂
Regarding B&B/pensions, I hear you I really do. But with so many hotel points in my vault I prefer not to pay cash out of my pocket. I am transitioning (slowly) to more cash back/bank proprietary earning practices so that may well be in the future for us. For now, spoiled wife and kids will have to deal with the incredible harsh conditions at the Fairmont Kea Lani and Maui Andaz 🙂
I hope I don’t sound like a snob. It is kind of stupid as I will drag them out to go explore Maui all day long…but they are FREE 🙂
TBB come join the dark side, you are more then half way there you already become airlines antagonistic and now join us in being Hotels agnostic. I have found that a mix of points and cash back work best for me. There are places I like to visit that don’t have corporate hotels or no availability. Like Scott I am a destination traveler, and some of my best memories on planes and hotels have happened in economy class and small hotels.
Now everyone should enjoy the 1% pretender(once) lifestyle and stay at some expensive hotel and fly the forward cabins. Just like you preach these points blogers are nothing more then credit card salesmen you see at the airport. There is still great niche for using points and miles to travel and but there is no money in it, so keep highlighting good travel websites and advices.
One day I may join the dark side but it won’t be this one lol.
We like to escape all together once or twice a year and really make it count. Due to the vast amounts of hotel points we usually end up in a very nice hotel assuming we can get a big time deal out of it. It just does not feel right paying cash out of pocket, at least not yet. As I am getting more into cash back and Barclay Arrival points that may change in the future, especially when the kids are out of the house. I definitely do not mind flying Economy but I do prefer flying Business on Lufthansa (I am going to miss it!). I had a very negative experience at a hostel when I was a teenager so I am not going there (and I am no longer that young!). So never say never I guess. We are all evolving in this circus we call life.
I am doing my best not to fold like a cheap suit. I can’t believe I am still standing 🙂
I can’t stop thinking about Mrs. Buzz’s curry soup. Does she use yellow Thai curry?
Yes, she is like Leondardo Da Vinci in the kitchen!
Hold on. You know who coined “lipstick on a pig”? Damn.
Well, Henry sure made that famous lol.
Funny Jetblue deal going on now. http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/39786
$96 RT JFK-DEN or SEA, which definitely has something to do with the Superbowl, as it coincides with the same dates. Jetbue is only offering these rates departing NYC, must be they need a lot of planes back in Denver and Seattle to shuttle the fans back ‘n forth.
I noticed that, very interesting.
Hey George, I hope you’re doing great!
After a month break I did check a few blogs today and OMG they are awful. Incredible,
how boring and repetitive this stuff is, geez that MMS “trip report” is a joke, no doubt.
But all of them, nothing new, nothing even remotely interesting, not a single nice picture, nada.
I thought about maybe getting a card or two – not a single offer out there which would push me
to apply. I’m too busy at work to spend time on a deeper research, but a quick look brings zero.
How can people stay interested in this, when nothing new is there to read?
Most of the readers know everything they need to know, and if I was a new reader
and found MMS today, sorry no way, I would be attracted. Am I missing something?
BTW I’m planning a few incredible trips soon so my blog will come back from the grave,
before that there is no way I can put any time into this now unfortunately…
Glad to see you are doing fine!
You only need to read this blog as I cover what should be covered and ignore almost everything else. Plus you will likely laugh a little (mostly happens in the Comments).
Looking forward to the trips and the pictures!