Lets take a wild ride through your reservations, the latest Starwood promo, Uber going to Ann Arbor, comparison of AA and US miles, travel to tourist mecca North Korea, Maui and some other places. Also check out a helpful article for travel bloggers (real ones), introduce you to the best personal finance writer and share a hilarious picture of a pig.
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How to be a Travel Ninja With Reservations That Stay Perfect. By View From the Wing. Really good advice here to avoid surprises!
The new summer Starwood promo is out. Register here. It has the catchy name “Earn Away, Get Away”. You get double points for stays through July 31, 2014. You get triple points if the stay includes a Sunday night. I like to handle these promo registrations the way I handle my snail mail, touch it only once. Meaning, I register the first time I see them! Just do it and then you won’t have to remember to do it again. You are welcome. Unfortunately, the list of non participating hotels is long, boo!
Uber is coming to Ann Arbor! Got the scoop from local blog Damn Arbor. I still have not used my credit! I am going to do something radical now, wait for it….here is my AFFILIATE LINK ($$) https://uber.com/invite/7atl5 Hope that disclosure was appropriate. I feel like a marketer now hawking product. Who knows when it may happen again lol.
Comparing American AAdvantage and US Airways Dividend Miles. By One Mile at a Time. Another solid blog post by Ben, there have been too many to count lately.
Using British Airways to Fly In America and Using American to Fly In Europe. By Running With Miles. Yeah, it can get a little bizarre sometimes burning your miles. Excuse me, your Avios.
10 Reasons North Korea is perfect for Americans. By Matador Network. This is very funny.
The Moment-Best Shots Chosen By National Geographic’s Editors. By Bored Daddy.
19 Beautifully Isolated Places Where You Can Finally Get Some Peace And Quiet. By Bored Daddy.
This is the grave of Charles Lidbergh I managed to find in Maui. We probably would not be flying everywhere without his accomplishment. It is a very serene setting that faces the ocean next to a church built in 1864. And I learned he was born in Michigan!
12 Things Travel Bloggers Can Do To Achieve Success in an Insanely Crowded Place. By Gary Arndt. Actually I do have some real travel bloggers who read me so I thought this was an excellent article that may help them. Here I go being non respectful and trashing others lol.
The personal finance writer everyone should read. He is back in the Wall Street Journal after a 6 year absence. Probably the best one out there.
And I leave you with this pig…
Check out my updated blog lists: Blogs I Love, Blogs I Like, Blogs I Ignore
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George
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
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Two affiliate links in one post? That’s a first
Sure is, thank you for your support. You know I appreciate it 🙂
Used uber and lyft for the first time with friends in San Diego. They were great, much cheaper than cabs. Too bad, I won’t be able to use them when I travel with my wife and 3yr old daughter.
I still have not used them yet. I almost did in Chicago going from the Radisson Blu to the train station. Thought about it and…walked it.
We’ve truly entered a new level of surreal with F2B’s Wallet Slut pimping the **Canadian Harley Davidson MasterCard**. How can both of the F2B bloggers that are left not leave the site, head hanging in shame?!
Especially since he presents his blog as maximizing the cards in HIS wallet. So, he is either the biggest pimp of all time or the dumbest credit card user of all time (never talks about the good cards). Is it possible he is both? You are right – F2B should be totally ashamed.
What? The Canadian Harley Davidson Master Card? OMG, speechless!
“The personal finance writer everyone should read”
PF Digest?
And Steve is the commenter everyone should read.
He was too cheap to buy a banner ad so I went with Jonathan Clements instead 🙂
I like the Gary Ardnt article:
“If you aren’t prepared to blog and do so consistently for at least 3 years without any prospect of making money, they you probably shouldn’t even start.”
“The world does not need another blog about backpacking through Thailand”
“Stop trying to please public relations people”
“If you want to stand apart from the crowd then don’t be in it”
Yeah, excellent post indeed. So…I have 19 months to go it appears hehe
I’ve resigned myself that I am never going to make money from my blog but my original passion for helping save endangered birds will always be there so I am here to stay!
Definitely bookmarked the travel-blogging post.
Travel lots- check.
All the other points still need lots of work on my end.
We are all a work in progress #TBBphilosophy
The Points Guy didn’t keep his Starwood Ambassador status, and he says good riddance it sucks anyway. The only specific complaint he makes though is he would email them requests and it “would take at least a few hours to get a response” If I could get a response in a few hours out of 1Kvoice the heavens would open!!!
He’s actually right on this – whatever serviceI get out of my ambassador above what I can get from calling the regular platinum line is marginal. It’s odd that the benefits from reaching the top 100 night plateau are so minimal compared to the incremental benefits one gets from moving between 25 stay plat to 50 night plat and 50 night plat to 75 night plat.
He should thank his ambassador for one thing though – it gave him an excuse to put 2 (2????) SPG Amex banner ads at the bottom of the post. Because 1 wasn’t enough
Does anyone else cringe every time a blogger talks about something IHG related and courteously “reminds” their readers that they transfer 1:1 from the CSP [insert link] and CIB [insert link]
MommyPoints always loves to remind you that you can transfer from certain cards, but all the superior options to that either require clicking through other posts/threads for “more details” (i.e. the IHG Visa or the buy points at 0.7 cpp workaround) or don’t get mentioned at all (i.e. buying points at 0.575 cpp with the current buy points promo)
Hopefully when the day comes that Chase doesn’t dictate the way bloggers write their posts, the best information will be actually be written about, and the crappy information will be the one that requires further clicking through links and threads to gather more information
To be clear, there should NEVER be any reason at all to transfer Chase points to IHG. None. There is no more reason to link the Chase cards than their is to link to any credit card out there that gives you 1% statement credits. But the Fidelity card doesn’t pay, so….
The whole transfer from UR earning cards (insert links here and here) is really quite ridiculous. Even when discussing Hyatt hotels, the UR cards are inserted first (here is how you can transfer points to Hyatt!) and then the Hyatt visa is thrown in almost as an afterthought.
I noticed that.
Best way to get IHG points according to Mommy Points:
1. UR Transfers from Chase cards
2. Buying them for 0.07cpp
3. There might be an IHG credit card or something.
Buzz, I know you like how MP handles (spins) criticism, but she’s entering TPG/FTG-level of sales over content. Review her Top Card Offers (which I used to send friends/family to). Candidate for “Blogs I Ignore”. 30K AA? Plat 40K? Southwest 25K?
Here is the order of best ways to get IHG points if you needed them
1) “read through this thread of thousands of posts for more detail”
2) no mention at all
3) “read this post for more detail”
4) no mention at all
5) no mention at all
.
.
.
.
10) you can transfer points 1:1 from the CSP [insert link] and CIB [inser link]
Guess which of those options above was listed first in the post?
MP gets a pass for the best way to handle criticism online.
Yeah i noticed a little bit more bias lately. Maybe Little C is picking up dance and soccer lessons 🙂
Not enough to include in Ignore list yet…
It’s my blog and I make the final call. And I do always appreciate the feedback. Good to have participants in this express themselves in an open way and remind others of their fellings and, you know, what’s going on and why 🙂
Bloggers make you click through for the good deets because clicks are revenue too, not just credit cards.
The IHG Visa is crap. It is a decent signup bonus (note to bloggers: the signup bonus is 80k. the signup bonus is 80k), it gives you a free night each year worth the $49, but anyone who would spend any money on that card is an idiot. It’s one of the weakest-earning points cards out there.
It’s just as idiotic to transfer points to IHG, but if you’re points-rich and cash-strapped and you only need 5000 then why waste a hard pull? Transferring a few thousand points from Chase would not be crazy if you need points in your account to get starting making and cancelling cash and points reservations.
“Transferring a few thousand points from Chase would not be crazy”
Well considering a CSP point is worth at least 1.25 cents to just about everybody (and if it isn’t, you shouldn’t have the card to begin with)….. and you can buy IHG points right now for 0.575 cpp…..
…. uh, yeah it would be crazy
Like mentioned above – getting the card is just one option. There are plenty of other better options that don’t involve hard pulls. Heck, the option she presented ISN’T EVEN THE BEST OPTION TO USE WITH YOUR CSP CARD!
I agree. MP is in the league of the blogs to ignore posts. I rarely seen a post with an original tip from her. But lately the posts have been really flagrant credit card shilling with bad advice.
There were so many that I don’t even know which one to pick. Between the “dog sitting business” in order to get a Chase Ink card, the Avios post, or the transferring UR points to IHG.
I bet we won’t ever hear anymore about the many ways to maximize the value of SPG points which she usually LOVES to talk about because she LOVES SPG…
PS: The fact that Steve has an ambassador (of course, everything you read on the internet is true!) should put to rest any speculation that Steve = Seth from WM.
PPS (courtesy M. Night Shyamalan) Maybe Steve is TPG!
I wish I was Seth – he’s a superb and greatly underappreciated blogger
His award finder tools (before UA strong armed him) were one of the best assets to travel hackers
And he has more original content in a week than FTG.com will have in a year
But no, I’m not Seth – he’s proven that he’s perfectly fine attaching his name to criticism of FTG. Good call on TPG though. I thought my cover was safe
If Steve was TPG I will immediately retire LOL.
Seth gave me some great advice when I started my blog. Two things that stood out for me were: it takes time and you need to have a passion for it. Thumbs up on both counts.
Having said that, as far as I know (or I remember), Seth has not commented in my blog. I don’t even know if he reads me!
And yes, I agree with Steve and no one is angry 🙂
I love the hummingbird!
I felt bad posting it, I should have emailed it to you. But it was getting late and wanted to wrap it up 🙂
Without going political, I found this article interesting for a variety of reasons. I post a link here because young heirs to the Carlson, Marriott and Hilton hotels are the first among those the writer interviewed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/fashion/white-house-hosts-next-generation-young-and-rich.html?_r=1
I hope young Mr. Gage of Carlson becomes a bit more articulate by the time he finishes college but his heart is in the right place.
Still struggling with unleavened bread around here, I wish those celebrating tomorrow a Happy Easter.
Interesting article, loved the last paragraph. I wonder why Paris Hilton was not invited 🙂
Going to an Easter feast by a Greek friend at 3 pm. I should have gone to church last night but I didn’t.
Good to be away from the blog for a few days, recharge batteries and all.
We are finally getting some spring weather. Time to get the bikes out and look for a new one for my daughter now that she has outgrown her old bike.
You probably should Passover that holiday next year if you cannot get a rise out of it and it leavens you flat.
+1 !
Easter. The day that diet went to hell and then, miraculously, truly risen to heaven 🙂
#lamb&baklavaoverload
It’s the yeast you could do, George.
Just imagine what this plugin could do for affiliate link prose!
http://downworthy.snipe.net/
WIN
Hurry! – You can wait
I usually have lots of creative juices flowing but I am back from huge Easter feast and, frankly, I am kind of sleepy right now. Thank blogging gods, I did have most of tomorrow’s blog post done by noon today, phew!