TBB Mission: To Entertain, Educate and Inspire. Aim to at least do one well!
This blog has been a labor of love so far. If you like what you see here, please let others know by passing them a link to my blog, thank you! Enjoy reading it and have a super nice day!
MUST READ BLOG POST
A completely hilarious parody post on the endless “trip report” posts we see in this space. “Trip Report: 103rd Street to 72nd Street” by Online Travel Review. THANKS to readers who alerted me to it in the comments! I zip through so many blog posts every day I usually have seconds to decide if something should be looked at closer. I remember seeing this and just did not think much of it as trip reports generally do not excite me. After reading it, I certainly do think it is TBB worthy, you readers will sure be entertained by it, I sure was! Jared: My comment did not post!
TRAVEL
10 Unique Ocean Landscapes. By THE WORLD GEOGRAPHY.
Unusual Borders Around the World. By Memolition.
Space Shuttle Endeavor’s Final Flight. Totally mesmerizing timelapse video. Found here.
World’s Most Dangerous Roads. By USA Today.
JetBlue is coming to Detroit, hooray! 3 daily flights to Boston. Take your high fares Delta and shove them! Oh, look it there…Passengers can hook up with Emirates to the Middle East out of Boston easily then. Or you can always fly Royal Jordanian lol.
MILES/POINTS
Best Use of United Miles to Europe. By Travel is Free (is not and you know it!). Another very solid post about the subject.
The presentations slides from the “Priceline and Hotwire” by Rapid Travel Chai. Good stuff!
What Not to Do: How to Avoid Having Your Account Closed. By DansDeals. Great info to know.
Credit card pop quiz by PFDigest. Great post. Loved this line: “The incentives of big league bloggers are not aligned with the incentives of their readers. This doesn’t mean that they’re bad people, or that there’s anything wrong with getting paid to sell, just that most of them are sacrificing the quality of their product in exchange for card-whoring. They get paid to push certain cards, and they don’t write about other potentially useful cards since they’re not getting paid to do so.” And great message in the last paragraph too. Oh, and great picture in the end lol.
Get a 20% bonus when you transfer AMEX Memberhsip Rewards to British Airways Avios points. Valid until 12/31/13. Yeah, I am thinking about it, I have about 70k MR points but I really like 50% bonus! Oh, there is a 30% bonus to Virgin Atlantic too but I am not going to bother to serve the link here.
Another month, another United glitch. Looks like United is not going to honor the tickets this time. So, when will someone sue the airline for unfairly targeting him/her?
Shocking that some people have problems with the US Air Share Miles promo! Well, not really. I never get on these promos where I have to dish out cash to the airline when they have all the control. If you want more on the story, Canadian Kilometers blogged about it.
ON MY MIND
I have my “Blogs Review” section ready. I have chosen to feature three categories: 1) Blogs I Love 2) Blogs I Like and 3) Blogs I Avoid. Strictly my own opinion and preferences. I have chosen to feature only larger blogs in the Avoid section; including the tiny ones it would take me way too long. As I leave for St. Louis on Thursday there is probably not going to be any Buzz post on Friday, therefore I may be releasing these Blog Review posts, say one per day.
The deal is still on and that’s all I am going to say. Some have figured it out themselves; a few were inspired by my hints to keep hunting! TBB does not kill deals. People have accused me of trying to milk this for personal gain for my blog. Fine, no more hints. I know how this goes, I ‘ve been around the block. Purists say this stuff does not get out on a blog, PERIOD. #theend (hope not of the deal!!!)
ODDZ & ENDZ
19 Things You Might Not Know Were Invented by Women. By Mental Floss. Fun read, thank you to all women, you rock!
BLOG BUZZ
Note: This section is intended for long time readers and miles/points addicts who follow the blogs in this space. Readers not familiar with this crazy hobby could skip this section! Do not take anything personal. TBB reviews blogs and tries to entertain above all. Call me Siskel. Furthermore, a link appearing in this section is TBB approved! The rest are just TBB crap; don’t take them too seriously, it’s mostly entertainment! You feel hurt the entertainment is on you? Well, excuse moi, perhaps you should try to earn the link if you are so sensitive with what appears in your blog, no one is stopping you! I repeat, this is about the blogs, not the bloggers!
Milevalue had an affiliate link orgy fest. It almost broke the record with number of cc links in one single post. I counted 60 (sixty) of them…I had this intense desire to vomit but I managed to grab me a glass of water and get over it. To all you first time Chicago Seminars visitors, this blog post was intended for YOU! Let me tell you a “secret”: these links are exactly the same as many others in this blogosphere! And then the censoring. SMH. Reader Steve had the following observation in the TBB comments:
MileValue at the end of today’s pointless post:
“Did I make any mistakes? Correct them in the comments”
About 3 lines below that….
“Comments are closed”
Not surprising actually. He censors corrections, so if he’s asking the comments section to be corrections of him, he reflexively locks it
Not to be undone, The Points Guy had a similar post carpet bombing about 31 links, along with the “advanced credit card strategies” slide shows from the Chicago presentation. The only thing is if this was advanced I am Super man.
Million Mile Secrets trip report is on Part X of XYZ. We get to see 13 (thirteen) pictures of Emily. It’s his blog I guess. But this just kills me, kill the captions dude!
“We were given lots of amenities.”
A picture of the amenities follows with a caption: “The Hotel Gave Us Lots Of Amenities”
I think this is a bit repetitive, a little?
Shocking Breaking News: Delta Points has started a top credit card offers for the month! And this is exactly what this community needed folks!
It is always fun to see The Wandering Aramean do his own thing and not conforming to the Boarding Area religion 🙂 He wrote “What’s the value of a MilePoint Premier Membership?” and he adds it all up to $15, so no gracias he says. View from the Wing got a little touchy about and they went at it. For a moment there, I thought I was reading comments at TBB lol! Note to Seth: Left a comment, did not post. My comment was “Even my mother is Hilton Gold #justsaying” 🙂
Message to Milenomics: Please increase the size of your font! Maybe change the actual font type too? You write some interesting stuff but I find the text so hard to read! If you don’t read TBB (shame on you but it’s ok) someone please tell him/her.
Every time there is a bonus on transferring proprietary points to airline miles I swear many bloggers can’t get to the computer fast enough and carpet bomb us all with affiliate links basically telling us what can be said in just one line and perhaps direct us to an earlier post about this…I am looking at you,well, almost everyone!
Donnie Law, fresh from the exposure in the Friday Million Mile Secrets interview, posted a bunch of links of royalty programs. That is nice I guess. And then at the end: “Remember, this is all just preparation for your first ever application spree. If it feels too overwhelming to setup an account with all these programs, at the very least open an account with the programs for which you’ll be applying for a credit card in the coming days.” We are all waiting holding our breath for what is coming next!!!
And I leave you with this:
Der Erste!
Good for you!
Germans back to where they belong 😉
That’s funny – The Milenomics font looks nearly identical to the TBB font on my laptop! But assuming the font is too small, can’t you just enlarge what you are viewing? I do that often on my Mac….
Congrats Oliver – isn’t this the first time you are first?
Maybe it’s my browser, I use Firefox.
Me too. BTW I loved the Palau photo. The colors reminded me of flying over some of the Hawaiian islands. Lovely.
I usually come across Georges literary ablution on twitter during my morning coffee but by the time I read it on my commute in order to give a qualified comment based on the content some dodo snags the first comment. Today I decided to comment without reading anything!
Based on the time zone difference you could be the next Jeff 🙂
I also see it on twitter but for me it is shortly before I turn off the laptop for the night to watch John Stewart or Colbert or just go to sleep. You are right; the only way to be first is to not read anything. That’s why all the early comments typically say nothing of any real interest.
I have a confession to make. I am finding TPG interesting again and think it may have turned a corner. Lots of useful info in the BA and Virgin post today and only a couple of links at the end (although, of course, not for BA, Virgin or Amex MR earning cards which was the subject of the post!)
I also have noticed some small improvements. But the theme of incredible cc pushing still remains strong. It has passed my tolerance threshold and made my “Blogs to Avoid” list. When that happens, I can’t promote their blog posts here even though the content may be good. And the TPG content is markedly better compared to the others ones on the same list 🙂
But 60 cc links, come on!
If somebody has good content, I have no problem linking to them, even if they’re heavily pushing affiliate links, just so long as the link-pushing doesn’t get in the way of the content somehow. And I agree, TPG actually does have some good content.
There comes a point that…
I too have noticed TPG’s content improving – which really makes me wonder how in the world MMS can hire people when his content is really about 1 post a day (unless it is part 52 of a 87 part trip report visiting grandma:). How is he bringing in that much money pushing out one yawn post a day?
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
“What is wrong with these people?”
Uh… Spelling errors? Carpal tunnel?
Commenting on TBB?
Texting each other?
Haha, don’t “hold your breath” George, you’re going to be disappointed!
I agree about Milenomics having really interesting stuff. I look forward to reading his blog above all others.
Ok, we shall see…
The Milenomics format makes it really hard for me to read, the site needs a better design. Maybe it’s my browser.
TBB
always watching;-)
WARNING TO ALL!!! PLEASE DO NOT LET BLOGGERS TRICK YOU INTO USING YOUR POINTS ON THIS TRIP!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIufLRpJYnI
Lol, where do you come up with this stuff man?
I loved both Twilight Zone and Naked Gun by the way
Would love to see a 999 part series trip review by MMS on this trip.
Love the photo at the end — it’s great 🙂
We are talking serious issues them two 🙂
Good morning George. What did you learn at your financial conference??
Flying to St. Louis Thursday morning, returning Sunday. Checking the twitter hashtag, looks like a bunch of affiliates dying to work with “star” bloggers…should be fun 🙂
MV “welcoming new readers” to his site the only way he knows how….
by bombarding them with the inferior US Airways link
This blog made my “Blogs I Avoid” list so easily…it was like a layup in basketball.
It’s a pleasant walk to the Argentine corner of that triple border/frontier in the town of Puerto Iguazu. There are markers visible for all three countries from the riverbank. I imagine it’s a more difficult journey in Brazil and Paraguay.
I’ve never really understood the hype around the Sheraton on the Brazilian side of the falls. There are perfectly acceptable hotels in both Foz and P. Iguazu. (Ciudad del Este is another story.)
It’s also possible to walk from Ponta Porã, Brazil, to Pedro Juan Caballero, Paraguay, by walking down a block, but keep your eyes to yourself and don’t accept packages from strangers.
The Sheraton is on the Argentine side, inside the park..
You’re right. The Brazilian side is the Orient Express hotel.
I have a vague memory of a seeing photo of the US where four states come together, with folks standing with a foot each in different states. But can’t recall them at this moment. This is a much more appealing view.
One day I will get there.
I also recall that spot where four states come together and I swear I just saw a picture of it online yesterday…but can not recall where! It will come again at some point
Featured on Breaking Bad too.
I never watched this show, everyone tells me to watch it. I don’t get it, I could be reviewing blogs lol.
What? In which season? I’ve seen every episode, don’t remember that.
Dont remember the season but this is when Skylar just finds out about Walt and takes Holly to the Four corners monument to flip a coin.
TBB, you are missing out – your time is much better spent watching Breaking Bad than reading TPG and MMS!
I agree about plenty of good hotels in Foz and Puerto, But the Sheraton is inside the park. That’s what makes it special, not the amenities.
Exactly. Waking up early and being able to walk to the falls, listening to the sounds of the jungle with nobody around – priceless LOL
A shameless plug: http://lenticulartravel.com/iguazu_falls/
You should slowly roll out reviews of blogs 1 by 1 starting with the big guns…. it can provide you good filler opportunities while still providing useful information. Maybe score each blog in several different areas to come up with a final ranking.
For example, Gary:
Disclosure Policies – 8
Original Content/Analysis – 7
Comment “moderation” policies – 10 (aka, doesn’t censor)
Subject Matter Knowledge – 10
CC Pimping – 7 (1 would be incessantly pimping inferior offers, 10 would FM)
Bias in Posting: 5 (relatively unbiased with CC’s, but loves to pimp all things milepoint related)
Quantity of Posts: 8
Total score: 55/70
Really good structure and would love to see TBB’s take. That’s also a pretty fair review of VFTW, disclosure in every post where there’s a conflict and outside of credit cards takes efforts to avoid conflicts but a 10 would probably be “puts the disclosures next to the link” or at least on the top rather than bottom of the post. Bias is interesting, he does cite Milepoint a lot which I guess shouldn’t be surprising but he rarely mentions his award booking service that I’d think could make him more money if he did.
Can’t wait to see these blog reviews, hopefully not just a LIST from TBB! More editorial, please!
He loses points for disclosure because like many other bloggers who “disclose” their commission, the wording is intentionally misleading
When they say the “only disclose the best offers” it’s kinda sorta true…. they won’t disclose say an inferior AA credit card because it’s not the best offer…. what he doesn’t mention is that because the best offer isn’t an affiliate, it gets far less coverage than it should. It deceives readers into thinking their content isn’t affected by affliate $$$.
I actually gave him a 7 because he’s better than many bloggers in that regard – he’s the only mainstream blogger to ever talk about the Fidelity Visa (after year 1, it’s a better card for 99.9% of people than the Arrival)
Unlike MP or OMAT, he’ll actually give coverage to non-affiliate cards outside of a monthly top-10 post (where it gets easily lost among a dozen other cards)
And he’s also much better about not forcing CC links into posts that have nothing to do with it – no squeezing in CSP’s into a post about Delta’s Skyclub lounges in ATL
Steve: I think you nailed the review! I struggled with coming up with a rating system like this and just could not nail down the categories and was thinking of asking for suggestions. But the more I thought about it I realized how subjective (biased perhaps) these reviews will be and may be judged “unfair” (angry by some). And with so many blogs out there it will be VERY hard to properly rate them. I started doing that and kept some notes and it quickly got out of hand.
What I have come up with is the 3 categories (Love, Like, Avoid). For the first two I have a short one or two lines “review”. For the Avoid section I write nothing, I list them all (without a back link). Even with these there will be some disagreement. I can see you and Paul going after me for not including MMS in the Avoid section 🙂 I just want to assure everyone that they are all under watch and will be making announcements when something is added or dropped. I thought of rating them 1 through XX INSIDE the respective categories but it also quickly got very difficult/unfair. So in the notes I say “Not in Order of Importance”. Depending on where TBB goes in the future, if I ever go down the rating path (available time has always been THE issue with TBB) I would start with the criteria you stated, thanks a lot.
The only difference with your ratings I would have in “Quantity of Posts” I would rate VFTW a 9.
Anon: Thanks for your feedback. CC pimping rating of 10 would always be Frequent Miler and no one comes even close. Why? Because there is none at all 🙂
So, I intend to talk up the positive ones and just list the “:Avoid” ones without further inflaming the atmosphere 🙂
Who cares if they’re subjective or if the Frugal Mosquito Guy would get angry about it?
That’s the whole point – these are your opinions
It took me 3 minutes to write that review of Gary – if you did one of those each blog post, you’d have just about every major blogger covered within a month and can just pop them into your blog reviews tab in real time
No need to please the bloggers. If they don’t like your scoring, they’re more than welcome to improve on their content
Man, I had my Blog Review posts ready to go. You sure are making me reconsider my plan! I absolutely love your categories, thanks a lot. The one I am wavering on is “Bias in posting”..It appears to be the only one that my own bias can get in the way when the others could be, in a way, scientifically proven 🙂
Doing this can sure provide content for a long time…Hmm, maybe I throw it out to everyone tomorrow as I do need to post something when I get to pack tonight…
Thanks again.
Bias in posting shouldn’t be too tough a category
All you need to do is answer some of the following questions about a given blogger:
1) How much is their content driven by affiliate links (and not the other way around)
2) Would said posts have existed if not for the financial consequences of it
3) Do they give coverage to cards based on how good they really are (and no, pointing out how you talked about the AA card in a post that had 12 other links doesn’t count)
4) Have you ever heard of the Club Carlson hotel program before the card started paying you?
5) Do you accept junkets left and right from the likes of Amex and SPG? (Bonus points if in the process you try to pretend you’re totally unbiased and only took the offer because Amex generously offered to give away points on your blog)?
In Gary’s case, he doesn’t normally accept freebies (and even gives proactive disclosure when not required), humps the Rocketmiles/PointsHound links but has given sufficient posting of it even when his link wasn’t the best – so won’t ding him on that. He’s also much better than other bloggers (really not saying much) about giving coverage to non-affiliate cards. And he does a good job of not forcing affiliate links into posts that the cards have little connection to (how many bloggers bombard us with the Arrival card every time a good coach fare comes up?)
He loses points on his oversaturation and general bias of MilePoint coverage and H/T’ing (the top thing on his website right now is another link to a thread on MilePoint), and for those annoying filler posts that come every so often where he regurgitates the same talking points verbatim
TBB, why not just let Steve do some guest reviews of blogs! I think I’d like to see him do this review thing of several others, too.
I agree. Having bias for certain bloggers is also ok. We are humans after all. Just disclose at the top ” I will not say anything negative about blogs/bloggers xxx because of personal bias”. That should have been disclosed on this blog a long time ago. Then terms like integrity etc would have some meaning.
To Agenda Guy: It is late at Starbucks after working the past three hours deciphering Merrill Lynch statements…I am tired. I don’t get your point, care to elaborate? You may want to start a new message all the way below because at some point this WordPress does not allow more messages to continue in the discussion tree!!
To Steve: I am very interested to have you do the reviews or help me out. I am flexible. I can give you a cut of my mega dough I am about to start rolling in lol. Ok, I am not joking. Email me if you want to discuss further.
I think you are right on the money how the bloggers in this space tick!!!
Why not open a thread here
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/external-miles-points-resources-723/
wikify it and let everyone contribute? That way its a joint effort and George doesn’t have to burn the midnight oil to review all ‘travel’ blogs out there…
George definitely needs a bodyguard at ff conferences lol.
And this is the reason I keep coming up with lame excuses I can not make it to them 😉
Hi – sorry, I just approved your comment (my comment notifications have been going to my spam folder recently). Thanks for letting people know about my subway trip 🙂
No, thank you, that was beautiful! Don’t forget to complain for something during that was below your high standards (or not) to get some compensation 😉
And I meant to thank you enormously for the link…
Oh and don’t worry – I let the MTA know how unhappy I was with the cleanliness of the station at 28th Street. They said I could sneak under the turnstile once for free. Whoo!
Has anyone else noted Steve and Agenda Guy are never in the same room at the same time. Kinda like Clark Kent and Superman. Could they be the same person?
Since you asked, here’s MV’s rating using the same categories upthread
1, 5, 1, 7,1, 1, 3
Total Score = 19
Anything below 35 = terrible blogger
You are too kind. I would rate all your 1s as 0s…oh wait…I forgot we go with 1 as the lowest 🙂
Very interesting biased to the negative series of parameters. Why not try one the rest of the world is using and is all that really counts with the non angry crowd:
Readership
Oh no, now what do you do?
Or you could call it the “Angries Rating System” You know for guys that like to complain about other peoples work but yet have no cajones to write blogs on their own.
Oops, He’s back with another dose of reality 🙂
&())*&&^
Just typed this message and the wifi was disconnected at Starbucks and lost it!!! Oh how I hate when that happens. I had this awesome comment comparing FTG (the blog) and McDonalds and how TBB would feel insulted if he ever promoted the “readership” numbers. We all have different standards. C’est la vie.
I thought Steve’s ratings were spot on, do you disagree ingy? I do not condone the name calling (mosquitoes, etc.) but you must admit you have not been so positive in return to people critiquing FTG (the blog) and you.
Anyways, I am thinking about doing this, I need to ask my readers about it. But I need to pack and get some sleep for the financial blogger conference. All the affiliates are there, I get tweets like “we are looking for star bloggers to become our affiliates”….Ohhhhhh,it should be fun with all these marketing/pumping/sellsellsell folks.
Thanks for taking the time to post. You certainly always contribute to the TBB mission to entertain! We missed you. Good job in Chicago.
If we were in good terms I would let you in the deal I discovered. You were always so much better than the new kids in not killing deals 😉
I am still having fun and learning so much about how this online world works. I still have not folded like a cheap suit. I am as surprised as you are 🙂
About the rating system: why not take a cue from Consumer Reports? They have a “best buy”, “recommended” and “avoid” icon that they hand out for your average guy-too-busy-for-the details, and then they have that big table of factors and associated grades. In this case, Steve’s idea would be the details for those of us nerds that care about this but I suspect newbies just want the bottom line.
You can even include ingys remark about “readership” in that you definitely need to review the top 10 or so. As ingy knows, just because something is popular, doesn’t mean it is good for you. (I say that as I reach for some more Lay’s potato chips..)
Fantastic! Jason Steele once called TBB as the “Consumer Reports” in this miles/points space. And I always liked the sound of that. I am going ahead with my present plan *(Love, Like, Avoid) and will try to incorporate Steve’s great rating idea when I can…which may take some time as you all have noticed I move slow. Not that I am slow but I just way too much in my plate…I usually go super fast and always testing my limits to crash…as, for example, it is 2.12 am, I have not packed and I need to wake up at 6.15..Obviously I am developing a blogging problem lol. I wish I had some Doritos right now…
Readership equals Popularity. No one forces anybody to read a blog. Readers go their by Choice. And the clear choice winners are the ones you guys complain about most.
Just like TV programs, if they don’t generate readers (or viewers) they get cut (or in this case, lose their advertisers).
Oh, we are on good terms George. We just look at the world through different set of eyes.
I do not agree. Often I look at a blog just to see if it really is as awful as others say! I might click if there is a super contest to enter. And I check MMS on Fridays to see what newbie is blogging this week. But as for monetizing from me, that’s not where my affiliate clicks go. So numbers do not necessarily mean popularity, they mean clicks. I bet a lot of people googled Ted Cruz recently to find out who the h*ll he was, and that does not make him popular!
By your logic “the peoples daily” is the best newspaper in North Korea… You know given their readership
Popularity doesn’t mean best. Or even good. Your point is ridiculous
Of course I’d expect you to take that position. You guys think you are so much smarter and better than the normal reader. They come back day after day, after day after day to the same big blogs. Why? Because they WANT to. They are getting what they want. Georgie can make his comparison to McDonalds and insinuate McDonalds is bad but not all their product is bad, just part of it.
Make all the lists you want but they mean nothing in reality. People are going to do what they want, read what they want and repeat the behavior day after day no matter what all your brilliant critical minds say. Your influence, particularly given with a negative bent, is non consequential.
The most popular blogs are just that: the most popular blogs
Justin Bieber is the most popular person on Twitter too!
Thank you for speaking your mind on my blog again. Make these comments all you want but they mean nothing in reality.
This is MY list & MY blog.
Night night
Right George. Your blog Your list.
Means nothing as it uses the “Angries Rating System”
Oh Well
Oops, He’s back with another dose of senility.
how about a rating system for com-mentors?
Lol, great idea! But I will need to delegate it to my intern (who first need to attack many other tasks). Oh, I don’t have one, nobody applied/qualified.
George, is your mystery store on the list of VR Retailers? (https://www.vanillareload.com/index.php/where-buy)
I’ve been mulling this one over but I can’t seem to crack it!
do you want me to give it away?
Inspired readers have gone through that list too…If it was that obvious it would be dead by now! Oh, wait, maybe that was another hint…
Delta Points posts that he has hit 1m page views for 2013. The market has potentially spoken, then, because TPG is doing 550k UNIQUE VISITORS per month according to his bio. And little old me – in a country 75% smaller – has done 2.1m page views since 1st March, when I moved to external hosting and all my stats got reset.
I compare Stat Counter numbers with Google Analytics numbers and the SC numbers are so much higher. It’s terribly confusing. I stopped looking at this stuff. For fun, I look at daily page views, I can easily understand that and the numbers appear very similar between the two services.
Just checked your post about the “check rate” hotel feature, wow!
That number from TPG is a flat out lie. 500k views is realistic for him based on all of the external objective data on his site (Alexa, compete, etc)
Dunno about that. Alexa is showing 59,000 for me over the last 28 days (there code is on my site so this is not a guess) for a site 77% UK read. Quick gross up for population difference would give TPG 250,000 per month.
Double that again because he is a media whore (sorry Brian, you know what I mean!) and you get to 500k.
I must admit the email offers to feature all kinds of crap on TBB have definitely increased!