We bring you a new Points transfer calculator, more on the new IHG cards, Southwest Companion Pass takes a big hit and Dogs of the World and more freeeeeeeee!
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My credit card links are back! To the thousands of you waiting to support the site thank you! Apparently, there will be no banner to the right side of every page for now, sad! Just as I was almost done making a tremendous huge red arrow lol. “thousands of you”——> Scott, Bob, Tracy and my dear familia lol. Give me a few days to update that link with the BEST OFFERS on that page, so many changes lately!
We have lots to cover today, pretty active on the blogs the past few days, many developments so let’s get right on it!
Great job again from Scott over at Travel Codex. In addition to the GREAT Award Maximizer tool, he now has completed a Complete Points Transfer Calculator. Read about the latest addition. A major reason why this blog is in the TBB Blogs I Like list.
This is good advice here: New IHG cards available (but get the old one today). The new IHG cards are not recommended. To me the IHG Rewards program has become irrelevant. I am canceling my wife’s Visa card but not after trying to get something out of it. I am keeping mine…for now until the anniversary date. So, after one more year of Fairmont hacking successes, Hyatt stays through Ultimate Rewards transfers, the last remaining SPG awards before it too becomes extinct, the opportunistic Club Carlson Radisson Rewards awards…is there anything left? Oh, Hilton…I should have more to say about that in another TBB edition you guys, lets keep moving on. I am now looking more towards Airbnb and apartment stays. Free agency has come to hotels too, so sad!
Wait!!! Looks like Marriott will give the combined Marriott SPG loyalty program a NEW name. Oh dear God, be VERY afraid! You have been warned.
In my glorious travel hacking career, I must admit that there has never been such eager anticipation for a new ‘premium” card that fell FLAT down on its face as this one, wow! The New Barclays Arrival Premier Is Live – And Disappointing. Indeed, stay away! You would get the same exact thing even if I had an affiliate link! Airline transfer partners do not get 1:1 treatment, no signup bonus. Should I go on? Nope.
We are not done yet with the hits, dear Lord what a few days, so much blood running in the streets! Almost bye bye Southwest Companion Pass too. Just stab me now…
This is a great post! How to Find Boutique and Family Friendly Hotels. I see more of that in my future!
This is a good offer if you can swing these Hawaiian Airlines miles. The Hawaiian Airlines Credit Card Offer with 40,000 Miles Bonus and Waived Annual Fee Is Now Public. Lets get this straight, I am giving you public links and telling you to avoid some other cards. Because it is the right thing to do for YOU! #readerscomfirst #notmypocket
Sooo much about “wellness” empty talk by Accor’s CEO who really likes to talk a lot to the media! CEO Interview: Chris Cahill of AccorHotels Luxury Brands on the Company’s Custom Approach to Wellness. I am going to have my first stay at Swissôtel and can’t wait to experience the Vitality room, a conceptual guest room designed with emotional and physical wellness specifically in mind. I can sure use some emotional wellness by doing something with the horrible Accor’s Le Club program dude! It could be a good read if you are interested what luxury hotels are doing lately.
Wyndham devalued too! Red Lion Is Buying Knights Inn From Wyndham for $27 Million. That was a joke. Who cares!
These look great. And one is in Texas! 7 New Luxurious Tented Camps Around the World.
These are awesome! Many are aviation related #mustwatch 4 Nonstop Minutes of Some of the Craziest Clips on YouTube.
Today’s teens are better than you and they can prove it. Facts matter! Just a small excerpt:
Today’s teens are among the best-behaved generation of teens we know of.
- 10.8 percent of teens today smoke cigarettes. Twenty years ago, 34.8 percent of high school students did.
- Teenagers today are 46 percent less likely to binge drink than teenagers 20 years ago. In fact, they’re 21 percent less likely to have ever tried alcohol at all.
- In 1996, 5.6 percent of teen girls had babies. Now, that number is 2.3.
Great personal finance post! The 6 Ways of Influence – On Recognizing and Preventing Financial Trickery. Be careful out there!
Look at some brilliant travel photos here!
I bring you the latest cutting edge travel stuff. Like this huge development 🙂 Norway Opens the World’s Most Scenic Public Restroom. Can we get a trip report? Lol.
Just love this! Dogs of the World Map.
I have killed “Business Insider” from my Feedly list and it has been GREAT to manage my TBBing. They were BY FAR the busiest feed out of the 316 blogs in my Feedly feeds. With no hits in the quality content I curate for you. #winning In addition, I am going to focus on being positive in the body of my blog. Please keep it clean in the comments 😉
Whenever I remember I will share with you some of the music I listen to. Variety is my middle name. And always eclectic. Hopefully I introduce to you to some new sounds. Here we go with “Black Sun” by Dead Can Dance.
Now for some advanced travel hacking material, the roots of this blog.
Good research here: Toward hacking Asia Miles: the unified oneworld award chart.
I think travel hacking is dying. We are being picked off left and right. And me here moaning about credit card salesmen when not a single one has gone out of business and I never get an HT, never! Not even the hotel guest pizza seagull story got me just one HT, SAD!
I miss Ingy and his tirades so much #whereishe?
This was my inner coastal view in the Ft. Lauderdale Westin Beach resort. No joke! Not even a one hour late checkout after begging. “Large group” blah blah blah. While leaving the room to check out at 11 am, we hear neighbor telling housekeeping staff they have late checkout at 12.30 pm. And you say travel bloggers get bennies? Exsqueeze me? Stuff like this stay with you. With so many choices you bet your last mile this was my last stay EVER there!
And I leave you with this…Me when I get my links back and get Mrs. TBB a CSP card baby!
TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Holy cow, all the action in my cc links is so heavy right NOW you guys I had to hire an intern to manage it all…
#saidnooneever
Just finished my 1st quarter invoicing. It was nowhere as bad as I feared actually. Revenues were down $137 from previous quarter, not sad! At all.
Looks like trade wars are back on? If there was one thing that Rex dude said correctly: “Phucking Moron” LOL.
It snowed today. April 6. That just blows. I am soooo ready for spring!
I had a learn to meditate class yesterday. It is a series of 4 classes at my gym, for FREE! And I must say I liked it. It was probably the longest I have managed to stay still! So hard to keep the mind freeee and focus on the heart lol. 3 more sessions I plan to make it. #developing
Son is back in Madrid. After traveling to Prague, Vienna and Dublin. I think he started in Munich, not sure. Bought tickets to Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid game this weekend. What a life hey?
You all have a good weekend. It is Easter for us Greek Orthodox people, I will try not to eat too much, trying to control my eating.
I will have an awesome post Sunday.
I need to do a giveaway of some stuff but not want to burden me too much with administrative thingies.
I may have 3 nights total at least of Fairmont free nights and a last batch of food certs too…Trying to think of a SUPERB Fairmont property I have not visited, it is easy to get to and has beach…Anyone?
Would I be considered the first since you commented on your own blog?
Just convened an emergency TBB Board meeting and there was a unanimous decision:
YES!
Sorry Scott and DML 🙂
Yes! This is the most exciting thing to happen in the history of forever. I may just come out of my basement today, although I probably won’t. Why leave the basement when I will just end up there again anyway?
I am with you on being a free agent for everything. Airbnb’s in some places have been much better experiences than hotels, even if I do have points. I have had success on the west coast and in New York to avoid the crazy high hotel prices/point redemptions. Even overseas, I have been happy. Just have to read between the lines on the reviews to find out who is legit and who isn’t. Luckily, more new people are coming to Airbnb and telling us what they really think. Back in the day, everybody had a five star rating unless the place was imaginary.
I see my son who does not even look at hotels, it is hostels and Airbnbs all the way. Everything is changing in front of our eyes. Especially loyalty. Just read an interesting interview of the Red Lion Hotels CEO who has some very interesting things to say about loyalty. I thin the grand era of travel hacking is pretty much over.
But if you have a spare 5/24 slot nothing keeps you from getting the new IHG card 🙂
I can’t even get Gold on my birthday #sosad….
Happy Birthday John!
I think I am going to convene another TBB Board meeting (always held in basements) soon with only one item in the agenda: Should we approve today to make it a Honorary John Gold Day?
I have a feeling it will pass, congrats!
Thanks, George and if it doesn’t I will remind you to call me next year the moment you are about to post so I can get the Gold!
Happy Easter us Greeks (2%) have to stick together.
Whenever you say 2% Greek it brings a smile to my face, well played!
Go to Las Vegas and what do I miss! Gad!
You know I am sure…but whatever happens there stays there 😉
You’ll be back. Scott too lol.
Sounds like today’s teens are going to be tomorrow’s boring adults ;)..
The devaluation of the free night is bad. However, you can still get good value from the IHG devaluation because a room costing more than the $49 yearly fee. I have given ( Raddisson USA Nights) and now will give my free nights (2x IHG rooms) away to friends who appreciate getting out of town.
My “wife” called about the IHG card, her anniversary is not until December anyway. So we keep them for now. Apparently the card will stay as is with “no plans to change it at this time”. Hmmm, yeah right. I think they will transition the card out to the Premier within a year or so
It is getting harder to find hotel loyalty values with these rampant devaluations.
Oh my how the game has changed.
And after the big blogs made numerous Companion Pass posts selling SW cards…the only thing you wonder about is why Southwest took so long to limit it and not kill it…yet.
Paid daughter’s ACT prep test with son’s SPG Business card, getting closer to that 35k spg bang.
I have just one 1040 left to do, hooray!
Hi there,
I’m a German guy, also living in Germany.
Therefore, the transfer calculator is not applicable to me.
In general, it waters my eyes if I see what the Anglo Saxon colleagues and especially the US colleagues or the ones with a US SSN can get.
Taking the above differences in mind when reading all the blogs and posts worldwide, it is sometimes clear what I might get or not, but offen it is not so clear.
Thus, my question:
Would it be possible to add to offers, tools and all the travel hacking stuff a short paragraph, e.g.
Applicability: US or US SSN, worldwide, other?
Kind regards
Wigand
Wigand: Thanks for taking the time to comment. Very valid concern. I must admit I write my blog from my perspective in the US. I realize it is VASTLY different elsewhere, mainly because of cultural issues and the way our banks are run. But it is changing too to make them function more like everywhere else. Just as with guns, it is a VERY slow process.
I would assume everything is from a US SSN perspective here. I will try to get my intern to add disclaimers 🙂
Or you can get your employer to transfer you to the US for a few years, get an SSN, use the company address, leave and keep getting card signup bonuses. Another TBB reader has done exactly that, looking at you O..2 🙂
As Iearned all this travel hacking stuff only after my retirement, it’s too late now.
The US transfer would have been a really great option, if I had known all this before.
You are the second person I’ve ever met who’s into Dead Can Dance. The only other guy was back in high school a few decades ago.
I think there’s still some potential in the IHG program depending on the implementation of pointbreaks going forward. If you can buy IHG points for .5 cents per point, even a 10K/15K pointbreak can be a good deal (if not a great deal as in years past).
And George, you need to move down south, it’s in the 70s today in Charlotte. A few more chilly nights through the beginning of next week and then I’ll be transplanting my corn seedlings to the garden. Spring is here!
You are the fourth person who has heard of Dead Can Dance I meet 🙂
We don’t care about good deals man, only about great deals! And finding great deals is sooooo hard lately in this hobby!
Yeah, maybe the Michigan winters are finally getting to me. Can’t wait for Spring…it is REALLY pretty here!
I guess Avios are still a great deal… if you can find availability.
I recently used 50K points from that Merrill Lynch card signup to book tickets for my parents to Montreal for their anniversary. My former-French-teacher mom has never been. I’m happy for her. A great deal IMHO.
TBB
only great deals allowed 🙂
Happy Birthday John!
thanks Spuz
George, you wrote ” Hyatt stays through Ultimate Rewards transfers” has there been talk about Hyatt and/or ending this relationship?
I read a lot but nowhere near 316 feeds you mentioned. Keep up the great work.
Finally, do you have any restrictions to using your amazon like? Like JetBlue did?
There have been no rumors about ending that relationship and lets all pray nobody starts any!
No restrictions whatsoever now, click my Amazon link like your life depended on it!
Unless you fly JetBlue and can click the Amazon link within your TrueBlue account while in the air, LOL.
Plenti is dead. Like anyone cared!
You need am Annoying Blogs list!
And place the Live and Let’s Copy on it on the top!
Noted.
Well, where to start on a fabulous Friday on TBB?
Milenomics-deserves to be on a + list.
The gal in the Eiffel Tower photo should either put on some pantyhose or take off the sweater. Bonus miles for both.
A few years ago, I was at CDG for an overnight with a disc out in my back. Excruciating pain. We went to an Accor hotel out there and asked if we could please eat dinner in the bar so I could stand up since it hurt too much to sit down in the dining room. They said their rules did not allow that. Stay tuned folks and keep an eye out for karma on the move.
Wigan’s: You want to really water your eyes? Elect a dumbo leader like President big button. Then you can cry us a river.
State of the hobby: Apply for an IB card and we shut you down. Pay us an $89 fee for a hotel room out by the highway. Buzz got his last links back just in time.
I am still mad about that interview 🙂
And went with a big gap for a while and I thought they gave up…This blogging thing IS hard to pull off…consistently. Or maybe they need an awesome basement like mine lol.
I love the Tower pic 😉
Oh man Le Accor era is about to start, I need to go out with a FPC mega bang!
The state of the hobby is atrocious now. But you would never notice that by the big boys, always so cheerful and soooo eager to tell readers how to travel for free if…only they would click on a few more cards smh.
A last hurrah with the links. It won’t be long before I get carried away 🙂 Not like it matters much anyway these days.
Good old days are OVER!
The HERE in your ‘For the latest list with the credit card BEST OFFERS available with my links, click HERE. Updated 3/15/18.’ on the credit cards page links to a different blog post.
I just clicked it and it points to a COMMENT on a prior post and yes the last time that was updated was before they took my links away. I just have not gotten around to update it as I posted at the top of my post today. I have been busy, you know, tax season, 300+ blogs…
Give me a few days and will update that. SO many cc changes lately and I have no intern!
If you have any specific question ask here or email. We’ll give you the best answer. The cc salesmen will not bother or will respond with “GET BOTH” 🙂