TravelBloggerBuzz

An eclectic journey through the Travel Miles/Points blogosphere

Short blog update and Gems from the Comments, May 24 – May 31, 2014

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Welcome to the weekly feature where we dive into the hundreds of comments and pick out the ones you should not have missed.

 

TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order

 

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I am working on a very long post about the latest mega credit card sales job that our favorite mega bloggers pumpers have been unleashing to our space. What I started as a joke inserting my insightful and a bit snarky commentary on each of these pump posts sometime on Thursday just kept going and going and going. TBB resembled the energizer bunny, no joke! So, as you may have noticed, the Chase Ink, Freedom and then Amex SPG pump posts kept coming so…TBB (never to be accused of being lazy) kept going! Then I said, to heck with it. This post of mine when I publish it will make Marathon Man change his name to 5k man, I am serious! So, I will take it to the end of the amazing Chase Ink card promo, which sources deep inside the murky bank institutions tell me it is supposed to be sometime in the afternoon on Sunday June 1st. If it gets extended, at this point, I will finally get angry. I warn you all, you don’t want to get TBB angry hehe.

Welcome Mommy Points to the world famous TBB “Blogs I Ignore” list. After the latest sales job she did during this promo I would like to apologize to my readers for not including this blog to this list earlier. Of course I do read all the blogs in my Ignore list. I called the list Ignore because it sounded MUCH better than the name I wanted to give it 😉

I plan to post the MEGA rant post on Tuesday morning. To the readers who have kindly offered pro bono legal services, please be on standby! To the few bloggers who are known “fans” of the blog, please take your meds before reading it as I am worried about your safety as always. To the rest of my readers, enjoy it because it is REAL. No banking institution too big to fail looked at it, read it, or approved it. So, be a little patient until Tuesday.

I think next blog project is I should look into starting an email subscriber list. I think I will go with Mailchimp. When I get around to it. World Cup is coming so I may be even busier watching all the games.  I think I will insert my expert commentary about each game here. Why not? It’s my blog and I can do what I want!

Ok, on to some awesome comments from the TBB Section! I may insert my own commentary in [brackets].

 

violence protester sign
Love this, so so deep…I wonder if he is angry lol. Found here

 

 

 

From the May 24 post:

bluecat: Finally remembered to use your link. I wonder how much commission you will make from my humungous 4 dollar purchase. Don’t go crazy with your windfall! :-)   [ Had trouble spending so much! Good problem to have I guess 🙂 Gracias! ]

Dr. Peter Venkman: Best name of a restaurant in Portland is a Vietnamese Soup place in Beaverton called…………. PHO KING GOOD……………..say it fast. It lives up to it’s name, no joke.   [ Hey, is there anything good at Pho King Good ? LOL]

TBB: [how to get tweets on your cell phone from select accounts you follow]

Go to your own account Settings. Click on ‘Mobile”. Enter your smart phone number. You may need to verify it by taking an action (replying to a text).
Then, go to the specific follower you want:
http://www.twitter.com/theflightdeal
To the left of the big “Following” Button, you will see symbol that looks like a Sun. Click on it.
Click on “Turn on mobile communications”

From now on, TheFlightDeal tweets come to your phone PRONTO. No need to scan your follower lists who has time for dat?

 

From the May 26 post:

Erik: …Apparently, in communist Romania you spent most of your life waiting in line for the most common things that you and I take for granted. And they might wait for hours only to get close to their turn and…the store ran out. They told stories about swapping places in line with their father so he could go to work, etc. It was really neat to hear something you’ve read about from someone who experienced it firsthand. To think Ceaușescu was building a crazy palace while his people were just a few shortages away from starving – no wonder they executed him when they got the chance.

Andy Shuman: While it’s always comforting to believe that justice was served, the reality is that Ceausescu and his wife were convicted and speedily executed by his former henchmen, probably to prevent him from talking too much. Not that he didn’t deserve that, of course.

Dr Peter Venkman: Based on my many years of study and research at the Art VanDelay Institute in Vienna, Switzerland, I can say with all certainty that Ceaușescu was both an Asshole and a Douchebag…

Steve: When i first pontificated about how bloggers would faux-obsess over SQ being added as a UR partner, even I underestimated how bad it would get.

The same people who are lauding this as the biggest story of the 21st century, because of Singapore’s amazing availability on their own metal are the ones who are doing “test runs” of how long it takes to transfer (or in Gary’s case, multiple test runs. Because you know, 1 just isn’t enough). Of course, if the availability is even half as good as they are gushing about, the transfer time isn’t all that important since it will likely be available anyways

It’s just a matter of time before self-proclaimed “regular” people like MommyPoints books a suites class trip just so they can write a trip review about it…. and then “remind” us how we too can book it (starting with the Chase cards, and then possible “oh by the way, all the MR cards and SPG Amex too” fine print)

 

From the May 28th post:

The common man: The Pointbreaks list was simply an excuse to trot out the UR cards – “here is how you can quickly earn points by applying to these cards”.

I don’t even remember the last time I read beyond the headline at most of these blogs – thank you for reading them for us! [ Thank you for understanding 🙂 ]

Steve:“FTG travel challenge: how to stay at Holiday Inns on a 2 week road trip”

Here are the top options to have a 2 week roadtrip at IHG hotels as per FTG:
1) Open a 60K Ink Bold card, enough for 12 pointsbreak nights
2) Open a 60K Ink Plus card, enough for 12 pointsbreak nights
3) Open up CSP, enough for 8 pointsbreak nights (not even factoring in the WOW!!!! 3X DINING ON FIRST FRIDAYS!!!!)
4) Buy points at .7 cents each using the C&P trick – buy it with the CIB, CIP or CSP
5) Open up a Barclays Arrival – the signup bonus can get you 20 free nights at the roach motel Tallahassee airport
6) Screw IHG, here is the Radisson credit card (but only the 1 that pays me commission)
7) US Airways card, just because
8) Chase Ink Bold and Plus – DID I MENTION 60K!!!!! HURRY!!!!!
9) Chase adds Singapore as UR partner. Wait, what are we talking about again?
…..
…..
…..
…..
412,851) Open up an IHG credit card

[TBB Editorial Board; This is meant to be satire. Just in case anyone thinks it meant to cause harm or angry things of that sort]

Ramsey: BUZZ, this post reminds me of TBB in the good ole days…..a blog by blog mini review exposing the greed! Welcome Back my friend, my eyes are filled with tears of joy.  [ have plenty to wipe your eyes on Tuesday morning #hint]

Steve: was about to submit a review for the Park Hyatt Maldives under my pen name Gary L and I think it would’ve been a strong contender for his contest

“I stayed at the Park Hyatt for 5 days last month. I am a Hyatt Diamond as it is my favorite chain so that I can get Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes a couple of times a year. While the premises is phenomenal, and as close to being worthy of my presence as any hotel, I found a few issues that I want to elaborate on. Firstly, the seats on the seaplane only had coach. That’s unacceptable for a resort which people shell out thousands to stay by (never mind that I didn’t actually pay thousands). Secondly, I specifically requested from the hotel to have 52 bottles of water waiting for me upon my arrival but when I got there, I only counted 48. Next, I saw other guests at the hotel checking the internet on their phones despite being at a remote resort. Who does that on vacation? I immediately whipped out my phone, took a picture of them using their phone, and uploaded it to the internet. Seriously, how ridiculous are those people. Thirdly, there were only 4 outlets by the desk, 7 around the bed, 3 in the bathroom, and 2 more near the lamp. How is one supposed to charge their laptop with so few outlets? The meals at the hotel were ok, but I was dissapointed that i was able to pronounce all the menu items. I’m a food connoisseur. Don’t believe me? Just ask me. While I do plan to return, I would hope that the manager on premises would next time have me teach all the guests there what they are and aren’t supposed to do on vacation. Ok, now time for me to go check whether the 43rd transfer I made from UR to SQ miles went through”

 Andy: Keep up the humor. I fell off my treadmill laughing so hard. Hurt my ankle but whatever.  [ Please, please don’t hurt yourself!]

Brian: [MVP POST OF THE WEEK!]

There is a reason why “spam” pervades all over the Internet.
It is because people patronize them.

There is a reason why telemarketers solicit people via the telephone.
It is because people patronize them.

There is a reason why “bloggers” keep pumping credit cards.
It is because people patronize them…

…and it is because they keep getting attention.

As long as that happens, it will never stop.

 

From the May 30 post:

THE CHASE MARKETING MACHINE: IT HAS COME TO OUR ATTENTION THAT SOME OF YOU HAVE ONLY ONE CHASE INK CARD. THIS IS UNFORTUNATE. WHY NOT GET A SECOND CARD? PLEASE REPORT TO BOARDINGAREA.COM FOR MORE DETAILS.  [ Should I be honored that the Chase Marketing Dept is here posting? So was Ludicrous last week, please come back! ]

R_y: …Compare Gary’s “financial incentive” admission to the statement from OMAAT in his Kickstarter appeal wherein he says:

“Unless you’re into falconry, have maids’ quarters in your home, your private jet is being repaired, and qualify for one of the “special” titles when signing up for an Etihad Guest account, chances are you can’t afford it. And I sure as hell can’t.”

The “and I sure as hell can’t” line is a blatant lie; Ben can absolutely afford to pay cash for that flight with his multiple hundred thousand dollar income (apologies if it has hit 7 figures this year; no offense meant). That was terribly misleading and similar to one of MMS’s favorite lines: “Emily and I could never afford to travel like this without miles and points.” OH, YES YOU COULD…but not without your affiliate links.

TWA44: …Some may call us angries, but I must say I really like and admire nearly all the commenters here. As a group, not only are you creatively funny and superior satirists, but you know about things like allo-preening and the correct term for the calendar we follow. Kudos all around  [ I love all of you here. This confession was not sponsored by American Express lol]

Steve: Gentlemen, start your engines!

The Chase Freedom affiliate link is officially live! Now they can start blogging about it, and not pretend that the offer was up yesterday

Gary was surely holding out on today’s Chase filler post until the link went live. Now that it did, he can post a recycled Freedom post where he “reminds” us how to get the most value of it….

james: STOP THE PRESSES! Inside Flyer just broke the news about the La Quinta Visa – 20,000 points after first spend, 2 room upgrade certificates with Gold status (there are upgrades at La Quinta?) and another 20,000 points with $10k spend. 20,000 points is almost enough for a free night at the La Quinta Inn and Suites Secaucus (Meadowlands)! Could this be the new ink bold?  [ Oh for love of God….If I could have my hands on this affiliate link….PURE GOLD if you ask me, sells itself!]

dr eveil myers hip son
Dr Evil, my favorite. Insert evil hehe. Found here

 

Check out my updated blog lists: Blogs I Love, Blogs I Like, Blogs I Ignore

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TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com

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Filed Under: TBB

Comments

  4. P says

    Lots of LOLs in the comments. Love the protester’s sign.

    Glad to see MommPimp inducted into the Pimpers Hall of Shame. Should just put all of Boarding Area there as Honorary Pimps – ’cause they are all wannabes.

    • John says

      The other guy is going to come back saying how appalled he is by you calling her a pimp

      I don’t understand how can some lemmings still click on her links.

      • TJ says

        I’d prefer that language weren’t used. Isn’t “internet credit card marketer” bad enough as it is?

  5. Steve says

    Remember when Ingy was taunting us on the blogs a few days ago about how he was very excited to pimp the upcoming SPG 30K offer because he’ll only have to compete with 2 other bloggers this year?

    LOL

  6. TravelBloggerBuzz says

    @ Helixcardinal: Oh no, Helix is back. First is locked up pretty much now…

    @ Phxbne: just added more entries in the mother of all posts. I will do my best to publish it on Tuesday, I need to polish it a little bit after consulting the TBB Legal Dept lol. One day I will get to that email list…sorry I move slow, too much time spent on Feedly and definitely not doing commercial friendly things around here lol.

    @ Brian: That was MVP as soon as you clicked “Post Comment”. Short and right on point.

    @ P: I do not like saying or reading the word pimp. I think we will all definitely appreciate it if you stop using it. Thanks. TBB Management P.S. We prefer “pump”.

    @ John: This weekend was way too much. My sterling reputation was on the line. I feel good about my decision. I still like her as a person and hope she does not take me off her Facebook friends. I stick with blog reviews. If I was after the money I would be getting interviews or guest blogging or commenting on all the Boarding Area blogs 😉

    @ Steve: Yes! I wish Chase goes the same route at some point to spare us all the carpet bombing. This Sunday morning is all MMS and TPG being very helpful answering the “right” questions which, inexplicably, always involve a barrage of affiliate credit card links. I keep adding to the mega rant post. I think I should look to hire bodyguards!

  7. james says

    Great. You just spilled the beans on instant tweet notification. I’ll never be first now. DEAL KILLER!!!!!!!

  9. Elenor says

    “So, be a little patient until Tuesday.”

    ACK! Do you know just how far away Tuesday IS?!?!
    You evil tease!

  10. Ramsey says

    I wasn’t looking forward to this Tuesday ( my colonoscopy appointment ) but now I can’t wait to wake up and run to the computer (like a little boy looking for toys on Christmas morning)……..Buzz if I don’t make it through the procedure and you don’t hear from me for a while, contact my wife, you are in my will…..pss Doc Venkman says thanx for the shoutout above.

  11. TravelBloggerBuzz says

    @ james: I kill deals. For Amazon clicks. I am a horrible person. Search on google to find out what is a “google alert”? 🙂

    @ Elenor: Keep checking here to build up my traffic so some for profit business will seriously inquire about buying a banner ad. #briliantplanIFitworked!

    @ Ramsey: I need to call my doc for another colonoscopy appointment myself but been avoiding it for a few years now. I am honored you are in your will. I guarantee some bloggers will NEVER ever think of something like that. We can’t wait to see your next Avatar 😉

  12. Nguyen says

    For a very long time, I have not seen/read anything that can affect my “feeling.” Looking forward to your next Tuesday’s post and will have my “meds” ready 🙂 Thanks

  13. Jeff says

    Seemed like I missed quite a few comments in the previous post. TBB holds a special place in my list of blogs, so I felt compelled to address them:

    You’re happy to call me an asshole, douchebag, or any derogatory term you would like, when it’s clear that you’ve made biased judgements from online hearsay. And I am right – it is completely within the consumer’s options to file a DOT complaint against an airline. I obviously don’t like what has happened with the routes, but the removal of those routes was not something I had expected. If the non-cabotage routes hadn’t been removed, I wouldn’t hesitate to file again. If I knew that the non-cabotage routes would be removed I might not have. But it wasn’t something I expected.

    Have any of you actually use the tricked routes that were removed?

    Lifemiles wasn’t fined, for your information. Also, Lifemiles didn’t fix a lot of routes, but it was rather a schedule realignment from IATA/Amadeus which removed a lot of married segments LH/LX/etc. I wasn’t directly responsible for this, but I can’t deny my complaint had no effect at all. Also, I’m not of drinking age in the USA or where I live, for that matter.

    I would have addressed individual comments, but then they’re scalding for me to touch, because I would get burned.

    • Sam says

      Within your rights? Are you really that thick?

      It’s also “within your rights” to bomb away away methods of MS but don’t expect people to love you for it. This isn’t about “rights” this is about killing valuable boomerangs out of pure and unmitigated selfishness.

      Your comment proves that you are a douchehole.
      Wag of the finger at TBB for not putting more focus on the damage you’ve singlehandedly caused.

  14. Sam says

    I have a friend who wants to go to Mars. Can anyone advise him which credit card would help most…….

    Oh, wait a minute. Wrong blog.

    Never mind.

  15. Richard Blaine says

    TBB you are such a hypocrite adding MP to the Ignore list. Totally caving to the feeding frenzy masses you cater to.

    You always said that there was a difference between the worst of the bunch, who gave bad advice, pumped inferior offers, and didn’t disclose their financial relationships and the blogs that had simply been tinged with commercialism.

    But your actions don’t show it. There’s no way she should be lumped in with MileValue who gives out the worst possible advice, promotes bad offers, and doesn’t provide adequate disclosure. Or Deltapoints, who like Milevalue also deletes comments. Or a shill like TPG who mails it in by hiring a staff to screen scrape the bloggers who do put together original content (whether they mix it up with credit card informercials or not).

    Do your standards matter, or don’t they? MP doesn’t belong on your ‘like’ list (DD doesn’t either, by the way). But there’s no way she belongs on your ignore list based on what you CLAIM to have set out to do with this blog.

    • ABC says

      @Richard Blaine,
      You clearly make the argument why MV, TPG and DP should be on that list. I suggest that you make a factual argument as to why MP shouldn’t be on the list beyond saying that she’s not like “them”. Then you can proceed with name calling.

      • TravelBloggerBuzz says

        @ Richard Blaine:

        See what I placed in bold font in the Ignore list page:

        level of aggressive selling/credit card pushing

        My Tuesday post will clearly show what MP blog has managed to do.

        TBB Editorial Board agonizes long and hard when we place a new blog on the lists!

        Here are the Yellow Cards (warning in soccer terms):

        DansDeals (go from Like to, well, nowhere)
        Frequent Miler (go from Ignore to Like)
        View from the Wing (go to Ignore)
        One Mile at a Time (go to Ignore)

        I agree on you on your argument re: MV, TPG and DP

        But you know what, I am not making a fourth list. It’s too much work already handling three.

        And don’t give my list too much influence. They mean almost nothing in terms of affecting credit cards apps. They are meant mainly to comfort my inner psyche that I am contributing something positive to my dear hobby and lifting its overall quality. Or something like that…

        Thanks for your thoughts. My readers are smart.

        Maybe I should rate the Ignore list. From Worse to Better…MP will be at the bottom. Hope that makes you and her feel better.

      • TravelBloggerBuzz says

        I am not sure she encourages “people to take debt”. She just stated the fact that the Plus allows to carry a balance. In fact, I use this excuse all the time to get an Ink Plus…Chase LOVES to hear it hehe.

    • TravelBloggerBuzz says

      What I understood about aweber is that it is more techie. Plus I believe it is not free. I have heard Mailchimp is a little easier to use (not as strong in advanced features…but I don’t have time to learn those anyway). And it is free for up to a pretty high number of subscribers. At the rate I go I will have this done…by Christmas! Thanks.

  17. It's me says

    Hey TBB you are being called out again by your stalker, DP. He’s ranting over at the OMAAT Kickstarter thread on FT.

  19. MilesAbound says

    Glad to see MP move to her deserved place. This lady claims Aspen is good for family ski trips because Amex pays for her to go there.

    Anyway all of you I HIGHLY recommend you do what I just did. I just wiped out all these shitty blogs from my Feedly. MP, OMAT, VTFW, MMS, TPG all gone. No more “fake Sunday reader question so I can make a video of me in some hotspot selling you Chase cards”. No more “the only thing I love more than my kid is a Chase commission”. No more “I am a big intellectual and post every 5 minutes my opinion on something because I always gotta be in your face to sell you Chase cards”. No more “Chase pays me hundreds of thousands a year, I’m a young, single with no obligations, and yet I still want YOU to pay for my next extravagant trip”. No more 30 part trip reports. Oh wait I’ve started writing them myself. Strike me from your feedly too!!!

    But seriously my enjoyment has gone up tremendously. Now my feedly has nothing but decent content in it. Hell stress levels have gone down! I really think you should just stop reading it, you really will feel better 🙂

    • TravelBloggerBuzz says

      Definitely a gem of a comment! Such a gem in fact that I may even add it to tomorrow’s mega rant…oh, I need to polish and finish it by tonight.

      I am back to no longer clicking on this crap as I did the past four days to make some points in my post tomorrow. Life is not worth clicking on this crap.

      For example: MMS Best of May 2014….and proceeds to drop a carpet bomb link attack to all of the May post. Uuugh!

    • Mike says

      I deleted MMS, FTG & MP from feedly a couple months ago and haven’t missed a thing. A few others are close to getting the ax.

  20. It's me says

    Yeah, BA is crap. I only read Wandering Aramean by going directly to his blog. I avoid the rest. I am reading Saverocity now as well as Travel is Free, Travel-Summary and basically a few other
    George, I really want to thank you as all the above are blogs I didn’t know about until I starting reading your blog.
    I use to go over to BA a lot during the day. The beg-a-thon by Ben was the last straw. Then to find out what they make from referrals and he still wants others to pay for his trip on a product that not one of them would ever go on. Unbelievable,
    Looking forward to your rant. I hope DP and FTG (the guys) have their meds ready.

    • TravelBloggerBuzz says

      You are missing out on the “copy” jobs between View from the Wing and One Mile at a Time:

      One writes about the “conditions” in UAE, the other follows up.
      One writes about a burger in First Class, the other follows up.

      You just can’t make this stuff up…

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