We report sings of life with a short hello from FinCon16 conference in San Diego and the Marriott SPG merger news you should know & that’s it!
TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order!
Hello from beautiful San Diego where I am attending the FinCon16 conference. The San Diego Sheraton Marina hotel is okay. Best part about it is the view, and the fact I don’t have to try too hard to find my room after the late night parties by vendors! Other than that, the array of little annoying things about the hotel keep on coming…
Needless to say I don’t have much time to blog but I do keep up with the blogs in Feedly and have bookmarked some great content to be sharing with you…over the coming days…when I get to it.
For a while I intended to stop posting on Saturdays…well, it did not last long. But I do intend to make weekend posts much shorter and lighter. So…
I don’t know how other bloggers keep their blogs up when they are traveling.
I wanted to share some thoughts about this conference, the session with some bloggers I know in the “award travel” session and general thoughts about the hobby, blogging, life and whatever…but I am moving very slow due to a late night party last night. Thanks for the extra free drink coupons you guys, it was great gesture at the time, this morning…not as good!
Okay, I will say one thing about the “award travel” session. I did not learn a single thing, I was there wearing my TBB blog critic hat and taking notes. But many times during the session I found myself wondering “Wow, what amazing Titan online marketer skills, they really believe their own BS and, most importantly, getting the audience to believe them as well, wow!”.
In other news, I ask fellow attendees who they read about travel hacking and 9 out of 10 times they come back with “The Points Guy“. Which drives me into a fit of rage every time!
Okay, lets go on…The big news yesterday was that Marriott officially closed on the Starwood SPG purchase and, surprisingly fast imho, managed to greet us all with some good news allowing points transfers between the two programs in an okay ratio of 1 SPG point to 3 Marriott Rewards points. I am not sure what’s the big deal about it, I think the ratio is just okay. I was expecting it to be 1:2 so we have some time before 2018 when Marriott totally annihilates the SPG brand. So, some links about this big news below:
9 Things About Starwood and Marriott via Mile Nerd. Short and right to the point. All links you need and some interesting transfer angles to maximize your points. Based on your situation. I only have about 50k SPG points left and intend to burn them soon for another conference in San Diego in February because…this is what I do…I travel for free…for years now 🙂
Marriott SPG Complete Guide to Sweet Opportunities by Frequent Miler. Comprehensive.
Use SPG Points for the Southwest Companion Pass & 7 Nights by Running With Miles. If you have that many points to spare you should look into this for more details on how it works.
A Look At All SPG/Marriott/Ritz-Carlton Credit Cards – Do They Make Sense With The New Transfer Rates? (1:3 or 3:1) by Doctor of Credit. Very nice recap of the available credit cards…
Starwood’s Hospitality Legacy after the Marriott Merger by Skift. Yeah, they do leave a great one, many innovations and a great loyalty program too! RIP SPG, you were never good to me by the way, you always made me feel like you were doing me a favor letting me stay (for free) in your hotels…so good riddance, you deserve Marriott!
Marriott will end up with 30 brands, here they are explained. 30 brands is ridiculous, WTF!
In other totally unrelated news, I surprised my 14 year old daughter with concert tickets to Ariana Grande or whatever her name is (all I know is when her songs come on the radio I have to cover my ears!). Why? Because she has been saying for a long time “I have never been to a concert yet!”. But all the artists she likes are always sold out…so when I received an email by Amex because of my Platinum card with presale tickets for cardholders, I jumped on it and boom, floor tickets. Too much money but hey, once in a lifetime experience for her #bestdadever?
And I leave you with this…
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Buzz-
I recognize that survey on pot use. It’s the latest written test for a Colorado driver’s license.
Or something.
On another matter, did you ask Gary how cool it was to sit next to Daraius? Did Gary get to talk to him and all?
I hadn’t seen Darius with his beard before…looks even more douche-baggy for some reason (no offense to others with beards!)
The sings are alive…. Edelweiss and all.
Hello everyone, last day of conference, I am tired. Last party tonight…so I scheduled a short post for tomorrow. Because…I TBBon! #likeadrug