TravelBloggerBuzz

An eclectic journey through the Travel Miles/Points blogosphere

Skymiles Business to Europe, Alaska Awards, Qasr Al Sarab

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We show you how to take the family using Delta Skymiles Business Class to Europe, how to get Alaska Airlines Awards, travel to magnificent Qasr Al Sarab & more.

 

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

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This is blog post 1,001. Wow! Hey to Rick Frugal Travel Guy, you were a little off my blog was going to join the dead after three months max! #winning

Use these routes for plenty of Business Class space with your crappy Delta Skymiles.

Use Alaska Airlines miles to book award travel outside North America. Alaska’s loyalty program is the best one left out there. Just wondering how long before they step in line with the others…

Get Free GoGo Wifi with these cards. A good reminder how to get these. Well, the poor intern could use some money instead of worthless stock options so consider getting any credit cards in my site or I ‘ll start doing “Best 10 cards for ____” posts 🙂

Must read before you travel to Ulaanbataar, Mongolia.

Are you sure you want to travel and blog? Maybe not after you read this blog post. Or is this the new way to to get more publicity?

MUST Read! David Bowie’s Death Itself Was a Science Fiction Masterpiece. Indeed. #RIPDavidBowie

Another must read personal finance blog post: Probably Everything You Need to Know About Bear Markets

This Symmetry-Filled Instagram Will Satisfy Every Perfectionist’s Soul. The pictures are incredible!

10 Hotels to Stay Before You Die.

The Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort in Anantara, Abu Dhabi.
The Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort in Anantara, Abu Dhabi.

Something to ponder…via Jason Zweig:

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And I leave you with this…

https://twistedsifter.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/happy-new-year-yall-9.gif
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Comments

  2. PedroNY says

    Nicely done on 4-digits of posts, thank you!

    Boredpanda images are just mind blowing! Very nice.

    Cheers,

    PedroNY

      • smittytabb says

        My room is huge and is not on the water, but I have a partial ocean view out my window because I am on the top floor end of the hall. No upgrade to business class room. Might be worth paying the extra points for the ocean view and balcony. I used a global cert and points for my nights. There is a nice restaurant and bar on the water. The rand is at a record low with the dollar so even the most expensive items on the menu are about $15 and a glass of house wine is $3. Had a nice local curry for dinner and it was superb. Used Aeroplan miles to get here in biz on United to GRU and then on South African to JNB & CPT. I had a good experience on all the flights, but I am not one of these who needs the luxury first with caviar experience. I just want to lie down and sleep and be fed a decent meal

  5. Surveymaniac says

    Need RAMSEY to riff on this:

    I am getting so fed up with the emails I’m getting every day now that are SURVEYs asking “How did we do?”. I get them from Amazon, my broker, Amex, a hotel stay…every phreaking time I have ANY interaction with a company, they want me to take a short survey(yeah, right!!)

    Every phone call to a bank wants to know if “I’ll take a short survey afterwards, so stay on the line”.

    Even Websites are hitting me with that damn pop-up asking if I can take a survey. Hell no.

    I have started to reply to email surveys telling them to buzz off. The phone surveys I always say YES to (as in, YES, I will stay on theline) just in case the CSR knows I did that and will be nicer to me. 🙂

    Anyone else HAD it with these surveys? Please let us know what you think! (See what I did there?)

    Seriously, I will go Postal. Unless Ramsey (or Mile Nerd) will help me get all cathartic about it….!!

    • Helmholtz says

      LOL – it’s a vicious circle. the more surveys they send out, the fewer people respond, so the more surveys they need to send out.

      • Miles, Points and Pesos for the Man on the Run says

        EL Chapo here, Ramsey has Montezuma’s Revenge and has been sitting on el toilet bowl in El Bano all dia (I think i will bust in and get a picture to post of him)….. So he asked me, El Chapo to answer your request Senor Surveymaniac…………….Yes these surveys are a pain in the ass, and since I cannot have one of my gringos “teach them a lesson” it is very frustrating. I also hate any other type of pop up ads that start when I am checking my stocks or watching my porn online……………..Even worse Senor, are the forced to be by their employer, overly friendly people working at the USBank or the Fred Meyer or Safeway supermarket who want to know not only how i am doing but if I have any plans for the day or weekend. I hate that! They just asked the 2 customers in front of me the same thing………I always tell them something to blow their mind. example uno…”How are you doing today asked the cashier?” answer uno… “Not too bueno, my hemorrhoids are killing me and I have an appointment today with the Proctologist to see if he can stop the bleeding.” …..this is a great way to eliminate unnecessary and unwanted conversation. example numero dos…”Any big plans this weekend?” asked the USBank driveup worker as I was deposited my stacks of 100’s. answer dos very simple…..”Lots of oral sex” that usally works well to keep the conversation short.
        So sorry I cannot help you on the survey thing, I am sure Ramsey will get his intern Kumar right on it. Via con Dias, El Chapo.

        • Miles, Points and Pesos for the Man on the Run says

          Almost forgot, how about when you are checking out of Staples or other stores and the cashier circles something on the receipt and tells you that you can win $$ if you call and answer the survey………………Sorry Lady, “I have too many IHG contest envelopes to fill out for that nonsense.”

        • Surveymaniac says

          El Patron, I just made a note to myself to never eat a Rice Crispy treat while reading your musings…nearly choked after reading about your hemorrhoids idea. (I knew hemorrhoids had to be good for *something*!)

          Safeway at 6AM is the worst offender. I am groggy looking for the damn eggs and get bombarded by those guys who are blocking the aisles with boxes, stocking the shelves. Everyone says “Hello and GOOOOOD Morning!” Aurgh! Please send one of your men to Safeway to take care of that.

          THank you, El Chapo. Your post made my day.

    • TBBFeeback says

      Thanks for being a loyal reader with us for 1,001 posts! Would you kindly please reply below with any helpful feedback, comments and criticisms that we can use to improve your experience with our blog?

  7. Rick I says

    George, Congratulations on “Copy Paste and Whine” post #1001

    1. No original content (just copy and paste)
    2. No readership to speak of. (maybe 10 followers) Certainly can’ break that Alexa number you’ve been trying to for 3+ years
    3. No income stream to speak of $2.11?
    4. Delusionally says the site is ad free adjacent to the Amazon ad and constant pumping of links for credit cards.
    5. One recommendation from another 100K + Alexa ranking blog?

    Nah, George. I was right. Your blog died the day you started demeaning others and trying to sell the hobby on your expertise.

    The only guy #winning with this blog is your therapist. Now that guy is making Bank on You

    Stay Angry and Whiney my friend

      • Old Man Ingy says

        Now that’s funny. According to google analytics, the increasing number of email subscribers and revenue stream each month it seems they are doing just fine 🙂 In fact a different world than the 107 subscribers here and $2.11 income days. All I can figure is the QUALITY and credibility George talks about is in regards to the blogs he copies and pastes. Nothing original here. But keep coming back. I’m sure things will get better. Why just last week he instituted no Saturday posts so things are looking better already 😉

        • John says

          rick you know tbb has more than 107 readers. you also know that nobody other than brand new noobs to the community care about FTG. it has been that way for years. it’s a dying old relic. kind of like you rick. you diss TBB about content but FTG has not had 1 unique piece of information in years. there is nothing special about it or you. everyone knows why you come to these comments. you don’t have enough conversation at FTG to keep you busy. too bad the money didn’t make you a happier or nicer person. must be embarrassing to be so old and so immature. oh well keep that smug smile on your face. what a waste of space. and keep talking about alexa rankings. senior citizens thinking they know tech is funny. all the non-sellout blogs the community reads don’t manipulate numbers. only blogs trying to make big ad money care about alexa toolbars and claiming alexa pages. bloggers like you look at those numbers. only old and unintelligent people think they are accurate. how insecure are you? i am a tech with a comp science degree and would never look at alexa and think it was real. you are a joke man.

          • TravelBloggerBuzz says

            Full disclosure: The troll has looked at this blog’s Alexa ranking numbers more than me and my intern….and he has sooooo much time in his hands. Woohoo!

            Thanks for taking the time read and comment like this #respect

          • Old Man Ingy says

            You may think you are a tech guy but you don’t read very well. A “subscriber” is someone who subscribes to something like George’s email list. He posted that number I didn’t. And such anger? I’m just calling it the way the majority of hobbyists see it. It is George with limited readership, email subscribers and revenue stream even though he pumps and begs for click more than all others combined. If he had a significant readership, with all the pumping he does he wouldn’t be posting about earning $2 per day. I’m just stating the obvious as disclosed by your pumper and paster. Of course I guess you could be right. Maybe his readership is underage for credit cards or has dismal credit and can’t support his blog? But they follow him in droves? Anyway thanks for the laugh. Have a nice day.

            Hey George. Have you ever figured why they don’t support you?

          • Old Man Ingy says

            Learn to read first. George indicated he had 107 “subscribers” not me

            Have a nice day

  8. Mike says

    Another great entry today Buzz, and thank you, just think if I had to comb through dozens of blogs to find out the best stories and information ?

    This is what we call a “curated” site, only the best for TBB subscription members !

    I wonder how long that award space with SkyDrachmas is going to last now that it has been trumpeted out on the internet. That is the nature of the game however, isn’t it ?

    Congrats on hitting 1001, I’ve only been here a couple of months I think (?) but enjoy reading every day.

    Keep up the good work !

    😀

    PS. Just learned from Amex that if I don’t take the card Amex offers to replace my Costco card, I will need to specifically transfer the account to another (eg. my 100K Rewards Points offer?) IN ORDER FOR ANY EXTENDED WARRANTY coverage provided by Amex purchase to continue ! ! ! (Did you guys know that already ?)

    • TravelBloggerBuzz says

      Thanks for the kind words. again.

      Please excuse this Rick I dude. He is the Founder of Frugal Travel Guy. In the older TBB days he used to troll my site daily in the comments. If you are bored, go back and whenever you see more than 50 comments in a post it is primarily due to his trolling. Entertainment at its finest TBB form! Excuse his whining, he is just jealous my site is still around & so much better in QUALITY & credibility 🙂

      Regarding the Amex warranty…that makes sense I think. Thankfully, I never had to use it as I don’t keep them more than a year usually 🙂

      I don’t expect the Delta Business space to last…it’s probably gone by now 🙂

      P.S. Never had a therapist but I can refer out to some if anyone needs it, cough. No referral credit expected bwahahaha.

      • Andy Shuman says

        In fairness, I wrote the first post about Delta Biz availability back in November 2014, and also a whole series of posts since then. It’s a good thing no one reads my tiny little blog because availability is still intact after more than a year and beats AA and United with a very long stick. 🙂

        I expect it will remain intact, although I also expect the 62.5K level to Europe to die soon. We’ll probably see the new 75K level, the same atrocity they did for South America.

  10. JamaicanReefer says

    Alaska the Gold. Why doesn’t BoA like me any longer? When you book a trip, layover seems to have minimum rules. I’m almost scared to post it as it can be exploited by the trolls here and once they post it on their $ blogs, it will die soon. Schedule a trip, call in, and easily get a few days layover in a connecting city therefore giving your trip an extra destination!

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