We bring you the newest Southwest Companion Pass changes, visit the best hotel bars and Asian temples, learn about unstoppable Amazon, see how the web browser market changed in the last 10 years, Delta adds SkyMiles Select, visit The Plaza hotel in NYC, climb Mount Olympus, see how many taxpayers maximized their contributions to retirement plans, get some IRA deadlines and stuff like that, get some new AA award sweet spots, learn more about sites like 10xtravel, get you a global internet map, a sober article about the New Zealand shootings, the best photos on the Web, burn miles to Svalbard and Moldova, warn you not to buy miles from blogs who never stop selling them, an update on the Plastic Merchant bankruptcy and more!
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Lets dive right in…
MILES & POINTS
Register for Marriott’s latest promotion. You get 2,000 points after your second stay between October 29 and January 14 and then….it will tell you how many more points you can earn in more stays. Never seen that before. Or maybe I have, I don’t remember! Marriott’s stigma of Bonvoy just stings!
Southwest, instead of killing the Companion Pass deal. keeps making it harder, Southwest to Increase Companion Pass Earning Requirement t0 125,000 points. This begins in 2020 and is “expertly” timed to hit their own customers expecting to complete it in early January. Instead of 110,000 points, they will now have to come up with another 15,000 points. I sincerely apologize if any readers who were planning to do that after getting the 80k Southwest Performance Business card. Out of my control you guys. At least, I did not attempt to sell you any Southwest points for my personal gain while hiding that fact in an obscure place in the website disclosures you will never find to read. In addition, Southwest points will no longer expire too.
Some American Airlines award sweet spots.
In exhibit #285,467 how Delta is always looking for ways to make you part with your money, they will now sell you SkyMiles Select for $59 per year. You get to board a little faster and 8 coupon drinks and, please sit down, a phucking Limited-Edition bag tag. Unreal!
TRAVEL
We like bars around here even though it is past our bed time to hit one lol. The best hotel bars around the world. I see lots of Four Seasons and Mandarin Oriental properties! Lame blogger insert: Which one have you visited? Which one is your favorite? Tell us in the comments!<—–obligatory exclamation mark to engage readers 🙂
This is an excellent Flyer Talk review of the famous The Plaza hotel in New York City. It is a Fairmont property and yes I have stayed in a suite for freeeeee!
Wow, I had no idea about these guys! How the First Mountaineers Climbed Mount Olympus in 1913. It was two Swiss citizens with their Greek guide whose occupation was wild goat hunter who did it. “Wild goat hunter”—->LOL.
Aerial photos of the most beautiful and craziest Asian temples.
PERSONAL FINANCE
There is some really good info here: Here’s how many workers are saving the maximum in their retirement plans. So, just a bit more than 4.6 million taxpayers took full advantage back in 2016. In my household we have done that EVERY year starting with our first real jobs! And yes back when we were getting started we were excited buying 10 ramen noodles for $1. Actually, sometimes we could get 12 for $1. So, we would not sacrifice the full 401k contributions and tax deductions. Hey, priorities! You can not believe what happened next lol.
Good summary here: Tax Deadlines, Contribution Limits For IRAs.
ODDZ & ENDZ
This is a Best of Web type story, wow. The Harrowing Hours and Defiant Aftermath of the New Zealand Mosque Shootings. Also note how fast their government was to take decisive action.
Serving you Best of Web type links today! Is Amazon Unstoppable? Excellent article about the company and how it is run. I have a friend who works there and loves it. Then again, he is an IT guy and not in a warehouse!
Another gem, only for you guys! How the web browser market has changed over the past 10 years. WOW! I am still holding on to the Firefox browser and will not let go!
Global Internet Map 2018. This is a HUGE map. You can adjust the sizing of it with the two buttons in the upper left corner. You can spend hours on it. I could be pumping stuff like “69 ways I love the ChaseSapphirePreferred card” or “BUY miles today with a X% bonus” to convert you but…that would not leave any time to find and bring you gems like this. So I do what I do. Je suis TBB!
What a moment!
BLOG BUZZ
We are now entering BLOG BUZZ, a section for advanced hobbyists and veterans of this fast imploding hobby and also a section where I go on and on about some stuff that happens in my life because it helps me feel better about myself.
Love obscure places. And getting there cheaply with miles, what it is really all about until the mega credit card pushers found out how flying to the Maldives and staying in luxury suites for “free” sure converts newbies to click on their credit card affiliate links to make money sneakily off of them. Hey, seat 2A will always sell more credit cards than seat 31b lol. Oh wait, here is the link, sorry I got a little carried away. Again. An Epic Redemption To Svalbard And Moldova.
STOP buying miles from links the commercial blogs push all the time! They do it because it makes them MONEY. I don’t do it because I am an idiot do not condone buying miles because we should travel for free because hey, that is what is all about, come on! Only in very limited circumstances when you can get a good deal AND you can burn them RIGHT AWAY! If you bought some Alaska Airlines miles in a “sale” recently to use this way, you have been played. Alaska Airlines Shows Us (Again) Why You Shouldn’t Buy Miles Without a Plan.
Stefan with his take on the sites like 10xtravel out there that do not attract any of us.
And an update on The Plastic Merchant bankruptcy!
Hey look! A helpful email from Award Wallet! Which is turning to yet another credit card sales machine, SAD!
At this point, it looks like the marathon is a no go. Which is extremely disappointing after all the hard training I have done. The left foot strain is not fully healed and in my frenetic attempts to heal it I iced it way too long and now I am dealing with very serious ice burns. Story of my life. Hope next two days a miracle happens but in the age of 50+ everything heals so much slower it is…SAD!
And I leave you with this…This is not good, not good LOL.
TBB
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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.
Flyertalk review of plaza link is directing me to the hotel bars article. Great posts otherwise and keep doing what you are doing!
Thank you, it is fixed now. If I had an intern for quality control lol.
Sorry about the marathon! Mr Time is not our friend.
Hey Buzz-
If someone was owed money by the Plastic Merchant guy and they did not list his debt on the Ch 7 filing, doesn’t that debt survive the bankruptcy? And if so, can’t that someone then go after the now-solvent Plastic Merchant?
you arent getting any blood from that rock
Amazon is gonna eat everything! Sorry about the marathon! Hello from Munich!
Carl, Were you there for Oktoberfest? (You’re missing our PNW rain, neighbor!)
@Bluecat No, just got here today from Verona. Next stops are Salzburg, Vienna and Prague before returning to Italy to Bologna, Naples, back to Bologna and then 6 weeks in Florence. Not sure after that. I don’t have a return ticket yet. Was in a deluge in Verona my first night and I don’t miss the weather back in the PNW at all right now!
Oh, for the sound of music or Mozart experience?
Or are you visiting the Eagle’s nest, Hiltlers summer camp (Kehlsteinhaus)?
That’s the thing about the end of the sound of music, when they escaped Austria at the end of the movie, they walked right over to Hitler’s summer residence.
@DML: Yeah, isn’t that the truth. The sad reality is…it is not going to get better!
@Sam: I have no idea about bankruptcies! I just choose not to go there 🙂 Anyone can respond?
@Carl: How did you get from Italy to Germany?
@Bluecat: I was in Munich Octoberfest in 1987 (or 1988). I have some pics. I will not post because if I ever run for public office they will come back to haunt me lol.
I was with an airline this week (London office) and they told me that a well-known aviation vlogger had been in. He wanted $10,000 to make a five minute segment for his YouTube channel.
(Arguably this is not a terrible deal, since the flight would have been 12 hours so the whole trip would be a week, and this person has a crew.)
More intriguing, however, was the visit from another blog. After pitching a package of PR, our man was told that – if he had been offered such a deal by their US site – it would have cost him $1 MILLION for a long term package of puff posts, over-enthusiastic flight reviews, CEO podcast, emailed special offers to newsletter subscribers etc.
Wow, thanks for the info.
I am going to post a job opening at the TBB Marketing Dept next 🙂
But they pay for their own tickets.
S.S.M#CHALLENGE
Follow Wolfgang, Rolfe and Dieter to see who can travel the furthest from the Fatherland with 50,000 Lufthansa Miles and 500 Deutsche Marks.
SPRECHEN SIE MILES, Europe’s #1 Point and Mile Blog #CHALLENGE
Guten Tag Mein Freunds
This is Dieter wit a S.S.M.#CHALLENGE UPDATE…..
It is day 1 and I am on the Autobahn on my way from Mainz to Baden Baden (so nice they named it twice).
Once there I will stop in Uncle Fritz’s Hofbräukeller n Grill for some SchnitzelGrueben with my gal pal Lili VonSchtĂĽpp (Blazing Saddles reference). We will finish the meal with some of Uncle Fritz’s Famous Spätzle flavoured Shave Ice.
Then off to the Gönneranlage Botanical Garden to find a park bench to spend the night on.
g
Great link to Seat31B – now I have some more places on my list!
I rarely buy miles but definitely only when I have a specific top-off need. Some of these bloggers would have folks buying them constantly on spec.
Making 2% on each sale is bueno for the bloggers!
2.5%
Hey George, we’re thinking of a RTW via ANA, Greece could be on the itinerary… but sadly we won’t have more than 5-7 days given PTO limitations + kids’ school. There seem to be so many options, I have no idea how to assess – any thoughts or recommendations on where to start? Kids love beaches but not sure about taking young eyes to some of them. We’d be flying from TLV I think, probably to ATH. Looks like it would be near end of trip so we’d probably be feeling quite poor by then.
What month?
How old are the kids?
Best site for travel to Greece:
https://www.greecetravel.com/index.html
Yeah…too many options
@usernamechuck, I’m going to put a plug in for Key Tours: cheap and efficient. Do an day or overnight tour with them to Mycaenae and maybe Olympia, a day trip to Hydra, and whatever is left in Athens.
I would take them to Epcot and WDW instead
haha – thanks guys. We did Disney this past summer, i think we’re good on that for a bit. We kind of have to go to Korea in the summer, and kids are really into Pokemon so feels like we should stop in Japan and once we’ve stopped there, why not Uzbekistan and Istanbul and Cairo. With ANA it’s really not that much more.
Kids will be 10 and 6. I saw Rhodes and thought it might be a good combination of elements. I guess would be mid to end July or mid August, depending on which direction we’d choose.
Thanks for any recommendation!
You are going at the PEAK of tourist season. And it will be hot as hell!
I still think Crete may be best as it combines many elements of what tourists are interested and has better airline and hotel options. There are some nice Marriott properties there too if you can risk getting Bonvoyed lol. There is an interesting Radisson property as well if you still have any of those points. And if you get sick of the beach go hike the Samaria Gorge
5-7 days for RTW with kids is insane. Flights alone will take you almost 3 days. Many would suggest Crete or Rhodes where you’ll get beaches and ruins. Santorini is extremely popular but not my kind of thing.
80 days used to be extreme.
Usually can’t go wrong with Crete. Has everything. One location to work into the itinerary.
Tbc, I meant 5-7 days in Greece… total trip would be ~1 month.
Thanks George – was dreaming of Crete before those properties got bonvoyed up. I’ll check it out again. Wife would not likely let us near anything called a “gorge” but the thousands of goats… that’s hard to find in the midwest.
Forgot who mentioned about the mystery/contradiction about younger people having less sex and contracting more STDs.
WSJ today:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/public-health-puzzle-young-people-having-less-sex-contracting-more-stds-11571391000?mod=itp_wsj&ru=yahoo
Site is protected from opportunists like me.
Guten Tag Mein Freunds
This is Dieter wit a S.S.M.#CHALLENGE UPDATE…..
It is day 1 and I am on the Autobahn on my way from Mainz to Baden Baden (so nice they named it twice).
Once there I will stop in Uncle Fritz’s Hofbräukeller n Grill for some SchnitzelGrueben with my gal pal Lili VonSchtĂĽpp (Blazing Saddles reference). We will finish the meal with some of Uncle Fritz’s Famous Spätzle flavoured Shave Ice.
Then off to the Gönneranlage Botanical Garden to find a park bench to spend the night on.
Bring Vaseline. I lost my second virginity to Franz in that park many years ago.
As for Spätzle flavored ice cream, that’s made up. Onkel Fritz used to serve Spaghettieis to bring all the kids to the yard. What happened?
Best line: “Then off to the Gönneranlage Botanical Garden to find a park bench to spend the night on.”
Are polls open to vote for you? 🙂
Thanks for pointing out Stefan’s insightful comment the other day; I had missed it.
I guess my only thought is that while I understand the role that Boarding Area serves at present (non-editorial, mostly technical/administrative), it still strikes me as surprising that a collection of the most influential voices in the traditional points community isn’t able to more directly leverage that influence (even, for instance, if it were just BA able to run its own landing-page link setup). A more assertive BA seems like it would be a real benefit to the community.
(And Stefan, if you read this, I hope my comment wasn’t taken as criticism: more than anything else, I simply find the existence of the more SEO-centric sites as fascinating, and definitely understand how a relationship with one can be a best case situation for you.)
Possibly some sort of record here from Points Miles & Martinis, which creates a blog post consisting of just 35 words (plus a cut-and-paste press release).
Duh, sorry: https://pointsmilesandmartinis.boardingarea.com/2019/10/marriott-to-acquire-elegant-hotels-group
Great to see some alternatives in BB. I’m still waiting for Hyatt to start building the Centric. The Courtyard just has an awful location. An expensive hotel without beach access in Barbados is insane. Assuming points are reasonable I will probably try out the Treasure Beach. A short walk on the beach will take my to Rihanna and Simon Cowell’s homes. Should be a better night than hanging out drunk Brits in St. Lawrence gap.
I never understood why PM&M is still around…
In Ann Arbor, the student newspaper is the only newspaper. Sad!
Facebook and Putin are winning. Zuck should have “killing newspapers“ on his mission statement.
https://t.co/ngEBdI2UFd?amp=1
It is really sad. Maybe that is why so many support Trump smh.