We go on a wild ride through the Starwood SPG Hot Escapes, read a very funny post involving Lufthansa’s Plucky, learn how to do 6 awesome Stopover Tickets, check out an awesome infographic about Tourist Scams, visit Iran and North Korea, learn about Investing Truths, and I hit the wall with so much Credit Card Pimping Overload!
TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order
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MILES/POINTS
Note: The F2B Seattle Sessions ticket has been claimed, the winner has been informed and am awaiting confirmation by the donor and the winner to arrive shortly. Thank you to all who emailed. I numbered all the entries and told my daughter to pick a number so blame her if you didn’t win 🙂 Hope & expect to be a positive and fun experience for all. And thank you much for the winner for generously donating the ticket! TBB reader TWA44 is willing to part with her own ticket at a negotiable discount, please email me or approach her in the comments!
Loyalty Lobby has all the Starwood SPG Hot Escapes for the next six weeks (must book by July 26, 2014). Some pretty good rates…
Very funny post at Hack My Trip by Devil’s Advocate: Will a Certain Fellow Blogger Please Calm Down About Lufthansa?. Loved the well mannered funny digs here! Plucky lol.
I am not bothering with any current Thank You Points credit card yet, I find all of them not worthy of taking action. Same with Marriott. Still upset since they banned porn in hotel rooms, just kidding lol! If there is a major hotel company I never cared for it is Marriott! It has been several years since I had their credit card. I could go for them again as I am running out of cards but…just can’t seem to take action as I have plenty of hotel points. I think I am, deep down, boycotting them for the insane devaluations and elite requirements. Sometimes you need to take a stand!
Many got some extra 10k Chase Ultimate Rewards by copying my Secured Message to Chase in yesterday’s post. That’s great to hear! 70k Chase Ultimate Rewards points…that’s what I am talking about! Go to a local Chase branch near you…you do have a Chase banking account right?Not sure how Chase does it but they do a great job delivering a pretty good service and them points 🙂
6 Unbelievable Stopover Tickets. By Travel Is Free. Some great ideas here as usual. If I only had the time…
TRAVEL
Biggest Tourist Scams Travelers Need to Watch Out For. Fantastic infographic! Click my Amazon link above 🙂 [Just wanted to see Delta Points get upset calling me a pimp lol]
Miracles Around Us. Stunning video “beautiful reminder of all of the amazing, miraculous, things that are taking place around us as we travel across our planet. The scenery is breathtaking, and the narration is thought provoking, even if it is a bit haunting.”. Found at The Adventure Blog.
17 Mind Blowing Facts about North Korea. Been a while…but the insanity is back!
An Unprecedented Look Inside Iran by a Getty Photographer. Wow, this is totally awesome!
ODDZ & ENDZ
Seven Truths Investors Simply Can Not Accept. This is a must read article if you are interested in personal finance.
Believe it or not, part of TBB’s mission is to inspire. Like this:
BLOG BUZZ
I am tired. The amount of credit card pimping in this space is totally out of control. Everyone selling the same cards to their readers following orders inserting affiliate links at any chance they get looking like an ass trying to sound more intelligent than the other blogger. It is disgusting if you ask me. I know you did not ask me, I am just telling you because it is my blog and I can write what I want here and nobody needs to approve it! 🙂
I had lunch with a good friend who told me some things I needed to hear. And with a few interactions on Twitter with people I respect… is prompting me to rethink what I am doing here. This was supposed to be a three month thing and it has turned into a 21 month addiction/obsession! It could have been so easy to walk away if you told me my blog sucks you guys 🙂
I am going to take some time this weekend (I hope), start drinking and just pour my soul out and just let it all go out of my system and ask for your input. No, don’t expect an MMS type “survey” (remember that?) If I don’t get to it this weekend, hope it’s the next one 🙂 Definitely this summer before I lose it lol.
First, do I have a deal for you? 🙂
This is what happens at frequent flyer events where no credit card selling is going on 🙂
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TBB
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first!?
Back where you belong!
Yay!
Hmmmm….mine seemed to have disappeared….at any rate, great post George.
You almost made First! I know you can, I have faith in you!
Thanks a lot, appreciated.
I really want to go to Iran, thanks for posting the pics!
Very welcome. Iran is beautiful, want to go there too. Rapid Travel Chai visited, check out his blog.
gleff’s latest post on MH 17 made me cringe hard. maybe i am just jaded by all his shilling and douchey posts…
I got in trouble over on Twitter by making a comment about the “look at me, I cried, here is a short blog post telling you all I cried, it took me 2 minutes to post. Now please excuse me while I go pimp some more credit cards”…People commenting “so nice of you to show your real side”…blah blah blah. Stay Chase-y Gary!
The credit card pimps wish they could measure up to Willy at POWM – he was probably pimpin’ before credit cards were even invented, LOL. http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/best-willy-pimp
LOL. Love that dude, Wily is Da man/pimp. The Godfather of pimps? lol
Buzz, seems like reviewing the pimpfest has you feeling a bit down and that you need a little pick-me-up. How about we organize our own TBB-inspired blog awards? These awards will chronicle the biggest d**k moves made by the P&M bloggers recently.
Without further ado, here are some nominees for the inaugural version of the Douchie Awards
1) Dullta-Points: Erasing TBB’s name from the list of nominees in the Frequent Business Traveler Awards
2) OneLimeAtaTime – the infamous Kickstarter debacle
3) Viewfromtheloo – Writing a post calling attention to the AA customer service rep’s tweet decrying the kickstarter stunt
4) Bilevalue – Complaining to Uber about his driver scamming him for a grand total of 90 cents in what was probably an honest mistake on part of the driver
5) MillionEmilyPhotos – Sneaking into airport security lines using a grocery store card (wtf)
6) PointsMilesandAffiliateLinks – Sneaking into hotel pools in NYC without staying at the hotel
7) Canadianbaby – Complaining to the DOT after being legitimately denied boarding on a cabotage ticket, and killing the LM program as a result
8) ThePointsMeh – Killing the US Airways no YQ deal
9) Viewfromtheloo – second nomination for taking pictures of others on vacation and passing judgment on how they are not enjoying the location
10) (st)ingy – claiming he was discriminated against as a senior by UA for not honoring his 4 mile award ticket.
Feel free to add to the list! Maybe we can arrange for the award ceremony to be held at the PH Maldives!
PS: Did you know that you too can stay at the PH Maldives by using your chase points earned by the card. Stay Chase-y, my friends.
“Stay Chase-y my friends” is right up there with Vendoming (pats self on back). Going in the glossary!
Awesome!
11) Howie – dozens of posts containing incorrect information that get left up anyways because of the links they contain within them (nautical miles!!!!)
12) The Jason Steal/TPG plagiarizing of FM when he first wrote about the one card to rule them all
13) TBB for being so darn handsome
Missed ya pal hope your gonorrhea is treating your well.
Chin up … up George’s ass.
LOL – Classic!
@ The common man: This is BRILLIANT, thanks a lot! MVP GEM post!
@ Dia: I so agree!
@ Steve: I almost blew my hazelnut coffee at Panera when I read # 13. Are you okay? LOL
I think Common Man put himself in the running for GEM of the year. Creative and well played.
Sure did!
Thanks for the Iran link, George. It was impossible to grab all the photos I wanted while there so these were great to look back through. It really is a nice place to visit. And, believe it or not, they have some really nice hotels at very cheap prices! 🙂 everything is cheap there – including the gas.
I have several Iranian friends, I like them all.
Hey, that was a nice review of the SKG Hyatt!
It’s a great hotel – come on back sometime! Make it the summer, though, so you can enjoy the pools! It’s like a poor man’s Halkidiki…
Hey, after months of trying, I have my residency papers here!I think my (learned) patience makes me Greek… 🙂
Sorry, that was not to sound like you had NOT been there, I’m just saying to hit it up in the summertime next time!
I have been there in the summer time with my daughter and we loved the pools too!
+ a ton for The Common Man! Very funny!
Buzz, feel free to pass along my email to the runners-up for that free Seattle Sessions ticket. I have one I can’t use too.
Brand new WM is opening on August 13, right near my Costco. Guess I’ll finally get to meet Kate.
[Cue the question: Who’s Kate?]
[Hint: She is no relation to Drew. And she may not know Carrie either.]
I emailed the ones who entered the giveaway and gave them your email address so hopefully one contacts you. I also edited the post letting everyone know.
Yeah, still laughing about the comment by The common man!
I take it from the recent barrage that the Marriott credit card is paying an affiliate commission right now?
Or is it just that the bloggers brought it up so that they can remind us of the “other” ways to accrue Marriott points?
Mile Nerd calls them assholes today.
The assholes call us angries to deflect the attention from looking within to detect their own assholisness 🙂
Now that people are getting denied the 70k bonus match because of the AF, I wonder what DD has to say for pumping his crappier link and telling people to SM. Would totally deserve the same name calling mile nerd used
I find all the card-card schilling quite distasteful. Still, I don’t understand why you, George, and other prominent travel bloggers are so consistently harsh on Marriott. Are there no Marriott apologiste bloggers? The company’s loyalty program allows one to buy back gold status each year after not requalifying. Would I stay 50 nights a year at Marriotts if I were paying? No way. Would I sign up for a credit card (only using the coolest blogger’s affiliate link if available) in order to maintain gold status for 3 years? Yup. And Marriotts in Southeast Asia tend to treat Golds very well. I enjoy taking advantage of this company and don’t understand why most travel bloggers view it as leprous.
I am no expert in affiliate credit cards (obviously, I just like to bitch about them) but I am sensing that the absence of a Marriott affiliate credit card offer surely contributed to this. But that may have changed recently so I won’t be surprised if you see it mentioned more from now on.
Let me just say why Marriott is dead to me pretty much. The company has a history of deep devaluations. The elite requirements are so out of whack that it is just ridiculous. I also understand that they take care of their elites. I never cared much about their hotels, just never felt the love. The very conservative religious aspirations and culture of the company also turns me off. But it just comes down to this…With so many other hotel chains with better hotels, much better royalty programs, why bother with this one. Current credit card offers are okay but, then again, I got so many points elsewhere and not much time to use them all because I am too busy 🙂
Don’t get me started about charging anything on the card other than meeting the minimum spend.
That’s my own explanation. Make sure you ask the other credit card salesmen why they do not get a bouns for selling this card, I am certain you will get a straight answer 🙂
You sure that’s not spell assholyness?
Your spelling sure looks better 🙂
Do you think the Pita Pit deal is scalable? I wonder if I could buy four and pay for all four. That would be a real steal.
The PIta Pit deal got posted in a blog so for sure it is all dead by now lol. Damn bloggers killing deals again 🙂
{{ slow, appreciative clap }}
When the 70K Ink Bold broke, my first thought was, “How are all these newbies going to go to the bank branch and tell the tellers all about their `eBay selling business’ with a straight face?”
I think they’re finally putting a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge. That’s been under discussion so long and the “we’re finally going to do it” signals have been so frequent. I remember discussions of the barrier during a course on differential equations… years ago.
Looks like the 70k Ink deal is gong online so brace yourselves for another barrage of “Stay Chase-y dear readers, I am only pushing Chase links on you for the millionth time”…
Good move on the barrier.
To add to The common man’s great idea. and Steve’s additional nominees:
14) Viewfromtheloo (Viewoftheloo?) – the most head scratching, WTF manner in which to pose whilst taking a photo…from his W Union Sq hotel review.
TBB – I say keep up the great work!
I may make a post about these that The common man started…sure it is entertaining.
Coming to a blog near you: “Click my Chase links, 70k for Ink cards. Signed: Chase-y”
About credit cards and such, at least they are relevant to the topic of the blogs. What gets under my skin is online sellers like 1SaleADay hawking credit cards in their e-mail newsletter – “Get an iPad 40% off, Get a Refurb HP Laptop, Get 70,000 Marriott Points! Really? And how do THEY get Chase links?!
I have no idea how they get Chase links…Then again DWL and PMM get them too so quality is definitely not a criterion 🙂
Today I cried the entire day after reading some blog posts, George. In fact I plan to continue crying during the weekend for not able to start a great travel blog and make tons of money at the expense if others. Please don’t stop me George. No please don’t. All I can afford to do is to cry. #onecryatatime #cryfromtheeyes.
I won’t stop you Kumar. I won’t stop you from earning 49 cents like I did in the past three days #Iamstillcrying 🙂
I guess the new thing is to play with people’s emotions… Those fuckers are now your life gurus.
They cry and they show you THE direction. Plucky tells you how to discover the world because
life is so short. Sure he’ll tell you all about Ethiopia as he just spent 2 hours at the airport there
(of course the only way is to get more points by clicking his links). This guy is really special…
And George, don’t even start me on the Malaysia crash. Not sure who is bigger evil here – Putin
or those french and german world leaders… If you ever wonder how Europe looked like in 1938 –
you have a “live” history lesson right now – in front of your eyes.
Armed gunmen sure sounds much better than SWAT—->How to write for Google to capture new pray, who knows a few may stick around and click on my credit cards…ViewfromtheAndazeatingpancakes
I went through a massive cleanup of blogs in my Feedly list today, I wiped out about 200 of them, feels great!
That’s still some scary shit. Calling them armed gunmen seems fair.
We’ve seen the epic showdown play out, TBB vs VFTW on feet. Gary doesn’t want to see them, TBB seems to like ’em. Buzz, do tell, Matthew Klint’s post today documents a new feet feat. Does that cross your line and are you willing to condemn those feet?
OMG, I saw that and I am hereby issuing a fatwa against the beast possessing such feet! Hey dude, you can push the button to call the flight attendant with your super ugly bacteria possession toe but…you can not hide!
These two pics with Briggs and Berthia… Remember that Hemingway’s (or attributed to Hemingway) shortest story in the world? “For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” These two pics with these two sentences made me feel the same way. They were complete.
They didn’t make me cry, but they made me pause, then glance at them again a few times. Just gets to show you (and me) that your story doesn’t have to be long when it has depth and substance.
I remember it as a story of O. Henry.
We were discussing this story yesterday, in digging through piles of hand-me-down onesies. We had to pass along clothes that still had tags on them because they were too small; they’ll go to the next house. (And those unused clothes may have been hand-me-downs too; we don’t know.) The contemporary explanation of that story, in crazy-consumer America, is that the baby had frequent-shopper grandparents who went overboard and bought more pairs anyway.
Somehow I am thinking you are telling me that my posts are too long right? 🙂
Thanks for the 7 truths link. Please take some rest and just relax. Tomorrow will be a better day 🙂 Thanks.
It is a much better day. I went from 567 blogs to 346 in my Feedly. YES YES YES!!!
This is the only blog where I read the comments before the main text and am almost never sorry I did.
Great, thanks…I guess 🙂
Bill Murray has advice for travel blog readers. I think I’m going to take advantage of it this Saturday afternoon.
https://twitter.com/BiIIMurray/status/492690263601864705
Good advice. Instead, I went to another bank and opened two bank accounts and should clear an easy $500. Plus adds two more accounts to do my mega deposits 🙂