TBB Mission: To Entertain, Educate and Inspire. Aim to at least do one well!
TRAVEL
Yomadic is still hanging out at Tbilisi, Georgia. He wrote “Georgia: Old Tbilisi: Decaying Beauty or Birth of Tourist Trap?“. Some of the pictures are stunning. Like this one:
The 66 Most Stunning Science Pictures of 2013. EPIC pictures.
Photo and caption by max seigal
World’s Largest Stone Buddha. At Twisted Sifter. Located near Leshan, China.
MILES/POINTS
Wandering Aramean wrote “Airlines, fares, loyalty and the 80% rule” which I think it is a must read. Sometimes we in this hobby operate in a bubble. At the end of the day, we are, as in my former Big Six Final Four accounting firm life, an “immaterial” amount. Airlines are focusing on the 80%. And Delta does a great job at it! Seth ends the article with “I’m not saying the game is over. We’re far from that point. But it is continuing to change and the airlines are getting smarter about where they let themselves be beaten. So, do you double down and work harder or back off and just take the easy wins?”
Travelblawg had some interesting quotes by the Supreme Court Justices talking frequent flyer miles. It is so bizarre this was not settled earlier! For another take on this lawsuit here is View from the Wing‘s analysis and what it all means.
Travel is Free wrote “Why Everyone’s Been Having Issues With United Stopovers“. Very long piece and suited to advance hobbyists. He summarizes at the end (yes I read it all):
- Don’t listen to any explanation by anyone who works for United.
- The 4 segment/3 connection rule is false. At least on roundtrips…
- Me thinks that open-jaws on stopovers are no longer.
- But you’re still allowed two open-jaws on the destinations.
- I can’t deny that there is an issue with connections somehow. I notice it most when trying to force layovers. There must be a rule behind it, but I can’t figure out what it is.
- What a fun game…
Travel is Free (he is on a roll or what?) earlier wrote “Best Use of United Miles to East Asia”. Better get them award trip there before February 1st!
Saverocity wrote about the Fidelity 2% cash back card and what you must do to get the full 2% cash back. If only this card had an affiliate link we would see lots more of it. But I digress…
ON MY MIND
I still have not followed up with American Airlines to fix my busted award trip and our return from Maui due to the canceled Alaska airline flight. This bothers me, everything was so aligned perfectly!
Expect less posting after I leave for Greece. I will try to keep it up but I certainly would not take that bet! To keep up with me you should follow me on Twitter.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Nature Be Crazy. At theCHIVE. Crazy nature photographs!
A beautiful Skydiving compilation. At The Adventure Blog.
BLOG BUZZ
So much written (Chase Freedom 2014 bonus categories) for such an immaterial piece of news. And the only reason you read about this so early in December 2013 it’s because, well, you know, follow the money…
I see the blog posts I feature here and I see most of these blogs in my two lists: Blogs I Love and Blogs I Like. And, in my own super biased selfish opinion, these blogs well deserve it! I believe you should reward quality and hard work!
And I leave you with this…
First?
first
well second!
This was probably the closest 1-2 comment posts EVER!
Do I win something like a lounge pass??
Don’t have anything to offer sadly.
If the banks sponsored me too I could give away lots of crap 🙂
More great photos, again from China. Those pinnacles in the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park are amazing.
Just finished playing, uh, winnng Retention Roulette with US Airways. Called when my significant other was here since it is his card. The rep not only did not need to speak to him but she offered to waive the fee immediately. My husband probably charged under $300 on his card all year; I really expected they would not waive the fee and we’d move the credit to his new Arrivals card. Makes me think I should have demanded some points too!
I then asked her about waiving the fee that will hit on 12/31 for my US Airways card. She couldn’t waive it until it posted, but she promised to “personally monitor” my account to be able to reverse the fee when it hits. Say what? I did not expect such customer service. I wonder if this has anything to do with the merger? Could some memo have come down to keep US Airways card holders from cancelling? Doesn’t seem likely, as it was Barclays, not US, that was being nice. So I guess we’ll hold these cards another year, or until they go away….
I think you may be on to something. I think Barclays will try to keep us from dropping their cards at all costs. Good to know as our own cards are coming up for renewal!
Nice job by Rick and his “FTG staff” breaking the news about the Amex/Amazon offer after the number of max registrants had been reached….. aka, 3 days after the rest of the blogosphere covered it
but….. but….. but….. it’s a great website, because lots of people read an article that would’ve been much more useful to them if it was written 48 hours earlier
Yeah really. Inexcusable. I had this baby covered when it started and I have no staff at all. No sponsors either. Oh wait…no revenue too lol.
Breaking news from FTG: Apparently there is a price mistake on Wideroe. You can get round trips to Europe on United for super-cheap!
Hurry up, this won’t last long!
Thanks again Steve for reading the blog everyday. It’s loyal readers that keeps the staff going 🙂 oh and the paycheck as well 😉
See a link? Click a link.
I see a lot of links.
I won’t be clicking on them though.
Don’t worry about it Steve. Lots of people don’t click on the links. But lots do as well 🙂 In the blog world we call it a conversion ratio. If 1000 people click on a link and 20 apply and get accepted that would be a 2% conversion ratio.
Its like when you mow four lawns and a day and two people tip you, you have a 50% tip ratio.
Stay classy
Classy I will stay. When George declared a moratorium on ranting about bloggers, I’m happy to say most of you, well, all of you except Steve, took it to heart. It makes this blog a much more attractive site and it will in time allow George to monetize for his hard work.
It seems though, that Steve Missed the Memo.
So as long as Steve continues to trash bloggers, I’ll be here to respond. Unless of course, George decides to censor my rebuttals ???
Glad to see the change George. Only one more to go.
BTW: Did you like that blog sale info. $15 million dollars for a blog with an Alexa rank of 45K. Now that was the good old days 🙂
This site only censors when others attempt to make me do so deliberately 🙂 My views on censoring have not changed one iota!
Steve can post here anytime he wants. You too.
I think it is VERY healthy for the benefit of the hobby to have these businesses be aware that at least some market participants are watching them. I did that for over a year, I got tired. I have my 3 lists and I feel good that I made a positive contribution to the hobby this way. I am still watching but I am done beating up other bloggers. The change was made to keep my sanity and focus on other things that are higher priority for me. Monetization (I know, hard to believe!) had really nothing to do with it. I keep postponing it and waiting for me to give it up 🙂
Regarding the blog sale you refer to…I have no idea! My site is at 154k World and 32k US. No staff either and no toolbars either. I find these numbers amusing, I check them once a month.
And don’t forget, your boss suggested you quit beating up others. She is a very smart woman. And patient as well 🙂
Something like that….maybe.
LOL we all know George is plenty gullible, but didn’t know fake $$ promises had been dangled to maim his weapons. Or are you just taunting him here? Steve is not alone. I am here to support his rants and I am sure there are plenty others as well.
I call BS on your conversion ratio too. What is your YTD revenue? Fact is this blog and the voice of others around different forums has made plenty of dent in your revenue model. The axing of chaseloggers is a proof to this. There is more to come….
Yah those were the good days when you had hair. You are not taking the money with you in your afterlife either. Stay less retarded……
You Guys crack me up. Here is how much your ranting impacts business. Both readership and revenue are up double digits. Thepointsguy is skyrocketing more than ever, delta points numbers are up and all your ranting and whining has zero impact on bloggers. Sorry to burst your bubble. I’m starting to think being on your Ignore/Avoid list is actually good for the business of commercial bloggers?
There are indeed factual errors at times on the FTG blog. Nobody is perfect, of course other than Tabloid Blogger Buzz readers. I guess if you really cared about the hobby, you could always comment about the error in the blog, but then again, that would be the positive thing to do, and it is so much easier to criticize others.
Keep on slugging you guys. It shows your true colors.
Well at least you got a laugh out of it, that should be a positive score! You crack us up even more than anyone else. Good luck with the numbers, you are going to need it 😛
There is no multiple colors here. Straight and to the point. Travel Challenge is the worst blogging practice. Let the storm die over with the small blogs. You guys will be taken care of by the system as well. If it is not the banks, it will be some other official system.
OK, I like Daraius, but this is becoming ridiculous… Not sure what’s worse, the content or the tone:
[Disclosure: Emily and I get a commission for the link to the American Express cards in this post. But you can get 5,000 extra points if you already have the cards and refer others via the American Express referral program! We always tell you about the best offers, even if it means we don’t get a commission.]
It’s really sad, but this whole link pimping thing made the blogging gross to me and I’m really
disgusted to be honest. I’m gonna stick to my pictures…
I wish I had pictures to stick to to compensate for the time I spend on this site 😉
This is how the blogosphere rolls these days. It is very sad to watch really. They must keep pumping to exist. Not many do it well. And when I mean “well” I mean it by quality. And that sure does not equate to $$$. On the contrary…
I will look at this sometime in 2014…I am in in no rush, this must be obvious by now 🙂
Wells Fargo is currently offering a stuffed pony when you open a checking account. I’m hoping they start offering $100 per pony account to affiliates so we can see a flood of stuffed pony coverage.
I would love a unicorn!
Rainbows AND unicorns, now that would be a sign-up bonus!
Wells Fargo is my most hated POS bank, even if they offer two unicorns and a rubber duck – I’ll pass. Fckin bastards.
Ponies, rainbows, unicorns and rubber duckies…
If these replaced the fat commissions I wonder how less crowded my insane Feedly list would be lol.
By the way, I am sick of rubber duckies. A unicorn would be cool!
I still can’t get over it – the guy is “graciously” saving you from the bad deal pointing you to a better deal, but just in case you get drunk there is the “bad” link included anyway (the one “which pays him commission” – thanks for explanation!)… Can someone explain it to me why people keep clicking? Are they really so drunk or just plain stupid? Don’t they feel offended?
There is something fundamentally wrong in my understanding of human behavior…
Never underestimate the power of the people to do, well, not so smart things 🙂
I have given up trying to understand it. Some humans will do such things and there is not much you can do about it…or very little actually.
I started this site to “help family and friends travel for free”…Ooops, got carried away there for a second lol.
When questions like that come up I ask myself:
Why ask why? Bud Dry
Now excuse me while I go big on this deal!
https://twitter.com/FlyerTalkerinA2/status/408424574359830528/photo/1
This is not the best example to make your point. The person signing up for the card does not get the extra points. They get the same deal they would get if they signed up through his link or a non-affiliate link. The extra points are for the person referring the card.
There are people who click on his links because they don’t know anyone to refer them, or don’t want the person who referred them to know that they might have been denied, or just don’t care to bother someone they know to send them a referral. The person applying is not being saved from a bad deal.
If you cried when Ole Yeller died or when Bambi’s Mom was shot. If you cried at the end of Rudy when his Dad saw him take the field at Notre Dame or when Bruce Willis in Armageddon sacrificed his life to save the Earth. Please DO NOT read “Pack O’ Nuts Thanksgiving post.
Ramsey, great read! I was thinking it’s really Chase or nothing, this guy admits that… Another prove banks, Chase rather, destroyed miles blogging. By cutting 90% of bloggers they made a few chosen ones richer and more powerful – the result we know… They want to be transparent? – put the Chase logo on top of your home page and stop pretending.
I will have to revisit that one guys.
“Then I quit my job to focus on my travel blog full-time. [Implication that this hobby’s gravy train will always run on.]”
— guy who wears Bad Idea Jeans
“Amazingly, the game changed. …. Then my wife and I moved back in with my parents.”
— guy who probably shouldn’t have quit his job.
“My income is low and highly variable. …. And here’s all the travel I took and will take.”
— Oh dear. Priorities, man, priorities.
Thanks, Ramsey, I think. As MileNerd noted, the Chasebloggers are “shrewd businessmen.” Others, not so much.
I still like the kid, he does not give up, persistence is an asset!
Love that Airplane clip!
What happened here. Message too cryptic to decipher!
I think TBB is busy lamenting & wailing about Amex PlatAA lounge access loss right now 😉
Yes I am. Not for me. I have given this card to my 3 top clients (they happen to travel the most too) and they LOVE it! Others in this business do have a budget for these things…I just spend it on them and I get to enjoy emails from them “Hi, I am relaxing in XYX lounge right now waiting for my flight, thanks a lot”…
I emailed them the bad news today…Enjoy while it lasts.
I did not get a $500 credit either from Amex and I keep checking!
“Don’t worry about it Steve. Lots of people don’t click on the links. But lots do as well 🙂 In the blog world we call it a conversion ratio. If 1000 people click on a link and 20 apply and get accepted that would be a 2% conversion ratio”
woah, the blog world calls the rate of conversions a “conversion ratio”? Wow, that’s brilliant stuff. I thought they would call it something entirely different
And you were the one that brought it up. So it seems like you’re worried about it, not me.
Rather than solicit people to click your links on a 3rd party blog, maybe you should look into provide more useful content if you want link clicks
BREAKING NEWS: AA and US are merging!!!
– FTG.com
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The Travel Challenge managed to outdo itself for crappyness
Apparently, the travel challengee will be using a US Airways off-peak award…. to fly on United and TAP metal
Rick needs an entire “FTG Staff” to put this piece together, and they still can’t get basic things right.
Rick needs to stop hiring staff from the Chicago Seminars talent pool. I bet those who attended FTU or Dan’s seminars know that the off peak awards need to be used on US metal…
Thanks again Steve for reading the blog. How do you find time to mow all those lawns and deliver those newspapers with all the time you spend checking out FTG? Being a successful businessman and all?
I wish there was a comment conversion ratio bwahahahahahahhahahaha.
I just read the latest FTG (the blog) Travel Challenge. Doing away with this “challenge” will go a long way to improve the blog in my humble (always) opinion. No idea about conversions, I guess they must be good…
I had salmon for dinner and it was awesome!
Just out of curiosity, should the blog of the “recognized world expert on free travel” know things like how the US Airways off-peak awards work?
It’s ok though, because the quality of the post is based on how many people read the post…. not on whether or not the post gives factually incorrect information
LoyaltyLobby broke 2 or 3 relevant and unique posts today that nobody else covered. FTG and his staff wrote a factually incorrect post for a mythical itinerary that will cost double what they told her.
But FTG has more readers, so it’s the better blog
These are fair criticisms, and Rick’s flippant (non) response is silly. I disagree that the Travel Challenge is a bad idea. I think it is a very good way to illustrate to people what can be done with miles and points. Even if you can’t keep churning cards forever, there is no doubt that you can generate enough points with a partner to take some pretty amazing trips in the short term. But when I try to tell friends about this, they are just skeptical that banks would give away so much money. The Travel Challenge is a useful idea to show people new to the game how easy and inexpensive it really can be.
But there can be problems in the execution. If it isn’t providing accurate information, that is an issue. You’d hope they would want to correct that.
“You’d hope they would want to correct that”
they don’t really care. because the point of the post isn’t to provide quality content
I think Travel Challenge is a GREAT idea. The execution is downright embarrassing. But I am sure the conversions are good. Different blogs for different folks 🙂
Life goes on…
“I think Travel Challenge is a GREAT idea. The execution is downright embarrassingI”
The problem with the posts are that the “challenging” part of it is supposed to be how the newbie will make their vacation happen….. not FTG staff trying to figure out basic rules of the US Airways program.
FYI…. Maui shark attacks in the last few months are in the South Maui area not far from your 2 hotels. Don’t dangle you feet.
Good to know. I have lots of time to ponder my chances 🙂
I know what that weird tunnel in that picture is, or at least I think so. On easy mountains (e.g. in Colorado), snow slopes (not glaciers) build up in the winter. In the spring, small streams form underneath, melt out some snow from below, and the spring sun also progressively causes cave-ins. So little tunnels form. At least, I’ve only seen little versions of that, none nearly that big! I bet she’s somewhere with gentle mountains, probably North America, in the springtime (like May or June). Probably more than any of you wanted to know… 🙂
This is great, thanks a lot! I was hoping someone will comment on it. Makes sense. Still kind of a surreal sight!
Is it just me or is the content on Milevalue actually improving?
Maybe. But I still see the cards pumped and among others the glorious US Air crappy offer. And until then the site will sit happily in my “Blogs I Ignore” list.
To answer your question subliminally:
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Yes a little 😉
MV posted the Lifetime “hack” too and he is getting lot of heat over it…
Another exciting day in the blog world LOL
Just went to MV site for the first time in months. I saw a “Best of the month” post and that is so funny. Do we know whose idea was to do this first, MMS or MV. My money is MV because there is no greater plagiarizer than MMS.
you are fing kidding right? mv is copying all the top bloggers. best of posts are seo tricks. mms many steps ahead here. lifemiles reveal is mv trying to be mms style hero of the people. guy is a fing whore. definitely the absolute worst, worst blog in this entire space imho
This was the first time I found myself getting visibly ANGRY after reading a blog post.
“overall welfare” my behind. Same as “I will never post a credit card offer that is not bet for you”.
I should have made two lists: Ignore and Avoid. And place this one in the 2nd one.
IGNORE THAT BLOG TO INCREASE HUMANITY’S WELFARE 🙂
Those two were well known thanks to Gary’s (VFTW) and Mrpickle’s blogs. Was this similar to Saverocity’s recent LM “hack”? (I missed that one)
I didn’t see the Saverocity post, but I heard it was 25K one way to Europe in J. One trick for that is out in the open. I found two more, but Y only.
Thought you could get this for 10k.
I’m also impressed he left the comments up on that lifemiles post.
I am not 🙂
We drove by the Walea yesterday’s afternoon to check out all the luxury hotels and expensive stores (LV, Rolex) 🙂 We are staying at the Ka’anapali beach area. George, don’t do too many activities since it adds “stress” to the vacation. Thanks.
Well, at this point, my trip there in April is a bit disrupted as Alaska Air canceled our flights…so that for sure adds stress to my life as I had it ALL planned great!
Enjoy it and would like some feedback after your return.
Thanks.
George, what’s the date of the flight that was canceled? I assume it was the flight back to the west coast? Which city?
It was on AA partner Alaska Air flight # 838 from Honolulu to Oakland next April. Was supposed to leave at 3.20 pm. Instead they put on us on the 860 leaving HNL at 8.00 am which will mean one LESS night in Maui and I already burned 20k (for 4 seats) UA miles to fly Island Air from OGG to HNL at noon…So, total mess. And can’t find availability for 4 now…so I need to call back and fight!
I assume you are using Avios to make these flights? Have you looked into flying into a different west coast city? There is a decent amount of availability in April on AA flying direct from OGG to LAX.
Actually…no. It was AA miles at the time of booking as I managed to get 4 seats to OAK that would allow us some time to see San Fransisco. Probably one of the worst “bangs” in mile burning I have ever done but with four people involved/spring break time/Hawaii you get what you can book and move on…
I need to find time to call AA to see how this can be salvaged. It would have been all perfect if Alaska had not canceled the flight. To make things worse I have prepaid for 2 nights at OAK hotel (to pay with Barclays Arrival points) on the way back because the prepaid rate was super low and location perfect…
It’s a saga
That is a bummer. One less day in Maui sucks but if you have never been to Oahu you can definitely make lemonade out of it. Pearl Harbor, North Shore, Diamond Head, are all Waikiki great places that are worth visiting.
Alternatively, I assume the prepaid is non-refundable, you could try selling the return night on roomer. http://www.portlandtraveltips.com/2013/11/26/save-money-on-hotels-with-roomer-travel/. You obviously lose the arrival points but at least you get some cash out of it. You could then use the cash for a hotel in LAX and take one of those direct flights from OGG to LAX.
Hope it works out for you.