Lets go through the Top 25 Credit Cards without wondering if they are there for bloggers’ benefit, travel to North Korea Marathon, Iran and Peru, learn about Google Flights and the IHG Rewards Big Win Fail, and have some fun with Kulula and Dr. Pepper deal! And other stuff to satisfy the blog’s mission. And thanks for coming along for the ride!
TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order
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Mile Nerd has a Top 25 Credit Cards list post. No affiliate links. Do you trust this blogger more or the pumping machines in the “Blogs I Ignore“? Just saying.
Going the Distance in North Korea. By Roads and Kingdoms. The writer ran the Marathon in PyongYang. Yes, I am perversely fascinated by North Korea.
How about traveling to Iran next? Looks lovely to me! “Beautiful tourist attractions in Iran“.
The Coupon Connection Forum Closed Indefinitely — Because of Fraud Unit of American Airlines? By The Gate. I have used this forum a few times over the years. I was surprised how quickly I had Private Messages and offers after I posted an offer. I guess it got too popular?
Loyalty Traveler posted about “Google Flights Map Reveals the Airfare Deals“. For a long time I ignored Google Flights as I did not think the site was up to par. I played with it a little more and I think it has gotten better. Found a RT flight to Denver from Detroit for $108! Too bad it was on Spirit lol.
I am glad I didn’t go for the IHG Rewards Big Win promotion as it appears there are some technical issues. Loyalty Lobby has the details and wish you the best of luck in resolving this issue with the “amazing” IHG Rewards customer service staff!
Sacred Valley of the Incas: Salt, Stones and Secrets. In Peru. By Bored Daddy
Kulula Airlines is a low-cost South African airline that has some interesting planes. You can see them at their gallery. It appears they are still in business. A friend sent me this and I thought it was an urban legend. It is not according to snopes. Here is a picture of its “Flying 101” plane:
The latest Friday interview at Million Mile Secrets is of a blogger couple who paid off $30,000 in credit card debt. I personally find it ironic they now push credit cards to their readers!
I thought I had seen it all. And then Wallet Slot pumped the “amazing” Harley Davidson card for Canadians. And I thought this blog could not go any lower…smh.
View from the Wing blogged about a certain card still available with credit cards at your favorite Convenience store. Requires a trip to Wal Mart. With 30,000 plus newsletter readers do you care to guess how long before this gets added to that infamous “Cash Only” list? Yeah, someone else would have likely posted about it. This is how the hobby rolls. You “help” others, you gain traffic/clicks/money, deal gets killed, everyone loses. In my humble opinion, there is a fine line about posting deals and killing deals. You bet my Amazon link (lol) TBB would not be making a blog post about this one. And no I am not linking to it damnit! I am now waiting for the pics and arrows to come…And maybe Wal Mart has (or about to?) had enough? Stop the madness! Elaborate in the comments. The only Manufactured Spending technique to last is to stop blogging in the body of blog posts about it I am afraid! Or you can break new tricks like I am doing now for the first time!
Airline passenger almost forgets to check into business class lounge on social media. This is hilarious. Probably true…
And I leave you with this…A hip strengthening exercise or is this how you look after…
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First
First!
Happy Easter!
Versed!
Congrats to Mel.
United1k: So so so close
And Happy Easter to All, hope your holiday was as great as mine. And yes I went for a long run before I attacked the lamb and baklava!
Lamb and baklava sounds amazing. Just when I thought I had heard everything: http://news.yahoo.com/16-old-survives-wheel-well-maui-flight-041150318.html
Unbelievable!
Couldn’t agree with you more about the “help” that is killing this hobby at an ever-faster pace.
Just noticed The Free-quent guy is now going to go full time – wonder how he’ll be “building loyalty”? By putting out puff pieces/pimping cards and exposing every trick? #FAIL
Can’t believe so many are so desperate for cash – get a real job.
I don’t think Free-quent guy will turn to a Milevalue.
I am not sure the space can sustain so many full timers.
I am keeping my job lol.
I LIKE THE FREQUENT-FLYER website, check it daily. Paul try some Zoloft, works for me.
Agree with Paul. Whether you sell out the game to profit from affiliate links or paid subscription, it’s not that much different. If you want to make a buck do it the hard way.
Let’s see what happens…
It depends on the other job they’re leaving. Free-quent Flyer said he’s moving and leaving behind a low-paying job. There’s an Adam Carolla quote that I think sums it up nicely:
“If it doesn’t make you money and it doesn’t make you happy. Don’t do it.”
LOVE the quote! I so agree. I walked away from a VERY well paying job many years ago to go on my own because that work was killing me! We only live once, have no regrets.
I don’t envy bloggers. They’ve decided to take a tough road in life lined with many haters and leading to little profit for the majority of them. A “real job” seems bother easier and more profitable. I genuinely hope that this space “thins” out soon. There’s so much noise and so little good content out there.
>>>>>>> I genuinely hope that this space “thins” out soon. There’s so much noise and so little good content out there.
I agree with this 100%!
My two cents:
So far there are two ways to profit from the hobby:
1) work for the banks (i.e., get affiliate links and hope for sign-ups)
2) work for people who either a) highly value their time or b) are not smart enough (i.e., run an award booking service).
Something else to consider:
Since the days of Napster, people are in general reluctant to pay for stuff on the internet. Those people involved in MS should not be in category (b) above, because MS is ever more time-consuming and not a game to be played by morons.
Now, given all the above, I don’t think there’s much profit to be made “divulging” MS secrets that are already provided by the hive mind at FT/FWF/SD, available to those readers not in category (b) . And I’d ask the Extra Pack of Peanuts guy how much money there is in selling
Ginsu knivesa guide/newsletter to the hobby formoronssuckersnewbies. I can’t imagine it’s much, when the free guides are already online at many, many sites. But fare thee well, person I don’t know.Good points.
>>>>>>I don’t think there’s much profit to be made “divulging” MS secrets that are already provided by the hive mind at FT/FWF/SD, available to those readers not in category (b)
But…by doing so the TPG/MMS/FTG experts have maanaged to…keep working for the banks. They all take a different angle on the MS stuff. TGP hires others to write about it, MMS spoonfeeds w/ pics & arrows, and FTG just don’t know any over there 🙂
The more the banks stay out of the blogs the less blogs would be around.
“…and FTG just don’t know any over there :-)”
They’ve gotta figure out how Avios work before they can jump on the MS bandwagon.
A before B…
Basics before the advanced tactics…
Everytime I see these new Tina Fey amex commercials I get a little chuckle as she uses her card with the magnetic strip facing the wrong way.
Of course that allows the brand name to be shown during the swipe, but let’s ignore that. Facts get in the way sometimes.
Last chance to get in on this card. Two week later: Link is going away, hurry!
Facts are…there to sell cards 🙂
That bugs me too!
I get the feeling that there were a ton of Amex Everyday posts queued up, waiting for that affiliate link to drop.
I always use Mile nerd’s links. Too many pimps out there.
I don’t but I had to share that for my readers. Educating is part of the TBB mission you know 😉
The problem with the Mile Nerd list is that he lists the Avianca offer, but it’s not really that valuable unless you use one of the workarounds to use your miles – which I imagine most every day users won’t know about.
Link is dead. One person on FT had his app taken over the phone though. AND people are reporting that the extra 20K isn’t posting right away anymore.
Billy, Are you REALLY a doctor of credit as your website states or a credit card salesman? What are you credentials?
I have a PhD, I’m also a consumer credit advocate and have worked tirelessly to get help get the new SECURE act mainstream media coverage.
I almost went for a PhD in finance. It was in early 2009. Apparently many in finance had the same thoughts and my alma matter received about 70 resumes for a full time finance professor position. That quickly changed my mind 🙂
It’s an interesting sector to be in. If you think the greed of some of these bloggers is bad, you should try working at an investment bank. Profits are massive, value added is low and the majority of people are egomaniacs. It’s like points/miles blogging on steroids.
Political lobbying (which I am slowly transitioning into as it’s my real passion) isn’t much better, in fact it’s a lot worse when you’re trying to fight for rights for the consumer.
I’m surprised that there were so many resumes for the full time professor position though, even in 2009. They usually struggle to find suitable candidates.
I am aware of them egomaniacs. So much talent wasted in Wall Street not building anything…don’t get me started on this.
I wasn’t going to spend all this time and money to get a PhD to compete so hard for a job. Plus I am getting too old for it. I say no regrets in life but some things just do not make sense sometimes.
What are those workarounds? Would you mind sharing?
Google blah blah blah Lifemiles blah blah blah trick blah blah blah SAW blah blah blah hits blah blah blah read blah blah blah be careful blah blah blah must be brave blah blah blah and quick blah blah blah pray too
What did you expect John, pics and arrows? 🙂
Last. The new First! 🙂
TBB always has the last word here 🙂
Kuula airlines is real – just flew them last week from JNB to CPT and back. It’s basically south Africa’s version of Ryan Air or Sun Country.
Cool. Planes look cool anyway, not sure about the Ryan Air African version though lol. Thanks.
Nailed the “entertain” on this one. I laughed at the dr pepper and the social media business lounge checkin. Funny stuff, back to back!
I’d love it if there really was a dr pepper card. It seems like everyone else is getting the own prepaid card these days.
Maybe I can have a TBB prepaid card? That is when the mother of all pimping will begin 🙂
Regarding the exercise video, remember the tip from Chubbs to Happy Gilmore: It’s all in the hips
Sure is lol.
I wonder if there are still people who don’t know how to load BB at Walmart with a gift card. I can’t wait for the recycled post on “How to apply for a Chase Ink Business card” with the giant arrows and circles. and without the recon numbers.
I am sure it is coming when….Chase raises the commissions for it 🙂