First, Happy New Year to all of you who are reading this! It is an honor you choose to stop by here and read whatever I post! I used to do a “Voices in my head” type column where I would just type whatever came to me…So consider this one of these posts.
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First, the announcement: No, I am not adding a bunch of writers to just pump up stuff to increase my page views/$$. I am retiring myself from TBBing here in the weekends! At least until the end of tax season.
At some point during the year I am going to go to Greece with my brother to help move our mother to a smaller place without lots of stairs. I have no idea how I am going to keep up this blog then.
This hobby has changed so much over the the last several years. It has become almost non recognizable to me. All the easy “scores” have been dramatically reduced, devaluations have been unrelenting, booking awards has gotten excruciatingly harder, the move to revenue based earning is almost complete and move to revenue based burning is not that far away. So many of the old regulars now know much better to shut up because credit card salesmen masquerading as “experts” are lurking to share pump more plastic to their unsuspecting readers.
I have no international trips set in 2017. This is very weird to me. I am really dreading to sit down to book me an award as it is becomes so frustrating and, frankly, I don’t have the time anymore. Missing the wonderful Northwest Airlines Platinum Elite agents in the Chisholm, MN call center is an understatement, they never let me down.
I just don’t think both JetBlue and Alaska Airline will survive on their own in the next two years. I think Southwest may pursue them. I have no basis on this, just my gut instinct. Hey, I am no thought leader!
The highlight of my 2016 travel was my trip to Iran. With the types coming in with the Trump administration, I feel so much better visiting this country already!
Do you like my blog lists? Any comments on them? Any blog/site to add? Make your best argument in the comments. I have taken a few down from the Blogs I Like list and a few more may not be included sometime in 2017. One in the Blogs To Ignore list has died apparently. In the Blogs I Love list, I am not sure when Yomadic will post next #hint.
On Saturday I started reading this article titled The Last Unknown Man. And I just could not stop! It is a story of a man who had no identity whatsoever…If you have time for a long read, you may enjoy it as much as I did.
I rely on you for some of the content that appears here, please help out. It may not make it into the blog but it will be considered of course. Links to worthy posts, inside knowledge of the industry and blogs, even guest posts of stuff that adheres to the blog mission and whatever else you can think of.
Having Christmas and New Year fall on a Sunday…it was weird.
I can’t wait to see Martin Scorsese’s latest film “Silence”.
Remember, bloggers are not your friends. They are after clicks/$$ primarily. They don’t look out for your benefit, they place their own benefit pockets first. The big money in this space is in selling credit cards…to the masses! I know I am preaching to the choir here…
I wonder if I will ever get an offer to sell my blog so I can then start another one and hire Julian The Devil’s Advocate away from The Points Chase Guy.
I think my son may be finally done writing that post about his time in Hong Kong, fingers crossed.
The miles points blog space is excruciatingly tiresome and boring lately. Not much to blog about so all bloggers just grasp anything they can find and make a blog post about it. To me, that is showing disrespect to your readers and their valuable time. I mean, come on, do they have to read some stupid incident aboard an airplane?
I swear, many bloggers would be better off in the long term if they applied all the time they spend on becoming a Titan blogger to something more worthwhile. Aaaah, I don’t know, maybe advancing their career, focusing on improving their marriage, making time for their kids, improving their health.
This blog, to this day, has been a labor of love for me. Yes, it hurts when I see days with absolutely no clicks. Yes, it does help to see actual clicks, it’s like psychic rewards showing me that someone really cares. One day I will get bored with it, my mother will fall ill, or links are taken away and this blog will likely go to a once a week rant. We are not there yet…
To all who have supported this blog I thank you so much. If we meet in person, please remind me!
A huge thank you to Mrs. TBB who has tolerated my crap over the years. And still does! You should thank her too for allowing me to TBBuzz it for over four years! This was supposed to be a joke for three months, it is pretty shocking to me I am still here! And I can assure you it is NOT the $$ clicks lol. Deep down I like it!
Okay, let me reveal something personal. Remember last year I was having some issues with my health and was paying visits to hospitals for some tests? Well, it was confirmed I have “tinnitus“. Yeah, I had no idea there was a medical term for buzzing/ringing in the ear! Maybe it was caused by too much TBBuzzing around here, hehe. Anyways, my right ear is messed up. The buzzing is constant. Due to “moderate to severe” hearing loss. Apparently, not much I can do and I am getting used to it. Al the concerts and loud music I enjoyed over the years finally caught up with me. My mother’s screams over my loud music “you will go deaf one day”…apparently hit home. Moral of the story: Listen to your mother. But nothing else more serious is involved, thank God!
I splurged for a private event at the Detroit Auto Show with my Amex Platinum card. It involves Wolfgang Puck doing a private reception for us, I will tell him to fix me a sandwich. It also includes an all day pass to Press Day among other cool things. I am going to produce a blog post about that I hope. I was told by a friend who is an auto company exec that Chrysler usually has the best food and Fiat the best looking models #winning.
Happy New Year to all from us!
And this would not be a TBB post if I don’t leave you with this..A silly gif of course!
Check out my updated blog lists: Blogs I Love, Blogs I Like, Blogs To Ignore
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First in 2017
Happy New Year !!!
deuxieme 🙂
Troisieme
Checking in to see if ScottCastle is up yet 🙂
You all enjoy the new year 2017….Trump and all…
I am at my local Starbucks plowing through the million things on my to do list #yearend #quarterend #theendisnear
I was planning to be first for 2017 but I had to fly round trip to London to ticket my Garuda CGK-AMS first class award. Now I have to work on my positioning flight to from the Midwestern US to CGK. This is going to be totally worth it! I love spending more time on a plane than at my destination!
Lol…well played Sir!
This may be the first substantive post of 2017.
I saw on the news last night:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-01/canadian-police-charge-alleged-drunk-sunwing-airlines-pilot/8156714
that a pilot for Canadian Sunwing Airlines was found passed out drunk in the cockpit of a 737 scheduled to fly with almost 100 people on board. (Or as they say in the biz “Souls on Board”, which seems an apt description in this case).
What struck me about the segment was that they said the pilot had three times the legal limit of alcohol in his system. Now I would have thought that the legal limit on alcohol in the system of a guy flying 100 people around was zero. This got me wondering if maybe there are possibly lesser charges if someone flying 100 people in a 737 had, say, half the legal limit-maybe flying while impaired instead of intoxicated.
Then I thought maybe the best place to turn to get clear on this topic would be one of the Titans. I recall one or two of them who really don’t like government regulations, and I figured maybe they could outline which rules we need on drunk pilots, and which ones are just trampling our rights. And there’s some truth in that-if we just let pilots drink what they want, the free market will eventually reward those airlines that don’t hire alcoholic pilots since those of us who are left will be the ones who flew those airlines.
Of course other Titans could take a different angle and score the airlines on whether they offer pre-flight drinks, though scores will probably be based on the Dom in first class, not the cock pit.
Happy New Year indeed to Buzz and all his readers. And especially to Mrs. Buzz for her indulgence.
I hope this is sarcasm. The legal limit is the legal limit (.04 BAC or 8 hours “bottle to throttle, whichever ends up being more restrictive in a particular case.). Having a punishment for 1/2 the legal limit would be like giving someone a ticket for doing 48mph in a 55mph zone.
Well, not really. My understanding of the law for operating a car is that there is a legal limit beyond which the driver has been “driving while impaired”, and a higher limit beyond which the driver has been “driving while intoxicated”. The latter is far more serious, but unlike going 48 mph in a 55 mph zone, both are crimes.
But you’re right-I was being sarcastic. My point was: Why isn’t any alcohol in the system of an on-duty commercial pilot cause for immediate termination and revocation of license? I guess there’s some logic to a lesser charge for driving a car since you can only maim or kill yourself, your passengers and handful of people. But to have tolerance for someone with a 100 passengers in his hands seems foolishly lenient.
See you in the morning, chief.
Well Sam, it only took a few hours for the Travel Thought leader Gary Leff to see this here and make a blog post about it…this time did not even HT….Alan H. lol.
Now watch how that Tagging Miles blogger link to this story praising the awesomeness of his idol again…
In other words…new year, same old blogging 🙂
Gary wrote to the point that the guy was caught before takeoff so the system works. True but irrelevant to me-he was sitting in the cockpit passed out. Would we feel safer if he was only slurring his words a little?
Correcting my prior post, I should have referenced Krug rather than Dom for the pre-flight drinks.
Whenever I see these DRUNK PILOT stories, I always flashback to my many layovers drinking (code name in the industry, DEBRIEFING) with the crew.
Here is a secret you will not read in those stories, but I saw this so so many times up close and in person. Also I couldn’t even venture a guess how many F/A’s, male and female, came to work an early morning flight still loaded. I got sick of doing/covering others people’s work because of this. But at least we did not have people’s lives at stake.
What I am trying to say Buzz, it is all about SEX. Bet you my last Avios that the drunk pilots were hooking up or trying to hook up with one of the F/A’s (most likely a new hire).
Whenever I see these DRUNK PILOT stories, I always flashback to my many layovers drinking (code name in the industry, DEBRIEFING) with the crew.
Here is a secret you will not read in those stories, but I saw this so so many times up close and in person. Also I couldn’t even venture a guess how many F/A’s, male and female, came to work an early morning flight still loaded. I got sick of doing/covering others people’s work because of this. But at least we did not have people’s lives at stake.
What I am trying to say Buzz, it is all about SEX. Bet you my last Avios that the drunk pilots were hooking up or trying to hook up with one of the F/A’s (most likely a new hire).
Sometimes I wish I was a flight attendant
“…it is all about SEX”
A long long time ago, when I was only a “Loco in training”, the family would fly out of TIJ to ZIH where we had access to a condo at Las Hadas. Always flew AM (which dad called AeroBurro) because MX (remember them?) had once lost his shotgun.
Anyway, sitting in the restaurant at TIJ one trip and the booth next to us is a group of three AeroBurro pilots. Fairly loud, talking about who knows what because my Spanish then, as now, was pretty darned bad. As we’re getting ready to go, I notice there are at least 3 shot glasses in front of each one — and the bar maid is bringing them another round.
Two of those pilots flew us to ZIH…
Wow! Yikes!
Last night my brother in law had booked a room at the Intercontinental in Managua for New Year’s Eve. They lost his reservation so they gave him the presidential suite, which was apparently the only room they had available. Not a bad way to end/start the year.
Indeed, wow!
Happy new year, George!
Are those Del Mar blinds on each side of your front door?
Actually, it is my neighbor’s house. Mine does not have blinds, I can’t afford them #notreally
Wish you the best year ever.
Then again, with Trump, good luck, we’ll need it!
Just got home from epic trip to six countries in 24 days with 4 and 2 yr olds. I am hurting in all the wrong places in my body but worth every miles and points. Used KE to fly from JFK to Seoul in J, stayed 4 nights and visited DMZ and few other interesting place. It was basically wife’s shopping trip to all things Korean. Then off to Tokyo for 4 days in KE in J. Stayed at Conrad Tokyo and they treated us really well with bay view deluxe room and all that fancy diamond shenanigans. Next leg was in air china in J from HND to AKL via PEk in Dreamliner. Love the plane, hate the service but no complaints as long as sleeping in a bed. Stayed one night at crownplaza in AKL. Next was air New Zealand j from AKL to Syd, one of the best flight experience (better than CX j or emirates J at least for me). Stayed at park Hyatt Sydney and was upgraded to opera deluxe room for all 3 nights. Next was qantas j from syd to Mel, really blew me off with amazing service for just over an hour flight. Full special and yummy meal, excellent service, amazing entertainment etc. Used DSU for two nights at GH MEL for amazing suite and views. Mel to Bali in jet star on cheap economy fare, nothing to compliant about. 3 nights at GH BALI using DSU and 3 nights at Conrad Bali. I love Conrad Bali due to location. Used Alaska 35k miles/ person to book Bali- hkg stopover-EWR in premium economy on CX. Stayed at GH tsim sha sui using another DSU for 3 nights.
Tiring, frustrating but as I mentioned worth every ultimate rewards points or free nights certificates from hyatt/ Hilton.
thanks for the update, we were all wondering how your trip was going, glad you are home safely, any good restaurants you can recommend, please post some trip pictures here, and food pics too alla Gary, how did you deal with jetlag, did you drink the water?
WOW, what an epic trip!
Pre-TBB, I used to love putting trips like this together…
Now I go to the bathroom and knock out 50 unread blog post backlog in Feedly #speedreading
Thanks for the wishes, Happy New Year to you too!
And happy new year, George!
Happy new year George!
Looking at the bright side, all this revenue based trend will probably purge a lot of the bloggers when all is said and done. Probably this hobby will in a way go back to what it was before, when one needed more expertise to make it work. That scenario will make it much less appealing to the masses
This was expressed here some time ago. I just don’t see it happening. I wish it was true…
Then again, things can dramatically change suddenly…
Hoping for the best while looking at other hobbies….just in case lol.
“A little voice inside my head said ‘don’t look back you can never look back'”… H/T: Don Henly, Building the Perfect Beast.
Sorry to hear about your affliction Buzz — a lifelong friend of mine has been battling it for almost 30 years now. His ONLY relief is acupuncture of all things.
@Nick/PFD — have a real love/hate relationship with the IC MGA. The food/bev outlets are good to very good but the prices are “I am on a UN expense account”. $5 for a Toña??? Several years ago they would upgrade Ambassadors to the Lounge floor. Guess that got to be too expensive so they created an “exclusive floor for Ambassadors”. The “exclusive” part was the sign in the elevator lobby “Ambassador Floor”. SMH. Will still stay there from time to time on weekends when they have a ridiculously low rate for the exec rooms (~$105/nt). Otherwise I live at the Princess Hilton — over 300 nites there in the past 10 years!
@Ali – welcome home. How was the Diamond treatment at the Conrad Bali? I’ve done the GH Bali (w/ DSU) and while it was a great stay, I’d like to try the Conrad.
Feliz Año Nuevo — last week in Central America for 3 months. On the road again…
Maybe I’ll try the acupuncture thingie, thanks! I have nothing to lose!
300 night in the same hotel, wow! Hotel should have a “GringoLoco” suite by now!
3 hour countdown: Lions vs Packers. Division championship on the line #exciting
It was Christmas peak time (Dec 24th-Dec 26th),used two different reservations, one night under Gold (mistake) and next couple of nights under Diamond. Was assigned King Deluxe room on ground floor during the first night. Room was OK, I like the options of staying on Ground floor (due to nearby kids club, pool and free food in lounge/restaurant and stayed there during the whole trip. They offered me to upgrade to the Ocean view deluxe room on 3rd/4th floor. I declined. Reason I like Conrad Bali better than GH Bali is close proximity to the local food/shopping/restaurants/massages. Bali Collection near GH was a big rip off. Also found a good uber driver after we arrived in Bali and hired him for our day trips to Besakhi temple, Rice fields tour, Elephant safari trip e.t.c. He was an excellent guide plus amazing person. I can provide his number if anyone is interested. He basically shield us from hawkers/local guides BS. Whenever I or Mrs needed to go out Kuta for shopping and other errands, he was mostly available as he lives in Nusa dua.
Happy New Year, George! Log time lurker, outta the shadows. Thanks for what you do (and thanx Mrs TBB for letting him do it).
Thank you, always nice to hear from lurkers!
You have an awesome year too!
Late entry.
Thanks Buzz, Scott, GL, Ramsey, Ali, awesome discussion here today. It is like our own mini version of FT.
I too have constant ringing in my ears, the sound is 9000 HTZ pitch. My fun story on it is the time I bought a new tv and almost returned it because of the high pitched sound even when it was off. After I wrote a lengthy nasty email to Visio, I unplugged it and figured out it was in fact coming from my own head! Another 10% added to my VA disability…
Thanks for your comment!
Very interesting. I have heard from other readers via email too, this is way more common than I ever thought!
Still learning how to cope with it, will try acupuncture next, why not!