Gems from the TBB Comments September 5 -15, 2014

that was a nice 2 month break we had during the non-affiliate days when nobody bothered talking about the centurion lounges

Of course, Platinum link displayed prominently at beginning of the post. AMEX MB card nowhere to be found. And enough pictures to make MMS blush – because when Amex is paying as much as they do for those Platinum clicks, you’ll put in a step by step 40 picture instruction on how to find the lounge. “Follow the signs” apparently is not sufficient

TBB: Not a day goes by without me having this thought: “Did I close the garage door?”

RIP Amazon Payments

Scott: Shit has gotten way out of hand the last couple of years. Some great bloggers have sold their souls, miles have been so easy to get we’ve seen massive devaluations so companies can balance the liability on their books, and award availability is tightening up. I almost welcome things getting harder. There are too many hogs at the trough.

Adam K: Lucky’s latest post may have set a record: 36 affiliate links, all under the guise of answering a reader question. The best part? The Google-search-grabbing headline: “Collecting Miles As A Beginner”. I think even my eyes started bleeding (maybe he’ll recommend a credit card for that too?)

IHG Rewards Free Nights, US Air off Peak Awards, Plink, North Korea Panoramas, American National Parks, Portugal, Best Personal Finance Links & Advice, Baddest Blog Buzz

Selected comments from TBB Troll Rick/ingy/FTG posing as “Fan of Mommy Points” this trolling day: Your blog is about using the facade of telling jokes and laughing while truly it is about slamming others. even your Jonestownlike followers can see that. quit hiding behind that line of BS. You are jealous and angry and too late to the party to cash in.

and

Your massive inferiority complex and lack of self esteem shows on a daily basis here. Hell, you won’t even post your name??? And it is common knowledge that those that resort to tearing down others, do it to feel better about themselves.
Does it make you feel better to criticize others George? It sure seems like that is the thrust of your efforts.

icicle: What George does is SNARK. I feel as if people do not understand the different between snark and verbal abuse. When George feels like he goes over the line, he does apologize. I’ve read it.

TBB: TBB is ALL about SNARK. TBB reviews blogs and picks the best and the worst. And packages the worst in an…entertaining manner. They are businesses. TBB is like the Yelp and SNL of miles/points blogs (just made that up…I like it!). I have nothing personal against anyone (except two). Don’t take anything personally and ignore me. Or you can improve (if you can) and try to climb out of the Ignore Blog list….yeah right, like that would happen. Until then they keep pumping credit cards every day which bothers the hell out of me as this hobby was NOT like that. Now we have hundreds of blogs selling bank products and going on national TV and not calling it like it is…”My blog is about selling credit cards” and all this is NOT free…

Jules Vern: He’s raised awareness of practices within this hobby of ours, and I give him a whole lot of slack because of it.  [Yeah but would Jules give TBB his Amazon links? lol]

AA Miles to Europe, Nightline & Mommy Points, Miles and IRS, Mount Blanc, Scotland, Italy’s Coastline, North Korean defectors, Stasi, Angry Blog Buzz!

harvson3: In reading these blogs, George, you’re just reading ads. Dan’s comment warrants re-posting: they’re just well-paid amateurs writing advertising for banks. And they have no (financial) incentive to change.

Michelle S: Watched the MommyPoints thing on ABC and it didn’t sit too well with me either. Aside from there being a huge conflict of interest duping newbies into signing up for credit cards a lot of the stuff she claimed is FREE really isn’t. For example:

The United Club: NOT FREE. Yes, there are targeted offers with the United Club card that gets you in for the FIRST YEAR, after that it’s $495. The United Mileage Plus Explorer card only comes with 2 passes. They were traveling as a family of 3. There are other free ways into the United Club (shhh!), but they have nothing to do with credit cards.

FREE Upgrades and Status on United: Where do I even start? Again, not FREE! Not even close to free. You earn status by flying on REVENUE tickets (i.e. you pay for them). I also believe they were flying on paid tickets that day.

The hotel she stayed at was a prize from winning a some sort of travel contest? WTF? What does that have to do with travel hacking or rewards credit cards? But ok, that might have been the only thing that was FREE.

As a MSer I about died when she took the camera crew to the gift card rack at the grocery store, but luckily she didn’t reveal anything. There’s no way you’re going to fly your whole family to Paris in First Class by buying Outback and Sephora gift cards. But what if people believe that?

The entire presentation was very disingenuous I felt. She sells credit cards for a living, credit cards with one-time sign-up bonuses that might get you a domestic saver ticket…if you’re lucky. Without churning and/or manufacturing there’s simply no way to get there from here. In the meantime she’s earning a HUGE commission and freebies from the credit card company which I guarantee you helps fund much, if not all of her travel. I’ll give Nightline credit for it being a relatively interesting human interest piece (or at least for me as a fellow “mommy” frequent traveler) in which she comes across as a very likeable person, but for those of us who know better, it’s just so, so dishonest.

 

Dia: It was the word “free” over and over that got to me. Besides the examples you mentioned, the piece just raised the expectations so high and placed the amount of work required so low as to be laughable. Heck of a marketing coup, though. Good for her.

TJ: I liked the valuation of 3 United Club mini muffins at $15.

TBB:Maldives trip report is coming I hear…Because, you know, this is what brings families together…for FREE   Now let me go and do some…”stacking” lol.

 

 

TBB Comments are an essential part of the TBB “experience”. Just made that up!. Get your mother in laws to click my links lol.

 

 

 

Check out my updated blog lists: Blogs I Love, Blogs I Like, Blogs I Ignore

Thank you for reading and supporting my blog!

Please pass my blog link to your friends and family if you think they will enjoy it too.

 

TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com

Join over 3,065 TBB followers on Twitter @ FlyerTalkerinA2 and add TBB on Google+