Weekend Update: OC and San Diego Meetups this Weekend, Chime Card takes 2 Weeks to Arrive, Staples.com Blocking Staples GC for Visa GC Purchases, Prettier Pages on TWG, and 2 Movie Trailers
Just a reminder, tonight is the OC Meetup at the Tustin District In-N-Out (link) and tomorrow night is the San Diego Meetup at the Starbucks/Sammy’s Pizza in La Jolla (link). Hopefully I will be able to meet some of you this weekend.
I’ve written about the Chime Card a few times (link), but it seems like this small company from Salt Lake City is over their heads. They are having a hard time keeping up with all the demand (thanks to FlyerTalk, MilePoint, and other forums) so your card may take up to 2 weeks to arrive. My dad ordered his Chime Card on the morning of July 9…
On July 21, Chime sent him an email telling him his new Chime Card had arrived. Only problem, his Chime Card had not arrived yet.
A few days later on July 25, he received another email from Chime with a special $10 store credit (free money) at Walmart. Luckily, his Chime Card did arrive on July 25. If you ordered a Chime Card after July 9 and you have not received the card yet, it should be on its way to you soon. Just try to be patient. It is worth the wait.
I currently have a $20 Staples gift card and I was trying to use it online to purchase $200 Visa gift cards (which I have done with gift cards many times in the past). Seems like Staples.com has updated their website to block Staples gift cards from being used to purchase Visa gift cards. Can anyone else confirm this is not working on your side?
This morning, I spent a few hours working on my blog pages (the main headers you see at the top of every page). I had neglected the pages for a long time and finally sat down and updated the pages with new links. Here are a few of the new pages:
Last night, I went to the movies with my parents (I know, I know, I’m very cool) and we saw A Most Wanted Man, which is Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last film before he passed away. It is very good spy thriller involving Germans, American, and Russians. Here is the trailer:
One of the other movie previews that caught my attention is a foreign film called A Five Star Life that talks about the life of a professional hotel reviewer who travels around the world and reviews very high end hotels (I’m sure some of you can relate).
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great weekend everyone!
P.S. According to webmaster.net, my site is worth $20,520. I will gladly sell my site to the first person who offers me $20,520 :)
Unless my errands take up all my time this afternoon, I’ll be there! Looking forward to travel and miles tips!
Excellent, hopefully you can make it!
Maybe once they get this high-speed rail built I’ll be able to attend one of the meet ups until then its just too long of a drive from Fresno and back again. $20520 sounds like a steal. The information you have put together alone is worth more than that. Then you have the extra information from your conversations in the comments section where you literally answer every question posted to you within hours if not minutes. Lol the best answer to a question was when a reader asked you if cantalopes were still selling for .79 at Raulphs. But getting back to what I was talking about I guess most of your blogs value comes from you. I can find most of the info I find here on other sites but not without feeling like the sites owners are only trying to make a buck off me by using their sign up link. Here I feel like ur out to help and educate ur readers. There is nothing worse than asking a question on a site and not getting a response from the writer or worse yet asking a question and getting ripped on like on flyertalk.
Thank you for the compliment Raul. Like I’ve said before, if you take the time to leave a comment or write me an email, I will make the time to read and answer your question. Any chance you will be at any of the upcoming travel conference this year? I will be at three of them. For the record, I hate cantaloupes and wouldn’t buy them even if they were selling for a penny. Have a great weekend!
Hey Raul, I’m in Fresno too (well Clovis) and have been looking to meet others in the MS game. Please write me and maybe we can exchange tips. pridesites – at- Hotmail
Thanks
Where would I find a list of dates and locations for the conferences? Unlikely though, not much me time these days with work, kids, and of course planning and researching next trip. Today I’m gonna look into my options on using arrival plus card and venture card points on vacation to Maui next year. I already have taken care of tickets with BA card also have 3days worth of hotel stays @ the Andaz thanks to Hyatt cards 2 free nights and points+ cash. Rental car is taken care of as well. I will likely use the arrival or venture points to pay for a fourth night stay maybe in Hana. I would like to use the remaining points to pay for activities while in Maui like snorkeling. What would be the best strategy for this? Should I attempt to book through the hotels to try and ensure costs go thru as travel expense via hotel charge. My fear is of directly booking with a company that will not show up as travel expense. Any suggestions? Would love to get tips and advice from those who have been to Maui as well.
I really recommend using Groupon and other deal-a-day sites when you are in Hawaii. When I was in Honolulu/Oahu, I found a few great deals for BOGO or discounted tickets for circle island tours, beginning scuba diving, catamaran rides, bike rentals, etc. You might be able to book thru the hotel, but you will not get as good a deal as going through the deal sites. I would also check out Trip Advisor for activities that others liked, but may not be advertised anywhere.
As for the travel conferences, I will be at these events:
FTU Advanced in Chicago: September 26 – 28
Chicago Seminars in Chicago : October 17 – 19
#westcoastdo in Phoenix: November 7 – 9
All events start Friday evening (happy hour and social time) and end Sunday around 2pm so you can fly home the same day.
I SO wanted to go to the west coast DO but missed the tickets by a couple of hours. Someone needs to make a text alert system for that type of thing. :-)
I’ve considered the drive down to a meet up from Fresno. But it’s a long way. Although if I learned some “secrets” I imagine it would be worth it.
I learned about #westcoastdo from Twitter, so it helps to check Twitter frequently.
Did the Staples gift card work for lower-value Visa gift cards on Staples.com? Also, if you try buying something else on Staples.com (such as pencils for 65 cents), I wonder if that would do the trick. Another idea to possibly try: a Staples gift card has a high enough value that it can cover the entire bill. I wouldn’t jump to conclusions too quickly, there’s got to be a workaround.
I will experiment around and see if any of those things work. I also heard that trying a different web browser might work, but haven’t tried that yet either.
The last gc order at staples I applied a $50 gc and then noticed they changed my cc the full total. No notices or reason. When I called they said they are no longer allowed. Since I threw it away they had to reissue me a new gc. Guess they are cracking down
What day and time did you try to use your Staples gift card to buy Visa gift cards?
Grant,
Yes you are right, All these days I have been buying Visa gift at Staples.com using staples gift card and today it didn’t work as it worked in the past. Stapled updated their website, Even I tried adding a some other item to a gift card purchase to see the website enables me to pay using staples gift card but I couldn’t.
Bummer, it was such a nice trick while it lasted. I’m stuck with a $25 Staples gift card now :(
I also am getting blocked from using a Staples gift card to buy a visa gift card. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
All good things come to an end :(