This has to be one of the funniest, most creative services that an Amazon affiliate provides. It works like this: Authors post their book on ACX with a brief script. Actors audition for the role and if approved share in the profits of the book.
I would narrate the book myself but TPOL’s Billy Crystal wit and Rodney Dangerfield sense of humor doesn’t come out over audio. If you think you got what it takes to go to Hollywood, feel free to audition here.
The whole thing reminds me of this Seinfeld episode:
As a former professor of Anti-Terrorism law, I am an expert on the subject and should really be on CNN giving my two dinars worth on defeating extremism. My experience flying as an Arab (Iraqi Catholic) is not unique to me. Fellow bloggers (Muslim Travel Girl and Travel Summary) have shared similar stories.
As a child, I always went through security separate from my parents because their passport said ‘Birthplace: Iraq’ while mine said United States. Sorry mom, enhanced interrogation techniques is not a family affair. You and dad are on your own. Minutes or hours later, their bags disheveled but their dignity still intact, my parents finally made it through security. I hope they let you keep the curry you bought from the bazaar. It smelled suspiciously delightful.
Then September 11th happened. After that, it didn’t matter if my passport said United States or if my name was Alexander Smith instead of Bachuwa. All TSA saw was a young, handsome ‘Arab looking’ man. This meant that I was entitled to VIP treatment.
Here is what that entailed:
After walking through screening machine:
TSA Agent: Sir you have been randomly selected for additionally screening.
Agent: Sir, we are going to run your bag again through the machine.
Me: How personal!
Agent: Sir, I need to swipe your hands.
Me: How thoughtful to make sure I wasn’t exposed to explosives.
Agent: Sir, thank you and have a great flight.
Me: Who else gets that sort of red carpet treatment?
And off to the gate I went.
Being angry would have done nothing to stop this ‘random screening’ from occurring. In fact, I try to be all smiles before making my way to security in anticipation of the bullshit that I am about to endure. Terrorists have that stern, serious look, a dead giveaway that they are plotting something. Maybe if I’m happy and easy-going, the agent checking my passport will see that I am not one of them. My field tests have shown that this approach doesn’t work.
Maybe if I sign up for Global Entry I can avoid the hassle of extra screening. Global Entry makes it unnecessary for the government to spy on me since I’m voluntarily giving them access to all of TPOL’s deepest, darkest secrets e.g., I once got a speeding ticket going 50 in a 35 when I was 16. The first time I used Global Entry I was stopped for ‘random screening’. The last time I flew I received extra, extra screening thanks to the Superman SSSS tatted on my chest. I hope they enjoyed running all my electronics one at a time through the x-ray machine. My poor Jambox always has to suffer invasive touching on account of my ethnicity.
Even if I could rationalize the need for extra screening at international airports, I still can’t figure out why I was stopped (with TSA PreCheck) at the tiniest airport. All I could do was laugh.
And that’s my point. If you are of Arab descent, Muslim, or if you’re from South America and happen to look like you could be from Yemen, be sure to pack your sense of humor before you arrive at the airport. Like many of us who have gone through the charade of airport security, you too will be subject to VIP treatment and it isn’t because you are flying Etihad Apartments. It’s because you look the way you do.
I used to think that I was performing my civic duty by dealing with this nonsense. My reasoning was that many terrorists today are of Arab descent and their actions eliminated the benefit of the doubt for people who look like me. If I have to endure a few minutes of embarrassment in the interest of national security, so be it.
The truth is profiling does not keep us safer. It wastes the time of law-abiding citizens. It is predictable and misguided. While Mr. TSA is running chemical experiments on my carry on, the Scooby-Doo perpetrator is sneaking by checkpoints disguised in a blond wig and hipster lensless eyeware.
Maybe somebody should stop him for being a douche bag.
For the past few weeks our way of life has been under siege. It started with the Serve shutdowns, continued on with the Hyatt DSUs expiring, grew more complicated with Chase’s churn crackdown, and culminated with the AA deval. Besides wishful thinking about Anbang still buying SPG, there is little to write about in the world of points. Although I still have some mins to hit, I am enjoying what feels like the off-season in terms of juggling all aspects of the points process.
With no imaginary trips to plan, I am able to see how much time and energy this pastime requires. While it makes for great blog content, keeping up with the latest news, getting the latest offers, and making reservations before devaluations strike is more than a part-time job. I can almost see why those outside of our industry think that we are crazy. Then I look at my upcoming trip to Tahiti which starts on Emirates Shower Class and realize that they are the crazy ones for not getting in on the action.
Per usual, when there is no breaking points news, TPOL goes back to Trip Report writing, a cathartic exercise for validating the points hustle process.
Does anyone have anything good to say about British Club World? It doesn’t seem so. The title of Gary’s post Just How Bad Is British Airways Club World is another chapter in the series of not so great reviews of British business class. After reading a review for the Grand Hyatt Cannes and the great perks for Hyatt Diamond, I began to think about my round trip ticket from South of France with a return from Milan on British for 30k Avios + $800.
When I booked, I had the choice of flying American or British. I scoffed at the idea of flying a US carrier and even paid a few more dollars to fly BA. Now, with one bad flight review after another, it seems like a made a mistake. If I had to do it over again, I still would fly BA there on the A380 but return on American. At least I would be able to try two different products instead of repeating, if the reports are true, the same mediocre experience twice.
Now I’m wondering if I should use Avios to upgrade to first class, try to call terrible British customer service and switch my return flight to AA (without paying a change fee), or stop being a baby and endure the grave injustice of a round trip business class flight for the decent deal that I paid.
Concurrently, I implore bloggers to stop writing about how awful Club World is. Alternatively, maybe BA can stop sucking.
December 2015: 14 dead in San Bernadino, California
January 2016: 13 dead in Istanbul, Turkey
March 2016: 5 dead in Istanbul, Turkey
March 2016: 31 dead in Brussels, Belgium
And those are just attacks in the West. The list goes on indefinitely if it includes terrorist attacks in the Middle East, Africa, and beyond. Bombings in Lebanon receive little coverage, slaughters in Iraq are attributed to sectarian violence, and strife between Israel and Palestine is reported as an election issue, not a humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, rampant killings by Boko Haram are overlooked because the world chooses to ignore Africa.
In Belgium, there is a community of young, disenfranchised Arab men who have not assimilated into European society. They live in low-income communities and are angry and resentful of the status quo. These weak-minded individuals are easy prey for radical clerics who promise salvation if they will go to the Middle East and fight for the caliphate. Some of these men who were petty criminals in Belgium return from Syria as jihadi fighters, even more convinced than ever that they are carrying out a higher calling. By then it is too late. There is no amount of intelligence or international coordination that can thwart their plots. It no longer becomes a matter of if but a matter of when and where there will be devastation. Meanwhile, the world watches in horror as more innocent people are killed.
At some point, there has to be an honest evaluation for how to end such bloodshed not only in the West but also throughout the world. At some point, the civilized world has to understand the basis of radicalization instead of simply believing it to be a war of good versus evil. Affiliating killers as members of a particular group does not explain the motivations of the actual actors involved. Designating killings as a terrorist attack does not make the tragedy more understandable or future ones more preventable. At some point the world must ask why there are men on the battlefield. Only after that question is answered can extreme ideology be defeated.
I’m not sure what’s going on with my Hyatt account. This is the second time that I have received a notification that clearly was not meant for me. It says that the confirmation number for a reservation and the dates. The email came from consumeraffairs@hyatt.com and somehow ended up in my inbox. I feel like I’ve been sent to the principal’s office and am checking my account to see if any of my reservations have been affected. Everything seems normal there.
Points enthusiasts and sports enthusiasts have a lot in common. There’s the glory from booking an award redemption right before the devaluation cutoff and the agony of defeat from believing that a good deal has been locked up. (reference Northern Iowa who had the worst meltdown in the NCAA ever or Michigan State as examples of good things gone bad)
I started feeling good about myself when I heard that Anbang trumped Marriott’s offer to kill my favorite points program. The buzzer had not sounded as Marriott had until the 28th to counter. It only took them a couple of days to do so. Now, once again, the wind has been taken out of my sails.
Is this merger going into overtime? Or is this the end of the Cinderella dream of keeping Marriott, the Duke of hotel chains, from taking down a mid-major.
Woke up this morning ready for the new American Airlines to take flight. Step 1 was to check my shiny, new AAdvantage balance to see the treasure trove of miles. AwardWallet showcased the demise of Dividend Miles. However when I went to American Airlines, the balance had yet to update. I’m slightly nervous as to how smoothly this transition will go especially since my British Avios have disappeared, hack or no hack.
I’m sure eventually the miles will show up making me feel good about having hundreds of thousands of miles that can take me anywhere around the world.
That feeling will quickly pass when the inevitable AA devaluation hits leaving us all scrambling for Etihad Apartments from JFK to AUH. The fact that I still had any US Airways miles in my account means I did a poor job of following my own advice: Shut Up And Book!
So before every blog goes crazy and condemns this for profit airline for making our miles worthless, ThePointsOfLife recommends spending a few minutes planning imaginary trips for when disaster strikes.
That was posted on March 28th, 2015. TPOL isn’t psychic. We’ve all been in this game long enough to know that devaluations are inevitable. What’s striking is how every merger promises more options for the consumers but without fail, within a year, there are always less. Luckily, we don’t have to fall for Marriott’s promises in 2016 only to be searching for aspirational bookings in 2017.
Do you know what time it is? Tell me do you know? It’s last call for alcohol and last call for AA bookings. While I have written that booking trips for the sake of booking may not be worth it in some circumstances, if you have any desire to go to Asia, I’d Shut Up and Book! today (or tomorrow). I’ve received many messages that Cathay first isn’t available but if you look hard enough you will come up with a suitable routing that can be changed when availability presents itself. Etihad Apartments from Abu Dhabi may be impossible at this point but perhaps a JFK-AUH route will open up tonight for a flight tomorrow in the event that a random trip to Abu Dhabi fits your schedule.
Cathay First for 22.5 hours (JFK-YVR-BKK) as part of the Year of the Monkey Trip Report. Cost Today: 67,500. Cost After: 110,000.
Cathay Business (SYX-HKG-EWR) for the Year of the Monkey return. Cost Today:55,000. Cost After: 70,000.
In total, these reservations cost 267,500-9000 (Citi AA rebate) or 258,500 AA miles versus 365,000 after midnight tomorrow. That’s a difference of 106,500 AAdvantage miles. This devaluation makes me so excited to circumnavigate the states on Allegiant in 2018.
Well I’ll be! TPOL turned two today. My Oscar acceptance speech won’t be brief so be prepared for mindless ranting where I thank people you’ve never heard of. First, I would like to thank Cindy in Chase retention for processing my credit card apps. Next, I would like to thank whoever works at the AA call center in Singapore for finding availability for Etihad Apartments. Last, I would like to thank my imaginary audience in 2014. I wrote posts for you believing that you were reading them even though my numbers showed that I had twenty views a day.
Two years later, I’m still here, and, for the most part, have stayed true to posting at least once a day. The next step in TPOL’s growth is to redesign my website into one that is more user-friendly and much more accessible. In regards to content, my objective, as it has always been, is to write entertaining content where points are used as the basis for adventure and exploration.
To commemorate today, I am reproducing my first post below. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
All this can be yours if the points are right . . .
It’s all well and good when every imbecile tells you of their great travels and then never reveals exactly how they get it done.
Well, I may be many things but imbecile I am not. I am going to provide the simple tutorial over the following posts in the Points101 section that shows you how I did the following for $275, all in business class.
