Newbies (& those who don't travel often) Archives

What Is Manufactured Spending And Why Do People Do It?

Manufactured spending. What does that mean? It’s not apparent from the name, but a good guess would be that it has something to do with spending money in relation to travel since I’m writing about it on a blog dealing with points, miles and travel.

I’m personally no expert on the topic. I know some of the basics of what’s involved in the process. I’ve dabbled with some of the more straightforward methods here and there, but I’m not a regular practitioner.

For those of you who know what manufactured spending is, there’s not going to be anything new in this article, unless you want to read someone who has a basic understanding of the topic explaining it to someone who has never heard of it before.

I don’t think there’s a set definition of manufactured spending or MS. My best attempt at it is that manufactured spending is any method used to spend money multiple times through a financial instrument, to earn some form of reward.

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Our Dinner Inside Disney’s Haunted Mansion, Woman Boards Flight With No ID Or Ticket, How To Prevent Items From Being Stolen At X-Ray, & More!

And BOOM, another month is done! Hello, November! Here are our most popular posts for October 2019. Some of them were actually written before October (heads up that rules and offers change and we can’t guarantee that those older ones are still accurate), so take a look to make sure you didn’t miss any of the good stuff:

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Expecting A Package While Away? Here’s What To Do For USPS, UPS, FedEx And Amazon

When you used to go on vacation, it was easy to put a hold on your mail delivery. You just told your friendly U.S. Postal Service mail carrier that you’d be away and could they hold the mail until you return next Monday. Problem solved. Personally, we just left a cardboard box under our mailbox inside our screened-in porch, since our mail carrier walked his route, door to door. Things aren’t that simple anymore. We hardly see our mail carrier because the mailbox is located five houses away from us and is for the twenty houses on our street.

In addition, not only do you need to alert the Post Office but what about those packages you’re expecting from UPS or FedEx, or your Amazon deliveries?

Here’s a guide to walk you through how to hold or redirect deliveries for when you’re out of town.

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Airline Boarding Groups: The Master List (Updated October 2019)

When you check-in for a flight, either by printing a boarding pass on your computer or by using a mobile device, you’re provided with a boarding group. This lets you know when you’ll be getting on the plane. Getting group 3 on one airline might be great but could be terrible for another airline.

Regardless of that number, just know you’re not getting on the plane when the boarding process starts unless you’re a super-elite frequent flyer or a disabled passenger in a wheelchair. The passengers with some sort of loyalty with the airline or one of their partners and the passengers who paid for first-class will go next. Why not stay seated until your group (or at least the one right before it is called) cause you’re gonna have a long wait just to have your ticket scanned and all you’re going to is stand on the jet bridge for a while before getting on the plane.

Just be patient and don’t be like the people in this video from JetBlue

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Learning How To Be A Tourist In New York City

New Yorkers are a breed unto themselves. We (yep, me too. I lived in Brooklyn until I was 10 and Staten Island until I was 35) have been described as:

Aggressive
Fast-paced a-holes
Self-centered and rude
People who know what they want and they won’t stop until they get it
Rude and distant
People who know where they’re going and don’t mind elbowing a few people on the subway to get there
To the point, no fluff
Nicer than you think 🙂

And yeah, at times, we really are all those things and more ;-).

The thing is, tourists have no idea of how to fit into the world of New York City and especially New Yorkers. And then, when they get into a New Yorker’s way, they hear about it. But fortunately, someone has taken the time to make a few video guides help tourists so they’re not subjected to the wrath of aggressive, fast-paced a-holes of New Yorkers ;-).

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