Where has the time gone?!?
I started blogging here a mind-boggling 20 years ago on Black Friday, November 26, 2004. The date is easy to remember, I turned 20 that day and was spending the year on bochur shlichus, volunteering to teach and mentor at a school in Sao Paulo.
I told one of the kids I was mentoring, “Hoje é meu aniversário.” (Today is my birthday.) To which he responded “Em Portugues ou em Hebraico?” (In Portuguese or in Hebrew?). I never thought about why we call our secular birthdays an “English birthday” until then. 😀
Who could have guessed the chain of events that would be set off because the school couldn’t even afford to buy toilet paper? I shared a deal for free toilet paper with my friends and family and the rest is history.
Since that birthday, I’ve written about the ensuing 20 years plenty of times and had fun talking over just a small fraction on our first DansDeals podcast:
I’d certainly have laughed at you if you told me in 2004 that I’d still be blogging daily at the same site. I’d think you were even crazier if you told me that it would be my living and calling.
But I guess the signs were always there. I was born the Monday after Thanksgiving, now known as Cyber Monday, or the holiday of deals.
I was flipping baseball cards as a 10 year old. Selling beanie babies on eBay as a 12 year old. Freezing out in the cold on Black Friday as a 15 year old to flip items on eBay (thank goodness that can be done online now!). By 16, I was renting out 18 lines on a corporate cell phone account and negotiated a 50% discount with Delta and booked out an entire flight from LAX-JFK for my Yeshiva, saving everyone money while earning a boatload of miles and free tickets for myself in the process. And by 17, I took advantage of a now defunct eBay points program to rack up over 1 million miles with Cathay Pacific. And since then, it’s grown into an obsession to see how many millions of miles I can rack up and burn through each year. There are worse hobbies to have, no?
Sure, Dave Portnoy, it may be fun to rack up and hoard miles. But the real joy is in redeeming the miles! They’re not earning interest or becoming more valuable sitting in your account.
I’ve certainly been blessed with being in the right place at the right time so many times in my life and it’s amazing looking back at how all the pieces fall into place. Over the course of 20 years of blogging and traveling the world, every day I gain an incredible appreciation for the world and our part in leaving it better than we found it.
The fact that my hobby and job enabled me to travel to places I could never have dreamed of traveling to and do things I could have never dreamed I’d be able to do is something I never take for granted.
I’m thankful to G-d for helping me find my wife, Mimi, who now works beside me, day and night, allowing us to support our 4 precious children in the most unique of ways. And thankful to Mimi for encouraging me and giving her blessing to book last-minute glitches and mileage deals before jetting off to feed my need to explore our incredible world.
I’m thankful to my parents for making sure that I was always curious, questioning, and finding the most creative ways to figure things out. The “lechatchila ariber” mode that was a motto of the Rebbe Maharash, the 4th Lubavitcher Rebbe is how I try to live. It basically means not to try to solve every problem, but to act as if there is no problem in the first place and from that perspective, everything works out for the best. My parents taught me to always work hard because nothing worthwhile comes easy. And to always strive to be humble and appreciative of everything and everyone.
I’m thankful to my brother JJ, 6 years my junior, for helping me run this website for the past 11 years. He has now been running DansDeals with me for the majority of the site’s existence!
Thank you to @BAHayman for making sure our servers are always up and running at all hours of the day! And thank you to @Suave for his site design help!
To you, our readers, new and old, you make all this possible. I’m most thankful to you for coming along on the journey these past 20 years.
It’s surreal to see my story in publications like the Yated and the Ami. I hope the stories inspire others to live out their dreams and try to do good for the world at the same time.
JJ worked magic with some of our favorite brands and restaurants for weeks of awesome and creative giveaways, as our way of saying thanks for your loyalty and dedication.
And yes, you really are the greatest readers we could ask for.
And not just for voting as USAToday’s best miles and points blog. 😉
We are always hearing from readers about how DansDeals has helped improve their quality of life, which is amazing to hear.
2 years ago, the DDF community worked with Rabbi Grossman, the Chabad shliach in Fargo, to help him provide a Jewish Doctor with a proper burial. The note that Rabbi Grossman sent to me touched my soul.
It makes all of the long hours put into this hobby of love more meaningful.
The DansDeals Team includes my brother JJ and my wife Mimi, and I’m proud of our work fighting darkness with light by offering tefillin to men committing to praying in them daily, which is now known as Tefillin Connection.
It was inspired, of course by the Rebbe’s Tefillin Campaign for the Six-Day War and by a Tweet from a Chabad Shliach in the Caribbean and has turned into a movement that includes dozens of people working to verify requests, source and check kosher tefillin, and fulfill orders. JJ and his partner in running the tefillin campaign Yonatan Azrielant have spent many nights and countless hours speaking with team members in Israel, Australia, Thailand, South Africa, Argentina, and more to ensure everything runs smoothly.
I will get a pair of tefillin to the first person who commits to start wrapping every day in honor of our brothers and sisters in Israel.
— Avromy Super (@islandjew) October 9, 2023
While our original goal was to dedicate one pair of tefillin for every soul brutally murdered on October 7th, we were able to exceed that and turn the movement into two campaigns.
The original campaign to bring Tefillin to Jews around the world who committed to wearing them daily, and a campaign working together with the IDF to bring tefillin to soldiers working on the front lines have raised over $1.6 million to date!
Thank you for reading. For following on WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram, SMS, and Facebook. For downloading the DansDeals app and giving us 5 stars :D. For sharing your deals, experiences, and trip reports on DDF and the DDFB group. For telling your friends and family. For commenting and adding insight. For patronizing our advertisers and opening credit cards or shopping through our links that keep this site running. For sending me countless touching emails letting me know how DansDeals made a difference in your life, whether it was being able to take a special trip that otherwise would have been out of reach or even finding your soul mate through DDF! You make it all possible and worthwhile!
With prayers for the speedy release of all our brothers and sisters being held hostage and for peace in the Middle East and throughout the world. May this be a year full of miles, meaningful travel, great deals, good health, happiness, and true fulfillment for all, with all your heart’s desires for the good fulfilled!
Here’s to the next 20!
-Dan
