We are talking about the coming HUGE changes in our hobby and blogosphere IF the rumors are true! Well, they are pretty much more than rumors at this point. Darkness is coming…
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I was cranking along minding my own business concentrating in getting Uncle Sam to part with more refunds for my clients while bitching about the mega anesthetic dose my dentist delivered on me at 8 am Monday morning and I get a tweet by reader yuneeq directing me to a thread over at the DansDeals Forums and telling me “New rumors that AMEX bonuses will be only once per lifetime starting May 1st. 100% Cashback looking very likely...” Well, I was busy and my first thought was “yeah right, just another rumor, this is just too massive to even comprehend”. Later on, when I had some time I looked at that thread and I almost had a heart attack. OMG, shit just got real folks. It APPEARS it is true! After May 1st, you can NOT get the signing bonus for the same personal amex card, only once per product! And then I left for my Monday soccer game in a daze and confused (happens a lot) contemplating the future of this space! My thoughts:
-WTFAmex? Are you going to take away my rights as a US Citizen to get your signing bonuses over and over again? That is NOT fair, I have been so faithful! I mean, I left you sometimes for Chase or Barclays or Citibank or US Bank or Capital One or Discover or Bank of America and have always used your cards faithfully. I even have your Bluebird cards and have been a cardholder since 1999. If that is not loyalty I don’t know what is! Your Blue Cash is my GO TO card I use it every day at drugstores (well one mostly), gas stations and supermarkets!
-You are totally going to disrupt the way I operate, come on! All the detailed records I have been keeping telling me all of your cards I had over the years and the exact dates I could apply for them again? How am I supposed to deal with this massive change? You are going to make me work harder for that darn retention bonus and lately you have been so stingy with them. I missed you like back in the good old days when you used to shower me with points for stupid stuff that happened which was likely my fault anyway.
-But it is not about ME Amex! It is all about my fellow bloggers who you have bought out and make them your bitch Amex. How are they supposed to pump your Amex cards to everyone who happened to have a good credit score? How are they going to feed their families? They may even stop blogging and telling their friends and family how to travel for free Amex, don’t be so cruel! These bloggers pump your cards like there is no tomorrow, don’t screw them like this. If they stick with blogging they may turn to Amazon affiliate links and cannibalize MY revenue Amex, come on now! They don’t want to go back to their cubicles Amex! They just want to make up a post and work in a few Amex links (the Platinum is their all time favorite I hear) to get someone to apply. You will now make them to go even lower and dumb down their content even more to appeal to newbies who have never applied for an Amex card before. The never ending search for newbies with no Amex, is this what we are about to face in this space? Help us Lord!
You can read more at this Dans Deals Forum thread and late at night I see Dan made a post about it.
If you really sit back and think about it, we live in the greatest country in the world in the US. A part of it is for some absurd reason banks have been showering us with ridiculous high miles/point bonuses to get their cards again and again. This does NOT happen anywhere else, USA is unique 🙂 I think we have gotten so used to it this is a shock to our way of life just like Delta shocked us by changing Skymiles to an earning system based on how much you actually spend. There is no doubt in my mind that we are on our way to a full revenue based system on the redemption side.
As far as the banks go, consider yourself fortunate if you have been in the game for years and have enjoyed yourselves. If these changes do stick (and they are indeed implemented in practice) the scores we used to deliver will be less in number and scope (hello coach to Austin or Orlando or Cancun) because it will cost many more miles AND signing bonuses by credit card churning will be less. So, what I have been saying here boys and girls, I look in my crystal ball and I see:
- Mileage Run? buhahahahahhhaha. Unless it is a ridiculously low mistake fare, no reason to bother anymore (unless you are a true road warrior close enough to a Diamond level Elite status)
- The game in town is manufactured spending
- The needle has moved over even more towards cash back cards
- Earn and burn burn burn (I need to work on that!)
- Bloggers who are not doing this full time should not quit their day jobs!
- Bloggers who get paid to sell Amex cards prepare to sell lot less of them unless you morph into a newbie hunter
- If these changes stick and you bloggers do not disclose this fact when you attempt to sell Amex cards, you have a free pass to the TBB Hall of Shame. Actually, maybe I should consider changing my “Blogs I Ignore” list name to “TBB Hall of Shame”. Sounds more dramatic!
Head for Points wrote a post about his thoughts on the Delta revenue based Skymiles changes and there is one line that I think is very important: “The US airline industry is only ever one crash or one terrorist incident away from total crisis” That is so true actually. We see what happens, time always tells.
A co-founder of First2Board, Lufthansa Flyer, has left to go back to Boarding Area!
I will do my best to bring the regular TBB Buzz post on Wednesday morning. Help me Lord and give me the strength to find the energy to entertain, educate and inform!
From yesterday’s post I still can’t get over the picture of the woman with the 800 condoms in a box. I laugh every time! I should learn how to do those Amazon product links and start working them in my posts. They have Ink Bold links, I respond with Durex condoms Amazon links, LOL! Every time I see an order of condoms come through I will smile and high five myself knowing that another TBB reader is just awesome…Feel free to buy 800 of them, woohoo! Ok, I need to wrap it up 🙂
This was my idea of a filler post!
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First?
Uncle Sam 🙂 Who’s that guy?
I hear there is a subset of population buying Vanilla Reload cards to avoid that Uncle 🙂 (not us, I am talking about drug dealers, etc.)
Congrats for being Number 1!
Oops, sorry I thought you had the typo and I edited it. I then saw what you were talking about…and fixed it, thanks!
2nd. After my busy season is over, I’ll be back on TBB posting my witty comments!
If I can do it, I am sure you can too! 🙂
Next time I’ll throw in some arrows to get you to pay attention to my tweets! 🙂
No need for arrows, you have my full attention 😉
You know what? Not really worried about it until I know a few certain details as they pertain to business accounts.
I am sensing Amex is dead serious about finally implementing like this and it will likely at some point affect business cards too. I sure hope not but I just don’t have a good feeling about this one. Besides, Amex computers can have a LONG memory…unlike Citi’s lol.
Do you really think this is such a massive change? After all, assuming this happened in the UK, I could still refer people for BA, SPG and Gold or Platinum, so up to 3 sales per person (x2 if the spouse gets in as well!).
In any event, if people churn the same card then they tend to start referring their partner back and forth anyway every 6 months and not using a third party link.
@Raffles, of course it’s a big change. The days of churning Amex are over. And other issuers are likely to follow. The days of blogsters pimping cards is coming to an end. And the sooner the better!
Will be interesting to see how quickly blogsters fold shop and go get a real job…
Amex is the only card company in the UK that allows churning anyway, so we are used to not having it.
If the UK bonus went up but churning was stopped I reckon, overall, I would be up. Plat, for example, is a hard sell given the fee with a 35k bonus but would be very easy at 50k.
There are some bizarre things US banks have been getting away with for years here. Maybe sanity is coming at last And that is probably a good thing for humanity but, oh boy, do I hate it? My way of traveling is going to be affected. There is only one escape: Cash Back cards 🙂
If I remember correctly, Amex also does a better job of maintaining a blacklist than any other financial services company, so if anybody’s going to make this move, they’re the ones to do it.
Most companies don’t like to store data for longer than a few years (unless it goes to a less accessible archive format) since it gets expensive and cumbersome. Of course, you wouldn’t necessarily need to store data since time immemorial to do this, but if you didn’t you would need to have an IT project to store the relevant data and populate the relevant systems, which would suggest that Amex has run the numbers and found churners are costing them enough $$$ for make this worth their while.
Will other companies have the management smarts needed to do this? I’m not saying they won’t but I wouldn’t bet on it either. (If you want to bet on Citi acting smart, then knock yourself out.)
Time will tell as always. I just do not have a good feeling about where this is headed. When you sit back and think about it this whole thing has been a giant deal for people who were disciplined, detail oriented and deal hunters like readers who read TBB. It is amazing it has lasted that long! With airlines moving to revenue based systems the economics is probably not behind it anymore along with Volker rules and not being allowed to do stupid stuff like they used to…I hope this was just a nightmare I woke up with and it’s not real. But it is…
There was a hint given out by one of the amex csrs that the company is working on something new (and putting money behind it). Not sure if that was the Everyday cards or something else.
Today MileValue was educating people on different ways to get to Alaska
he did mention that you can get the Frontier card to get there
But I feel like there was one card he oddly didn’t mention…. what’s the name of that airline that tends to have more flight to/within the state of Alaska than other airlines? It’s slipping my mind….
Delta?
Southwest?
No, no, no. it was some airline that sounded like a state and has a lot of flights to Alaska
Dang what was it again? Wyoming Airlines? New Mexico Airlines? New Hampshire Airlines?
Yeah that’s what it must be, New Hampshire Airlines! Man, that was eating me up all day
Amaaaaazing!
Amazing how bloggers suddenly discover a card (Hawaiian) and prepare long posts pimping for it. All of a sudden! I am sure they had other content to educate their readers but noooooooo, it is about the amazing Hawaiian card. This crap drives me crazy. And I use my blog to express myself! LIke MileNerd:
“It’s very sad when expressing how you feel is looked at as “different” or “strange” by even a single person…But for those who don’t get why I rant… you don’t have to read this blog. And you definitely don’t have to like it.”
and this:
“Too many of you are emotionally repressed and it’s scary. One way or another, you are ticking time bombs”
http://www.milenerd.com/2014/03/following-up-on-some-recent-posts.html
I wonder who he is talking about, hmmm 😉
I filled out my info on the FTG Tool
I mentioned I was a Dallas-based traveler, frequently traveling for business to Miami, New York and Chicago, and looking to redeem my miles for flights to London, Hong Kong and Doha
The tool recommended I sign up for the Hilton Reserve and CIP
I wonder if they will add the 2% Fidelity card as the cash back card the Tool supposedly recommends if you are interested…
I’ll make sure that happens just for you buddy.
If bloggers who push credit card affiliate links target newbies and newbies tend to have not previously applied for AMEX cards I don’t think this negatively impacts said bloggers.
Exactly. Ironically, it is people like Frequent Miler who may lose most.
I’ld say DP. First losing Chase and now limited earning capacity with AMEX.
I am afraid Raffles is right and that would be the most unfortunate outcome. I expect the pumping to reach deafening levels as most go back to their jobs and some morphing into NILFs (N stands for newbies).
If you are offended you are reading the wrong blog 🙂
On a related note, Dan was the first to break the news that citi thank you points can be converted to British Airways and SIngapore airline points!
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/20699
Wow, great way to act like a jerk. Mistakes happen, in that case the deal fell through, but was definitely under implementation.
As mentioned in the article, nothing here is 100% confirmed, but it sure as hell seems like it will be. I sure hope all the reps are wrong, but the odds of this news being wrong are probably comparable to the odds of hearing good news about MH370.
Banks can’t irrationally give out free money to their worst customers forever, and the writing has been on the wall for a looong time.
Thanks, very mature calling me a jerk. There are known journalistic approaches to get to the truth and confirm it. Why should we have such low standards for bloggers? Many influential bloggers have been wrong before (Lucky on AA fuel surcharge). Be VERY careful what you broadcast to the world and make sure that the person you are talking to has enough credentials to give you accurate information.
On a related note, ideas are dime a dozen. Please provide a reference for “but was definitely under implementation. “.
I had followed that. I also FELT that was a slam dunk to happen. It probably got nixed at the last moment by a Citi director who had a personal vendettta against the person who worked on this the most and wanted him/her fired…or something like that. I am surprised Citi has not done anything to really enhance TYPs
I respectfully disagree. If Dan as much as just caught a whiff of what appeared to be a very exciting development for our hobby, it was his responsibility to share it with the readers. Of course, all the usual disclaimers should be in place for such an announcement, which they were. As to “known journalistic approaches”… ever seen CNN? 🙂
I said your “acting” like a jerk. You attempt to embarrass him based on a blog post from over a year and half ago. There’s ABSOLUTELY no connection to yesterday’s post that should warrant your mentioning of it.
He’s been blogging for 9+ years with very few mistakes. That one was the worst, well, that’s because he never he had a chance to double confirm before boarding a flight. The source was someone he trusted enough to go through with the update that the transfers were live. There were signs leading up to it that the source was right. The reps were given a script discussing the ability to transfer points over to BA. That was confirmed multiple times.
You spew that he needs more integrity. Do you not understand his disclosure that the reports are not 100% confirmed? Yes, bloggers need integrity; that does not explain why some commenters think they don’t need integrity themselves.
Stay classy.
I am CERTAIN if we were all standing around and talking about this stuff there would not be any disagreement, especially if some beverages were involved. The lack of body language in online discussions make misunderstandings like this get a life of their own when the original intention was likely not there. Yeah, ABC just pointed to the fact about that Citi transfer news. I was almost certain that it was a go as I followed it very closely. Something must have happened at the very last minute. The disclosures were there, shit happens 🙂 Dan has proved he adds value and has built something remarkable over almost 10 years. Unlike some who just exist to pump 24/7. The disclosures are there about this Amex change too which I also think it’s a go. It’s been a fun ride. We adapt. I just came back from CVS with more cash back, thanks Amex:-)
You would never dare talk to me in person like that. I have pointed out facts and used logic. I don’t expect anything else in a civilized discussion. Sadly your comments don’t reach that level.
Perhaps it is time to quote the great papa Buzz “Some people hear what they want to hear, no point of communicating with them. Ignore them and you‘ll be happier”.
I have no doubt that you two would get along just fine in a face to face conversation. I have interacted with both of you here for a while. Body language is missing. We feel strongly about some things. Just let some things go.
Looking back I miss great papa Buzz and see his wisdom as I get older. At the time I did not understand it…and I feel kid of bad about that.
I do feel there’s a communication barrier between us.
George, I hereby volunteer you as moderator of our truce agreement 🙂
I declare a tie!
Sorry, but I think it is ridiculous to think that the USA airline industry is “only ever one crash or one terrorist incident away from total crisis.”
A mechanical/pilot error crash would barely affect ticket sales — maybe for a day or two, if it were particularly gruesome.
Because of the illogical way human beings react to terrorism, that would impact air travel more. But unless it was a systematic attack, I don’t think the impact would last more than a few weeks. People move on.
Ok, not about the crash sure. But a terrorist incident inside the US could have chilling effects. Remember what happened last time? That is why I don’t bitch about the TSA as so many other bloggers do. There has not been any incident since….the deterrent may had something to do with it…
I would ilke to know wtf happened to the Malaysian plane!
Nah! Amex used to have this policy, before they changed it to 12 months. Chase still has the same policy, yet the net is full of stories of Chase churning. Judging by what Amex reps tell people on DD thread, the folks who will suffer are those who apply and cancel, which is something they shouldn’t be doing anyway. So… Nah!
Time will tell. This is NOT good!
Of course, it isn’t! But seriously, their 12-month policy obviously hurts them a lot, because for many “professional” churners it’s just an invitation to the neverending cycle of open – bonus – close – lay in wait – rinse and repeat. I’ve always cautioned against closing the account after getting the bonus. Now we have the proof they do pay attention.
AMEX has a lot of cards, a couple years worth for newbies to chew on before they run out of cards to get for bonuses. I think bloggers that cater to newbies will still do fine unless Chase starts up the same thing and of course if both amex and chase actually enforce the rules. But Chase has a lot of cards to roll through before you have had one of everything and when you have they seem to always create new cards. I think a newbie will still be able to run for two years before they run out of cards to get bonuses on. As was referred to in above posts, if enforced this will affect the experienced players who have had every existing card the most.
We shall see how they implement this and we are hopeful. But based on what I have seen so far I think they are dead serious they are going to crack down. We need more banks to get in this game to shake things up!
Post on MommyPoints right now – “The Ultimate Rewards Triple Threat”
Holy ad nauseum Batman!
What a totally unique idea for a blog post! /sarcasm
Jealousy is such an amazing human characteristic to watch.
Oh there’s no jealousy there. I don’t envy what you bloggers have to do, but if you have a job to do you might as well do it well.
My comment was moderated on that post when I answered one reader’s question of whether it makes sense for merely a 75c return per day. I said that it made sense for the bloggers who are getting paid through affiliate credit cards.
“moderated” is one way to put it
“censored” is another
It’s what many of them do whenever they get called out
She should take a cue from “Mr. Fancy Pants”
The amount of pumping going on today has surpassed all previous records. I think I scared them all with my post today.
Meatball (leaner by 12 lbs and counting)
congrats on the weight loss. when u get to be old like “grandpa unstable” it gets even harder. I’m coming to realize why I like this blog. the rest of the game is getting so boring and there just isn’t enough jazz to talk about. You’ve got the jazz here buzz. It has no connection to reality or truth, but you’ve got the market cornered.
I’m thinking a new medium: reality TV
The Ranting Greek vs Unstable Gramps
week in and week out whining and complaining, doing nothing but bitchin’ about others and me trying to cool your jets and show a little compassion.
and think of the fight scenes over how many cards a newbie should get and where the disclosures should be AND the font size for god’s sake. You protecting those that are just too stupid to know better and me assuming they have some personal accountability of their own.
It’s a match made in heaven George. whatcha ya say buddy?
“Three wars back we called Sauerkraut “liberty cabbage” and we called liberty cabbage “super slaw” and back then a suitcase was known as a “Swedish lunchbox.” Of course, nobody knew that but me. Anyway, long story short… is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling”
– Grandpa Ingersoll
Please change it Steve to Unstable Grandpa
Did you see that Ingy is planning a FTG blog comeback? I LOLed when I saw the “exciting news” pop up in my Facebook feed. So much for being retired, eh? Does that mean that the crazy Grandpa Simpson rants will be moving from the TBB comments section to the FTG blog in the form of new and “exciting” posts? Goodie! Goodie!
A comeback? Nobody told me? I offered to mail in another post each week if that’s what you mean. The pay is great and spending my time reading the tabloid here is far from the truth and reality. Heck in half an hour, I can earn the meatball’s annual amazon income.
Mailing in ramblings and rantings twice a week can’t be very good for your legacy and admitting it’s gotta be worse.
Is “meatball” supposed to be an insult?
It’s not about legacy, it’s all about conversions;-)
“spending my time reading the tabloid here is far from the truth and reality”
Most things you do are far from the truth and reality
I suspect we won’t get a non-deflected response to Hua’s comment in yesterdays post?
Why did you talk about the Mommy Points post? You must be jealous Steve!
Following along the same logic, why does FTG (the person) talk about me all the time?
Hmmm…
Leaner meatball!
“Following along the same logic”
You should know by now that FTG doesn’t follow the same logic for himself that he does for others
Ingy jealous of TBB? How could he not be? Conversions are suffering so badly under the new editor that he has to come out of retirement in an effort to bring some life back into the blog. TBB, on the other hand, is breaking new records every day.
Last week (when he was still in retirement), he got paid for a post where he gave up his first class seat to a military serviceman. I hope no one missed that post. Nothing like getting paid to talk about what a great guy you are.
Stay tuned for next week’s post. He might donate his retirement salary somewhere and describe it in detail.
I was actually thinking of donating another $100 gift card to buzz readers 🙂 After your comment, I just changed my mind 🙁
Or, or maybe the numbers are so good, I’ll try to increase them even more. We even got some successful conversions from TBB readers it seems. I guess the thought that you whine is because your scores are so low you won’t qualify for cards. But at least some of you do 🙂
George when can we have another “toolgate” please
Well, guess I’m a day late on this one. With amex consumer cards out of the game, I guess its back to welfare fraud for me….
Lol.I am about to eat dinner….and can’t stop laughing. My kids are looking at me and they are saying “Dad is in the TBB comments again”.
The game in town is manufactured spending – oh yeah :)))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47dtFZ8CFo8&feature=kp
“We are safe and sound” Lol
Nah, don’t worry…. Gary told us this wasn’t a big deal, so it must be ok, right??
If GL was a stock analyst, I would sell when he said Buy and vice versa 🙂
Gary’s take on this was odd, if only because his first 3 points don’t apply to anyone in the know and the last point would be rated “mostly false” by Blog-o-fact.