Busy day in the blogoshpere again today! The venom against Instagram continued and the company now changed its tune suggesting it may not sell user photos. What an amazingly stupid move by this company! And it looks like the TBB wrath is being felt more and more and many bloggers prominently featured the non affiliate 45k AMEX Delta Skymiles offer to our complete shock. Just kidding…well, not really. You bloggers need to squeeze these offers once in a while to make you feel better right? For my readers, don’t bother with just 45k Delta miles, not worth it in my opinion, we WILL see higher offers, I guarantee it. And finally, almost every blogger felt to blog about the registration for the First Quarter 2013 5x categories for the Freedom Chase Card.
READER QUESTION: “I recently became Accor Platinum. In what programs can I status match easy (not referring to status challenges!)?”
TBB’s initial reaction to this question (Best Western) was not met with too much excitment from our kind reader. On Twitter, a follower said Club Carlson Gold and another one mentioned he was actually matched to Platinum by Priority Club. Any other ideas? Any specifics how to go about doing this? Please comment! And I would wait until early January to do this!
BEST OF
Frequent Miler wrote “5X, in perspective” In a nutshell, playing the game to meet minimum spend for signing bonues works BEST with cards offering the highest bonuses. And of course 5x works great too! On a personal note, today I had my first “Only cash honey” moment in a local drugstore I had NEVER failed before to get my Vanilla icecream fix! “New Policy”. Hmmm…hope this new clerk had a bad day, I will make sure I avoid her like the plague from now on:-) Or is this the beginning of the end for the drugstore frenzy??
Another suprisingly good article on the reload/prepaid cards by Jason Steele at TPG “Maximizing Prepaid and Reloadable Cards for Points and Miles: Reloadable Strenghs and Weaknesses”. Looks like a great series. Frequent Miler has competition now, he must up his game as 5x is getting kind of stale. Don’t worry, we ‘ll keep the 29x secret among us in Ann Arbor!
In a nushell, stick with Vanilla. Avoid Paypal. Greendots look like a pain. I still have not seen a real Reloadit card, let alone be able to buy one with a credit card! If in your area you can not get Vanilla, MOVE!
The first hotel promos (Hilton, Marriott and SPG) for the first quarter in 2013 are out. Loyalty Traveler summarizes them here. Hilton’s promo is the regular double points or double miles. Marriot looks like the Megabonus will be yet another free night in a 1 to 4 category hotel after two stays (will we be suprised at the announcement today?). And SPG has one of the most lame promos ever, you can read the details yourself, I will make sure to avoid SPG stays in the first quarter if everything falls into the right place of course!
PointChaser has a really good post on “Maximizing Miles at Walmart“. What, you want pics and arrows? Wrong blog!
Rapid Travel Chai has a follow post on how he managed to get 11 cards approved & 2 pending. I really like the thought process behind this and the bank info nuggets! And thanks for not hurting our eye sockets and delegating all affiliate links to a dedicated page!
TripIt Users’ Top 12 Hotels in the US for 2012. Interesting list!
I think you have figured it all out that I am a complete sucker for stunning travel related pics. At Vagabondish you can see these 24 Inspiring Images for the Daydreaming Traveler.
And at Bored Panda you can see some heart-stopping pics of Russian daredevils doing crazy stuff with out any safety equipment. Crazy!!! We can be crazy here at TBB but we are not THAT crazy!
NOT SO BEST OF
I think I am getting immune to all the affiliate credit card links thrown at our eye sockets. Or maybe they were not that many yesterday. Oh, wait. How about TPG with “Ranking the Top US Bank Travel Credit Cards“. I appreciate the thoroughness of the post, I really do. But do we really need to include such classic cards as the SkyPass Visa Classic with its amazingly generous 5k bonus (yes 5, not 50) and $50 annual fee. My dear readers, if you will go for some cards from this bank, go for the Club Carlson cards. And prepare to deal with a bank that is just kind of weird to deal with! Case closed, move on.
Ok, now for something juicy here. There was a controversy on twitter (thanks to alert kind reader
AZTravelGuy for bringing this to my attention!) of a blogger in Boarding Area who “borrowed heavily” from another blogger without even mentioning him. You can read the blog post by 44john: “When Boarding Area blogger Kevin of @Ghetto IFE stole my article“. For the record, Kevin apologized. This raises some very interesting questions about blogging, intellectual property, plagiarism, etc. Fascinating stuff! I added 44john to my Google Reader list that, at last count has way too many blogs in there!
I also noticed this tweet from Randy Petersen @ranflyer himself: “@PackofPeanuts TKS for question about not traveling. Fun to answer. Blog would likely do better on BoardingArea! extrapeanutsonboardingarea”
Which raises many questions: Can a Boarding Area member be thrown out? Ever? For lack of posting (is there a limit?), a criminal offense or conviction (hope not of course) or plagiarism? Or whatever? Or is this a “once you are in, you are in for life kind of deal?, you know like in the US Supreme Court?
And what are the requirements for being invited in? Is this Randy Petersen’s call? Or is there a BA Board? Is it hits, content, good looks,charm, credit score? Do BA bloggers get to vote or have a say at all? If Travis can be invited to BA…Ok, I better stop, I need to pick on somebody else. Travis, when you join BA, I ‘ll still be watching you:-)
ODDZ & ENDZ
What an amazing feel good story about a very sick Nigerian student this is! Congress can do some great things once in a while!
Pando Daily has a superb and thought provoking article about…yep, the newfound power of affiliate links. This little site Wirecutter brings in $50k per month AND doubling every quarter, wow! It is run by a handful of people, publishes only 6 to 12 posts per month and is just a year old. The TBB blog is run by a staff of 1, publishes daily(so far) and is only almost 6 weeks old and brings in $0 nada per month…so, I say, the sky is the limit here, lol.
THE END
You can follow me on Twitter @FlyerTalkerinA2along with 1,100 others!
You can find me as gpapadop in FlyerTalk and Milepoint.
Great questions asked about @boarding area. A few answers would be nice. When MommyPoints came on the scene a few years back, she was the latest sweetheart of the blogging point world, yet Milesmomma was already around, but didn’t get the praise that Mommypoints got!
MommyPoints shot to fame, while Milesmomma turned down @boarding area and ventured out on her own. Also Jason of MilesQuest rarely posts and have you ever even heard of Modhop? Delta Points was a shoo in, due to his relationship with FTG, and you could probably get the same gig, due to your relationships.
John’s an actual journalist, not just a blogger. He gets paid for writing, not for pushing affiliate links. Been following him for years, he’s a really interesting guy.
Yep, George, the cat is out of the bag and meowing loudly…..
Thanks for the BA comments and for helping me discovering thatjohn dude! I am very curious to see if BA bloggers or Randy himself care to respond to my questions.
Looks like that romsdeals kid did not take long to get his aff cc links after his interview with MMS as I predicted! Every new kid on the block is getting into the frenzy. Meanwhile, my cat is also meowing and I think it means “come on already, get me some aff links too dude” lol.
Why is this a Boarding Area controversy? It’s really a controversy between 1 blogger and the person he stole his content from. He just happens to blog on Boarding Area.
In terms of joining BA – there have been very few additions in the last year or so. I think there will probably be more in the future, but I don’t personally know the time table. I’m betting they want to make sure all the IT issues are 100% good before growing further…I think you noticed some of those issues? 😉 BA bloggers do push forward some recommendations, but the final call is Randy’s, there is no Survivor style vote of anything like that among the bloggers.
If you want Randy’s take on it then head to the linked post about by 44John. He points out in the comments section that a BA blogger has been dismissed for something similar before. Seems there is a “one warning” rule and he doesn’t like this kind of stuff any more than any of the rest of us do.
Also, this ranks about a 0 on the scale of importance, but I don’t think the chronological history of my site above is totally correct. There were no other miles and points blogs geared specifically geared toward traveling families that I was aware of when I started mine…which is one of the reasons I started it. I think the author of Miles Momma had a personal blog before she started Miles Momma, but that actual site with that name came later…maybe six months or so after mine. Again, not a big issue at all, but since I was commenting anyway thought I would clear that up.
@ VeryGoodPoints: “He just happens to blog on Boarding Area” – Exactly:-)
@ Mommy Points: Thank YOU for commenting here, very helpful! I think Randy learned his mistake about the technical issues with BA and has done it right. It is kind of weird not having to read “BA is down again!” tweets anymore:-) I did not know about the dismissal, that’s wild! Thanks again!
Your headling tomorrow is the US Airways affiliate credit card link.
* Who calls it a 50k bonus offer, when it’s just 40k after first purchase plus 10k for a balance transfer?
* Who also links to the long-standing 40k after first purchase offer that also waives annual fee the first year (the affiliate link doesn’t)?
I have no porblem with blogs bringing this offer forward. Makes total sense. But the real rorschach test is “who puts it in the useful proper context?” versus “who pretends that this is an increase/better offer than was available before?”
http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/2012/12/barclays-us-airways-card-sign-up-bonus-increase.html
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/dealswelike/2012/12/20/us-airways-up-to-50000-mile-credit-card-offer/
And there will be others…
Thanks for the compliments TBB. I too write full time, and get no affiliate link revenue from outlets like TPG. Frankly, most of what I write about credit cards for other outlets is not that fun and would not interest your readers, but I love writing for TPG. He and his staff are great and this work gives me a chance to share some of my hard earned knowledge from the field. I also enjoy responding to flamers who love to read about travel hacks almost even more than they hate those who write about them. I look at your blog kind of like a trade publication for my career. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the comment. I call it as I see it. I am just giving you a heads up that your post today will appear in the “Not so Best of” category? Why? Well, it was the $20k number. Not cool to do or publish it in such article. Yes yes I know where you are coming from, it is a thin line in this hobby and all that stuff, I get it. Looking at it from a big picture….doing $20k in one pop in Office Depot is just asking for unwarranted attention. When that happens, bad things happen (deal is cut off, people lose jobs, etc.). Please leave numbers like that out of the equation and leave some things off to…a little imagination if possible so deals last longer for all of us! Since you decided to publish the number, I certainly would not get on a pissing match with haters…there is no end to this…it is the internet!
You should start your own blog if you write like this…and get your own affiliate links and get paid well than what TPG is paying you, just a thought:-)
I think we met in Chicago Seminar #1…but can’t be certain, it was a fuzzy night, lol.
Thanks man, points taken. I was in Chicago for the seminars and at SMD4. I will cool it on the numbers from now on. But how did people loose jobs because of VR at OD?
Hey, and if you’ll cover me, I’ll start my own blog, just as soon as I finish my never ending list of assignments.
Jobs were lost in another deal. I am sure someone else can fill you in, you probably participated in that deal, I don’t know. It was some trustworthy bank;-)
I cover all blogs, it is what I do here in my little corner. Great to see writers doing well as the whole field has been somewhat impacted in the last several years.
Good move on the cooling of numbers!
I honestly have never heard of someone loosing their job over this stuff. That would be very uncool. I think even VR and OD was better for OD and Chase than most churners. I churn so lightly that I wouldn’t even call it that.
I don’t actually participate in that many deals, but when I do, I admit that I go “all in”. I travel far less than most bloggers, and write far more (just spread across a dozen outlets). But when I do travel, I take my family, which requires a lot of points and miles.
As for writing, no one believes me, but there has never been a better time to be a writer. Blogs have an insatiable demand for content and most just want to know how many posts a week I can give them. Its so great online, I have given up worrying about print.
If you go “all in”, just do it w/out publishing the numbers in a blog! It happens I am sure but veterans keep it quiet. I just returned from Office Depot actually, did $1k only:-)
Very interesting observations about the writing business, thank you. Yeah, print has gone the way of the…dollar coins at the Mint, lol. I would love to know how much you charge…is it per article, per word, per hour spent, per assigment (set of 3 articles to deliver in a month). I am thinking about this when I monetize my blog without selling my soul…if that is even possible, lol.
Cheers,
George
@ Anonymous:
Yes I have seen this “50k” offer out from many bloggers. The first one out with it was this one:
http://travelisfree.com/2012/12/20/us-airways-mastercard-update/
Still trying to make sense of this. The BS in this cc stuff is endless, it sure is amuzing to watch!
I am a bit confused on this as I have way too much on my plate today! Any help appreciated.
And sorry about the bad design of the blog, I know it blows! One day it will improve…may take a while!
Here’s another one:
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentlyflying/2012/12/20/us-airways-increases-bonus-miles-on-barclays-credit-card-offer/
Again, I really don’t see any problem with having a link to a credit card. I appreciate when there’s appropriate disclosure about financial relationships.
But to claim that this is a better offer than was available before shows either that the blogger is dishonest or not really that much of an expert on the subject. Because there’s long been a 40k after first purchase offer.
And then if the blogger pitches it as a 50k offer that’s disingenuous. THAT is pimping.
Lots of credit card content is fine, analyzing the offers is great, offering a novel perspective is useful. And sometimes there will be duplication across blogs talking on the same thing. I’m fine with that. But what absolutely drives me bonkers is pitching a card as better than it is. Reasonable people can even disagree on the value of a card, but please don’t call a US Airways credit card that gives you 40,000 miles up front and 10,000 more miles for a balance transfer “a 50,000 mile signup bonus.” IT ISN’T. [and you are welcome to borrow from my rant if you are short for time in writing your post, you officially have that license, without attribution, given sensitivies over today’s post.]
I agree with you 100% on everything you wrote! And thanks for letting me borrow this, helps me out a lot, I appreciate it!
MileValue at least calls it a 40,000 mile bonus, not a 50,000 mile bonus. He alludes to the fact that a 40,000 mile bonus isn’t new. But he doesn’t mention that the existing 40,000 mile bonus (1) waived the annual fee the first year, and (2) offered 10k more miles at card renewal [which makes the annual fee worthwhile].
http://milevalue.com/new-40k-us-airways-miles-credit-card-offer-offer/
View from the Wing actually leads with the existing 40,000 mile offer, explains all of its benefits (and risks) and includes a link to it, so that readers can decide which one is best for them.
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/2012/12/20/new-official-40000-point-signup-bonus-for-the-us-airways-mastercard/
@ Anonymous at 7.07 pm: Yep, I wrote all about it in a separate post!
Randy makes the final call on everything. I don’t even have a formal contract with him or BoardingArea. But that’s kind of how I like it. If you don’t trust the person you’re working with, no amount of legalese is going to make it worthwhile. Sometimes I don’t agree with Randy’s decisions, but that’s rare and he always has the best of intentions.
“good looks, charm, credit score”
All of the above 🙂
I’m just glad I have Alex as co-blogger or we may not have made the cut.
Kidding!
Frugal Thin-Skinned Guy even promoted the new Barclay’s card without mentioning that he gets a referral credit from the only link in the post. But it’s okay that he does it because he’s a veteran in this game and y’all are rookies, etc.
At least his commenters pointed out that the extra 10K is a rip-off.
@ Scottrick: Very helpful response, thank you!
@ Weekly Flyer: I think I can’t do much on the good looks dept;-)
@ Anonymous: Yep, I am on it, see tomorrow’s post!
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