Buckle up. A bit angry ride through an amazing Barclays & Chase Ink credit cards link orgy, the resolution of my stolen 225k Hilton points, learn about Alaska Mileage Plan, some thoughts on killing deals and finding the next big thing, learn about two new Wells Fargo cards, and as usual travel along to US National Parks and its Top 20 Trails. You also will save your life after you read the piece on how to protect yourself from lightning and learn how Capitalism really works with just one picture! Enjoy and as always thank you for reading!
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The blogosphere went absolutely nuts for new 50k miles affiliate offers by Barclays Bank for the US Air and Lufthansa cards. My eye sockets were annihilated and I am doing it all for you dear readers! :-)It was so hideously amazing how all of a sudden bloggers dropped pitching the Amex cards and they all discovered Barclays cards, so so sad. I thought I was going to do a “Top 10 ridiculous ways to sell a Barclays card” but ran out of time as usual. Hey, this is a part time operation for the love of the game and your Amazon clicks lol. It is hard not to get angry when you see so many selling out and become cheery credit card salesmen. Anything for a quick buck I guess. My dear hobby has become a hideous greedy slugfest by a bunch of sales people selling credit cards using various levels of travel and miles/points “expertise”. There, I feel better. So let’s get on with the good stuff. Please help these bloggers who show up here! It’s a start to reclaim this space and improve humanity. Kumbaya 🙂
Update: OMG, it appears we now have a Chase Ink card slugfest going on. Dans Deals posted it first , there was then silence for a few hours until all the others got their own affiliate links. Yeah, 60k Ink cards are out and here we go again! My poor eye sockets have been annihilated indeed! By the end of Thursday night here was me:
Remember when I blogged about how 225,000 Hilton HHonors points vanished from my account back on January 21st? Apparently an asshole scammer somehow got into my account and proceeded to burn my points for merchandise (something you know that you should never do!). Anyways, Hilton launched an investigation. I called once a month and was told “no news”. Apparently everything is done now and I received all my points back (I did a happy dance!). In a nutshell, it was done by someone overseas and Hilton has now placed some type of warning in my account to make sure extra steps are taken for redemptions. And they will finally be doing away with the stupid 4 digit PIN (which I always found so inadequate in today’s world!) later this year. But I was still curious to find out what merchandise was redeemed for my points. Dear readers, the asshole thief redeemed for Chili gift cards. WTF!!!! Oh, Hilton HHonors will also be doing away with such merchandise redemptions in the near future. I guess they were very popular with thieves. Last time I was in Chili’s was in 1987 and got food poisoning, never went back! So, change your 4 digit PIN with Hilton HHonors. Back to regular programming.
7 Unique Travel Destinations. By Travel is Free. You can spend your time reading about the amazing Barclays credit cards or you can read about these unique destinations. You know where I stand.
Hidden Gem of the Emerald City: Alaska Mileage Plan. By Hack My Trip. Really good info in the presentation slides.
Some interesting things by Matt of Saverocity about “Finding, not Killing, The Next Big Thing“. I forgave Matt for including the links to the two mega credit card marketing machines blogs. I think there are some excellent thoughts expressed here. I am no expert either. I have no control if some folks have given me this title, I first thought they were joking or were smoking something really excellent. I am here trying to figure it all out, change the world and have a hell of a time doing it. Thank you for coming along for the ride. Ok, I lost my train of thought. As I said, some deep thoughts expressed here. Of course all the other credit card salesmen were too busy to do any thoughts other than working on pumping out the affiliate links to get paid for their “marketing efforts”. Yeah, I heard this crap before from them banks. Ok, I am losing it now. Serenity now, serenity now. Let’s keep going…
There was one blogger out there who did NOT post about the same affiliate cards that went on sale the past two days. Personal Finance Digest instead posted about the new Wells Fargo cards but somehow bloggers were not interested (no commissions for them, ha!). Anyways, there was something that caught my eye there: “When you sign up for credit cards, try to be cognizant of whose referral link you’re using, if anybody’s. Try to reward your favorite bloggers, whether that’s me or anybody else. Or if you don’t like any of us, find a non-affiliate link and use that.”
PLEASE DO THAT and stop rewarding the bloggers who treat you like a piece of (insert your favorite thing) and keep annihilating you with marketing pitches NON-STOP. The more you reward THEM the more they think it works (well it does, think about it) and the MORE they do it! I had a meeting with a prospective client last night. They wanted to leave a national firm because, in their words, “we felt like a number and just wanted to do things differently”. Across America more people are waking up and taking charge and say “NO MORE I am going to be sold to, you are probably doing it to primarily line your own pockets and you are not doing it primarily for MY benefit, so screw you!”. Please you can do whatever you want, this is America after all, but please think about who you are supporting. A visit to my Blog Reviews may be beneficial (they are not perfect by any means, but what can I say, they are all mine and I like them!)
31 Stunning Pictures of American National Parks
Ed Burtynsky’s Aerial Pictures of Watery Landscape. By Bored Daddy. Some incredible pictures here!
Great American Hikes: 20 top trails across the USA. Yes, this one went to my Evernote files for future reference 🙂
I care for you…so here is a very short and very handy guide on How to Survive a Lightning Strike. If you survive after reading this and you still don’t use the amazing TBB Amazon link all the staff (volunteers of course) here would be extremely disappointed, come on!
Personal Finance link of the day: A picture is a thousand words. How Capitalism Works
A cop in Denver got a little too carried away in Best Buy using points (thanks to kind reader for sending me this!)
When TBB gets a Whatsapp like buyout offer (in our dreams) I want to assure you that I will keep full editorial control of the site and not sell out. I will keep only enough $$$ to equip my dacha with the staircase I always wanted. Please help me make my dream come true, gracias!
I leave you with this…no comment 🙂
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First?
I’ve got a list of items to add to my Amazon shopping cart. Have to make a note to use your link, George…
I’m guilty of missing the Wells Fargo cards on the first read through, I wrongly assumed that the point redemption was going to be terrible. It’s actually a minimum of 1c per point (so basically a $400 sign up bonus and $100 in incidental charges), thanks to pfdigest for making me actually read through the offer again.
23 photos of Emily today!
Andrew Sullivan writes that he made $5245 in Amazon referral links in April. I think you’re holding out on us Buzzy!
I made £1.81 which is, what, three bucks yesterday?
Off just under 18,000 page views at Head for Pointa!
I didn’t mind the affiliate orgy over on boardingareammstpg et al, it just rubbed me the wrong way that they had the affiliate orgy AND at the same time *nobody* breathed a word about the new Amex card. A major bank launches a completely new card with $500 worth of free travel and nobody’s interested? WTF?
It is odd. I cover all the UK cards. Some pay me, some don’t. I’m not bothered. Create a decent enough resource and you will always pick up something from people even if its just the odd Amazon purchase.
Is there a US blog which covers ALL travel cards, with no bias? That is probably the market niche I would target. A site which ONLY covers cards but covers all cards. A destination site where readers will gravitate because they know they will always find the best deal.
Some of the deals will pay, some won’t. It will average out quite well in the end.
Are you referring to the Everyday cards? I thought these have been covered?
New Wells Fargo cards
BREAKING NEWS: GET 3X POINTS TODAY AT RESTAURANTS WITH YOUR CHASE SAPPHIRE PREFERRED!
…actually 3.14159 when used at Marie Callendar’s.
…I love me a good pun (is that a pun or wordplay?)
Thanks for the reminder
You would think the bloggers would cover such critical news
I appreciate the sentiment, but I think there may be better places to “insert your favorite thing”.
@ FFHigh: That was a first First right? On May 1st too! Coincidence? Please make a note to use my link. A grand total of 0 orders came in yesterday! Clearly, I am just not good with pimping my links lol.
@ William Charles: Ok, no problem. Definitely the WF cards are worthy of mentioning.
@ Kathy: I never understood that and will never understand it apparently. Hey, at least we were also informed about the amazing Friday dining CSP card benefit. You can get restaurant gift cards too! (Notice the exclamation mark placements!)
@ Anonymous: Holy cow, $5,245 revenue in Amazon links! Probably it was from text links, I hear those work great. I just don’t feel comfortable doing them. As soon as I start doing them and notice more revenue coming in, my brain will start thinking of ways to come up with yet more excuses to create such content. So, I avoid them as I avoid the bank pimping. For now, just have the amazon banner ad works fine. And I am not quitting my day job lol.
@ Raffles: I see your points. There are several sites that cover cards but I do not want to mention them here. Naturally, they gravitate towards cards that pay them. This whole affiliate marketing scheme is just blown up with built in conflicts of interest! I wish there was an independent type of affiliate company with fiduciary tendencies looking out to hook up with like minded bloggers (like me!) with the goal of truly helping readers (which means steering readers to credit cards that may NOT be affiliate offers). I doubt that this will ever happen, especially in the US 🙂
@ NIck: I did mind the affiliate orgy. My eye sockets still hurt! Your point abt the WF cards amid the orgy going on is VERY valid. Therefore the link to your post. At this rate you will be able to afford a big banner pfd ad on my site, thank you very much 🙂
First on the 3x CSP AMAZING NEWS was FTG. Apparently the readers have asked to be reminded of in advance. Second it was MMS. More will be posted today. You can bet safely that all the blogs in my Ignore List will not miss this AMAZING news!
@ james: No doubt, no doubt. 🙂
Here’s the run down of Howie’s free trip to Australia and New Zealand
Cost: A lot more than 0. Thousands more to be precise. Plus the costs to get to/from NYC. Plus all the transportation costs within each city and to/from each airport. Plus food. Plus hundreds of other costs. But otherwise free
Comparison of how many miles it would cost with other airlines: butchered. 3 out of the 4 are incorrect. The only one that was correct was Delta – and for that to be correct, it would require you to find transcon saver availability at the low level. So de-facto incorrect
Reminder that he used Barclays arrival to pay the taxes and fees on the award ticket: check
Waiting…
🙂
You make a lot of salient points! I’ll take your criticism to heart. Even though I no longer own the website, I’ll use what influence I have to push for a high level of quality.
This is clearly…bizarre! 🙂
http://www.freefrequentflyermiles.com/index.htm the first, the original, the way it should be. No hand holding..just links. He’s been doing this since 98′ when i gave him my Mindspring webhosting dl limit…all the rest..thief’s. IMO
Kinda disappointed in him today and yesterday. Yesterday, he mentioned the Freakin Amazing New Chase Bonus, but held off on links until he got his own to post.
Today, I got an email from him where he’s pushing this F.A.N.C.B. card and showing you how to get 210K out of it. Lots of assumptions in there that things will stay the same for an entire year.
Kind of rubbed me the wrong way.
Once you surrender to the banks, it is hard to stay clean 🙂
I am putting off the day as long as I can. All for you guys lol.
someone who cares about the game, not the cash or how you can “monetize” it…lol
Agreed. Big fan of what Gary 2 has done for the hobby, one of the originals…. but man, that website looks like it is still in 1998
I would love to frequent his site, but there’s just too many places out there to get quality information in a more readable format. Like the blogs on TBBs “blogs I like” list
When I was looking for a cat intern I did not bother looking at Gary’s site as it has been made clear the cat does not do web work 🙂
He still has frames. That takes me back.
To play devil’s advocate, the LH card and the Ink Bold are good offers, and came out a day apart. Plus, the day that the US Air card came out, the 30K fee free link on FT was dead.
I put up a different working 30K link on FlyerTalk after that. So that excuse is dead. It’s then a toss-up on the 40K vs. 30K. I hear Barclays waives the first annual fee when you SM. Nobody is suggesting that though, just like they don’t tell you that the 10K annual points post before the annual fee hits. I think that’s the bothersome part. They don’t teach you the nuances anymore. Ingy used to be good about that. Now they just beat you over the head with marketing material.
It’s a good offer, but at the end of the day it’s just 10K
It deserves a mention when it comes out, and maybe a reminder before it goes away, but instead they’re going to treat it as if it’s the US Airways Grand Slam, Hyatt FFN, United 4 miles to Hong Kong and Hawaii first class for $50 all wrapped into one
Key word “good”. Definitely make people aware, tell them to SM for a match if you’ve applied in the last few months. Will they stop there? Of course not. I do predict they’ll lay off the language hinting that you don’t actually need a business though. No garage salers/dog walkers.
TJ and Steve: Great observations, thanks for your insights. You clearly know what you are talking about.
MY main MAN Gary from VFTW writes an absolutely riveting/fascinating/uninformative article on people who put their feet up on the 1st class bulkhead wall (I guess he doesn’t care what the peons in coach do)…. now Gary, of course, we all find it highly disgusting (but not as much as sitting next to someone clipping their nails)…………………………………………………………………..
….BUT WHAT IS WEIRD! HE’S TAKING PICTURES OF PEOPLE’S
FEET!!.WTF!…………………………………….For the record, F/A Ramsey saw this a million times, but was always too chicken to say something to the customer. But I worked with 100’s of F/A’s who had the balls to tell them to take their feet down………………………………………………………..I hope he does a piece soon with pics on people who walk into the Lav barefooted (not a smart thing to do).
Almost forgot, the absolute worst passenger who did this was the famous author/gambler Mario Puzo (wrote THE GODFATHER) who was a regular on the TWA jfk/las flights. Gary would of loved this, his toe nails were long and infected and discolored, and I don’t think he bathed very often.
I learn something new on this website every day.
Came here to post on VFTW’s feet post – I guess now he knows how his unsuspecting readers feel when he posts pics of his PJ-clad self in the airline lav. I feel like I would rather see someone’s feet than an inside of a lav, even if it is one in first class.
Waiting for the Mile High club lav cam follow-up…
I ALMOST went on one of them private jets yesterday! I was going to do a selfie in the lav just to mess with you all here. Or do a parody on a review by Gary or Lucky.
For the record, I do not think I have ever posted a toilet picture on my site. I am the guy who eats ramen noodles at luxury hotels I pay nothing for. I haven’t lost touch with the real folks. It may have something to do with my stuborness to say no to credit card pimping LOLOLOLOL
Gary has lost all credibility. His posts are buffoonish (do we need a video of an overweight person talking about overweight bags) and he clearly is a CC whore. He also talks about how he doesn’t want to spill tricks because it is privileged info, but then his blog ends up being a CC brothel.
You noticed the dropoff in content quality and the increase in the cc pumping too? I thought I was the only one, thanks 🙂
If he does not get his mojo back that site will be the first one to be taken off my “Like” list. I am sure he is terrified by this lol.
Regarding the onslaught of CC links, just remember: the goggles do nothing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juFZh92MUOY
There is no escape…
I think we should show Gary some repsect and call him by his proper title. It is “Credit Card Salesman Gary”.
If you call him this way how about the others? “I would sell my own mother for a cc referral”?
Or maybe mother-in-law for some other.
“Look at me in an airplane lav click on my link” gleff
“Look at this hotel toilet click on my link” Ben
“Look at my wife click on my link” MMS
“Look at my kid click on my link” MP
“Look at my dog click on my link” TPG
“Can I look at your girlfriend while you click on my link?” MV
“Click on my link Click on my link” DP
“Look at my 7 SPG card click on my link” Dan
“All hail our dear leader Kim Jong Un click on my Amazon link” TBB
“ahothaoe tuathnaz ytna7maoma& click on my link” FTG
“No but seriously, click on my link again” TPG
“Cut. Paste.Same.Deals.Every.Day. Click on my link” – Deals We Like
“Just found a targeted deal to waste your time. Click on my link” – Points, Miles and Martinis
“All credit card deals posted elsewhere a day or two later. Click on my link” – Noob Traveler
“Listen to my podcast, it is #1. Click on my link” – Extra Pack of Peanuts
“Click on my link, 24/7, 365” – Wallet Slot
“One minute.Click” – Mile Nerd
“What is your T rate on that? Are you sure? Click on my link” – Milenomics
To all bloggers mentioned here: This is a goofy innocent attempt to create some humor on a Friday. If you take this seriously and your feelings are hurt maybe blogging is just not for you! Feel free to make fun of me, I dare you…Pleeeeeease
7 pfffffft.
I don’t even get up for anything less than a 12BM. Though apparently a 24BM is where they draw the line and start getting testy.
Click my link whilst I buy up all the good little blogs and write with a British accent – Matt
this is THE BEST of TBB. Period.
“I’m 6’7″ click my link. By the way, did i mention I’m 6’7?”
“Sitting by the fireplace. Remembering how easy it was to sell Amex Cards. Click my Barclays links” – DP
Comment of the year? I think so
OMG! TEN DAYS LEFT BEFORE THE DAILY GETAWAYS PREVIEW PAGE IS UP! George, do we need a countdown calendar?
Not sure if my eye sockets can make it another day, let alone 10!
It won’t be pretty. I am numb…I may hit the bottle tonight to make it through the weekend 🙂
You’ve hit on something that I had not thought about in awhile. Five to seven years ago or so most of the blogs I read were pure travel blogs. It was a lot of fun reading about travel generally and having always been a travel junkie, I got inspiration, reflected on past trips and future trips and got to know other people in a kind of virtual travel community. Gary’s blog was the first one I read that had a miles and points spin to it and I began to become more interested in learning new strategies to enhance my already entrenched hobby. I am glad I started with his blog because I really learned a huge amount and came to enjoy the travel hacking part of the game. But the problem as I see it is that once you begin to get into it, you begin to feel like you need to start reading lots of blogs so you don’t miss anything. And in this hobby you can be on a flight sleeping and get off the plane and find out you missed a deal. So, what I now realize is that it used to be more enlightening to read lots of these points and miles blogs. And I really miss reading all the pure travel blogs I used to read. I am not sure how I got to this point but it is almost addictive to read this stuff because you keep thinking you’ll find something new or have your creativity sparked by someone else’s ideas. As I mentioned last week, anymore I am finding this space just being dumbed down with people many of whom are terrible writers or worse, shameless pimps. Even the good guys seem to be hitting a slippery slope. So, I need to get back to my roots and read some better travel journalism and better writing so I don’t forget why I love this hobby. OK…hoping to see some of you all in Charlotte. Peace out.
Good points, all. That’s one of the reasons I like Rapid Travel Chai’s blog, he keeps a proper perspective on points & miles–i.e., as a means to travel rather than as a means to luxury travel porn.
Yes, I love Stefan’s blog and I have met him in person and have been to several of his presentations. I love his sense of adventure and like him I am motivated by UNESCO World Heritage sites and Traveler’s Century Club. I need 5 more countries to join and hope to by the end of 2014. I am in it for the same reasons.
@ smittytabb: Excellent observations! Back in those days everything was done for the true love of the hobby as there was no serious $$$ involved to cloud and influence the bloggers. I long for these days; everything was pure imho. I would be the first to celebrate when the banks get out of the way completely (of course, it will happen the day after I decide to participate LOL).
Your point about the addictive nature of this hobby is RIGHT ON! I have told newbies that you are likely much better off not ever getting into this as it can…, you know, grow on you ” a little”. Must have something to do with brain’s dopamine. Scoring a major deal (I have followed research on behavioral finance) shoots up the dopamine, it’s even better than a high from (insert your favorite drug here) and multiple orgasms (or something like that). Then you just want more and more and more.
So, add to all this the easy $$ money from a credit card app. Say you got $100 for having a reader apply with your link for the Barclays Arrival. You wake up the next day and you see a sweet $300 in your account. BOOM! Dopamine shoots way up! You combine that with the pressure from these affiliate companies to “do your share or else we throw you under the bus” and you get the giant circus we have today with all these marketers selling cards. The funny thing is in their minds they think they are doing something constructive. Just a few are. Most are just super biased and pumping pitches to get more cards applied for and keep the “work” going. As you have noted, “this space is just being dumbed down with people many of whom are terrible writers or worse, shameless pimps”. I think you nailed it.
At the same time, I see why they are doing it. The $$$ economics of this credit card affiliate space is just TOO perverse and it clobbers everything else COMBINED BY MILES (pun intended). That is why I find it so laughable and moronic when pumper bloggers blame others for pumping their Uber or Amazon links. Look at the latest FTG “Frugal Guide” to some place I am guessing the writer has never been to. Bang, they managed to drop 10 affiliate credit card links in a tiny piece of “content”.
“Help me resist the lure of the easy dough & stay independent, click on my Amazon link” – TBB 🙂
@ Nick: There is a reason RTC is in my “Like” list you know. I want the good bloggers rewarded because they add value and do not treat their readers like a number. I would not mind if the bad bloggers went back to their day jobs. We need a little cleansing around here as the number of bloggers out there is just insane. Am I going insane or was I always insane? (Do NOT answer this).
Hey TBB a quick question – I have some Amazon GCs and I am wondering if using them via your link will get you any credit, or if your link helps you only if I spend “new money” so to speak?
Why do I have these GCs? Because I bought them at the end of 2013 when there was an AMEX sync or some other offer that got me $25 credits on a bunch of CCs. Too bad I can’t load the Amazon GCs to BB…. But in addition to Amazon products, they are good for donations in kind to organizations!
I think it works!
I found a $25 Amazon gift card at the bottom of a pile today.
And got me an Ink Bold for 60k using my TBB business, hooray! I had to sacrifice my Southwest Business card which I gladly did as it saved me an extra step
George, i have a question. I use smile.amazon.com while shopping at amazon to ensure some money goes to my favorite charity as well. Can I use your amazon link to get to smile.amazon.com so that both you and my favorite charity benefits? Also, i like the idea of FQF’s PayPal subscription for those who don’t shop at amazon much. Why don’t you have something similar to that. I would happily pay to support this blog going that way. Any thoughts?
I can not confirm the correct answer but my guess is you can not use both mine and the smile links. Probably the second one you use will be the one that takes precedence. Or it confuses Amazon that it negates both!
No big deal if you do not use mine. But sure appreciate if you do.
I just never felt comfortable with the subscription idea. I do this part time. If I went full time I would do things differently. As long as my wife still lets me spend hours on the site for entertainment purposes I can keep it going. I am not a quitter, I don’t want to fold like a “cheap suit” 😉
Thanks.
Hey TBB, just curious… how do you feel about Chris Guillebeau? Not for his stories, which I actually do respect, but he seems to try to pimp those cards directly to your inbox.
I have never met the guy. Appears to be a very nice guy to hang with. I think he is a master online marketer, I mean he has the whole package. Domination conferences with so many attendees, wow.
As far as the miles/points expertise goes: I hardly ever bother with it. Very subpar and so stale imho. I don’t even bring it up here as I do not bring up Miles Momma 🙂
The rest of the products are so well packaged too. Disclosure: I have not bought a single thing from him and I have not attended his conference. But he does come off very well online and would love to meet him one day.
I actually did meet Chris in person last year and heard him speak. He took the time to be very present during our discussion, which I appreciated. I liked his project to visit every single country. It’s a goal that is impressive. He has made himself a brand, which is an interesting concept most people cannot pull off. I gave his start up book to my sons to read and I read it myself. Pretty good content.
>>>>>He has made himself a brand
Yes, which is very impressive indeed!
I have developed a little bit of a brand in my other professional life. And I am having fun building yet another one here with TBB. Which, if you really think about it, it’s, well, completely INSANE. But I like it 🙂
Everything we do builds our brand. This includes angry trolls too! #hint
As far as miles/points advice goes, he has a lot to learn but I am sure newbies eat it all up as it is served masterfully well.
193 is beyond my wildest dreams.
Yes, realistically there are some I may not make it to. I have made it to half that many and Chris was impressed by that:) I feel like I have barely scratched the surface of what I want to see on this planet. Points and miles make it a little easier and when I travel with my hubbie it makes him happy to be able to be more comfortable. He didn’t spend a year of his life living in youth hostels and traveling on the cheap like me. Guess I was a bit of a pioneer that way. I never met many Americans doing that, especially women back in the day. There were only the International Youth Hostels and now there are all the flash private ones too. The thing that amazes me is the young people who have to stay in luxury in their twenties. I only got spoiled and needed/wanted to do that when my children were that age:)
I met Chris at an event where he was promoting his book and entrepreneurial techniques, which was interesting — but he mentioned an informal pizza meet up after the event. I arrived at the pizza place at the same time as one of the other attendees, where we found CG at a two-seat table with one of the local event sponsors, a local sort of radio/TV travel writer/marketer that I have always found to have a paticularly unpleasent mix of cockyness and smarm.
After walking over to greet them, the sponsor said something to the effect of, “Sorry, looks like there arent any more seats — bye.”
Nnothing against CG himself as the sponsor’s words just served to reinforce my admittedly negative impression, but I would have appreciated chatting further and perhaps a suggestion on CG’s part of “let’s ask if we can move to one of the larger open tables.” As the other attendee said, it felt as though we were crashing a date rather than showing up to an announced event.
George, i feel really sad when all these bloggers are constantly pumping more and more with stupid thing on asking people to go and spend on dining just for some points. I am extremely angry and upset with this herd mentality. Is this the right way to earn points? If people are going to spend anyway, once in a while, it is ok. But just to get 90 or 150 points if a person is going to spend 30$ and if all these blood sucking bloggers are going to fuel this kind of culture, i feel Dave Ramsey cares much more about his fellow countrymen. These bloggers don’t seem to have or care about the social responsibility and act as agents and slaves to credit card issuers and make their fellow countrymen slaves of debt as well. This mad fueling has to stop. Making money by sucking others money is the greatest social offense any person can commit to his fellow humans. Only few people like you flow like a breeze in this crazy country. May you live long and may God bless you and your family. And all those bloggers who havent turned pumping machines like FQF, Hack my trip, Saverocity.. I can only find fistful.
Ok, to be fair, i would like to include Doctor of credit, Rapid travel chai and Travel is free. I really appreciate these guys for not becoming blood suckers. God bless.
Thanks for your thoughts Kumar.
This is a business. Pumping works, this is why they do it. It may turn off more advanced hobbyists and the newbies after a while but there are always newbies coming aboard discovering this hobby from some post titled “I went to the Maldives for Free and you can do it too!” with pictures in flat beds drinking champagne and eating caviar. As I was told, “it is all Marketing” and three things count: “Conversions, conversions, conversions” (as in converting readers to buyers/cc clickers who are approved).
Social responsibility? In the banking and credit card world? Huh, this is Earth, not Mars 🙂
Don’t get me going about “slaves of debt” stuff. The only reason the banks continue to do offer big signing bonuses is because a substantial portion of the applicants should NOT be going anywhere near a credit card! It is like giving crack to a crack addict. Personal responsibility some will say. Sure, it is nice of course and I practice it always. But many do not! Why enable? Oh, I forgot, it is about the commissions.
Which is fine if you offer good innovative content, have good disclosure practices and do not censor proudly and stuff like that. But the way the system is set up right now, if you do not pump you may have the lucrative links taken away from you. You saw what happened with the Amex links. Only the mega pumpers pseudo experts survived. And the few good ones got the shaft. Phucking banks again 🙂
It comes down to greed and personal responsibility of offering value to your readers and treating them with respect. Going off like a starved monkey who just discovered a truck full of bananas with moronically pumpy credit card posts day in and day out is just…well, screwed up.
And it is getting worse unfortunately as Amex takes away the links and Barclays whacks commissions by half. Even DP was pondering today if this is worth it anymore 🙂
I had some time today to clean up my Feedly blog list. I deleted about 125 blogs off of it. Now down to just 475. Most of them were miles/points blogs that just….died. Keeping up a blog by itself is hard work. Keeping up a quality blog and creating a community while keeping a day job and trying to be the best husband and father and soccer player you can be AND have fun with the game of miles./points is…well, INSANE lol.
The over the top spending/consumerism is a big concern combined when combined with credit card marketing. TPG and MP are the worst offenders. “Free” nights in the Maldives that cost $500 just for a transfer and “only” $350/nt to upgrade to the best possible room.
Luxuries go from a one-time splurge to a necessity really quick for certain people, and credit cards enable the behavior.
You have seen the other side of blogging and are able to relate much better than i do. All i think is if i wouldn’t suggest something for my close family members, i wouldn’t be suggesting it for my millions of brothers and sisters in this country. I agree it is business and i don’t know why this is coming to my mind – no i dont want to put it – but my hands are jut all over my iPad’s keyboard – prostitution is the oldest business in this world. Oh come on, my ipad has gone crazy. No, i didn’t want to put it there. It was my ipad.
I really wonder how you are able to add so much humour to your posts and responses. You have just mastered the art of blogging, i must say. Keep it rocking as usual and thanks for your response. It was informative, inspiring and entertaining – in that order – for a change:). God bless.
I am certain it was the ipad 😉
Thanks for the kind words: “Mastered the art of blogging” – Hardly. I am actually shocked more than friends and family read me. This is an avenue for expressing myself. Maybe I have some talent, I don’t know. I have found I like writing when it used to be pure torture.
The one thing I sure have not mastered is this monetizing thing! And that’s okay. I would rather keep my dignity than to start pumping several times a day…
I know you like the guy but I think Travel Summary deserves to come off the nice list. He dumped my comment which simply pointed out that he is doing what he had preached against – pumping affiliate links, which is against the guidelines for these things. Guess he found that is what he has to do to make himself stay a full time blogger…
Many times the comment, for some reason, goes to the Spam folder. Try to contact him on Twitter or by email to inform him “I added a comment on this day around this time with handle xyz. I did not see it posted. Please look to see it if it is in your spam folder”.
I am not sure those were affiliate links at TS. They came out too fast.
I don’t know. I think he has his head straight. But, again, the pressures of “making it” in this business as a full timer pretty much requires the money from the credit cards. Amazon, Uber and ebates sure are not going to feed a family! So be a little nicer to the full timers.
Then again, this is not rocket science (unless it is fuel dumps LOL) so bloggers making hundreds of thousands by being bank agents and “selling” travel and miles/points expertise was always a little bizarre and the ride would not last that long.
Anyways, it is fascinating to watch from the outside. Let’s turn the anger into…entertainment while helping the bloggers who are truly passionate, have great content and don’t pump it up. Doing a completely separate blog post on 3x CSP dining thing is just…ludicrous.
I need to go to bed…
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Bloggers read me so…keep up the pressure 😉
Pressure? 2/10ths of 1% of the market? Come on George. That’s not pressure. That’s mosquitoes 😉
Buzz, please delet my comment above, I let my emotions get the best of me. C.R.
Ok
Has everyone already gotten their free 10,000 Chase Ultinate Reward Points just for asking? Don’t wait too long. http://travelwithgrant.com/2014/05/02/get-10000-chase-ultimate-reward-points-or-60000-chase-ur-points-with-new-chase-ink-bold-plus-credit-card-sign-up-offer/
Kudos on this post.
Did anyone catch the most recent MV post? He starts in with, “Airlines Not Offering the Best Deal on Their Own Credit Cards” – he’s gotta be busy deleting comments left and right today.
Nothing shocks me about this blog anymore.
Just want to chime in that I too find the Spend! Spend! Spend! mantra so tiresome.
Yes, there are some good AMEX sync offers, but don’t use them unless you truly need to buy something at the store with the latest offer. Sure, you can get a million X for Mother’s Day flowers, but maybe mom would prefer something else and you can get flowers for much less elsewhere. Yup, we can now order GCs online at Staples, but do you really need more miles? And what will you do if WM changes the BB/MO routine?
I think Milenomics has it exactly right – do a demand schedule, add in some points/miles/cashback for emergencies and unexpected trips, and be done.
Now, to take my own advice 😉 !!
All those blogs are in my good lists, how shocking 😉