Let’s go on a shorter wild ride giving away an F2B Seattle Sessions Ticket, let you know of a Chase Ink Plus offer for 70k Ultimate Rewards points & a fantastic blog post about AMEX affiliate practices.
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F2B SEATTLE SESSIONS TICKET
A kind TBB reader can not make it to the F2b Seattle Sessions seminar next week and is willing to transfer it to you free if you can attend for sure. He only asks that you use the amazing TBB Amazon link. Ok, just kidding about that last one. TBB can be so pushy huh?
You can read more about the event held August 1 – 3, 2014. These can be a lot of fun, you can learn a lot and can meet people who do not think you are weird (in most cases that is!).
All I need is a name and an email address so please email me here. No worries, you won’t be added to my mailing list because I don’t have one! No time to figure that stuff out, we move very slow here due to increasing blog volume we desperately try to keep a check on for YOU!
Again, only email me if you plan to attend for sure. I will announce the lucky reader here when it is time (depends on responses I get!)
Next topic…
CHASE INK PLUS OFFER IN BRANCH FOR 70K!
You can read the details in this post by Doctor of Credit.
Mrs TBB got the 60k offer about two months ago or so and I, conveniently posing as a mother of two again, sent this short email to Chase online:
Hello,
I recently opened this account when the signing bonus was with 60,000 UR points. A friend of mine just informed after a recent (last week!) visit to his local branch he was offered the same exact card with the same conditions for 70,000 UR points. I would really appreciate it if you match the offer and credit my account with the additional 10,000 UR points.
Thank you!
Mrs. TBB
and Chase rep’s response just two hours later was:
Dear Mrs. TBB,
Thank you for contacting Chase about the first use bonus offer.
You are a valuable Chase customer for us and we are pleased to add the additional 10.000 points to the account number noted above so that it receives a total of 70,000 points for an enrollment bonus. You will see this
adjustment on the next statement. This adjustment is available for redemption now.
If you have any further questions, please reply using the Secure Message Center.
Thank you,
Ms. ILoveJamie
Impressive customer service by Chase indeed!
Now let’s see which blogger mentions this offer as this one does not pay them…Hmmm, watch them squirm! Wait…we may see 70k affiliate offers soon. If that happens, prepare for you know what! Remember the noise for the 60k offer, this would be deafening. Makes me want to hurl just thinking about going over the same shit again so soon!
AMEX AFFILIATE PROGRAM
If you are interested in the subject, you should read all of this blog post at Maximizing Money: 3 Reasons I Rejected the American Express Affiliate Program
Some excerpts and my comments in brackets…
I was recently approached by the American Express Affiliate Program to promote their OPEN business cards on Maximizing Money. – [ Hmmm, is Amex now picking the blogs they want to target for selling Amex credit cards?]
It’s been a few months since American Express unceremoniously kicked me out of their affiliate program, so it was a bit redeeming to have them request that I promote their affiliate card offers again. – [ Sure looks like Amex is picking and choosing the…chosen ones. The ones they kept (The Points Guy, Frugal Travel Guy, Million Mile Secrets) appear to be compliant sales representatives…]
One of the major downfalls of the American Express Affiliate Program is that they require their publishers to only promote American Express card offers that are part of the affiliate program. This wouldn’t be so bad if the offers that are available through their affiliate program were actually the best offers out there. – [You.Don’t.Say! Really? I don’t believe it! I am starting to get angry…]
There are also great cards like the Mercedes-Benz Platinum Card that are not available through their affiliate program, so publishers are not allowed to promote them, as you can only promote cards that are specifically available via their affiliate program. – [Ummm, wait a minute, do these blogs promote the Mercedes-Benz Amex Platinum Card? Anyone, anyone? ]
American Express limits the amount of information that publishers can provide to their readers. They provide official bullet points and content for each of their cards, and if you stray too far from those bullet points or provide additional information that is not approved, then you are considered non-compliant, and they will ask you to remove or update your information. – [Do you know what is sounds like to me? Sounds like you become a bitch of the bank when you sign on the dotted line! You just hawk the products they want you. Hell no we won’t buy (from you!). And this is the arrangement all other BA bloggers who lost their Amex links were crying so much about? I mean, I felt sorry for Delta Points when the Amex links went poof…ok, not really but you get my point what is going on here! ]
Even when I would write completely accurate reviews about their cards (or card-related offers) with information taken directly from their website, they would consider me non-compliant if I published information that was not officially approved by them. – [ In other words, bank bitches…that is what it sounds like to me! Where is the freedom of expression and putting the readers first if you can not write something that is not approved huh? ]
For example, I like to write about American Express Card Referral Bonuses, but the American Express Affiliate Program does not allow this and has asked me to remove this page previously. – [ Mother %(*&#$@#. Ok, calm down TBB, serenity now serenity now. Hey, fight back….contact me for these miles/points referrals por favor. We non affiliated bloggers need to eat too lol! ]
Just to get into the program, I would have had to insert the disclaimers, provide mock-ups of any pages with American Express cards, submit additional mock-ups containing any requested changes, and then hope to get approval from AMEX’s legal team. – [ What the hell is a mockup anyway? Do you have to bend over and at what stage?]
They probably don’t want to give me money for doing something that I’m already doing for free, so other than gaining control over American Express offers on my website, what else do they really have to gain, as they certainly didn’t care about my earning affiliate income when they kicked me out of their program in the first place. – [ Isn’t it quite remarkable how every blogger who was dropped has this sense of great injustice and only then get any feelings of “I am going to show them now!” when all along while they were getting paid it was all fine and dandy huh?
Please note that there are a number of sites out there that seemingly participate in the American Express Affiliate Program, but don’t follow these rules exactly. I have no idea if they have special arrangements with American Express or how they are able to circumvent these rules, but this article is solely based on my own experiences with the American Express Affiliate Program and the requirements they had for my site alone. – [AMEX clearly does not approve of mother in law rules LOL]
I miss these meetings…
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TBB
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Finally back on top!
Now I can finally stop refreshing Twitter constantly.
Am I second or third?
Blergh.
ILoveJamie was a nice touch! Good post, TBB.
Damn…just missed the podium. SMH ala that old “Track ‘N Field” video game, LOL. 70K Ultimate Reward points bonus for the Ink Plus? Very timely, my annual fee is coming due for the Ink Bold. Thanks for the tip!
70K for an Ink Card is a great promo for a great card. I don’t have Chase affiliate links (duhhhh), but I will either write about it, or pass along the info to friends – not because I’ll earn anything but because its a good deal I recommend. But, yeah …… the InkBlitzAffiliatePhuckPhest is about to begin…
@Helixcardinal: I knew you would be back where you belong!
@ David: Second. Unless you want to be third. You are just not first, this time at least 🙂
@ The common man: Muchas gracias senor.
@ Erik: It’s only in branch for now but word in the blog street is that it may soon be available online too. I am sure you ‘ll hear of it.
@ Kathy: Yep, brace yourselves. All the ones we know probably have the card by now after all the ridiculous pimping of it non stop. This is why the biggest blog pumpers rely on waves of newbies to target/prey and encourage them to get seven cards in the same day. And on and on it goes…
@TBB, yup AoRs aren’t really useful. It’s just a good way of getting several commissions in one hit. Much more useful is spreading inquiries over bureaus but you almost never hear about it.
Can’t say I agree with this, unless I’m missing your point. The pulls lose their potency over time. How would spreading inquiries be useful?
Can we use “servants” instead of “bitches” when describing subservience to the banks/affiliate programs? The latter term connotes a little too much. Thanks. I can explain why if anyone cares.
I like the term “employee” myself.
Ok, no more bitches…
How about servant employees instead?
Hats off to the person who had the guts to write about the Amex’s affiliate program and the way they mistreat their affiliates and the to-be customers.
It’s all good while they get paid 🙂
DD is the first one to pimp the Chase card and tells his readers to SM to match so he can rack in the dough while waiting for the affiliate link so he can pump all day long.
Sure did. At least his post had useful information 🙂 The rest of them (the ones who said something)…you can sense the pain they went through hoping nobody goes to the branch lol
Let’s see. Would you rather have 70K with no annual fee and apply from the comfort of your home and be able to MBM the app.
Or would you rather pay $95 and have to go into a branch?
I thought so…
Let’s see, would you rather use your own shopping portal and get your own cashback or would you prefer to give it to the blogger and get nothing in return?
I thought so…
I guess that would depend on whether you appreciate the blogger’s effort in finding a deal or not.
But what in the world does that have to do with your original attack on me? Unless you just don’t want to admit that you’re wrong?
People are better off applying now and matching rather than waiting for the bloggers to get a 70k link that has an annual fee.
I just sent a DM to Chase to see if they’d match the offer to the Bold I got in May. Will report back. Even though I am sure it makes no difference at all, I even mentioned that when I was a kid, my mom worked at the Chase Manhattan Bank in Flushing, NY. I figure they must be bored to tears reading these DMs, many of which complain, and maybe that would give them a chuckle. #fingerscrossed
Also, George, I have been looking to sell my Seattle Sessions ticket since I can’t make it there either, but if you get more interest than you can handle for the free one, I might be persuaded to offer it to someone who can give it a good home at a deep discount or better. So let me know!
The key with these offers is to send the SM FAST! Before they get deluged and management steps in with a memo!
Last time I checked my email I had four people asking for it. I will see if I have more, give them all a number from 1 to whatever and get the Random Number Generator pick one. I can say something about you and have them contact you directly?
Sure. You have my email, so feel free to pass it along, and I can play Let’s Make A Deal. Thanks.
FlyerTalk sourced that 70k deal and has much better info.
And DP had the gall to h/t FT after he crapped all over it in one of his “Dookie Wednesday” posts.
I find it funny how people crap on the ones who dare to let facts stand, like “they got it from FT” and they call them whiners lol.
I think almost everything generates there 🙂
What was ridiculous even more is seeing Mommy Points and Points Miles and Martinis H/Ting…Delta Points.
The ridiculousness of it all!
100% true. Even i can start a “travel” blog by just reading flyer talk and “blogging” about posts there.