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I have written a lot about the state of my dear hobby. How ever since 2010 when the first commission checks from selling credit cards were cashed it has been a downhill race towards the bottom, the loss of all common sense and the complete warping of the state of the mind that now justifies pretty much every behavior and not even realizing it. But I digress….No I won’t. Here is another example of the ridiculousness so prevalent in this space of so many “entrpreneurs” who think they are “travel experts” and all they do is unleash repeated barrages of credit card affiliate link selling to their readers. Hey, let me tell you something. Thinking you are an expert does not make you one! In fact, I can think of many others who are a heck of a lot more experts than you about this stuff. And they treat their readers with respect and put them first while you always put the credit card “conversions” first. I have no doubt in my mind that all of you will go on to sell something else online when the banks finally cut you off. The true experts, the ones with the true passion about this game, will go on. Enjoy the money while it lasts, hope you don’t squander it. Because I am not sure how many will hire you for your “skills” after pumping it up and hurting our eyeballs for so long.
Okay, that was a long intro, I enjoyed it. My therapist is darn right when she says to “let it go” here! Here is the essence of this post:
There is a Hyatt Visa card that can get you two free nights at a Hyatt hotel. Heck we enjoyed our two nights at the Andaz Maui in April of 2014. We got breakfasts for four for Free too! (Yep, bloggers killed that one too!). But the card offer is not an affiliate offer, meaning that the bloggers who get their readers to click on the link do NOT get paid for it. I assure you they are so very sad about this! So, when the great 20% off Hyatt award promotion came out they all had to blog about it because, well, like I said, it is a great promo! You can BET MY AWARD WALLET BALANCES that if there was an affiliate offer for a Hyatt credit card the affiliate link to it would be all over such blog posts. Actually there would be a stampede who would blog first about the deal! But since there was no way to get paid let’s see what happened below.
Remember, even if the promotion first referred to this promotion being valid for current credit card holders as of January 31 it later became known that it would still apply if you got the card and registered for the promotion before March 31. Heck, even if this was an excuse for not linking (remember no $$$ for the bloggers here) to the card it is still lame because you can still get the readers TWO FREE NIGHTS IN ANY HYATT!!!! You are all about free travel and flat beds and Maldives but these bloggers below reacted this way. Now proceed by holding your nose…
Final caveat: This is not an exhaustive list, complain to management. And yes you may get a better credit card offer if you proceed to book a reservation in the Hyatt website.
Now, please lets hold our noses together…
In chronological order, from earlier to later:
Awesome Offer: 20% Rebate on Nearly All Hyatt Redemptions Through July 31 for Co-Brand Cardholders – View From the Wing Not a single mention how you can get the card, wow!
A reader named James called him out on it with: What’s the link for this card? Please don’t tell me that the reason why it didn’t get a “KEY LINK” status was because it doesn’t pay you commission.
And the response: @James you cannot sign up for the Hyatt Visa to become eligible for this offer. It’s only available for cardholders as of the end of January.
Besides, I don’t give direct links to this card, I recommend people walk through making a Hyatt reservation because that will frequently cause them to be presented with a better offer.
Cough, that recommendation was never to be found in these posts. Just an oversight I guess.
Get 20% of Your Redeemed Hyatt Points Back with Credit Card! – Mommy Points No mention how to get the Hyatt card but has the audacity to pump the IHG Rewards Visa affiliate link. To make this even more ridiculous than it already is, it gives HT to Million Mile Secrets for writing about the deal. I almost picked up a knife to cut myself…
Get 20% Hyatt Points Back – Deals We Like No mention on how to get the Hyatt card. My expectations were achieved.
Hyatt Promotion Offering 20% Refund On Points Redemptions – One Mile at a Time No mention of the card. Some juicy pics of Hyatts around the world and an HT to View From the Wing. Titan brotherhood!
Have A Hyatt Credit Card? Get 20% Back On All Point Redemptions Through July! Plus: A Unified Hyatt Award Chart With 20% Off Calculations – DansDeals No mention of the Hyatt Visa. This blog used to be in the TBB Like list. So sad. HTs View from the Wing. Even sadder.
20% Rebate on Hyatt Award Stays through July 31 for Cardholders – Milevalue Ok, I ‘ll let you guess what happened here. Come on! Of course there was no link to the Hyatt card but has the audacity to pump the Club Carlson card. Oh so sad not to have direct Chase links anymore.
Hyatt Offers 20% Point-Redemption Refund to Hyatt Credit Cardmembers – The Frugal Travel Guy Ok, let you guess again. You are right! No link to the Hyatt Visa but has the super audacity to link to the “Must Have List of Credit cards”. Wow, just wow! To the few people who write here for the money I still respect…really? Please sign up for the “award winning” FTG Wallet if you want to challenge your respect. Just do it. You want to review it for me? No? Really? Why not?
Hyatt credit cardholders get a 20% rebate of Hyatt Gold Passport award redemptions – Mighty Travels Of course no mention of the Hyatt Visa, come on! HTs View From The Wing.
No Need to Cancel and Rebook! The Awesome Hyatt 20% Award Rebate is Easier Than Expected – View From The Wing Comes back with a second post about this promo! And still does not tell readers how to get the Hyatt Visa, wow!
20% Points Back on Hyatt Award Stays! – Million Mile Secrets Does offer the non affiliate Hyatt Visa link twice. Makes up for it by pumping FOUR Chase cards. Hey ghost writers are not free, come on! You want them to work for free like we do here huh?
Not a Hyatt Visa Cardmember? You Can Still Get 20% Back on All Your Awards – View From the Wing Makes yet another post about it. How can this guy with a full time job pump so many blog posts every day is beyond me! Anyways, probably observed other Titans pump about this so he STILL does not link to the Hyatt Visa but now decides to pump the Chase Sapphire Card. Wow, just wow!
20% Points Rebate on Hyatt Award Redemptions for Credit Card Holders – Noob Traveler Shockingly, it links to the Hyatt Visa. Expectedly it pumps the Chase Sapphire Preferred link. How can this site maintain direct Chase links is beyond me!
Maximizing Hyatt’s 20% Points Discount on Award Redemption – The Points Guy Hey, none accused this site of being very timely before and we are not going to start it now. Shockingly, it does offer the Hyatt Visa links twice, I almost fell off my chair. Of course you are surrounded by banners and links to other credit cards as usual.
Thank you for reading and supporting my blog by clicking my $$ links! Yeah, kind of ironic I am linking to my credit card page here isn’t it? When one card can pay for a whole month of Amazon orders and keep this baby a “business concern” going why not? If you still think we are doing all this for the money and not for the passion (or pure insanity is more like it) I have some great agricultural fields somewhere in Central Greece to sell you, make me an offer 🙂 As I rest my legs today, just wanted to let you know my team “Gasping For Air” finished the season undefeated champions with another 7-2 win last night #cloud9.
Be excellent, earn and burn (need to do that more, after tax season I promise!).
TBB
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First! I have spent two nights of my life in a Hyatt hotel. Next month I’ll spend two more in the same hotel. It’s just fine, but I don’t get the fuss at all.
C’mon, Kenny. You are not staying at the “Aspirational” Hyatts!
😉
Imagine if Hyatt was in the pockets of Comenity bank rather than Chase. Vendoming would be less sexy and NO fat commission check.
There would be lot less bloggers Vendoming it for sure then hehe
Looks like slow day today, will take second
I just want to let you all know I discovered something that I really really like recently.
Cinnamon in coffee is GREAT, wow! How in the hell I have not discovered this earlier! Boy am I slow or what?
On a similar note, I recently discovered Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Why was I not aware of these earlier?
The worst part with MommyPoints is that in her Maldives post, she tells the people that she used the Chase Hyatt to redeem the 2 free nights.
It’s hard not to call these people names when they pull this kind of crap. My comments always get censored when I call her out on this bs.
Per FTG dude, you are one of the 1%. Or is it the 2%. Or the 0.02%. Maybe it is 0.1%. Whateveh
These bloggers automatically put on their BS deflecting shield up, dismiss as just angry people, and then go on to do what they do best. Which is online marketing pumping readers to Bolvion (wink to harvons3, where are you man???).
As a former Chase affiliate, I can say that neither Chase or LinkOffers ever told me I could not have Chase Hyatt links in my posts. Normally, it is compliance that dictates not having direct links, but that is not the case.
One possible reason why these bloggers are not linking to it could be this – I was told that they (Linkoffers) were hoping to get the Chase Hyatt card into the affiliate chain. By not linking to it, it could be a way to strongly encourage them (Chase and Hyatt) to finally pay out for it. Just a guess…
Maybe you are right.
But some added the non affiliate link too. So it does appear it may be up to them.
Thanks for your post, and thank you for calling them out on this. It is a disgrace, absolute disgrace. At this point 95% of these bloggers are removed from my feedly feed, and I am just thankful for it. I sometimes forget how much they pump as I don’t see it daily.
I appreciate your continued blogging, I know you are in the middle of the tax season, so this is not an easy undertaking. Thank you.
Cheers,
PedroNY
One small step for the hobbyists, one giant step for the hobby. Everyone: Vote for PedroNY.
PedroNY: Run for something then 🙂
Thanks always for the kind words. They do mean a lot to me.
Any blogger that put direct Hyatt Visa links in their posts would have been a total douchebag, since the best offer is found by going through the process to make a reservation at Hyatt. In fairness, in the third VFTW post Gary did tell us that.
In the third one LOL
pick up Saigon Cinnamon from Costco….muy bueno
I will tell Mrs TBB then, she loves that store. I have only been inside it once, not sure what the fuss is all about.
How about a follow up post about the bloggers who did mention the best $50 statement credit offer from the beginning?
That is way too much emphasis on the positive. I have been told I focus on the negative too much so I must live up to my reputation 🙂
Fair enough.