Let’s take a wild ride through some things Chris Elliott said about our favorite programs, Cartera interview, Chile visa fees, Plink changes, hotel promos, changing of habits, wild horses and Afghanistan happy pictures.
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Is it me or is Chris Elliott looking better after each loyalty program devaluation? His latest article in USA Today “Are airlines right to change their mileage programs?” has the typical sensational claims but also does have a lot of things it is getting pretty hard to argue with. For example, how about these excerpts with my typical inflammatory comments in brackets:
“For him, the process feels like a bait-and-switch… But when he tried to redeem his miles for an upgrade, the airline wanted even more.” [Delta?]
” The programs are deemed less trustworthy than banks, cable and telephone companies. In fact, passengers singled out Delta’s website as the toughest for redeeming miles.” [You.Don’t.Say!]
“Sure, he says. But they had to fix these incentives because they weren’t really rewarding their best customers. Plus, the programs were too easily manipulated. Some travelers reaped first-class perks from buying pudding boxes or U.S. Mint coins while actually paying as little as possible for their seats. That’s no way to run a program.” [Yep. Bingo. Get your Vanilla and Manufacture all you want, this baby is just not sustainable!]
“Loyalty programs weren’t rewarding the right passengers, anyway — too many beneficiaries were insiders who “hacked” the system. That hurt everyone. The fixes are justified to correct that problem.” [If you look at this objectively, this makes sense. Of course the legions of bloggers who sell the aspirational experience absolutely hate it.]
“It’s something to remember the next time a crewmember or blogger waves one of those affinity credit cards in front of you offering you a “free” ticket — or you’re tempted to book a flight for the miles.” [It’s all about conversions. You did not get the Southwest card, what the hell is wrong with you? Companion Pass is like the elusive multiple orgasm you must have to reach nirvana…or something like that.]
“Work twice as hard. Airlines are on to you, and they are quickly closing many of the loopholes that allowed point collectors to “hack” the system. It may not be worth the effort.” [I can’t believe I am agreeing with Chris Elliott, what the hell is going on, is this really happening?]
View from the Wing interviewed an exec from Cartera. Not really interesting, just corporate speak BS. I would have asked this question: “Why does your company suck so bad?”
Chile ends $160 Reciprocity Fee for US Citizens. By The Flight Deal. As usual, this comes about two years late for the TBB family. I wish we can get a refund for the $640 we spent to have the privilege of entering this country…not the best way to start making an impression. It was fine but not planning a return visit anytime soon. A very substandard stay at the W Santiago also contributed to it.
I found Milevalue‘s latest attempt to create controversy (and traffic) by ripping the New York Times article totally ridiculous. I better stop there before I get angry. Some people will say anything to sell more merchandise!
Staples is withdrawing from the Plink program on March 11, boo! Office Depot is being added instead. I have not been back to Office Depot since those glorious 5x days, how does its gift card section compare to Staples? This will change my routine as I was used to visiting Staples to buy Whole Foods, Panera and Starbucks gift cards with my Ink Plus card. And stop by next door to CVS. So, this change is not welcome!
I would love to see a debate between Gary Leff and Chris Elliott on stage, how about inviting him at the next FTU huh? Collect donations at the door, for charity of course! Now THAT would be fun instead of watching the same speakers rave about them Chase and Amex cards again…
A summary of the main major hotel loyalty program promotions by Loyalty Traveler.
Every time I see a promo to buy or transfer miles all I think about is that the company has a short term revenue target to hit to award some bonuses to some executives and that a devaluation is around the corner. Hell no I won’t pay! If you do, you better not leave your computer but just proceed to book your award. You do have one researched and ready to go right? If not, you are just a sitting duck. Amazing Avianca still has not closed that loophole and no I haven’t done it myself as I am certain by the time I take off it will be fixed and I will be stranded all alone with no wifi 🙂
Do NOT wait until the last minute to book your hotel awards when a change in category happens. Do NOT let happen to you what happened to me. I like to provide value to my clients, especially ones who have been with me the longest and have always volunteered to speak freely to prospective clients who may had some questions. And at year 10 anniversary I like to treat them a travel gift. Anyways, client emailed me late last night finally with his itinerary before catching a company paid cruise in Athens, Greece. They decided to spend four nights in Athens before the cruise so I was going to treat them with a few hotel nights at least. The Starwood Grand Bretagne Hotel went up in category from 5 to 6 and I thought i had until 12 midnight EST to book it. Well, I learned the hard way that the change occurs in LOCAL hotel time (7 hours earlier!). Anyway, this is developing. The Twitter SPG team may help out here as I swear I literally saw the change happen online as the system asked me to call SPG at the very final confirmation screen!
Indulge the Wanderlust has left first2board too.
36 Lessons I’ve Learned About Habits. By Zen habits. This is a really good article! I am personally making a very strong effort to change my eating habits and I would like to say I am still going at 100% in all my New Year resolutions! No more strict diets only to succumb to bouts of binge eating pizza and popcorn at the movies! So, I made smaller changes. No pop, popcorn, pizza and chips. Along with no more eating after 10 pm. And try to eat less. I am still going strong, down about 10 lbs. Which creates a clothing fit problem. I like it. If you see me eating pizza (oh how I miss it!) feel free to slap me and take it away, thanks! Blog=accountability!
23 Best Investing Quotes by Warren Buffett.
Amazing pictures of the huge herds of wild horses which charge across the plains of western China. Wow!
The 2013 Microscopic images of the year. By Twisted Sifter.
This is the Afghanistan that Never Makes It Into the Headlines.
Maize (wearing the blue burqa) lives in a village 15 hours outside of Kabul, but came to visit her husband, an army officer stationed in the city. They picnicked for the day at her favorite place, Bagh-e Babur Gardens, a historic park built in 1528.
Just another day in Paradise…
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first!
Ok, be first at explaining why your fellow bloggers are ditching First2Board.
I’m surprised that F2B has lasted this long, honestly. With Stacey at the helm, that ship’s bound to go down.
First again.
I posted several times that SPG hotels change categories at local time: http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/40806
Of course that’s also been a good thing in the past for the hackers out there 😉
? Points are easier to get than ever – and at negative net cost. It’s the guys who still think mileage running is the way to get “free trips” who are going the way of the Dodo.
If anything, the blogsters will simply pimp harder. Instead of just one or two cards, they’ll recommend a “suite of four or six” = more affiliate income. Sure a few who might get put off by more signups, but there are plenty who will want that Emirates Suites class flight just to experience that 5 minute shower.
The way I sense it, mileage running is only done for elite status these days. Like you wrote, no reason to do that for points, and I’m not sure it really ever was.
Do I have that right?
You are on the right track. Sometimes mileage running did make sense even for redeemable miles, of course it all depends on the fare. Oh, the fare. Delta now says it all depends on the fare 🙂
George–re habits, I’m currently reading “Making Habits, Breaking Habits” by Jeremy Dean. So far it’s a good pop-psych book which discusses the current research into habits and how to apply the lessons to yourself.
“One View from the Wing” are you subconsciously saying you can’t tell the difference between Gary and Lucky?
Nah, TBB, that Chris Elliott rant is still his usual mix of obtuse and stupid.
The Mint deal ended in July 2011. Pudding Guy bought pudding in 1999. Neither has any relation to revaluations by United and Delta in 2013/2014. Credit card companies (banks) brought airlines out of bankruptcy, and amazingly they still issue cards with mileage sign-up bonuses.
I could go on; perhaps later. Maybe Chris can rant about kids today and their interest in this new “rap” and Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dogg.
That video is very funny!
I like being contrarian. All I am saying is that CE, with each devaluation, just does not sound as flippy as he used to. He is starting a new consumer organization and is looking for “volunteers” which I pretty much equate with working for free for him, no thanks.
Quite unbelievable we are still talking about the Pudding Guy 15 years later! Who happens to be a great guy by the way who moved on to greater things, like running marathons. I wonder if I will ever move on too 🙂
Haha! I loved the commentary on the Chris Elliot article! Even a broken clock is right twice a day! (BTW kids, clocks are these things that we used to tell what time it was in a time before smartphones… look it up).
Yeah, he has been saying the same stuff for years…eventually he would be right 🙂
@ Jamison: You are numero Uno!
@ TJ: Umm, I won’t touch that one 😉
@ Fishing4Deals: 7 mins late but you can be whoever you want to be in here 😉
@ Dan: They say you learn best from your own mistakes and this was one for me. It had never registered that it was based on local hotel time. Now it has! Starwood is supposed to call me today and hopefully they will let me have it at the old price.
@ Paul: I agree with your statement. Mileage running is pretty much over. I just don’t like the long term prospects of the MS game, just too much easy earning…can’t be good for the future in burning!
Play with that cc tool on top of the FTG page: Pretend you are married, good credit score, a non business owner and only interested in cash back rewards cards. Sit back and look at the results. If you want to get angry 🙂
@ Nick: Thanks for the suggestion!
@ StickyWicket: Good catch! I actually used to do that when I started the blog and GL corrected me. I will fix it, it was not intentional. But I think it’s funny as both are into the aspirational awards too 🙂
What? If you’re not going to tell us what’s up with the f2b exodus, who will?
Well, I have Boarding Area folks pissed off at me now you want me to get F2b folks mad at me too? 🙂
Anyways, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure it out. If they were happy they would not be leaving and instead they would be adding blogs to their lineup.
Bloggers tell me stuff off the record. And I respect that.
You should ask them yourself…the crack investigative team at TBB left to write for blogs that pay a living wage LOL.
I started reading that MV post and didn’t finish it. Seemed just like some random rambling. Actually, most of the recent posts are like that. Was going to send you the link but then decided not to assault your eyes with that stuff.
Somehow I missed the Grand Bretagne devaluation. I’ve been hammering my SPG card so I can get enough points for five days stay there when I run the marathon. But statement doesn’t close till the 8th I think so that’s not happening. Looks like King George didn’t change so I should still be able to get the room there but from everything I researched, GB seemed like a better option. I know you didn’t care for either one of them. And I might still do AirBnB or couchsurf but I figured I’d lock in the room for now and can cancel later if I have better use for the points.
Check out the new Radisson Blu! I am not sure where it is exactly (nothing will beat the location of the GB and KG!) but the hotel does look nice (and rates are not high!).There is a crappy Holiday Inn near there, avoid it. The IC is nice I hear but location is a little off (but not too far off). The Holiday Inn near the airport is very new and there is an express bus to the Athens center right in front of it. I got that one as Pointbreaks a few years ago, great bargain!
I still love the HIlton,now at 40k pts per night (but I am sure it goes up in the summer). Upgrade to lounge floor as Gold every time! And lovely lounge with full breakfast. And great fitness center and swimming pools! It used to be 20k HH pts per night back in the day…
Maybe The MS Tournament should be renamed The MS Bore-nament. No offence meant to the esteemed participants. We need FM to kick it up a notch. Frequent Miler where are you? You and your clever mind are needed to bring life to this tourney. You gave them a week head start, now jump in and show them how a pro does it…………………………..Buzz, I just had a big fight with the Old Bat. She said that she hoped Chris Christy gets elected in 2 years, because at the rate I am eating I will be able to make a fortune as a Presidential Impersonator………I fixed her though. I just told her that I am cutting her off from sex for the next month. She responded that Fabio, her tennis instructor, isn’t going to stand for that……Why should Fabio care about our sex life?
What did it for me to stop eating so much was being called “Flabio” 🙂
If Amex is smart, they’ll keep pushing off their launch of the 2 new cards
All the pub they’re getting about it is really helping their coffers.
Not because it’s building excitement about the cards per se, but because the usual suspects are pumping out post after post about those cards just as an excuse to get the affiliate links in for the existing cards
The rollout of these new cards seemed to have done wonders for the Amex PRG and Blue Cash card. If they’re smart, they’ll introduce some lounge feature for these cards (no matter how crappy that feature is) so that bloggers can “compare” it to the Platinum card
Yep…hey, did you read about the latest Amex Sync deals you get $10 off when you buy a $300 timbuktu.com ?
MV today is really misleading – he claims he spends only 30 minutes a month to track “everything credit card related.” He then goes on to say how easy it is to set up online accounts and autopay for each bank. I am sure that I am not the only one who has run into glitches and delays which necessitated multiple trips to a bank website or calls to tech support when doing this. Or who spent time making multiple recon or retention calls that took more than a half hour for just one card. Or who was on hold when a fraudulent charge hit or a card was lost or stolen. The more cards we get, the more time it takes and to say it only takes a half hour is just plain ridiculous.
My favorite bank to hate is B of A; their website is awful and I have spent many half hours on the phone with their online assistance trying to set up autopays on my cards, my husband’s cards and his business card. MV neglects to mention that some banks demand two tiny withdrawals to prove they can indeed set up an autopay; that this takes a few days, and you must monitor the checking account that will be used to see when those tiny payments come through, after which you return to the CC site to finish to process. Other sites do not allow you to set up autopay until the first bill shows up. Geez, just keying the info for new cards into AwardWallet takes time!
Once again, MV is really misleading the newbies. A half hour a month to manage multiple credit cards? No way.
Like I said before, some bloggers will write ANYTHING to sell a credit card. And I mean any stupid/moronic/lame monstrosity that can be passed off as “content” to their audience they prefer to keep in the dark instead of educating…
The blog you mention proudly belongs in my Ignore list. At its current rate it may be featured in my “Blogs that make me throw up” list but that may appear a little angry:-)
Bof A has been my regular bank. I do not hold any BofA cards. I must admit that I am happy with the checking accounts I have there (2: personal and business). For a while they held my mortgage but they sold it to another bank that has changed hands three times in the last 2 years which is absurd!
There is a real cost to playing this game. To say it takes 30 minutes is ludicrous and, in my humble opinion, is an absolute lie. Hey, as long as it helps conversions…
Why no BoA cards? You don’t want to take a shower on A380???
I do love BoA’s ATM. And BoA is great to unload MOs.
I can care less about a 5 minute shower in the air so I can brag about it and promote a selfie 🙂
Great to unload cash from mvd. Which I have slowed waaaay down lately. The bank does traditional banking really well. If they can stop hammering me to move my assets to Merrill Lynch!
It would be great to see a debate between Gary and Chris, but Gary’s propensity for being, shall we say, long winded, would require an extra day for just his side of the debate. I do admire his writing, however.
We will have a timer. When Gary goes over his time limit, I press the button to deliver an electric shock. Trust me, he will have to abide by the rule 🙂
Don’t need the Electric shock. Just don’t let him eat lunch.
If they let me be the moderator I would personally serve GL his favorite pancakes. And give CE water as it looks like he never eats lol.
Forgot to comment on the horses. They reminded me of the time we were in a very remote part of China, traveling with a guide. We stopped when we passed a large gathering which turned out to be a local bullfight. Bulls and their owners were all around, waiting their turn to go into the “ring.” The ring was little more that a big field circled by the folks observing. No barricades, no barriers, no nothing.
We joined the watchers but after about two minutes, the poor bull started to charge, and he came right at where I stood with the guide. The guide started to run away, on a diagonal to get out of the bull’s path, and I followed, scampering up to a dirt road as the bull charged by into some bushes, before his owner got him under control. I really thought I was a goner. I still haven’t forgiven my husband for laughing!
We decided we’d seen enough and got back on the road, stopping again when we saw a family butchering a pig. But I’ll save the story of how we watched them outside their house and then were invited in to for a house tour and lesson in how they used every part of the pig for another day.
I am trying to picture these scenes…nice unforgettable memories 🙂
I would love to learn all the uses of the pig parts too…not 🙂
I normally read everything Eliott has to say (sometimes because it makes sense, but mostly for my own amusement), but somehow missed this one. Thanks for pointing it out to my attention, George, but I have to disagree with your “agrees”. There are so many fallacies in his rhetoric that I’ll just have to make a separate post on it.
Here is one: think what happens with airlines lucrative credit card co-branding racket when and if the airlines effectively push away most of us, hackers, into “cashback business”. Even now, I could bet all my earthly possessions (wouldn’t take long or much 🙂 ) that there are enough addicts in our hobby who break the first golden rule of the trade and carry their balance from month to month. That alone makes it profitable to banks — on the grand scheme of things, of course.
I haven’t seen any indication that the airlines have become any less addictive to free money (in terms of the ability of selling their miles to banks) than us. If it is true that they are trying to weed out the gamers — which I gotta say is very debatable — then shifting the focus to revenue-based principles, especially in redemptions can have very unintended consequences.
CE is always good for entertainment value 🙂
I will have to wait for your piece then.
Airlines are trying to play a very delicate line here. Stem the flow of miles given out (it is NOT sustainable!) and try not to piss off valued customers (I think they will succeed on this) and banks providing them with a good stream of dinero. Delta is out in the lead and I guarantee you they are all watching what happens and drafting their own plans as we speak!
Time will show. I am not optimistic about our (gamers) future at all. And I am a very optimistic person in general!
“I will have to wait for your piece then.”
Check! http://lazytravelers.net/why-does-chris-elliott-hate-us-so-much.
Warning: it’s long. Wasn’t my intention, but tends to happen all the time. I need to learn how to write short and succinct pieces. One day…
And now freaking Delta went ahead and released their redemption chart. Are they trying to make me post every day for Christ’s sake? Now that would be a novel concept.
10 Best cards for everyday pimping:
1) CIB [insert link] and CIP [insert link]
Reason: They get you 5X points on office supply stores, and get me that new big screen
2) CSP [insert link]
Reason: It transfers 1:1 to multiple loyalty programs. The transfers (to my bank account) are instantaneous
3) SPG Amex [insert link]
Reason: It’s the most valuable currency out there. Although Amex doesn’t let me tell you just how valuable 😉
4) Southwest 50K Visa [insert link]
Reason: They “increase the sign up bonus” more often than Macy’s has a 1 day sale. Makes it easy to generate faux-hysterical “ACT NOW!!!!” posts
5) AA 100K and 50K cards [NO LINK INSERTED]
Reason: Haha, just kidding
6) Barclays Arrival Card [insert link]
Reason: They’re fuzzy point structure (are they worth 2.22222 cents, or 2.22223 cents?) gives me an excuse to talk about it
7) AMEX Platinum [insert link 6 times]
Reason: You give a lot of money to Amex. Amex gives a lot of money to me
8) Amex Everday cards
Reason: They don’t pay me money, but they give me good excuses to bring up links for a dozen cards that do
9) Amex Blue Cash [insert link]
Reason: Fortunately, they don’t cap MY earnings after $6000
10) Frontier Mastercard [insert link]
Reason: I’m MileValue and I ran out of cards that will pay me affiliate $$$
Sorry, I forgot that I’m a blogger, and thus a “top 10 list” actually needs at least 14 links
11) Club Carlson card [insert link}
Reason: One of the Carlson cards pay me. So i pimp that one but ignore the others
12) Chase Freedom [insert link]
Reason: It complements nicely with my pimping of the CIB [insert link], CIP [insert link] and CSP [insert link]
13) Amex Platinum [insert link]
Reason: It was already at #7 on the list, but it pays me a lot of money, so I’ll mention it again
14) Lufthansa Mastercard [insert link]
Reason: They increase commissions when they increase signup bonuses. And if you’re an FTG travel challenge reader, the signup bonus can get you 2 round trip business class tickets to Bora Bora and 6 nights at the IC. Don’t forget to pick up an Arrival card [insert link] for the inter-island flight
Credit cards (or at least the banks who need miles to remain valuable) are the last thing standing between you guys and revenue based redemption charts!
You should be more grateful to them!
Actually, their incessant pimping of it might’ve expedited the move to revenue-based
Delta miles are super easy to come by because there’s about 25 cards you can rack up Delta miles with
United miles are super easy to come by because there’s about 55 cards you can rack up United miles with. No, United’s technically not revenue based, but for the purpose of why we hate revenue based charts (using miles for premium cabin international travel), it has now become unrealistic
American/US are really the only major US carrier who you can still redeem miles for premium travel at reasonable rates. And their currencies are the hardest to rack up via CCs
And the future of our hacking game is foreign carriers…. who are even harder to rack up via CCs
You can recycle this at least once a week.
“I plan to post it once a month, since offers are constantly changing”
– Joe McBlogger, on his post that is the same word for word as last month
I too am guilty of this, but in my defence it is one post out of 93 per month!
LOl@Steve
Steve is on a roll here. Very entertaining stuff! And this:
>>>>>>Actually, their incessant pimping of it might’ve expedited the move to revenue-based
There is NO doubt about that, no doubt!
Well done!
Can you do a similar treatment about “aspirational travel”? I would love to see you riff on “the awesomeness that is the Maldives”. (Because who wouldn’t want to travel almost exactly halfway around the world, spending days to get there, to visit a cocoon of money grubbers in a country that otherwise is closed to us…) Please go for it!
Now you are finally starting to understand. Sure took you a while 🙂
BRILLIANT.
I must bring back the TBB Comment Gems so others can read this.
Darn tax returns keep me busy…otherwise I would do a post making fun of the “influence” of banks in this space 🙂
I went to go read FTG today, skimmed the posts and realized that I’d read them all already yesterday, the day before, and the week before. The blog is getting so predictable.
Monday morning Rick ranks about _____.
Tuesday Howie writes his newbie series.
Wednesday Howie writes his travel challenge to ______.
Thursday Ariana tell us how to collect more ______ points.
Friday Ariana finishes off the week by telling us how to frugally travel to _____.
It’s the same every week. Only the names in those _____ change.
Over and over and round and round we go. I wouldn’t be surprised if they lost their last few readers very soon.
It is already late and I am about to go to sleep.
Editors Note: Click on ________ and _______ (fill in with credit cards).
Don’t get me started. Instead of doing away with the Travel nonchallenge (really Howie, get your brother involved, really?)
I was going to rip on the awful (in my opinion,what do I Know?) credit card tool but it appears it has been taken down. That was some piece of work. I have a picture of what I was recommended as: Married, non business owner, 800 credit score, no inquiries and only looking for Cash Back Rewards cards….One day I may post it because it sure is an entertaining picture!
Delta award burning details, brace for impact y’all:-)
decided to check out today’s travel challenge. As usual, the post shamefully hides the true cost of these trips in order to sell cards at the readers expense…
the post recommends each of them sign up for the club carlson card, and claims the out of pocket hotel costs are $0… i’m guessing that this means FTG.com will pick up the $150 in annual fees that the recommended cards charge the readers?
But why let the truth get in the way of $$$ of rick and co.
i’d love to see howie or rick or whoever explain why the $150 in annual fees shouldn’t count as out of pocket costs
>>>>>>>>>>>As usual, the post shamefully hides the true cost of these trips in order to sell cards at the readers expense…
Shocking!
Here is a secret Jay: It is ALL about conversions 🙂
Editors Note: Apply for _____ and _____ CCs so we can make a last few $$ while I drive this blog into the ground.
The credit card tool is an utter joke. No matter what marital status, business owner status, credit score… you put into the tool, you’ll be recommended 5+ different cards. When you post about it, I dare you to try and input different bogus info and see if the cards you’re recommended even change.
It is 5 different cards every time, unless when you click on “Business owner” you get 7 different cards. Every time. Every combination…even when you say you are interested in Cash Back Rewards cards.
I am sure conversions were pretty good though…
For your next post: http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/start-here
Oh holy mother of God. I thought that they had killed it! Instead, they put it on “Start here” for the newbie victims!
I thought nothing will beat the “Travel Challenge” quality. Wait, this just did! When you get a newbie interested in Cash Back cards to take time to give his information to get advice from the “experts” and then be presented with the thorough analysis “GET THESE FIVE CARDS” [NOTE: YOU GET SEVEN IF YOU HAVE A BUSINESS!!] well I find this beyond insulting. How can the people involved in that corporation allow such travesty to be on a website? Not only that…put it on “Start Here”.
I am getting angry…and people who know me know full well I rarely get angry
To be continued…
They are just giving the readers what they want.. R and R still increasing. I liked February 🙂 Did you???
“They are just giving the readers what they want”
A good laugh?
Over 5 million page views and 2 million unique visitors since May of 2011. They must be doing something right don’t you think?
Insert link here 🙂
What does that mean? Every reader looks at 2.5 pages?
You get a lot of new eyeballs, but few return?
Not very impressive considering how many different paid bloggers are employed to produce the content that resulted in those 5 million views
Gary got 1 million unique views just in the first 11 months of 2013, and he didn’t need 14 different paid writers to do it.
No wonder you’re jealous of him
14 paid very mediocre writers. There’s little effort and next to no originality on the FTG site any more. Each writer has their own “column” and every week they follow the same script. It’s no wonder that the entries are now unreadable. In the end it comes down to very poor and short sighted management.
You go on and keep thing that Steve! while I’m retired seeing the world and enjoying life 🙂
Are you really retired? So you are not getting paid to write the blog?
Anyway, being 64 or 65 (sorry, I’m guessing) and retired is not unusual. I retired in my 40s and now just mow lawns. 🙂 Er, I’m seeing the world and enjoying life too.
Are conversions down? Must be if the founder disrupts retirement to do credit card consultations as the people who made the mistake to use the credit card tool are encouraged to send the results to the founder…for further “analysis”.
I think they took it down. That was just plain awful “tool”.
Editors Note: The above was not approved by Chase or Amex or Citibank 🙂
Conversions have gotta be down. What kind of newbie reads a frugal travel guide or about getting points from doing their taxes and thinks about applying for a credit card? Editor’s note or not….
Are you thinking of this tool? http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/start-here
See my response above.
This “tool” is beyond embarrassing. How can anyone associated with FTG allow this monstrosity to even exist?
5 cards if you do not own a business
7 cards if you own a business
EVERY FREAKING SCENARIO I HAVE TRIED!
It should be taken down and an apology and refund should be issued…Yeah, right. The response is: “Well, the disclosures were there (if you can find them) and people should take responsibility for their actions”. blah blah blah
2 million unique views since May 2011…
Feb 2014 just closed.
8 months in 2011 + 12 months in 2012 + 12 months in 2013 + 2 months in 2014 = 34 months total
2 million / 34 months = 58,824 unique views a month
If you suppose that each of those months had 30 days…
58,824/30 = 1,961 unique visitors a day
Sounds much less impressive and I have a feeling that if we weren’t looking at averages we’d all see that those numbers have been shrinking especially in the past year.
Unique visitors my friend. Unique. Google shows it is increasing so I’m guessing your angry math is off?
HULK PRETTY GOOD AT ANGRY MATH! HULK GET B+ IN ANGRY DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS!
Ingy, don’t get the big head.
I read your old site every morning.
Helps me poo.
My little UK blog got 561,000 unique visitors in the last 365 days and has a run rate of 6m page views per year.
What would IB pay me do you think?!
OOPS my numbers were off. Sorry. It was over ten million pageview, 6 million visits and 2 million unique visitors.
Buy you? I don’t know? Send me an email and I’ll put you in touch with somebody. What is the blog name? Is it part of an aggregate group? Do you have readily available numbers for income and readership?
“OOPS my numbers were off”
Are we talking about unique visitors, or the weekly travel challenge feature here?
The numbers suggest that you are having issues engaging your readers. Every unique visitors returns twice in more than 2 years. And they look at 5 pages each. Are these numbers normal in this space?
I run at 2.4 pages per visit, based on the last year.
The key figure is really bouce rate (people who visit, read one page only and leave without clicking anything else) which is 53 per cent for me and average time on site, which is 3 min 22 sec.
However, you can intepret these in many ways. Lets imagine I was on TV tonight and got 100,000 visitors. Most would decide not to revisit which would knock my average time on site and raise my bounce rate. However, I would happily have that problem because of the small number that would stick around long term.
If IB calls and you want a letter of recommendation I would provide one, free of charge 🙂
I still don’t know how to get AND interpret my blog’s numbers.
Can someone check Alexa to tell me my rankings? Last time I found the numbers was by my biggest fan in the TBB comments, gracias!
Sorry it was 10 million pageviews, 6 million visits and 2 million uniques since May of 2011
Lots of visitors to the lolcatz blog and the KKK website too. Doesnt mean theyre providing a benefit to society.
McDonalds slogan: “Over 260 gazillion hamburgers sold” They must be doing something right or it must be all marketing food that humans should not be eating. Hey, wifi is great!
Ignore the trolls por favor.
We are about to go on a giant anti Delta blog fest shortly!
I just can’t get over your jealousy of successful businesses? It shows everyday in your postings. Have you talked to your therapist about it? some deep seeded insecurity or something going on there.
“I just can’t get over your jealousy of successful businesses”
That’s not really noteworthy, considering there’s a lot of things about TBB you can’t get over
Jealousy? Therapist? Insecurity?
Why ask why? Bud Dry!
yawn…
I should start charging you for the days I stop by. It increases your comments at least double. Will you be paying in cash or comments?
BTW the first eight where your readers practice their counting skills don’t count. Hahahahahahaha And to think Alexa lists them as mostly grad students?
http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/start-here
As long as this is up on your site that carries your picture with this tagline:
Frugal Travel Guy’s mission is to help regular folks like you see the world at prices you can afford. The blog was founded by Rick Ingersoll in 2007, to educate readers about the value of frequent flyer miles and points. The FTG team has since traveled the world extensively in First and Business class, for minimal out of pocket cost. By leveraging rewards credit cards, we’ve shown thousands of readers how to do the same.
I would be embarrassed to be even remotely associated with it. Hey, it’s just me. I guess we are different. Aren’t you busy analyzing the “tool” requests for credit card help?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>I should start charging you for the days I stop by.
Very typical thought of salesmen who would do anything for a sale. Invoice me I dare you 🙂
George, please don’t feed the trolls 🙂
Buzz did you get a w hotel mattress? Do you like it? Considering one…..noobitup
Do it. Plush, not pillow.
I am VERY happy with my W bed. The only thing that sucks about it is I got it for only 50% off, not 60%. If I remember correctly, it was the Plush. I sleep like a baby with it! I don’t like W brand in general but they do make an awesome bed!
DD commenters are reporting getting an adjustment on past orders by emailing them.
Worth a shot!
Ramsey-still waiting to hear your response 😉
And the bed is great, had mine for 5+ years and love it.
I will get to it when I am done responding to comments lol.
Thanks!
Mr. Ingy you are considered one of the Founding Fathers of this hobby. They were going to put your bust up there on Mt. Blogsmore along with Gary, Randy and Buzz fill in some others here. Coming here trashing Buzz is not a good idea for you, it does not do well for your legacy. Just sayin, not hatin. Peace and Love.
The struggling FTG site…. A shell of what it used to be…. That isn’t doing well for Mr. Ingy’s legacy either.
It’s a shell of its old self
2.5 visits per unique visitor? Is there any blog out there that is as bad at retaining new readers as FTG?
It’s a reflection that they can’t command the attention of readers who stumble upon the site. Which makes perfect sense since the content is pretty much the same week to week – you can only hold a new readers attention so long by producing the same feature they read the week before but with a couple of words switched
Funny you say that, but in reality it is far from the truth. You have been off the mark many times before in your ideas. Readership is up from when I owned it, as is revenue. Those are the measures a commercial enterprise like IB is looking for. They made it into what it is today which is a very profitable website and I don’t have to write every piece 🙂
It will be a great day when released from my NDA and I can show you all how things actually transpired, the real numbers and remove some of your foolish notions the site has gone downhill. It may not fit, this group of advanced players, which is certainly OK with me, but has grown across all metrics that IB is concerned with. In short, your “advanced” opinions don’t matter to beginner newbie commercial sites and its laughable you keep on whining..
If you want to improve the space for advanced geeks, comment on advanced blogs where the owners will actually care what you think.
“In short, your “advanced” opinions don’t matter to beginner newbie commercial sites”
I didn’t say anything that was an opinion
Everything I said was fact based off of numbers you yourself presented
If you don’t want people to point out that your blog is really crappy at retaining readers, don’t present numbers that show your blog is really crappy at retaining readers
2.5:1 page views to unique viewers is essentially another way of saying that people stumble across the site, likely from Google, and won’t usually come back
Compare to Raffles, who had something like 12:1, and it’s clear that readers enjoy his blog more
Well there you go. It is amazing then how they stumbled into, clicked and were approved for so many credit cards. Why that seems impossible doesn’t it?
I’m sorry, I don’t see any numbers presented about how many CC clicks and approvals there were.
I go on the facts presented
So far, the only fact you’ve presented is that lots of readers stumble across your site. And that when they do, they tend not to come back
If you want to provide any factual numbers beyond that, i’d be more than glad to discuss
None of the other blogs will give you any metrics so how would you know? The revenue model seems to be working just fine.
I know. I know. It should be about the number of comments.
I’m sorry 🙁
You should be sorry about this “tool”:
http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/start-here
You wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>I chose the expert traveler level and after entering the brief information required, the tool generated seven cards that may fit my travel bill. The app spit out cards that I currently hold and, darn it, the Club Carlson card [AFFILIATE LINK OF COURSE!] I was denied for over too many inquiries.
You got seven cards too? I did too as a rookie interested only in cash back rewards cards. I’ll be damned. AMAZING TOOL!
>>>>>>>>>>>>but it was reassuring to me to see the app could chose the same cards I have in my own wallet. The wonders of technology!
No worries. It is reassuring for all who try it to be recommended 5 or 7 cards every freaking time! Oh the wonders of technology. Excuse me, this is offensive to technology!
>>>>>>>>>>>>We’d love to hear your comments on additions, deletions, corrections or suggestions you may have on the application.
You asked for it. SCRAP THIS CRAP. ASAP. This is free advice, you asked for it. I am not going to charge you for it, my mind never crossed that thought!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>n this light, I’m going to single out one card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred [AFFILIATE LINK, BECAUSE YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY] for offering their customers the opportunity to talk to a real live, clearly English speaking representative when they answer the phone. That is a refreshing benefit of that card and I’m in hopes other card issuers will move in that direction.
Anything to close a sale.
To the other writers who write at FTG: Do you have ANY say on what goes up there on the site with your names? How can you allow this “technology” to your readers?
Educate my big fat greek ass.
I am angry. When I get angry I get hungry. dinner time!
it has been another fun day at TBB.
George is angry, AGAIN. so nothing new there. In fact, there rarely is anything new here. Just constant anger and complaints about others. Oh well., It is to be expected.
Yawn. Good luck all at being first tomorrow. That is noteworthy for sure 😉
Well thanks for the compliment as such, but I was just another Bozo on the Bus at the right time in the right place that saw the opportunity and decided to act on it. it is just human nature that those of you that did not act on the opportunity, displace your anger and disappointment in yourselves on to the bloggers that made the move.
As far as “legacy” goes: You’ve got to be kidding me? This was a blog on an obscure hobby full of crazies that do stupid things to acquire miles and points. I’m usually proud to be one of them and grateful for all I have got to see, and most of the people I have met along the way. But “legacy”? Not. I think the only one we can give that to is the founder of the space, Randy
As far as trashing Buzz, that is far from the truth. I’m just trying to help him realize that his opinion of others means nothing to them. He is only a legend in his own mind and negativity does nothing good for the space. Nothing at all.
peace love and miles back at you.
@ Ramsey: I am honored to be mentioned next to Randy and Gary! Oh, it is not about legacy, it’s all about conversions 😉
Everyone: You can get gazillion points with your Chase Sapphire Preferred card if you use it to eat out at restaurants tomorrow Friday. Poor editor, having to post stuff like that to help conversions! I find content like that the true NEGATIVE stuff. But maybe it’s just me in my own insecurities and crap like that.
TBB
as in Travel Blogger Bozo
And the editor gets a nice paycheck 🙂 You buzz???? NOT
Time Blown Beyond Belief TBBB
It may just be that the editor doesn’t know how to write anything else.
No post about Delta’s award chart changes, but a post about Sapphire Preferred’s first fridays? LOW HANGING FRUIT
Delta released new award chart. If this does actually lead to greater availability of award space, maybe this should be considered an improvement. I guess the proof will be in the pudding next year. I don’t think the sky is falling. All that being said I’m glad I don’t fly Delta and if you do put your miles in Alaska Mileage Plan. I love that program.
I do not trust the Delta execs.
Period.
ha ha. I can’t possibly understand why.
Hey Readers, Thanks for feeding the troll 🙂 Playing with you guys is such fun.
Comments. Get your Comments here 🙂
New commenter, long time reader.
Ingy and Buzz, don’t you both agree that there should be some middle ground with how a website is run (Buzz I think I know your answer, but Ingy I’m not so sure)? Shouldn’t people put forth factual, relevant content? And in return shouldn’t the person who put forth that content be rewarded ($) for their effort?
Money should not be a driving end all be all of any business that Ingy seems to make it out to be. Ingy, you always say that it is about the newbies. To me, that makes the website seem like a sleaze ball operation. You sucker in the newbies, get their cc referral $, and then once they wise up they don’t return. When creating a product, you should be doing something that is respectable and be able to turn a profit in the mean time. This is why there are regulations in other industries, so that people actions aren’t purely profit driven. But Ingy does make valid points too. I do think that $ is one part of a successful ‘business’, but that $ should come honestly and respectably. You shouldn’t be getting rich off of suckering people. This ‘business model’ is what everyone on this website has a problem with. Lots of people are starting travel websites to make a quick buck and will say/post anything in order to get $. That’s not the way it should be done and has been pointed out by Lucky, Gary, etc.
However, if Buzz isn’t engaging in a business, but merely an entertainment outlet, then why is it so ridiculous to measure success in terms of comments? Comments show an engaged readership and that the website is producing thought provoking content. Why does Buzz pointing out people who follow the above describe ‘business model’ upset you? Or why do you think that is wrong? If Buzz gets affiliate links and we see content go downhill, I’m sure there will be many of us to call him out on his hypocrisy.
One of the major reasons I read this site is for days like today where Ingy et al. banter back and forth about stuff that they have bantered about before. Ingy ‘It’s all about the benjamins’ Steve and Buzz ‘no its about content and comments’. I think there is a true balance that can be achieved ala Gary, FM, etc. But it seems like Ingy won’t agree that content and an engaged readership are also indications of success. But I don’t think George has ever had a problem with monetizing, if the content is not driven by the affiliates. So since this day of agreement will never come, I will sit back and enjoy my entertainment as Buzz wants.
“But it seems like Ingy won’t agree that content and an engaged readership are also indications of success.”
That’s because Ingy doesn’t want to think about how dead the FTG blog is.
On 3/5 TBB got 93+ comments.
On 3/5 FTG got 0, 6, 0 comments.
On 3/3 TBB got 43 comments.
On 3/3 FTG got 13, 2, 9 comments.
On 3/1 TBB got 26 comments.
On 3/1 FTG got 3 comments.
On 2/27 TBB got 75 comments.
On 2/27 FTG got 0, 4, 4 comments.
I can go on, but I think it’s obvious that even though FTG posts 3 times a day compared to TBB’s once a day, FTG just can’t complete on an engagement level.
I wrote day in and day out for about 3 years before the affiliate links kicked in so your comments about content only ring hollow to me. I wrote my ass off for years with nothing but content, content and more content. In fact I was Buzzes favorite blog.
Let me try and help you along with this idea, and see if after 2+ years you can finally get it. I don’t own the blog. I don’t control the content. I don’t pick the writers nor the content of others. IB has changed this into a different blog than when I owned it. Is that so difficult for all of you to understand? The day I sold the concept and decision makers changed. I’m not going to suggest it is better or worse because the decisions are not mine. I can assure you the readership is up and that and income are the motivating factors for a commercial enterprise. The comment made about comments means absolutely nothing in the formula of IB. It does for Georgie boy. That is what he hangs his hat on as that is the metric he wins with. Is that all so difficult to understand?
As far as “engagement level is concerned as the next commenter seems so interested in “engagement level” for IB is measured by clicks and approved applications. That is what pays the bills, the salaries and the investors.
And if you count the initial comments where people seem excited about how soon they posted????and the number of replies by the blog owner, the number are larger still yes but those numbers are absolutely of no interest to other blogs.
George and I will NEVER agree. He seems to think it is OK to slam others that don’t think like him. That is certainly his choice to do so. It is not very becoming, but it does give you all a place to congregate and criticize others. If that is George’s desired metric, he is doing a fine job. I just find it pretty comical to watch you all follow him like the pied piper.
I guess I was speaking generally as my comments never addressed ftg. I never asserted you still drive content or own the blog or whatever. The only time I references ftg was when I said that you defend it because of how it is used to attract newbies, and newbies equals referral $. All I was saying was shouldn’t there be a relationship between profit and how that profit is generated. If not then we are in a situation like Wall Street has been in during the collapse and currently. Sure profit was generated, no one can argue that. But the way in which the profit was generated was not moral or respectable. Hence why the publics opinion about Wall Street is so low now. My comments weren’t meant to diss your work or anything while you were in charge.
Please don’t lash out for no reason and assert things that I did not say.
“Ingy and Buzz, don’t you both agree that there should be some middle ground with how a website is run (Buzz I think I know your answer, but Ingy I’m not so sure)? Shouldn’t people put forth factual, relevant content? And in return shouldn’t the person who put forth that content be rewarded ($) for their effort? ”
I’m not sure how that’s a middle ground between the 2
That sounds exactly like the position Buzz and just about all of us hold
I don’t ever recall Buzz saying bloggers who provide the factual relevant content shouldn’t be monetarily rewarded for it
It’s the middle ground between Ingy and a nonexistent TBB position
Ok, time is catching up with me dear readers. Just a few follow up comments:
@Jon: THANK YOU for taking the time to comment. In everything I have done in my life I have tried the hardest not to think of the $$ first. I believe passion, hard work and giving back is a heck of a lot more important. When you do the right thing every day money someway somehow finds you. If not, it’s okay if what you do is congruent with your values and, this is important, you ENJOY It! My blog remains, above all, an entertainment avenue to put smiles on people’s faces, educate a little bit, inspire sometimes. I am perfectly fine with the Amazon link and what it brings in, pays for my coffee at Panera lol. If my content goes downhill please call me out, let me have it, keep me accountable! Ingy is part of the entertainment package of TBB. Deep down he loves me so much he just can’t stay away from my site 🙂 It probably kills him I have not folded like a cheap suit more than a year ago! I see many blogs in my Love and Like lists have affiliate links and as you correctly indicate is, really, I never had an issue with them if the content provided good value and put the readers FIRST (and not the pocketbook!). Which leads to another question: Can a corporation in this quirky space provide good content when everything is measured by conversions? Hmmm..
@FFHigh: When I started if you told me I would get ANY comments I would think you are insane. Looking back and seeing the number of comments is priceless to me. I mean, free entertainment for me and everyone. Even ingy who is so bored he spends more time here than his own blog lol. It is pretty obvious me and my biggest fan will never agree, zzzzz.
@ Steve: You got it. I have NEVER said you should not get compensated. Hey, I am not a communist lol. I like the argument Jon has made about Wall Street by the way.
We are up to 100 comments today thanks to Mr. Ingy. Rick maybe you stir things up and can help that poor guy at Malta Points, I think his Aunts Eliza and Elena are his 2 readers.
Speaking of Malta, a new blog in Italian started in Boarding Area today!
I know Tom at MP and he seems happy with BA. Hosting costs wiped out, he has kept his local readers and some new US ones pop by via the BA home page when he writes something more generalised, which generates a few $ he never had before.
Smaller blogs are a perfect fit for blog aggreggators imho. There is no doubt that View fro the Wing, One Mile at a Time and Frequent Miler can do much better on their own so I respect them for their loyalty to Randy and BA. I thought about requesting to join, especially when Delta Points came out to say that he will leave BA if I ever join it 🙂 But then I thought about it…what if he didn’t? 🙂
Naw this is the place to go round with people. All so opinionated and yet lacking the initiative to do anything but complain. The differences are so great it is amazing to see how those of us in the same hobby could be so far apart on opinions and attitudes. I rarely hear any gratitude for all the free and deeply discounted trips you have all taken., I rarely hear comments about how well a blogger explained a certain topic. I never hear any ideas of how to earn miles and points here. Some of the smaller new MS blogs will bypass this blog in readership in no time with new valuable information. that actually benefit readers. That is not going on here and maybe that is George;s model just to complain and give you all a place to whine. Some of you btw are very good at it. Some of you are just looking to pick a fight as is quite evident. TBB is what it is with all the bluster and hype. It is read by oh so few and the additions to the hobby are oh so tiny.
But that is just one guys opinion.
“Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration. Those with narcissistic personality disorder believe that they’re superior to others and have little regard for other people’s feelings. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem, vulnerable to the slightest criticism.”
This really sounds like a certain person who comments on this blog a lot. You know, what’s his name? He used to own a really cool blog, seemed like a nice enough guy…
Wow. So accurate it’s almost like they invented that disorder specifically for Ingy
As a token of my appreciation Scott, I’ll let you in on a little secret…. when you buy a $4 sandwich tomorrow, use a CSP [insert link]…. you can thank me after the 12.84 points post to your account
Great disorder, I should add that one to my DSM4 total of points earned.
But I’m not the one trashing others. Point your finger at me and there are four pointed back at yourself.
” I’m retired seeing the world and enjoying life ”
yeah, sure you are.
good one 🙂
Entertainment, above all!
Just got back from trout fishing in Chile and a week in Hawaii. All free of course with miles and points. Well had to pay taxes agreed but free in my mind. Next Europe then Australia later this year. Yup retirement and being a retired blog owner is the life for me. Lets sing it to the Green Acres theme song:
Being retired is the place to be
Seeing the world and all for free.
F’ing with George brings such glee.
Being a blogger was the life for me
Credit cards are the way to go.
Earn the miles and the points you know
Pick up cash with the affiliate links.
Being without them must really stink.
Being retired is the place to be
Seeing the world and all for free
F’ing with George brings such glee
Being a blogger was the life for me
Whining and crying is the world
Here at TBB that’s all that’s heard
Sorry they didn’t act on their own
George is sitting on the angry throne.
Being retired is the place to be
Seeing the world all for free
F’ing with George brings such glee
Being a blogger was the life for me
Grammy or What??
My personal commentary aside, not bad actually.
Hey Beavis: He’s got a tool. Heh, heh.
When I’m retired, I hope to spend more time enjoying retirement than I do trying to convince people I’m enjoying retirement
Or at least if I am spending too much time trying to convince people I’m enjoying retirement, to do it more convincingly than Rick
Comment number 129. Just for the hell of it.
I responded in the body of my post in a new blog post. Something I have not done in the body of my posts since my 1 year anniversary pretty much…ranting style I mean.
The “amazing technology” tool set me off.
Do not feed the trolls…Oh phuck it, do whatever you want, whatever entertains you!
sorry I did not respond to a few comments, it’s late. It was a great day, all this laughing for FREE!