That’s because he started censoring comments this summer. Friday interviews used to have a ton more.

Being able to burn miles in Delta without pulling your hair out is a big accomplishment. Or burn miles to Mexico City, always plenty of low level availability.

I thought the United card always had primary coverage. Then again, who is to say what is “business” or personal trip.. Look into National Rental car rates and if it makes sense their great promo is great.

Stevie Wonder and “WN=waterboarding”

you guys are killing me 🙂

Thank you Matt and TWA44 about the very insightful comments and I agree pretty much in most of them.

Remember the TBB mission: To entertain, educate or inspire. EVERYTHING that shows up here makes it after I ask myself if it does one of these three things well.

The “negative” (I prefer “constructive criticism”, certainly never angry) part of TBB has to do with the educating part right along with the entertainment part lol.

I can’t help not criticize a post with 20 plus affiliate links…I think such practices are…ludicrous. And I am expressing myself 🙂

Matt: I love your miles and travel stuff on your blog. You know how I feel about the Finance stuff (which most of it is pretty good still….just do not like the “market calls”).

Interesting idea about the “Wall of Shame” and really spot on point about the affiliate companies being the problem!

I need to work on some big picture material…

Good points all, Matt. Well said. Especially this: “If the Affiliates ensured the Bloggers had only the best offers (heck they should even have exclusive offers) then 90% of the transgressions would go away…”

As has been addressed in other comments above, the blog reader needs to take some responsibility too. But I think the banks bank on people not being so proactive, in that many will go for a lesser offer, which is why they offer so many simultaneous offers that are very unequal.

When we buy a new car – every 10-12 years or so, LOL – we go to many dealers, test drive cars and look online at prices. When we get new carpet, I do serious comparative shopping looking at quality of the carpet and service from the installer. Admittedly I do not work so have the time, but that is pretty much the household rule for purchases, whether large or small, and it was true when we both worked and our kids were small. Impulse buying rarely happens unless I know the product/service well enough already to know it is a product I want, at a good price.

Applying for a new credit card should be no different; indeed given the amount of trouble (read debt) one can get from applying for credit, it is probably more important than when making a one time purchase.

As in anything else, some people do their research and some don’t. But it still depends on honesty and transparency among sellers, whatever they sell. Bloggers in this marketplace who fudge on that should be called out. And newbies need to understand, as TTB’s comment about FTU makes clear, that it is indeed a marketplace.

I don’t want to speak for Mileanomics, but I personally would not want to pick up the ball on this one.

I think people should be able to blog about things however they like, if that means monetized to the max, zero content, repetition, stealing ideas. Well, that’s for them to decide if it is right or wrong not me.

Blogs are a form of expression, we all have different motivating factors, and our own underlying code of ethics (or lack thereof) I don’t think it is my place to judge others based on how they do or do not fit into my own moral code.

I actually skip over the negative blog buzz here in TBB, I only check in to see positive posts,which there are enough of, and where (thus far) my own posts have been mentioned. If George is the example of an educated reader, I do like to check in to see what type of posts catch his eye in a good way, and then from the comments what others agree. That can help steer my posting style to get a further feedback source.

I’d go so far as to say I agree with the ‘grumpies’ that the bad side of the blog buzz isn’t necessarily a good thing to be focused on,as its negativity can bring things down overall, but at the same time I do think that calling out certain bloggers for pushing inferior links and actively deleting comments that might help the naive reader is a good manner to help the policing of certain poor tactics.

I’ve mentioned before though, the primary problem here is the Affiliate companies, not the bloggers. If the Affiliates ensured the Bloggers had only the best offers (heck they should even have exclusive offers) then 90% of the transgressions would go away, and the only thing to complain about would be how many links in one post, which is hardly noteworthy, or if they were advocating churning or manufactured spending practices that could have the user shut down or credit harmed.

So, no thanks from me – and hope to see shift into more positive territory in terms of buzzz, perhaps there could be a “wall of shame” that is updated once a week or something, and the every(other)day posts are more focused on the interesting and good stuff. There really isn’t anything noteworthy in hearing that TPG had a post with 20 something links in it again..

Maybe MrPickles will let us in on the secret.

Are you sure that kitty is not singing or laughing?

I have to tell someone — y’all are picked! I’m doing a happy dance! I just spent 40,000 Skypesos on a 2-hr flight ATL to FLL in December (plus $53 in real money). (Yes, first class….) I’m SO not your normal FF-miles user… and I’m SO happy! (First part is biz-trip (sales trip: so a tax write-off — YAY! Second part is a drive down to Key West to stay with a friend who owns a B&B.)

To make this comment seem like an affiliate ad without any links: I’m renting the “biz” car for the first 4 days using my Ink Bold — it’s primary insurance. I’m trading that car in for a convertible for the second 4 days (drive down the waterway!); a personal trip for which the Ink Bold is secondary. (I just got their card holder brochure, which delineates that difference.) So, I have to figure out if I have a card that offers me ‘primary’ on a personal rental or, failing that, which card gives me the best rental (points etc.) and good secondary insurance.

Happy happy!

ROFL Stevie Wonder

That was not the comment I read…

… Though I have to confess I have turned in WN points for Hyatt Check Certs at 1cpm. Personally I find flying on WN on a par with waterboarding

I’m not sure how you could interpret it as a joke. Here is what he wrote. Maybe his next fireside chat could be with Stevie Wonder?

“There are many ways to enjoy these points. As a Delta flyer you can use them to position if on a Delta mileage run or some I have been told just redeem them 1:1 cent each for Walmart gift cards that can also be used at Sam’s Club. If you do that, this offer, after spend, is worth $500 in gift cards. That is a nice deal for many.”