TBB Mission: To Entertain, Educate and Inspire. Aim to at least do one well!
This blog has been a labor of love so far. If you like what you see here, please let others know by passing them a link to my blog, thank you!
Blog Action covering September 30 – October 1, 2013:
TRAVEL
The face of an iceberg. By Twisted Sifter. Speechless. I think this is not photo shopped 🙂
18 Stunning Pictures of Yosemite National Park.
Rapid Travel Chai‘s “Introduction to International Travel ” FTU presentation slides. He has been to North Korea twice, he knows what he is talking about! And he had a joint presentation with Million Mile Secrets on how to book rental cars.
TAM Joins Oneworld alliance on March 31, 2014 (and exits Star Alliance). For the record!
MILES/POINTS
So much space given to the US Air “Buy, share or gift miles” promotion. So for the honor of sharing 50,000, the other person gets 100,000 for $567.50…so it comes out to buying a mile for 1.135 cents per mile. Great offer IF you got an award you can book…tomorrow (or very soon). I always avoided this crap. I have enough miles and not really much time to burn so I keep my $567.50. Remember, the airlines are in control here and they can change the rules on you…tomorrow! If you really want to do this, Canadian Kilometers had a detailed post about it. And apparently some other airline is in need for some cold hard cash and wants to sell you miles for 1.5 cents per mile: Avianca
Saverocity interviews the queen of manufactured spending Pat who was willing to admit Chase shut her down. This game is dangerous. Sometimes things like this happen, it is part of the game. I prefer to stay under the radar and go…slower to keep me in the game further and reduce my headaches. I have a nervous breakdown if I ever have to change my main bank! Oh, and I keep a secondary Chase checking account that I have held ever since the Mint dollar coins days! Thanks Pat for volunteering to share your story, certainly serves the Educate part of the TBB Mission! Loved the pics from your European trip by the way, you know how to get it done girl 😉
Points Summary wrote “30 Things Entitled Frequent Fliers Do“. Some are hilarious!
Cranky Flier held the 3rd Annual Dorkfest, plane spotting and a meal aboard a Pan Am flight. This is what aviation geeks do I guess.
Hotel Strategy for Full Time Travel. Interesting stuff by Travel is Free. By the way, the TIF email newsletter has awesome content too! Do I want to do full time travel? Hell no! So a lot of the advice does not appeal to me. It is still a refreshing read than most other crap I deal daily!
Saverocity made a blog post out of his question on twitter “Am I in the minority that thinks people who try to hold airlines to mistake fares thru quasi legal efforts and general whining are douches?“. Very interesting thoughts on a subject that has been discussed many many times on FlyerTalk. I could not help but provide my own fabulous commentary “Yes, they are douches. Not a strong word actually.I take the same approach as most others who commented earlier. I also think an airline/hotel can certainly generate lots of goodwill AND future business in how they handle incidents like this. So…it does make sense to act quick & book and then…wait. If it is honored be grateful. If not, for you to go ballistic with complaint calls, letters, media outreach, twitter & blog rants is absurd. If you go the legal route what can I say….inexcusable.”
AMEX Small Business Saturday promotion is down to just $10 instead of $25. Pfft! Darn bloggers who blogged this thing to death so they can slide in all their amex credit card links. Thanks a lot for killing yet another deal. I am kidding…well, not really!
ON MY MIND
Quarterly work in my real job. I can’t believe I am making time for this darn blog!
Always appreciate hearing from you with suggestions of posts that you think are worthy of appearing at TBB. I always make the final call and please do not take it personally if they do not make it here!
ODDZ & ENDZ
Nada
BLOG BUZZ
Loyalty Lobby turned two. Will be in the TBB Top miles/points blogs.
Looks like both bloggers at View from the Wing and One Mile at a Time finally did something innovative at the FTU event: called Delta and US Air agents to book award tickets. So…what happened during the “short” holds? 🙂
Question to all: Your friend learns you travel for peanuts taking advantage of miles/points, credit cards, etc. If you do not have the time to talk in person WHICH blog posts would you send someone who is really GREEN abt this? Obviously (hopefully) you made sure he/she has the mindset for this game: Detail oriented, prudent with money and debt, thinks paying a penny of interest to bank should be a felony, excellent credit score, loves travel, very organized.etc.
And the key, and where this fails frequently, these blogs MUST BE KEPT UP TO DATE!
Anyone, anyone?
I leave you with this from our Canadian Rockies vacation this summer:
1st
congrats!
2nd… So they called in to book an award? Holy moly…
2nd
Nope, 3rd.
Yeah they did. I saw Gary’s blog post headline talking about it. I thought this was innovative and educational….as long as they did something while on hold for so long!
The douche carpetbloggers will have a harder time trying to pimp the annual fees on AMEX cards as paying for themselves.
Yeah, $10 is nowhere near $25 per card. Waiting to read ridiculous posts about it 🙂
Yeah, I’ll skip in protest. Seriously.
Me too 🙂
Informative post:
If you have the Discover It card, this quarter’s “Online Purchases” 5% bonus category includes all online transactions except, per the CSR in Arizona answering my call, “government purchases, educational services, travel, and utilities.” $1,500 cap on the quarter.
You may now go back to ridiculing this card; I’m fine with $75 for maximizing this and 7500 pts from (future) Amazon purchases on the Freedom card.
I feel sorry for Pat, but wow, that’s a lot of manufactured spending.
Pining for Yosemite.
And of course Bilbo and Frodo did an award booking at FTU. They’re “shrewd businessmen disguised as dorks”* who just happen to run award booking services, which charge upwards of $100 to sit on a phone and talk to CSRs for you. Capitalism, baby!**
* (c) MileNerd
** (c) Ingy
Hmmm, 5% for all online transactions except the ones you mentioned? I think I should stop ridiculing the card. I was just never big on online shopping…or any shopping 🙂
Yeah, that sure was a lot of manufactured spending and I bet you there are others doing a lot more. I found it interesting Chase let her keep all the credit cards!
At least it was nice the two bloggers did something innovative for a change!
“I feel sorry for Pat, but wow, that’s a lot of manufactured spending.”
Or you could see her as a true explorer and pioneer stretching the realms of possible, so the rest of us, pygmies, could hoard our crumbs and play safe under the radar :).
Trust me, there are plenty who do a lot more MS spend than Pat…
Really? I almost do none aside of meeting the spend, and yet some people are calling ME nuts. Civilians…:)
This hobby has some really really dark corners 🙂
What is the all time record for most links in a post…. where each link is the same?
In MileValue’s latest US Airways CC hump, i count no fewer than 7 links and 3 banners to the same (inferior) credit card
He wants you to know that you can go to Europe for $284 just by signing up that card!!!!!*
* If you were one of the very few people to get the 50% off targeted email, get your card extremely quickly in the mail in time to take advantage, fly only US Airways metal, still have award availability at least a week from now when you have the miles, and willing to fly in a 1 month window of the extreme off-season
>>>>>>>What is the all time record for most links in a post…. where each link is the same?
I never thought of this category! Running a little bit behind today, thanks for the warning 🙂
Shaking my head
Your site is becoming a daily read for me.
Thanks for taking time to crank it out despite the busy-ness of real life!
I used to post daily the Buzz post. I now switched it to 3 times weekly. See this post:
http://travelbloggerbuzz.com/tbb-changes-going-forward/
I still will aim to post something daily but not count on it. Things are a little bit nuts around here with quarterly related work.
http://www.onlinetravelreview.com/2013/09/23/50-answers-to-your-frequent-flyer-questions/
And start at the beginning on Gary’s and Raffles’ blogs.
Good post that was featured here when it was first posted. But not sure it is a MUST read for newbies. I am talking newbies who have had one debit and one credit card all their lives who think doing what we do is a “scam” 🙂
When I wanted to take my family to Europe (but couldn’t afford to), I stumbled on to this game. It sounded more or less like a scam until I found a few MMS posts, picked up 30 credit card (half of which belong to the Mrs. although she has never filled out an app) and confirmed that it is indeed a scam. A scam that I missed out on for way too long. I spent more on credit cards in September than I did in 2012, and that out-of-reach Europe trip for 4? All booked with plenty of miles to do it again 4 or 5 more times. The sad part is I’m down to collecting Arrival points because I can’t burn miles anywhere near fast enough. So while I no longer read MMS except for Fridays and entertainment, I definitely point friends to a few of his posts.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Yep, like I said, MMS is very handy for people just discovering this hobby.
I need to get that Arrival card. Darn blog, keeps me busy 🙂
George, this is a couple of answers.
“How many posts did you see about the Club Carlson ads BEFORE affiliate links were instituted.”
Honestly, I have no idea. I found it on FW, I think. Maybe not. Aside of that, it’s plain out the best hotel card in my opinion, so there is no harm in touting it. Again, I’m a mellow guy. Live and let live. My stand is, as long as you get paid for touting GOOD STUFF, it shouldn’t be anyone else’s business. I know I’m in minority on this, but what the hell — that’s not so bad, if only for entertaining purposes :).
“WHICH blog posts would you send someone who is really GREEN abt this?”
I’d say you’re right about MMS. But look again at how many folks here hate him for circles and arrows. News for you: this is how you teach people. With circles and arrows. I’m an educator, and this is what I do on my “real job”. Circles and freaking arrows! His blog is not designed for the “know it all” crowd. It’s also a gold standard to me in how he always discloses when a better, unaffiliated credit card link is available. Doesn’t help him with all that hatred, I guess.
One blog can’t be everything for all people. Some people hate trip reports — well, guess what: travelogues is the most popular subgenre in travel books. Trashing a blogger because you are not interested in the content on his site is silly and unreasonable. Just move on and find another blog that suits your taste. Likewise, if you are an advanced churner, it’s ridiculous to demand that every blog conforms to your particular interests. Try to remember when you were trying to learn something complex. Circles and arrows is how it’s done.
“Honestly, I have no idea. I found it on FW, I think. Maybe not. Aside of that, it’s plain out the best hotel card in my opinion, so there is no harm in touting it. Again, I’m a mellow guy. Live and let live. My stand is, as long as you get paid for touting GOOD STUFF, it shouldn’t be anyone else’s business. I know I’m in minority on this, but what the hell — that’s not so bad, if only for entertaining purposes”
You completely missed the point. Which is that until they got paid for it, NOBODY WAS touting it. They were busy touting the Hyatt Visa, which has since seemed to cease being “Good Stuff”
The whole point is that things aren’t being touted based on whether they’re “Good Stuff” or not. It’s based on whether they were getting paid for it. And nothing is a more shining example of that than the Carlson and Hyatt cards respectively.
Andy: This was my point. Thanks Steve.
Still waiting to see a few posts on the Fairmont card!
“I’d say you’re right about MMS. But look again at how many folks here hate him for circles and arrows”
Nobody hates him for circles and arrows.
I didn’t used to dislike the guy (hate is a strong word). His writing was bland, with few exceptions his Friday interviews are utterly pointless, he managed to make PointsEnvy unfunny, his trip reports were 700 parts too long and he made thesis paper-length posts which could’ve been stated in 2 paragraphs.
But had nothing against him. Just wasn’t my thing
Since then though, he’s undeniably been gravitating towards becoming another TPG – a guy whose content is based off of getting credit card signups and not vice versa. The 75 part Lufthansa humping which was plagiarized (and contained links for cards that had nothing to do with LH), active censoring (something he NEVER used to do), mostly reporting old news that everyone else has covered ad-nauseum, Friday interviews with people who couldn’t locate Asia on a map etc.
His fall hasn’t been as sharp as MileValue’s, but then again, MileValue was actually a superb blog at its peak. Whereas MMS was just a “meh” blog. Now, both are in a frantic race to the bottom (MV might’ve made a late surge today with 10 inferior US Airways links in 1 post)
Epic comment!! So true, Steve. Your “couldn’t locate Asia on a map” comment is cracking me up.
Please guest post on TBB; I love your style, and it seems like you fit in to what George believes, too. George, guest poster nominee: Steve!
Andy: We agree about the pics and arrows. I always admired the clarity of his writing. I also agree with Steve’s views about the likely future direction of the MMS blog with two full time staffers coming aboard. D appears burned out and is taking to a higher a la TPG level. I plan to be here to speak my mind. So, what did you think about MV’s mega US Air crappy offer pimping today? It should be about the content but when you cross that threshold you lose all credibility. In my own opinion only of course.
And the disclosures are so much better than most other blogs. Ok, where is the guy who says I have a man crush on MMS to pop in here? 🙂
“the like future direction of the MMS blog”
Um… it’s already started. The Lufthansa 52 part plagiarized series was the start of it
“So, what did you think about MV’s mega US Air crappy offer pimping today? It should be about the content but when you cross that threshold you lose all credibility. In my own opinion only of course”
That post actually could’ve been a really nifty post were it written by the old MileValue. The idea was great, but the post got ruined by:
1) The bombardment of US Airways links. Inferior ones too
2) The relative downplaying of how small a subset of people this would help (how many people got the 50% offer, has low-level availability to/from their home airport to Philly AND wants to go to Europe in February?) – downplaying which was obviously due to him wanting to sell the US Airways card (see: #1)
“You completely missed the point. Which is that until they got paid for it, NOBODY WAS touting it. They were busy touting the Hyatt Visa, which has since seemed to cease being ‘Good Stuff'”
Steve, whether I completely missed the point or only partially is beside the point :). I already said I don’t remember the “development” of Club Carlson Card affiliate link. I also said it ain’t right not to include the link to a better card or omit it from your blog because it doesn’t pay commission. At some point, you gotta stop arguing with people when they agree with you.
Bland writing? Well, not everyone is Hemingway, this party included. MMS has enough followers who apparently like what he has to say. So why not just move to the next blog that suits you better? What I really do respect about him is that he’s always disclosed when his credit card link is not the best. I mean seriously, what else can you ask for?
As to plagiarizing, that’s a strong word. Are you sure about that? Plagiarizing means lifting the whole paragraphs from another author and posting them as one’s own — with or without some cosmetic changes. On the other hand, using IDEAS from another author, or writing on the topic that has been covered previously is not plagiarizing. This is what every journalist does, big or small, DAILY, before lunch:-).
George, no, I didn’t like MV’s today post, but it did remind me to check my and DW’s spam folder for the targeted offer from US Air. None. Today post was very far-fetched, very artificial, and like I said, I don’t like that he links to an inferior offer without disclosure. Will it preclude me from reading his blog again? Hell no! I treat his ads just like any other ads, and I don’t have to trust him, He’s not my mother:-)
We agree on a lot actually, including the word plagiarizing. Very strong word, like “hate”. MMS can write very well and explain things to newbies better than most bloggers, that’s his gift and what draws people to the blog. I am not very hopeful for the future direction with 2 full time staffers coming aboard. Hope I am wrong!
MV had not a few but TEN same inferior US Air cc in two blog posts today. At some point (since I read so many) I tune out the content when you cross that line.
Oh, I wish you wrote for another blog 🙂
“As to plagiarizing, that’s a strong word. Are you sure about that? Plagiarizing means lifting the whole paragraphs from another author and posting them as one’s own — with or without some cosmetic changes. On the other hand, using IDEAS from another author, or writing on the topic that has been covered previously is not plagiarizing. This is what every journalist does, big or small, DAILY, before lunch:-)”
Nope, it was absolutely the former. When the LH mastercard had the 50K promotion, he did a 75 part series on it (with far more affiliate links in it than just the LH Mastercard). The post was titled as written by him, but a savvy FT’er found on via Google cache’s that he hired Drew Macomber to write it (there’s a thread in the External Miles & Points section of FT – George can find it for you)….
which is fine. Paying someone to write a post is perfectly commonplace. Except not only didn’t he disclose that Drew wrote the post and not him, but the post actively misled readers into thinking the ideas and opinions were MMS’ (phrases like “I’ve been digging into the M&M program” and “my mother-in-law”). 2 developments came out of that saga –
1) MMS started censoring posts (he never did that before unless it was really over the top nasty personal attacks at other commenters) – he now does it regularly
2) He never posts here anymore. He used to be a regular commenter here. Always responded to the criticism. But George asked him a simple yes or no question – did he write those posts. And he never responded nor has he been here since
Ouch. We all make mistakes in our lives 🙂
I think you ‘ll be very surprised to find out how much of this ghost writing that goes on. I am getting pitches regularly to “write” my own book. I doubt TPG writes most of the articles!
At some point a blog grows to the point bloggers need to scale it and ——> hiring—->corporate—–>sell more cards
They just cant’ be bothered to respond in other blogs and/or to every comment (therefore—>censoring)
Steve: You have the pulse of the blogosphere…you should start your own blog. So then we can be sued together and pull our money for legal assistance funds 😉
1. OK, Steve, I don’t know the backstory, so I guess, I’ll have to do the only responsible thing under the circumstances: stop arguing.
2. “Oh, I wish you wrote for another blog”
Sure, yours — when you can afford me (tip: I come cheap) 🙂
Nope. I might very well write for other blogs, too, but I’m not quitting FTG. I like writing for them. I love that his blog is eclectic; I love that nobody tells me what to do and that I have almost complete freedom, for all goals and purposes. Not even mentioning that FTG has a lot of sentimental value for me. Back in the day, it was the only blog “on the block” that helped me learn the ropes :).
The current FTG blog is pretty bad. Ariana, yourself and others have definitely improved it from the final months before Rick sold it, when it was completely unreadable (thank you for getting rid of those worthless “Deals of the Day” filler crap), but it’s not like it used to be back in the day, when it was the go-to premier blog
FTG, while nothing special as a blog these days at least isn’t nearly as bad as TPG or how bad MV and MMS are becoming. But you could’ve done without that 30 day credit card countdown. That was just transparently awful
What, no word about the Travel “Challenges”? In the last one they did it so fast they stated that two SPG Amex cards can get 120k SPG points…sign me up pronto 🙂
As usual, I agree with your assessment!
Thanks for the compliment Steve. Everything else… we’ll have to agree to disagree. 🙂
And we can do that here and not get angry 🙂
Andy: Yeah, back in the day it used to be the first blog I read every morning.
I cannot remember the last time I read FTG.
Still no Ingy here? Maybe he is getting help for “confirmation syndrome” (or whatever it was)—same thing Congress now has?
George, your comment count is heading south without someone to stir the pot!
Confirmation bias.
And yes, the term applies to the current political situation very well.
Thanks for the links. I hope the nonsense in Washington stops soon!
I am giving TBB a pass from being “negative” just for the hell of it! After Friday and Monday Buzz posts I will check the traffic hits and see what happened and make a decision about future direction. You won’t believe how much crap I want to let off my system for the sh*t I have seen all week. So keeping it all inside is not healthy I think per my therapist 🙂
Yeah, comment numbers are definitely down.
We all miss Ingy, hope he is okay!
Thanks for another great post.
On an unrelated topic, are there any blogs (or just blog entries you can think of) that focus on how much money you have to spend out of pocket for trips you take on miles? Sure, bloggers post “It cost me 100,000 miles but only $200 in taxes and fees”, but I’m talking about a full disclosure of everything spent – including food, outside activities, etc. I think newbies could benefit from that to get a better idea of how much these trips can cost.
R, I hear you. Don’t forget gasoline (to drive around), time, and (very important) aggravation-caused-by-monitoring-to-make-sure-your-points-actually-posted.
R,
Yes.
Thetravelventure.com
Hey Carrie
Thanks for the link. I take it this your blog? I like how you made a spreadsheet of your expenses, although I’d also like to make the suggestion to add a total and break it down by category. For instance, “total spent in August, total spent on food in August, total spent on transportation, etc.”
R,
Love those suggestions and I am definitely going to implement them.
Ya it is my blog . My very new, very experimental, (picture the scene where bambi steps out onto the ice) blog, but I figured i may as well toss the link your way since it fit the bill of what you were speculating about
thanks for your thoughts!
I liked your blog and stats info too. Look forward to seeing you here and there!
I wish your blog was more commonplace. I applaud you for trying to bring more financial truth to this game, which I think is needed. Looking forward to seeing it develop.
I also might suggest in your blog posts putting a total you spent for the day.
The thing is, when you need to get from point A to point B you always have to spend money or miles, so a good tip can help you tremendously. Same for staying at point B. As to everything else, there are so many variables that any kind of uniformed advice is not going to help much. Are you a foodie? A drinker? Love walking or need a personal guide? An art lover or a clubber? Those blogs or posts would always reflect the mindset of the blogger, which might have nothing to do with what kind of traveler you are.
I understand that it’s variable based on interests, however I wouldn’t mind just getting a general idea. It’s obviously not absolutely nothing, which some people might think when they read these trip reports.
R:
As you noticed not many blogs do what you are asking for. It is NOT good for the business of selling the “image of an expert who travels for almost free”. Plus, it adds more work 🙂
Sometimes it is totally ridiculous to read trip reports stating how little in miles/points was spent but the actual costs of getting to/from there could negate the whole value! Of course you can cringe when bloggers say I got 9.5 cents per mile redemption value because it cost me so many miles for a First Class ticket (which they will NEVER every buy in their lifetime!). So…it is all relative. Or, as a friend says, “it is all marketing” lol.
Soooooo, excuse the long intro, I would love to see something like that. You know, keeping it real. Maybe Carrie can do it and if she needs help she can find it I am sure 😉
I know it’s almost a silly idea, kind of like a blogger disclosing how much he gets in affiliate link money.
I feel like some bloggers could use it as a bragging challenge. For instance, “I lived abroad for just $50/day”. But I guess I’m more of a money person to begin with, and I’m always wondering what things cost..
Well, Frequent Miler (the blogger who actually comes up with original content and never pumps credit cards in the body of the posts) wrote this over the summer, which I thought was very interesting (and insane…we are talking NYC!!!)
http://boardingarea.com/frequentmiler/2012/09/24/nyc-on-19-per-day-final-tally/
No, it’s not that. Well, not just that. Well, not always. 🙂
Let’s just make it clear. It is almost all about the food. Transportation to and from the airport times 4 won’t send you back more than $200 and in most cases it’s less. Neither will the museums and sightseeing–well, unless you’re in Machu Picchu. Drinking, clubbing and shopping are not really about travel, correct? Rental cars and local transportation are usually quite cheap. So what’s left?
Now, if you do eat out three times a day, and if YOU are a family of 3 to 4 in an expensive place, then the food will seriously add up in a week or more. But giving advice about cheap food is dangerous. I once was unfortunate enough to suggest people buy a sandwich or some store food for lunch in Paris (I did and loved it). Got a few quite nasty remarks. Ariana once suggested having lunch at a food court in San Francisco. You should’ve seen the comments she received! Both writers and bloggers are very wary of pissing off their followers, and you REALLY don’t want to piss off a foodie :). So there is that. Aside of the underlying fact that everyone has their own idea of a perfect trip.
Actually, you know what? It’s a good topic. I think I’ll write about it on my own blog. 🙂
I am very fond of pissing off others, especially bloggers lol.
I am the guy who came out and admitted we like to eat ramen noodles every time we visit a hotel. Frugal family tradition.
Yeah you are right, it is about the food mostly. Oh, I loved the French baguettes when I visited Madrid a few years ago from a Chinese owned grocery store. One was about 50 cents and could feed a family of four…for a while 🙂
I see now people gunning to fly to Beijing for just $446 from….Philadelphia. Of course they don’t add the costs to get to/from Philadelphia, airport parkings, food of course, visas, local transportation, on and on and on. But hey, only $446 to Asia, woohoo!
“I am very fond of pissing off others…”
I know YOU are, but most NORMAL bloggers aren’t 🙂 I was just trying to explain why many might be reluctant to discuss options for cheap food. Foodies are everywhere and they will mess you up if they don’t like what you’re saying 🙂
The funny thing is, if you were to judge me by my waste-line you would bet I’m a foody too. And I can be. But only when it’s cheap and not out of the way like in Bangkok or Lima. French baguettes are the way to go for a frugal dude in Paris. Or freshly-baked croissants at less than 1 Euro each. Heaven!
R.
Yes. http://www.thetravelventure.com
Nice to see you here, I added your blog to my Feedly list, it is Number 603
Proud to be 603!! 🙂 Thanks for the feedly add
Maybe the most pathetic FTG post yet, or is it just the first one I’ve actually read in awhile?
http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/2013/10/highest-credit-card-sign-up-bonuses-based-on-cash-value.html
Supposedly this ranks cards by the cash value of their signup bonuses.
1. They can’t do math. “Valuing Club Carlson Gold points conservatively at 0.6 cents per point, the combined 97,500 points earned after meeting the $2,500 spending requirements equates to $5,850 in value.” WTF?? Club Carlson is a good card but it is not the #1 valuable signup bonus.
2. They link to an inferior offer. “The publicly available offer comes with 36,000 points after the $1,000 spending requirement is met within three months and an authorized user is added to the card.” What happened to the policy of only linking to the best available offers. Hmmm… they do acknowledge “There is a higher offer on FlyerTalk” but what use is that when they do not even link to the thread or post on FT?
3. Their valuations don’t make sense. How can Ultimate Rewards not be worth incrementally more than United miles since they transfer one-to-one into United and have other uses as well?
FTG is the epitome of a bad blog. I’ll give a blog a pass if it offers good content, gives good advice, offers only the best links, and discloses financial relationships. Very very few do. But very few even come close to being as bad as FTG. It’s truly pathetic.
It’s not that I’m trying to make myself a self-appointed advocate of FTG, but let’s just try to be fair.
1. $5,850 was obviously a typo and they corrected it. It’s $585. Typos happen and to the best of us. Now, in my opinion, $585 is an extremely conservative estimate, My 4 nights in central Paris would’ve definitely cost me more than twice as much. And it’s not a stretch to believe that the combination of the sign up bonus and the cardmember benefits makes it hands-down the best hotel card in existence right now. Of course, you can disagree.
2. What use? An inquiring mind will go to FT and find the better offer. Everyone else won’t bother. I think it’s fair. How often do you, guys, complain about the newbies who expect to be spoon-fed?
3. According to the post in question, Ultimate Rewards ARE worth slightly more than United miles. I tend to agree that transfer to United might be the most obvious and best use of UR miles. Again, others can disagree, but this is not a stretch as you’re trying it to sound.
I meant “make it sound”. See? A typo. Again. To the best of us 🙂
CC value. Apparently it was a typo and it is now fixed, an enthusiastic FTG Staffer added a zero. I bet most of the readers had believed it with the zero 🙂
I will leave the rest alone.
I like some of the people writing there but what else can you say about FTG the blog…
MileValue’s post about the Barclay’s arrival bonus – 7 links/banners to the Arrival card….. and a SPG Amex link
He even had a link UNDER the banner at the bottom
I had a mega rant typed. Along with DWL & PPM today. But I deleted them as I promised TBB to be “positive” in the body of the blog posts for a week. It is an experiment. It hurt me deleting what I wrote, I thought it was beautiful 🙂
You should still post it!!! With a nice disclaimer for the touchy folks.
Positivity is overrated.
Don’t feel obliged to keep promises when it comes to talking about MV
Nobody has broken more promises than that guy
“Positivity is overrated.”
That made me laugh. When it comes to commercial for profit ventures selling fluff and pretending to be “experts” while never disclosing financial arrangements and often hurting readers with inferior offers….negativity should be encouraged to spread the word and educate others to avoid such perpetrators 🙂
Give me one week. I need to see the numbers. Plus it SAVES me time!