We bring you the not shocking news that Travel Is Free joins ThePointsGuy Inc, more Delta sales, the best ways to Hawaii, all you need to know about Bulgaria travel, the best bird photos, the new IHG Rewards Pointbreaks hotel list, register for the latest Choice Privileges and National Car Rental promos, Accor comes out with a new top tier elite level, United miles no longer expire, minor enhancements in the British Airways Visa card, no more capital controls in Greece, airlines to fix alliances finally, no more National Geographic Traveler print editions, and LOT more, enjoy and have a hell of a Labor Day weekend!
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Buckle up, there is a lot to cover in this edition!
MILES & POINTS
The huge news in the miles and points world was the not shocking announcement that Travel Is Free Drew blogger is too joining the mega corporate The Points Guy Inc goliath! His own post is here: Starting a New Chapter. I think I may have a few things to say in the BLOG BUZZ section below.
We have a new IHG Rewards Pointbreaks list out for stays until October 31. These used to cost just 5,000 IHG Rewards points per night. Now they are 5,000, 10,000 or 15,000 points per night. Still a great deal if they can work for you and you are fast in booking them!
If you are interested in burning some of your miles to fly to Hawaii, this is a good reference post: Best ways to fly to Hawaii from the US mainland.
In case you missed it, and you have lots of time on your hands to find any remaining deals, you only have a few more days to try to see if this Delta Vacations deal is good for you. I tried to book something but did not see anything worthy. Then again I don’t have much time these days to devote to this task…Wait, Delta is on a roll, here are some international award deals as well, bookable by midnight tonight!
Every year for a long time now National Car Rental brings back its One Two Free promotion. It can be lucrative, especially if your employer pays for you to travel to different cities! You can register HERE.
Accor recently let us now that it is changing the name of its rewards program to Accor Live Limitless. And it also let us know in advance that it will be adding a new Diamond top elite level. We all thought we Platinums can finally get free breakfast. Nope, only Diamonds get that, sad!
You can register for the fall Choice Privileges promotion: “Stay two separate times between September 4, 2019 and November 8, 2019” and you can earn enough points for a free night.
A totally minor “enhancement” of the British Airways Visa credit card became a fodder for blogger financial product salesmen to make it out to be huge so they can sell more of these credit cards. Things my eyes see every day, yikes. If you want to learn more about it: Chase Adds New Benefits To British Airways Card: $600 Flight Taxes/Fee Credit & 2x Earning. Major yawn!
For move #369 United has copied Delta, we get this: United Airlines frequent flyer miles will no longer expire. I guess it is good I don’t have to monitor all of our United accounts and then scramble to do a Rewards for Dining restaurant visit to extend their life anymore. And you know what is coming is not good when a main stream news site such as CNBC writes this paragraph in the article:
While miles may not expire, airlines, of course, control over just how much they are worth. The system is becoming increasingly opaque. Starting with travel on Nov. 15, United will no longer publish an award chart showing how many miles are required for travel between certain regions, following a similar move by Delta. [move #368]
Silver Car is launching a loyalty program. Enrollment is automatic, one dollar spent is worth a point. No elite levels. Could be worth up to 10 cents per point. It is the car rental company renting only Audis. Email or DM me if you plan to use them so you can register an account with my referral link, thank you.
TRAVEL
Nooooo, an icon is gone. The printed edition of the National Geographic Traveler will cease to publish after the December- January issue. So sad!
Now that airlines are making some good money, they are finally going to put some resources towards their alliances, it’s about time! The Travel Headache Airlines Took Decades to Fix.
Bookmark this if you plan to visit Bulgaria Travel: All You Need to Know.
Great article: The Most Colorful Places in the World. I bet you can’t wait to burn 765,000 miles for a Premium economy round trip to the Maldives after November 15 you guys 🙂
This is from a Greek english language newspaper: A landmark of a man in Syntagma. It is a piece on the Grand Bretagne hotel doorman in Athens. A job he has held for thirty five years and recently was awarded the highest Marriott award for excellence. What he says about Bill Clinton will shock you 🙂
I have a feeling that this guy will find her! Exclusive: Inside the search for Amelia Earhart’s airplane.
An Instagram account with pictures from a drone: @dailyoverview Feast your beautiful eyes!
Hilarious parody video: Every Hotel Ever.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Finally, after four long years! Greece fully lifts capital controls. It is really weird you guys that the politics in Washington/London/Rome are insane while in Athens we are back to normal #mindblown
In the land of twitter, we have Fintwit. As in Financial Twitter of which I am a part of. And we have this guy RampCapital who is anonymous, very active and hilarious (especially when the markets go south!). And then the other day he posted how his wife lost their baby after 11 weeks. A Gift to Exist. It is a wonderful read, very inspiring, an amazing video interaction between Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert talking about losing loved ones and an excerpt with the best description of grief you will ever read. You are welcome. Get your third cousin a Chase Sapphire Preferred, you know he/she wants it and I want the conversion #brutalhonestyalwayshere 🙂
3 LINKS WITH AN AWESOME PHOTO
Lets look at some of the best bird photos of 2019!
Wow! The Entire Plane of the Milky Way Captured in a Single Photo.
These are neat to look at for different age brackets. But remember, we are all different! How Americans Make and Spend Their Money, by Age Group.
BLOG BUZZ
We are now entering BLOG BUZZ, a section for advanced hobbyists and veterans of this fast imploding hobby and also a section where I go on and on about some stuff that happens in my life because it helps me feel better about myself.
Update: I am typing this way past my bed time on Thursday night to share a few thoughts about the bombshell news in the miles and points blog world that Travel Is Free Drew will also be joining The Points Guy Inc. corporation. As of right now, I see just 7 comments in Drew’s post and, as expected, they are all not that welcoming of the news. I wish Drew and his wonderful wife the best. At the end of the day, it is a free country and we do what we think is best for us. Do I feel sad that yet another independent voice in this quirky hobby big business has joined a huge corporation that now has surpassed the 100 employee count? Hell yes! I think it is naive that he expects to do as much as he thinks in a corporate environment. Looking back, I think Drew was the best miles and points blogger and is probably the blog that I linked to the most. No other blog came close! And then one day…poof, he disappeared. Without a word. Only to come out after a long time to say “Hey, I am working on a startup, etc.”. I think if he had kept going the sky was the limit. Or maybe not, nobody knows. Well, the startup did not work out and he was looking to get back in the miles and points world and the stable income and offer he received was worth it to him. So I welcomed him to the Chase Sapphire world.
I think readers Sam and casual_observer both had guessed Drew was going to join TPG next. Great job you guys! So, who is next? 🙂
I think everyone there at TPG are just milking the Red Ventures money. There is soooooo much money floating around these days looking for…a way to be spent. One day the bubble will pop and I don’t think I am going to be around as I do not have the stamina to keep producing posts like this you guys for almost seven years now, wow!
Of course this was the subject of many comments in my blog. The observations by reader casual_observer are really good food for thought.
You all be gentle now, I am going to shut up. I think. I need help. Why am I doing this? I don’t need it and is this a sign for me to move on as well? This blog is losing money this month and that does not even count my time! Stop laughing Ingy, get back to pushing your crappy referral links prepping your newbies for the real cc conversions coming…soon?
On Wednesday I wrote a comment in my blog and got some things off my chest 🙂
If you really really want to find out more about the British Airways Visa enhancement, you should read this: BA Visa $200 Award Fee Credit. 8 things you need to know. Don’t get me wrong, it is a positive change. But it will be more positive when the airlines kill these ridiculous fuel surcharges! And earning 2x at hotels, LOL! But of course…if you are out of credit cards to churn about in this hobby and you are under 5/24 please consider using my links, thanks!
Knocked out a min spend and a few other things in the past few days with good old MSing…Good to be back in the front lines you guys. The smart “expert” bloggers do not do that…they keep pumping their readers with credit card sales posts instead….because, never forget, that is WHERE THE MONEY IS in this hobby big business! And hell no, I won’t be doing MS play by play blog posts like Pointchaser!
I want to salute the many pure hobbyists out there hitting the pavement every day earning cash back and miles/points and screwing corporations (NEVER doing anything illegal of course!). And doing it without drawing attention, keeping a low profile and raking it in. Don’t start a blog okay? 🙂
In the meantime, as long as this blog is up, enjoy it. I cherish my independence and I am not for sale! This has always been my hobby and it is phucking imploding before our beautiful eyes!!!!
Scott at Travel Codex and his thought about the United miles not expiring. This is important:
If you are a fan of what was once called “travel hacking,” then you should also bemoan the shift to easier, friendlier, always-available awards. Travel hacking is all about finding the holes in a broken system so that you get the cheap awards others overlook. There is no game to win when the bowling alley puts up bumpers on your lane.
And I leave you with this…
TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Drew is moving to a platform that advocates spending 140k United miles to go to Europe in business class rather than 88k ANA miles for the exact same flights. I don’t think he’ll last there.
Drew used to freelance before and write for his clients. Remember the MMS posts he wrote? It’s a job…
I doubt Drew will be writing a lot. He’ll be busy generating “tools”. Not sure that there’s much opportunity in that area for the TPG audience. The only free tool I use is Award Maximizer.
Yeah, with the TPG target audience being newbies and the uninformed, it’s hard to see the value in more complex data analyses and tools of that nature. If TPG things they are going to start drawing in the medium-and-expert-level mileage game folks, they have a tough road ahead. Or maybe they just figure that the newbies will be dazzled by all the fancy spreadsheets or whatever.
You are all making the assumption that he will be working on complex tools geared towards the advanced crowd. I say he will soon be working on “complex” tools for the masses, you know, his vision is the same as Brian’s smh.
Maybe Richard will take him aside at the end of the first day and advise him: “Dude, do not piss off Marriott….and, heaven forbid, NEVER EVER DARE to say anything negative about Chase or we are all canned pronto! Oh, about ANA, they don’t have a credit card, is that an airline or something?”
#TBBinparodymode
Excuse me, that should read “…about ANA, they don’t have a credit card we sell,…” I meant 🙂
#TBBinparodymode
Lots of action today!
Good morning.
Some things I am going to lay out:
-You are missing the point about the “100 employee” count at TPG. The theme behind the staffers is this: This job is the most money they ever made! From journalists fearing the next round of layoffs in their dying industry, from bad to marginal writers (smuggling farting Fan, too many mommies either exhausted from having to blog on their own or scraping pennies in other blogs), others who badly need health insurance benefits who suddenly do not mind their posts being approved by advertisers before being published, a free spirit like Drew who probably ghost wrote for several of your TBB Ignore list blogs (remember his hissy fit when someone screwed up and he was discovered being a workhorse writing at his buddy MMS) but now can use some money after his startup idea (remember he was telling us he believed the smartest guy he ever me who will take his startup idea to the moon?) did not go anywhere as many tried to warn him, his new #2 hire was at Yahoo Finance smh. And I could go on and on. All these people NEED the money!
-You should spend some time looking at the Red Ventures financials.
-I think Brenton above is right on. I think we may see Drew quitting first before we see another TPG acquisition.
-It’s all about conversions indeed. Has Brian Kelly talked to you about how he can help you align your visions? Ok, just pulling your leg.
Thanks for your independent voice. Almost seven years…that is an eternity in this blog world! And your marathon goal is incredibly inspiring. I decided to walk to my local Kroger for groceries #winkwink
What, specifically, should we be looking at with Red Ventures’s financials?
Thanks for the kind words.
Like Nick, can we get a hint on what to look for with RV financials? DM/email is okay 😉
I think you may be right on on that first point imho!
Sorry to report that, Brian has not approached me to share with me his vision. With the staffing power of just one, I think my next chapter will be retirement and only trolling Ingy at Pointchaser lol.
I’ve found Drew (and Carrie) intriguing since I started reading TIF (and her blog) years ago. TPG’s announcement yesterday touted their staying in 5 star hotels but I recall them sleeping outdoors because they didn’t have any money. That was cool, and so was the way they seemed to listen to their hearts to lead them to their next adventure.
For a guy with a great left side of his brain, Drew appears to have a bit of happy feet. Flies into the big hacker convention as rookie of the year, then a short time later, seemingly walks away from it all. I thought the tool sharing idea would be very tough to pull off, and I guess it was. So let’s become an Air B&B mogul-which, it seems, he did. Yes, I am still intrigued.
Maybe TPG is just buying out the competition more than setting up a big organization with key players. Maybe taking out the mid-level players gives TPG better leverage in negotiations for commissions on selling credit cards and other pixie dust. Despite the big names, there’s not much shaking on TPG site. Richard Kerr is still writing good articles, but I haven’t seen much else yet. Summer Hull seems to have faded into the wallpaper. I hope those sellers/employees read the non-compete section of their agreements.
My guess is Drew will be continue to be the same guy and I’m looking forward to his next post. Maybe he can light the fire that seems to be missing.
Also, there was a suggestion in Wednesday’s comments section that Ingy must regret not doing what Brian Kelly has. This reminds me of when Apple made Steve Wozniak Director of International Sales after he did such a great job with the circuit boards out in the garage.
Excellent observations Sam.
This FT post points is worth reading as it links to a TPG announcement about a new “Executive VP” and the site’s vision for the future, such that it is:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31471513-post1221.html
“I’m really excited to announce Nathan Richardson as my Number Two and Executive Vice President of TPG. In this role, he will be leading our business strategy, product, marketing, partnerships and public relations. Simply put, he will be working with me to take TPG from a media platform to a consumer travel hub with indispensable tools that will help our millions of readers maximize their earning and burning of points…In his new role, Nathan will help supercharge TPG to the next level, diversifying the company into new partnerships, industries and markets. He’ll be serving as a key leader in expanding TPG’s travel portfolio, running the day-to-day business operations and performance as well as developing the marketing, customer experience and analytics teams.”
The ft thread mentioned TPG on YouTube, which I had never looked at. They have some interesting numbers.
~54k subscribers
993 videos, most of which have 1500-5000 views. Some have a slightly higher numbers, and a few are in the 20-50k range.
Considering Stephen Sharer has 7 million followers and his videos typically have anywhere from 1M to 100M+, it seems tpg is failing at becoming the influencer that he seems intent on becoming.
I know they’re completely unrelated in every sense other than that they both have videos on YouTube, but they make an interesting comparison.
Is this really buying competition, though? For one thing, I’m not sure any blog in the US space could be considered a material threat to TPG given its affiliate exclusives and SEO weight. But more than that: Mommy Points had found its niche and hadn’t really changed in years. Kerr ran a private Facegroup owned by someone else, that now continues moderated by someone else. Drew, for all his accomplishments, hasn’t actively made content in years and never monetized his site. These seem to be hires to develop something, but as you note, there isn’t much going on.
Ha, and to defend my Ingy comment: the point I was trying to make as that while Ingy may not have wanted or been able to pull off scaling up FTG (Woz!), that potential and value should have been apparent to someone (more so than with TPG, in my opinion). That it ended up the way it did with Internet Brands shows somewhere that value was never recognized.
“Kerr ran a Facebook group owned by someone else…..”.
That’s news to me-who owned and owns the group?
I always thought there was gold in that group-60,000 members, many caual at best but also many (I think) newbies, unencumbered by policies like 5/24 and once a lifetime. However, neither Kerr nor anyine has figured out how to convert that to money.
I wanna say award wallet owns the group. Or credit karma. Secondly one of the two. I’d look it up but I can’t remember the name of the group. 🙂
Yeah, AwardWallet acquired it from Kerr sometime around 2017, I believe. Jeff, the new guy who took over managing the group, mentioned on a podcast that he is technically an independent contractor of AwardWallet. (Not sure what Kerr’s arrangement was with AW post-deal, but I think in that light it is less surprising that the stability of TPG benefits would be attractive.)
I agree that it seems like it should be gold — I’m not in the group, so have no idea whether they’ve tried to monetize it. In that same podcast, Jeff mentioned something about how the AW101 group has one of the highest engagement levels of any such group (not sure how they’re defining group) on Facebook.
Wow, great observations indeed you guys, thank you.
I think I was a member of RK’s Facebook group very briefly or never asked to enter it because I did not want to be rejected 🙂 I actually do not remember!
Lets see what Drew does and how long he lasts in that environment.
I agree TPG is not taking out competitors in this stage. That would be taking out OMAAT or VFTW or FM and I think the asking price of them would be way too high than the ones he lured into his “vision” already.
But overall, as the youtube numbers indicate, as well as the failed excursions into TV programs and all kinds of douchey influencer things of that sort, maybe, just maybe, this whole thing is just not executed very well? You can publish 40 posts a day and then Ben or me (look at today’s post damnit) can provide more quality content in my very biased opinion 🙂
This is why the #2 was hired from, wait for it, Yahoo Finance lol.
He is still the face of the company. He barely writes anything now of course but he is still the brand…and he is still just one points guy. What happens if something happens to him? I mean, it could turn out to be like MMS then, an endless post deluge of credit card sales posts alone!
Yeah, Internet Brands, what a difference with RV hey? IB, we buy you and squeeze you for years without investing in what we bought vs. RV…here are millions, you will be judged by metrics alone (which likely does not include PROFITABILITY at this point because…we have money up the wazoo to burn through…we are like Uber…or maybe WeWork? lol)
There will not be a Facebook group here you guys. I am not a robot!
It is amazing how far this little hobby has come since I first logged into FlyerTalk in 1999, wow!
I am very open to more INSIDER information. I do not reveal my sources. Ever! Email/DM me, thank you
I’m so disgusted by the whole TPG machine, but am happy for the people I have loved to follow over the years to get a reliable salary and benefits for doing what they love. I’m surprised that Brian is still calling shots over there… I felt like he was just a poser at this point.
It’s all about conversions. Money and benefits too 🙂
I think Brian is taking RV guys for a ride too.
What happened to TIF’s startup with the guy that the bowtie introduced him to? I thought that was going to be huge…
It did not succeed obviously. There is a tiny success rate in tech startups. It requires ALLIN effort 24/7, 365. That’s just for starters…I could go on but I have more comments to answer 🙂
Doctor of Credit today:
“Wow this is another huge addition by TPG. They are really adding a lot of talent as of late. I hope this gives Drew the resources and ability to produce the content he wants, best of luck!”
Translated to:
I hope I am next 🙂
Maybe DoC is asking for too much?
I also regret that Drew is joining a corporation and I’m thinking he won’t last long more than a few months. He is certainly qualified to be there but my guess is that he is too much of a free spirit and/or gets bored easily and will likely move on to his next idea. (Speaking of next idea, whatever happened to his idea of becoming a travel agent by buying an agency? He posted a podcast on that and then went radio silent, even pulling the podcast, IIRC)
I hope he enjoys his stint there, and learns from it. He is a clever schemer and truly one of a kind. And TBB said it in his post: it’s said to lose another independent voice out there.
I think we are feeling sad to lose another independent voice to the TPG behemoth…
My wild-ass guesses for who/what is next at The Pumping Guy, in no particular order:
– BoardingArea is sold to Red Ventures/Bankrate – may or may not be folded into TPG “brand”
– Greg from FrequentMiler is hired at TPG; possibly Greg sells FM to Nick or maybe not
– Some sort of tie-in with one of the 2nd-tier general travel sites – like a Fodors or something along those lines
– Some kind of addition to the site (merger, buyout, “writers”) geared towards cruises. IME the cruise crowd is chock full of newbies and clueless “Rick Steves” types who want things spoon fed for a safe and predictable trip…what better market segment to pump full of illusions of easy luxury through their credit card links? It will be even more fertile ground than the “family travel” segment.
Ben, Gary and to a slightly lesser extent Greg are all the value of BA and I don’t see them agreeing. It is FAR more likely that those three buy the whole site from Randy with the leverage of leaving if they don’t get it.
I agree with your first statement. But I don’t see a visionary leader among those 3.
Ben flies solo. Army of one. He doesn’t have the skill set to run BA. He can’t even keep his writers around (except Tiffany)
Gary, maybe. Moving to Austin tells me that he’s more likely to just enjoy being a new father and stay the course. No need to add more stress at this point in your life when you’ve already made 7-8 figures.
I think FM is more likely thinking of cashing out his own site rather than investing in an aggregate site with limited vision.
@Raffles, how’s the competition with TPG-UK?
No impact, different target market. We just held a party for 575 people (charging for tickets and a cash bar) – even TPG US would struggle to do that.
Gathering a bunch of Brits to drink isn’t that hard. Sadly parties end before midnight.
My list was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. But FWIW if Randy Petersen wanted to sell I’m not aware of anything Ben or really any of the other hosted bloggers could do about it. (Not sure if Gary has any ownership stake in BA – I thought he maybe had some part in the MilePoint/IF business, but not 100% sure about that, or if it extended to the BA site.). BA is just a hosting platform as we’re often reminded by Seth, so the blogs on there don’t share in the decision-making generally. They would be free to host elsewhere if they didn’t like a new BA owner.
Exactly. Who buys a business where 3 customers are 80% of the value and are all likely to walk because they don’t like the new owner?
Who says they wouldn’t like the new owner?? BA is an ad network/hosting platform. If it still meets their needs in hosting and advertising, I’m not seeing why they would care whose name goes on their monthly check to the site. While Ben and Gary probably have the greatest personal relationship with him, Randy isn’t immortal – sooner or later BA will either cease to exist or someone else will own it – it’s just a question of who that will be.
Hard to tell where BA derives the most income from shared ad revenue with the bloggers. Seth has explained before that each one negotiates their own arrangement. And we could only speculate what strategy a theoretical buyer might have for purchasing the platform (which is not the same as purchasing each blog being hosted there). Eliminating competing ad network/hosting options can be a strategic value for example.
Great comments everyone again, thank you.
Randy is getting old, he likes his ranches, I am not sure what the succession plan is…but at this time everyone in BA appears content to keep it going as is because, as some of you noted, what really are you buying if you can not get a commitment that the 3 top bloggers will stick around. And if I was Gary/Ben/Greg I would likely not stick around, time to finally go on my own and angle for a TPG acquisition…ok, the last part was a joke!
Some guesses:
I think Gary may be getting ready to hang it up after all these years…having a kid usually reorders priorities in life. And he has probably socked enough money away.
Ben is locked into this frenetic lifestyle. And probably spends out of his mind. So, he will keep going no doubt.
I think Greg, if he loses Nick, maybe he looks for a way out. So…he must keep Nick happy.
I thought about buying BA so I can finally retire some of the blogs that get to me. Lol…just kidding, come on!
BA negotiates BA banner ads with companies and splits the revenue with the bloggers. Then the bloggers can do their own affiliate links. The key with BA is more blogs, more page views, more negotiating power, more money.
Facts: The bank money for credit cards is getting increasingly tougher. No doubt all bloggers are facing that! Maybe the next recession will alleviate some of that…well, we have been waiting for that for a VERY long time!
Ad revenue: Industry is changing, lots of them are sold programmatically, think algorithms and all, no need for Randy or BA ad salesmen to work their trusty networks. And falling…but it may have stabilized?
I think Seth goes to TPG next!
I always look forward to FM’s latest discovery, or TIF’s latest easy-to-use resource; there’s a good chance that TPG will eventually be first in both of those categories, and many others. They have large pools of researchers to amass data, analysts to process it, and writers to present it. I’m also seeing a big push toward attracting newbies. Put all that together and you have a more level playing field and better optimization. That sounds good at first, but the most advantageous opportunities in this game are the sweet spots, loopholes, and hacks. If everyone and their mother can take advantage of them, those will be gone in no time. It’s a repeating cycle now (revamp a program to close the loopholes, inadvertently create new ones, repeat), but if big data is leveraged to expose those in record time, the programs will have no choice but to get simpler and less advantageous, and it’ll eventually be a race to the bottom.
My only hope is that TPG gets (read: remains) greedy and partners up with multiple programs, limiting their ability to make fair comparisons and recommend the best options. The newbies would stay there, getting fooled into thinking they got the best deal; the unaffiliated resources – AwardHacker, WhereToCredit, FlightConnections, (RIP ExpertFlyer? Maybe?), and so on – and certain resource-heavy blogs would remain the best way to compare options; and the strongest blogs, each with its niche, would remain the best resource for finding, and taking advantage of, quirks, sweet spots, program changes, etc.
That’s an excellent point about staying greedy! It would help the rest of us out.
For MS and churning, I’ve been spending more time on Reddit lately. I wonder if that and other sort of decentralized and smaller-group venues will be better options for keeping up on the loopholes and sweet spots before they get shouted to the masses?
Nice name George 🙂
The money is in the newbies in this business. They never had a CSP card before!
Programs are going into dynamic award pricing mode. This means no award charts. This means no gaming, nothing to hack here. You pay based on the pay rate. It is a SEA CHANGE in this hobby. And probably its hugest blow against it, so sad!
TPG never recommended the best options. See Brenton’s first comment about ANA awards. They can’t sell ANA credit cards!!!
The strongest blogs….well, they are all folding, surely and steadily…
MS is one of the bright spots. You can’t really blog about MS and expect it to last. That is why Pointchaser’s blogging is so harmful to the only remaining aspect of the hobby that has some life going for it. But then again, bloggers have business interests, she is blogging about MS because it drives clicks.
I never set up for this to be a full blown business. Heck, my own job that brings food on the table I set it up in a way that is not a real business in the strictest $$$ sense. If I did…I would not be blogging here for almost 7 years now!
Ryan: Need to network and find some hardcore MSers and learn from them. Local meetups, maybe go to one of the bigger conferences, FB groups and maybe you get invited into the private groups one day 🙂
I think the whole “industry” is changing/consolidating/dehacking I mean, look at the Amex RATs!
I need to get to bed so I can run 10 miles tomorrow morning!
TBBon!
Sam gets at what is puzzling to-date about the TPG moves: despite the big names, there’s not much going, other than volume. Yesterday they published 40+ (!) posts, but many of them are run-of-the-mill content that you could farm out to anyone. More than that, the site is still structured largely as a blog with a continuous stream of posts. If you’re running a standard SEO-optimized affiliate shop, why keep hiring people?
I thought at the time the Mommy Points acquisition could definitely make sense: bring in someone with a (moderate) record in the family space, acquire her back-log posts for SEO, and create a vertical to to attract all the Disney-dreaming parents out there. TPG Family seems like a no-brainer. And yet… nothing really seems to have happened. You just have more family content injected into the blob of nonstop posts.
I have to believe that the dozen of “directors” and “managers” they keep appointing are up to something, or all of this just seems strange. Drew’s announcement was the first time I think they’ve mentioned the ExpertFlyer acquisition since it happened. They’ve been talking about an app for what seems like years. Maybe some sort of TPG Premium service? But all of that also seems like a much riskier bet to be scaling up for.
It reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live skit “First Citiwide Change Bank”. For the younger folks, it was a parody ad where the bank’s whole business model was solely making change for people – no checking accounts, no credit cards issued, nothing else. “You come to us with 16 quarters, 8 dimes, and 4 nickels, we can give you a 5 dollar bill”. The guy on the ad says something like, “People ask us how we make money doing this. The answer: Volume!”
I guess as long as they keeping bringing enough eyeballs to click on affiliate links it doesn’t matter for now. But it just feels like an empty shell that will eventually collapse.
Yeah, the execution of the vision is just BAD. Or maybe the vision is wrong 🙂
So many bodies, so many paychecks, so many editors and directors and managers and so much crap posted daily, it is amazing!
Ryan, I LOVED that SNL skit with that bank! And perfect analogy too!
This is Richard Kerr’s latest post:
https://thepointsguy.com/guide/lesser-known-sapphire-benefits/
“5 Chase Sapphire Preferred Benefits You Might Not Know About”
I can’t wait to see Drew’s Chase tools LOL
Wow, so glad they brought in a “respected industry expert” to write stuff like this! LMAO!
I wonder if Chase pre approved it.
Or, perhaps, Chase wrote it, RK slapped his name on it and then went to cash his paycheck. Hey, someone has to do something with the RV money LOL.
Wrote that well over a year and a half ago; SEO guys just republished it. Thanks for the click though, went straight to Staples with the revenue to DYKWIA to the manager.
The SEO guys…
wrote over a year and a half ago…
you are welcome
Keep milking RV 🙂
Comment in Drew’s joining TBB post:
“Um, lol, ok. So you will have the same editorial creativity as Kerr who previously “left” TPG for probably the same reasons?”
Same…
Drew’s coworker Samantha y’all:
“You never forget your first time… signing up for a credit card.”
Drew gets called to his supervisor’s office on Tuesday:
“Drew, this post got very high traffic, can you work on a tool to allow readers to go back in time and when the words “first time” comes up you get to follow it up with ‘Chase Sapphire Preferred’ and our technicians will take it from there to insert the CSP affiliate links, thanks! Good work buddy, now lets get out there and push some product, Jaime Dimon pays our bills and our paychecks, go go convert!”
Which Samantha? Must be Samantha Rosen…
Their vision is conversion.
My vision is finishing the Detroit Marathon and being entertained around here TBBing 🙂
Drew is getting lots of feedback on his “new chapter” post. And he thought I was negative lol.
I should respond here but it may not be until tomorrow. Because. Tacos.
No tacos obviously, plans changed.
I may copy and paste some of the comments in Drew’s post. Wow. If you have something good to say why not say it. Or bad. Or whatever Ingy’s motto was lol.
Good night everyone. Enjoy the Labor Day weekend, get the grill out.
To the readers in Florida, good luck with Durian.
Phuck, not Durian, I hate Durian, I meant Dorian!
Happy for Drew and wishing him only the best. He’s a great guy and fantastic researcher. Something tells me he’ll be very much appreciated by his new employer and, most importantly, the readers.
Now back to the basics. Just one hour before the Delta Vacation deadline, I broke down and booked 5 days at Hyatt Zilara Cancun. Wasn’t going to initially, but I’ve been sitting on Delta miles for years. I’ve always been curious about the Zilara but too cheap to spend precious Hyatt points or, God forbid, cash on an AI resort. 110K including a decent Travel Protection plan, Comfort+ seat, roundtrip transfers, 5K Hyatt points and a few minor perks at the resort.
My non-flying wife is going to kill me in my sleep one day.
So two award seats on Delta to Cancun and 5 nights at the HY Zilara for 110k Delta miles?
Not bad at all.
So many congratulating Drew…He should respond to his readers…or maybe that is not allowed over there 🙂
No, flying solo. Wife doesn’t fly.
Stayed there when the Hyatt CC issued freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee award nights. I never thought an all inclusive hotel would be enjoyable. But this place actually had good food. I would return. The pool isn’t deep => water is pretty warm. And getting a decent spot by the pool is tough. Hacking tip: get up at 6am and mark your territory with a few towels.
Drew still getting pummeled on his “New Chapter” joining TPG post. And this one comment is DA BEST imho.
by Diff:
Sad. It’s like you don’t realize how much you could’ve made if you’d run your own blog better. This world eats good people, you’re just the latest. But it’s sad this didn’t have to go this way. And, while it’s good to be optimistic, you seem to use your optimism to mask bad ideas. Good Luck with your soul.
Well, because it came from a Buzz fan!
I miss Jerry Lewis and his Labor Day telethons. Though I didn’t really like him much when he was around.
Sort of like Ingy.
Well played, gracias Sam!
There will be a post here tomorrow Monday Labor Day!
I am calling out some shit. As usual. Definitely does not help conversions lol.