HikerT

TPG has actually gone so far to say readers are his boss.

www.thepointsguy.com/2011/10/when-deals-go-ba/

ma91pmh

In my world, the person I think of as my boss is the person/people who pay me. And in TPG's case, that is Amex and Chase.

HikerT

Heh, well that is probably true, although I really do think those bosses will issue pink slips once they do the math.

coremill

I think you're totally missing the point of the criticism of this particular incident. My objection was not to the compensation itself, but to the way Brian presented it. To me it is perfectly obvious that AA gave everyone extra SWUs because the trip is big marketing junket for them and they want to make sure they get a lot of good publicity out of it. There's not a direct quid pro quo, but there's a bit of an implied give and take: we'll give you guys way better service than we ever give our normal customers, and in return you all go tell your friends what a great company we are.

It's totally anomalous for AA to give out SWUs as compensation -- indeed, no one on the AA forum has ever reported it happening in the last 9 years. Normally someone in Brian's situation probably wouldn't receive ANY compensation from AA; after all, he traveled to his ticketed destination on the same routing in the same class of service he booked, and he arrived within an hour of his originally scheduled flight. Instead, he (and, it appears, others) received compensation worth thousands of dollars. This is extremely unusual and definitely not normal AA practice.

This is why I said you'd have to be hopelessly naive to think that the compensation represents, as Brian put it, "proactive, stellar customer service". I think it is quite obvious that what it really represents is a form of bribery. For Brian to take the bait and report exactly what AA wants him to report without acknowledging all of this context, and to therefore imply that if Joe Reader flies AA and Joe Reader's flight is cancelled, Joe will be treated similarly, is what I find troublesome. For everybody else who received the same deal to then turn around and defend this error is even more disappointing and suggests the whole travel/points-blogging industry has a serious problem with basic journalistic ethical standards.

HikerT

So that begs the question as to how this is different than a blogger accepting a hotel comp. I recall Rick assuring his readers he'd never accept such a comp.

TheManofaThousandPlaces

Who can set up a poll in FlyerTalk?

Based on the comments registered above, I'd like to see a poll of the following question:

Who is the least annoying blogger?

mnscout

Well, semantics aside, you're right (somewhat) that my analogy is not perfect but neither is yours. A blog is nothing like a store, at least the blogs we are discussing on these pages.

A store is a place where the owner expects (or hopes) you take the money out of your pocket and pay him for goods or services. A blog is a place where the services are dispensed for free, and the blogger sometimes gets compensated by merchants who place the ad for their services on the blogger's site and compensated even better when a reader actually clicks and buy those services. In your analogy, a blogger's site could be more successfully likened to a consignment store, but with one considerable distinction - a blog reader still benefits from the blogger's services (advice and expertise) even if he doesn't buy anything at all.

Now call me stupid if you wish, but I don't have a problem with this business model.

Should we blame a blogger when some of their more naive readers make a bad decision? I don't think so. No one canceled critical thinking and doing your own research. Now, I have one qualification: when a blogger intentionally hides better deals and peddles and ENDORSES the ones that pay him better commissions, that is nothing short of reprehensible.

I guess, the thing most folks here have a problem with is this. Since bloggers do want to earn a buck (and there is nothing wrong about it), they use some tricks up their sleeves. They sometimes "gently" steer their readers toward clicking on the ad paying a better commission by inserting them into editorial content. That's regrettable, but with the case in point - is Chase Sapphire really a bad card to have? Does TPG really peddles a bad deal? I don't think so. In fact, I would get another one (I mean with 50000 UR points bonus) if I possibly could. So, who exactly stands to lose here?

Blaming them for other things, like repetition is just silly - come on, there is simply not that many great deals out there. Besides, most NORMAL people do not read dozens of blogs; they only read one or two. So if they don''t reprint great deals from other sites, a lot of those folks would be left out. And a lot of folks complain about the lack of original material, but then, when they try to add some original material like trip reports or interviews other folks hate it too! Blogging would be a hell of a quest to please everyone.

About your final remark, I'm not arguing that we all have the right to criticize whoever we want to, but it's deteriorated into more than critique, it's just downright hostility that is not called for. Just saying.

HikerT

I don't know about least annoying. There are definitely those who I've gained significantly more appreciation and respect for over the last 6 months. I'd put loyalty traveler and frequent miler in said category. I'd also give props to mommypoints for stepping it up during the last grand slam.

ingy

it is so different. Everyone on the flight, blogger or not, was compensated exactly the same way.

HikerT

OK, but my understanding is some of the megado flights also carry the general public. If that were the case for this flight, were the same benefits extended to the general public not part of the megado? If not, I'd say there's a significant conflict of interest. For example, if you guys were employees of NBC news but not everyone was a newscaster, don't you think huge red flags would still be raised by corporate compliance if the general public on the same flight had not been extended the same perks?

Mountain Trader

In my view, many misunderstand what one shold expect from advice from bloggers.

One of the first questions everyone should ask about any advice is "How does the person giving me advice make money?". This is true if the advsior is a doctor recommending an operation, a broker recommending a stock, a website recommending a plumber or a blog recommending a credit card or other travel-related deal.

The reason you should ask is not only possible intentional bias but subconscious bias in favor of a deal that benefits the provider. Does this mean you should decline the offer by the provider? No, but it does help you measure the independance of the advisor and therefore tell you how much research you should do on your own.

So I would do more research on a stock suggested by a commissoned broker than one I heard of from one who charges a flat fee. How does this play out with FF bloggers? To me, while these folks may know more than I do on certain facets of one program or another, they don't know what I need or want. I don't rely on any of their advice in isolation. I check out basics-fees, add-on benefits, cancellation impact, and (often missing is) what I am going to do with these points, miles, etc. and many other factors. I make my decision based on my own research, using but not always accepting the bloggers' advice. Then if I do go ahead, I'll use the blogger's link and give her or him their spiff-they've given me advice I've used so why not.

Years ago, a smart guy told me that a conflict of interest is not something to be avoided but something to be addressed. Now that is good advice.

saacman5033

Well said, and I agree completely! ^

x712xdamx

This thread has become so ridiculous! This topic is soooo over drawn out. Yuck.
Enjoy travel, enjoy points/miles, & enjoy the internet.

jammanxc

if he can afford it, by all means... i love all his content! If you dont like TPG, then dont read it!

jammanxc

1:1 to BA, avois points can be quite useful

i'd say he's the smartest since he's got great SEO skills and meta words/tags on his website... he's laughing all the way to the bank good job brian