Wayfahrer

Any other UK specific blog or public resource other than Raffles' blog? Strangely (or not so strangely?), I have found none UK specific in the

I Also Recommend .....

section on Raffles' blog.

Euan

There are other UK based blogs but none that seem to focus as specifically on the UK market as Raffles' blog does.

http://www.ukpoints.com/
http://boardingarea.com/ghettoife/
http://boardingarea.com/milesfromblighty/
http://blog.continentalclub.co.uk/

http://boardingarea.com/pointstobemade/ (European focus)

Calchas

A large fraction will come from credit card sign up referrals made through his blog. So you could start your own blog? :P

These questions are certainly answered in his blog. I suggest using Google, or subscribing.

There is no magic formula that lets you make miles for free. It all requires either time, credit or money, usually all three.

There is the British Airways forum which often covers UK-specific topics as well as British Airways, I don't think there is a demand for anything else. Most of the flying we do in the UK involves leaving the UK, so it would be a waste of time to have a board devoted entirely to the UK. The value of Flyertalk is that it is a global board, with people from everywhere contributing.

What do you want to know?

Raffles

To be honest, that is purely because they are not very relevant not because they are threatening to put me out of business. I did used to list a couple but then the authors started posting very infrequently so I removed them.

Businesstraveller.com will give you a different take on what it is happening. If there is any interesting UK points stuff, I will cover it - I have 21 posts per week to fill ....

Raffles

I do generally do that. However, I am a middle aged man living close to Heathrow with 2 young kids, one in school. I have family in Germany and Dubai so that is where we spend our leisure time. My entire personal FF strategy is driven by this - what cards I carry, what promos I do. It is unlikely to be the same for you.

The cards I use - http://www.headforpoints.com/2013/11...t-cards-i-own/

The idea that HFP requires heavy prior knowledge is nonsense. If there is one thing I can do well, it is write in an open and easy to follow style. I have NEVER used an airport acronym in a post, for instance. There is more beginners stuff on the site than on FT. Need a hotel tonight? I have all the hotel promos and discount codes on one page. Want all the current Avios promos summarised on one page? I've done that too.

At the end of the day, though, my readers are generally well educated, well paid, London based business travellers, albeit not FF pros, and the site caters to them.

Look at the minimum income figures Amex wants for its credit cards. Look at the taxes BA charges (Ł2,000 for a family of 4 in Business). There is no such thing as 'flying for free' in the UK market and there is no market catering to low income freebie hunters. If you want to learn about UK manufactured spend, there is a thread on it in the MS forum on FT. Nothing very exciting though. 3V cards, the only practical option that was scalable, is now over for most people.

This, by the way, was the best miles strategy I ever used:

1. Get a job at a major City of London finance firm
2. Work hard for 10 years and become a Partner (and so techinically self employed under UK tax law)
3. Pay your huge annual tax bill with a miles-earning credit card

Worked for me!

lin821

UK is not alone on this, Raffles!

I would go further and argue that U.S. probably is the one and only country that makes "Manufactured Spending" a reality, sometimes even profitable for heavy "hitters." For those of us not residing in the States, well, we can always wish ourselves good luck.

h15t0r1an

Just a comment that the available sources for someone interested in earning in the UK seem to have been covered very comprehensively and kindly in this thread. Pointers have been given to the sources of advice and the particularly useful programs to learn about have been named. It does appear that the UK has some more opportunities than countries such as Poland or Russia.

I've enjoyed reading this thread immensely and wish Wayfahrer luck in identifying his own path through the sources and programs available. It does take time and effort and I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Wayfahrer

Thanks for your additional insights, let's go step by step:

- I specifically did not ask for any 'manufactured spending' per se, I exactly wrote the opposite

- I did not ask for 'something for free' however I clearly asked about how to accumulate 10 million Membership Rewards points - which I have just found a fascinating in itself, so I had to ask about it, right?

To which of my question I got two totally contradictory answers:

1.
To start my FF blog - let's talk about that later, now just the 10 M MR points.

2.
OFF: do you suggest a career in 'investment banking', in plain English? We can talk about it as OFF, but the point now is you two suggested two totally different ways for how you/Raffles accumulated that 10 M MR miles, which was my simple question and I am confused. You are feel free to tell your method for the 10 M miles is 'secret' or 'private', I am fine with that answer too.

But I add to the question now: at what time frame the 10 M MR points are realistic or how much time it took you Raffles if I may ask?

Additionally: if you do not have that much of a UK tax bill or do not blog about it, do not manufacture spends, how much of any useful points (read: not a few points from unrelated programs) are realistic for a Brit who is eligible and just watches the deals?

Sorry, misunderstanding. Of course I did not mean domestic travel but I meant the Australians and Germans traveling abroad have their own forums on separate domains outside Flyertalk. Imagine if a Brit does not use British Airways as his main airline but Lufthansa or Air France (I read somewhere it may be more profitable to use for your flights an airline outside of your country for some patterns), so he as a Brit should post about it in the British, eg. BA segment of the American Flyertalk forum or say, the Lufthansa branch dominated by Germans? You see, a disaster. It just makes sense for a country to have its own forum as all countries except the Brits have it.

Thank you for the helpful link, I have to say with 3 posts a day your blog works better with interactive guidance from the writer.

And your stats and feedback show these people are interested in the depth of 3 posts a day of FF points? I wouldn't be.

That's why I compared your blog to Chris Guillebeau who is fine (and his readers are fine) with one weekly update.

As I know a little more about marketing than investment banking, I understand your blog is like a side project for you, a hobby, it looks (it is) quite professional, so you might want to make it sustainable (for the blog to pay for its hosting; it already generates you some referrals), so you said who is your intended target market, do you have stats showing these very people are your actual readier as well (quite a small % of a the whole British population, is it best to target only to them?) And that they want the depth of 3 posts a day on this obscured topic for them?

Ultimately, you are not in the business of an FF points blog, but about how to market an FF points blog efficiently, see the difference? And I haven't seen any successful or at least interesting for me blog with so many posts. On the contrary, my favorite blogs are with the fewer but more in depth posts.

This was kind of a positive criticism, reader feedback so keep it up!

Calchas

No, I don't see it as a disaster. The post should be in the airline forum that is relevant. Airlines are global businesses, so separating them by country is not really necessary.

In fact, I fly on AF/KLM/Delta often (well, less this year ) but currently live in the UK, so I usually my trips start from a UK airport. If I have any questions I ask in the Air France forum or KLM forum or Delta forum as appropriate. If I have a question in general about manufactured spending or American Express MR points or something I can discuss it in the non-airline specific forum.

Separating it by "airport origin" country is not useful to me, it just reduces the number of people with useful knowledge, many of whom are not actually British. :P

craigthemif

Despite my best efforts (and not being 100% UK focused or interested in pimping credit cards) Raffles is by far the top UK blog for miles & points.

Like he mentioned, most of the others have given up and stopped posting.

Wayfahrer

Here is the guarantee: http://travelhacking.org/proof-guarantee/

I was on that site before, on a previous incarnation of the site they offered something like a more reasonable 1 short haul ticket/25,000 miles a year if you are outside of North America (explicitly saying it works regardless where you live; and it did not require my credit card to sign up).

Please, I am not interested in off topic, ramblings how Chris is selling free information from FlyerTalk, etc.

I am only interested in, if you are outside of North America, and also not in the UK, Germany, Australia, etc, you are in a smaller or developing country and you don't have access to ANY card with significant miles potential; can still get 25,000 miles or one short haul ticket a year, probably only by signing up various online deals? If yes, where? Or Chris's deal would not work for you; he has to refund you; he just over promises and under delivers with the crazy free ticket claim.

Raffles

Theoretically, Amex will give you an International Dollar Card or International Euro Card wherever you live, and there is often a sign-up bonus on Platinum.

Wayfahrer

Thanks Raffles; good to know. I guess, however, that is not the target market or the scope of the above site - if you take a look at it. As most people - in developing countries - do not qualify for Platinum and the site offers a guarantee for everyone.

84fiero

Not having ever signed up and read any of the T&Cs (if any), I can't comment but why not contact Chris directly and ask, if such clarification isn't apparent on the site?

Kagehitokiri

although IDC/ICC acceptance is like US i think, not like individual countries, which can have much stricter standards/requirements

OP is interesting question

but all it says is "we’ll comp you extra months or help you get the miles you need" so kind of vague