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Deal Killing Blogs: List deals which were pulled, and the blogs which published them.

Deal Killing Blogs: List deals which were pulled, and the blogs which published them.

Old Nov 18, 2012, 10:33 pm
  #106  
 
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I'm amused by all the 'bloggers killed the deals' talk. But what I really find amusing and ironic is that blogging, too, is a "deal"! People see other people [flying around the world for free/making money off of blogs] and they start [jumping on deals/starting their own blog with affiliate links]. And in time, the deal dies, right? You can't have an infinite number of bloggers making a lot of money; the premise only works when there are a few. I suspect in time we'll see more and more bloggers, and blogging will get less and less lucrative as a result.
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Old Nov 19, 2012, 4:17 am
  #107  
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Note the credit card companies pull your links if you can't generate x referrals per month. One of the Boarding Area guys, forgot which one, has had his links withdrawn already for lack of results. You cannot therefore flood the market with Chase sites!
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Old Nov 19, 2012, 8:02 am
  #108  
 
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Sorry guys, I killed the staples paper towel deal.

Nevermind, back in stock! Get your 5x off paper towels at Staples! Time to hoard 1,000 paper towels and get 5X points. LOL

Last edited by romsdeals3; Nov 19, 2012 at 8:12 am
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Old Nov 19, 2012, 8:31 am
  #109  
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108 Posts and only One example

post 22 by hobo13 is the only example so far, and I agree with his assessment. I knew the blogger and he admitted it happened from company contact. BTW IHG is now offering the same type removed guarantee again.

But the thread is nothing more than a repeat of previous blogger threads. Lots of air, but not much substance or concrete info.

Contributing factor? maybe, but deal killer? no evidence as of yet in the first 108 posts.
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Old Nov 19, 2012, 9:17 am
  #110  
 
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Originally Posted by Frugal Travel Guy
post 22 by hobo13 is the only example so far, and I agree with his assessment. I knew the blogger and he admitted it happened from company contact. BTW IHG is now offering the same type removed guarantee again.

But the thread is nothing more than a repeat of previous blogger threads. Lots of air, but not much substance or concrete info.

Contributing factor? maybe, but deal killer? no evidence as of yet in the first 108 posts.
Yeah, just like there's no evidence that cigarettes cause lung cancer. Or (contrary to what most Americans believe) that evolution is real.

And how about getting those people at Suntrust fired, Rick? I'm sure your fruit/cheese platter was comforting when they were collecting unemployment checks.

Last edited by mia; Nov 19, 2012 at 12:26 pm Reason: Remove personal attacks
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Old Nov 19, 2012, 9:24 am
  #111  
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Well, the 'look at those silly bloggers' topic comes up every 1-2 months, when a juicy deal is spectacularly killed in record time. Dansdeals killing the TLV mistake fare in a few hours is a recent example.

Greed plays a bigger role today... look at the suit filed by the beacons of the 'industry' recently against HA and US. What used to be a decent use of a deal over years has turned into a feeding frenzy/run to get your dibs in the slash and burn storm. Loyalty programs have no choice but to shut down the deal and deny the benefits to the non-entitled grabbers because it involves far too many.
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Old Nov 19, 2012, 9:32 am
  #112  
 
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Originally Posted by oliver2002
Dansdeals killing the TLV mistake fare in a few hours is a recent example.
Killed is a funny term, especially when we're talking about airfare.

The fare was pulled at the 1pm airfare filing. Had I not publicized it would it have lasted longer? Maybe, maybe not, but it definitely would not have stuck around very long. In the interim I helped many thousands of people book tickets to the holy land for just a few hundred bucks (with 100% AA mileage earning if they also upgraded to the nonstop).
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Old Nov 19, 2012, 9:58 am
  #113  
 
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Originally Posted by abcx
Yeah, just like there's no evidence that cigarettes cause lung cancer. Or (contrary to what most Americans believe) that evolution is real. In other words, only a fool won't realize the causative links here...

And how about getting those people at Suntrust fired, Rick? I'm sure your fruit/cheese platter was comforting when they were collecting unemployment checks.

Bloggers are greedy pigs. I would have thought that you might have been wiser given your experience with consuming things in excess. But perhaps there's nothing left after those days...
You seem...angry

Do you have evidence to support that recon teams don't monitor FT threads to see if their promos are being exploited? Afterall, this is the #1 forum for discussions of this sort. Bloggers make deals more visable, but the source of the deal typically starts right here. To me, it make much more sense to monitor the source instead of the carbon copies that have been "dumbed down" for those that don't speak IATA.

If bloggers were greedy pigs...why would they heavily contribute to the demise of great churns/deals and ruin their personal gravy train? I actually applaud the fact that there are those that take the time to package information so that the layman can enrich themselves without guarantee of financial gain. You don't HAVE to apply for credit cards through a blogger's link. Unless you pay a monthly fee for the information, which is not a sustainable business model given the numerous sites stating the same thing for free, I don't see how it could be much more than a hobby. If it is, you better be damn good at what you do...which takes hours of research and a little trial and error. You're saying that isn't worth a little money? Thousands of financial advisors are awaiting your answer with baited breath. (And doctors, and lawyers and any other profession where you are paid to be the "expert" using publically available information)

P.S. I am not a blogger
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Old Nov 19, 2012, 10:13 am
  #114  
 
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Originally Posted by Frugal Travel Guy
But the thread is nothing more than a repeat of previous blogger threads. Lots of air, but not much substance or concrete info.

Contributing factor? maybe, but deal killer? no evidence as of yet in the first 108 posts.
These threads play out like climate change debate. First you have the deniers that change is occurring. Then you have those who won't deny reality but will debate the cause...
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Old Nov 19, 2012, 10:15 am
  #115  
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Hey there, OP here back for the first time since writing the first post. Seems like this thread has gone a little off topic and I want to steer it back on topic. I know this is a hot topic and people seem to be far on one side of the spectrum or the other with their opinion on the subject. But again please refrain from personal attacks so this thread does not get shutdown.

My main point of starting this thread was to see if there is a strong pattern of certain bloggers posting about a deal and then that deal dying soon thereafter. Of course it cannot be proven that the bloggers are killing these deals. But common sense would lead you to believe that the overexposure of a deal by bloggers (and subsequently their hat tipping copycat blogger friends) causes the premature death of many of these deals. I am simply looking to make a list of the deals that have died soon after they were blogged about, as well as which bloggers blogged about that deal. I will compile and update the list frequently in my OP. So please give specific examples like I did in my OP, and I will add those to my list.
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Old Nov 19, 2012, 10:29 am
  #116  
 
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oliver---pray tell what did dans deals benefit from his blogging of the tel aviv deal ? it involved no credit card or benefit to him..... what entitles only certain people to benefit ?

greg--- the reason the post has gone awry is bec very few others want to share venom by roll call as you seem to want to. They disagree with the premise of "we are entitled". Tell me what was the last deal that YOU discovered on your own. And why wasnt the person who told you allowed to tell whomever else they wanted ?

Last edited by mia; Nov 19, 2012 at 11:47 am
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Old Nov 19, 2012, 10:33 am
  #117  
 
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I don't remember paying for FlyerTalk in order to get the info that I've been using for the last 3-4 months. Did I miss something which said everything that's posted on a FREE site is sacred, and shouldn't be distributed en masse? Or, is it one of those unwritten rules, kinda like the kids back when I was in high school who loved independent music, talked about it all the time, but when you ask them to divulge the name of some of the bands they liked so you could check them out, they said "you've never heard of them", basically preventing access.

This is 2012 in the age of the internet. From everything OD has told me, Vanilla's were killed because of fraudulent activity, NOT because of a ton of legitimate sales. I won't even go into the quality of the OP, but I spoke with a couple of OD managers candidly over the past weekend, and they both told me something similar to "you won't believe how many people they saw attempting to buy VR cards where logos were scratched off the card, and names didn't match from the credit card to the drivers license." (the initial fraud cases is why they started asking for DL in most stores)

People were trying to use stolen credit cards to buy those reloads, because of how they funnel into other accounts, and loading money onto a bluebird or other reload card from the VR cards are so quick and easy, the fraud would take place MUCH faster than anyone could catch up to. Fraudulent transactions were loaded and cashed out before anyone could catch the money. If you're saying that someone with ill-intent scoured miles and points blogs to try and find ways to steal money, then I'd probably laugh at you. Because if you think they'd stop at blogs and not look at FT, with quite a large # of lurkers, then you're likely wearing a tin-foil hat.

Believe whatever the heck you want to believe - but I highly doubt that a ton of business done legitimately was the reason this "deal" was "killed". I would say CVS is likely to experience the same issue, although I wonder if credit card transaction limits for fraud are set lower at CVS than at places like OD. I can't ever see myself normally spending $1,500 a month at CVS, but I could see that at OD, if I was running a decently sized business.

I bought my first VR at a CVS with CC yesterday, and they looked at my card and ID to verify immediately. It sounds as if CVS is doing what OD didn't initially, so this deal might last a bit longer, just with 6x points @ Hilton, rather than 5x UR points.
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Old Nov 19, 2012, 10:39 am
  #118  
 
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Originally Posted by spankytoes

Do you have evidence to support that recon teams don't monitor FT threads to see if their promos are being exploited? Afterall, this is the #1 forum for discussions of this sort. Bloggers make deals more visable, but the source of the deal typically starts right here. To me, it make much more sense to monitor the source instead of the carbon copies that have been "dumbed down" for those that don't speak IATA.
BTW, I do think there are many responsible bloggers. Having said that...

There is a huge difference between what happens on a blog that spells everything out with circles, highlights, multiple pics and more and what happens even on FT. In times past, many deals that were being discussed on FT were back page deals. Not too many knew about them and those who did weren't interested in making them known far and wide. Some of the best deals I've ever been a part of were very quiet ones that existed on FT. When they are on FT alone, the exposure was far, far, far less.

Now then, here's the problem. Some bloggers take deals that could live for a much longer time and overexpose them, shining a spotlight on them and encouraging thousands to take advantage of them. They SPOON FEED the details (creating an elaborate, step by step picture; creating a billboard of sorts) to the masses and then you have a huge run. It is way too easy for those who are sponsoring the deal to see EXACTLY how it's being exploited. Company execs ARE NOT going to take the time to read the thousands and thousands of posts on FT. But when you take it mainstream via multiple blogs and spell it all out... you are in effect, rubbing their noses in it. The bloggers A+B+C diagrams are offensive to the companies they are exploiting. Humiliating, even. And if you can't figure that one out, I can't help you.

Spelling it out in such a succinct and public way is going to kill the deal.

If you were a company exec and you saw some of the blogs touting in such a public way how they were going to take money from you over and over and over again (and encouraging so many others to do the same) would you sit still?

It is no secret that more and more private forums are being created. Those backpage deals that used to be on FT? Guess where they are now.
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Old Nov 19, 2012, 10:40 am
  #119  
 
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Originally Posted by The OS
Vanilla's were killed because of fraudulent activity
Agree that this is more likely. Hard to specifically say "VFTW" caused it. Also, hard to blame him when he says to use discretion yet I read peeps bragging on FT about walking out with 10 VR in one day. That would raise some eyebrows if it happened over and over and is not how a deal is maintained. Greed kills.
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Old Nov 19, 2012, 11:25 am
  #120  
 
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Agree with ThereYaGo that greed kills. If you look back at when the Mint died, was it due to bloggers? Probably not. It was due to people who were ordering tens of thousands of dollars at a time of the coins. And then publishing PICTURES of all the coins. If people had limited their "purchases" of coins to a few thousand dollars at a time I am sure the mint would have lasted a lot longer and been better for everyone. But some people wanted to make as much as possible before the deal was killed.

As for OD, there is probably an element of fraud that helped kill the deal. But there are also the people that were buying thousands of dollars at a time and wiping out the store that probably also entered into it. As was said many times, selling gift cards is not a real profitable item for OD or any other company (remember allocation of overhead etc goes into the real "cost" of the item). Selling so many gift cards would also lower a companies ROS (return on sales) even if they were making a small profit on the items (something Wall Street does not like to see).

A third element that will cause companies to give a second look at even OFFERING specials, or at least shutting them down as soon as they are seen, is the possibility of lawsuits when the "special" is an obvious error or mistake.

Bottom line, when individuals get greedy and want to make millions of miles off a deal, it will get killed rapidly because the companies can not afford it. Remember, there are very limited people, compared to the general populace, that are into miles like we are. So the "normal" taking advantage of a situation will not kill something in the short run. It will stay under the radar for a longer period of time. Just think of how many people you have told about CC churning etc. Now what percentage of those people have changed their habits and have become a mileage freak?
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