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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 17, 2012, 3:59 am
  #1  
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Deal Killing Blogs: List deals which were pulled, and the blogs which published them.

Recently, I like many of you, have become more and more disgusted as many of the travel bloggers think only about their wallets and their own personal gain. They come and swipe info off FT, package it up so even a monkey can understand it, and proceed to spoonfeed it to everybody and anybody that will listen. And it seems they mainly do it just to get more CC affiliate referral links (ie, money in their pocket). And even, then the hat tipping copycat bloggers come in and give the deal 5x more exposure. So basically they are using the collective knowledge and postings of FT to make money for themselves, and are quickly killing deals in the process by overexposing deals that simply are NOT sustainable for the tens of thousands of readers that they spoonfeed this info to.

The obvious example is the Chase INK Bold/Plus Vanilla Reload 5x deal that bloggers just ruined for everybody this past week at Office Depot. I read on one thread that Chase was offering roughly $200 for affiliate referral applications for the Ink CCs. So bloggers pushed all these readers to apply for the INK Bold CCs, like lambs to a slaughter. And then when the deal died the bloggers laughed all the way to the bank at us peons, not much caring that it died because they had already pocketed all their hundreds of thousands of dollars from referring us suckers to apply for their CCs. BTW, this fantastic YouTube video by FTer "amolkold" about sums up my feelings perfectly about this whole Office Depot Vanilla Reload fiasco (I cry from laughter everytime I rewatch the video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=r6R5cEEqXpk

Anyways, my main purpose of this thread is not to rant about bloggers, there is a fantastic new blog (ironic, huh) by FTer "gpapadop" that does just that, feel free to go there and rant about bloggers in the comments (the link for that brand new blog is at the bottom of the following post):
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/19662237-post4172.html

The main reason I am starting this thread is to identify bloggers as well as the specific deals they have posted & killed over the years on their blogs. I know it is somewhat arbitrary, but I'd say if a blogger has posted about a deal and then that deal died within the next month (give your input, this could be as little as even a week or two), then they are partially to blame for the death of the deal. I plan to update the first post in this thread often, so please post examples of deals that bloggers have killed. If there is strong evidence that certain bloggers kill deals more than others, it would be my hope that this thread will make it known and will help steer you AWAY from these bloggers links if/when you decide to apply for your next credit card.

Although he is not the only one (or perhaps not even the worst offender), I will use Gary from View From the Wing as an example of how I'd like to list this (only cuz I have already been giving him a hard time recently in his blog comments for ruining lots of deals over the past month). Please use my example and give your own examples for any other bloggers you read that kill deals, and I will update this post and add those examples to this list:

Gary (View From the Wing):
- Alitalia Free $320 Off Flights
- Wyndham 16k promo (FF miles for 0.8cpm)
- Fairmont Lifetime Plat for $2k
- Virgin Atlantic Instant Gold Status
- Travelocity $200 deal
- 4 mile HKG F award tix
- FTD (30 miles/$ + 1500 bonus per purchase)
- AviancaTaca 0.3cpm (250 miles per purchase)
- Netflix churns
- Office Depot Vanilla Reloads 5x
- etc
- etc
- etc (I can probably list another 25+ deals this blogger has prematurely killed over the years if I think a little harder)


Darius (Million Mile Secrets):


Lucky (One Mile At a Time):


Rick (Frugal Travel Guy):


Brian (The Points Guy):


? (MileValue):


(MommyPoints):


BTW, I also wouldn't be against keeping a list of those bloggers who DON'T kill deals. Examples of those (I think) would include Seth (Wandering Aramean), Ric (Loyalty Traveler), etc.

FTers: Please keep it civil in this thread as I don't want it shut down cuz I truly do want a thorough list of bloggers who kill deals.

Bloggers: Please don't come on this thread picking fights to try to get this thread shut down.
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Old Nov 17, 2012, 4:00 am
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Saved for future (List of Bloggers who kill deals):

Female Mother Blogger from TX:
- US Grand Slam (main blog pumper of this deal)
- Discover America (one of many offenders of overexposing this deal)
- Bump the Bonus fiasco (I believe the main pumper of BtB, please correct me if I'm wrong)

Dan (who has Deals):
- TLV mistake fare (died a few hours after blog post)

Last edited by gregorygrady; Nov 19, 2012 at 2:22 pm
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Old Nov 17, 2012, 4:00 am
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Saved for future (List of Bloggers who DON'T kill deals):
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Old Nov 17, 2012, 4:07 am
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Won't this be a fun thread. You made your point in previous threads, but I think you are going too far now.

If I may ask, who decides which list Bloggers fall on? I doubt that there will a be a fair method to determine this. Maybe we can ask Carol to bestow "Ruler of the Blogosphere" title to you handle.

Last edited by livious; Nov 17, 2012 at 4:14 am
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Old Nov 17, 2012, 4:16 am
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BTW, I'm well aware that Gary writes lots of great blog posts about things other than credit cards, so please don't take my post above as an attack against Gary, likewise please don't think that I don't appreciate any of his posts, because that is far from the case. And that is probably true for all the other bloggers listed above. They all write some good blog posts, but they are all also guilty of ruining deals prematurely by overexposing them. I am trying to keep an updated list of the worst offenders in this thread.
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Old Nov 17, 2012, 4:19 am
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Local TV news programs that crimp from the Web and broadcast for "personal" gain (=ad revenue) are evil too. 9-)
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Old Nov 17, 2012, 4:22 am
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Originally Posted by livious
If I may ask, who decides which list Bloggers fall on?
I think the lists will speak for themselves in terms of the # of "deals killed" by each blogger. And it doesn't even have to be 2 lists. It very well could just be a single list of "Deal Killers" with the likes of Loyalty Traveler and Wandering Aramean not making the list, or else near the bottom of the list (hmmmm, isn't it interesting how those 2 bloggers don't have CC affiliate links, the crack cocaine to bloggers????). I guess the amount of time a deal is posted on a blog before dying is a bit arbitary (should it be 1 week?, 1 month?), but other than that it's fairly straight forward. If a blogger posts about a deal and it dies within 1 week, then they have likely helped to kill it prematurely. Most all of the bloggers are guilty of prematurely killing Office Depot 5x for example.

And thank you for the thoughts, but no I don't need some special title given to my handle.

Last edited by gregorygrady; Nov 17, 2012 at 4:32 am
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Old Nov 17, 2012, 4:35 am
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Originally Posted by sonofzeus
Local TV news programs that crimp from the Web and broadcast for "personal" gain (=ad revenue) are evil too. 9-)
I never said anybody was evil. I just said they were premature deal killers, which they are. Plenty of TV shows kill deals (or other things) as well.................ie, the TV show "Extreme Couponing" killed Couponing the way it was previously done. I'm sure somebody somewhere has also made a type of list like that of TV shows that have done the same thing.
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Old Nov 17, 2012, 4:44 am
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What a great thread. I always wanted to visit Salem in 1692 but have had issues perfecting my time machine. Thank you for hosting this recreation of events there so that everyone can join in the fun!
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Old Nov 17, 2012, 5:50 am
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IBTL.
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Old Nov 17, 2012, 6:36 am
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I agree most of these bloggers are deal killers and will only think of filling their pockets with card referrals. But there are one or 2 like FM which i like.They post dangerous tricks to get approved for cards only to get shut down later by amex and chase.
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Old Nov 17, 2012, 6:39 am
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This thread won't end well for anyone...
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Old Nov 17, 2012, 6:47 am
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Say it ain't so...
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Old Nov 17, 2012, 6:48 am
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Way to go GregoryGregory

Another one of your many insight posts that show your gratitude for all the good things on Flyertalk. (sarcasm)

There is a small fraction of FT's 430,000 members that seem to think they are above the community spirit of sharing, and/or they are just an unhappy lot hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet.

This is the "Other Face of Flyertalk" filled with anger, hate, personal attacks and providing nothing positive to our community.

You all get to decide which side of the fence you fall on. I'm embarrassed by this group of flyertalkers. I don't see any positive contributions, charitable donations or sharing coming from this band of bullies.

PS, Don't forget to vote GregoryGrady.

Last edited by ingy; Nov 17, 2012 at 7:06 am
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Old Nov 17, 2012, 6:48 am
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Oh shut it.

How many of these 'dead deals' did you discover... how many would you have know about without somebody telling you? Whether it be bloggers/ft users, it doesnt matter. Just be thankful people share deals.
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