FT members have long been concerned about airlines using information posted on FT against FT members. This may have occurred after the recent Korean Airlines mistake fare to Palau.
The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has noted that blogs (presumably including FT) spread news of the fare, that it's impossible to distinguish innocent victims from canny exploiters, and that this circumstance makes a DOT court case against Korean Airlines unwinnable. In other words, if it's posted on FT the DOT will not pursue the airline to honor its fare. This recent DOT decision strengthens the long-running argument in favor of hiding the hottest deals.
Furthermore, Korean Airlines may have attempted to identify FT members by comparing their posted itineraries with actual ticket purchases. That might be legal, but it would be a bannable violation of FT rules if a member did it.
Because of the suspected attempt to identify FT members, which may or may not have occurred but is always a possibility, I am leaning toward proposing recommending a login requirement for access to mistake fares and other ultra-hot deals. Logging in requires membership, and membership requires acceptance of the rule against trying to identify or stalk other members. It also hides information from search engines and prevents hyperlinking to these FT posts.
The login restriction might apply to a new forum, it might be a new subforum under Mileage Run Deals, or it might even include all of Mileage Run Deals and Mileage Run Discussion.
I would like to discuss pros and cons of implementing an access restriction at all, and of the various options to implement it.
I am aware from the previous discussion (
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/talkb...onnection.html) that most RSS readers will be blocked by a login requirement. I am very interested in posts of information about how to get RSS feeds to function correctly by supplying the FT handle and password one time only.
Last year a majority of the TalkBoard voted to require a login for Mileage Run, but due to unclear wording we rescinded that recommendation. Then the TalkBoard could not agree on what to do. I hope to resolve that situation this year and find a consensus for a particular change or for the status quo.