I read the blogs and I read FT. I feel as if I'm active on both fronts (as a blog commenter and as a forum reader/contributor). I also have a blog myself, but the majority of the posts are a trip report for friends/family (a TR that I posted on FT as well).
That said, I prefer FT just because there seems to be a lot more answers and expertise here. Someone noted the whole "signal-to-noise ratio" thing between FT and the blogs. The way I see it, FT has a lot of great signals, which produce noise in between themselves.
The blogs who post the most frequently also lack a level of expertise. I really enjoy reading
MatthewLAX UpGrd blog, but he doesn't post as much as others (quality over quantity?). Another thing that I don't like is that blogs are very prone to upselling the good parts about miles, while downplaying the difficult or bad parts.
For example, I read TPG's blog and he has done some great posts in the past. The old BA series comes to mind. Brilliant. However, his recent post on "How to get into CNN's top 10 first class cabins" only played the positives.
you can get [SQ] non-suite first class product (which is still phenomenal) for a fraction of the price using your miles from United or US Airways.
This is a proverbial needle in a haystack. I've tried to book SQ F since March but the only availability I find is through SQ's program; they don't seem to release F space to *A partners. Lucky recently had a TR that included SQ F SIN-NRT, but that was booked with SQ KF miles (which he clearly stated).
Swiss flies non-stop from Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami and Montreal.
And which routes have F space? I searched during 7 months of flights and found only a handful out of YUL. I've flown LX F. It was between ZRH and HKG. Kind of on the other side of the world.
Jet Airways: This India-based airline has myriad airline partners including American, Delta, United and US Airways, so depending on where you have your miles stockpiled, you can use any of the US legacy airlines’ mileage programs to book your ticket.
Jet Airways has some of the worst award space in the industry, and is a pain to search for. I once tried to find Y space between DEL and BOM to make use of a stopover rule ... it didn't exist for an entire month-long period. The flight that we eventually booked went out half-empty, so it's not a load issue. Try getting into F.
That said, he did point out some good things, such as cheap ways to get into Emirates F (which I experienced only because of information from FT as well as
SFO777/
MattHandy's great TRs of those flights) or that LH has scarce award space. But I'm worried that someone will go out to collect certain miles only to find out that those award seats don't exist. Then they'll come to FT and complain about it.