Originally Posted by
110pgl
I read (and add when I can) to premium deals. The reality is there are not a lot of posts to this thread. 1,850 for the year so far... on pace for 2,400-2,500.
Making this thread a forum will mean clicking up down into individual threads for 1-2 posts and probably a lot of redundancy. e.g. a deal on Delta from east coast cities is a post. When AA matches, some one could post in a new thread, or post in the "Delta thread"... and what happens when the midwest cities are added to the deal? More threads or add to existing thread(s).
I would suggest leaving Premium as-is.
I'm going to leave aside the discussion of whether some or all of the MR forums should be put behind a wall of some sort, as we've had that discussion several times and I'm not sure talking about it here will add to the discussion.
But I did want to point out the post above by
110pgl.
I've been following the Good Deal Premium Fares 2012 thread ever since the $700 fare to BOG was posted (which yielded an almost-MR-worthy CP-EQ-M). I'm not really sure why I still follow it, because nothing posted since is even remotely appealing to me (some of the fares discussed in that thread are as much as I've spent for the entire year to earn UA 1K and AS MVPG). I guess I'm still hoping that by following that thread, I won't miss another one of those spectacular deals like BOG.
But it's been an interesting exercise to see what a few FTers consider to be good deals on premium fares and read the discussion. But that's the key word:
a few FTers. Even if a dedicated forum were to increase the volume of discussion by a factor of 3 as compared to that thread, I'm skeptical it'd reach the volume of posts necessary to create a self-sustaining discussion. As it is now, that thread pops up maybe a few times a week.
I'm not entirely opposed to the idea, but what is posted in that thread and what is proposed to be discussed in this forum is out of reach of the vast majority of FTers and won't, IMHO, hold broad appeal. If the slim minority of people to whom that forum will hold appeal are enough of a constituency to make the forum a vibrant place, then I'm happy--but I am skeptical that will be the case.