Previously, the same credit card offer was often discussed in three places:
- The sponsoring airline or hotel program's forum
- A credit card forum
- MilesBuzz!
Moving most discussion of this topic out of
MilesBuzz! is an improvement, but as you note there is still duplication. In principle I would like to see discussion of co-branded affinity cards hosted in the sponsoring programs' forums [...]
As I recall, discussions of this issue in the past proposed a very good solution: for new/short-term offers, allow a "hot news" thread in MB, but then lock that thread after a short period (say, 30 days) and post a pointer to the ongoing thread in the program forum.
[...] often the content of the parallel threads is quite different.
Posters in the airline or hotel forums tend to see the credit card as an extension of the loyalty program. They write about how the card can enhance their flights or stays.
Posters in the credit card forums tend to see the credit card as a freestanding opportunity to accumulate miles or points in a program about which they may have little knowledge. These threads are often more about the credit card issuer than the airline or hotel program.
Perhaps, although it doesn't seem to me this is happening in the Marriott threads. They both appear to consist largely of "is this offer dead or still alive?" and "what's the magic sequence of URLs/logins for getting the best offer to appear?"