As I've said before about pushing credit cards, it's capitalism, and I can live with that--although this was certainly stretching the point. Gary's either satisfying and enlarging his audience with posts like these--or the opposite. That's the marketplace.

But, when I encounter a different approach, it's refreshing. Doing some research for a trip to Ireland in April (my sixth and my fourth in thirty months, but I figure I can always learn something), I ran across a blog, http://infiniteireland.com, run by a young couple that has a passion for trips to Ireland. In one of the comments for one of the posts, about a suggested packing list for Irish travels, a reader asked about the host's preferred credit card for Irish travel. She responded with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, mentioning the no forex fees and the 40K Ultimate Rewards points.

And then stopped. No referral link, no plea even to let her refer the reader so she could pick up 5K UR points herself. Just the host's honest opinion in response to an honest question.

I had almost forgotten that could even happen on a travel blog.

I realize it's a niche blog, probably fortunate to have 1% of Gary's numbers. Maybe not everybody would even agree with some or all of their advice. But they've got one more reader today because for the first time, I actually subscribed to a blog. And I'll certainly recommend the blog to others who are researching trips to Ireland.