As a newbie to the art of getting 'extras' while traveling I have been reading a number of the bloggers. Yes, many of them are getting very repetitive and I will probably delete a few from my list very soon
However, I have benefited from their information in several ways.
1. I learned to politely seek out upgrades and other benefits rather than just accept what is 'normal'. Sometimes it works as when I got a 1st class upgrade on a recent cross country trip for very few miles and dollars.
2. I learned that I was not using my credit cards to get their maximum benefit. I have stopped using two that have high foreign fees and few point benefits. I have applied for one, just one, new card which will work much better for me - no foreign fees, and I can move the points easily to my preferred airlines as needed.
3. I found a great deal on some good kitchen gear and got 20x points at the same time just by snooping through the CC deal pages. OK, that's not travel, but one must eat and scrapping one's knuckles on a 20 year old cheese grater gets old fast.
OTOH......
1. I find the idea of credit card churning to be just to much work for me. And I wonder about its long term effect on my credit scores and the things that my credit score influences.
2. Manufactured spending is just to complicated. Maybe I don't live close to the right WallMart, or I just don't understand it, but it seems that the best I can do is gain a tenth of a percent or so, at the risk of losing it all and more if the system doesn't work right.
3. All those great deals like $337 to Dublin round trip?? Or, $647 round trip to Hong Kong? None of them seem to apply to me. I'm to far from the cheap airport, or I can't fly the day it is offered, or the offer is gone by the time I get onto my computer.
4. Overall, it's still very difficult for me, a consistent traveler, but not a high mileage business traveler to earn the upper levels that make awards easier (not easy) to get.
This is what I learned from the bloggers as it applies to this newbie. They've served their purpose and now it is time to get on living life.