Originally Posted by
moondog
There were a few good angles with TYP, but my favorite was that 20k points was sufficient to nab a round trip ticket on any route within N. America with no blackout dates. One of the most popular routes among the FT crowd was Atlantic City to Edmonton on Delta. This entailed a fare break in ATL, so it consisted of two expensive tickets patched together, for a total of around $2600 in Delta credit (after cancellation). The reason it, and other similar secrets, didn't make it to the blogs was because we only discussed in person at FT meetups.
ETA: On second thought, I vaguely recall threads about optimal TYP routes, but they were cryptic enough to keep passing bloggers at bay...similar to the early fuel dump threads.
The TYP game of fixed point prices for business-class tickets was a goldmine for me, but all the info I got about that was from here on FT itself and I didn't find it crpytic at all. The miles and points blogosphere wasn't as mainstream and popular back then as it has been the last several years.
What kills the deals more than ever is the increased clout and capabilities of the big players involved in the game -- those big players being substantial governmental and business interests, players who have stacked the game against the consumers more than used to be the case.