Originally Posted by
Cholula
I can now see the reason as once it became public, it was closed in short order.
Not sure what the solution is here. Keeping these deals semi-private kind of defeats the spirit of FT IMO.
But as FlyerTalk becomes larger and the airlines monitor this forum in real-time, publishing these deals is a instant death knell to the deal.
I am all for airfare deal sharing, but am not sure posting is best first step. My own approach if I find a "special" airfare in future will be to PM my many FT friends first, fully explore the deal myself, then after some time post on FT. My friends are very unlikely to kill the deal; posting will but many will benefit.
Also, I find the following post by
beaubo worth repeating. Their is no secret FT group I am aware of. I say this as both an insider and outsider. Some non-published deals have been shared with me and I have shared certain discoveries via PM. This doesn't make me in...I just know some FTers and friends share with each other.
Originally Posted by
beaubo
There is no such thing as the 'in' crowd. In fact, there are MANY crowds on FT. The more you choose to engage with FT, the more ('in') crowds you become privy to.
I get to know FTers from:
* 'DOs' (formally scheduled weekend events that pop-up on 'Community Forum). Our mutual interests can range from the obvious miles/points to giving/receiving info about upcoming travel destinations to participating in FT football pools.
*CHAT- from about 1100p-200a EST there is a gaggle of FTers zipping on and off of 'Live Chat', FT's online gathering place. It can get a little racy, a little hokey, occasionally even informative, but believe it or not, virtual relationships are indeed formed there (and this a social guy with wife/3 kids, not a geeky recluse!!).
* COUPON CONNECTION - great place to interact with new people and earn your trust from them and their trust from you via a succesful transaction. Even if you don't end up doing a trade, you've made contact with a new circle of people for future reference.
* PRIVATE MESSAGE- If you think a poster(s) are part of what you perceive to be 'in the know' or in the so-called 'in' crowd, PM those people with questions or comments about a Mileage Run thread or any thread for that matter. Create a dialogue, invest some time.
* COMPELLING POSTS- Demonstrate that you are an asset to FT; post ideas, thoughts, reasoned objections, etc. Then, other people will become curious about you and PM or email you or respond to your posts....and you'll slowly build a 'name' for yourself.
The more points of contact you have with FTers, the better. Most of my FT contacts over time have come from each of these areas, and often times, there is little overlap of who I know from any given FT source, so clearly there are multiple crowds out there!!!
I'm not suggesting by any stretch that you pursue these strategies so that you can automatically be part of any prvate fare alert effort, rather just to dispel the notion that there is any ONE crowd that controls flow of info on FT.