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What is the most useful frequent flyer blog?

What is the most useful frequent flyer blog?

Old Jan 28, 2012, 3:09 pm
  #316  
 
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Originally Posted by lovetotravel
Let's try to put this in some context. There were other bloggers on this trip in the same situation, even EXPs. Did AA treat all participants so affected in the same manner or just TPG? I don't know.
If all were treated the same then great. If not then some got preferential treatment? If so, then point taken.
Read #294.
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Old Jan 28, 2012, 3:21 pm
  #317  
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This thread, along with the other one running about bloggers, have both been incredibly interesting to read. I learned a lot from this thread, though I do think its slowly going downhill.

I realize its probably a vocal minority, though Im a bit surprised by how much resentment there is towards bloggers. The beauty of the internet is that youre not forced to read anything you dont want to. Im incredibly appreciate of anyone that reads my blog, but if what I write about doesnt interest you or you dont like my writing style, I dont want to force you to read something you dont want to.

I do, however, think that blogging ethics are very important. I believe in posting all comments no matter how critical they are of me. And I also believe I have the obligation to post the best available offers, even if theyre not commissionable.

That being said, I think there are a few misconceptions in this thread, at least from my perspective, that Id like to clear up.

First and foremost, I think people here are failing to realize that for the most part, the target audience for the blogs isnt FlyerTalkers. If youre obsessed with miles and points and spend hours a day reading FlyerTalk, chances are you wont learn all that much from a blog. I run a points consulting business, and one of the groups I try to target with my blog are clients of mine that dont know about FlyerTalk, or for that matter have the time, energy, or interest in spending hours a day browsing it. So one of my goals is to consolidate as much information as I can that they can read in 10 minutes a day.

Second, and I think this is key, not everyone reads every blog. Just because Im on Boarding Area doesnt mean that all of my readers read every one of those blogs. I know for a fact that I have readers that dont read any other blogs on Boarding Area, and Im sure the opposite is the case too, that people read other Boarding Area blogs but not mine. So while I make every effort to be among the first to post about a new deal or promotion, I dont care if Im the 10th person to post about it Ill still make the post. In the past I didnt post about promotions that had been covered too much already, and then later Id reference the promotions. I was shocked by how many people would leave comments or email me asking why I didnt cover it, because they hadnt seen the deal before.

Third, I think its important to understand that everyone is looking for different things out of a blog. Some of you think credit card posts are worthless. I know for a fact that my posts on credit cards have helped some people take vacations in business class they couldnt have otherwise afforded. Some people think trip reports are worthless. Yet every time I post one, I get comments and emails from readers saying how much they enjoy them. And for an even more extreme example, twice a week I post reader photos. Many dont enjoy them, but one week I skipped a day, and I got a handful of emails from readers asking why there was no photo that day, because thats their favorite aspect of my blog.

Anyway, Ill leave it at that for now. I think this thread was useful and I think a lot of the criticisms are fair, but I think its important to also understand that you cant please everyone, and this thread is a perfect example, given how many people are disagreeing with each other. One mans worthless credit card post or trip report is another mans treasure.
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Old Jan 28, 2012, 3:47 pm
  #318  
 
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Originally Posted by lucky9876coins

First and foremost, I think people here are failing to realize that for the most part, the target audience for the blogs isnt FlyerTalkers. If youre obsessed with miles and points and spend hours a day reading FlyerTalk, chances are you wont learn all that much from a blog. I run a points consulting business, and one of the groups I try to target with my blog are clients of mine that dont know about FlyerTalk, or for that matter have the time, energy, or interest in spending hours a day browsing it. So one of my goals is to consolidate as much information as I can that they can read in 10 minutes a day.
I think that it needs to be this way, as most of us really do already know most of what's being written, and therefore we're frustrated because we're learning nothing.

That being said, there are a lot of new FTers who know nothing, and have caught on to this site. They're not yet at the same level as the rest of us, and are probably contributing a lot to the blog traffic. There is a big difference between those people and those who read Travel and Leisure magazine. Points is a complex game, and from trying to explain it to family members and friends is overwhelmingly difficult.

I just can't believe that points and mileage runs have an appeal to an average traveler - and MegaDos have no appeal to them. I think that in order for the blogs to survive and remain profitable they will have to remain a step ahead of us, or else there will be no market and no reason for anyone to read.
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Old Jan 28, 2012, 4:04 pm
  #319  
 
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Originally Posted by benzemalyonnais
...I think that in order for the blogs to survive and remain profitable they will have to remain a step ahead of us, or else there will be no market and no reason for anyone to read.
Amen to that.
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Old Jan 28, 2012, 5:05 pm
  #320  
 
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Yes, the megado coverage is actually ridiculous. One post should sum it all, rather than a multi-day live commentary (featuring irrelevant credit card referral links, to boot )
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Old Jan 28, 2012, 5:50 pm
  #321  
 
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Speaking of megado, apparently a 2 hour mechanical delay on the domestic leg brought another 10,000 RDM's/EQMs to everyone. On my last AA mechanical delay, a flight home became a red-eye that involved an hour long line to be rebooked by a surly gate agent handling all passengers and an email asking for compensation resulted in 3000 miles a few weeks later. AA did overnight us in a hotel but I was traveling in a group and the agent first tried to book us into double rooms until I insisted on single rooms.

It's fine that AA is treating everyone so nicely during the megado, but it's dishonest to pretend AA treats everyone similarly.
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Old Jan 28, 2012, 6:20 pm
  #322  
 
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Originally Posted by belfordrocks
Yes, that's all fine and dandy, but the award in question (in TPG's post) was first class transatlantic... for which Avios is certainly not superior- for the lack of routing flexibility first and foremost, then also taxes/fees, quality of partners, award availability etc. etc.
Maybe we're not reading and commenting on the same thing.

Post # 300 above linked to The Points Guy's Jan 26 post where he was put onto BA first after an AA mechanical. I really don't find his mention of how to get BA points to be "at the expense of his readers". I've always found TPG pretty candid-see his January 23 listing of his picks for top 20 awards. The two mentioned for BA are the short hauls I mentioned above and the 2-4-1 cert deal which, while I won't seek it again, certainly has its fans.

As I outlined at length above, people need to do their own homework and figure out if a deal is good or not. Blaming bloggers for one's unwillingness or inability to do that is just passing the blame.
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Old Jan 28, 2012, 6:29 pm
  #323  
 
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This is because TPG is recommending that readers transfer their Chase UR points to Avios (complete with Chase referral links, how convenient ). Disregarding the fact that referral links have no place in a trip report, transferring Chase UR points to Avios to fly first class transatlantically is nothing short of horrible advice.
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Old Jan 28, 2012, 8:26 pm
  #324  
 
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Originally Posted by belfordrocks
...transferring Chase UR points to Avios to fly first class transatlantically is nothing short of horrible advice.
Just curious- where would you recommend transferring Chase UR points if someone wanted to fly a solid first class product non-stop from, say, Boston to London? I understand United has lower fees, but A) Their first class pales in comparison to new BA first and b) there aren't a whole lot of Star Alliance flights with true first class nonstop from North America to London. And the only nonstop would be Virgin Atlantic, who doesn't have first class.

Transferring to Korean wouldn't be smart because Delta doesn't have first class and even finding low-level business class availability is tough.

Or how about Southwest?

Believe it or not, there are people who think it's a great deal to use BA miles for first class, especially since award availability is excellent. $700 in fees isn't all that much when you consider the price of first class tickets, or even buying business and upgrading to first @:-)
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Old Jan 28, 2012, 8:53 pm
  #325  
 
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Originally Posted by thepointsguy
Just curious- where would you recommend transferring Chase UR points if someone wanted to fly a solid first class product non-stop from, say, Boston to London?
They could transfer them to my Chase UR account. For every Chase UR point they transferred I would happily fund their "idios" account with the same number of points (by transferring 0.77 MR). I'm sure there would be a long line of folks in CC willing to do that trade for any "idios" that wanted to do it.
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Old Jan 28, 2012, 9:49 pm
  #326  
 
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Originally Posted by belfordrocks
This is because TPG is recommending that readers transfer their Chase UR points to Avios (complete with Chase referral links, how convenient ). Disregarding the fact that referral links have no place in a trip report, transferring Chase UR points to Avios to fly first class transatlantically is nothing short of horrible advice.
I think I'll bow out of this debate, where I am discussing a blogger's independance and objectivity with some who is.....a blogger, complete with links on every FT post to his/her own blog. And I'll skip the follow-on explanations of the distinctions, thank you. It's not that they're wrong, or right. It's just that it doesn't matter.

Roll eyes indeed.
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Old Jan 28, 2012, 10:00 pm
  #327  
 
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Originally Posted by thepointsguy
Just curious- where would you recommend transferring Chase UR points if someone wanted to fly a solid first class product non-stop from, say, Boston to London? I understand United has lower fees, but A) Their first class pales in comparison to new BA first and b) there aren't a whole lot of Star Alliance flights with true first class nonstop from North America to London. And the only nonstop would be Virgin Atlantic, who doesn't have first class.

Transferring to Korean wouldn't be smart because Delta doesn't have first class and even finding low-level business class availability is tough.

Or how about Southwest?

Believe it or not, there are people who think it's a great deal to use BA miles for first class, especially since award availability is excellent. $700 in fees isn't all that much when you consider the price of first class tickets, or even buying business and upgrading to first @:-)
I actually think it's funny that folks honed in on this one post as the focus of debate. To me spending any extra cash or miles for J or F from the Northeast to western Europe/UK seems crazy. For barely 6 hours in the air in many cases I just can't fathom the need to have flatbeds and pampering being so high as to blow all that money or miles - except perhaps if I had to work on business first thing the morning I arrive. To each his own though.
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Old Jan 28, 2012, 10:56 pm
  #328  
 
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Originally Posted by thepointsguy
Just curious- where would you recommend transferring Chase UR points if someone wanted to fly a solid first class product non-stop from, say, Boston to London? I understand United has lower fees, but A) Their first class pales in comparison to new BA first and b) there aren't a whole lot of Star Alliance flights with true first class nonstop from North America to London. And the only nonstop would be Virgin Atlantic, who doesn't have first class.

Transferring to Korean wouldn't be smart because Delta doesn't have first class and even finding low-level business class availability is tough.

Or how about Southwest?

Believe it or not, there are people who think it's a great deal to use BA miles for first class, especially since award availability is excellent. $700 in fees isn't all that much when you consider the price of first class tickets, or even buying business and upgrading to first @:-)
Taking a step back for a second, and considering the value proposition, United miles are arguably more valuable than Avios awards. Certainly not for every award on the planet (such as short haul last-minute awards, as mentioned above), but for a large majority of awards that involve connections- and more complex awards, such as mini-RTW's which may cost 120K with UA but 400K+ with Avios. So when looking it from this perspective, converting your valuable Chase UR points into not-so-valuable Avios points isn't such a wise idea.

The lack of routing flexibility with Avios would annoy anyone who is not flying non-stop, and given the dynamic nature of award availability, flying nonstop isn't always possible. The fact that you pay, literally, for every connection and every layover in Avios versus a fixed fee for all flights from North America to Europe with UACO miles is reason enough to avoid Avios- and that's not even considering the award taxes/fees.

You mentioned UA first as being sub-par, but the same can be said for AA first. Then, you neglect to mention Lufthansa and Swiss first class- which are arguably two of the best products in the sky. There is really no contest between Star Alliance and Oneworld, at least transatlantically- other than AA and BA, Finnair's award space is scarce, and Iberia is mediocre at best. Compare this to not only LH and LX, but also CO/UA and US (with flat beds in business, as opposed to AA's angled flat), as well as SK, SN and OS- even TP at a last resort, offers a semi-decent product across the pond.

Finally, even supposing there was award space on BA, non-stop, in first class for my desired dates, the sign up bonuses from the Chase cards you linked would still not be enough miles to get me there and back on BA first. Either way, the referral links are inappropriate.

I think I'll bow out of this debate, where I am discussing a blogger's independance and objectivity with some who is.....a blogger, complete with links on every FT post to his/her own blog. And I'll skip the follow-on explanations of the distinctions, thank you. It's not that they're wrong, or right. It's just that it doesn't matter.

Roll eyes indeed.
Of course bloggers have every right to post basically whatever they feel like. Is it within my right to conjure up a blog post saying that the best way to fly first class transatlantically is by transferring SPG to Air NZ Airpoints at a 1:65 ratio? Yes. Can I also expect to receive criticism by offering such "advice"? Also yes.
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Old Jan 28, 2012, 11:40 pm
  #329  
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Didn't realize that these blogs were so famous. Is there one that specializes not just on points but on developments like major route changes (like axing DEL, but not reducing frequencies to BUR), FFP (like AA charging YQ on BA flights), UA allowing one-ways and online partner booking.
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Old Jan 28, 2012, 11:45 pm
  #330  
 
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Originally Posted by belfordrocks
Can I also expect to receive criticism by offering such "advice"?
Judging from the number of people commenting on your blog posts? Or just hypothetically?
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