What is the most useful frequent flyer blog?
Jan 29, 2012, 12:03 am
#331
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 5,439
What I did mean was that when you offer subpar advice, people are going to call you out for it, and "it's my blog" isn't really a defence.
Jan 29, 2012, 10:29 am
#332
Join Date: May 2009
Location: South Park, CO
Programs: Tegridy Elite
Posts: 5,678
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.
It's fine that AA is treating everyone so nicely during the megado, but it's dishonest to pretend AA treats everyone similarly.
But I'll remember to point out these precedents to AA if I have a need to write them over a negative experience in the future! I'm sure AA will blow it off but what the heck!
Jan 29, 2012, 2:59 pm
#333
formerly known as felinaar
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: SEA
Programs: UA Plat, AA Gold, AS MVPG, Hyatt Diamond, Hilton Diamond, SPG Gold
Posts: 612
There are certainly a lot of opinions in here. I'm glad I found it just as I'm starting out as a blogger and have more leeway to adjust my content and tone.
I'm curious why some people care so much about the adequacy of bloggers' disclosure. Couldn't you just refuse to read the blog? I know there are laws on disclosure for paid reviews and stuff like that, but if you don't like the content and you don't like the blogger's attitude, it seems the best way to respond is to just not read the blog. I don't really care for the misleading "500K" point totals either, when often some of those points are not worth nearly as much as the others, but hopefully there's other content that makes it worthwhile to go back and read what a person has to say on another day.
I think Lucky has some good points about why sometimes 10 or 20 bloggers will all comment on the same thing. You don't know if your page is the only one they're reading.
Anyway, I wrote more about this [link removed] and if any of you have suggestions specifically for a beginning blogger, I'd love to hear what you have to say.
I'm curious why some people care so much about the adequacy of bloggers' disclosure. Couldn't you just refuse to read the blog? I know there are laws on disclosure for paid reviews and stuff like that, but if you don't like the content and you don't like the blogger's attitude, it seems the best way to respond is to just not read the blog. I don't really care for the misleading "500K" point totals either, when often some of those points are not worth nearly as much as the others, but hopefully there's other content that makes it worthwhile to go back and read what a person has to say on another day.
I think Lucky has some good points about why sometimes 10 or 20 bloggers will all comment on the same thing. You don't know if your page is the only one they're reading.
Anyway, I wrote more about this [link removed] and if any of you have suggestions specifically for a beginning blogger, I'd love to hear what you have to say.
Last edited by philemer; Jan 29, 2012 at 7:27 pm Reason: signature links allowed after 90 days & 90 posts, please read TOS
Jan 29, 2012, 6:53 pm
#334
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Boston
Posts: 467
Ask the Pilot
Can I cast a vote for my own blog...
www.askthepilot.com
Background: The Salon column has been running since 2002. In 2004 it was adapted into a book (published by Riverhead/Penguin) that became Amazon's best selling travel book of the year.
Patrick Smith
www.askthepilot.com
Background: The Salon column has been running since 2002. In 2004 it was adapted into a book (published by Riverhead/Penguin) that became Amazon's best selling travel book of the year.
Patrick Smith
Jan 29, 2012, 7:03 pm
#335
In memoriam
Join Date: May 2008
Location: AKL
Programs: QF WP & AA EXP
Posts: 5,233
OK, but my understanding is some of the megado flights also carry the general public. If that were the case for this flight, were the same benefits extended to the general public not part of the megado? If not, I'd say there's a significant conflict of interest. For example, if you guys were employees of NBC news but not everyone was a newscaster, don't you think huge red flags would still be raised by corporate compliance if the general public on the same flight had not been extended the same perks?
Jan 29, 2012, 7:04 pm
#336
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: LAS
Programs: DL PM, UA PS, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 4,904
Can I cast a vote for my own blog...
www.askthepilot.com
Background: The Salon column has been running since 2002. In 2004 it was adapted into a book (published by Riverhead/Penguin) that became Amazon's best selling travel book of the year.
Patrick Smith
www.askthepilot.com
Background: The Salon column has been running since 2002. In 2004 it was adapted into a book (published by Riverhead/Penguin) that became Amazon's best selling travel book of the year.
Patrick Smith
Jan 29, 2012, 7:13 pm
#337
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: SEA
Posts: 1,887
That's pretty cool if non-OWMD got SWUs, etc. but I'd lay money it only happened after the cat was out of the bag and they realized what a PR nightmare it would be if they didn't extend it to all. You can bet if I was a non-OWMD on AA51 I'd be raising cain if I didn't get the same compensation.
Jan 30, 2012, 11:12 pm
#338
In memoriam
Join Date: May 2008
Location: AKL
Programs: QF WP & AA EXP
Posts: 5,233
That's pretty cool if non-OWMD got SWUs, etc. but I'd lay money it only happened after the cat was out of the bag and they realized what a PR nightmare it would be if they didn't extend it to all. You can bet if I was a non-OWMD on AA51 I'd be raising cain if I didn't get the same compensation.
Jan 31, 2012, 12:20 am
#339
In memoriam
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 4,020
Yep, there is plenty of shilling on the blogs. And, of course, plenty of good info. But, how to tell one from the other? 
IMHO, one that was especially shillesque on thepointsguy.com recommending Lexington Law for credit "repair." http://thepointsguy.com/2011/08/my-c...e-your-credit/
I worked in the credit area for many years and have yet come across anyone who is, IMHO, legit.
IMHO, one that was especially shillesque on thepointsguy.com recommending Lexington Law for credit "repair." http://thepointsguy.com/2011/08/my-c...e-your-credit/
I worked in the credit area for many years and have yet come across anyone who is, IMHO, legit.
Jan 31, 2012, 6:24 am
#340
Join Date: May 2008
Location: BOS/SIN
Programs: SQ
Posts: 2,704
Of course, there are those of us who have spent a lot of time flying AA and never received any compensation for delays.
Jan 31, 2012, 8:48 am
#341
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Monterey, California
Programs: Affiliated with all, participate in some
Posts: 2,188
A fellow blogger emailed me about this thread and another thread on FlyerTalk discussing bloggers and content. Here are some of my thoughts after reading through this thread.
Several comments state we bloggers just steal content from FlyerTalk:
FlyerTalk is the largest resource of points and miles information available on the web. I wouldn't be blogging if it weren't for FlyerTalk.
I have been reading FlyerTalk since mid-1999 and I actually have read FlyerTalk less in the past two years than in all the years before. I find most of the information I blog about from other sources. But I almost always check FlyerTalk before I write my posts to see what additional information is available. Occasionally, not often, I find that the content has not yet reached FlyerTalk.
FlyerTalk is crowdsourced information and I started blogging as a way to filter and organize this points & miles information for readers who don't have time to spend hours on FlyerTalk searching threads. I think that is what many of the other bloggers have done too.
On credit cards:
In 2003 I approached several credit card companies about affiliate marketing and I was told it was not an option available to me.
Now affilate marketing of credit cards is all the rage in the blogosphere.
The reason I do not participate in credit card affiliate marketing is I think the entire banking scheme has a deleterious overall effect on travel rewards programs for consumers.
The banks do not even want your checking and savings accounts anymore. That is too much hassle with little profit margin. The banks want consumers in revolving debt where the real profits are made.
The real impact though for travel consumers is the cost of flight rewards and hotel rewards is going up more frequently. The printing of billions of miles and points for credit card activity is a liability on the books of loyalty programs and the way to reduce that liability is to reduce the value of points and miles by increasing the cost of rewards.
This cycle offers little benefit to most travelers.
The credit card members profit in the short term with large account balances for redeeming First Class trips and luxury hotels. The bloggers have the ability to make far more income with credit card referral fees than ad revenue. You need over 100,000 page views a month to start reaching minimum wage income and only the top travel bloggers make more than $2,000 a month on blog ad revenue.
The vast majority of loyalty program members do not benefit from the credit cards. Most of these offers are focused on US residents. International members experience more of the downside of reward inflation without the benefit of being able to earn the large credit card enrollment bonuses.
That is why I seldom write about credit cards, however, I do make money from the credit card ad impressions on BoardingArea.com. I wish it were different, but all bloggers soon learn that Google AdSense is not going to pay a living wage.
I am waiting to see a more sustainable revenue model than credit card referrals. I watched the banks destroy the housing market for millions of Americans and I fear the banks will wreck loyalty programs for consumers too if this loyalty credit card frenzy continues in the way it has since 2008.
On same content across many different blogs:
I hate writing about a topic when I go on BoardingArea in the morning and see it has already been posted on a couple of other blogs. Sometimes I wait a couple of days before posting my piece on the promotion if it is not time-sensitive.
As has already been mentioned by Lucky, the readers of our blogs are not necessarily the same people. 50% of my blog traffic comes from Google searches. About 17% comes from BoardingArea.com readers based on Google Analytics. About 10% comes from The Points Guy, Frugal Travel Guy, Million Mile Secrets. Thanks guys.
Over the past couple of months I find a new points & miles blog just about every day. It is going to be harder for many of these new bloggers to get noticed. The field is getting crowded with these niche points & miles travel blogs.
I have been seriously planning to diversify my blog efforts into a couple of other niches not related to loyalty points and miles.
I'd love to hear suggestions from readers about hotel loyalty program topics you would like me to cover on Loyalty Traveler.
My readership has grown 25% in the past month so I am not on my way out of the hotel points blog business just yet.
Several comments state we bloggers just steal content from FlyerTalk:
FlyerTalk is the largest resource of points and miles information available on the web. I wouldn't be blogging if it weren't for FlyerTalk.
I have been reading FlyerTalk since mid-1999 and I actually have read FlyerTalk less in the past two years than in all the years before. I find most of the information I blog about from other sources. But I almost always check FlyerTalk before I write my posts to see what additional information is available. Occasionally, not often, I find that the content has not yet reached FlyerTalk.
FlyerTalk is crowdsourced information and I started blogging as a way to filter and organize this points & miles information for readers who don't have time to spend hours on FlyerTalk searching threads. I think that is what many of the other bloggers have done too.
On credit cards:
In 2003 I approached several credit card companies about affiliate marketing and I was told it was not an option available to me.
Now affilate marketing of credit cards is all the rage in the blogosphere.
The reason I do not participate in credit card affiliate marketing is I think the entire banking scheme has a deleterious overall effect on travel rewards programs for consumers.
The banks do not even want your checking and savings accounts anymore. That is too much hassle with little profit margin. The banks want consumers in revolving debt where the real profits are made.
The real impact though for travel consumers is the cost of flight rewards and hotel rewards is going up more frequently. The printing of billions of miles and points for credit card activity is a liability on the books of loyalty programs and the way to reduce that liability is to reduce the value of points and miles by increasing the cost of rewards.
This cycle offers little benefit to most travelers.
The credit card members profit in the short term with large account balances for redeeming First Class trips and luxury hotels. The bloggers have the ability to make far more income with credit card referral fees than ad revenue. You need over 100,000 page views a month to start reaching minimum wage income and only the top travel bloggers make more than $2,000 a month on blog ad revenue.
The vast majority of loyalty program members do not benefit from the credit cards. Most of these offers are focused on US residents. International members experience more of the downside of reward inflation without the benefit of being able to earn the large credit card enrollment bonuses.
That is why I seldom write about credit cards, however, I do make money from the credit card ad impressions on BoardingArea.com. I wish it were different, but all bloggers soon learn that Google AdSense is not going to pay a living wage.
I am waiting to see a more sustainable revenue model than credit card referrals. I watched the banks destroy the housing market for millions of Americans and I fear the banks will wreck loyalty programs for consumers too if this loyalty credit card frenzy continues in the way it has since 2008.
On same content across many different blogs:
I hate writing about a topic when I go on BoardingArea in the morning and see it has already been posted on a couple of other blogs. Sometimes I wait a couple of days before posting my piece on the promotion if it is not time-sensitive.
As has already been mentioned by Lucky, the readers of our blogs are not necessarily the same people. 50% of my blog traffic comes from Google searches. About 17% comes from BoardingArea.com readers based on Google Analytics. About 10% comes from The Points Guy, Frugal Travel Guy, Million Mile Secrets. Thanks guys.
Over the past couple of months I find a new points & miles blog just about every day. It is going to be harder for many of these new bloggers to get noticed. The field is getting crowded with these niche points & miles travel blogs.
I have been seriously planning to diversify my blog efforts into a couple of other niches not related to loyalty points and miles.
I'd love to hear suggestions from readers about hotel loyalty program topics you would like me to cover on Loyalty Traveler.
My readership has grown 25% in the past month so I am not on my way out of the hotel points blog business just yet.
Jan 31, 2012, 9:32 am
#342
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Upper Sternistan
Posts: 10,047
I fully understand the idea that bloggers need to use FT as a resource for content. As long as they act as a filter for that content, and they add value to it in other ways, like summarizing long threads for important details, I'll still read them.
But, I've got to say, TPG's post today about the Citibank 1099 issue doesn't even reference the long FT thread from which much information has been used.
I really, really can't respect that. If I were to read the blog and not FT, I wouldn't find the FT thread for more info. Maybe that's the point: don't tip off your readers to the vast content on FT.
I've been a big fan of TPG over the last year now, but it's rapidly declining in my book.
But, I've got to say, TPG's post today about the Citibank 1099 issue doesn't even reference the long FT thread from which much information has been used.
I really, really can't respect that. If I were to read the blog and not FT, I wouldn't find the FT thread for more info. Maybe that's the point: don't tip off your readers to the vast content on FT.
I've been a big fan of TPG over the last year now, but it's rapidly declining in my book.
Jan 31, 2012, 9:39 am
#343
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,737
Great post satori!
I completely agree that these huge credit card sign ups ultimately devalue what a mile or point is worth. Or they may be somewhat responsible for the fuel fees being added on. These bloggers would take no responsibility if credit card churning is killed or the huge devaluation in points/miles.
I completely agree that these huge credit card sign ups ultimately devalue what a mile or point is worth. Or they may be somewhat responsible for the fuel fees being added on. These bloggers would take no responsibility if credit card churning is killed or the huge devaluation in points/miles.
Jan 31, 2012, 9:42 am
#344
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,737
Be careful what you post in this thread as the Moderator already shut down the other thread saying "I'm now convinced that this really doesn't belong in MilesBuzz!. Hardly any mention of miles at all..."
Now I don't know if this has anything to do with Flyertalk being owned by the same company that owns some popular travel blogs? Am I allowed to even question this or does this go against the FT rules?
Most threads in MilesBuzz have nothing to do with points/miles directly. Purchasing dollar coins has nothing to do with the points game directly, its only when you purchase them with a credit card that earns miles does it relate to miles. IMO talking about these travel blogs has just as much to do with miles/points as those thread. Reading these blogs does not directly gain you points, you aren't given points for surfing these pages... but when you go to the page and sign up for the credit card they are pushing you earn miles.. or following the promotions they talk about. We are just providing feedback on these blogs.
Now I don't know if this has anything to do with Flyertalk being owned by the same company that owns some popular travel blogs? Am I allowed to even question this or does this go against the FT rules?
Most threads in MilesBuzz have nothing to do with points/miles directly. Purchasing dollar coins has nothing to do with the points game directly, its only when you purchase them with a credit card that earns miles does it relate to miles. IMO talking about these travel blogs has just as much to do with miles/points as those thread. Reading these blogs does not directly gain you points, you aren't given points for surfing these pages... but when you go to the page and sign up for the credit card they are pushing you earn miles.. or following the promotions they talk about. We are just providing feedback on these blogs.
Jan 31, 2012, 9:45 am
#345
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,737
I fully understand the idea that bloggers need to use FT as a resource for content. As long as they act as a filter for that content, and they add value to it in other ways, like summarizing long threads for important details, I'll still read them.
But, I've got to say, TPG's post today about the Citibank 1099 issue doesn't even reference the long FT thread from which much information has been used.
I really, really can't respect that. If I were to read the blog and not FT, I wouldn't find the FT thread for more info. Maybe that's the point: don't tip off your readers to the vast content on FT.
I've been a big fan of TPG over the last year now, but it's rapidly declining in my book.
But, I've got to say, TPG's post today about the Citibank 1099 issue doesn't even reference the long FT thread from which much information has been used.
I really, really can't respect that. If I were to read the blog and not FT, I wouldn't find the FT thread for more info. Maybe that's the point: don't tip off your readers to the vast content on FT.
I've been a big fan of TPG over the last year now, but it's rapidly declining in my book.