tbaumann3

So, in conclusion, I think the BA VISA 100k offer is the best card offer right now if you are willing to spend 30k on the card, get the companion pass and fly Business Class. The card isn't for everyone. If it doesn't meet your needs, don't apply for it.

belfordrocks

Again, that's predicated on you living in a BA destination and finding non-stop availability on the dates you desire... not exactly flexible terms.

Josephmay

You would have spent $900 for 2000MQMs?????
Thats absolutely crazy!!!! The Points Guy is Miami Based
MIA - AVL is 678 miles so probably best case is MIA-ATL-AVL for 1000 MQMs each way. Even as a DM which earns 125% MQMs that is 41cents a MQM and 18 cents a RDM.
I think 50000 RDMs for a $900 last minute ticket is a perfectly valid redemption. 5.5 cents a RDM.

belfordrocks

What?

50000 RDM's for $900 is 1.8 cent per RDM, not 5.5...

And for 2000 MQMs and 4000 RDM's- compared to a 50K award- yes it is a good deal.

As I mentioned, Allegiant flies Sanford-Asheville. He could have easily hopped on Spirit to Orlando, crossed town into Sanford and flew Allegiant into AVL for I'm guessing a lot less than $900. It's uncomfortable, of course, but such is the tradeoff...

xp0

Umm no you cant when you are basing their incoming off of credit card referrals... some of which will net you $200+ per signup. These are not normal "Oh I got $.01 because someone came to my website". When you have a referral link giving you $300 a signup and 10 people sign up in that week ... Id hardly call 3,000 a week minimum wage.

I do not have a problem with referral bonuses, ads whatever ... but what bothers me is how some bloggers will either say nothing or nothing great about a card until there is a affiliate link and then all of a sudden that card becomes great. Are some cards (like the BA) good for some? Sure ... but do these guys try and put a huge spin on it to make it seem like it is good for everyone or the entire family? They do now.

I guess reading a good blog is like listening to the news. The facts are skewed to make you think/believe what they want you to.
Repeat after me - This.Card.Is.Good.Sign.Up.Using.My.Link.

I know some people do not like reading trip reports or whatever... but because I read flyertalk and pretty much know whats going on I actually enjoy the detailed/lavish trip reports and redemption made with their miles. It makes me think about going to these places with all of the miles I have accrued.

ma91pmh

I am finding some of the posts here are getting a little over the top in their vitriol against the bloggers. I for one consider myself by now to be pretty seasoned in the miles and points game and yet I found TPG's post about spending 50k on a last minute DL trip refreshing. I recently spent 45k per person on a short hop domestic trip too and we had an excellent trip. One of the real luxuries of swimming in miles is the ability every now and then to do this and save some real $s. I also don't agree that x is worth more than y so don't promote y. I can find uses for pretty much all the points in my 3m+ pot and each has it's strengths and weaknesses.

But I do still fundamentally find the pimping of credit cards distasteful. I think Gary @ View from the Wing has significantly improved over the past few weeks. He has been mentioning from a very early stage numerous offers which are good/useful but don't earn referral credits. And yes he, Lucky and TPG all posted the BA card as soon as it became available. For sure this card ain't what it used to be, and I think they all pretty much said that, but they posted it quick and early without affiliate links.

What was distasteful and so blatant was yesterday's repetitive blogging on boardingarea about the BA card. Very clear it was all done because of the affiliate link. This is true shilling. MommyPoints you stepped up and posted in this thread, and we all know you read here actively, so what gives? Did you magically only just stumble upon the new offer yesterday when Chase sent you an affiliate link? Sorry to pick on you, several of your co-tenants did the same, but you are here and in the mix. I liked the idea of your blog, I like some of your reports, but pimping a card a couple of weeks after it becomes old news just so you can rack up what will be hundreds if not thousands of dollars in commission (and yeah y'all quote is as a "small" referral bonus too) is in bad taste. You seriously can't expect to do this and not get called out and critiqued for it???

belfordrocks

And this is what annoys me the most. Let me have a go at writing a _true_ description of the Chase BA card.

"This is the Chase BA Visa. They say the sign up bonus is 100K, but in reality it is 50K. To get the other 50K Avios points, you must spend $20K on this card. Considering there are other cards that accrue more valuable points, this is questionable at best.

Avios points not useful for long haul redemptions, or transatlantic redemptions, or redemptions from any city other than a Oneworld hub, or redemptions that involve inflexible dates, or redemptions involving multiple destinations, or redemptions with connections in general. In fact, the best use of these points is short-haul flights in coach. Yes, this means you will not be flying up front to Hong Kong or Paris, but instead you will be going to Spokane or Tulsa in none other than American Airlines domestic coach class. Please enjoy.

If you do choose to fly to exotic overseas destinations, please know that you will be charged at more or less double that of other airline programs. This is in addition to the $1000+ you will have to pay in fuel surcharges too. If you need to position to your international gateway, it will cost you extra miles with Avios. If the dates you would like to travel have no award space, it will cost you extra miles to route differently. In fact, there is literally zero flexibility with Avios redemptions. You are literally paying for every mile and segment you fly, even when there is literally no other option.

If, despite this information, you choose -using your own judgement and analysis of the facts presented- to apply for this card, then please consider using my referral link. <link here>"

^^+1

stinkycop

It seems lately that all the bloggers are talking about lately is Chase, Bold....Ink...Sapphire. Please pick my link before bonus goes away. Blah Blah Blah.

stinkycop

Geesh...now its all about the BA 100,000 mile card. Pick my link...pick my link please. It now seems to me that most of these blogs are in it for the referral $$$. They lately have been devoid of any great deals or information. Once one blogger says something the other 10 repost it.

Igor718

In regards to Delta .... on a recent trip check (NYC to PUJ), I compared UA, USAir, AA, BA and Delta. ...... Delta came as a winner in fees as well as miles. I find that if you get their low mile cost, the redemption is great. They also mostly have nonstop flights to everywhere I check.

I actually just found out that on average CC companies pay $100 to $180 for every referral. I actually thought about becoming an affiliate myself and sign up through my own links. (Had conversation with CC affiliate networks and they had no problem with that).

Mommy Points

I'm hopefully nothing if not transparent, so while I have no desire to fuel the fire against bloggers, I'll chime in if it can be helpful. Speaking for myself only, I posted some about this offer on Friday of last week. I believe the offer was discovered late last Thursday night. I don't typically do too much blogging over the weekend, but started working on a more in-depth post this week. I do know that several other bloggers, both on BoardingArea and off, did post about this deal when it came out last week as well. The bloggers that I read would never hide an offer until we get paid for it, but it is undeniable that if/when an affiliate links comes out, the offer will likely get mentioned again. In the same post as the BA one I ran last week, I ran info about the one-day 50K Amex Platinum deal that was not an affiliate link either. Many of the blogs I personally read also mentioned that deal.

So, no, I did not magically stumble on this offer yesterday, nor did most others. Most of us posted about it as soon as we found out about it last week. However, many are correct in stating that affiliate links did come out yesterday, and there is no doubt that played a major factor in many more posts coming out about the BA offer. I know affiliate links get a bad reputation by some, but my opinion is, when used correctly (as in, not hiding a superior offer to just promote an inferior affiliate link), they allow bloggers to devote huge chunks of their time to writing about various miles and points offers and redemptions without passing any cost on to anyone other than the banks that are coming up with these huge sing-up bonuses (that we would be writing about anyway).

Is it a little annoying for the end user to see 10 different blog posts from various blogs on the same topic in their google reader? Probably, but that isn't unique to affiliate credit card offers. Wait until the Grand Slam (my personal favorite), I am sure you will see 10+ blogs writing about that at the same time as it will be big news in the miles and points world, just like a 100K offer is.

I try very hard to make my site as useful as possible to as many people as possible (just like many other bloggers do), but I'm sure there will be days where the info I write about is similar to what other blogs are covering. There will be posts that have affiliate links in them, but those links will only be to the best offers that I know about. That is why you need to find the blogs that you like and trust and read them.....or of course, not everyone has the need or desire to read blogs at all, and that is fine as well. No one will be perfect on posting every deal every day, but the blogs I choose to read personally do a pretty good job at trying to do just that, and I am glad that they are able to devote a big part of their lives to sharing information about miles and points to my family.....and yes, that time is often at least partially subsidized by affiliate links.

Not sure if this info will be viewed as helpful or not, but that's my take on the BA post timing and on affiliate usage in general. If it helped some, great. If not, well at least I tried. Now back to researching and writing about miles and points......

ma91pmh

Thanks for at least stepping up into the debate. I will take ANY bet you care to make right now that the total number of posts relating to US Grand Slam on boardingarea + TPG will be less than the number of posts on each and all of these three: Chase Sapphire, Chase Ink Bold, Chase BA>

stinkycop

Dear Mommy Points

Answer me this if you can from your perspective then. First let me say I like your blog and read it every day. But to me it seems that the bloggers run scared. They know alot of juicy and covert information and yet they never or are very relucktant share it. Is this because you fear reprisals from the FF community? Would you become an outcast at the Mega Do's? I am fully aware of the grief that the AFWD got about FD'ing[B]. As an example you said on your blog about the upcoming Daily Getaways " What makes this deal somewhat less enticing for some than it otherwise might be is that Priority Club points can unofficially be obtained on a regular basis for 0.6 cents each. I’m not going to get into the details on doing that here" [/B] Again is out of fear or the community's reprisal. Lately the blogs have been all about trip reports and CC sign ups. Just wondering why no blog ever exposed all the secrets of the trick it/negotiate it thread. I know that would cause holy hell. I know Million Mile Secrets let some of the cat out of the bag and he was lambasted in his comments section. I guess to me at least that all the good stuff like mistake fares and FD'ing are only for those in the know and not to be exposed. I may be wrong on this but it is just my POV.

84fiero

I agree some of the posts are a bit over the top. After all they're just blog sites. We have all sorts of people in our daily lives who have some financial interest in their advice to you - car mechanic, plumber, doctor, etc. We have much more at stake there than which credit card to apply for... and just as much freedom to seek second opinions and research on our own.

What irritated me a bit was the titles used by most of the blog sites about the BA card as "BA 100K is Back" Except it's not "back" at all but a very different offer from "the" legendary BA offer.... and it's only a 100K offer for those who can afford to forego using other cards to meet the very heft spend. Sure they detailed the terms in the articles but the titles were very misleading. (I did notice Lucky added "...sort of" into the title which was good)

TPG has been posting details - pro and con - of the BA program and links to past (very thorough) analyses of BA, which is helpful to people.

I don't begrudge any of them making some bucks off of referral links. The ones who are nothing but credit-card pimping machines will eventually go the way of the dodo bird, as no one will get anything out of them.

I think part of the thing with so much repetition is there just aren't that many fabulous new offers and that some creative miles earning things are less publicly discussed after the Mint fiasco.

Heck, look right here on MilesBuzz - it's a few of the usual card threads, a few other "life after the mint" type things but otherwise? A lot of "help a newbie out" threads. Just not a very buzzworthy world at the moment I guess

Mommy Points

I want to answer you since you asked me directly, but I am certainly not a spokesperson for all miles and points bloggers. Especially since, as you pointed out, we all make different decisions about what to publish and not publish. For the most part, I choose not to publish things that aren't really in line with the terms and conditions of programs. I'm all for pushing boundaries, but I don't want to write about doing things that are outside the lines. That specific example is in that grey area, as I am sure Priority Club knows about getting points in that manner, but I'm also sure it wasn't why they designed cash and points stays.

It's just a personal choice, but I don't really want to write about something that I know is somewhat outside the line, and then have someone do what I am talking about and get in trouble for it. Especially since I try to write with newbies in mind - they may not realize that something is in that grey/outside the lines area.

I also won't write about things that I think will cause more harm than good. Some things can be supported by a smallish group of people doing it, but would immediately implode if done on a large scale. Of course, that is an arbitrary call on my part and will vary from person to person. Additionally, I personally don't do many "tricks". I mostly earn and redeem miles according to the books, so I'm not really the go-to person for true tricks. I'm more for maximizing everyday things, but within the set bounds of programs, so that is what I write about.

Oh, and for what it's worth, (almost) everyone is your friend on a MegaDO, so no worries there. Alcohol and travel seem to make everyone best buddies....if only for a few days.