mfr2000

I would say the answer is yes and no. I am sure a good deal of information comes from here, however I believe a good blog is written by someone who does by experience. I agree that most blogs that are just out to get credit card referrals should be ignored. There is at least one I can think of that has almost turned into a tabloid...sigh.
So to answer your question, the real value of a good blog is that all the information that you might find here by sifting through thousands of pages is neatly organized as a reference which makes it easy to find the information you are looking for at the moment.

MileageUpdate

I think its a broad brush to paint all bloggers as "lifting" info from Flyertalk. A few have original content. As to their value, I guess its in the eye of the beholder.

tjbrooks

Good content, very original, but be very cautious taking their advice on credit cards.

They (the site has multiple authors) are actively pushing the vastly inferior Barclay's US Airways offer. To recap:
Their referral offer:
1) Does not waive the annual fee ($89),
2) Does not offer the 10k annual renewal bonus
3) Can be downgraded by Barclays to the Platinum card, only 10k miles/$49, if Barclays deems you not worthy of the Premier card.

MileValue loves to attach $ values to offers, so their offer will "cost" you $284. They are called out in the comments, and give a hypocritical response hinting at ethical problems because the offer is supposed to only be for US elite members (and confusing an employee referral field as a requirement). MileValue (Scott) said a few months ago that he had been and would continue to apply every six months with the targeted link?
http://milevalue.com/easily-earn-110...iles-per-year/
There's also misinformation that the 10k anniversary bonus is gone (it's not, I got it a few weeks ago and it's still advertised on the offer page).
The better link was never added the link to the better offer in the post, even after being made aware of it, violating the rules they set themselves a couple of months ago.
http://milevalue.com/milevalue-com-w...filiate-links/

I think the best advice is to ignore all credit card advice from bloggers, and instead check out the relevant FlyerTalk thread instead. If a referral is the best offer, I like to reward AwardWallet. I asked if they had a page with all their offers, and I got an email a little later with this:
http://awardwallet.com/cards.php

HikerT

Not to mention the censoring of comments. Amazing how quickly affiliate links can taint the advice given on blog. After getting some flak he is now mentioning the better US offer.

TravelSummary

I think that's it right there. There are TONS of people that don't have the patience to deal with reading a FT thread. Also, consider all the noobs that try to get on here and ask a question...they get shot down by someone saying "read the whole thread first." Bloggers either already have that information or are reading and caught up on that material, so it's very attractive to readers to just go read one or two blog posts vs a 2000 post thread on FT.

gpapadop

Yep I agree about the blogs! I think Randy Petersen himself shared online the a growth chart of blogs vs FT & MP. They are all growing but the blogs are growing MUCH faster!

I would also like to take credit myself for improving blogger practices

ORD-TGU

I find that FT is a good reference, it is much easier to go back and check, laid out like a table of contents, better search function for past threads

Blogs may be easier to read, but IMHO a PITA to go back and search the past postings. Also more difficult to read the comments.

A lot of good info is put in the blogs and not in FT, that is where I feel the blogs are hurting FT more.

webazoid

Milevalue has taken a turn for the worst. It used to be about quality but now it's more about a daily post. Many of the recent posts are derivative of mms posts.

ThePointsCollector

Agree. I lost that guy too.

TravelerMSY

Not picking on MV necessarily but the successful blogs do follow a kind of cycle. They start out with posts of high-quality analysis, then as soon as they start getting a name for themselves they start trying to optimize for traffic. Usually coincides with when the conference and media appearances begin.at that point it's a business just like anything else.

I'm not quite sure why anyone cares if these guys make money or not. The purists post on FT, but I've never heard anyone complain about FT monetizing the traffic.

It's the bloggers paid services booking exotic award inventory for the masses that I'm worried about. Collectively, they're eventually going to be a problem. The dream bookings are mostly available because of low loads and obscurity.

topmikey

I don't mind bloggers "lifting" content from FT. The search function on this thing is not the greatest, and I have ADHD - so sometimes a 300 page post is just too overwhelming. It's nice just getting updates on the most important information from bloggers.
Plus, you are getting opinions from very seasoned rewards travelers. If you respect the bloggers opinion, you tend to go to their blog to see what THEY have to say. And most of the bloggers I read, credit FT for their information when they need to.

hotelmotel

Personally, I think that's what made this whole world sustainable. You had to do a little legwork. Now, everything's handed over on a silver platter with boxes and arrows. In a few years, this world will probably look nothing like it does today; this is undoubtedly the peak.

pcharles

I agree and disagree.
It will look different.
It is undoubtedly not the peak.

lewinr

this is definitely not the peak.

the peak was 10 years ago when we could get our status and points balance matched from any program to KLM, and we could ride the train in germany and get SEN status on LH.

everything went downhill from there...

MileageUpdate

I think the rebirth of the prepaid card has injected new life into the game. Anyone around long enough remembers how hard it was to find an adequate vehicle to remove funds. Its back with a vengeance.