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Thanks for pointing out his most recent entry. It did in fact give a lot of detail on how he obtained the travel. I am not saying anything negative against him as a person. He just seems to be the most popular blogger that does trip reports. I just am asking if it is in any way funded by anything beyond miles. I'm not an expert on miles and there are many here on FT that have much more knowledge on the subject. I'm just asking if it is possible to be a full time travel blogger on miles alone. I get that bloggers like FTG do runs to get status and then upgrades, but it just seems like a high amount of miles that would be needed to travel that often in international first and does not seem to me to be sustainable by card churning or any other methods.
The comment about the twitterer post and my thoughts on the trip reports being jaded are better suited for another thread. |
Originally Posted by tlott
(Post 20155898)
Most affiliate offers don't really have quotas (although as mentioned upthread, sometimes you will need to demonstrate that you have traffic to get approved on some offers; it depends on the advertiser), and generally you are free to decide how you want to promote them. It doesn't have to be sneaky. There is an affiliate program for just about anything. Though those programs will not bring in big money like credit card apps and other CPA (cost per action) affiliate offers, unless you start to generate a ton of volume.
Good luck! (sorry for being off topic...) |
Originally Posted by yerffej201
(Post 20155977)
For the record, I have asked certain bloggers about their expenses. Here's an email from one of them:
I don't wanted to be slanted in my opinion either, but let's look at the segments he took last year: Chasing the A380 (4 long-haul first class): 120,000 US miles (paid), 22,000 Hyatt, misc expenses? Weekend in the clouds (2 long-haul AA biz): ~1200 USD Last Aeroplan Hurrah: 120,000k AMEX Singapore for the weekend (3 long-haul first, SQ mid haul first): 51,000 AMEX, 62,500 AA, 70,000 UA Lucky Charms Ireland: (2 TATL Biz) - 50,000 BA Bali and Bertchsgarden (4 long-haul first) - 160,000 US Chasing the Sun (3 long-haul first): 67,500 AA, 70,000 UA Bling it On: (3-long haul first): 135,000 BA (With a friend - so maybe less?), 90k AA. So for that year, he spend around 3.5k on US miles, 1.2 on AA biz flights (if not more), around 4-6k on AA for 200k RDM (assuming a portion of regular flying and a portion of MR at 3cpm with certs), churned 2? AMEX signups for SQ SIN-NRT and the Aeroplan, BA Chase 100k (and spent 30k +), the Chase SP, Ink Plus + Bold, Hyatt, and other cards I'm sure, as well as vanilla at od before it died. So that certainly seems reasonable given the page views that he gets, the award booking service that he runs, and cc pushing. That just means he churns at least 10 cards a year and has a decent disposable income to book hotels and such. Anyone who regularly churns and has location dependent income for traveling may be a bit iffy, but it's not like you can accuse them of being sponsored for trips. |
... they all earn money from their reports; all those credit card referral dollars eventually add up.
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Thanks for the summary! It's a lot less travel than stated in the bio, which has it at 300k miles a year flown, and 100+ nights in hotels. The whole point of the discussion was whether some bloggers make it seem like a lot more free travel is possible, year after year, then it really is.
What happens for the next 2+ years as all these promo points run out and you're not eligible to churn them again for a while?
Originally Posted by yerffej201
(Post 20155977)
For the record, I have asked certain bloggers about their expenses. Here's an email from one of them:
I don't wanted to be slanted in my opinion either, but let's look at the segments he took last year: Chasing the A380 (4 long-haul first class): 120,000 US miles (paid), 22,000 Hyatt, misc expenses? Weekend in the clouds (2 long-haul AA biz): ~1200 USD Last Aeroplan Hurrah: 120,000k AMEX Singapore for the weekend (3 long-haul first, SQ mid haul first): 51,000 AMEX, 62,500 AA, 70,000 UA Lucky Charms Ireland: (2 TATL Biz) - 50,000 BA Bali and Bertchsgarden (4 long-haul first) - 160,000 US Chasing the Sun (3 long-haul first): 67,500 AA, 70,000 UA Bling it On: (3-long haul first): 135,000 BA (With a friend - so maybe less?), 90k AA. So for that year, he spend around 3.5k on US miles, 1.2 on AA biz flights (if not more), around 4-6k on AA for 200k RDM (assuming a portion of regular flying and a portion of MR at 3cpm with certs), churned 2? AMEX signups for SQ SIN-NRT and the Aeroplan, BA Chase 100k (and spent 30k +), the Chase SP, Ink Plus + Bold, Hyatt, and other cards I'm sure, as well as vanilla at od before it died. So that certainly seems reasonable given the page views that he gets, the award booking service that he runs, and cc pushing. That just means he churns at least 10 cards a year and has a decent disposable income to book hotels and such. Anyone who regularly churns and has location dependent income for traveling may be a bit iffy, but it's not like you can accuse them of being sponsored for trips. |
Originally Posted by atxtravel
(Post 20159553)
Thanks for the summary! It's a lot less travel than stated in the bio, which has it at 300k miles a year flown, and 100+ nights in hotels. The whole point of the discussion was whether some bloggers make it seem like a lot more free travel is possible, year after year, then it really is.
What happens for the next 2+ years as all these promo points run out and you're not eligible to churn them again for a while? |
Arrgh! I say we audit him and torture the truth out about his funding. We know that blogger must be guilty of something, so page Cardinal Fang and bring the dishrack!:D
Originally Posted by Astrophsx
(Post 20155978)
Thanks for pointing out his most recent entry. It did in fact give a lot of detail on how he obtained the travel. I am not saying anything negative against him as a person. He just seems to be the most popular blogger that does trip reports. I just am asking if it is in any way funded by anything beyond miles.
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Originally Posted by AlohaDaveKennedy
(Post 20160016)
Arrgh! I say we audit him and torture the truth out about his funding. We know that blogger must be guilty of something, so page Cardinal Fang and bring the dishrack!:D
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If you would have done the double dip and first bought a GC at OD, waited till Feb when Sears was 10x, you woulda have gotten 25x, or 50k for a 2k treadmill. It really isn't that hard to rack up points like crazy with the double and triple dips. Frequent Miler is probably the king, but Lucky and others have been doing the tricks for a long time, I'd imagine...Check out Miler's 1 million mile march....for less than 1k spend.
Originally Posted by phdtomd
(Post 20159677)
Good question! I don't know how anyone else feels but I burned a ton of aa miles went down to almost zero and now I'm back to almost 100k and it only took like 5 months. From what I gather, once you are aware of how the hobby works then it becomes easier to get miles or points. I buy everything I can online now. Case in point, I just got the itch to buy a treadmill. It just so happened that weekend was 40% of and free delivery and set up. Even better sears purchases through the aa portal went up from 2 to 6 miles/$. 13k AA miles with little to no effort. So long story short, if you are smart about it, and actually learning as you go, the points will come.
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Lucky replied to this thread on his blog
I don't know how to link well, so I won't try, but Lucky made a long reply to this today on his blog. Short version is he pays, churns, and buys miles sometimes, with the occasional (but rare) freebie.
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Originally Posted by infamousdx
(Post 20160607)
Love me some Lucky longtime! :D^^^^ |
I'm not sure why I should care how he funds his travel, unless he is doing so by pimping some product secretly. Reading his blog makes it fairly plain that is not the case. When I want to redeem miles for an aspirational product, the odds are very good that Ben will have the best reviews out there. For instance, I got a lot more clarity in one post of his about the various TG first class offerings than I found in a dozen jumbled flyertalk threads. His reviews are consistently detailed and accompnied by tons of photos. I don't know that I'd agree that he is getting "jaded" but it is clear that he is getting more experience with the products and evolving different standards. This is true of everyone I know who is even remotely interesting. If your experiences didn't alter your perceptions, you'd be an odd duck indeed.
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I have personally benefitted, in the last year, from the content and advice on Lucky's blog. I also enjoy his point of view and treat it as just that - a point of view. While there are bloggers I have stopped following because of their snobbery, Ben isn't one of them.
He has given me a lot more in knowledge/aspiration than I have given him or ever could give him. My guess is that if you have read him for the past 4 years, the same goes for you. Put down the haterade and enjoy the experiences. |
Originally Posted by kokonutz
(Post 20160646)
Very clever to post his reply there rather than here! Clicks are cash, baby!
Love me some Lucky longtime! :D^^^^ |
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