But possible if done with the "wrong/misleading" birthdate, right?

Or sign up using any (real or fictional) young child even if you are an adult, right?

But this was only in the context of then being able to search for M&M award availability, which is not possible with a zero balance it seems.

If he suggested joining as a kid and then redeeming the 2,000 miles for (say) a Euro 10 iTunes voucher that would be entirely different.

I know you are fully aware of the lack of value in 2,000 Miles & More miles :)

Jetfriends 'status' in M&M also means your points don't expire. The point is you shouldn't sign up for it if you are an adult, which he suggested.

Bloggers posting wrong and misleading advice
 

Lots of other bloggers are encouraging people to become "expecting mothers" to take advantage of Amazon's policy. Totally wrong

we also have radio personalities who fail to disclose how much they are getting paid by political instigators...and that is in the millions!

And finally we have bloggers who lie and give misleading information and to top it off, eat the entire buffet!

Today's post on FTG.com takes the cake for misinformation. it finally got pulled - but wow.... do they have an editor? (or anyone who understands the programs they are reporting on??)... hey, at least they got the CC affiliate links right.

By Howie:
Maybe I’m delirious, but this is not an April Fools’ joke. Yesterday marked the day where US Airways officially transitioned from Star Alliance to Oneworld, and it’ll likely make award travel more difficult within the US when trying to travel on Star Alliance (specifically internationally, if you need to connect domestically to your international gateway city).

However, it opens up the door to leverage British Airways Avios (as a partner in Oneworld) and their fantastic distance-based award chart for some additional great value. As an example, In February we did a Travel Challenge to Montreal … New York to Montreal on AA using only 4,500 Avios each way versus $450+ for each ticket. The addition of US Airways and their route network opens up the country even more for great value; especially if you’re on the east coast.

Living in Savannah, we have minimal service from American Airlines – currently just 3x flights a day to DFW, but plenty of service from US Airways (8x to CLT, 1x to PHL and 2x to DCA going away) this is a welcome addition. Most importantly, all of our travel to see family is up and down the East Coast; a place where US Airways is a dominant player.

Running the numbers, as long as my total distance flown is under 650 miles one-way I’m out only 4,500 Avios in coach. Here we go – the Great Circle Mapper site will help me see where we can go for those Avios; 650 statute miles converts to 564.8 nautical miles (nm). We care about nm as that is how the Great Circle Mapper will show results in our map. Given we’re going to have to fly through Charlotte, we have to take 213 (statute miles) or 185.1 nm off the total available travel distance, leaving us with 379.7 nm to fly from Charlotte to stay within that 4,500 Avios super sweet spot. Below is what that looks like on the map and includes cities such as: Atlanta, Nashville, Asheville, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, and Baltimore.

If we expand past 4,500 Avios and go to 7,500 Avios for a one-way, we gain another 501 miles, which brings us to a total of 815nm from Charlotte and then we have access to almost half the country, a nice slice of the Caribbean, and Canada:

Being so close to Charlotte we’re huge winners, but keep in mind that Philadelphia (4,500 Avios / 7,500 Avios/ 10,000 Avios one-way) and Phoenix (4,500 Avios / 7,500 Avios/ 10,000 Avios / 12,500 Avios one-way) are US Airways’ other hubs and are great sources for some excellent redemption value. Flights to Hawaii from Phoenix are just 12,500 Avios. (Actually EVERY non-stop flight that US Airways currently operates out of Phoenix is 12,500 Avios OR less — see above links). Philadelphia to Paris is just 20,000 Avios. The best part of all of this is there are no fuel surcharges. With US Air a part of Star Alliance, it was possible to redeem awards through ANA (American Express Membership Rewards Partner), but the rates are even better with BA in many cases; especially on these short hauls.

This is huge! A standard domestic round-trip award is 25,000 miles and with access to this distance-based chart, we now have access to pretty much everything in North America, Central America and the Caribbean at that domestic award price.

A great example of how we can save a ton of miles here is Sara’s trip to Glasgow. Her routing is SAV-CLT-PHL-GLA-PHL-CLT-SAV — 3,970 miles each way, requiring 20,000 Avios each way. Currently, I have this booked using 60,000 AA miles out of my account. If space is still available when US Air becomes a part of Oneworld, I’ll book the flights using Avios and will cancel my AA award and redeposit into my account (as an Executive Platinum with AA, I can cancel/redeposit the miles with no fee); 40,000 Avios vs. 60,000 AA miles…I’ll do that all day every day!

Have a trip you’re thinking about taking? Map out the distance and you may find yourself getting a great value in miles.

You can rack up British Airways Avios through the British Airways Visa Signature Card or through our three favorite point programs that allow yout to transfer to British Airways Avios and associated credit cards:

Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Ink Plus, Chase Ink Bold, Chase Sapphire Preferred
American Express Membership Rewards – Amex Platinum, Amex Platinum Business, Amex Mercedes Benz Platinum, Amex Business Gold, Amex Premier Rewards Gold, Amex Everyday, Amex Everyday Preferred
Starwood Preferred Guest – SPG Personal, SPG Business
While Star Alliance definitely loses with US Airways becoming a part of American, I think as a whole us points and miles junkies are big winners.

Apology and correction is up.

http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/2014/...a-big-win.html

It's still amazes me that a blogger could have such a fundamental ignorance of major program like this. This isn't a simple mistake, or "getting caught up in the excitement. This is a major blog, and that's a clear major misunderstanding. Crazy....

I'm constantly amazed at the critics here. He made a mistake and apologized. When it gets to be a habit from certain posters you have to wonder if it is all they have in their life? Criticizing others that is. I'm not suggesting freeloader falls in that category as I don't follow his stream of posts. But a repeat offender would appear to me to be trying to raise their own low self esteem by tearing down others?

Food for thought

"Let he without sin, cast the first stone"

I don't think this is an unfair criticism. This certainly isn't a petty mistake.

I think it's important to alert consumers as to what bloggers clearly aren't the experts they make themselves out to be. As you know, readers listen to bloggers and follow their advice. I think it's warrented to show them that not everyone out their is giving them meaningful and helpful advice. After all, it's them the reader who pays for these mistakes.

The author is paid - he's a professional blogger. This was not a simple error. It showed a fundemental misunderstanding of the topics he's paid to write about. I believe that merits mentioning. I think the readers need to know this.

Remember, your most important asset is your credibility.

Agreed. And holding bloggers accountable/helping readers separate the wheat from the chaff is part of what this forum is all about.

The other problem is US award availability is mediocre at best for a lot of their routes. Yeah, it's nice that you can book a trip to PHX in the middle of July, but I wouldn't extrapolate that to "sweet, I can use Avios to go to Hawaii in late December!".

Generally, my experience is on SOME routes where there's low demand, US will open up low availability (they will esepcially do this last minute because they can pick up some revenue from their own membership, given a $75 last-minute redemption fee + taking miles off the books, it's better than an empty seat), but it's really spotty. For instance, scanning the chart, I saw some PHX-HNL availability in August.... but no HNL-PHX... and no other low availability from June-December. :rolleyes:

Anyone getting a pile of 100K BA Avios and thinking they're set for flying on US for some time... well, they have another think coming. This isn't a huge win. There are some places where they will win (PHL or CLT to Europe during low season, PHX during low season/brutally hot), but there's a reason US gets panned every year when those "whose miles can you use" surveys come out. Those surveys are generally methodologically flawed because they tend to forget about partners, but they do pick up that US is very stingy own-metal. The strength of US as a program in *A (and why FTers like me loved them) was always their *A awards, not their own availability. Going to OW doesn't help that- it hurts because now BA fuel scamcharges are part of the mix TATL. In a sense this is somewhat like BD leaving *A, a real loss for people who wanted (relatively) cheap-ish premium longhaul tickets.

Sure is a good excuse to push credit cards, though. ;)

I don't mean to harp on the same point... But come on. FTG's post today AGAIN got the avios program wrong. Didn't they JUST apolgize for this exact thing yesterday? Come on guys, I know you can do better. PLEASE - learn about the programs you are reporting on.

From today's travel challenge:

Jerry and Olivia’s Itinerary: Fly out of Asheville Friday, September 5th with US Airways through Charlotte and Philadelphia to get to Burlington. Rent a car from Thrifty to get around. Spend 5 nights at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel & Conference Center and return on Wednesday, September 10th.

Breakdown: A pair of round-trip economy ticket from Asheville to Burlington with US Airways cost $846 ($423 each). The best fare we found was on Delta at $736 ($368 each), however Olivia is going to transfer 30,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards to British Airway. Now that US Airways is a part of Oneworld, they can redeem Avios for flights with US Airways for 7,500 Avios per person each-way as the total flight distance is between 651 and 1,151 miles. British Airways will pass along $5 in taxes per person each way for a total of $20 in taxes. Olivia will pay the taxes using her Chase Sapphire Preferred and to keep her net cost to zero will use 2,000 Ultimate Rewards as a statement credit to offset the cost. She’ll still have 11,000 Ultimate Rewards available for redemption.

Read more at: Travel Challenge: A Trifecta in Burlington Vermont | Frugal Travel Guy

Agreed. Anyone who would risk a DM account to get GM status via a trade has none. Do you agree [redacted]?

DP, not sure what you're talking about?

I have forgiven Howie for making the same mistake two days in a row. It is your right to criticize and your right to stop reading the blog. My question is:

Can you forgive him for the mistakes he made?

I'm sure he doesn't need my forgiveness, but I'd give it to him. It's nothing personal. He seems like a nice enough guy.

I'm just surprised at the quality control of the blog - how can the same mistake go out two days in a row like that. It's just odd to me that whoever is running the show didn't pick up on the exact same mistake from the day before. It speaks to the credibility of the blog

The reason I point this out is bc misinformation like this is extremely detrimental to the newbies that the FTG blog caters to. And if the goal is to educate and help people new to the game it's imperative you get key information like this right the first time - not in subsequent apology posts or corrections.

Aw man. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Sorry to see that happened. Again. :(

Indeed. These aren't typos or grammar issues (though a good writer, and corporate owned, pro blog shouldn't have those errors even), but fundamentally wrong information and misunderstanding of the program.

A resource that holds itself out as having expertise in something, and makes money from that venture, is expected to have higher.quality standards. Someone catering to novices should be more careful. The fact the same error happened twice, after supposedly correcting the first one, really destroys credibility.

Getting defensive and attacking those who point out the.errors only makes it worse.

It's nice to see where others fix up their mistakes, but it's not OK to apologize and then make the exact same mistake the next day. If you're not learning from it, what's the point of owning up to it in the first place?

Rick, that is so nice of you to forgive. :D

When you get a little more time under your belt blogging, you'll understand exactly how it happens. When I asked him, he confirmed my suspicion. I have that nightmare still occasionally while only posting once or twice per week. I don't wish it on any blogger, but has happened and will happen again.

I'm counting at least 3 mistakes:
http://i.dansdeals.com/wp-content/up...014/04/ftg.png

Wow. Some pretty basic and glaring errors once again. One wonders if there is anyone at FTG with a basic knowledge of these programs and any level of reading comprehension (not to mention a proofreader).

I'd think that InternetBrands would want to step in and try to salvage their FTG investment before it loses all credibility.

The lack of any accountability, or any real desire to post correct information, continues to amaze me on a site geared to people new to the game.

Writers at FTG - don't apologize. Please actually seriously make an effort to get your posts right the first time for your readers that trust you as a source (if you actually care about them). Seriously, it's not that hard. Other blogs don't make huge mistakes day after day (after day)

http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/2014/...ays-avios.html

And of course, point 5 is wrong in an important respect by missing an important feature of Avios (Reward Flight Saver). Arguably one of the most valuable features of Avios if, like most of BA's customer base, you're based in the UK. Makes BA miles very useable for shorthaul in Europe (much more so than LH).

But hey, let's forgive and forget, seems to be a lot of that going on these days... ;)

Uh, if the "apology/correction" post pimps credit cards at the bottom of it, does it really count?

FTG hasn't been a credible source for information in a long time. Its purpose is to attract newbies and get them to click on affiliate links. To a certain degree, it doesn't matter if the information is wrong, the blog will just make it up in volume. It'll take a long time to decay to the point where nobody visits.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>It'll take a long time to decay to the point where nobody visits.

Not necessarily if the new stream of newbies quantity is > than the ones leaving the site.

FTG.com posted last night about first Friday again, reminding everyone to use their CSP cards tomorrow. Probably is, it's still May

http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/2014/...on-dining.html

Post was revised to remind people that NEXT week is the week to use it.

I always laugh when bloggers post about the benefits of first Friday. How much does one spend for lunch and dinner out typically? If they are frugal, shouldn't be more then $50 on any given Friday. So this promotion nets a extra 50 points, or $0.75-$1.00 in value. Good that we were reminded 8 days in advance

If you're catering an event it can definitely come in handy.

Sigh, another travel challenge with some big errors or omissions

http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/2014/...istillery.html

Out of pocket cost for this trip was reported at $0. Despite the fact that the recommended AA card comes with an annual fee of $450 in the first year ($250 net of the credit)

That's a pretty big oversight.

Also, it's a rather poor use of 100K AA miles for a short domestic trip like that. In fact their trip could be done with a non-stop on Southwest EWR-BNA for $243 RT and use the Arrival card points towards that or apply for the WN 50K credit card and just about have enough points for all four people, using their sample dates.

In fact I'd say the 60K in IHG points would be better spent elsewhere. Rates in Lynchburg are pretty low, I'd pay cash and save the points for a higher value redemption.

TPG got the AA hold/change policy update wrong in this post. I mentioned such in the comments almost 2 weeks ago but he still hasn't fixed it.

Why even bother? Last year I read a pile of misinformation about Munich on TPG which included gems like:

When I tweeted on how many things were wrong in it I got a weird response :)

Well, VFTW's newly "updated" guide to AA redemptions has glaring errors:

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....merican-miles/

Most of them look like overlooked revisions related to the examples of now-eliminated stopovers, but some clearly stem from not reading the updated Web page (or the FT thread(s)!). For example, AAnytime awards are now subject to the $150 fee for changes to origin/destination.

I would expect further updates.

Who cares? It's all about credit card conversions :D

I know there's a disclaimer stating that it is impossible for the site authors to actually visit each city, and they may choose to do independent research instead.

But if they are simply cut and pasting Wikipedia text and doing an Expedia search to find out which chain hotels are available, there is little value in these articles. As you witnessed, it can even cause damage to the site's reputation.

Only if they make the choice to write about more cities than they visit. I only write about places I've been. No one is forcing them to "write stories" (and I use that term loosely) based on having not visited a place.

...and I am not even sure as to what is the value of writing an article about a place to which one has never visited...

SEO, page views and revenue.

Who cares that you're not providing information valuable to the consumer if you're making money doing so? :rolleyes: