Boarding Area's Fall
Sep 18, 2017, 8:22 am
#1096
Original Member, Ambassador: External Miles and Points Resources
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Digital Nomad Wandering the Earth - Currently in LIMA, PERU
Posts: 58,601
This is where I am. Six years ago, when I was just out of college, churning was great. The game was still lucrative. I didn't have the money to buy even discounted premium cabins but I had a great credit score and churned my way to a couple premium vacations a year.
Now I'm further into my career and make enough money to just buy discounted J when it shows up. I still churn occasionally when there's a good deal or I get targeted for a lucrative offer, but other than that I just buy what I want.
There'd be good money is someone creating Scott's Cheap Flights for premium cabins. Maybe that exists and I just don't know? I'd pay for that subscription.
The days of churning AA miles by the bucketload were great but it's also nice to no longer care what Citi's current rules might be.
Now I'm further into my career and make enough money to just buy discounted J when it shows up. I still churn occasionally when there's a good deal or I get targeted for a lucrative offer, but other than that I just buy what I want.
There'd be good money is someone creating Scott's Cheap Flights for premium cabins. Maybe that exists and I just don't know? I'd pay for that subscription.
The days of churning AA miles by the bucketload were great but it's also nice to no longer care what Citi's current rules might be.
Although nothing stopping you or anyone from doing like most of the BA bloggers and scraping that information off of FlyerTalk, reformatting it and presenting it as one's own work! @:-)
Sep 18, 2017, 7:18 pm
#1097
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
Already exists for free: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premium-fare-deals-740/
Although nothing stopping you or anyone from doing like most of the BA bloggers and scraping that information off of FlyerTalk, reformatting it and presenting it as one's own work! @:-)
Although nothing stopping you or anyone from doing like most of the BA bloggers and scraping that information off of FlyerTalk, reformatting it and presenting it as one's own work! @:-)
FT is a great resource, but it is not the only option and, in this case, not at all complete.
Sep 19, 2017, 8:01 am
#1098
Original Member, Ambassador: External Miles and Points Resources
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Digital Nomad Wandering the Earth - Currently in LIMA, PERU
Posts: 58,601
If you think that's the most complete collection or first to have most deals I'm afraid you should broaden your horizons. There's definitely an opportunity for more resources in this space, particularly for someone good at web scraping and data processing. In fact several are already in service, just focused on other markets.
FT is a great resource, but it is not the only option and, in this case, not at all complete.
FT is a great resource, but it is not the only option and, in this case, not at all complete.
Sep 20, 2017, 5:31 am
#1099
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
If you think that's the most complete collection or first to have most deals I'm afraid you should broaden your horizons. There's definitely an opportunity for more resources in this space, particularly for someone good at web scraping and data processing. In fact several are already in service, just focused on other markets.
FT is a great resource, but it is not the only option and, in this case, not at all complete.
FT is a great resource, but it is not the only option and, in this case, not at all complete.
Sep 20, 2017, 5:55 am
#1100
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: DL PM; IHG PlatAmb; Hilton Dia; Marriott Plat; Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 7,320
That makes sense. The 27 blogs that have joined BA aren't incomprehensible garbage. They're just written in pig latin.
Sep 20, 2017, 5:57 am
#1101
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
I'm certainly not the last to note that the BA blogs are less useful to me now than they used to be and of their quality on average being more questionable than even before.
Sep 20, 2017, 6:08 am
#1102
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: DL PM; IHG PlatAmb; Hilton Dia; Marriott Plat; Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 7,320
A seemingly higher proportion of BA blogs are in non-English than used to be the case 3-5 years ago. I take it as a sign of a sort of US market saturation in this area and wanting to tap the foreign-language travel deal market.
I'm certainly not the last to note that the BA blogs are less useful to me now than they used to be and of their quality on average being more questionable than even before.
I'm certainly not the last to note that the BA blogs are less useful to me now than they used to be and of their quality on average being more questionable than even before.
Remember when Flyertalk was a community where people had a sense of humor rather than a constant war between people who have thoughts on things going on and people who want to defend bloggers and their ilk.
Sep 20, 2017, 7:27 pm
#1103
Join Date: Jul 2001
Programs: AA EP
Posts: 2,203
Ah, the fan boys!
Actually you may very well be the last to do so. I guess Randy still hasn't.
Remember when Flyertalk was a community where people had a sense of humor rather than a constant war between people who have thoughts on things going on and people who want to defend bloggers and their ilk.
Remember when Flyertalk was a community where people had a sense of humor rather than a constant war between people who have thoughts on things going on and people who want to defend bloggers and their ilk.
Sep 25, 2017, 4:31 pm
#1104
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: DL PM; IHG PlatAmb; Hilton Dia; Marriott Plat; Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 7,320
It has come to my attention that one of the "Experts" on Boarding Area has flown halfway to the moon (<150k *lifetime* miles) and been to 15 countries. Wowwie zowwie. Where does Randy find such experts on travel?
Sep 26, 2017, 1:27 am
#1105
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: London
Programs: BA, VS, HH, IHG, MB, MR
Posts: 26,871
My 6 year old has done half of that (and all in premium cabins!). His new 'My airplane picshures' blog launches next week on BA.
Sep 26, 2017, 2:48 am
#1106
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
It's possible for someone to know more about miles/points than someone who has flown more than 1,500,000 miles -- as is true for some young adults who know way more about miles/points than some old flight crew personnel.
And it's possible for a person to fly over 150,000 miles and not know a thing about miles/points -- as is true of many of the young minors who are my relatives.
And it's possible for a person to fly over 150,000 miles and not know a thing about miles/points -- as is true of many of the young minors who are my relatives.
Sep 26, 2017, 4:45 am
#1107
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: DL PM; IHG PlatAmb; Hilton Dia; Marriott Plat; Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 7,320
It's possible for someone to know more about miles/points than someone who has flown more than 1,500,000 miles -- as is true for some young adults who know way more about miles/points than some old flight crew personnel.
And it's possible for a person to fly over 150,000 miles and not know a thing about miles/points -- as is true of many of the young minors who are my relatives.
And it's possible for a person to fly over 150,000 miles and not know a thing about miles/points -- as is true of many of the young minors who are my relatives.
Thank you for that defense.
It is also possible that the blog is garbage.
Occam's razor, and all.
Last edited by Adam1222; Sep 26, 2017 at 4:50 am
Sep 26, 2017, 5:34 am
#1108
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
It's possible that a blog/blog entry is garbage, but that isn't a product of the number of miles traveled and/or of countries visited.
There is plenty of garbage coming out of people who have traveled way more than 150k miles and been to more than 15 countries. For example, there is a carpet-bagger occupant of a known address in the nation's capital who epitomizes that kind of person and loves attention by going on the attack or who knows what else. Would I find him to be a producer of good miles/points material in social media forums? No. But his famous social media rants grab plenty of attention.
So which miles/points blog is it that is famous for social media garbage produced by someone whose travel history is neither all that rich nor all that poor? Checking out garbage can have its purpose at times too, but spending too much time on garbage is a waste of time IMHO.
Last edited by GUWonder; Sep 26, 2017 at 5:42 am
Sep 26, 2017, 7:19 am
#1110
Join Date: May 2002
Location: STL
Programs: DL PM/1MM, DL SkClub LT, Marr LT Plat, IHG Plat, HH Diam
Posts: 2,001
Miles To Memories has to be making a hearty commission from that ripoff giftcard reseller site Card Cash that they post about each week and they're the only blog that does this. These scammers at Card Cash have hundreds of BBB complaints.