diburning

Is there a thread where we rant about Frugal Travel Guy too? (Or is that off limits because they're an FT partner?) They've been publishing some really steamy piles of garbage recently that I'd love to have a discussion on.

Astrophsx

Does anyone even read that anymore? Was a great site before it got sold.

diburning

It looks like the mods were nice enough to split my post off from the TPG/The Points Guy thread to start a new thread. Alright! I'll start.

This article: http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/2017/...dont-want.html

The author of that article is... Well, I don't have any FT appropriate adjectives to describe him. As someone who is a "well known" travel blogger, why write this steaming pile of garbage? I'd be embarrassed to have my name attributed to something like this. It's as if he's never flown premium cabin before. Every site that publishes his garbage says he's an award-winning journalist. What kind of award was it, a participation award? Or was it given to him by his employer for bringing in a lot of money for writing this kind of stuff?

As with TPG, the article is a thinly veiled attempt to shill sell a credit card.

His readers seem to think as highly of this "article" as I do...

freeloader

That author is clueless on everything

Saverocity has a decent points podcast, but the dig downfall is that he's the third mic. His knowledge level is horrendously bad. He gives bad/wrong advice throughout the episodes. Too bad bc it would be a good podcast if it wasn't for him

Case in point, he's had no idea up until a couple episodes ago what the chase 5/24 rule was. That's 101-level stuff. And that's the tip of the iceberg. If you listen to an episode and take a shot of alcohol for everything he's wrong about, you'd be dead in an hour

And for the record, FTG went downhill waaaaaay before it was sold. Last two years of it was pretty bad

cruisr

When Ingy owned it it was my go to site. I don't even know how many years it's been since I went there. It's the same with the legends that were ahead of the curve 5-7 or more years ago. Don't need to visit any of them anymore (except for amusement) and I am grateful that I learned a lot from them. I was doing MS before it had a name and I am so old I remember when The largest sign up offer was 25k for AA, UA, CO, etc. I just didn't know that there was a whole world of people doing the same thing I was and blogging about it.

84fiero

Man that guy is clueless beyond belief. I almost thought the UA First post was satire at first but clearly it's not. Even if you've never flown in domestic F before, you've walked past it hundreds of times on your way back to Y, and have seen the in-flight service that occurs when sitting towards the front of Y.

To be working in this world and even doing podcasts with others doing the same, and still remain that ignorant, is pretty amazing. I'd think one would have to make a purposeful effort to stay clueless.

It was one of my regular sites as well back in the day, although for me at least the quality went down the last year or two before it was sold. I do appreciate what I learned as well but whatever form the site has taken now is beyond useless, sadly.

I didn't stumble onto FT and this world until ~2009. You were more creative on your own than I was though! I remember my first rewards card as United for that whopping 25K bonus. Although that was "only" in 2001 so maybe there were bigger bonuses available and I just didn't know yet? But it took me until 2008 to slowly accrue enough miles through flying UA and using the card to get enough to take the family to Hawaii. Never occurred to me to churn or to even sign up the wife for a card, too.

I was so dumb about all of this. One year I could've made at least 2P with UA if I'd only credited some US flights to UA (back when that was still a thing).

Anyway, at least I'm not still that clueless!

kokonutz

Am I the only one who remembers tier bonuses?

UA rewarded you for making Premex and 1k back in the day with a pile of miles.

Man, not even 50 and I feel oooold!

dhammer53

I miss Rick.


Well, I'm 64 and I remember the tier bonus'.

dh

Renes Points

We all do - A lot!

I remember getting up and even before my morning tea rushing to read what Rick had posted (he seemed to love 3AM for some silly reason to have posts go live).

I got every single travel card (that I could) from Rick links.

I count myself privileged to call him a friend!

fredc84

I just found this thread after posting (and getting a response) from someone over at FTG. Didn't know about the changes that have gone on there.
My post was about their article of how they saved money traveling in Italy. She recommended taking your own (more likely filled in your hotel room sink) bottle of water to a restaurant instead of buying the water from the restaurant. Maybe some people think that's ok...just makes me think it's down-right cheap, not frugal. LOL.

84fiero

Cheap and tacky. What's more, she says they still bought beer and wine at the restaurant...so...a couple of bucks for water is too much but paying much more for restaurant booze is fine? (Don't get me wrong, I pay for booze happily but also pay for the water if I need it as well.)

It says they spent $3,500 in cash outlays for the trip. I don't get paying a lot for a trip and then going cheap on the trivialities. Although I was last there in 2013 I recall that water in the restaurants in Italy, while of course overpriced, wasn't all that bad in context - and some of the mineral water is tasty.

I know small amounts add up but if I needed to watch my budget I'd get take-away food and sip my own water on a park bench or in my hotel room, rather than dine in with my own water bottle - which would save even more money to boot.

Then there was this "tip":

I understand some unique things like the kid's cooking class, and I know some people will only use guided tours - but the "expensive excursions" destinations?? We just took the local trains to Pompeii and from Rome - pretty inexpensive and super easy. Likewise with Cinque Terre (from Florence according to their trip report). So those don't need to be done as expensive (overpriced) tour excursions if you really want to save money and miles/points.

Holy cow! Wow, never heard of that tip before! Oh hey, there's also an affiliate link for a Barclay Arrival card within the text of that tip! How did that get in there?

A less well known (outside of FT world, IME) tip would be to get the Schwab debit card for foreign cash withdrawals. Guess there's no affiliate link for that, huh?

Jesperss

I'll forever remember Rick and his "I'm a senior citizen and am being discriminated against since I couldn't get to the airport fast enough" remark about the United / HKG 4 mile drama.

diburning

Joe Cortez is at it again with his garbage.

Does aircraft age matter? Who the heck knows? He never answers that question. He simply regurgitates some slightly outdated statistical information, makes no effort to list the oldest and newest aircraft, and whether they have upgraded interiors, but hey, look, an opportunity to shill every airline credit card in existence!

http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/2017/...st-planes.html

84fiero

That was classic.

And that's the only purpose to most FTG posts!

It appears he mostly just re-worded info from that Motley Fool article. The quality of writing is pretty low as usual:

Ummm....

fredc84

I couldn't even read this article. As a 25 yr airline emp and captain I know it's much more important how good the maintenance is than the age of the plane. Interiors can be upgraded pretty easy, if the airline wants to spend the money.