Where's the poll? MMS or this guy. Wonder who takes the cake..

The guy's a genius!! These ideas all originated with him!! Very creative.

Just what we need, more idiots publishing to the media. If people want to look for ways to play the game, there are plenty of ways. Publishing in media is stupid. He will get his own ways shut down. What the hell is wrong with these people... Mint was proof of this after NPR stunt with that other stupid chick.

If I had 800,000 SPG points... I wouldn't be in the camp that would have transferred them to AA.

Comments or not, someone in this thread linked to him.

Whether or not yall like bloggers, FT gets thousands more readers than any of these bloggers. If anyone is spilling anything, it's this site. We're too big for our own good. Yall can blame bloggers all you want, but the fact of the matter is - banks, hotels, airlines, prepaid companies are paying attention to FT -where all the experts are. They're not stupid/left in the dark.

In the case of VRs at CVS, I do not see how the heck CC companies are losing money on that. If yes, someone here can explain it please. Thanks.
The only one who might be losing is CVS. Of course VR network at least get some profits. Buying VRs at CVS using CC, techinically buying 0.79 cents per point or mile. If using Amex Starwood CC, you can get it down alittle bit taking advantage of every 20k transfer, 5k bonus on AA for example. Hilton Cards up to May, you can get some additional points per dollar spent, but giving the recent devaluation, I guess not many people are taking that path racking up HH points. At least, not for me.

if bloggers cant make enough with CC links, all they can do is try getting media quotes (to grow reputation etc)

How do you know for sure these ideas all originated with him?

Holy broken sarcasm detector Batman!

Hilarious

+1^

Many (if not most) people are doing VRs not to churn a few thousand miles, but to easily hit spending thresholds, netting more like 50-100k miles. Rinse and repeat. I don't care what % the CC is making off of the first 1-10k you spend on a card before you shut it down, they are not recouping their costs.

It seems you got it wrong my point here. Of course, buying VRs is not for churning a few thousand miles. The main purpose for buying VRs and load to BB is to pay for loans/rent/mortgage in which one cant use CC to pay. Doing that, at least one can get some profits for paying loans instead of nothing for using Debit Card/Check. Of course, there is a price for doing that. However, one can get something back for redeeming points/miles at a higher rate than .79

Therefore, I do not see any losses from CC companies. They get miles/points at a rate that is much lower than .79. They should be happy if customers use their cards to make more spending, more profitable for them.

FT ToS don't allow me to express how I feel about articles like these and people like Brad.

Do they make you feel stabby? Because that's how I feel.