littlemookie

The bloggers will always get the information somehow, and there's no point in trying to stop that. However, I think that FT as a site has been trying to get away from the MS forum and putting limits similar to CC may be helpful. I remember when there was no separate section for MS, but then became a separate section in MileBuzz, and now is buried in the newly created Credit, Debit, and Prepaid Card Programs section.

I'd rather have a newbie read the blogs and learn the basics from bowtie man and other blogs and then become a FT member and contribute across the forums, instead of lurking on FT and trying out MS ideas without fully understanding the implications and risks involved. I'm sure there are newbies who bought Amex gift cards and tried to purchase MO's at WM, or tried to buy 10k of GC's at a local supermarket. I'd call FT an intermediate level course, with the bloggers being the beginners 101 course.

rtwvagabond

Why does the OP only single out newbies as those participating in MS who could bring unwanted attention? Do the 'pros/vets' who do well into 5 figures of MS in a month think they couldn't potentially bring unwanted attention to MS? They say they try to mitigate whenever possible (i.e. multiple bank accounts for MO, making friendly with managers/csrs, etc.), but these places could easily shut something down (MS) they don't like/view as risky. Fact of the matter to those who do not know about MS, doing MS type activities appears suspicious/risky. Anything/anyone could bring MS crashing down. I don't think any one group should be singled out individually.

rdover1

4 years a lurker and it took THIS thread to crack your nut? <grin>

littlemookie

The pros/vets just have a better understanding of the game and the risks and rules to play by. Deals come and go (The Mint), some get shut down (WF prepaid debit), some stay alive for longer periods of time. It's frustrating to see relatively new people on FT get upset when a loophole closes, or a deal dies. When someone calls up WM to complain that the moneycenter cashier isn't accepting GC's for reloads and MO's, that's annoying and selfish. When a CVS doesn't allow someone to purchase more than 1k of VR, you either ask politely if the policy has changed recently or purchase 1k and move on to the next CVS.

MS seems to be a dirtier affair now when compared to a few years ago. The dollar amounts involved can run into the tens of thousands and people don't fully understand the risks. The HIGC was a good example, where people unexpectedly ended up getting money tied up in a deal than went south.

AlohaDaveKennedy

Oh yea of little imagination.... Five figures was a slow day at the mint. A flock of birds now could eat through that in a day.

craz

people FT is not the only site on the internet that deals with MSing. Could be its the 1 where alot of folks are after building up Miles and Pts. On the other sites it may be more about making some $$ off of MSing

On my many trips in the US, where I visit Wallys, most folks I ran into loading their Birds or MOing didnt know about FT, they were SDers or FWers and used a cash back CC

So limiting usage of the MS forum will in no way affect what goes on

FlightNurse

The OMIN forum and the Coupon exchange forums on FT are limited to people who have more then 200 post. and I don't think having that added to the MS fourm is wrong. Too many newbies want to be spoon feed the info, and not learning about it and in the long run, could cause problems for everybody else.... We can't stop the uneducated, but we can protect ourselves from them... I don't mind that they can READ the forum, but not to be able to post for a while, let them READ about the game and learn something...

FlightNurse

What is sad is, people like you with that attitude. The bloggers serve as an educational tool for the newbies. I used the blogs for the first 4 months and moved over to FT, I still go over to the blog once in a while. People need a place to learn and the bloggers are there to help newbie understand the game...

FlightNurse

The HIGC is a prime example of why newbie need to understand the whole game and the risk...

jdcollette

I'd agree with those who say that having a restricted access board isn't a good idea. I learned a heck of a lot from you all and we all started somewhere.

Yes, newbies could get themselves into trouble with MS. New people could also get themselves into a lot trouble without reading this board. Most of the advice on this site is financially good (e.g., pay your balance in full, don't MS in the year or so before house purchase, etc.). I think actually this board helps educate people about what they are doing and how to not get get screwed in the process. Opening a lot of credit can be dangerous, if you don't have good financial sense.

There is also the separate issue of MS strategies being shut down after becoming popular. I hardly think making this forum private to a few elite would prevent that. The strategies get out and will continue to get out. Plus, how long someone has participated on the board doesn't entirely demonstrate how much they know or could be of use to the rest of us. We've got people who work in the travel and credit card business, etc, whose insight is helpful.

In no means do I mean to disparage this board, but nothing I've seen here in recent months has been a game changer or some newfound strategy to amass huge amounts of points for little money. It is a great collection of information and a lot better than sifting through dozens of blogs, but there's nothing here that is not available through a simple google search.

Also, it isn't as if the CC companies and airlines don't know this goes on. Of course they do. They are still making money on it. For each of us that does MS, there are probably hundreds who use their airline card as a regular CC, racking up interest and paying annual fees. I used an airline card as my regular cc for years before getting into the points game.

MsArbi

Deleted.

wcj

I'm still a baby root in the FT tree, but I've made it up from dirt, lol. However, I would caution the newbies here in thinking that FT in the past year is what it once was in the MS forum. As we (notice I said we as I'm still learning) annoy our elders by asking the same question 50 times because we are too lazy to look at the post two above our question for the answer or better yet, just start a new thread, or we treat them like we know more than they do (which I've seen recently), then we drive them further off the boards.

As ADK said either in this thread or another recently, he and many others, with his level of experience and knowledge, are no longer sharing on this board, so its hardly shocking that when relying on fellow newbies that there is nothing new or that you are finding out months after the fact when relying on this board. Not saying that a random nut isn't found, but its simply not the same as it once was.... and we only have our own laziness, need for 5 minutes of FT fame, and stupidity to blame.

TheDapperDon

The blogs are ok, but they beat some deals into the ground without fully disclosing the impacts of the deal and some of the pitfalls. I particularly dislike the bowtie guy.

xcg001

To be honest first 3 years I wasn't even much of a lurker. I was visiting occasionally but whole points/miles looked to me like too much hassle since I didn't understand usage of these very well. It was VR/Bold/OD deal that made me study points/miles much more deeper and to finally "get" it.
Now I frequently read AA/United/Delta/Marriott/Starwood/MS forums.
I will be glad to contribute a technique in MS forum but unfortunately I am not much into experimenting to be able to discover something that is already not described here.

JerMah

Man, the first page of this thread made me really think hard about the proposal in the OP. Then, I realized that the OP perhaps just feels entitled. The OP is claiming to want to help save people from themselves, but in reality, what the OP is saying is they don't like lurkers or "leeches."

Just my thoughts.