Hard to give up tricks when you know they will be lost within days..The original deal on UA/BD lasted a long time as the trick was working just the base fare went up..Then the trick was posted again as the base fare went down, but this time the fare was posted elsewhere besides FT and The trick was killed shortly there-after..So now it becomes very difficult to post these tricks..But we shall see what happens. Only time will tell. I for one and others who have tricks up there sleeves will enjoy travelling at a discount ...Sometimes that discount is over $600 Love the low real low base and the High octane...

To me, it's clear that the trick is, at least now, continuing to work no matter what. The same combos of airlines continue to drop the YQ. Only lack of availability in certain fare classes and/or fares expiring are making these things more difficult to book. That was the case with the first ORD-LHR; that was the case with the JNB flight. I think provided we keep "trick it" as the source of the "secrecy", we can post things simply like Then those who don't know what "trick it" is can ask for help via PM, while not letting the powers than be close any open loopholes, i.e. lan.com.

Chris

maybe I'm giving the airlines too much credit but can't they figure this out much easier than us?

You'd sure think so, but PL deals dropping YQ have been going on for about a year now. LAN lasted a couple months too.

Chris

Hello fellow Flyertalkers,

I have been encouraged to provide a formal announcement on behalf of the Best Rate Guarantee Blog (which I own and manage) as to the current stance on our cross-posting. I encourage other bloggers to take their own stance in an effort to curb the crazy cryptic riddles that seem to have dominated these forums in the past few weeks.

So, on behalf of the staff at the BRG Blog, we are committed to not cross post airfare deals if:

1) The OP specifically requests it to not be cross-posted
and/or
2) The deal is not already scattered around other blogs and forums

Thus, if a deal has already been scattered around, and the OP didn't mention their desire to keep it secret, we would reserve the right to cross-post. If a deal has been scattered around, and the OP did mention to keep it secret, we will respect that wish and refrain from cross posting.

Also, if we find an airfare deal on our own, we reserve the right to initially post it on our blog, of course.

I hope that this will alleviate some of the headaches/worries of the Flyertalk posting community, and that the cryptic deal postings will come to an end.

Thank you,

David/Roadtripman
Owner of the BRG Blog

I think one of the issue with the MR deal getting out of control is there isn't any rules saying what should / should not do when someone see a MR deal in FT. I skim thorugh the MR forum Sticky and I didn't see anywhere mentioned things like don't call the airlines / travel agents about your ticket while the deal is still live, cross posting to other site,etc (let me know if I am looking at the wrong place). I know as a common courtersy we shouldn't do any of that but I think if our moderators put the do's and don'ts in the sticky we would have less confusion on what should or shouldn't do for everyone.

It is only a matter of time before the trick disappears. Every time there is abuse, there is an opposite and equal reaction.

Looks like we may have a new beginning of some sort. Any other posters who cross post willing to keep the fares on FT ? I bet Flyer Talkers membership numbers have grown in the past few weeks. ^

Sounds very reasonable to me as well.

It just doesnt make sense to waste it on FatWallet, shitdeals etc.

Sure...I will go by what Roadtripman has proposed:

"we are committed to not cross post airfare deals if:

1) The OP specifically requests it to not be cross-posted
and/or
2) The deal is not already scattered around other blogs and forums"

Exception being if the deal is my own creation.

Personally, I think the 'default' on this or any other site should be to NOT cross-post unless the OP specifically indicates it's ok (feel free to share with friends, family, s*deals, f*wallet, the NYTimes, Craigslist,etc).

I agree. I think that in many ways, one should consider that the OP has the 'intellectual ownership' of the discovery of a mistake/trick fare and it is up to him/her to cross post if he/she wants to. If anyone else wants to cross-post, I think they should ask him/her permission first. In other words, I'd always assume that someone willing to share a great discovery with me as a fellow FTers is sharing it with me as part of a given community of people who share a passion for travelling, flying, and discovering great deals, and not as a member of humanity (or its internet connected sub-part) at large

i support putting some CC type restriction on this forum. maybe lessen it to 30 days 30 posts. Also after the FTer hits 15 days 15 posts let an auto message come up informing the person about the existence of such a forum.

I agree, something like that would be a good idea. I've found that it still can take a lot of reading and a lot of trying to make deals work, even when the posts were much more open and detailed. Having a CC type restriction would certainly reduce the number of one-time opportunists who come to FT only because of a cross-post from somewhere else. 30 days/30 posts isn't too much; after all, most of us waiting 90?/180? days/posts to see CC or OMNI.


I think as a community, we (includes me!) ought to try to be more conscientous about posting things like 'if you have any questions, PM or post here, DO NOT CALL!'. I know from experience, the 'stickies' can be overwhelming anyway, and you can't assume that someone who drops in to the forums reads entire threads, let alone the stickies. If we keep putting the reminders throughout the threads as we post, we're more likely to educate more folks before they make an ill-advised call that ends a mistake or worse, closes a loophole.

OMNI restrictions have been lifted.