I just sent 4 packages today on the Delta-Fed EX deal,

sent one last month and got the 500 miles , so this will get me the other 500 miles

plus I needed it anyway for ebay stuff, but its on the Delta.com under earn miles if you want to look,

Rally

+1^^

They have a refer a friend and get 500 miles bonus, and one of the methods of referral is to "tweet it".

I'm sort of disappointed by some of the negative comments from people who haven't actually taken the time to give it an objective look. I guess I should have thicker skin since forums tend to be this way though.

I'm signed up on the trial basis for 14 days to check it out. Chris has a couple of digital books out about travel hacking/miles gathering and the Travel Cartel is designed to be an ongoing and updated information source in the same vein. Observations that it's an aggregator of deals are correct. A lot of the information posted there is certainly available here as well..... after you wade through years of posts and then try to subsequently figure out what is current and what is not.... Or I could just read a paragraph and know instantly on the Travel Cartel. Is it for someone who has elite status every which way to Sunday? No. Is it incredibly useful and a massive time saver for someone like me who is just getting my feet wet? Yes.

It's worth mentioning also that Chris frequently credits sites like this one for having useful and up to date information. He's not trying to "trick" anyone. He's a blogger/writer and is simply offering a product which he is happy to refund your money for if you decide it wasn't worth it to you. In fact come to think of it, I found this site as a result of his product.

I have a feeling the people with 1 post count above are spam from Travel Cartel.... maybe we should move the thread over to SPAM?

^ As a cartel member, 95% of the info presented there can be found at one of those sources. Really, the target of the cartel is for people who don't want to spend a lot of time checking multiple sources to find out about travel promos. I'll probably let my membership expire after the trial period since I'm finding most of the info here and on those blogs.

No, it was for adding authorized users to the SPG credit card. I felt a bit silly when I read that for not figuring that out myself.

i've actually been following Chris's blog for a few years now. Interesting guy. Actually i met him last week while he was in town promoting his new book. While the book doesn't teach me anything new, it does have an interesting approach.

regarding the travel hacking cartel, I had read about it from his blog, but i didn't realize that it was a monthly subscription! I just thought it was another one of his books. I agree that the price is a bit steep if it's truly just a site for deals.

Yeah, Astro free is a misnomer. My last trip to Europe cost $36 in taxes. Can we get a class action suit going for product misrepresentation?

And thanks ftfolk for surfacing 2k (Delta & Holiday Inn) in overlooked opportunities. That Holiday Inn "global opportunity" was very creative. We should have some annual awards for the most creative ff accumulation method.

Keep me post on their new ideas, most of the ideas on here never get used.

We all read and very few of us do...

FT has a premo membership, on $12.00 a year give it some support...

Many here shutter at the thought of giving $59.00 for 2 free trips on South West...

$39 a month...never get off the ground...

No kidding, I am sure there will be more sign up this month and make their first post just to defend this rip off!

The other 5% come from reading 'key' forums on FT and attending local dinners and DO's.
I can't imagine paying a fee for the occassional 500 miles or 2. The cpm (cost per mile) isn't worth it.

Or maybe they are someone who is genuinely interested in FT's content and have been hanging out here for several weeks (note my join date well before Travel Cartel's release). Or maybe they are a person who generally avoids post padding in forums just so they can have street cred with someone else.

Add viewfromthewing

I will hand it to Chris though... his Art of Non-Conformity website is very well done and easy to navigate. I just think that anyone who pays $50 for a 50-70 page digital book is not going to come away happy, especially if they find out most all the stuff is spelled out in detail on those given blogs. People read the blogs then jump over to the thread on FT and are willing to jump in on the conversation if it is a great deal.

He also posts on one of his pages a screen shot of his SPG account from 2009 showing that he has stayed one night and had 80k SPG points. Is that not false advertising? Taking that he was hauling in thousands of dollar coins to the bank to get those points. IMO this is just a dressed up version of a "How to get things for free book", only it's 60 pages long and he's not running around in a suit with question marks all over it on TV.