I emailed Chris right before the Travel Hacker site went up. I told him I frequent FlyerTalk and asked if he felt that he had new information I wouldn't already know. He replied to me (quickly) that if I am a FTer, it probably would not benefit me.

I appreciated his honesty.

If clients can pay for it, and don't have to hunt all over for things, why bash 'em? Some of the nastier posts probably come from people pissed they didn't think of it first. (And who IN NO WAY have the temperament to run something oriented toward customers.)

I haven't posted much either. Today I joined the cartel for the 14 day period to see if it's better than what I can do on my own. Ease has a price, and though it's probably too rich for my blood, I don't feel the need to bash someone clever enough to make it work. And, I've had a couple years now honing my own skills. Often that has been thanks to an FTer who took time to answer me off-thread or who sent me in JUST the right direction, very helpfully, to get exactly the info I need.

But some of you guys are off the chain with your nastiness (accusing them of shilling for the cartel? Really???). Part of the reason I post so infrequently is FEAR OF YOU. So if I get less from FT than I could, it might be because there are those of you who make newbs feel like idiots. I bet Mr. $15-$39 a month would never treat someone like that - and maybe that's part of its appeal.

/rant (Phew.)

Actually, this bit doesn't seem too far off...

Just sayin'.

Everyone has their own opinion. I think most people have just brought up the fact that you don't have to dig on Flyertalk to find deals for people who are just starting. There are a handful of helpful blogs that have been posted in which you can save your time and money paying for a service to find some great deals out there.

I have to say that FT has a lot of good information. But, I agree that some people can be nasty here. See the AA forum for more examples of nastiness.

I think I'd be nasty too if I had to fly AA all the time.

That is so true

I don't like the name, "Travel Hacker Cartel." It makes it look like they're engaged in something illicit, or see themselves as appealing to people who are willing to do so. I believe the things I do and most of us do for miles are completely within the rules of the various companies offering them. (An exception may be the way some people work coins from the US Mint.)

I personally can't imagine paying that kind of money for information that is available for free here. Think about it - if they actually came up with anything new that the experts here didn't also have, it would get posted here too right away.

+++

I hear Cliffs Notes does a pretty good business, but everything in there can be found for free by reading the original book.

Some people will always prefer shortcuts. If you have enough money, and not enough time, persistence, or ability to visit the source material, why not go for it?

It doesn't sound to me like the guy is ripping anyone off. $468 in fees annually, so one or two free domestic tickets will offset that cost. He admits the info can be found elsewhere for free, and even points to his sources on occasion, so it seems completely above-board.

When I think about how much time I've spent on FT trying to figure some of this out, I can say that it was way more than $500 worth of my time. <shrug>

Seems to me that what you're paying for is curation. Someone finding relevant information for you and then presenting it to you in a digestible format. Seems no different to me than most news sources - except you pay mostly by viewing their ads these days rather than by subscription.

Those of you who've signed up for the service, please post some more examples here.

Yeah, "Cartel" is so 1970s and "Hacker" is so 1980s. The "Artisan Travel Club" would be a much more PC name. After all, we is all artisans.

i paid for the deluxe subscription for a couple of months, and found nothing new - now i can't find any way on their site to give feedback and try to get any of my money back - does anyone have any contact information?

tia!

The below contact info is from Chris' site (http://chrisguillebeau.com/contact/). You could also send Chris a message through the link I just provided. I didn't find any contact info on the actual Travel Hacking Cartel site.

Mailing Address
World Domination HQ
4110 SE Hawthorne Blvd #639
Portland, OR 97214

Phone
+1.503.852.1465

My first experience of how to reduce costs for travel and leverage miles was that book.
So don't tear it down too much. It's an informational primer, but more importantly its well written and exciting.
It made me interested and excited to learn more and for that the book was totally worth the price.