Did the free trial, cancelled with no hassle 3 days later, realized it was nothing special... perhaps its good for people who are too lazy to look at rick's or brian's blog or even here once a month. In any case not for me.

I'd just like to add that, while I knew about this forum for years, it was the Cartel and Chris' books that made me finally give wading through all of these endless threads a shot. I don't have much time, but I have even less money to throw at paying $50 for books and such. I would also like to add that I WOULD pay for these products, just at a much lower price-point. Like say, $12 for the book and $15 yearly Cartel subscription.

It was Chris as well that opened my eyes on Travel Hacking in general. His post about the different credit card signups that garnered him 500k or so inspired hundreds of people to do the same and he also kept a tally of how many miles/points they accumulated together.

I'm curious since you guys seem pretty big on promoting his website... if he is earning 500,000 in on year based solely on credit card sign ups... I'm guessing that's a minimum of 5-10 new credit cards in one year. Each credit card has a minimum spend of $1,000-5,000... so is he telling you how to meet the yearly spend now that the mint is gone. I know of a few ways, but the website to me would seem absolutely a waste of money if he did not also detail how to meet the required spending. If you want to know about credit card sign ups for points 5 minutes in MilesBuzz will get you that for free.

It seems pretty expensive to me for information that is usually available for free. I agree that Flyertalk is a kind of fire hose of information. It is good for us travel geeks, but not necessarily for everyone. There are both free and paid options that provide simplification. I don't see any reason to go with a paid one when you can get the information for free. Note that the free (and probably some paid) sites are usually ad/referral supported, so you do need to make your own judgement on the author's intellectual integrity.

I know this first hand since I run one of these sites. My site is free and supported by ads/referrals. I will state that my site is not biased, but you shouldn't believe me (or anyone else) - you should investigate it for yourself. One easy thing to look for if a site is promoting credit card bonus offers is if the 75,000 Citibank American offers features prominently. They are great offers and I don't believe that a blogger can benefit from them. If you see someone promoting a 30k or similar Citibank AAdvantage offer instead, you know they are looking after their own wallet instead of yours. Also, trust your gut!

Reaching spend requirements are entirely the applicants problem. Funneling all your spending through credit cards will easily make your reach $25k a year. After that, you need ingenuity to continue earning.

I understand that for experienced people, this site is not any better than what's available out there for free. However, I am just starting to get into this, and honestly the amount of info out there is overwhelming and I don't have any idea how to even get started.

For a newbie, is this a good site to get me going in the right direction?

This site is a little too busy for a newbie, you should visit here, but try to check out some of these blogs:

Frugal Travel Guy
The Points Guy
View From The Wing

There are many others, but these are the big 3 in my opinion. Follow these blogs and visit Flyertalk and you will start to understand. It's difficult to start because of the volume of information. Good luck.

Yes, I've definitely noticed this from the some of blogs I have been perusing this weekend. Great point.

On another note, I also wanted to clarify that the prospect of paying for Chris' products brought me here, not that the products inspired me to come here. I have only done the 14 day trial.

Is he paid by the word (like Dickens)?

That is a great "quick test" of a blogger's motives.

Although now, I don't think the 75K deal is working any more. But, if the blog now features the still working 50K offer, instead of the 30K offer, that can still be a good test.

TennisPro,
Thank you, I should have been quicker to update my note. The last of the 75,000 offers are no longer available as of this week. They have been replaced by 50,000 offers that should be available for this month, at least. I barely just got through updating my site to switch from the 75k $1,500 spends to the $4,000 spends when those disappeared as well. In summary, I agree, the test should still work at 50k vs 30k.

All: My apologies. I was reminded that I am not allowed to link to my own for-profit site (but I guess other people can link to it since there are plenty of other for-profit links in this thread), but if you are interested, it is called Free Travel Genius and FT does allow me to have a link to it in my FT public profile.

The goal of my site is to make the process of traveling for free/very cheap (aka "travel hacking") very easy, primarily via credit card offers. It is not for the typical FTer but may be a good free option for someone considering paying for the Cartel. If anyone doesn't like my site or finds any errors, I would appreciate any constructive criticism (I guess I'll deal with any non-constructive criticism as well). If you do find it helpful, I would greatly appreciate any publicity (links, facebook likes, google pluses, etc.). The site is designed to make revenue, though it doesn't do enough to pay for publicity.

Thank you and again, my apologies.

I like your site! Very nice!!!! ^^

Thank you!

I know I am late to comment on this thread, but I saw a review in PCWorld magzine about the travel hacking cartel. I have been on Flyer talk for many years and enjoy reading everyone's opinions. I went to the website and it looks like a gotcha type of deal. I just don't know if this is the kind of product worth paying for since I don't really like credit cards that much. I have avoided a loyalty card for travel for years because I was worried it would mess up my credit. I appreciate all the work that flyer talkers do and post because they have helped me so much. Maybe the travel hacking cartel has changed since the last post on this thread? Anyone with experience or stories to share about travel hacking cartel?