I agree with your concern about bloggers to some extent. But the numbers just don't warrant us not pointing out deals. The pageviews/viewers on flyertalk, fatwallet and slickdeals are considerably larger than any bloggers stats I know of.

And I think bloggers have a much more targeted, informed audience than the general public that hits FT, FW and SD who are more likely to blow the whistle on a good deal.

I see you are a long time member, 2004, that probably wants the good old days just like I do. I'm afraid congeniality and the spirit of helping one another without unneeded criticism is over and done with.

Nor have I, until I recently had to invoke this option
due to "his" constant outrageous "stuff" on AA e-shopping thread.
And I have seen a lot of "stuff".

The ignore function is pretty easy:
Just click on the name of the person you want to ignore,
and look around from there....@:-)

How about the bloggers got short term gains on the traffic, the click through, the page views, which I am sure would help them to get the Ad deals with more lucrative rebates arrangement. It feeds for itself.

Ingy, You have a good point on SD & FW being broader forums but some how you and the other travel bloggers, who I respect a lot, do get more attention on the travel stuff

That is why I don't have any hard/bad feelings about it. Most bloggers have been long time contributors to the travel community and weren't just searching for an extra buck or two. It was a natural progression and can be a lot of fun.

Darn - I just wish the FTD+Spa Finder still worked... That was a nice 2M+ Mile gig... My last order was a week or so before One Pass announced they would stop the double miles. There was still a working OnePass link for 25/$ even though it didn't show up on the One Pass page. I ordered two Baccarat Vases as the last hoorah for the double OnePass Miles.... That was ~$2.5k for over 130k miles... plus some very nice gifts people were amazed with. And I can't blame the one pass double miles ending on any blogger Just the FTD Spa Finder Part so it shows things do change, bloggers or not.

With all due respect - I'm sure you know some nice nuggets you don't share so some of us are bummed out when ours get out too.

I'm actually excluded from many of the private groups because I write a blog, so I miss out many of the secret deals early in their existence.

My personal philosophy has always been if you tell me to keep something quiet and off the blog I will until it is outed somewhere else, then it is fair game for all.

But they always come out. It is just a matter of time. The only thing we can do is be somewhat discreet. Personally not as tight as the trick it forum, but there is nothing wrong with making a rookie work for it a little bit.

Lol - trick it thread; that is one I never read as I thought anything good would be posted on a bloggers forum that I regularly read

Even on this one I just saw the title 'is it over' from the main forum page and it peaked my interest.

Being discrete, upon request, is one reason I've always kepy my respect for every blogger who came from FT... A truely wonderful group of people.

I just wish it wouldn't be fair game until its dead.

I think in response to the OP, yes the game is over. You can all go back to your previous hobbies before you discovered FT (SD/FW maybe?). Nothing to see here; move along.

To answer the OP, its not over, go after hotel cards if you wish, many are ripe for the picking. Perhaps you should just wait it out and let your score strengthen for upcoming offers. With regards to the blogs, I have to say that I read Rick's and Brian's blog everyday and appreciate all that they do. I don't see eye to eye on all their postings (Rick's recent Costco and Kiva), but I will otherwise continue to support these blogs because they both have good intentions and more often than not have resourceful info. As with many of you...patiently waiting and reloading for another round.

What does this have to do with the US Mint and my participation in these forums?


-OP starts a thread about his belief that the credit card offers are on the way down.

-I posted that I believe they are declining and one of the causes of that are because of bloggers like yourself encouraging scamming the system

-You state that the reason for putting that on your blog is that you just "report what I hear and get"

-I asked you to clarify why you posted the costco scam even though you "will not be using this technique. everybody has their line." but yet you will "edit comments that I personally feel are not a constructive addition to the blog."

-You attack me and ask that I don't question your moral compass and not to complain and to start my own blog

-I reply that as a shareholder of Costco I don't appreciate you encouraging others to scam Costco out of merchant fees

-You bring up the US Mint and my participation in these forums


Deflect much?


I understand why you're reacting the way you do. You make money by people signing up for credit cards. It's the reason your blog is littered with links. But encouraging people to scam Costco? Come on man. I won't even bring up your post on Kiva.


My point is: one of the reasons the offers are dying down are bloggers like yourself - those that encourage abusing the system. In the end it only hurts everyone. Yea, you may get a few extra signups...but in the end you're ultimately "biting the hand that feeds you".

That's a silly statement. Plenty of underground deals never see the light of day. Many deals work for years if used in a reasonable manner. If you stay under the radar anything is possible.

IMHO the Costco blog post is not appropriate.

*nod*

Seems to me they'll keep offering the big awards - the bigger concern is the inevitable devaluations which have already begun.

I think there's a big difference between credit card sign up bonuses, which are basically all "above board" and travel hacking, which is finding out loopholes or ways to maximize rewards in ways companies didn't intend.

There's nothing wrong with advertising credit card sign up bonuses, since businesses want to get customers to sign up with these terms.

The kind of middle gray area is advertising things like the citi AA 75k cards or the AMEX "bump the bonus" tricks. It was never really clear whether or not these offers were completely sanctioned by their parent companies. Or at least it seems plausible that the company leadership might have been unawares as to the scale of what was being given away to savvy customers.

Now it seems the flood of people bumping bonuses on AMEX cards has caused AMEX to stop giving out courtesy bumps entirely. A classic example of how the Internet changes the ball game. Twenty years ago a few people would have thought of the idea and called in to talk to a CSR asking for a favor and gotten it, and maybe some of their friends and family would have repeated the trick and gotten in on the deal. Now though, a few forum and blog posts and suddenly AMEX is $10 million in the whole in terms of rewards points.

Whether or not this is a good thing is hard to judge, but it seems to be a fact that deals once publicized get shut down pretty quickly. (Although the Citi AA cards are still going....)

Let me try answering for him: (clears throat) "I needed content, but I couldn't come up with anything good on my own, so when this landed in my inbox, I jumped on it. Then I realized it might upset people, so I tagged on a two-bit rationalization I thought would make me look like less of a jerk. At the end of the day, though, I don't owe anyone anything -- I have a right to make myself feel important by any means."