amolkold

Also, regardless of who you think "owns" information (no one does), I still find it hilarious that all the bloggers talked about the Discover America promos. How many Hyatt packages were there available ... 165 or so? How many blogs have readerships that are 10-25x this number? This wasn't a sustainable promotion, there was a limited number, yet they told all their readers about it. It ended up pitting readers against readers for the limited number of packages. Hardly a way to foster community.

tjbrooks

Gary - Deeply Involved with MilePoint
FTG - Owned by FlyerTalk parent co.
They're direct competitors.

Set up Google Reader with the site RSS feeds. You're wasting so much time visiting their websites.

mnscout

That's faulty logic. When you have the information you, at least, have a fighting chance. When you don't have the information, then... well, then you don't. Does NOT providing you the information help you as a reader? Or does it make you mad at the blogger who decided not to share the info in order to "protect" you?

darkhunter

wow pretty simplistic there. It is a pretty big country ya know and with a thing called speed limits it can take a long time to get from 1 point to the other. Would you really drive cross country from NYC to LAX for example. I seriously doubt it unless that was the point of the trip, like a RV month long tour the country kinda thing.

Yeah driving is nice if you are going maybe like 1 state away, sure, the child is more comfortable in the car and like you said stop any time you want, etc.

But like I am in Ohio for example, if I want to go to Florida I am probably going to fly. A 2hr flight just beats a 17hr drive plain and simple.

Again assuming the USA anyways, I know flyertalk is global. If it was Europe you would have good high speed train options. We just do not really have that here.

ramalama8

I really wish you guys would lay off MommyPoints. She provides a service, calls it something, but if it's really no different from any other blogs, what's it to you? Geez. Just something to be snide about for ya? I don't know her myself, I've got no skin in this game, but I've visited her site a few times. She does it under the guise of being family oriented, and I appreciate that. You can't tell her that she doesn't get satisfaction out of hearing trip reports where families are able to go places they otherwise wouldn't be able to. Maybe she really does. If I was in her position, I would probably feel the same satisfaction. And there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, there may be everything right with that.

Look, criticize the bloggers all you want - I don't care. But let's not pick on someone because she adds in an additional element to her reasoning for blogging, and/or because she participated in this thread. That's just petty.

rizwank

It's unclear where the new guys go to join in; unfortunately.

QL_714

You don’t go anywhere. The old saying is “you don’t find them, they will find you”.

LIH Prem

I'm just saying we had a similar thought. It doesn't matter who does it, I think it's a good idea. Making it work is another story.

-David

oliver2002

She just gives the points collection thing a twist to create a niche/following, perfectly understandable. @:-)

Most blogs out there cater to the crowd that is single or with no kids and plenty of time to travel. Many of them condense the info available here on FT, some blab about deals that are either not talked about on FT or available in some encrypted form. I've not seen a blogger dare to detail the current FDs, probably aware of the sh!tstorm that would kick off. The RGN currency error also found no significant mention.

In Germany we have a weirdo who makes money of the tips farmed off FT/VFT & blogs by offering a newsletter at a price of 60€/yr where you get a monthly digest of all offers and the occasional 'extra extra read all about it' newsflash deal alert. Certainly a business model some enterprising folks should explore... @:-) all his links are tagged with affiliate referrals, and the latest this month is a CC with an 49€ annual fee that offers a 30€ cash back:

http://www.first-class-and-more.de/Sonderaktion

Now that would be a neat idea for a blogger... I'm sure CC churners would love that

tangey

"agree with you 100% GregoryGrady. I couldn't have worded it better myself and I would love to do anything to at least get credit card referrals out of their pockets and maybe diverted to a charity like Red Cross or something"

cause flyertalk members are mostly interested in finding deals for the benefit of charities ?

A closed forum may be of great benefit to some. Of course the other side of the coin is by nature some good deals are found by people who don't travel 100-200 days a year, and are found either by great research or by being stumbled upon. These folks won't be a member of this closed group. They might more likely be a member of flyertalk and post the deal here. So effectively the closed group will be at times feeding of the open group and become exactly what they were set-up to prevent, non-flyertalk groupings benefiting from deals posted on flyertalk. Or does that suddenly become ok now, as long as the "few" get all the deals ?

Also becomes a bit of a problem for deals that require new people to keep it going, i.e. referrals...by nature most being referred are new to the particular deal, or maybe totally new. So does this new closed group come onto flyertalk and "harvest" new people to act as referral fodder ?

Astrophsx

I love that this thread is 20+ pages!!

Honestly.. if it were 2009 how many comments would this thread have? 5? Pretty sure that most of these blogs won't be around in a few years. Usually websites get less hits when their content goes downhill.

Has anyone gone back to look and see which bloggers (if any) talked to the media about the coin deal? Notice that some of these bloggers get their content republished on websites like USA Today.

Tiki

Not necessarily, people always flock to watch a train wreck and in any sort of journalism, even blogging any kind of publicity whether good or bad is good.

I am curious as to why the FD thread is considered sacred, for those who support bloggers who mess up deals like Discover America, why shouldn't they also be allowed to blog about the Trick-it thread?

The other thing is that the biggest reason deals disappear is because those who exploit them don't consider what the sponsor is trying to achieve and at least pretend to give it to them so they will continue the deal. So we have one female blogger (notice how I never name names) going off half-cocked raving about "OMG this is the most fantabulous deal ever, you can buy Wyndham points at a fraction of the cost which can be converted to enough miles to go to Paris.................and then you can use your Choice points to stay in Paris for $40 a night.........fantastic deal for FAMILIES.......yada yada yada". She wasn't the ONLY blogger to mention it but she was the most cheerleader-ish about how to exploit it in a way NOT intended by the sponsor. Now correct me if I am wrong, but don't the marketing people read blogs and other social media that give them insights into the success of their promotion? So put yourself in the position of the marketing executives of US Travel/Discover America and this is what you are reading? Guess what is going to happen to this promo next year? Going to be a LOT more restrictive, don't expect to see points on offer, it's going to be vouchers like Marriott is doing but for ALL the hotel chains. Why should the US Travel company want to subsidize our J class tickets to Europe?

If some of us are angry at the bloggers, we have good reason to be when they use poor judgement and a desire to boost their personal income (credit card referrals) in such a way that ruins deals. Just once, I was hoping someone would get a clue and blog about what a great opportunity to stay at a wonderful Hawaiian resort or a family trip to Orlando or anything that would give the sponsors the effect they were after and motivate them to continue giving us promos like this every year and preferably increase the quantities. If you plan to use the points for other than travel in the USA - at least be discreet about it-don't rub the sponsor's nose in it!

When the Discover America program shows up next year, drastically changed, we will all know who to blame.

missbeana

Tiki:

I totally agree. While everyone was waiting for the Choice presale code, a bunch of people were asking what the points could be used for. I messaged a bunch of people to keep it off of the facebook page. I went back after 1pm to see how many people had gotten the deal and so many people blabbed that you could use the points anywhere, not just in the USA, hey go to Paris, blah blah blah.

Ughhhh it's hard enough finding deals but even as a newbie and a lurker I just wish people would use a little more discretion.

artemis021

So you lurk and try to glean info from people about deals but then try to keep it under cover for everyone else? Seriously-going so far as to PM people not to talk about it on the facebook page? And then you complain how hard it is to find deals? lol.

Stoughton

No, but the constant whiners are