LowFlyOver

Right. This is why, as a domestic flyer mostly, I focus on signup bonuses and minimum spend. I will do so until the music dies. In other words:

To every card
Churn, churn, churn
There is a season
Churn, churn, churn

tjbrooks

You can't use a card that doesn't exist anymore in an argument. And i dont think any blogger is recommending a 1cpm card for everyday spending. But to play along, by your own reasoning its acceptable to net 50K miles from $50K spend then redeem for a $1500 F ticket, but horrible to net 25K miles from $25K spend then use it on a $375 Y ticket on the same exact flight. Its 3cpm vs 1.25cpm, but that 1.75cpm difference is BS for the majority of travelers (most FT'ers I'd guess). It's "aspirational" value, something that you can't afford without miles. High CPM is just a bragging/reference tool unless you would actually pay that out-of-pocket.
I see value in Int'l premium, getting my dad on AF J last minute for a funeral, for 100K SkyPesos. The flight "cost" $8000+, but a marginal benefit over ANZ Prem Economy for $2000, so real cpm was ~2cpm. For me/my dad.

HansGolden

I was approved for the Fidelity 2% cash back Amex last month and it's still available.

tjbrooks

But that deposits into a Fidelity investment product, or am I mistaken? Can the rewards actually be cashed out?
I assumed the poster was referencing the ex-Schwab 2% true cash back that turned into FIA/Fidelity.

ffI

It can go into a fidelity brokerage account- It can then be withdrawn at any time.

84fiero

This may be the only good thing to come out of this thread - we have here the start of a FT theme song!

thtsapaddlin

Could someone please PM me all "under the radar deals" and invite me to the secret clubs?

Thanks.

Jerichohill

Okay so, I am a "noob" but I have some comments after reading this thread.

1) We were all "noobs" once. It's not very nice to read some of the comments on this thread. I don't feel welcomed.

2) I learned alot about the credit card game from bloggers, and from posters here on FT. They both have their uses. I'm very grateful for the advice I got from posters here. With advice and tips from both sources, my wife and I are taking a month long trip to Asia in Biz/First for almost nothing. The advice I received will pay dividends for our quality of life for years.

3) Even though I'm by no means an expert, after success in (2) I helped a few friends pull their own churn. I do not think "hoarding" knowledge is the mark of a healthy community. Shouldn't the posters here want to gain more like minded posters? How are you going to develop them?

hobo13

Your math seems pretty bad. If you use 25k miles on a $375 flight, you just redeemed at 1.5 cpm, not 1.25 cpm. That's not great, but not horrible. I cringe at the bloggers saying that it's OK to put $25k of spend on a card, get 25k miles, and then use them on a <$250 flight to go see the grandfolks. Yes, I believe some bloggers out there dispense this as advice.

belfordrocks

If that's what you want to spend your miles on, that's absolutely fine- means more Lufthansa first class award space for me. Chances are, you'll probably get more enjoyment that way too. But it doesn't mean it's necessarily better value than premium cabin redemptions...

napilimom

Canarsie

You are correct.

However, everyone has different values and will therefore apply them in different ways.

Sure, traveling as a passenger in a premium-class cabin can be an excellent — and perhaps even opulent — experience. However, I do not drink alcoholic beverages nor need the extra seat width associated with a premium class cabin. Therefore — in certain cases — I find more value using my miles on more flights in the economy class cabin to take me to more places around the world than fewer flights in the premium class cabin.

Sure, I like the extra legroom, the upgraded meals and the complimentary use of the in-flight entertainment system in the premium cabin any day over the options of the economy class cabin. However, I have traveled to Prague, Singapore, Paris and Tokyo from the United States and survived just fine, thank you.

I also enjoy getting that suite upgrade with lounge access on the top floor of an expensive hotel — but that huge room can get lonely if you are there all by yourself, and I get uncomfortable with over-attentive service after a while. A comfortable bed in an inexpensive hotel room will do just fine for me in many cases — especially if I can use significantly fewer points.

Many of the “bloggers” espouse repeatedly about premium service and upgraded amenities. That serves a certain niche market and provides useful information. However, not everybody uses their miles and points for the premium experience. Sometimes quantity over quality works better than quality over quantity — but that is up to the preference of the reader. I personally do what I can to take advantage of both so that I can maximize my miles and points in terms of squeezing as many flights and hotel rooms out of them as I can, while sometimes using them for premium experiences — especially if they are offered at a discount through a promotion, for example.

In the Trip Reports forum on FlyerTalk, sometimes I get more enjoyment reading about the excited person who used miles for the first time in the economy class section of a flight than about the jaded person who has booked a suite and taken a shower on every airplane on every airline that offers that experience.

Finally, I do not believe that “bloggers” are ruining FlyerTalk. I do believe, however, that there needs to be more differentiation between the topics about which they write and stick to those topics — for example, if the weblog is about Air India and the entry posted is about how to get a suite at a Starwood hotel, that is like The Weather Channel showing Blazing Saddles as a feature movie. It is inconsistent and just does not work.

I also believe that there should be a sharing of deals, but with enough discretion used where the deals would not be “killed off” — and if that means not posting a weblog entry about the deal altogether, so be it...

cloudeleven

Exactly. FlyerTalk doesn't "own the rights" to the deals that get posted here. The deals are public information, they could be posted on blogs, in newspapers, announced on TV news, posted on flyers in hallways, etc. No reason why an FTer should feel more entitled to a deal than anyone else on or off the Internet.

I sense some entitlement, selfishness, and sense of superiority in OP's post.

milevalue

I've noticed a lot of talk the last page or two about cpm and valuing an award. My blog has a calculator to calculate cpm on an award.

The very first entry into the calculator is the lesser of the cash price and your subjective value of an award. In all cases of international premium travel, my subjective valuation of the award is way below its cash price.

I think the only intellectually honest way to value awards is by using the lesser of the cash price and your subjective valuation. I do it in all my posts.

Also any valuation should explicitly account for the fact that using an award forgoes miles you would have earned on a paid ticket.

I give this information to try to help the confusion in this thread over cpm, but also because this is an area where a blog can help flyertalk, not ruin it.

There's no way to post the calculator on flyertalk or have it always be at the top of the page, like it is on my blog.

Blogs and flyertalk are substitutes in some sense, but complements in others. They both have their uses.

Raffles

Not entirely true. You cannot own a CC bonus, but you can own some twist to a promo or a mileage run or a fare error, and this is fundamentally the point under discussion.

Credit card bonuses are not an issue ( it is not as if they get closed down after 500 people have applied). It is the fact that the cards fund the bloggers.

If none of this were an issue, then the 'private' boards which have sprung up would not exist.