See my post immediately above (or on prev. page immediately preceding) but some people (inexplicably) believe you and colleagues to be an ombudsman by virtue of the fact that you are going to these PR meetings. While this is not your intent or desire - and I don't see how people even came to make this presumption - it does not appear to be uncommon, for better or worse.

:-:

I asked as many questions as I could, but they weren't about to reveal anything earth-shattering.
And obviously churning and dead links wasn't brought up AFAIK.

As far as adverse action is concerned, 1. That has really slowed down over the last couple months...don't want to poke the bear. 2. We met with the marketing folks whose goal it is to get new clients, the adverse action team doesn't exactly host lunches for bloggers.

I pointed out that he had posted a tip that was wrong (mainly in that you could use AA miles to go to Easter Island for cheap, even though it's the same price as a trip to Australia). Never got approved.

don't know what happened there and apologize. the only day we don't post all comments is on Monday as AA has asked we only post about them and their partners on the day they sponsor?.

So I just want to quote this to show that comments are, in fact, moderated heavily on your site (even a comment that was related to the post I commented on). This doesn't seem reader-friendly at all and makes the suggestion that you are in it more for the companies sponsoring your site rather than the readers who read it.

I'll be taking your site off my Google Reader list now. After that Howie rant a while back, it was on the chopping block anyway.

I did the same a few days ago, but for different reasons. I just got tired of listening to his son's, friends, in-laws, newbies, oldbies and out-laws trips and no substance on his site for credit cards! To me it's become more of a travel site? I already have sites that I go to to check out places I want to go. Basicly I just lost interest.

FWIW, bringing up the question about account closures would probably not have yielded any sensible answers. From my personal experience with Chase, I don't think that just applying for yet another credit card would put your other accounts at risk UNLESS there are some other contributing factors in play (although I would hate to be wrong on this issue). A few months ago I decided to apply for a new Chase United card, but I had held other 6 Chase cards at that time. So I called before applying, and the CSR assured me I had nothing to worry about since all my accounts were in a great shape. She insisted they would never close other accounts just for applying unless there had been some red flags already in place. Whether or not that was true, I was approved for the 7th card, although it did of course require a transfer from another card.

+1. The same happened to me. I called reconsideration right after applying for my 7th card (SW). I insisted on them cancelling my Marriott card even though the agent was willing to approve me without cancellation. I had the annual fees coming up and had no intention of keeping that card

Telling marketing people why people hesitate to buy their product almost always brings a reaction of some type. If nothing else, it would have established a concern on the part of the bloggers in the room, and their concern would have been a reason for the marketing people to note.

As for your experience on the phone, one conversation with one CSR proves nothing except what happened in your case, on that day. The account closures are not, to my knowledge, being done by customer service reps.

You can't say "Internet Brands has so far given me 100% control of content without interference." in one breath and then say "AA only lets through comments about them" in the next.

I hope on the positive side the bloggers told Chase we really do appreciate the fact they employ human beings who pick up their phones quickly. It makes a big difference in my loyalty to that company. I just got off the phone after a 73 minute wait to talk to a human at US Airways.

People actually read those blogs in the first place?

There's no magic here. These guys sit here and read this website and then vomit it back out on their blogs. Very little creative thought and original content, all they seem to do is publicize good things to the masses which then ruin them. The credit card companies are well aware of what we do, yes, but that's not the point. Schemes like churning seem to get ruined when everyone starts doing them after reading about them on some yahoo's blog. So in short, it's not the publicity, it's the volume created by these blogs.

Why not? I negotiated the deal with AA insuring them that on Monday comments would be only about AA related stuff. IB had nothing to do with that. And it is actually the most popular day for reader comments. Why not submit a tip on Mondays about AA and see if your tip is chosen as the most useful?

+1

I have to agree with you.

So where in the post does it say that reader comments can only be about the corporation sponsoring?