There will be an article in the magazine of the upcoming Sunday Times entitled "Points of No Return." A different version was posted on the NYT.com web site yesterday under the heading "The Man Who Turned Credit-Card Points Into an Empire". The article is likely paywalled.

The hook is Brian Kelly and him bringing points, miles, and CC churning to the mainstream. But the fairly comprehensive article goes much deeper than that, discussing the MS community among other things which is obv more nerdish than the target audience of TPG. The experience of several veterans of FT and BoardingArea are discussed, too.

On the one hand, I find the article pretty decent journalism. On the other hand, I'm afraid this article is just an indication of our hobby going down the drain.

An analogy would be online poker: 15 years ago, any intelligent person with a willingness to study the right forum could make $100 profit an hour playing online poker. Nowadays, the game has advanced tremendously, it's gotten waay less profitable, and even online stakes as low as $50 buy-in can only be consistently beat by expert players who put in the required volume, have a decent grasp of game theory, etc.

In the miles & points game, of course, the enemy is big data, business intelligence, data analytics, whatever you want to call it and not your fellow FTer. The article is more optimistic than me, noting that travel remains as aspirational as ever. As so many people love it, there will remain to be businesses trying to modify people's behavior by provided travel-related miles and points as the carrot. I don't disagree qualitatively.... However, I am much more skeptical about the quantitative possibilities. In my view, technology will get better and better and make it harder and harder for a select few to earn outsized rewards. Just my 2c. Again, really good article.

Yeah, it kind of read like the typical advertising/marketing insert, but veiled as a legit section/article.

I agree with the analogy to online poker and as a former online poker player I've had the same thought. Free money doesn't last forever.

I'm surprised by all the hostility toward TPG. If you don't like the site, don't visit. Several common taters seem very angry. I have not visited TPG in several months, just as I have not visited FT, but in the past I have occasionally found some useful info on TPG. Perhaps some folks are jealous that they did not have the foresight to start a similar website 10 years ago? I know nothing about Brian Kelly, but more power to him. As for CC bonus points, I have not seen any changes in bank underwriting since COVID. My wife and I still managed to collect 500K in bonuses during 2020, in addition to what we earned from spending, and the little bit that I earned from actually flying before COVID. My 20-year old daughter had no problem getting two new cards this year, despite her meager income from part time jobs, and my younger daughter was approved for a card with a 70K bonus on her 18th birthday. It's all good. Someday, the pandemic will be behind us, and our family will have a couple million points burning a whole in our collective pockets. I'm not booking anything yet, but I still enjoy exploring my options from time to time.

Ah, God bless America.

We can help you with that - https://www.businessinsider.com/the-...profile-2020-3

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Sir, I am offended. I am a remarkable spud.

If you don't know anything about Brian Kelly and his unethical business practices, perhaps you should educate yourself before casting aspersions at others and name-calling.

Not everyone is jealous of millionaires who lack a moral compass.
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I am reluctant to judge somebody I have never met. Over the past 30 years, I have fired several employees for incompetence, and I'm sure some of those would have negative comments about me, yet none of them saw fit to leave until I pushed them out. Every boss has disgruntled former employees.

Thanks for illustrating my point. Do you have any employees? If so, do you think all of your former employees sing your praises? Personally, I would not call anybody unethical unless I had first hand knowledge of their behavior. All successful business people must bear accusations, often false. That's just a fact of life these days.

There are full versions of that Business Insider article outside of paywalls if you Google. You may change your view.

I think you misunderstand. My assessment of his ethics is not based on any former employees' statement - though, as an intelligent human, I am able to evaluate the credibility of such statements. Rather, my judgment that his business practices are unethical are based on my first hand knowledge of his business practices -- as reflected by his blog and his own "first-hand" statements reported on said blog and in media interviews.

You appear to be impressed by his wealth. Wealth does not equal being a noble human being, and business "success" does not immunize one from criticism. That's just a fact of life "these days" and indeed throughout history.

[redacted] Personally, I would not call anybody jealous unless I had first hand knowledge.

Spring cleaning at TPG:

I've definitely noticed that TPG must be desperate for content. Nothing but stuff about RV rentals, national park visits, and rental cars. And of course the weekly recycled and repackaged Disney World posting. BK has been doing lots more TV interviews in what amounts to some weak attempts at website advertisement. That sound you hear is TPG circling the drain.

RVentures must be mining for marketing deals as we speak. The question is if they will be able to get the lucrative & exclusive promo deals from the travel & leisure and banking industry as everyone comes out of their pandemic hibernation.

I stopped reading any of their blogs months ago. Do they still hire people who would have ten spelling errors and use ten exclamations if they were to have written this post?