intuition

I am pro a separate "Premium deals" forum. I have no well formed opinion on the economy deals but I am leaning towards "remove it and let Milage runs handle all"

I have the exact same view as armagebedar as to why there should be some kind of threshold.

There are many good deals that are not mistake fares. The economy deals are mostly for the fast moving crowd, but for premium deals we (the participants) often need a bit more time to find out if it can fit our needs. Knowing that the thread is not wide open and so non-mistakes good-deals will live a bit longer would only be a good thing.

A premium mistake-fare (presumably short-lived ) could easily fit into the normal thread of milage runs instead.



Making Premium deal into a forum would also open up for some more structure. With some help of moderators the main thread of premium deals could keep focus on the deals and specific discussions around them, while more general discussions could move to better places.

Added to above - I am here assuming that the new forum would still include a master "Premium deals" thread. If the intention is to make every deal a separate thread, I am against the proposal.

GuyverII

Agreed, I find myself mulling over these premium deals for a few days. Would prefer a bit more restricted access for those with a set minimum post count.

Global321

I read (and add when I can) to premium deals. The reality is there are not a lot of posts to this thread. 1,850 for the year so far... on pace for 2,400-2,500.

Making this thread a forum will mean clicking up down into individual threads for 1-2 posts and probably a lot of redundancy. e.g. a deal on Delta from east coast cities is a post. When AA matches, some one could post in a new thread, or post in the "Delta thread"... and what happens when the midwest cities are added to the deal? More threads or add to existing thread(s).

I would suggest leaving Premium as-is.

German Expat

After some more thought one issue I have is that the premium deals thread gets very cluttered with discussions that are sometimes helpful but nevertheless the relation between a premium fare deal vs added discussions is probably 1:10, for 1 deal u get at least 9 more posts with questions or other issues.
Is there a way to keep the deal from the discussions a little more separated ? Its probably not easily possible in the existing structure but what would help is to have the deals in one thread and if I want to read or follow up on discussions for this particular deal then click through to them.

why fly

Mileage run deals needs to be restricted to members who are signed in.

JDiver

Friday afternoon is a s-l-o-w day - yet at this moment, 1649 hrs / 4:49 PM Pacific on Friday, 28 Sep 2012, we have 281 (110 members & 171 guests) browsing the Mileage Run Deals Forum.

I am not a denizen of that forum, but it may say something to those of you discussing the pros and cons, whether the MRD forum should be open only to those signed in or / and only to those with 180 days / 180 posts.

tcook052

Likely thanks to the still glowing embers of another ex RGN deal fire sale which blew up last night and is only dying down now it's been pulled.

JDiver

The Forum seems to get more action than we might otherwise believe. Slow Saturday noonish Pacific and yet - 256 (83 members & 173 guests).

1 member to 2 guests; wow!

hbush

Sure. With quite possible emerging of something like closed elite, so to say "Inner Party" (see Orwell's "1984") it's well worth to listen if / how do I get in ;-)

On topic: Speaking seriously, except massive real life personal checks (probably unaffordable to FT) there will be no way to keep out airline representatives anyway, should they wish to join such closed society. Or to detect if / when somebody might simply make some offer to hypothetical already existing member... Pardon me being maybe too skeptical.

FlyerChrisK

No matter how secretive such a forum is, we always will face the risk that popular bloggers will catch wind of it and post it in a far less private venue for the world to see. Many of the top bloggers have high post counts, so post-count restrictions are moot. Banning people from sharing the information they learn is unenforceable.

I'm pro-additional forums as it'd improve organization (and mean I don't have to sift through a massive good deals thread periodically).

seacarl

I'm for creating the forums if they are hidden until members have proven some staying power, like 1000 posts.

A great premium deal deserves to be shared. Since it will be pulled anyway, share it before it dies.

What use is keeping something like the RGN fare a secret? People won't book more than 1 or 2 of those. It requires positioning to a fairly unusual place.

Why not let others find it, on a limited basis, until it is pulled?

tcook052

Careful as so high a threshold would disqualify you.

seacarl

I'll take that risk. I don't post a lot, but I'm really not worried about reaching 1000

seacarl

I could always go to some PWP

JDiver

I am neither advocating pro or con, merely passing on some observations.

Airline personnel already monitor fora limited to 180 / 180 posters, such as The Coupon Connection. There is no doubt they are here. But what might be debatable is how often they check in, and how many would actually register (one can lurk the forum already without even signing up or in), and how many would actually register and persist sufficiently.

I don't know those answers, obviously; it's merely grist for the mill.

I also don't know if a very high posts/days threshold would be contemplated, as it might not be in synch with what FT does already.