I think I started my blog at the best time as the whole Vanilla/5x thing met its abrupt demise. The material that this “event” provided me to write, err I mean rant, about was immense. I actually had to delete stuff as the blog post was getting way too long (imagine that!). Well, it appears all the noise has come down substantially, the weather almost everywhere has been phenomenal this weekend and not much is happening in this space! And also so many bloggers are enjoying themselves at another Star Mega DO
So I am experiencing what other bloggers undoubtedly go through, the sheer agony/fear/blogger’s block of what to write about to stay relevant and keep gaining new readers and bringing the old ones coming back. Well, I could throw a mindless filler post like “oh, here everyone, you can get 50k points if you click my credit card link”!
Of course, the really lazy greedy bloggers shamelessly do that. Most come up with some type of “relevant” post that has been repeated to death and then some and then, very conveniently/smoothly/slickly, slip in yet another credit card link. This happens over and over and over again…it is so repetitive it reminds me of
this lady:
I wish I could come up with a hack that each time a blogger slipped in yet another credit card link this lady again would instantly pop up in their computer and scream
“How conveeeeenient!” Apparently there is some type of bet going on to guess the date when my blog adds credit card links. I was even offered them by a veteran blogger which makes me wonder about: a) holy cow, my blog of just four days old has shattered hits records & all these mega companies are in a bidding war to sign me up (please laugh, I am!) b) he is pulling my leg and waiting for me to call him to talk numbers (keep waiting!) c) this must be some type of MLM recruiting thing going on & they “want to sign me first” to get a cut from my income (hope you are still laughing from a, I am!). At this point, I am not even sure I can keep up this pace. Remember this is still in beta!
I lead a pretty full and happy life and my two kids (domestic terrorism they do best) kick my ass daily. I have been talking about doing this for many years (please see my
introductory post!) and I was just looking to find a niche (because God knows the internet does not need yet another dozen links conveniently placed in another filler blog post!). I see this as a way to release my suppressed natural talents to the whole internet world! (you are laughing, good!).
Anyways, there will be more credit card rants in the future, you can bank (pun intended) on that!
Maybe my efforts will shame the bloggers (ok, now I am laughing….hard!) and stop them from blinding us with so many freaking credit card links DAILY! We can’t take it anymore, my stomach turns when I see so many of them. There has to be a better way to show respect and still make a living to allow you to do what you do! Maybe
Frequent Miler does this in a respectful way huh and not insult our intelligence.
I have a lot more to say on the subject. Let me leave some stuff for other days please!
Ben experienced an
earthquake in Bangkok. Ok, who cares! Actually, the only reason this is here because of the incredibly funny video, must watch imho! Sweet Jesus! Oh, we don’t care about how United added another perk to Global Services. I fantasize about Global Services and I know it is not happening in this lifetime!
More signs that
Delta is preparing for the mega chop to theSkymiles Elites by being the first legacy airline to go all rev based. The geniuses in the Delta IT dept may have “unintentionally” shone a light to the coming announcement! I am NOT sure it was unintentional, this airline does NOT do too many unintentional things! The broken award search engine IS intentional to get people to be excited they finally found two free tickets to
Orlandofrom
Chicago for only 50k Skymiles each roundtrip. It was NEVER fixed so passengers will spend a heck of a lot more miles! It is a BUSINESS decision! Well, I had enough of this crap. This is the last year as Platinum and have just requalified for Silver. I am taking beaubo’s approach that making Elite is just not worth it anymore (my flying is on my own dime!). Burn the miles and fly free instead! Anyways, I have been saying for a long time that Delta will do this and eventually all of them will do it. The days of making top Elite for cheap mileage runs is almost OVER! I can’t wait for Delta Points dude to rave about “our beloved airline” when that happens!
Frequently Miler with another great post of the day after thedemise of the 5x OD deal. He lists some other prepaid cards & let you go from there. No spoonfeeding. I like the cautions also but, as we all know, the hogs are probably out there buying these cards dozens at a time. The key finding is: It is EASY to meet minimum spend requirements!!
MMS comes back and writes AGAIN about Bluebird. A separate post about how to load money from debit cards. Wow, brilliant! Well, at least, no pictures of arrows and wife pics this time. That IS progress! You know, they will be back.
Rick writes about…
credit for newbies. Preparing the ground for some more cc signups always (am afraid this is the start of a series of posts). I actually LIKE that younger folks are afraid of credit. Their parents were not and they were the ones ODing on credit that greedy banks gladly served them & they were responsible for almost bringing the whole system down! Some folks (most I would say) SHOULD NEVER BE LEFT ALONE WITH A SINGLE CREDIT CARD! Have you ever thought about the damage done to someone who gets a card from your (and all others) site who screws up and CAN’T handle it? Someone whose life is ruined as the balances and the atrocious interest keeps piling up? The agony they feel? Well, you may say, THEY control their own destiny as you count the money rolling in. And how about “credit is your most important asset”? You used to at least say that…somewhere at the bottom. Ok, that was a mini rant. I have control issues as you are all finding out. Full disclosure: I have NEVER carried a balance, I CAN handle it!
Milevalue must have had a very busy weekend. He comes back to tell us about the intro to his talk at FTU about
free oneways (I will be attending) and then he tells us about…Bluebird and no more 5x…Gasp!
The comments in
Gary’s Vanilla post have been getting kind of ugly! And Gary is usually pretty cool and this is the first time I see him lose his cool that I can remember (have been reading his blog since day 1). His back and forth with a“gregorygrady” is kind of funny actually.
Gary goes off on comment 54:
I’m thinking about ACTUALLY posting under the radar deals. The more bashing gregorygrady or his alter ego does, or that abcx does, the more I ‘out’. Want to see which credit unions allow credit card funding (as purchases) of new accounts on this blog? Or which frequent flyer programs allow free award flights with every new signup? Just keep coming back. I use a tremendous amount of discretion here in what I write. I don’t ever share anything given to me in confidence. I don’t break ‘grey area’ stuff first. But I know more about this game than probably 85% of the folks on the private forum that gregorygrady is a part of. GIVE IT A REST.
Hopefully that can be more effective than an IP ban (across all of the various IPs the trolls have used).
Oooh.. A how-to guide on fuel dumps, complete with city pairs.
Or, y’all can give it a rest. Are we cool?
And Cory has the best comment: “If only bitching on the comments sections was worth 5x UR points per coherent thought.” [hey, how about bitching in the body of posts like I do here!!!!]
Not sure if you caught the draft from that comment above, u know, about them Private Forums…Spooky music in the background now…Ok, I stop here. Next! Well, I saw a mention about The Travel Hacking Cartel membership site in Chris Elliot’s email newsletter. Do NOT fork over your money in anything coming from this guy. I bet he was talking about 5x/OD/BB too…Then again, maybe he did not even know it!
There are others…Lips are sealed, do NOT ask or it will show up on MMS blog with pics & yellow arrows, lol
Speaking of innovation in this exploding space, this dude decided to write an
interactive book (he has earned millions of miles & has 15 credit cards, wow, what can I say, should we be in awe or something?). The interesting thing he says is the resources area is ONLY for members. Maybe this is another trend happening…going private. I guess way too much spoonfeeding is happening everywhere!
You bet your Award Wallet balances that whoever buys this will be served Chase cc links for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Beware!
WorldWanderlusting.com has a post touting the amazing features of the Chase Ink Bold card. This will be number #9,675,901 that this was mentioned on the internet. Like I said above, some blogs exist only to push credit cards to EVERYONE. Nothing else. Sad!
Travelsort has a “Which Ink Business Card Offer to Apply?” After taking a few days off to post some relevant travel stuff, here we go again! Beware of this site, sometimes I see stuff ends up here after being seen elsewhere! Didn’t I say above that some sites exist for…
Like this:
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Love your content and humor!
More snark! Keep it coming! I guess your forefathers invented σαρκασμός, yet I doubt they had travel cc bloggers in mind.
@Anonymous: Thank you for the kind words, I appreciate it!
@Oliver: My forefathers invented satire too among so many things! They also invented tragedy which only became apparent years later after they went totaly nuts on credit cards:-)
I saw Rick’s offer to “help” on the affiliate side. LOL. He is the pro of this business. Yes it’s a MLM. He will take a cut of every approval you ever get. But god bless him for having the balls to just throw it out there.
Thanks MilesAbound for the info. I was kidding about the MLM aspect actually. Wow, I am shocked. I did not have high regard about this whole thing…now I have even less!
I am shocked you are shocked 🙂 Pretty much everything marketed in the US, particularly with the word “affiliate” in it, is a MLM. I think only guys like maybe TPG or Dans Deals might generate enough volume to actually approach the banks or affiliate networks for a direct deal. Everyone else has to go to the bottom of the pyramid 🙂 Oh and the ultimate pyramid is BoardingArea. All those minions generating $$$s for Randy Peterson. Now that guy is the REAL genius. Doesn’t write a thing but takes a cut of every single commission generated by the site. That really is – genuinely – very smart. I mean this is the guy that founded FlyerTalk, sold it – and then just copied it completely once again! To create a “more friendly” version. Yeah right Randy – good luck with the next sale, if anything I genuinely admire the acumen.
Terrific commentary and timely. My how times have changed. I stepped back a few months ago from reading travel blogs {credit cards} while I processed a Home Equity Line Of Credit. Glad I missed all of this crap. I now can speed through my Google Reader list of Travel Blogs quickly scanning the headline and moving on. Post after Post on inane banter on credit cards with the underline incentive to push you to apply. link,link,link,link on and on. Eliminated FTG and MMS already and more will be deleted soon.
How do I link you to my Google Reader?
Miles Abound: Thanks a lot for all the comments! I agree with them by the way. Regarding the MLM thing…Of course BA will get a cut from apps as they should for the hosting (haha) services they provide, etc. BUT I do not believe there is a pyramid there…they all just give a cut to BA. Or am I missing something here? I am learning every day!
3LeftTurns: The IT dept is working on it. As it stands, IT dept is not staffed:-) One day it will be done…You just have to bookmark me then until the day arrives. Thanks for reading!
TBB: I LOVE this new blog!!!! And trust me, it’s NOT OFTEN I say something like that about a blog, cuz like you, I cannot stand all these blogs these days and their incessant pumping of CC affiliate referral links.
Also, I’m honored to see that my name made your blog already within the first few days. Just for the record, I thought I’d post my EXACT “personal attack” Comment here that Gary deleted the first half of. For him to call it a personal attack is really stretching it (given that I had already posted similar comments previously on his blog when he gets out of control, and he did NOT delete my “lying dolt” comment. I would argue “lying dolt” is more of a personal attack than “tool”), and especially since HE ASKED (threatened?) me for more bashing in his comment #54. I simply did what he asked cuz I was truly curious about all those “deals” that supposedly I know about but nobody else does (except him somehow):
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@Gary: LOL, you are truly pathetic my friend. I would love for you to out all this stuff, so I will bash a little further:
1. YOU ARE A TOOL. In exchange for this bash, please let me know which credit unions accept CC funding on new accts. This will save me a lot of time from having to dig around to find this info myself.
2. YOU ARE GREEDY AND ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS LINING YOUR POCKET WITH CC REFERRAL KICKBACKS. In exchange for this bash, please tell me how to get free award flights from signing up for FF programs. I could certainly use some free flights with little work and again this will help save me some time from having to dig this up myself.
3. YOUR MOTHER WEARS COMBAT BOOTS. AND SO DOES YOUR WIFE!!! There you go, I figured I’d get in 2 bashes for fuel dumps cuz that’s a lot of ground you have to cover on that topic, especially if you are going to post city pairs and all. But your “Dummies Guide to Fuel Dumps” will save me from having to read and comprehend that dreadful TrickIt thread on FT. So thanks for volunteering to do all the work of packaging it up to spoon feed to all of us lazy blog leeches. You are the best gleff!!
BTW, I’m still waiting for you to post that private forum screen shot you promised me where you swear I “work to keep info off FT”. Oh yeah, it’s because there is no such thing you lying dolt.
Finally, if you know all the above things and you DON’T share them with your blog readers, then that just proves that all you care about is lining your pockets with CC affiliate referral kickbacks. Because if any of those things above made you a dime in referral money, everybody knows you would have already pumped them left and right until they were dry, just like with all the other CC referral links that you incessantly pump these days, which has turned your blog from the darn good blog it used to be into 50% rubbish now. You should be ashamed that you have allowed all those affiliate commissions/dollars to slowly ruin your views/thinking/blog. Pathetic!!!!
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BTW, I’m glad I was able to make gleff “lose his cool” for the first time that you remember since he started his blog. I believe he lost his cool cuz fully realizes I am correct on calling him out in that he kills deals left and right with his blogging. And it has gotten worse and worse recently. I am sad to say that I can no longer count on one hand the number of deals he has killed in the past month. Yep, more than 5. Sad. He pretends like he is doing all his readers a great service, but he is really just sending them on a wild goose chase cuz the deal he publishes will more than likely die soon after he blogs about it it recent history is any indication.
He truly is getting almost as bad as MMS, with the exception that he actually does have some useful content on his blog unrelated to deal killing, whereas MMS does not, he’s a pure deal killer (and I can’t stand those pics of he and his wife holding up their CCs either, it disgusts me to no end).
The sad thing is all this is happening cuz these bloggers are so greedy that they can’t help but dig up and post deals left and right in the hopes that they can get another CC referral from their blog readership. As you almost certainly know, I started a thread on FT in the MilesBuzz forum hoping FTers could all brainstorm a way to get the CC affiliate referral into our own pocket instead of the greedy blogger’s pockets. I really hope one day that happens cuz that will be the day that probably 80% of these clowns quit the blogging profession.
gregorygrady: Welcome. I call it as I see it. I do not censor anything (well unless it is true spam). It’s not like I got any by the way. Again, like I stated multiple times, I hope bloggers do not take anything personal. Yes, greed has taken over this space. We live in the most capitalist system in the world so no surprise there. Oh wait, we all bailed out the freaking banks so they can increase the mega signing bonuses….whatacountry:-)