So, who is to blame when a deal dies? That debate is all the rage these days and it seems that the discussions quickly lead to rage, at least amongst some participants. There’s money to be made – LOTS of money – from credit card sign-ups and many bloggers are big in that space these days. But are they to blame for deals ending abruptly? After all, if they kill a deal then they stop making money because the deal they’re “selling” is dead. It is an interesting situation and one that we take a rather calmer approach to discussing.
Also on this week’s episode, how to combine ITA’s search query syntax with the flight search site hipmunk.com to build a better mileage run. Plus new routes and delayed aircraft deliveries. Good stuff all around.
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Show Notes:
- Are Credit Card Bloggers ruining the world? (via FlyerTalk and an older – but still active – thread on MilePoint)
- United Airlines pushing out flights on the 787 (via Wandering Aramean)
- American Airlines delaying 77W into service due to issues with the first class seats (via APEX Magazine)
- Maximizing mileage run bookings via Hipmunk and ITA codes (via Wandering Aramean)
- Alaska Airlines introducing SAN-BOS/LIH
- JetBlue introducing ANC-SEA and JFK-ABQ
You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or to the podcast feed.
RE: Credit cards,
It’s no different than any other Pay per Click online campaigns. At the end of the day bloggers want to monetize their blogs and customers have to be aware of every promotion they see and do their research.
The people who come up with these offers know what their thresholds are and once they are reached, they will close the promotion. I don’t think it matters whether one person or plenty promotes it. The deal will just be out there for a shorter time as it will be filled quicker.
People assume that the airlines and credit card companies are stupid; as you all know they are not and they know most of what is going on out there :-).
You just have to get used to it. You also have to remember that the audience of each blogger is more times different, so their reach is different.
I agree that people should be ethical, but its not going to happen.
PS: You should see the bounty for the insurance sign up deals :-).
O.K. that’s my two cents :-). Great discussion though.
I agree to an extent, Kerwin. Some bloggers have turned their efforts into a business rather than a hobby and the amount of money involved is, quite frankly, huge. But that doesn’t mean that the deals being posted are necessarily the best ones for readers. And there is something to be said for credibility and being able to trust the people providing you with information. If they’re doing it more for their own good than to be sharing what they think is good for you that can raise some red flags. Of course I shouldn’t depend on someone else to know what is best for me. But I would like to think that I can trust people to tell me what they think is good based on real world application, not just what’s going to pay their rent this month.
Plus, there is no rule that every endeavor has to be monetized to the maximum extent possible. I make a couple bucks from the BoardingArea hosted ads on my blog but I make a lot more by writing for other outlets based on having built a reputation and following from being independent, analytic and opinionated in my writings on the blog. That’s worth a LOT more to me than the payout some CC links offers.