In which I go to FTU so you don't have to

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If you've been following me on Twitter this weekend, you know I've been attending the Frequent Traveler University event in Seattle, Washington. To paint in broad strokes, these are periodic events where people associated with Randy Peterson's points-and-miles empire give presentations to a paying audience of frequent flyers. Many, but not all, of the speakers are Boarding Area bloggers, along with miscellaneous folk like Scott from Hack my Trip and Daraius of bow-tie fame.

Getting there

To get to Seattle, I redeemed 20,000 US Bank Flexpoints for a non-stop Alaska Airlines flight from Boston Friday morning. The flight cost about $380, making it pretty close to the ideal Flexperks redemption.

Whenever you make a Flexperks flight redemption, you also receive a $25 credit that can be used for incidentals on the ticketing airline during your trip. Since Alaska sells online gift certificates starting at $25, my original plan was to buy one of those, and then call in to have a statement credit applied to my account.

Then I got on my flight at 8 am Friday morning and realized I hadn't had breakfast, so I bought one of the Alaska Airlines breakfast sandwiches, instead. It was a good plan, though.

I'll be flying back on the red eye tonight, and ordering enough junk from the flight attendant to max out my $25 credit!

Staying there

I booked the event's group rate at the Seattle Airport Marriott with my Barclaycard Arrival. Thanks to my having booked a stay for my mom a month or so ago, I actually have an odd number of stays with Marriott during the current MegaBonus promotion, which means this paid stay will trigger the payout of another free night certificate. Lucky me.

The community

Let's start with the good: travel hacking can obviously be a pretty lonesome hobby. Sure, we have online communities like FlyerTalk, and there are lots of discussions that take place in the comments section of this blog and others, but most travel hackers don't know more than one or two other people in real life who have the slightest interest in this game.

The genius of Frequent Traveler University is letting people pay to be a part of a real world community. Just like a trade conference, everyone is walking around with name tags, talking, asking each other questions, and so on. And the fact that people pay to do it may make them more comfortable striking up conversations with strangers. There are free or semi-free alternatives, like the DO's which are regularly organized on FlyerTalk, but some people may be more comfortable in a more structured environment, and it's great that this option exists.

The Presentations

Now the bad.

The fundamental problem with FTU, for me, is that it's a conference of bloggers. Bloggers, for good and for ill, are great at writing blog posts. And every presentation I went to gave me the extremely vivid impression of hearing someone read a blog post out loud.

I'm trying to keep this post focused on FTU and save my comments on affiliate blogging and affiliate bloggers for a later post, but here is the crux of the issue: affiliate bloggers are businessmen and women – but their business is not giving good advice to their readers. Giving advice to readers is a modality by which they conduct their business: selling credit card products.

And that was painfully obvious in (almost) every FTU presentation I went to. If you could insert an affiliate link into a PowerPoint presentation, these guys would have done it.

I do want to highlight one amazing exception to that: Sam Weiler did a dynamite presentation on dialing in Priceline "Name Your Own Price" bids. It was information I suppose I already new, but his presentation was an incredible summary of literally dozens of tips and tricks for paying the absolute minimum price possible for hotel stays, and there was time for a live demo at the end which was very fun to watch.

Then on the other side, Gary and Lucky spent two sessions of "Advanced Q&A" doing...well, I'm not sure what they were doing. I called it "banter" on Twitter. My favorite line came from Lucky about halfway through the first session, regarding the numerous, well-known vulnerabilities in the AvianaTaca Lifemiles program:

"Most of us are trying not to talk too openly about it."

I can totally appreciate that sentiment. I don't talk too openly about it either. But I also don't charge people a hundred bucks to hear me tell them I don't talk too openly about it. So that struck me as weird and offensive as a thing to say to an audience that in principle came to hear you share your unique insight and knowledge. Or whatever.

The Goodies

Alright, enough of that. The presentations weren't very dense with new information, but people did mention a number of things I either didn't know, had forgotten, or was just pleasantly surprised to be reminded of. I may or may not turn some of these into full blog posts later, depending on reader interest:

  • Make Evolve Money bill payments to the same payee from multiple accounts;
  • You can buy gift cards with gift cards at Staples (I used to do this to turn un-resellable gift cards into resellable gift cards – some sites won't allow you to resell cards you originally bought through their site);
  • The Fare Deal Alert and Skyscanner are competitors of The Flight Deal, and offer slightly different services, but both seem fun and useful at first glance;
  • Use http://matrix.itasoftware.com/?showPricePerMile=true to view CPM on revenue flights (I don't use this often since it doesn't compute 500-mile minimums);
  • Wideroe still apparently allows flights to be booked without fuel surcharges – sometimes;
  • Lufthansa, Delta, and AviancaTaca all process their own mileage sale transactions, meaning they trigger airline category bonuses and are eligible for Barclaycard Arrival redemptions (be careful of foreign transaction fees though);
  • Speaking of which, Barclaycard allows Arrival redemptions against purchases that are later refunded (tread lightly here);
  • American Airlines will give original routing credit for "trips in vain;"
  • Amex for Target: still a thing;
  • Kiva: still a thing;
  • If a Starwood Preferred Guest upgrade certificate doesn't clear 5 days out, it'll still put you at the front of the upgrade queue (maybe);
  • Earn Ultimate Rewards points for reservations made at hotels.com (if you want);
  • Companions on Alaska companion tickets can credit their miles to a different program (kind of obvious, but good to know);
  • Are you an IBM partner (Starwood corporate rate code: 18000; Hyatt corporate rate code: 13717)?

Conclusion

One of the things Matt really stressed when he was putting together the idea for our get together in Charlotte in two weeks was keeping the event small. Well, the word he used was "intimate," but you get the idea.

I don't dare predict that the Charlotte DO is going to be some kind of fantastical success – I'm still nervous about presenting there! But now that I've made it through one of these sprawling FTU events, I think the general idea – that an event should be small enough that bloggers and readers can learn from each other – is a good one.

And I hope that Charlotte is an amazing success! If it is, I'll start hounding Matt to hold another event or two for folks who aren't able to make it out in May.

Mid-week roundup from around the web

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I periodically like to clear out my RSS reader and pass along the most interesting news that has recently crossed my desk. Here's today's roundup:

You call it a slow news week, I say no news is good news. See you in the comments.

    Everything (nothing) is changing

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    Why I started travel hacking

    The year my father died, I accidentally got elite status. I was living in Russia and flew back to the US for my brother's wedding. A few months later, my father passed and I flew back again for his funeral and to be with my family. Aeroflot, the Russian national carrier, is a member of Skyteam, and together with a few other domestic flights, those Medallion Qualifying Miles were enough to get me Silver Medallion status.

    And I loved it. I was upgraded on my first flight after making Silver Medallion, and have always kind of suspected that Delta makes sure every newly-minted Silver Medallion is upgraded on their first flight, to cement in their mind the benefits of loyalty.

    Curiously, my father was also a "travel hacker," but of the old school. He always wore beautiful suits to the airport and politely asked if there was any space available in first class. He never hesitated to add a stopover in order to get more segments hopping around on short-hauls in the Pacific Northwest.

    I suspect a lot of people get started like I did. They see they've just made entry-level elite status and start searching the web to find out what the benefits are. And naturally, they come across the carefully search-engine-optimized blog posts telling them what credit cards they have to sign up for in order to maximize their rewards.

    And I played that version of the game for perhaps a year.

    Why I started blogging

    It was only after I had dutifully followed the instructions of the "top" blogs for a few months, and had signed up for their recommended credit cards, and took a look around, that I realized it was all a con.

    Not that travel hacking is a con – travel hacking is amazing. But that blogging in the travel hacking space is dominated by people whose interests don't align with the interests of their readers.

    You can laugh at my naïveté, but I promise you, it really isn't obvious to someone doing a search for "Medallion Qualifying Miles" that someone like René promotes the American Express Delta cards whether their signup bonuses are unusually high or unusually low – or even if there's a better signup bonus available elsewhere.

    Fortunately, it's the 21st century. So I wrote an ebook, and I started a website, and I started blogging.

    And, as incredible as it sounds, people started reading.

    What's next

    So far, this blog has been a labor of love. I saw a need, and I did my best to meet it. I write what I want to write, whenever I want to write it, and I love it.

    Last year, I think I just about broke even – financially – between book sales, $1 Venmo referrals, and my lonely few PayPal subscriptions. In other words, I donated a few thousand hours of my time to this site.

    But in a few weeks, I'm going to be leaving my current lightly-paid position to move halfway across the country to be with my partner. And frankly, I like blogging and travel hacking a whole hell of a lot more than I like any other job I've ever had. So I'm going to see if I can't make a go of it doing this full-time.

    Usually when a travel blogger tells you he's going to start blogging full-time, it means he's earning enough from affiliate revenue that he can afford to quit his day job.

    Needless to say, that's not the case around here. I'm just making a bet: that I can produce enough original content, and attract enough readers willing to voluntarily pay for that content, that I can afford to pay the rent.

    The Cylons had a plan; me, not so much

    While I've given this a lot of thought, I frankly have no idea whether it's going to work out. Here's my general plan for how I'll make ends meet:

    • Recently I've gotten a lot of enthusiasm for my PayPal and Amazon Payments subscriptions (which I appreciate tremendously!). Hopefully that enthusiasm will continue and more readers will find what I write to be worth paying for;
    • As I passed along on April 14th, I've been able to write a couple paid pieces for a website called "Credit Card Insider." If that continues, it'll provide some kind of occasional income (and I'll be open to any other paid writing gigs that come along!);
    • Unlike in my current New England residence, Amazon allows affiliate links in the state I'm moving to. My guess is that there's only a minimal chance of me being corrupted by the awesome power of Amazon affiliate links ("Read more books!"), so hopefully some readers will click through an Amazon link and that will provide some kind of revenue stream as well;
    • And of course my income from travel hacking itself.

    Suggestions needed

    But I also need suggestions from my readers: are there ways you think I can make money from my expertise, analysis, and honesty that won't detract from the experience of coming here and getting my straightforward reporting on everything taking place in this game we play?

    Let me make one point up front: I love hearing from my readers, and I love answering questions, and I love helping them optimize their strategies. I do this by e-mail, in the comments to the blog, and on FlyerTalk. None of these suggestions would replace that, because I love doing that!

    Having said that, would any of these ideas have any appeal to any of my readers?

    • Some kind of e-mail or phone or Skype consultancy. You're getting started, you want some advice, you pay an hourly fee or a monthly/yearly "retainer" to be able to get in touch with me and bounce ideas around.
    • Some kind of in-person consultancy. Firms that have a lot of employees who travel for work might pay me to do a presentation about the best ways to maximize their travel rewards. Crazier things have happened.
    • Some kind of "premium" content. This could be a forum where subscribers can chat with each other and me about lesser-known techniques, or a more expensive and comprehensive version of my subscriber newsletter.

    Conclusion

    So, that's it!

    Sometime in the middle of next month, you can expect to see more frequent posts here on the blog and perhaps some other announcements, depending on how ridiculous you folks find my suggestions and how awesome your suggestions are.

    See you in the comments!

    I don't know much about Credit Card Insider, but they seem to like me

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    Background: Using a Balance Transfer Offer to Pay Off Credit Card Debt
    Background: Best Travel Credit Cards for Airlines, Hotels, and Gas

    A few months ago, one of my long-time readers reached out to me with a sort of tentative offer to write some guest posts on a website she works for. That hasn't ended up working out, but it did lead to an unrelated gig writing guest posts for a website called Credit Card Insider. I've now written a couple posts for them (above), and while no one has asked, I thought I would preemptively answer a couple potential questions my readers might have if they stumbled across one of those posts.

    I have no idea what Credit Card Insider's business model is

    A cursory examination of the way they insert application links into my posts suggests it probably has something to do with credit card affiliate links. But that has never entered into any discussion I have had with anyone at the site.

    I get no cut of affiliate revenue (if any)

    As I explained last month, I have no affiliate links here on the site (although many of the signup links for cash back portals, useful services like Venmo, Plink, and Uber, etc., do give me some nominal referral bonus – and thanks for using those links if you're so inclined!), and 100% of my remaining revenue comes from subscriptions, one-time gratuities (thanks Thomas!), and book sales.

    In other words, people who like my work and want to see me continue cover my expenses, and I only answer to my readers.

    Credit Card Insider pays me a flat fee per post. I find it fair and I consider it good publicity for this site.

    And hey, if anybody else wants to sponsor blog posts, you know how to reach me!

    Credit Card Insider exercises no editorial control over my content

    There's a small group of folks at the site who come up with general post topics and assign them to writers. But no one at any time has implied that there are certain cards that need to be included in any given post, or that some cards need to be pushed harder than others. Frankly I suspect they had never even heard of the BankAmericard Cash Rewards card, which offers a healthy 3% cash back at gas stations. Good card!

    Of course that could change at any time, and I'd certainly stop writing for them if my voice was ever compromised in that way.

    Further, my feelings about cards like the Sapphire Preferred are well-known, so I'm not going to write a post on some other website praising its value or flexibility or whatever.

    Credit Card Insider comes up with the headlines

    The one piece of "editorial control" they do exercise is over the headlines. For example, my column "Best Travel Credit Cards for Airlines, Hotels, and Gas" is about thinking about your spending patterns and travel needs before deciding on the credit card that's right for you. In fact, I probably would have titled it "think about your spending patterns and travel needs before deciding on the credit card that's right for you."

    But that's why they get paid the big bucks.

    I suspect our audiences are very different

    When my reader first suggested I write some guest posts, I worried about diluting my web presence by writing in bits and pieces in various places all over the web.

    But if you visit Credit Card Insider you'll see that broadly speaking they're aimed at a very different audience than I am here. My blog has, over time, grown increasingly focused on a fairly niche subset of travelers: those who are seeking to maximize their value and minimize their costs when traveling — and who are willing to put in some serious work to do so.

    While I try to write without the jargon and codes so many people in our hobby use, the techniques I describe are frankly inaccessible to the vast majority of the population, whether it's from lack of interest or lack of time. So I don't think I'm cannibalizing any content that I would post here by writing guest spots for Credit Card Insider. That is an issue I'm sensitive to, however.

    With all that out of the way:

    Those are the answers to the questions I had before I started writing for them. But if you have any specific questions about the situation (or anything else), the comments, as always, are open.

    A quick note on comments

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    For some reason, I've never experienced any problems with "trolls" in the comments on this blog. I think I've only deleted maybe 3 or 4 comments since I started blogging, twice at the poster's request and once or twice for a comment that was double-posted.

    That doesn't mean I've never come under criticism in the comments. On the contrary, my comments are full of people telling me I'm an idiot, a terrible blogger, and a lousy travel hacker. 

    But that's not trolling; what if they're right? It would be pretty irresponsible for me to delete those comments and deny my readers those dissenting views. 

    Anyway, all this is just to say that I had a good laugh reading through the comments to my "Unleash" series from September of last year as I went through and retagged them this afternoon for ease of reference.

    To this day, those are some of my most popular posts, and among the most heavily-commented-upon.

    And it sure seems like I did not make many friends that week!

    Reader m commented:

    "agree with others- better to keep mum just because if you add the minor wrinkles re incompetent cashiers, split tender, customers asking too many questions, words like "using GC" instead of "using deb card"- throw it all in the mix, results in too much scrutiny and it dies. which is why bloggers should leave it alone and just go about their business.
    have been a fan of yours, but disappointed that you chose to blog about this one."

    Reader Piecerate commented:

    "Can't say I'm happy to see you blog about this. I think this a deal that many know about but it is not utilized by enough people to draw unwelcome attention. Let's hope this doesn't go south."

    Of course, history has been kind to my decision to go to press with the "Unleash" series. Over 6 months later, I've liquidated hundreds of thousands of dollars in PIN-enabled debit cards, and my readers have no doubt liquidated many millions more.

    I sometimes refer to my readers as my "force multipliers:" if one of my blog posts kills a deal 1 month early, but 100 of my readers get to take advantage of it for the remaining 8 months, I don't lose any sleep over the lost month.

    So this is just a quick note thanking ALL my commenters for your feedback and for reading this blog, whether you love it or use the opportunity to decompress your angst at the whole messy world of travel blogging.

    Mid-week roundup from around the web

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    I periodically like to clear out my RSS reader and pass along the most interesting news that has recently crossed my desk:

    • Marriott's April 8, 2014 devaluation sucks, putting the Courtyard Portland City Center and Residence Inn Portland Downtown/RiverPlace in Category 6 and therefore out of reach for Megabonus and annual free night certificates;
    • Frequent Miler makes me laugh, since I can't bear to spend any money on Amazon unless I've redeemed Plink points for gift card credits;
    • Chasing the Points reminds us to not just manage hard credit pulls, but also utilization ratios;
    • Frugal Travel Guy wants you to sign up for a card that offers just 50,000 HHonors points and a $50 statement credit, and that you'll never use again (don't do it);
    • View from the Wing wants you to sign up for a card that offers 75,000 HHonors points and has a $75 annual fee. Instead, apply for the no-annual-fee version and then upgrade the card to Surpass and earn a total of 90,000 HHonors points for the same annual fee;
    • Frugal Travel Guy gets upset about your whining;
    • Milenomics does the shuffle;
    • PFDigest tells you to watch what you write in your PayPal message boxes (I usually go with "March rent").

    Good work today, team.

    This blog is not free

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    I started blogging over a year ago because I was growing more and more serious about travel hacking and was disappointed with the quality of the blogs I was reading. After just a few months I had already noticed a lot of problems within the blogging community:

    • Blogs are repetitive. There are many more-or-less permanent features of rewards programs, and I was reading post after post repeating the same information. The Southwest Companion Pass is a great deal, but it's also a deal that hasn't changed in years: it doesn't require a new blog post, it requires a working search function;
    • Blogs are boring. I love reading about tips and tricks for booking award tickets, but I have an incredibly low threshold for staring at pictures of every meal a blogger ate in Milan;
    • Blogs are shills. In the United States of America in the 21st century, the finance industry is an all-consuming behemoth, swallowing everything it touches — and blogs are no exception. Credit card affiliate links are so lucrative it is simply impossible for a person of average quality to resist the kind of payday aggressive pitching of those links can provide.

    That last point brings me to a post I read today on Matt's blog over at Saverocity. Matt asks the question:

    "Can we create a new paradigm, where bloggers put the readers first, cut out the affiliate companies altogether, add value, and everybody wins?"

    Why blog?

    Obviously, there are a lot of people who think the travel hacking community would be better off without blogs and bloggers. While they undoubtedly have some legitimate concerns about blogs targeting people who don't have the financial responsibility to make it lucrative, those concerns are usually mixed with a self-interested belief that the fewer people who know about various techniques, the longer those techniques will remain viable for those in the know.

    Personally, I blog because I want as many people as possible to have the same opportunities I do to travel the world for next to nothing, stay in 5-star hotels for the price of youth hostels, and make money taking advantage of credit card rewards programs. If 100 people find out about a technique thanks to my blog, then each month that technique continues to exist is worth 100 months of my taking advantage of it alone. My readers are my force multipliers.

    This blog is not free

    It's natural to think of everything available on the internet as "free," and that's certainly something I'm guilty of from time to time. But it's not true, and that's the fact underlying Matt's argument. If you want to read fresh, original content, someone has to be paying for it:

    • It might be Google or another display advertising network paying the blogger for your surfing and click data, as well as any personal information stored in your cookies;
    • It might be a credit card company hoping the blogger will provide less-than-objective analysis of a product if the payout is big enough;
    • Or it might be the blogger paying for it by donating their money to pay hosting costs and their time to produce the content you value.

    In none of those cases is the content free, just because access to it is.

    Pay for content worth reading

    Over 500 readers visit this site each day, and hundreds more follow me on Twitter, through my RSS feed, or receive e-mail updates with new posts. That's how they find out about techniques I've covered in detail, like:

    I don't currently have display advertising, and I don't have affiliate links, and I'd personally like to keep it that way. That's why rather than having Google pay for my content, or have the credit card companies pay for my content, I introduced the unprecedented opportunity for my readers to support the site directly by signing up for PayPal subscriptions.

    A weekly or monthly contribution of $2, $5, or $10(!) goes directly to keeping this site proudly independent.

    So if you've learned any tips or tricks from this site that have increased your ability to earn money and generate value, please consider signing up for a subscription or making a contribution directly to freequentflyer@freequentflyerbook.com (also accepted: Amazon Payments contributions!).

    If each of my readers made a contribution of just $2 each month, that would guarantee this site's sustainability and independence for years to come. That's my goal, and I hope you'll join me in getting there together.

    To subscribe, just visit freequentflyerbook.com and look for the drop-down box that looks like this:

    And thanks in advance.

    Weekend roundup from around the web

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    Here's the stuff that's been cluttering up my RSS reader:

    • Chasing the Points says the Chase Amazon Visa has the same 20,000 point, $335 airfare redemption as the Chase Freedom, which makes it a 2.68% cash back card at gas stations;
    • View from the Wing wants you to redeem Virgin Australia miles for one-way Delta flights;
    • Running with Miles buys and resells electronics for fun and profit;
    • The Points Guy wants you to leave points in your flexible accounts as long as possible;
    • but that's where the banks can get them. I say transfer as soon as you have a reasonable guess of where you'll need them.

    Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

    What's in my wallet?

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    Reader Winston has asked what credit cards I personally carry, which I think is a great way to keep a travel blogger honest. Of course, it's slightly more relevant for bloggers who pepper their posts with affiliate links, but what's good for the goose, etc.

    US Bank

    US Bank is quietly a powerhouse of lucrative credit cards. I carry three cards they issue, and put spend on all three each month:

    • Cash+. 2% cash back at drugstores, with no minimum redemption;
    • Flexperks Travel. Double Flexpoints at gas stations, worth up to 4% cash back in redemptions for paid airline travel;
    • Club Carlson Business. 5 Gold Points per dollar spent everywhere.

    Chase

    Lots of old standbys here. The Freedom is actually the result of a product change from Chase's great Slate product, which I got back when I carried balances:

    Bank of America

    My oldest credit card, which I put spend on once a year or so:

    • Cash Rewards. 3% cash back on up to $1,500 on gas stations quarterly.

    American Express

    Three great cards:

    Barclaycard

    The Arrival has a $89 annual fee, so if I can't have that waived in April I'll be closing it. Lucrative, though:

    • Arrival World MasterCard. 2.22% cash back everywhere, when redeemed against travel purchases;
    • US Airways. Signup bonus.

    Citi

    Citi's a slum: you only visit when they have something you need. I'm actually waiting to receive the Dividend Platinum Select, which I product changed my formerly 5% cash back ThankYou Preferred card to a few weeks ago:

    Discover

    Fidelity

    • Investment Rewards American Express. 2% cash back everywhere.

    And now my cards are on the table.