GOOD DEALS FOR SINGAPORE AIRLINES MILES: You may have heard at some point in the OMG CHASE INK 60K!!! extravaganza that Ultimate Rewards has added Singapore Airlines as a partner. The Points Guy has a good rundown of possible uses for these miles.
BLOGGERS BASHING BLOGGERS: As the OMG CHASE INK 60K!!! extravaganza winds down, here’s a relevant rant from You Went Where???:
One of the clearest examples I have seen of patently outrageous unethical behavior has come in the form of recent blog posts about changes to the US Airways Mastercard issued by Barclaycard. I’ve had this card for years. Besides a sign-up bonus, the only real value of the card comes from an annual pass to the US Airways Club, and a $99 companion ticket which, though restricted, has come in handy for me and my boyfriend and saved us hundreds of dollars a year. Well, these benefits, which were unique to this card — Chase United card gives lounge access passes on a sub-$200 annual fee card — are going away, and the benefits of the US Airways card are going to be aligned with the American AAdvantage card issued by Citi, and become comparable to other cards.
This change was covered in 4 of the blogs still left in my reader. A quick google search has found another 5 in the past two days, with more to come tomorrow as America’s favorite bow-tie wearing “Manufactured spender” hasn’t weighed in yet. All of them are of course encouraging you to get this card, and buy it through them. (That’s what a referral link is, essentially.)
This isn’t the worst example I’ve seen, but it is such a clear demonstration of how you can’t be both a reviewer and a salesman. If someone makes money off you buying a product, you cannot trust a word they say “reviewing” that product. Even if they happen to be acting honestly in that one instance. I have no idea if each of these bloggers truly thinks the US Airways card is manna from heaven and the new benefits are worth a ding to your credit score and a ring on their cash register. But I view these things from a perspective that’s echoed in the federal law for judges, 28 U.S.C. s. 455, which states a judge shall “disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The standard isn’t whether you actually *are* impartial. It’s whether knowledge of all the facts would cause someone to question your partiality.
Full rant here.
AMERICAN DOESN’T REALLY LIKE MILE-SELLING: Somebody on Fatwallet sold 55,000 AA miles and got a nastygram from the airline. Here’s what an AA nastygram looks like:
My name is XXXXXX, and I am an analyst with American Airlines. One of my responsibilities is investigating possible instances of fraud, misrepresentation, and violations of the General AAdvantage Program Conditions. Today, I’m writing you about your AAdvantage account # XXXXXXXX
We have reason to believe that the transactions listed below violate one or more of the AAdvantage program conditions. This includes, but is not limited to, prohibition of purchase, sale, or barter of mileage credit and or award tickets. As a result, American Airlines has suspended your AAdvantage membership privileges and use of AA.com® in conjunction with your account – and may terminate your account as a result of our findings. We are in the process of completing the investigation into this matter, and I would like to hear the events as they occurred from your perspective. Please respond to this message by May 30, 2014, with complete and accurate information regarding the activities listed below
Required Information:·
Passenger name·
Origin and destination cities on the travel itinerary·
Purchaser name (individual, company and/or website), including:·
Copy of any advertisements to which you responded offering to purchase/broker the use of your AAdvantage miles·
Purchaser contact information, such as:·
Mailing address·
Email address·
Telephone number·
Website profile name·
Your statement fully disclosing the details surrounding the sale/barter transaction referenced above·
Copy of all communication between yourself and the purchaser·
Documentation that you received payment
To protect and retain the integrity of the AAdvantage program, it is vital that firm action be taken as a result of any violation of the AAdvantage Program Conditions, whether intentional or not. Failure to respond completely and accurately by May 30, 2014, will result in the termination of your AAdvantage membership and all its benefits, including all remaining AAdvantage miles in your account and any award tickets issued from it.Please, understand that our overall motivation is to preserve the benefits of the AAdvantage program, rather than to take punitive action against individuals. To that end, it’s not unusual for us to release the AAdvantage account suspension once we receive all the detail we request and reconcile it with the results of our investigation. We hope to hear from you soon.
This isn’t entirely related to the FWF thread, but a few months ago Gary Leff posited the existence of a rogue AA fraud agent abusing his power, prompting some interesting comments from his readers. Also, if you really want to see more on this topic, here’s a 2009 powerpoint giving the industry’s perspective on frequent flyer account abuse.
Selling points and miles is one of those areas I won’t even think about touching. Why kill a goose that’s laying golden eggs?
The rant really shed light to the idea that feels like all the “major” blogs have become advertorials
I think the YWW blog was interesting but I don’t think his parallel to judges makes sense. One of the main reasons we have those laws is when you go to court to defend yourself you have no option in what judge presides over your case.
When you apply for a credit card you have unlimited choice on what information you read and what links you use. Blogs should be probably disclosing when they are using affiliate links (and I think you’ll see a crack down on this by the FTC, much like you did in the weight loss space) so that consumers know which reviews might be biased.
Obviously my opinion is biased on this matter as I run very limited affiliate links on my site. I’d like to think that the rest of what I do and the effort I put forth to limit this bias counteracts this but that really depends on my readers.
I know someone who got busted selling AA miles through a broker. He is a Boston-based goober who had no ability to cap his own efforts and ultimately got caught.
A broker from Toronto hooked him up with many Asian passengers by having him book their Asian flights with his AA miles.
He obviously could not ever prove he knows these passengers and that, of course, is the key.
If I book you a ticket and we are family or friends or co workers or something, and you could know me an I could know you, then no airline will likely have issue with it. It also wont really matter if you paid me in the form of a case of fine wine or just a high-five, or maybe you rented the car to share the expenses.
This isnt stuff that is supposed to be spelled out, publicized about your flights with the airline, or set in stone. It’s just people who know each other and family. Thats about all who the airlines will allow you to book for. And not constantly.
Once they assume you are trying to run a business, be a travel agent or sell anything, you are out. Once you get that letter it’s game over.
Solution: dont go outside your immediate network.
***
As for bloggers — or anyone– who tout deals and CCs.. Yes, just like listening to the “stock tips” on CNBC, do remember that whomever is speaking about it, is probably getting paid by the entity.
Buyer beware…
Do your own research instead or along with the easy finds marketed on travel blogs.
Google is your friend (unless hacked by the Chinese) and you could always just find the actual link of the same CC from the bank website to compare and make sure the travel blog one is valid.
In the case of most Chase cards, there is no reason to use the travel blogs like MMS, etc. you can get the same deal at http://www.chase.com.
There are obviously cases where some of our deal touting friends share the hidden link to a better offet but I cant think of many (that arent targeted) right now.
I recently got hit with the above shown AA letter. Since I only got the AA card to sell the points it was not that rough to get caught. I am not a big AA fan due to costs, still not understanding the hype of them and their “Award Seats”, so when they simply took what was in my account to even the score it did not bother me. It did not cost me anything, I am not banned from flying with them (assuming I ever do), and it did it cost me anything financially. Hardly “Game over” as stated above. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the other 150k points I have with them that I was planning to sell. To each their own in how they handle themselves in the points world, but in this case I weighed the pros and cons. Not much to lose in my situation, so the risk was worth the reward.
In response to YWW?’s rant, I have to reply:
Hooray capitalism, and America, “…because life is precious, and God, and the Bible”
Hooray for all the other economic arrangements which are superior to capitalism!
I agree that the comparison between bloggers and judges isn’t entirely correct. However, the suggestion that the FTC might crack down is unlikely, in my opinion. Bloggers operate through affiliate management companies like LinkOffers, which are set up specifically to manage and ensure compliance with regulations on disclosure (as well as brand management). I’ve had some affiliate managers tell me they are surprised by just how much disclosure there is on travel blogs. It is far above the minimum required by the FTC in many cases.
Running through an affiliate network has nothing to do with compliance. If you look at all of the Acai and weight loss offers, all of those were run through affiliate networks and were cracked down on by the FTC as well – it’s just that affiliate networks were targeted as well.
Crack down fear is one of the reasons why affiliate approval numbers are dropping, because the affiliate networks themselves are required to check for compliance and the card issuers themselves are ALSO checking to prevent any potential violations.
We’ll see how it plays out.