Let the #milemadness Commence!

Today is the first day of March, and hails the start of #milemadness the Manufactured Spending Tournament.  The players are raring to go and have been polishing their credit cards so they all look like Platinum, and honing their skills ready for this month of manufactured spending.

Competition will be fierce, and a real pleasure to watch.  The reason that I first approached this particular group of people is that despite coming from a diverse background, and spanning the nation, they all have indicated to me the real essence of this game we all love to play.  There is a certain level of understanding that comes from a fundamental knowledge of the concept of arbitrage and being able to keep an eye on intrinsic value despite a myriad of moving pieces.

There are two things that I want to highlight with this tournament.  One is the sheer enjoyment and pleasure that can be found within playing a game, as this is what manufactured spending really is, and the appreciation of the game as an art form. There is one thing that I have found two camps of people are worried about, that is secrets or ‘tricks’. One group wants them revealed else they will be bored, the other wants them hidden else the loopholes, tricks and gimmicks will be closed.

There has been some talk of ‘killing the Golden Goose’ and that all talk should be kept to private forums, well, I don’t know what the Golden Goose is exactly, and I haven’t been invited to any forums, so I don’t know what is there.  However, I suspect both are ‘tricks’ and whilst we will talk of such tricks that are reasonably well known, there are some that will be done that are not for sharing with the public, nor the private forums.  They may be shared by the players themselves at their own discretion, but I think that you might need to form relationships with these people, which is why I included a link to their sites and Twitter handles in my most recent post Get to Know the Players.  Even then, I think that most of the people will feel most comfortable talking about their most successful techniques in person.

My hope is that the Tournament will show the skill and grace that is used to create the most efficient points, miles and money generating processes, and the ‘tricks’ are secondary.  What I want is all to start thinking about opportunities with a more value centric attitude, and us all creating new, innovative ideas way beyond the days where credit cards actually rewarded people with points or miles.

It has been fun behind the scenes to watch the players jostle for position before we have even begun, and setting the rules for this tournament has been an incredible challenge, since essentially we are setting up rules for people who thrive to find gaps and exploit them, and I already feel that I am being set up for an onslaught of points earning ideas that I thought were not allowed, but somehow they snuck in… it really is a joy to be outfoxed by these folk.

I hope that you enjoy following along, keep an eye on their blogs for updates, and the twitter hashtag #milemadness for the daily antics as we gear up for the most interesting month in manufactured spend you will likely see.

Cheers,

Matt