I now understand why Frequent Miler posted about ‘Drawing the line’ and his moral compass. In the last 2 months, I have come across various scenarios that can be taken the wrong way.
For instance, I followed Million Mile Secret’s guide to Free Hilton Gold Status “moving” to Australia. Yes, Hilton does ask for information on a person and credit card information; however, all of the information that could be entered is computer generated because of a formula. Similar to a bank’s IBAN and SWIFT, credit card numbers have a pattern that belong to a bank so I did not feel that “living” in Australia was such a bad thing.
Another scenario, I locked out my Paypal Debit card with Serve. I don’t want to fax in my card to have it verified, the less people who look at my account I think the better. What I could do is say I “lost” my Paypal card to Paypal and they would issue me a card with a new number. In turn, I would have access to load back into Serve. To me, this is a difficult decision and I have not figured out which way to go.
The toughest scenario that I am facing with is my discovery of discounted prepaid cards, do I want to publicize it? It is definitely deal killing news and would alter the landscape completely.
After my experience with the Citibank 5% card, I’m inclined to err on the side of not killing deals. There are invite-only groups that share easily-killed deals, but I would think they prefer not to have bloggers involved with them. Maybe we need a top secret group for bloggers to share deals? 🙂
That’s something to think about!
I don’t think you should publicize it as it is a deal killer. Many people on flyertalk flame those who publicize deals and tend to hate bloggers for spilling the beans. I think that the best way to do things is to look at it as a treasure hunt. Don’t just give it away, but let it be known that it is out there and maybe a few clues on how to find it, no specifics. If people want it, they will put in the work to find it. Those who want a free handout don’t deserve the rewards. This way the deal won’t get killed off so fast and the people who deserve to get the miles will get some, not only the elitist of the “in crowd.”
You’re right on the flaming, the discovery hasn’t been discussed on FT.. yet.
That gives me an idea, I could start it as a primer and let people figure it out.
I think I found how to do it, but I wanted to see if it is the same as your technique. You don’t have an about you page or contact info, so if you could please email me I will let you know my plan.