I’m feeling really good right now. I worked with a reader who was getting frustrated with my posts and who felt in the dark, and helped them book a trip that is on their bucket list. I won’t share the exchange because I value the privacy of the person, but I wanted to share what I learned from it and perhaps this can help you, or help you give someone you know a kickstart into the ‘game’.
Remember, I am no expert. I have only really been in the mileage ‘game’ since I moved to America and could get my own credit cards. During this time I have had some really great help on the way and I think it is part of our duty to give back. One guy that stands out in my mind as a helper of mine goes under the FlyerTalk handle of AlohaDaveKennedy. We’re not ‘tight’ as I don’t really go there very much any more, but I remember when he took the time to help me connect the dots on a deal and how it opened my eyes to the game. A lesson he gave me was never stop looking for the next deal, because you never know when the one you have will end. ADK is coming to Charlotte and arrives at 6:45pm Friday evening, he can be contacted here to rideshare. Pro-tip- get your ass in that car with him.
Apologies for the digression, but I wanted to give a little background as to why giving back is so important, and now I’d like to continue with what I learned.
My Wife was right, I was a dick
OK, I still am a dick, but I am improving, slowly. When I was a little younger and achieving some relative success in the business world I lacked empathy. So I was told. I have tried to work on that and in the case of this reader, she came at me pissed off, and told me that my posts were a waste of time. Old Matt would have told her to bugger off and read The Points Guy but slightly improved Matt can see that we all get pissed off at times.
This hobby of ours can be extremely frustrating to get into, because there are so many little rules and tricks out there, and it is a case of information overload. Frequently, the information that is presented seems to be completely irrelevant and disconnected to what the needs are from the individual. What’s more, nobody wants to be a schmuck and not get the ‘free one way’ or whatnot.
Cliques and secrets pervade
So you are sitting on the outside, you’ve got a few points and miles but you hear of secrets, like the Lifemiles tricks and everybody seems to be sitting around a giant campfire eating gummy bears and sawing logs to keep the private party going well into the night.
Let go of your frustration about these people. from my experience 90% of the people who know about such secrets only do because they begged their way into something, and wouldn’t in their wildest dreams have the stones to actually do half of the black hat hacking stuff that they talk about. It is all about ‘street cred’. Forget about these guys. You don’t need super squirrel secrets until you hit a certain level of maturity within the game.
None of this matters.
For the average person, they can get travel of their dreams purely from signup bonuses. You don’t need highly organized manufactured spend – one 100K AA Credit Card and you can book a fabulous trip to (almost) anywhere in the world. You can blow it all in one go and fly Business Class 50K each way, or you can burn it on 5 20K trips to Europe.
Get started. Earn a little, no more than enough, burn it all. Take the trip of your dreams. Really, so what if you can’t get the ‘free one way’ because it is all booked up, get the trip booked and have a blast. Then, each time you get comfortable at a certain level, refine.
Snapshot your Balances and Align your goals
Take a look at where you are right now. I would recommend using a site like Awardwallet to consolidate your mileage accounts, then start building up your balances. Remember to keep an eye on building transferable points from SPG, Membership Rewards and Ultimate Rewards as I outlined in my Identifying Risk and Exposure with your Points post.
With a little tweaking a trip can go from average to awesome – but remember, the free one way stuff is nice, but only allows you to stretch your value a little further, there is a lot to be said for just breaking free of all the pressure to find perfect, and just go on the trip of a lifetime.
For the Experts
Be kind. We all started somewhere and this points and miles world is overloaded with information, assholes who want to seem like a professional, and people who are really just shilling credit cards. With all the crap that is out there take a little time to help out when you can, rather than telling them to bugger off and go read The Points Guy. It really does feel rewarding helping someone book a trip of their dreams.
Good job, Matt.
Thanks Cate, I was kinda trying to not make this ‘all about me’ but then I didn’t want to delve too far in to our exchange and what we worked on. For me I am genuinely happy about the outcome and seriously, yesterday I had an email with ‘dream trips’ in it, today she emailed me her ticket that knocked three of those places off the list. It’s great to see.
Good job mate!
I am gonna take a stab at it and guess it was the gal the other day who was not sure she got the point of your blog posts. I will say that at first some readers, myself included, may have thought she was being a bit condescending or something. But you seemed to see past that and instead invited her to talk privately about some tips in travel, etc. Thus, your reaching out and offering to help beyond the initial blockers we all put up in life is a good deed indeed.
If i am right about my guess, then I am glad she made out ok with her needs. THIS is how MS and travel tips should be shared… with people on a smaller one on one basis. Where people can get help if they need it but not just by having a set of directions to spell everything out for them. She stepped up, you stepped up and it all went well.
Yes, ADK is one of those types–who would help people too. he speaks in crypic ways for a reason. It helps not ruin the very things people need.
I have a guy I know who is coming to the DO. His name is Paul Cook. He told me I helped him earn tons of CB from cards with my tips. But this is not about me. It’s about Paul, who now can help HIS friends out and teach them what to do and what does not work. He will take whatever he learned and whatever good will was woven into any of that and spread it amongst those who care about this craft as well. Paul was the guy who started the Citi TYP petition. It gained some traction and some will say that it was in part due to that effort that Citi eventually stopped their witch hunt last may, which in turn made it possible for guys like me who were just starting with the TYP card to go nuts on it and earn a crap load of CB! So Paul may thank me, but I am thanking blokes like him too. It all goes in a circle… a circle of MS life.
BTW if you need to see an even MS-funnier ROSIE graphic, scroll thru about 3/4 down this article:
http://mileageupdate.com/the-psychology-of-ms-volume-one/
lol
Ha! Yeah I think maybe I need to adopt the term Gig, though I might also need to challenge you for the moniker of Marathon man since my posts are a little long in the tooth too 🙂
Looking forward to meeting Paul too, gotta love the circle of MS life.
Well the term marathon man has many many meanings my friend. One is the fact I did run the NYC marathon. ONCE. Only once. the other is I have been doing this stuff since like last century. And the last is that I babble long. But yeah, you can do that too! haha
Nice to see the matured Matt shaping on your understanding, sympathy and empathy which are necessary qualities of humanity. Only these separate us from the other living beings in the planet. And hats off to accept it in a public forum. It requires lot of guts really.
Honestly, it’s a battle. My natural predilection is still not where it should be, but its something to work on. I do try to refine myself daily and this is one of my worst areas.
Matt, I saw the posts and the cryptic comments that were made by the poster. When I saw you reply to her to contact you directly I was proud of you taking the high road- it reflected your character in a wonderful way. It perpetuates the basis of what this travel hacking community is made of. BTW, Marathon Man was awesome when I reached out to him a couple of years ago and love it when I can now pay it forward. k20
I was also impressed with how you approached the situation and made it productive. It was hard to tell what she wanted, and it is often easier to counter negative with negative. You set a good example!
I think the whole thing was staged. the poster was a BOT and Matt made her up to do the initial problem that he then came in and rescued and solved. You could tell all along. I know this is how Matt operates because he is like me. A poser. He doesn’t even have any miles, and he has like 1 credit card that earns no points too!
I’ll have to censor you from now on
oh no. I have just been FRd by a blog. hehehe
Well it was my own doing!
That said, people… I have a challenge and I am serious about this. Can we all learn to look to sites like this one and some others that are similar to find the methods and the style and the attitude of MS, and try to avoid the posts and pages that make easy cookie cutter cheat sheets that eventually end deals? How can we let the rest of the MS world know that there’s a much better, more high quality way to do all this than just following circles and arrows all day? Or can we? That is the challenge.
Yep and she was super cool once we got talking. Worth that effort to connect with new people.
You have been of tremendous help to me on a one to one basis, too, Matt. I wasn’t able to use your suggestions right now, unfortunately, but they are there for the future, and I appreciate them.
Touchy feely does not equal kind. Circles and arrows do not equal helpful. Giving people tools to use in order to figure out their own next step, whatever that may be, is helpful. people appreciate things more when they must work for them. That, too, is part of being human.
It’s when one has no clue where to start, that the frustration and resentment kicks in. A push along the path is the best way to do it. Heh, the people skills you are exhibiting in your blog will go a long way in your other two careers, as well. They’ll help you deal with a crabby two year old, as well as with an entitled trust fund baby.
Thanks MickieSue- also, once we got chatting the lady was awesome and a pleasure to help. It’s just that initial frustration that I think we can all appreciate is natural.
WTH is going on? You now have TWO blog posts in the next Buzz post. Are you jealous of the blogs in the “Blogs I Love” list or what?
Hell yes! But I can’t fault the addition of Drew, I met him along with the ladies in NYC and he is a top notch guy, and puts out great content.
Way back when, I took a survey Matt was doing. I don’t remember the details of why I didn’t like the survey – I wonder now if I was just too new at the game for the questions to apply to me – but I contacted Matt, and he was soon helping me book my first complicated award tickets. He has also helped me get going in MS. I have gotten great help from Sam of Milenomics, who helped me find the best way to get my son home for Xmas at the last minute. And I credit TBB’s saga getting a Club Carlson card with my eventual success at getting that card. Following his example, I was really, really persistent – I made so many recon calls that I lost count. I also found great help on FT and MP (once I learned to ignore the occasional snarky comments). In fact, I think one of the first people to reply to me was ADK.
So yes, Virginia, there may not be a Santa Claus (although Sam claimed he did a guest post on Milenomics) but if you reach out, you will find your way. Looking forward to meeting folks in CLT. Thanks in advance and safe travels!
Good job, Matt !
Its always a good feeling when you can help someone… I especially like the dream tips piece – that’s what this is all about, leveraging miles and points to make dreams come true.
I’d say though, more importantly is the means. How you (Matt) went through the process of helping a reader one-on-one, similar to how Marathon Man mentioned his experiences, and others. That’s where you get great value, you’re as they say “teaching a man (or woman) to fish” rather than giving them fish with big bright arrows.
Nice work Matt. Making yourself approachable and not being a dck is a great trait. I don’t talk much on the boards and seldom leave comments (a true lurker), though I find myself leaving comments on your posts more often than other sites. Way to help out a fellow reader. Keep up your high quality content. Excited to meet you and the rest of the guys tomorrow at the DO.
Hi Adam, thanks, look forward to meeting you there!
Well said. I wish I could be at the DO.
Sorry you can’t make it, hope to see you somewhere in the future. Cheers, Matt
So I wonder if “the person you helped” would consider this post mental masturbation if it were not indirectly about her.
Some people like mm have prejudiced ideas about circles and arrows.
You do have to remember the other side too. If I told you there’s gold if you go west and cross the mountains but don’t give you the approximate co-ordinates, you’d probably give up.
Nobody has time to look at the 100+ debit cards available, loading methods, unloading methods, terms & conditions, monthly fees, shutdown risks and other things. Flyertalk has the discussion forums precisely for this purpose to find the path of least effort for mfg spending.
People seems to be concerned about publicizing the tricks and I think otherwise. It’s only by publicizing that we can find out the path of least effort. Otherwise, it’s every man for himself and no incentive to share my findings with others. The downside is “Tragedy of the Commons”. And I’m ok with that. I’m of the belief that if one pipeline closes, another one opens.
One word: lazy.
Nobody told the miners where to go. They, like me and like many who DO test hundreds of cards while you sit at your desk waiting for me to tell you the results for free, trail blaze.
Go out and smell the roses!
Don’t agree. I’ve shared my findings with others and others have shared their findings with me. It’s been a mutual benefit. And it’s easier to reverse engineer a working strategy than to discover something from scratch. My main goal is minimizing time – I allocate 10-15 hrs of time for mfg spend. Discovering methods that provide me the highest return.
I’ve no use for people that don’t share. I’m here to give and take. What are you here for?
I have a track record of sharing with lots of people. I tend to do it through networking and the use of smaller groups that help foster and invent ideas. I do not tend to share with sponges who give nothing back and arent willing to invest some time into R&D.
I wager you may not be accounting for the fact that many people out there MS in ways much different than yours. I can tell you for me MS can be a full time, well paying job. And as such, I try to respect the craft and its many users and not just plaster easy step methods for people to follow who just dont wanna put the time into this but dont mind it if someone else does.
Hey also, you say you dont like to discover from scratch but then you said you spend 10-15hrs discovering new ideas.
What idea have you discovered? Why didnt you share it here?
Is this 10-15hrs a week or a month or what?
I dunno, to me this all smells fishy
Ideas I’ve shared
1) Simon malls visa gift cards have $3.95 purchase fee. Issued by Metabank and PIN can be set.
2) Glimcher malls VGC have $2.95 purchase fee and PIN cannot be set. Useless for mfg spend.
3) Ace Check cashing express and 99payday provide billpay options but only with cash. No go for mfg spend.
4) You can transfer Amex GC balance to another Amex GC.
5) Billpay at Ralphs & Vons only possible if sent thru Moneygram.
These are all things I’ve discovered by putting in the effort.
I suspected you do mfg spend full time and afraid that your methods are going to be shut down if publicized.
I don’t do this full time and it’s just a hobby. Can understand where you are coming from…
However, not going to change my opinion that deals have to be kept secret and not publicized.
Some of the things youve mentioned have been doable for ten years.
What you said toward the end seems to exhibit an attitude that would make many not want to share a thing! Again, to many this is no hobby. It should be respected. Thats all I got for ya. There, I have just shared the most valuable tip there is.
I’d say stop berating those who share. That’s my tip for you.
Haha, you helped me out a while back and I never thought you were a dick at all! 🙂
Well written! (Which is like “well said,” but more didactic…) I read multiple points-and-miles blogs and am strongly tempted by some of the offers and tricks… (That Chase 60k is just *screaming* at me!) However, I’m still recovering from the horrific financial shocks of my husband’s death in 2011 (to say nothing of the existential and emotional shocks), and until I am financially stable, I just console myself with: Chase will offer another 60k bonus in some number of years, when I am able to take advantage of it without trying to re-jigger my entire financial life! Right now, I can just wistfully think about replacing my Ink Bold (I got — and used — the 50k, back in March 2012) with an Ink Plus or the VISA Bold or something… and then I close that blog… The higher (highest!) priority is not miles-and-points, it’s financial stability.
I keep reading the blogs because I do not think any education ever goes wasted. When I once again reach financial stability, I will have watched a lot of experiences and learned a ton (more) about flying on points, renting cars, staying in good hotels and so on… But:
The higher (highest!) priority is not miles-and-points, it’s financial stability.
Hi Elenor,
Thanks for sharing this, I am sorry to hear that you went, and are still going, through that. It is easy to be wrapped up in the excitement and lose track of the serious stuff. I hope everything works out for you soon.
Best
Matt
I wrote Matt as the second contact I made with anyone in mile and points community. The first blogger just ignored my message.
Matt was very kind and I know he is very busy just as we all are. So be sure to respect his and others time. But the community has been so welcoming for the most part.
Thanks Matt