Good afternoon from Boise, Idaho. I’ve had a great weekend stay in Boise and had a great time at the Boise State football game last night (mini trip report coming later this week). As I wait for my flight back home, I wanted to ask my readers a question: what type of blog posts do you enjoy reading? Do you like reading about credit card rewards, retention offers, targeted offers, award searching and booking? Alternatively, I’ve heard from quite a few readers that the AMEX Offers / BankAmeriDeals / Chime Card updates are not very popular. Should I stop writing about those deals and focus on other topics instead?
Please make your suggestion as specific as possible. Please no suggestions like, “what is the best credit card for travel?” or “how do I redeem miles for a free flight?” I will do my best to take your recommendations to heart, but my blogging time and expertise are limited.
Disclaimer: this time of year is really busy at my job, so I may start working longer hours than normal, which may impact the frequency of my posts. I will still continue to write a few blog posts per week, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be busier than normal through the end of the year.
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment and I hope you have a great rest of the weekend! Good bye from Boise :)
Award booking, ways to maximize hotel stay qualifications
Hi Sharon, what types of award booking are you interested in, hotels or airlines? Which brands?
The amex/bofa/chime offers are not particularly good reads but it’s nice to keep an eye on them. You are the only blogger who completely takes care of them.
I know what you mean. They are pretty boring posts, but its more of a friendly reminder than anything else. I will post them in moderation :)
Keep doing the AMEX offers I dont log onto my account often, I found out about most AMEX deals from your post. Not interested in Chime
Thank you Rich, I’ll keep on posting the Amex Offers.
Hey Grant, I really like your blog posts. My preference would be Credit Card Rewards/Retention/Targeted offers, and Award searching and booking.
Hi Dave, that sounds like you want me to keep doing what I am already doing. Do you have any questions about any of those topics that you feel would be a good blog post?
Grant, I hope you continue to do just what you have been doing
Thank you Rick, I appreciate the comment. I will keep on truckin’ :)
i still like the Amex Offers
Haha, Whitney, you might be the only one…
My problem with the AMex offers is I never get offered the good ones. 99% of mine are for “fancy” stores where I would not buy from unless the offer was like 70% off. Not your fault…
I know what you mean. I probably participate in less than 5% of the offers.
I can only speak for myself. I dont do those Chime, B of A deals. I’d like to hear your experience in MS, trip reports, tips, award, retention bonus etc. May be you can ask your readers to send you questions, and from those questions, you will find the topics to write.
I would be glad to take reader questions, do you have any questions in mind?
AMEX offers are good, chime & BOA not so much.
More interested in MS topics.
Thank you Adam, I don’t go out of my way to post Chime Offers and BankAmeriDeals, I usually just add them to the end of AMEX Offer posts. MS topics are popular. It will be hard to research and test new strategies with limited free time over the coming months, but I will see what I can do.
Love the Amex offers. Don’t do most but it’s great to know what is available. You check for the Amex offers so I don’t have to. Thanks!
Haha, the AMEX Offers have been really boring lately, but I hope good offers are right around the corner.
If you start your award booking services I will be your first customer! Sitting on 3.5 million miles/points and no time to plan anything!!!
Award Booking Services require a lot of time and airline expertise. I would go with one of the established ABS out there :)
I like the posts that include you taking a picture of some gift cards in front of a store! Meaning, for instance, an AMEX offer post where you tried out an MS angle that might or might not work and saved the rest of us some time in trying things out or at least comparing our experiences to yours.
Haha, those are good posts when they work out. I’ll keep that in mind for future posts.
I started reading your blog for the Amex offers which I still find valuable. Over the last few months I have been focusing on reselling blogs. It’s takes care of minimum spends, earning a ton of points without dealing with Walmart or Target (now dead) with gift cards and it is very profitable. Award searching for seats to use these miles would be great. Bottom line: Amex offers, reselling ideas/post, and award seat searching. Thanks for all you do.
Thank you Joe. I don’t know anything about reselling, but I will keep writing about AMEX Offers and award bookings.
I like the Amex offers, and use it to check periodically if I was targeted for some of the promos. I also like your angles for MS and check those out when you when you report on them. Also like reading some of the more obscure deals out there that you report on. I appreciate your hard work and sharing it with us all, thanks!
Thank you for the feedback. I like writing about MS topics and trying things out on my own.
amex offers blow
Haha, duly noted. Thank you :)
I’d like to read more MS ideas. Thanks!
Me too. I wish I had more MS ideas to post.
I like the A/E offer information to tell me what I’m missing. I enjoy all of your blogs on every topic you write about. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Thank you Gary, hopefully there will be some great Amex Offers coming out soon. (Hopefully both get the offers too).
I like AMEX offers, your posts on Club Carlson hotels and other various deals. I would like to see more trip reports and how you plan for the flights and hotels for these trips. I appreciate the fact that you take time to respond to every comment and question–not many bloggers do that! That’s a nice personal touch. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the feedback Cori. Trip reports are tricky. Then tend to take a long time to create and don’t end up getting that many views (maybe I need to make them more interesting/entertaining, I’m not sure). I can talk about my thought process behind booking hotels, but it seems pretty random and illogical at times. Thanks for reading :)
I’d like to know how to book a one-way Business class award flight from West Coast to Japan, because we’ll take a cruise ship back. Which airlines have the best seats on those flights? The best availability?
I have some (not a lot of) UA, AA, BA, Ultimate Rewards and SPG points. Which kind of points should I work on increasing?
Sorry if that’s TOO specific a question!
Hi Brooke, that’s a great question. Unfortunately, I’ve never looked at award tickets to Japan, so I can’t give you an exact answer, but I would tell you to check AA and UA websites for award space and then see which airline alliance partner offers the best award price (miles plus taxes/fees). That would be my answer for most award booking questions. Hopefully you can find award space :)
From Sicily….and you know how I paid for our flights – you save me time by posting AMEX deals. Maybe you can make them more concise so they are a faster read (and write). That should keep everyone happy. For me, detailed MS info is invaluable. Also, bloggers are most valuable when they/you provide information faster than our normal info routes. I don’t have time to read FT! The other greatest value of bloggers is providing Infomation that is not otherwise available. This isn’t very specific but you will create your niche and you will be the go-to blogger for whatever it is.
Thank you Zippy, I hope you’re having a great time in Sicily. I’m. It sure I can make the Amex Offer posts much shorter – they are pretty streamlined already. I don’t have time to read FT either. All the deals I learn about are discovered by myself or come from friends. Hopefully I will see you at an upcoming travel conference soon.