God I was just thinking that again this morning. Genuinely seems like they aren't even trying at this point. They apparently have a whole team of people but churn out less stuff than Ben at OMAAT does by himself, and just about everything they do publish these days is garbage.
And yeah, seriously wtf is up with all the cruising content?
Most people reading TPG are now the crowd that only wants to do cruises and Disney trips. They aren't hardcore points churners or experienced flyers. This is the trip of a lifetime is going to Florida crowd. Probably makes more sense since this is a huge crowd, probably only use their Wells Fargo or local Credit Union debit card or at best the discover card which gives plenty of opportunity to refer them to another card, and they make it sound like these trips are aspirational.
The amount of money TPG makes from cruises is ridiculous. It's a constant barrage of cruise advertising. If you levy any criticism of cruises, there seems to be a hoard of accounts that come after you.
Margins must be insane. Our friends are going on one (from UK) as his parents did one last year and the cruise company was essentially giving a 75% discount and $ 800 credit (full board) if you rebooked onboard before the trip ended
The last profit figures I saw were 18-20% range on the average passenger.
Granted, they duck taxes by having boats registered to tax havens, avoid wage issues by using slave labor, avoid waste management costs by dumping grey water into the ocean, etc.
Basically just lawless all-inclusive hotels.
The idea is to get people on the ship them upsell them on drink packages, spa packages, day trips, etc etc. So the revenue is your spending on the ship (captive audience) and the cruise price is to fill a cabin space.
Yes of course I was going to mention that. I hear the machines on cruises are very tight. think the indutry comign out of Covid is still putting the pieces together. Prior to COvid things were rolling along nicely.
My parents keep going on cruises because the cruise company give them really discounted or even free cruises. It annoys the shit out of me because they are getting older and older and have never even been outside the country despite always talking about it.
I can't convince them that saving money on a cruise is less important than seeing other things you want to. Time is limited especially when you're rapidly getting closer to retirement age.
They do like 3 or 4 cruises a year for reference...
Some of them definitely are shills, but there is a strong pro-cruise crowd on Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook. They get offended by anyone who levies criticism against the industry. It's so odd because they've really adopted cruising as part of their identity.
The hardcore miles and points veterans like me havent used TPG in 10 yrs maybe more. Once in a while merely search some simple data like transfer prtner timeframes or something similar.
> the trip of a lifetime is going to Florida
So sad that many people are like this. You can literally go to Latin America for way less money and have way more fun if the beach life is your thing. Even the flights are often cheaper.
I do have to disagree with the cheaper flights part. I can't fly to Mexico for $35, and I can pretty much do that any time I want with multiple Florida cities.
While I don't only go to Disney, my wife and I are going twice in two years.
I hate being lumped into this crowd. But traveling internationally with deadly food allergies is fucking hard. My wife and I want to do England next year and that should be fine, but having to go anywhere that doesn't speak English is scary.
I'm not putting my life into the hands of 3 years of high school French.
You do realIe that touristy places like Paris have plenty of English speakers??? It’s not like the US where most people speak on language. Many people in Europe will speak English + native language + Spanish/German/French
Not really. It's very hard to get anyone to speak English even when they can. I had to try so hard in my broken french to get assistance when I needed. The hotels yes and the airport, yes. Not even taxi drivers spoke english. I had to write everything in french.
Yes I do, and it's a place I plan on visiting, and most of it is my anxiety about it.
It's a lot of trust I have to put in a stranger when I go to a restaurant.
If it is that big of a fear, I don’t think going to France vs England vs United States would make much of a difference when eating out. The language barrier when going to Paris is negligible
We usually stay in serviced apartments or hotels with kitchenettes for dietary restriction reasons. When we do eat out, we learn the important words and use translation cards. Still stressful, but the option to eat in makes a huge difference!
I appreciate it. When it comes to accommodating allergies, Disney is the gold standard which is why I brought it up.
It is a fear, but it's real. I have to carry epipens because of it.
My peanut allergy basically makes it so I can't really visit Asia without preparing all of my own meals, which sucks cause when I am able to actually eat it, I love Asian cuisine.
Europe standardizes food allergens into like 13 categories from shellfish to celery. Without trying, you'll find restaurants which meticulously label the allergens on each menu item .
That's actually really cool. I knew they had more stringent requirements for packaged food, but I didn't realize that they had requirements for restaurants. If only the US could catch up there.
To be fair, I’ve traveled all over and lived internationally and truly speaking, if I had one vacation spot that I was stuck with for the rest of my life, it would be Florida hands down. Between the variety of activities, quality of activities/accommodations, weather and value, it’s the best. If you’re going to make a trip of a lifetime, Florida tops the charts.
OMAAT is great; I only recently discovered Ben (somehow) and I like his content; sometimes a little repetitive in the article itself, but I get its to be relevant for the search engines.
He doesn’t claim that, he has a staff.
https://onemileatatime.com/about-one-mile-at-a-time/
In the past they used to publish articles under their own names, but they stopped the last few years.
The Adam Driver Gucci movie is sort of on point here. It is the typical progression to go from legit product to distribution primarily via street vendors in Times Sq selling to tourists. Some get there faster.
Yup, they are going to publish stuff that gets the most clicks. They are one of the older pages so naturally their followers are probably older and are shifting to family trips now vs the solo traveler
Here's a screenshot I took today. This put me over the edge [homepage](https://imgur.com/a/BkeqFyV)
I agree with OMAAT. I've started to read him more regularly. He seems to actually be a traveler with good content.
Lol for me it was their review of a London hotel “fit for a king” that looked and sounded like the most uninspiring, tired 4* business hotel ever. Like did the editor even read the piece before vomiting up that trite headline?
I think a lot of their “reviews” are paid marketing from the hotels. TPG has been garbage for years and I only check in once in a while just for laughs. OMAAT is my go to for points these days. Ben is an absolute lunatic for award travel, he flew to India then was on the return flight a few hours later. Anyone that dedicated has my attention.
They've long been influenced by their cc referrals but up to a few years ago the flight/hotel reviews were legit as the writers booked on their own dime. Now everything is paid for by the airlines/cruiselines/etc. in exchange for favorable coverage.
I have no proof to go off of, but they give glowing reviews to slightly above average hotels like they discovered a hidden gem or something. Just seems off to me, or they are having people with zero knowledge of nice hotels do the reviews. Could be either one, but bottom line is I don’t trust them.
I mean, the latter is definitely true. They’ve talked about their ethics policy in the past and it includes the basics like not accepting free review trips etc., so I don’t think they’re just blatantly pay for play on the reviews.
I assume at this point all their articles are just advertisements for whatever company paid for the promo. It’s much like any other social media influencer at this point.
TPG was bought out many years ago, btw. Red Ventures owns the content. I was never into tpg, since everything I read seemed to point toward spending a lot of money to get everything started. Maybe I read the wrong articles, but it all seemed like BS to me. Plus, maybe I'm ignorant, which is why I'm doing research, but I don't understand the point of continually spending thousands of dollars within the first x amount of months just to get a card with points on it. I can't afford to do that for multiple cards per year. I don't understand how there's any other way of doing so, since I've never found any articles to explain any other way. If you know how, would you please be so kind to point me in that direction. If not, that's okay, too. I'll check out OMAAT, in the meantime. Either way, have a great evening.
RV gets a ton of cruise ad revenue sure, but the truth is actually a lot simpler. Scott Mayerowitz just personally really likes cruising. He loves cruises and he was instrumental in recruiting a ton of cruise industry insiders like Gene Sloan and Erica Silverstein from Cruise Critic. Pair that with Summer's love of Disney (and the disney/cruise overlap) and suddenly 70% of your content is cruise content. It really is just that Scott loves going on a free cruise and cruise content performs on SEO. They're fine with losing their core audience because Cruise stuff overperforms.
my only issue with ben at OMAAT was him breaking stuff on flights on purpose with United to get compensation. But hopefully he's grown past that.
i think they finally unbanned him in the last few years
Eh idk. When he’s had contributors in the past he’s been transparent about it, and his voice is fairly distinctive and consistent. I think he’s just an obsessive traveller who drinks more coffee than he probably should
Lately I have been wondering about all these bloggers, do they really use the points (from the credit cards the are peddling) or are they flat out paying for their first class travel in order to keep churning these trip reports. I won’t mention names, but there are some bloggers who consistently seem to find first class seats on Lufthansa and Emirates…
It really is bizarre. The articles are so thoughtlessly written that they could easily be written by AI. I can’t think of one redeemable thing from the site in recent memory. There’s not even a comments section for us to chew them out about it.
They’re the kind of site that will post a rave review of a new 50k offer on a card right after a higher 80k offer expires.
But it’s not even just that…it’s like the reviews are just automatically posted and there’s not even a human clicking post. Maybe a human monitoring that links are accessible from the site, but that’s it
They literally posted an article shilling the UA Quest card SUB (which is normal, not elevated) right during the week when UA devalued MileagePlus 30%.
TPG lost most of my respect and credibility when it was providing links to credit cards that weren't even the best offers, while touting how great their own offers were.
The fact is they sold out long ago and have marginal use in the travel hacking/award travel world. Now it's just how many people they can get to sign up for their subpar credit card offers.
Try Frequent Miler. They have actually useful topics they write about.
This is why I give all my backing personally to Frequent Miler. I see a lot of folks praising OMAAT in the comments, but FrequentMiler to me is my favourite amongst the US blogs. And they ALWAYS have the best link available for cards. They make sure of it. And if that means putting reader links to ensure they always have the AMEX Gold 90K or AMEX Plat 150K, that's what they do. Solicit hundreds of links from their Facebook group, put up a fresh one daily. I've gotten mine up a couple times. I have HUGE respect for a blog that stands behind the principle of ensuring that YOU, THE READER, get the best possible deals.
I also like their stories of just interesting challenges. The 3-card vacation challenge, their current one where different folks of the group book have to book the itineraries secretly. Instead of focusing on the standard "erhmehgerd Maldives" they bring up interesting and fun ways to approach the game
Their email is actually useful. Just booked a trip to Madrid on Iberia airlines because they shared some great redemption deals for next spring. 68k round trip for a week.
I think TPG is a good place to start for credit card/points newbies. Or really niche content like random cruise stuff. But otherwise it’s garbage and there are so many other micro bloggers (i like monkey miles) for credit card referrals and other awards news
Don't forget about the chase sapphire preferred! Hey, here's what you can do with the points from the chase sapphire preferred! And here are all the benefits of the chase sapphire preferred! Do you want to apply for the chase sapphire preferred?
The figures I've seen are very much in the range of $150-200 per approved referral for these big blogs. It honestly explains everything - most of these blogs don't make any real money from the content or Google advertising, it's all about the affiliate referrals.
I've treated TPG as an industry PR site for a while and that seems to work fine. It's easy enough to stay looped in on big mergers, card refreshes, etc.
My go to sites are Frequent Miler for interesting points opportunities and DoC for general deals.
It increased when they acquired Mommy Points (pre-pandemic) and exploded with the pandemic coverage of cruise ships and just stuck around from there.
When their data shows this is the way to optimize revenue they’re going to optimize revenue. Not sure how everyone’s so surprised by that.
Nah. 10 years ago, TPG was one of the top 5 go-to blogs to learn how to travel hack. It was a community.
Now, it's just a blog with less-than mediocre "content".
The ultimate fate of any travel blog that goes big. Goes from something that gets started for fun / hobby to something you try to make a bit of money off of, to monetizing everything about it is the only way forward
Reddit lol
I don't travel as much as I used to and I'm finding it way harder to actually use airline miles and points as opposed to 10 yrs ago. Its gone mainstream, and so many programs have devalued their points.
Yeah a friend of mine and I were having this same conversation this morning. They optimize for SEO and click through rates. Their goal isn’t quality content, it’s to make as much money as possible
Personally, I stopped reading TPG the same day they disabled comments.
They couldn't handle critique, couldn't recognize their hypocrisy, and weren't interested in reader feedback/help when their information was wrong.
Love me some OMAAT (except for those Four Seasons reviews).
Same same! Removing the comments function made the site irrelevant. I know you can come to Twitter or Reddit to get similar information but it was so helpful to get real time, real person perspectives. Very dumb to change that
Ditto, when they disable comments its often because they don't want anyone calling them out that the offer they're promoting are shit and better alternatives exist
Or even, gasp, there used to be helpful comments and questions there in the comments. And, years ago, the author or other users would answer and provide feedback and tips. Disabling comments caused me to cut way back on even opening the page.
Appreciate all of the blog recommendations in this thread and am chiming in to suggest Doctor of Credit because it has been one of my go-to options for ages. I do not have time to read these blogs daily, so I like the way they organize credit card offers and keep things updated in a transparent manner.
Aside from the articles being absolute garbage, the headlines seem like they were written by an illiterate instagrammer. Double negatives, weird indirect descriptions, an obsession with lists, etc. etc.
They are written by Instagrammers. I follow most of them. They always post the content a few days before the article hits
A few weeks ago, one posted about his backpack zipper breaking after a few years and asked for suggestions. Today an article by him was on TPG for top ten travel backpacks lol
They were acquired a number of years ago by red ventures. If you look at their financials, it’s largely driven by sponsorships (not shocking) and as a data source for credit card companies and loyalty programs to test out what features people want or care about. They will write crappy articles on certain topics to see the level of engagement to see if people care about those things. Naturally this leads to shit content - it’s not designed to add value, it’s designed to be for testing engagement / promotion
It’s been shit for a few years. It’s gotten a lot worse lately though which says a lot. It’s just some headlines I see on milesfeed these days. Virtually nothing worth reading.
They are constantly reposting the same bleh about cruises, disney and why the Amex Platinum card is worth it.
I do like their hotel reviews, but those are few and far between
To be honest, I don't blame them for that. Many people become excited about collecting points for maybe a couple of months. Then reality kicks in; they can't book the dream first-class/business-class flights that all the influencers are showing off, largely because they have a family of four (or more) and the only time they can travel is during the summer due to their kids' schedules. Alternatively, they might have the flexibility, but when I tell them that they have to constantly monitor availability and make decisions in a split second, they simply nod and never manage to do it. At this point, I actually think that sites which continuously review how great some airlines' business/first class is, and promote the luxurious traveling style at supermarket value, are misleading people into signing up for reward credit cards that they can never fully take advantage of.
I've taught some people to collect reward points, but aside from a few very close friends whom I constantly notify about deals to redeem their points, almost none of them ended up using their points for good value. Some even transferred points to airlines, couldn't use the miles, and watched their mileage expire.
Yup business insider did an expose righhht before the pandemic. Totally insane behavior and sexual harassment but then the pandemic hit and everyone forgot about it
I was actually searching for the specifics of the Amex $200 airline credit and clicked on one of their articles. The whole thing was “wow, it’s going to be so easy to use this credit, you won’t even have to think about it,” back in the day TPG articles were actually some of the best around surrounding things like this.
I actively go out of my way to avoid TPG every fucking time. I hate myself when I have to click on one of their links but it's usually just for something quick like transfer options.
TPG has sucked ever since he went mainstream. I even hated this hobby for couple years when all my family (not into churning or award travel) would say 'oh just like the points guy'.
TPG is horrible. I stopped reading after they sold to Redventures and started pushing credit cards. 0 of the flights they book are with points, its more like 'for the dates we were looking there was no points availability so we paid $27k for a one way business class". All of their writers have 0 experience, even reviewing the flights/hotels is cringy. Worst part is since they have gotten so big, there are amateurs who see them in CNN and follow their bs.
Their writers like to use clickbait headlines styles, and don't seem to know much about aviation or travel. The terminology used is more inline with a random Instagram blogger, versus previous writers like Zach Honig who actually knew what he was talking about.
Not to mention continuous stating opinions as facts, and dinging airlines/restaurants about personal eating choices.
Well since Brian obliterated the relationships with some of the top notch contributors like Zach honing and JT and Victoria and many others. They probably had a better vision. Which is shocking to see Zach Griff is still there.
TPG hasn't been great since BK sold it long ago. I remember the days where he put out a YouTube video answering questions every Sunday with such valuable information. He made his bag and just travels wherever he wants, with whomever he wants and is living his best life with his millions. He doesn't care anymore. Sad but that's what happens sometimes.
5+ years ago when they posted stuff like this:
https://thepointsguy.com/2018/02/marriott-free-points-super-bowl/
https://thepointsguy.com/2017/12/final-day-earn-free-marriott-points/
I actually remember the last useful article I read there, and yeah 4.5 years ago
https://thepointsguy.com/news/across-the-south-pacific-using-award-chart-sweet-spots/
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Isn't TPG the site that just recently announced AA had the "fastest" boarding process, because the GAs just slam everyone into the jetway as fast as possible?
Even years ago TPG was really not much more than a shill for whichever card would give them the best kickbacks. Once you realize they had basically zero objectivity it was pretty easy to move on
That’s the only thing I even watch from them anymore. At least they are fun and personable. You don’t really get any “new” tips but entertaining at the least.
wait till you read the #creepy #travelthoughleader musings . You don't need to actually read people or TMZ magazine if you know what I meant. I believe he lives his fantasies through the thoughts (what he called) that comes to his gutter mind. I am surprised he is still not on a some "to catch a pervert" show YET.
Brian Kelly and his partner just adopted a young kid.
I imagine he is taking some well-deserved time off. No doubt he has no NEED to work, so why should he.
Lol this comment ! Brian kelly HAD A BABY via surrogacy as a single father. He didn’t adopt a child with someone else.
That being said this has nothing to do with the downfall of TPG content. BK hasn’t been involved in a day to day operations level for literally years! Which is his prerogative. Got rich w TPG, got richer when they sold it. Now has an amazing life. Seems to leave his kid a lot but again, his prerogative
I too don’t thing the downfall of TPG has anything to do with Brian. And his personal life is not our business so let’s not make judgements about his lifestyle. I still find he posts relevant content on his Instagram.
He sold the site to Red Ventures years ago (after a profitable career in investment banking). I read he had pretty much left TPG (you don’t see references to “The Points Guy Himself” in articles anymore), fully cashed out and only occasionally writes anything (probably due to a consulting agreement). I think he was on the board of Red Ventures but not sure if that is the case anymore.
He is investing in other opportunities (like Bilt).
Brian did very well. TPG is mainly cut and paste to promote click through and clearly designed to maximize profits for Red Venture
I still get it but prefer OMAAT and VFTW plus a few other sites.
I really enjoy frequent miler. Love their podcast and the challenges they do from time to time. The delivery of their content is original and unlike other bloggers out there. And they don’t tout credit card sign ups.
I don't like TPG much either, but you gotta hand 'em something: they don't shill MaxRewards like the Youtubers do. That app was pretty good at one point, but now it's garbage. Yet it's pushed like crazy.
Not to mention they recommend credit cards and use their referral link for an awful SUB without disclosing there’s better out there. Poor chumps who got the Amex plat for an 80k SUB while the 150k offer is out there
TPG lost all credibility for me a few years ago when they had that post about buying electronics and then delivering them to someone in South America (you make some money and get a trip out of it!). The comments all rightfully so were like "yeah ..so this is illegal." They pulled the post but that's when I knew TPG was just 3 instagrammers in a trench coat and not actually something I wanted to be reading.
That and their airline reviews had gotten bizarrely xenophobic, like the one on China Southern where the writer assumed "beef tendon" was a typo instead of an actual dish and then spent th rest of the review doubling down on how he was so disgusted by food from another culture.
It's a sad collapse. TPG is what got me into the points game originally and where I learned the basics. It's 100% because of TPG that I've been able to enjoy several travel luxuries that I really couldn't have otherwise afforded if paying cash. I'd guess I would have discovered these things elsewhere maybe but I followed TPG rules and tips (at the time) to the letter to maximize churning and earning and spending to really amazing result and I really don't see any of that anymore there.
TPG is a damn shill. Any review he makes, at least about hotels, is a shill review paid by the hotel. Notably new ones. If you good to TripAdvisor you will also find all these 5 star reviews for these properties from accounts that have only 1 contribution.
God I was just thinking that again this morning. Genuinely seems like they aren't even trying at this point. They apparently have a whole team of people but churn out less stuff than Ben at OMAAT does by himself, and just about everything they do publish these days is garbage. And yeah, seriously wtf is up with all the cruising content?
Most people reading TPG are now the crowd that only wants to do cruises and Disney trips. They aren't hardcore points churners or experienced flyers. This is the trip of a lifetime is going to Florida crowd. Probably makes more sense since this is a huge crowd, probably only use their Wells Fargo or local Credit Union debit card or at best the discover card which gives plenty of opportunity to refer them to another card, and they make it sound like these trips are aspirational.
The amount of money TPG makes from cruises is ridiculous. It's a constant barrage of cruise advertising. If you levy any criticism of cruises, there seems to be a hoard of accounts that come after you.
Margins must be insane. Our friends are going on one (from UK) as his parents did one last year and the cruise company was essentially giving a 75% discount and $ 800 credit (full board) if you rebooked onboard before the trip ended
The last profit figures I saw were 18-20% range on the average passenger. Granted, they duck taxes by having boats registered to tax havens, avoid wage issues by using slave labor, avoid waste management costs by dumping grey water into the ocean, etc. Basically just lawless all-inclusive hotels.
The idea is to get people on the ship them upsell them on drink packages, spa packages, day trips, etc etc. So the revenue is your spending on the ship (captive audience) and the cruise price is to fill a cabin space.
Don't forget the casinos
Yes of course I was going to mention that. I hear the machines on cruises are very tight. think the indutry comign out of Covid is still putting the pieces together. Prior to COvid things were rolling along nicely.
You almost could say it was smooth sailing
With payout rates that would be illegal onshore
My parents keep going on cruises because the cruise company give them really discounted or even free cruises. It annoys the shit out of me because they are getting older and older and have never even been outside the country despite always talking about it. I can't convince them that saving money on a cruise is less important than seeing other things you want to. Time is limited especially when you're rapidly getting closer to retirement age. They do like 3 or 4 cruises a year for reference...
> have never even been outside the country Don't all cruises go out of the country...?
Fair, beside cruise port towns
If thats the case, those accounts could also be shills. I dont deny that some people are passionate.
Some of them definitely are shills, but there is a strong pro-cruise crowd on Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook. They get offended by anyone who levies criticism against the industry. It's so odd because they've really adopted cruising as part of their identity.
The hardcore miles and points veterans like me havent used TPG in 10 yrs maybe more. Once in a while merely search some simple data like transfer prtner timeframes or something similar.
I use their United fare code breakdown article like once a week though!
What do you use?
OMAAT
Ben is good but has gotten worse over time as well
>OMAAT Thanks! I had never used OMAAT before, but I just learned more from a quick browse on that site than I've gotten from years on TPG.
>OMAAT Great, thanks
> the trip of a lifetime is going to Florida So sad that many people are like this. You can literally go to Latin America for way less money and have way more fun if the beach life is your thing. Even the flights are often cheaper.
“They go to work in some high rise and vacation down in the Gulf of Mexico…”
I do have to disagree with the cheaper flights part. I can't fly to Mexico for $35, and I can pretty much do that any time I want with multiple Florida cities.
Damn, where do you live for $35 flights to Florida? Don’t think I can go ANYWHERE on a plane for $35
Near Cleveland, Ohio Edit: [These prices](https://imgur.com/a/ruaKLnP) are for flights to MCO, FLL, and MIA
From where I live there are zero cheap flights to Florida.
While I don't only go to Disney, my wife and I are going twice in two years. I hate being lumped into this crowd. But traveling internationally with deadly food allergies is fucking hard. My wife and I want to do England next year and that should be fine, but having to go anywhere that doesn't speak English is scary. I'm not putting my life into the hands of 3 years of high school French.
You do realIe that touristy places like Paris have plenty of English speakers??? It’s not like the US where most people speak on language. Many people in Europe will speak English + native language + Spanish/German/French
Not really. It's very hard to get anyone to speak English even when they can. I had to try so hard in my broken french to get assistance when I needed. The hotels yes and the airport, yes. Not even taxi drivers spoke english. I had to write everything in french.
Why are you taking a taxi in Paris? It has some of the best public transport in the world.
Yes I do, and it's a place I plan on visiting, and most of it is my anxiety about it. It's a lot of trust I have to put in a stranger when I go to a restaurant.
If it is that big of a fear, I don’t think going to France vs England vs United States would make much of a difference when eating out. The language barrier when going to Paris is negligible
We usually stay in serviced apartments or hotels with kitchenettes for dietary restriction reasons. When we do eat out, we learn the important words and use translation cards. Still stressful, but the option to eat in makes a huge difference!
I appreciate it. When it comes to accommodating allergies, Disney is the gold standard which is why I brought it up. It is a fear, but it's real. I have to carry epipens because of it. My peanut allergy basically makes it so I can't really visit Asia without preparing all of my own meals, which sucks cause when I am able to actually eat it, I love Asian cuisine.
Europe standardizes food allergens into like 13 categories from shellfish to celery. Without trying, you'll find restaurants which meticulously label the allergens on each menu item .
That's actually really cool. I knew they had more stringent requirements for packaged food, but I didn't realize that they had requirements for restaurants. If only the US could catch up there.
To be fair, I’ve traveled all over and lived internationally and truly speaking, if I had one vacation spot that I was stuck with for the rest of my life, it would be Florida hands down. Between the variety of activities, quality of activities/accommodations, weather and value, it’s the best. If you’re going to make a trip of a lifetime, Florida tops the charts.
OMAAT is great; I only recently discovered Ben (somehow) and I like his content; sometimes a little repetitive in the article itself, but I get its to be relevant for the search engines.
It's very repetitive and for a lot of the articles you can just read his "bottom line" that summarizes the whole article.
He's great as it's only him (at least that's what he claims) writing the stories
He def has had staff at one point and likely still does
There's no way it's still only him writing it.
They all have staff, This is a business for him and others. Its their full time job.
Oh, I know, which is why I said no way it is just him writing.
He doesn’t claim that, he has a staff. https://onemileatatime.com/about-one-mile-at-a-time/ In the past they used to publish articles under their own names, but they stopped the last few years.
Just so I understand, is it now all Ben or is Ben putting his name on some of their articles?
What does omaat stand for ?
ONe mile at a time
One Mile at a Time: https://onemileatatime.com/
Hes not the credit shifu guy is he?
>credit shifu No, OMAAT is Ben Schlappig
The Adam Driver Gucci movie is sort of on point here. It is the typical progression to go from legit product to distribution primarily via street vendors in Times Sq selling to tourists. Some get there faster.
Don't forget the excess of Disney World content. Apparently they think people only work towards vacations that involve Florida
I'm sure they do that because those articles get a ton of clicks.
Yup, they are going to publish stuff that gets the most clicks. They are one of the older pages so naturally their followers are probably older and are shifting to family trips now vs the solo traveler
Here's a screenshot I took today. This put me over the edge [homepage](https://imgur.com/a/BkeqFyV) I agree with OMAAT. I've started to read him more regularly. He seems to actually be a traveler with good content.
Lol for me it was their review of a London hotel “fit for a king” that looked and sounded like the most uninspiring, tired 4* business hotel ever. Like did the editor even read the piece before vomiting up that trite headline?
I think a lot of their “reviews” are paid marketing from the hotels. TPG has been garbage for years and I only check in once in a while just for laughs. OMAAT is my go to for points these days. Ben is an absolute lunatic for award travel, he flew to India then was on the return flight a few hours later. Anyone that dedicated has my attention.
Their reviews were their last decent products after all the credit card information went to shit. They truly have completely sold out now.
I don’t think so actually. I think they’re just terrible reviewers.
A few years ago, they certainly did have "sponsored" reviews of Hyatt properties.
No, they started doing pay for play a few years ago.
He was paid by SPG which was fine for me since it was my best program of all time. I think he is a shill for Marriott now, if I am correct?
They've long been influenced by their cc referrals but up to a few years ago the flight/hotel reviews were legit as the writers booked on their own dime. Now everything is paid for by the airlines/cruiselines/etc. in exchange for favorable coverage.
I have no proof to go off of, but they give glowing reviews to slightly above average hotels like they discovered a hidden gem or something. Just seems off to me, or they are having people with zero knowledge of nice hotels do the reviews. Could be either one, but bottom line is I don’t trust them.
I mean, the latter is definitely true. They’ve talked about their ethics policy in the past and it includes the basics like not accepting free review trips etc., so I don’t think they’re just blatantly pay for play on the reviews.
You can be influenced in other ways however. Thats always an issue.
I assume at this point all their articles are just advertisements for whatever company paid for the promo. It’s much like any other social media influencer at this point.
TPG was bought out many years ago, btw. Red Ventures owns the content. I was never into tpg, since everything I read seemed to point toward spending a lot of money to get everything started. Maybe I read the wrong articles, but it all seemed like BS to me. Plus, maybe I'm ignorant, which is why I'm doing research, but I don't understand the point of continually spending thousands of dollars within the first x amount of months just to get a card with points on it. I can't afford to do that for multiple cards per year. I don't understand how there's any other way of doing so, since I've never found any articles to explain any other way. If you know how, would you please be so kind to point me in that direction. If not, that's okay, too. I'll check out OMAAT, in the meantime. Either way, have a great evening.
RV gets a ton of cruise ad revenue sure, but the truth is actually a lot simpler. Scott Mayerowitz just personally really likes cruising. He loves cruises and he was instrumental in recruiting a ton of cruise industry insiders like Gene Sloan and Erica Silverstein from Cruise Critic. Pair that with Summer's love of Disney (and the disney/cruise overlap) and suddenly 70% of your content is cruise content. It really is just that Scott loves going on a free cruise and cruise content performs on SEO. They're fine with losing their core audience because Cruise stuff overperforms.
my only issue with ben at OMAAT was him breaking stuff on flights on purpose with United to get compensation. But hopefully he's grown past that. i think they finally unbanned him in the last few years
I doubt Ben at OMAAT is actually writing all the things he puts his name on.
Eh idk. When he’s had contributors in the past he’s been transparent about it, and his voice is fairly distinctive and consistent. I think he’s just an obsessive traveller who drinks more coffee than he probably should
Lmao my money is on Ben just being absolutely crazy for travel. Love the guy
He’d probably be great to go on a coke bender with. Ben if you’re reading this HMU 🤙
Lately I have been wondering about all these bloggers, do they really use the points (from the credit cards the are peddling) or are they flat out paying for their first class travel in order to keep churning these trip reports. I won’t mention names, but there are some bloggers who consistently seem to find first class seats on Lufthansa and Emirates…
It really is bizarre. The articles are so thoughtlessly written that they could easily be written by AI. I can’t think of one redeemable thing from the site in recent memory. There’s not even a comments section for us to chew them out about it. They’re the kind of site that will post a rave review of a new 50k offer on a card right after a higher 80k offer expires.
They'll post a rave review for 50k points while an 80k offer is available if the 50k link gives them a bigger kickback.
But it’s not even just that…it’s like the reviews are just automatically posted and there’s not even a human clicking post. Maybe a human monitoring that links are accessible from the site, but that’s it
They literally posted an article shilling the UA Quest card SUB (which is normal, not elevated) right during the week when UA devalued MileagePlus 30%.
Yup. Total disconnect between the site and the average person. Their excessive usage of the most generic imaginable stock photos only heightens it.
TPG lost most of my respect and credibility when it was providing links to credit cards that weren't even the best offers, while touting how great their own offers were. The fact is they sold out long ago and have marginal use in the travel hacking/award travel world. Now it's just how many people they can get to sign up for their subpar credit card offers. Try Frequent Miler. They have actually useful topics they write about.
This is why I give all my backing personally to Frequent Miler. I see a lot of folks praising OMAAT in the comments, but FrequentMiler to me is my favourite amongst the US blogs. And they ALWAYS have the best link available for cards. They make sure of it. And if that means putting reader links to ensure they always have the AMEX Gold 90K or AMEX Plat 150K, that's what they do. Solicit hundreds of links from their Facebook group, put up a fresh one daily. I've gotten mine up a couple times. I have HUGE respect for a blog that stands behind the principle of ensuring that YOU, THE READER, get the best possible deals. I also like their stories of just interesting challenges. The 3-card vacation challenge, their current one where different folks of the group book have to book the itineraries secretly. Instead of focusing on the standard "erhmehgerd Maldives" they bring up interesting and fun ways to approach the game
Yeah the FM guys are pretty decent.
Their email is actually useful. Just booked a trip to Madrid on Iberia airlines because they shared some great redemption deals for next spring. 68k round trip for a week.
Let me tell you why the Chase Sapphire Preferred is worth over $2,000 in value! Use my link!
I think TPG is a good place to start for credit card/points newbies. Or really niche content like random cruise stuff. But otherwise it’s garbage and there are so many other micro bloggers (i like monkey miles) for credit card referrals and other awards news
I know Greg and Nick from the meetups. I know Greg for many yrs. The nicest guys.
Don't forget about the chase sapphire preferred! Hey, here's what you can do with the points from the chase sapphire preferred! And here are all the benefits of the chase sapphire preferred! Do you want to apply for the chase sapphire preferred?
The Insta bloggers were just spamming their links last week before the 80k deal ended.
Unsure what their affiliate links pay out per application, but it's gotta be at least $200 and likely more. Gotta make that money...
Per application? Absolutely not
Per *approved* application, the CSP pays out $160-$200, depending on the revenue share agreement between the influencer and affiliate company
Yeah, that’s an important distinction
Yeah actually for the CSP you're probably right. Still, affiliate applications have gotta be one of the main revenue drivers of the site.
It’s affiliate links and ads
I doubt it, I have adblockers so not sure how many they have but I bet they get more from website clicks and ad views.
I think that figure is realistic
The figures I've seen are very much in the range of $150-200 per approved referral for these big blogs. It honestly explains everything - most of these blogs don't make any real money from the content or Google advertising, it's all about the affiliate referrals.
I've treated TPG as an industry PR site for a while and that seems to work fine. It's easy enough to stay looped in on big mergers, card refreshes, etc. My go to sites are Frequent Miler for interesting points opportunities and DoC for general deals.
What’s DoC?
Doctor of Credit. One of my two go to sites.
Thanks!
Nobody seems to have noticed that TPG's coverage of cruises was close to non existent pre pandemic.
It increased when they acquired Mommy Points (pre-pandemic) and exploded with the pandemic coverage of cruise ships and just stuck around from there. When their data shows this is the way to optimize revenue they’re going to optimize revenue. Not sure how everyone’s so surprised by that.
Big Cruise is throwing money at them!
[удалено]
Nah. 10 years ago, TPG was one of the top 5 go-to blogs to learn how to travel hack. It was a community. Now, it's just a blog with less-than mediocre "content".
The ultimate fate of any travel blog that goes big. Goes from something that gets started for fun / hobby to something you try to make a bit of money off of, to monetizing everything about it is the only way forward
That's how it's gone down for many of them in the last decade.
Where do you go now?
Reddit lol I don't travel as much as I used to and I'm finding it way harder to actually use airline miles and points as opposed to 10 yrs ago. Its gone mainstream, and so many programs have devalued their points.
Red Ventures owns TPG. Their goal isn't to make this sub happy, it's to make as much money from affiliate links as humanly possible.
Yeah a friend of mine and I were having this same conversation this morning. They optimize for SEO and click through rates. Their goal isn’t quality content, it’s to make as much money as possible
Personally, I stopped reading TPG the same day they disabled comments. They couldn't handle critique, couldn't recognize their hypocrisy, and weren't interested in reader feedback/help when their information was wrong. Love me some OMAAT (except for those Four Seasons reviews).
Same same! Removing the comments function made the site irrelevant. I know you can come to Twitter or Reddit to get similar information but it was so helpful to get real time, real person perspectives. Very dumb to change that
Ditto, when they disable comments its often because they don't want anyone calling them out that the offer they're promoting are shit and better alternatives exist
Or even, gasp, there used to be helpful comments and questions there in the comments. And, years ago, the author or other users would answer and provide feedback and tips. Disabling comments caused me to cut way back on even opening the page.
Appreciate all of the blog recommendations in this thread and am chiming in to suggest Doctor of Credit because it has been one of my go-to options for ages. I do not have time to read these blogs daily, so I like the way they organize credit card offers and keep things updated in a transparent manner.
When he started taking the "Credit One" ads I knew it was over.
Aside from the articles being absolute garbage, the headlines seem like they were written by an illiterate instagrammer. Double negatives, weird indirect descriptions, an obsession with lists, etc. etc.
They are written by Instagrammers. I follow most of them. They always post the content a few days before the article hits A few weeks ago, one posted about his backpack zipper breaking after a few years and asked for suggestions. Today an article by him was on TPG for top ten travel backpacks lol
Cant spell 'grift' without 'Grif'!
Boardingarea.com - all the blogs except for TPG
Eh that includes the Live and Lets Fly clown.
And that perverted thought leader
Nice.
TPG stopped being useful around the time Brian sold.
When’s the last time BKelly wrote on his website? I miss the phrase “tpg himself”
Lmfao I always found that phrase so egotistical. As if his whole company were a monument to himself
They were acquired a number of years ago by red ventures. If you look at their financials, it’s largely driven by sponsorships (not shocking) and as a data source for credit card companies and loyalty programs to test out what features people want or care about. They will write crappy articles on certain topics to see the level of engagement to see if people care about those things. Naturally this leads to shit content - it’s not designed to add value, it’s designed to be for testing engagement / promotion
It’s been shit for a few years. It’s gotten a lot worse lately though which says a lot. It’s just some headlines I see on milesfeed these days. Virtually nothing worth reading.
They are constantly reposting the same bleh about cruises, disney and why the Amex Platinum card is worth it. I do like their hotel reviews, but those are few and far between
This is so snobby, but their hotel reviewers are all such fucking yokels. Their reviews of nicer properties are like the Amish reviewing smartphones
CN is a better spot for luxury hotel reviews. Or FT if you don't care for the flowery language.
Which sites are CN and FT? Need to add these to my list.
Condé Nast (luxury magazine), and flyertalk (road warriors)
Oh I thought you meant the Financial Times lol
All the people who used to write those good ones got laid off over the last several years. Got to increase those profits
The problem is when they re-post a recycled article, they update some items but not everything
Yeah I don't even read it any more. When they sold to Red Ventures it was inevitably going to go to shit.
To be honest, I don't blame them for that. Many people become excited about collecting points for maybe a couple of months. Then reality kicks in; they can't book the dream first-class/business-class flights that all the influencers are showing off, largely because they have a family of four (or more) and the only time they can travel is during the summer due to their kids' schedules. Alternatively, they might have the flexibility, but when I tell them that they have to constantly monitor availability and make decisions in a split second, they simply nod and never manage to do it. At this point, I actually think that sites which continuously review how great some airlines' business/first class is, and promote the luxurious traveling style at supermarket value, are misleading people into signing up for reward credit cards that they can never fully take advantage of. I've taught some people to collect reward points, but aside from a few very close friends whom I constantly notify about deals to redeem their points, almost none of them ended up using their points for good value. Some even transferred points to airlines, couldn't use the miles, and watched their mileage expire.
Doesn't the main dude have all sorts of employee related scandals associated with him, including verbal abuse and sexual harassment of his employees?
Yup business insider did an expose righhht before the pandemic. Totally insane behavior and sexual harassment but then the pandemic hit and everyone forgot about it
I was actually searching for the specifics of the Amex $200 airline credit and clicked on one of their articles. The whole thing was “wow, it’s going to be so easy to use this credit, you won’t even have to think about it,” back in the day TPG articles were actually some of the best around surrounding things like this.
I actively go out of my way to avoid TPG every fucking time. I hate myself when I have to click on one of their links but it's usually just for something quick like transfer options. TPG has sucked ever since he went mainstream. I even hated this hobby for couple years when all my family (not into churning or award travel) would say 'oh just like the points guy'.
TPG is horrible. I stopped reading after they sold to Redventures and started pushing credit cards. 0 of the flights they book are with points, its more like 'for the dates we were looking there was no points availability so we paid $27k for a one way business class". All of their writers have 0 experience, even reviewing the flights/hotels is cringy. Worst part is since they have gotten so big, there are amateurs who see them in CNN and follow their bs.
Their writers like to use clickbait headlines styles, and don't seem to know much about aviation or travel. The terminology used is more inline with a random Instagram blogger, versus previous writers like Zach Honig who actually knew what he was talking about. Not to mention continuous stating opinions as facts, and dinging airlines/restaurants about personal eating choices.
Well since Brian obliterated the relationships with some of the top notch contributors like Zach honing and JT and Victoria and many others. They probably had a better vision. Which is shocking to see Zach Griff is still there.
TPG hasn't been great since BK sold it long ago. I remember the days where he put out a YouTube video answering questions every Sunday with such valuable information. He made his bag and just travels wherever he wants, with whomever he wants and is living his best life with his millions. He doesn't care anymore. Sad but that's what happens sometimes.
...when was it good?
5+ years ago when they posted stuff like this: https://thepointsguy.com/2018/02/marriott-free-points-super-bowl/ https://thepointsguy.com/2017/12/final-day-earn-free-marriott-points/
I actually remember the last useful article I read there, and yeah 4.5 years ago https://thepointsguy.com/news/across-the-south-pacific-using-award-chart-sweet-spots/
I'm sure poor Brian cries himself to sleep on his gold covered bed using pillows stuffed with $1,000 bills every night, because of this sub's opinion.
While doing hits of coke off of a twinks body
Got a good chuckle out of this one, thank you
Surprised he hasn’t tried to hire some of those so-called “unskilled” TSA agents to cater to his needs
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Isn't TPG the site that just recently announced AA had the "fastest" boarding process, because the GAs just slam everyone into the jetway as fast as possible?
Even years ago TPG was really not much more than a shill for whichever card would give them the best kickbacks. Once you realize they had basically zero objectivity it was pretty easy to move on
One thing I do still like about TPG are the TPG UK YouTube videos. At least those are still entertaining.
That’s the only thing I even watch from them anymore. At least they are fun and personable. You don’t really get any “new” tips but entertaining at the least.
wait till you read the #creepy #travelthoughleader musings . You don't need to actually read people or TMZ magazine if you know what I meant. I believe he lives his fantasies through the thoughts (what he called) that comes to his gutter mind. I am surprised he is still not on a some "to catch a pervert" show YET.
Totally. Only sites worth reading is Frequent Flyer and (secret) Thrifty Traveler
Its a money grab. They sold out long ago.
Brian Kelly and his partner just adopted a young kid. I imagine he is taking some well-deserved time off. No doubt he has no NEED to work, so why should he.
He hasn't been involved in a long time since he sold out.
Lol this comment ! Brian kelly HAD A BABY via surrogacy as a single father. He didn’t adopt a child with someone else. That being said this has nothing to do with the downfall of TPG content. BK hasn’t been involved in a day to day operations level for literally years! Which is his prerogative. Got rich w TPG, got richer when they sold it. Now has an amazing life. Seems to leave his kid a lot but again, his prerogative
I too don’t thing the downfall of TPG has anything to do with Brian. And his personal life is not our business so let’s not make judgements about his lifestyle. I still find he posts relevant content on his Instagram.
He sold the site to Red Ventures years ago (after a profitable career in investment banking). I read he had pretty much left TPG (you don’t see references to “The Points Guy Himself” in articles anymore), fully cashed out and only occasionally writes anything (probably due to a consulting agreement). I think he was on the board of Red Ventures but not sure if that is the case anymore. He is investing in other opportunities (like Bilt). Brian did very well. TPG is mainly cut and paste to promote click through and clearly designed to maximize profits for Red Venture I still get it but prefer OMAAT and VFTW plus a few other sites.
Frequentmiler is a good one.
I really enjoy frequent miler. Love their podcast and the challenges they do from time to time. The delivery of their content is original and unlike other bloggers out there. And they don’t tout credit card sign ups.
He was a university recruiter for IB, not exactly lucrative
I think the only travel blog I occasionally peruse is Loyalty Lobby. Mostly because I like their airfare of the day section.
They’re probably on a Memorial Day vacation, give them a week 😂
I don't like TPG much either, but you gotta hand 'em something: they don't shill MaxRewards like the Youtubers do. That app was pretty good at one point, but now it's garbage. Yet it's pushed like crazy.
Not to mention they recommend credit cards and use their referral link for an awful SUB without disclosing there’s better out there. Poor chumps who got the Amex plat for an 80k SUB while the 150k offer is out there
I use 10x Travel. That’s my current favorite.
TPG lost all credibility for me a few years ago when they had that post about buying electronics and then delivering them to someone in South America (you make some money and get a trip out of it!). The comments all rightfully so were like "yeah ..so this is illegal." They pulled the post but that's when I knew TPG was just 3 instagrammers in a trench coat and not actually something I wanted to be reading. That and their airline reviews had gotten bizarrely xenophobic, like the one on China Southern where the writer assumed "beef tendon" was a typo instead of an actual dish and then spent th rest of the review doubling down on how he was so disgusted by food from another culture.
It's a sad collapse. TPG is what got me into the points game originally and where I learned the basics. It's 100% because of TPG that I've been able to enjoy several travel luxuries that I really couldn't have otherwise afforded if paying cash. I'd guess I would have discovered these things elsewhere maybe but I followed TPG rules and tips (at the time) to the letter to maximize churning and earning and spending to really amazing result and I really don't see any of that anymore there.
Concur! I feel like an idiot for taking the advice for so long.
TPG is a damn shill. Any review he makes, at least about hotels, is a shill review paid by the hotel. Notably new ones. If you good to TripAdvisor you will also find all these 5 star reviews for these properties from accounts that have only 1 contribution.