Bit tired of vague “Case Studies” on the site of "How I flew first class to … " Another one’s just appeared of someone’s flight to Tokyo and staying in luxury hotels. They won’t tell you what is really behind accumulation of points balances large enough to accumulate the points required for such first class trips. Nor do they disclose the “kickbacks” that sites such as Point Hacks receive, or the actual spend that a normal human would have to make to accumulate the required points. This site is valuable and does a good job, however unrealistic “boasting” of trips made with points balances that no normal consumer is ever going to accumulate is misleading. My points use, as I’m guessing most on this site is, is with just normal reward flights. If I fly return to the States using normal reward points redemptions, I’m happy! Just saying. Few more articles and guides on normal points earning and redemptions is what I think a lot would like to read. Bit tired of reading yet another article, or seeing yet another photo, of someone sitting in some luxury cabin when the real story is never told.
totally agree.
a few other things I find annoying.
- Specifically in regards to the Tokyo article what I see missing is the actual value of using Hilton points vs. paying cash for the hotel room. There is no comparison of the actual cost of the hotel - same thing if you were looking at flights. Also there's nothing about actually accumulating any points (besides the sign up bonus) which is 90% of the work in booking any awards.
- About the site itself- the constant rehashing of old articles with minor updates but posted as if it is brand new. the dates on top never shows the original publishing date then all comments are just added on from before.. I'm guessing this is to so people and can see old comments but really most are just irrelevant and outdated. Better to have a new comments section to each article then provide a link to the last one
Hi all,
Points taken (pun intended). I will pass on the comments to the team and writers.
I do admit most of the articles do not go into the in depth details of how one earn the points that fund the trip.
I am probably underqualified but I will give you a bit of an insight into how I earn my points. I estimate 90-95% of my points is earned from signup bonuses. I do not have a business, which I can earn points from business expenses. I am a normal 8-5 office worker. Let’s put it this way. For example: quite often signup bonuses are around 100k Qantas points. If I do not take advantage of signup bonuses, I would have to spend $66.7k on a (1.5ppd card) to earn 100k points. I honestly do not have that kind of money to spend consistently. Assume I apply for 2 of these cards per year, I would get 200k Qantas points. 256k Qantas points is sufficient for a RTW business class redemption.
I also earn points from the usual, Woolworths Everyday reward, Flybuys, BP service station, Vodafone plans, Qantas mall, Qantas Health Insurance, Amex referral, etc. The possibilities are endless in Australia.
Now, if every article writer drones on about how they earn their points in every trip review article, articles would be too long and repetitive.
From trip review articles, I personally draw inspiration to earn points harder and plan my next holiday. If I want to learn more about earning points, I go to the "guides’’ articles.
Now, I can say our writers are generally (90%+) not compensated or given an incentive by airlines or hotels to review our trips. If we do get something complimentary, it is usually disclosed. e.g. Matt’s article on Ritz Carlton Tokyo. He was given a free five-course meal from memory. It was disclosed.
I appreciate and respect your comments. As with anything, if you don’t enjoy it, please click away.
Articles are updated as things often change in the world of points.
If you have any unique or interesting articles you would like our team of writers to focus on, please provide some ideas and we can try to work on these idea if they are feasible.
Just my 2 cents.