Chris Elliott, everyone's favorite travel "journalist" and "consumer activist," scribbled some more of his insights onto the interwebs today. I was hoping he'd take a break from his usual ridiculousness after arguing a couple of weeks ago that minibars should be banned by law, not just because they're overpriced, but because they're not good for…
Continue reading: Chris Elliott calls loyalty programs a scam… again
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When I first found his site, I found it interesting. After about two weeks of regular reading, I gave up as it seemed it was nothing more than a "I messed something up and don't want to be held accountable" blog.
Chris Elliott is unreadable, likely because A) He can't write, and B) He can't seem to escape the dome of envy under which he lives.
Please, never speak of Chris Elliott again.
James,
It seems you have not fully given up, since you appear to still be reading.
I agree with you Lucky. Only thing I would argue is that low-mid tier status is getting easier to obtain. Top level is getting much harder.
Interesting. However, I'm pretty sure all of his readers come from bloggers defending loyalty programs after he has a post to be controversial. So I prefer not talking about him too. :-p
From a selfish perspective, he is doing us a favor. The miles and points game would be better if there were fewer participants. To the extent he scares people off, he is actually helping the rest of us. Sort of like people not moving to Seattle because the weather is supposedly so bad. If not for that fear, Seattle would be even more crowded that it already is.
Spot on analysis as usual, although I'm surprised no one has mentioned the sheer and utter hypocrisy of his own website, Elliott.org, which is littered with CC ads!!! The very same ads that presumably earn him a referral when he piously states that: "They hawked a handful of bank-issued affinity credit cards with excessive point-bonus awards for which they received a generous commission check whenever a reader signed up." Is this guy serious? Really? I counted no less than 6 different CC ads on his website. What a clown.
I too wish we wouldn't give him the satisfaction of talking about him. I honestly think we are the incorrect demographic he's trying to market at. I think he thinks he's the peoples voice for the middle-class who only travel on a recreational basis. I think it's a big game in order to be loyalty-savvy, if you just walk around flashing FF cards...you're not going to automatically get king treatment. But, this is why I always say people like Lucky do well at these blogs (that are better than any article I frequently read) because he grew up from the travel industry...industry knowledge. I wouldn't be surprised if Chris Elliot has some fancy-schmancy degree of Journalism without growing up with industry knowledge, but, like he keeps saying, it always seeing it from a consumers eye. That's why I always say, they have Journalism/Communication degrees majoring in politics, law, media, sports, linguistics etc, but they don't have a major in Tourism (and I haven't seen any in Aviation. So we get travel journalists who basically 'sleeps' their way to the top. Anyway, that's my vent. I would suggest Ben gets a permanent position with the LA Times, or Travel & Leisure buuut... it would mean he wouldn't get to write about what he wants. I think slowly but surely, industry bloggers are out-smarting many consumer-grown journalists.... and it's peeving them off, heehee.
Chris Idiot is an Elliott, and vice versa.
I too find that you and Gary give him far too much publicity. The less I hear about him, and his published dis-information, the better.
Maybe Chris would like to join my husband and me on one of our three overseas flights this year on United 903 out of SFO in United Gobal First class - with those double miles we earned as 1k members.. And then I will tell him how horrible it was for me to be able to call the 1K line and get rebooked on a later flight a couple weeks ago when the Denver airport was closed for a few hours because of fog - as soon as our plane landed to refuel in Colorado Springs thus avoiding those long lines at the customer service desks once we arrived in Denver. And I will also let him know that my miles are on my dime - as one-half of a commuter marriage no one else is picking up my tab.
But hey Chris hope you thin the ranks - those of us who fly out of SFO would appreciate shorter Premier lines.
Lucky, I applaud you for taking the high road with this guy. I don't know that I could have. I really do appreciate that about halfway through this post, you suggested we leave some constructive advice, rather than continue to whine about how wrong this guy it.
The way I see it, I am paying an airline to get me from point A to point B, faster than I can get there by driving. That's their job. Anything extra that I get (occasional upgrade, redeemable miles, half a can of Coke, whatever!) is above and beyond what I've paid them for. The end.
I follow this blog and others to get some tips on making the extras a little nicer, but fundamentally, I just need to get from A to B.
I don't game the system with manufactured spend and am just a leisure traveler, but I've managed several great first class trips, five star hotel stays, and the ability to fly family and friends to see us.....all on credit card bonuses and typical spend.
Oh, and my credit score has gone up!
Sadly I'm starting to agree with him more than you.. All you do is tout credit card links nowadays. You even had to throw one in this article.... It's like you are addicted. Has it become physically impossible for you to write one whole post without selling out for part of it?
I agree with what you present.
I am Lifetime Gold on AA, and fly 25-50K/ year on AA. I question the wisdom of no longer offering Preferred seats as of 1/1/14 and giving most Citi/AA cardholders the same percs as elite members. Why should one aim for Elite status?
@Tyler- How much did you pay to access the information on this site? Are you the one paying for the site maintenance and bandwidth? If Lucky can make a few bucks to offset those cost, why do you care one iota? The information you receive has got to be worth the excruciating pain of seeing a CC link without having to comment on it.
@Tyler - Who cares if Lucky makes a few cents/dollars off putting a referral link in his posts? He needs to make a living and pay for the site, and it doesn't hurt us by him recommending a few cards. And I don't understand how Lucky putting referral links affects who you believe more -- at what point did the idiot refer to referral links in his piece? Your logic is poor, to say the least.
I am not so sure Elliott is totally wrong here. I agree he is an idiot in general, but he has some valid points. I used to be caught in the rat race for Platinum or Cryptonite level, and now I fly almost anybody. Funnily enough, now airlines throw status at me. Don't let your hate or anger for Elliott miss the truth and there is some in his article
Personally, who cares.
If he wants to spout crap about programs having no value and whatever his argument today is, let him have it. For many people these programs make no sense. For some, they do.
Why give him more ink space?
i don't understand the hate towards this guy... he is doing us all a great favor. the more people he discourages from ff programs, the more awards seats will be left for us and the harder the airlines will try to entice customers by having more promotions we can take advantage of.
this is truly great for us all, i hope the word of his blog spreads to all the sheeple willing to believe him. then the rest of us can continue flying in f without much competition for the seats from them.
he deserves a medal... or at least a bj.
timmer1001 said,
"Don’t let your hate or anger for Elliott miss the truth and there is some in his article."
^ I'm tempted to see this debate in a similar fashion. I don't consider either side to be unbiased and both sides seem to be influenced by emotion. Haters gotta hate I suppose.
So far as I can tell most Americans are not able to evaluate and use loyalty programs and kickback credit cards in a responsible fashion. That's why these programs are willing to throw around so many points in the first place. They're banking on you to get caught up in a lazy cycle of careless loyalty and debt.
More often than not the loyalty programs and kickback credit cards get back more than they give out. If they didn't they wouldn't exist. American programs give out more points than most other regions, not just because we expect more, but also because we have fewer protections to help us avoid getting burned in the process.
Harsh penalties with limited recourse may be the American way, but it's also a real threat to our financial well being. And yet you rarely see loyalty and credit blogs discuss what happens when you start falling behind on your payments.
It's as if they think every person who signs up is inherently responsible and won't be tempted to spend more than they have when they lose their job or suffer an illness or injury or legal complication that serious enough to set them back financially.
@Dax: Smart, intelligent points made here. I'm a 'live and let live' guy. There are far too many people spouting untruths or twisted info that singling out one I'm not sure really is that constructive.
On the other hand, this could be seen as a threat to lucky's business/job (in a way), so lucky felt compelled to respond. Might I suggest reaching out to Chris and taking him to lunch and having a broader discussion to see if you can enhance each other's lives rather than angst? Maybe, but merely a thought nonetheless. Still, I applaud lucky for systematically taking Chris to task on his points and addressing/debunking them.
But Dax makes another great point, and one I've always mentioned to my friends when it comes to using any affinity card. I boil it down to one word: Discipline. A key ingredient that if you don't got it, don't get the card or you'll end up in the laziness Dax speaks of.
Elliot is right that "free" doesn't mean "free" (for instance, loyalty credit cards have annual fees), but as soon as you understand this, you realize, as you're drinking your champagne in business class somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, that you've spent less than the cost of an economy class ticket to fly in style and comfort.
If that's a scam, it's the kind of scam I like. Certainly I don't get my business/first class awards by gaming the system, but by making judicious choices. Anyone can do this. The mantra that "frequent flier programs are all a scam" applies only to those who haven't spent more than 5 minutes thinking about how to take advantage of them.
Managed to get two referral links in...nice job, I love how you can always add these links into even the most mundane posts