Open forum …. got any suggestions for tweaking the site?

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• FlyingChris47 says:

  1 Jan1 January 23:45

  Keep up the fantastic work Rob. Like many others, HFP is the first port of call in the morning and in a world of randomly updated blogs and constantly online social media – the regularity of 3 (insightful) posts a day @ pre 7.30 is a breath of fresh air.

  Likewise I personally find both the tone and the content of the posts spot on. As a traveller who only travels by plane (world traveller) irregularly and spends approx 25 nights/year in chain hotels – appreciate the knowledge of how to maximise Avios/IHG/Hilton/Tesco Clubcard into Business class flights and luxury hotels. The mix is just right. Through reading HFP already have booked Upper Class Virgin Atlantic Flights for 2014 and looking forward to some nice upcoming Intercontinental reward nights. Many thanks Raffles!

• Matt Hirst says:

  2 Jan2 January 01:11

  Happy New Year, personally I wouldn’t change anything, especially at the design and colour scheme that you used. The site is very pleasant to read and easy on the eye, there are a lot of multinational companies that haven’t achieved such a good website.

  HFP fills a definite niche and the comments are always pleasant and helpful unlike some other forums.

  I personally think the articles are appropriate to the target market and the balance you have is what makes the site so readable.

  I’ve had three first class flights off the back of the advice on here, I genuinely don’t think that anything needs to change. Thank you and keep up the good work.

• AviosNewbie says:

  2 Jan2 January 07:45

  Hi Raffles, can there be a section where people can post questions? Like a discussion forum on some of the other blogs

  • Rob says:

    2 Jan2 January 09:12

    Some blogs have an ‘Ask me’ page, which is a random list of posted questions. The problem, for me, is that they are totally random questions and the page – to a general reader – is unintelligible. In my view.

    Feel free to email me with any general queries, 90 per cent get a response within 24 hours. If the kids are in school, that rises to about 98 per cent!

• Polly says:

  2 Jan2 January 07:51

  Good morning…. Just a thought, maybe if you have space, could you please keep the last 8 comments instead of just 4. Sometimes I miss a comment as more people post quickly…all great otherwise. Happy hunting, and thanks again for all the great advice.

  • TimS says:

    2 Jan2 January 08:28

    I would echo the request for more of the latest comments to be identified on the sidebar.

    If comments on a particular thread move quickly, useful comments on another thread may go unnoticed as they quickly drop off the bottom of the sidebar list.

    • Rob says:

      2 Jan2 January 09:08

      OK. That is easily fixed. It was 6 at one point and then I reduced it to 4. I will try a couple of things out.

• Aceman says:

  2 Jan2 January 08:39

  Love the site as is, in particular looking forward to the hotel roundup, currently fairly well off for avios so interested in reducing the cost of that side of travel. Best non-Amex cards hotels/airline is also interesting.

  Honestly I think you should add a “my referrals” header or side bar. You do a bugger load of work on the site and I think it more then fair that you have a permanent reminder to folks which referrals you offer.

  • Rob says:

    2 Jan2 January 09:07

    I prefer to keep referral plugs to posts, because there are 1,700 people on the email list who wouldn’t see them on the front page even if they were there,

    Referrals are also plugged on the main card pages, so I think anyone researching a card will see a plug along the way.

    Plugs on the home page are limited to the Amazon, eBay, IHG links, and I will try to keep it that way.

• Jeremy I says:

  2 Jan2 January 10:14

  To echo previous comments this is a fantastic site, Rob, and thank you for all your hard work over 2013.

  I love the 3 posts a day feed (real treat to read in the morning) and the occasional breaking news extra emails are also very good. For what it’s worth, I love the blog as it is accessible to all – and hate the secrecy, exclusivity and general b1tchyness of FT and other forums. Some above have suggested this should mirror FT more and become more ‘exclusive’, but I much prefer an open-to-all culture.

  My favourite posts are those aimed at the oft-ignored economy loving , cash-poor traveller. On occasion I think your posts havent done justice to the fuel surcharges associated with some of the Avios deals, which make them prohibitive . It also makes some of the redemptions with US carriers who do not charge fuel surcharges seem a lot more attractive.

  My favourite posts this year were the series on sangri la, the ex-cairo business class fares on Qatar (didnt book but my goodness I wish i could have), the redspottedhanky codes, and the new united credit card sign up deal.

  Finally I do wonder whether any proactive contacting of the airlines for promotions would work? Is this something which has worked? I’m thinking of the MSE exclusive deals – would any airline marketing reps be interested in offering HFPs readers one or two treats?

  But my main message after a bit of rambling is thank you rob and please dont change what you do!

  Jeremy

  • Rob says:

    2 Jan2 January 11:00

    The issue here is that it is tricky to actually earn miles (from the UK) in programmes which don’t charge high taxes on redemptions. You end up needing to buy the miles you need, which outweighs the benefit.

    I am also very nervy – given that the experience level of the HFP readership goes right down to total beginner – of encouraging people to buy miles in foreign programmes which could devalue overnight or which may catch them out with crazy change fees, one-way and stopover restrictions etc.

    You will pay BA fuel surcharges with whoever you redeem, and of course Virgin is not in an alliance anyway.

    • Alan says:

      2 Jan2 January 11:04

      Hehe that’ll pretty rule out Lifemiles posts then 😉

    • Simon says:

      2 Jan2 January 12:50

      As an economy traveller my favourite post was the American Airlines 35,000 credit card offer one, there is no way I’d have known about it without the seeing it here and I didn’t realise the taxes would be so low.

      More articles about economy travel would be welcome but as long haul Avios is such bad value it’s hard to know what you could write about.

      I wonder if some of the articles could have a bit more focus on economy though. 12,500 United miles is enough for a one way economy flight in North America (e.g. New York to LA is 12,500 miles plus $2.50 in taxes). Reading the article on the United Credit Card offer of 12,000 miles I think most people if they didn’t collect United miles wouldn’t consider the card but if you are on economy traveller going to the US on holiday it could be quite attractive.

• Andrew says:

  2 Jan2 January 11:11

  As Jeremy mentions above it may be worth pushing more posts that offer value in economy if the aim if to catch and retain more google casual visitors. I know Business Class offer more value for points but for many casual/google visitor they would never pay for these business fares anyway so it limits the audience a little. Nothing like a stonker of a deal to pull in the punters and gain more exposure.

  However on the whole this site is great and very well laid out and easy to read (mobile and desktop) and like many part of my daily routine. So thanks and Happy New Year to you and your family 🙂

• Simon says:

  2 Jan2 January 11:35

  Happy New Year Rob,

  Like most people I like the site how it is, the 3 posts a day works well for me and the reader comments are generally of a high quality.

  I don’t subscribe to the emails as I know if I log on at about 7:30am I’ll see the posts, if there was an option to subcribe to breaking news only emails, that would appeal to me. I know you don’t run many posts during the day but if there was a short lived deal e.g. the Tesco giftcards glitch on the AMEX site last year or a link for Platinum Accor status which often doesn’t last for very long it would be good to get an email about it.

  • Jonny says:

    2 Jan2 January 21:39

    I also thought of this independently- it would be great to be able to subscribe to “stop press” emails only.

    I go onto the website every morning so don’t need to be emailed the regular posts, but would be good to be notified of any “need to move quickly” posts!

    Fantastic site overall though.

    • Rob says:

      2 Jan2 January 22:02

      Following Twitter is your best bet, as new posts get pushed onto that automatically.

      I really try to do less than 5 midday posts per year, though! Ironically, though, there may be one on January 6th if the first Avios.com / ba.com sale deal is good and limited; it goes live at noon.

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