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

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• Mikeact says:

  2 Jan2 January 08:44

  Another small ‘upgrade’ I would like to see is :
  Sometimes there is a topic that I would like to follow the comments. However, unless you actually add a comment you cannot tick the ‘Notify me of follow up comments by email’ The only way would be to, say, put as X in the comments box to actually subscribe, which seems a bit daft.

  • lillian says:

    2 Jan2 January 08:46

    Just write the word “following” in the comments box, it’s common practice in all of the facebook groups I am a member of.

• Adam says:

  2 Jan2 January 08:52

  Could you leave open threads rather than closing them unless a deal has expired which is being discussed? When i joined i found many threads of interest but i could not ask questions as all were closed for comments. Thx

  • Polly says:

    2 Jan2 January 10:44

    I agree, some of these posts definitely need to be kept open, especially if it involves 3v cards or extra avios earning tips! V useful for those who can still use them for utilities etc….

    • PJK says:

      2 Jan2 January 10:49

      Perhaps there might be a way of leaving comments open until, say, 2 weeks after the last comment is posted – so as long as it is being used it’s open, once it is dormant for a fortnight then it closes.

      • Rob says:

        2 Jan2 January 17:59

        This is not a default option in the software but there might be a 3rd party plug-in out there which does the job, I will take a look.

    • Alan says:

      2 Jan2 January 10:49

      Agree it would be handy although unfortunately the number of spam comments seems to increase the longer posts are kept open 🙁

    • Rob says:

      2 Jan2 January 18:00

      It is not possible to change the settings on a post by post basis, except where I choose to disable them entirely on a post

• whiskerxx says:

  2 Jan2 January 09:17

  Perhaps you could auto delete all comments that begin “slightly off topic …but”? Especially when they are the first posted in a thread?
  Other than that I just continue to appreciate the great contribution you make to my life :-). Thanks.

• Russell Evans says:

  2 Jan2 January 09:21

  Thanks, as ever Rob for a fantastic site. May I echo the comments from everyone that the morning E-Mails are part of my daily routine – long may they continue.
  I’m on the search for my next Credit card having maxed out our 2 x 241’s with mine and my wife’s card.
  How about a table showing all cards available with their sign up bonuses, along with historical information of when the card providers have offered a sign up bonus increase. A tabular format may be easier to scan than the “monthly credit cards update” page? Not sure if there’s any science in this and whether AMEX and the other providers tend to offer an additional bonus at a particular time of the year but it might encourage people who are looking for a new card to perhaps if AMEX have historically run a promo on sign ups for plat/gold in February to hold fire and see if they do it again this year?

  • Rob says:

    2 Jan2 January 18:12

    I tend to mention this in the main review article on each card. Not a specific timetable, but I generally give a range of what is offered during the year and where the current offer sits inside that.

• PJK says:

  2 Jan2 January 09:46

  Happy New Year Raffles, and thank you so much for a fantastic site which I have been following religiously for about 1 year now.

  When I started browsing HfP early last year I had fewer than 50000 miles / points across about a dozen schemes (Avios, BAEC, Miles&More, Nectar, FlyingBlue) collected over years of shopping and flying (in Economy for work).

  I was generally clueless and aimless with my collecting – really not understanding the best ways to collect or the best reasons to do it. Thanks to your invaluable help, I now have 300,000 miles (mostly Virgin and BA/IB/AC) with another 100,000+ due in the coming 2-3 months from the AmEx MR scheme with Platinum supplementary cards – just amazing!

  Additionally I’ve managed to grab a brand new top of the range Dyson (which Mrs. JK had been after for some time) in the Argos sale for less than half price, thanks to the recent AmEx promotion which you drew our attention to – again just incredible, thank you!

  In the last year I’ve found myself doing crazy things like paying non-refundable deposits for console games I had no intention of ever collecting or using, simply to increase my points and miles. I’ve applied for more credit (& additional) cards I would have imagined possible (it still makes me laugh to look at the (supplementary) AmEx Gold card in my 22 year old son’s name (safely in MY possession) and I’ve discovered little tricks like using a Tesco Credit Card when buying fuel there, simply to accrue double points – not to pay for anything! My wife still thinks I’m barmy – possibly because we have not yet used any miles for a redemption (although we have used some Clubcard points in the Boost periods for some half price tablets) – I aim to change that in 2015 but given how complex booking redemption flights seems to be, I suspect any big trips might not materialise until 2016 sadly.

  I think there are many very useful suggestions above – things like a refresh / focus on the Avios Uni reference articles would be very useful, I like the idea of a small forum but recognise the challenges that might pose, and I would very much welcome a series of articles for “new” collectors (among whom I count myself” who have never really used any points or miles yet and who are interested in seeing the best ways to get the most out of these hundreds of thousands you’re helping us to collect!

  In that section I’d include things like the ITA tools, the varying conditions across different airlines (including taxes/fees etc.) and whether online or by phone is better and how that is done!

  I realise that some of this is available elsewhere but Raffles you spoil us, with your plain English (mostly) and your clear instructions and explanations – I just find other miles bloggers and Flying Talk just too complicated to even attempt!

  I also believe that one of the unsung benefits of the site is probably one of the most time consuming – in the absence of any formal forum area, you are an incredibly helpful person who is keen to share their knowledge and in the case of an absence of information or a closed comments section, you are generous with your time responding to direct e-mails about specific situations – I cannot thank you enough!

  • PJK says:

    2 Jan2 January 09:50

    Oh and we collected our first BA 2-4-1 voucher!

    • PJK says:

      2 Jan2 January 10:50

      Oh and I would never have believed a year ago that I’d put more than £2000 through gift cards in the final quarter of the year, without actually gifting them to anyone!

• al says:

  2 Jan2 January 10:15

  Great site have saved £££ and travelled further more frequently and more comfortably – what’s not too like?

  The 3 posts per day format is great – 3 per day is habit forming in away that would be lost if they turned up randomly throughout the day.

  No problems with adverts or sponsorship or prizes, bills have to be paid.

  Big proviso is so long as the commercial deals don’t compromise editorial independence. Great thing about HFP is that a crap credit card deal is named and shamed for what it is – which marks you out from other sites that just fawn and gush.

  • Eleanor & Mike says:

    3 Jan3 January 12:24

    +1 to everything Al has said. Excuse the late reply…..just back from Washington in J on the A380, thanks entirely to you Raffles!

    • Eleanor & Mike says:

      3 Jan3 January 12:45

      Oh dear, I did add a bit more but it doesn’t show in my reply for some reason. Blame iPad gremlins….or jet-lag! (Or maybe because I used an emoticon…?!)

      Anyway, I second the comments about avoidance of a Forum – I come here for your expertise and guidance, a forum can be an unwieldy beast to manage and FT is there if we feel we need it. I do though like being able to review comments against those of your posts that I’m particularly interested in – and sometimes this can take a while to trawl through and find the latest comments. Another site I use has a great structure for this (OT – it’s for holiday rental owners – will send you a link if you want to look) and shows me all comments posted against each topic since I last logged in, so makes it very easy to go straight to them. So whether or not you adopt a forum this still could be a useful addition for accessing comments. It obviously requires an option to have a subscription / login, but I for one would be happy with that on HFP – and it may also help provide a way to alleviate the concerns about competitions being hi-jacked by professional compers and not HFP advocates!

      My favourtie site, keep up the fantastic work!

• Dave R says:

  2 Jan2 January 10:22

  Happy New Year. I love HFP and it’s the first thing I read every day. Its great just the way it is but I do have a couple of suggestions…

  What about an occasional Q and A post where you answer a few specific questions from HFP readers in detail?

  Also, maybe it would be better if competitions had entry requirements that are more aimed towards people with a genuine interest in loyalty points. As soon as the competition websites get wind of a competition, the flood gates open for the hoards of “compers” that enter hundreds of competitions each day. This massively reduces the odds of a genuine HFP reader winning. If entering required some points-related effort, this issue would be greatly reduced.

  • Rob says:

    2 Jan2 January 18:09

    This is an issue which I do consider. Sometimes it doesn’t matter, because the prizes are a nichey (eg 20,000 IHG Rewards Club points, $100 Loungebuddy credit). It is more of an issue elswhere and I am a little nervous about January 12th when I will (hopefully) be unleashing something huge!

    Short of making HFP a ‘members only’ site there isn’t much I can do about it except to try to keep a flow of ‘niche’ prizes coming through as well. The upside of big entry numbers is that it allows me to get even better prizes next time.

    The only possible way of restricting a competition would be to limit it to people who have commented on an article in the last 12 months – I can check that easily by comparing emails. That would be unfair to the (literally) 98% of regular readers who never comment though.

    • Dave R says:

      2 Jan2 January 22:59

      Serious compers (trust me, I know a few) will enter competitions for just about any prize if its quick and easy to enter so I don’t think niche prizes are necessarily a deterrent. IMO it wouldn’t be necessary or viable to restrict entry to specific people. However, I am sure that introducing even moderate effort to enter a competition, especially if the effort was related to loyalty points and travel, would put off most “compers” that just want to enter as many competitions as possible each day in as little time as possible. If you look at sites like moneysavingexpert for example (probably the most popular site for listing/finding competitions), the number of entries for competitions that require some effort/time to enter is usually only around 10-20% compared to competitions that require little or no effort. Perhaps asking people that want to enter to write a few lines about their best points redemption or their favourite hotel/airline loyalty scheme would be sufficient?

      I see your point about big entry numbers helping to get better prizes in future. Although if the bigger prizes just end up going to people that have no interest in HFP is it worth it anyway?

      • Fenny says:

        2 Jan2 January 23:49

        What’s to stop someone c&p another reply? If the winner is randomly selected, the “entry paragraph” would be meaningless. I can’t see Raffles reading several thousand replies to pick the best one.

        • Dave R says:

          3 Jan3 January 00:09

          It doesn’t have to be a perfect system, just enough to discourage people that would rather move on to the next in a huge list of other easy comps they are working from than spend a few minutes typing/copying/re-wording a post. The more effort involved in entering, the better. It could even be a combination of entry requirements such as posting a comment, subscribing to email list and sending an email to a HFP mailbox. This would only take a couple of minutes for anyone that was seriously interested in entering but add enough effort to discourage someone that just wants to enter 2-300 comps that day. This kind of system works well on lots of other sites.

          Rob wouldn’t necessarily need to pick a winner as it could still be a random draw. Anyway, If most compers were excluded, I doubt there would be several thousand entries.

• Rich says:

  2 Jan2 January 13:45

  Raffles, absolutely LOVE this website. It’s my favourite site ever. The content is amazing and massively valuable to a very large yet still niche audience. I would be more than happy with a repeat of the same in 2015, however if you are looking for suggestions…

  If I were to suggest one improvement, I think it could be useful to create a series of blog posts relating to specific UK airports. You already have an excellent series with Avios University, Credit Cards and Hotel Loyalty Programs. I wonder if Airports could be another useful angle you could use to share your expertise with us.

  There are a lot of mile and point collectors like myself oop North and I would love to read a general overview of an airport like Manchester. You could consider the facilities at the Airports e.g. which lounges you can use and what programs/cards allow you to access them for free, along with which routes are flown and by which airlines which you can use miles for and highlight any ‘sweet spots’ for mile redemptions e.g. fewest miles and/or lowest tax to travel to wherever in J or F.

  Just food for thought. More than happy with everything already but this is just one thing which crosses my mind that could improve the site.

  Thank you again for all the fantastic content.

  Rich

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