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

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• Chris says:

  1 Jan1 January 16:12

  Hi,

  Firstly I would like to thank you for the all the content you share, it’s very helpful indeed.

  One idea I had (I beg your pardon if this is already available) would be a tab called ‘Credit Cards’ which would lay out a title and image of each credit card and when clicked it would navigate to the appropriate article (most of which you have already written). The buyers guide on the website mac rumors could be a good template.

  Apart from that suggestion I find the site easy to use and the content is fantastic.

  Happy New Year!

• Dgittings says:

  1 Jan1 January 16:24

  Excellent site. Just one suggestion: The post on Hertz and how to get the best rates on car rental a while back was the most useful of all the many great posts I’ve seen on HfP. I remember it generated a large number of reader comments (some with further useful tips), so I guess there must be others who found it helpful as well. Certainly I still refer back to it regularly. I know car rental is not a core theme of the site, but given the high level of interest that post generated might be worth running a few posts on the topic from time to time.

• Alan says:

  1 Jan1 January 17:40

  It’s a superb site you run, Rob – in particular it’s really nice to have something with a UK-focus given so many of the other points/miles blogs are US-based.

  I find the balance of articles good – some aren’t of that much relevance to me (e.g. Uber) but the majority are. You also do a good job of covering the UK outside of London – something Amex could learn to do better!

  As I’ve been visiting the site since it first started I’m still signed up to receiving all comments – I find it amazing how much useful information is posted there by other users. I try and do my bit when I can to help out those new to the site but I think the community aspect around the blog is a real positive. I think the current time that comments are left open for is probably right, unless the anti-spam measures can be made more effective to stop spam comments being made (this does seem to have improved over the last few months though).

  The biggest improvement to the site for me this year has been the new system for entering competitions – I used to get 100s of emails with postcodes (as of course did you) so I’m really liking the new system that doesn’t generate all of those. I could of course switch to only following specific articles but I like how much useful info can sometimes come from posts that at first glance might not seem relevant to me.

  You do a great job of balancing how-to/background info articles with current promos, travel reviews/tips. The three posts a day system works well IMHO, although I’d prefer to see competitions as a 4th post, and equally on slow-news days you shouldn’t feel it absolutely necessary to get three posts out! The early morning timing is also excellent, I read your posts whilst brushing my teeth!! (off to Oz for a year though so will be thrown by getting them late evening instead!)

  The tagging system works very well for me, for example when I quickly wanted to look back at the AAdvantage articles to check the spend level required to hit the bonus. I don’t think your ads are at all intrusive.

  Personally I don’t think a full-on forum would be that great an idea given how big existing communities such as FT are – I like this blog/comment setup as a simple alternative to a forum. A forum would also require some form of moderation which would be a big additional workload for you at not potentially much gain.

  Keep up the great work in 2015!

  • flood says:

    2 Jan2 January 10:51

    How do you subscribe to get all the comments to each post in an email?

    • Alan says:

      2 Jan2 January 10:59

      Hmm – I’m not sure if it’s still an option or not. It used to be way back when the site first started. It might be worth trying to do via the Wordpress site.

      • Alan says:

        2 Jan2 January 11:04

        The HfP blog is here – https://wordpress.com/read/blog/id/47606869/

      • Alan says:

        2 Jan2 January 11:05

        See http://en.support.wordpress.com/following/ – you should be able to follow the blog and then pick an option to switch on all comments.

      • Rob says:

        2 Jan2 January 17:58

        This is all going to change next week. When I switch off the WordPress email system for emailing new articles I am forced to switch off the WordPress ’email me comments’ system at the same time. Once I have got the new email system bedded in I will start using a 3rd-party piece of software to allow you to subscribe to comments again.

        • flood says:

          5 Jan5 January 14:21

          Ok great, thanks guys

• jason says:

  1 Jan1 January 18:21

  I wound’t change anything…if it not broke don’t change it!

• Jeremy I says:

  1 Jan1 January 18:23

  Happy new year to you and your family Rob!

  I don’t have lots to add other than to echo the fact that I think the site is fantastic. Personally I think any ‘forum’ elements can be adequately dealt with in the comments; anything more and ppl should go and wade through FT. I also love the competitions and pleased that you seem to have taken on board feedback this time last year to flag what the taxes and surcharges come to.

  I would value more of your thoughtful pieces – e.g. the one the other day reflecting on BA’s future in light of the new B’ham to Dubai service.

  Jeremy

• BLT says:

  1 Jan1 January 19:38

  Happy new year!

  I will echo what everyone else has said, it’s an excellent site and I wouldn’t change much at all. The only thing that would be useful to me would be to increase the number of ‘recent comments’ on the right hand side of the site, as there are some really useful tips left by readers which can easily be missed.

• Kipto says:

  1 Jan1 January 19:55

  Great site and look forward to the three emails each morning. I agree with one of the posters who suggested a page about getting to and from airports although it could be argued that this is not what this site is about.

  • Lady London says:

    3 Jan3 January 23:46

    For an index of ground transport options to and from airports worldwide I’ve been using the Salk Air Transport Guide app. Since picking it up about 6-8 month ago it’s already been updated and I’m pretty happy with it. Didn’t cost much from Android Play Store. Presumably also available on i-things too.

    • Alan says:

      3 Jan3 January 23:51

      Total impulse purchase but reviews are fantastic and I really like the look of it – thanks for the recommendation 😀

      • Lady London says:

        4 Jan4 January 00:19

        thanks Alan for letting me know you found it useful. I think this Salk app might be based on one of the original manuals such as a Salk guide travel agents used to use….a bit like the old ABC Airways Guide. This was long before websites and when travel agents had a terminal in their office that was linked over telecom to the airline’s mainframe. The ABC manual was updated monthly, and other industry standard guides like, I believe, the Salk Guide, were updated less frequently but still frequently. It was all done by the travel agent looking in a book and then going onto the clanky airline’s screen in the travel agency office to book. And hotels and cruises were booked and confirmed by telex (T15 or, if you’re really old, T7). Later these airline terminals linked instead to the general reservations systems like Galileo and Amadeus then the other reservation systems that followed… Then we all got websites, and now apps.

        And no I’m not going to tell you how much of that I personally witnessed 🙂

      • @mkcol says:

        4 Jan4 January 09:42

        Hmmmm…..I’ll investigate it further before passing judgement however I do notice that whether the reviews are fantastic or not, there are only 3 reviews in total!! And it’s had under 1000 downloads.

        This does not equate to it being a poor product, just I’ll be a lot more circumspect before parting with my pennies!

• MrHandBaggageOnly says:

  1 Jan1 January 20:23

  Happy New Year! I’m catching up with HfP late today and think it’s great how positive the comments are. (It makes such a pleasant change to not see people moaning about this and that!) I am another reader who loves the site the way it is and am constantly recommending it to friends. Great content and easy to navigate. Thanks for all your hard work.

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