Open forum …. any suggestions for tweaking the site?

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• @mkcol says:

  1 Jan1 January 16:34

  I’d like your affiliate partners link either much further up if you’re keeping it on the sidebar, or on a tab across the top.

• Mark T says:

  1 Jan1 January 16:45

  The points industry seems very complex, I think you already do well trying to simplify and make the information easy to digest.

  On this similar vein, perhaps a range of permanent articles (similar to the “Avios University”) which try to pull together many of these options for some very simple use cases might help. eg “Getting to the airport”/”Ordering Travel Money”/”Having Lunch and Coffee”/”Staying overnight at the airport”, highlighting options and alternatives, costs, accrual and spending options for Avios, as well as highlighting the most luxurious/hassle free option. These could be kept upto date and would be goto articles for those use cases. I often forget about some of the Avios opportunities because there are too many to remember (eg I find myself focussing on trying to get a cheap Heathrow Express Business Class ticket, when perhaps spending the night at the airport and getting the pods might be cheaper and more hassle free than travelling in rush hour).

  I think your site is good at highlighting interesting travel opportunities outside of the tripadvisor sphere (I think the ratings on tripadvisor are very “mumsnet”)

  I try to consider my carbon footprint for holidays (one reason i’ve never been particularly interested in tier point runs etc), I am always interested when there are snippets about the latest developments here (whether it’s new aircraft, responsibly sourced food, reducing waste, lighter aircraft components).

• Clive says:

  1 Jan1 January 16:49

  My suggestion is a ban on endless comments about OT comments when suggestions are invited.

  • the real harry says:

    1 Jan1 January 16:52

    got to give that the thumbs up 🙂

    Also: is there a way for the site to update live in front of you as comments get added?

    • Rob says:

      1 Jan1 January 17:26

      No, can’t be done on the current comments set-up.

    • Colin JE says:

      1 Jan1 January 17:45

      Or, an email when another comment is added to a topic you want to follow. I tend to forget to go back to something where I’ve commented or added a question. It would be great to get an update email when someone replies or adds something.
      I’m all for the Q&A section so you don’t have to wait for something that’s similar to a question you might have. But again, could we have email alerts if there’s a reply?

      • Alex says:

        2 Jan2 January 01:45

        + 1
        I second the email notifications on replies or new comments on specific topics

• Rob says:

  1 Jan1 January 17:19

  We are having lunch with IHG in a few weeks so we will see what comes up.

• Colin JE says:

  1 Jan1 January 17:47

  I have a sense, perhaps misguidedly, that there is better coverage of BA/Avios topics that Star Alliance/Sky Team. Could we have some university articles on making the most of those programmes and collecting points?

  • the real harry says:

    1 Jan1 January 18:12

    fair point that as BA gets obviously worse in offering, if not in value, becomes more pertinent

    also: RA, EJ, Norwegian, Wizz are simply not infra dig in Europe

    they can be magnificent in value / convenience terms

    they might only be worth 5 articles a year but hey we also got that babe Anika and a 2 hour Wizz flight to a cool destination & a compotel with a top lounge both sides is not exactly going to kill you?

    just throwing it in the pot

    • the real harry says:

      1 Jan1 January 18:37

      I could throw in my review of any Lidl bargains going this week 😉

  • Rob says:

    1 Jan1 January 18:50

    There is substantially better coverage. The problem is that I am not a real expert on anything outside BA / Virgin. There is also no obvious stand-out Star programme – we could cover Miles & More and Flying Blue but those are not necessarily the best choices if you are UK based.

    There are other issues over whether the Avios coverage should be expanded to Ireland or Spain. Avios is very keen for us to launch a Spanish-language site but I don’t feel hugely comfortable with it – I would need to hire a Spanish speaker with no guarantee it would make enough money to cover the cost. We could launch separately in Ireland but, being mercenary about it, there has to be a clear path to making it worthwhile hiring someone over there. 6 million people is not a viable market if I need to generate €20,000 a year just to cover my costs – especially as the UK site would lose some Irish-based readers, so it is not all incremental gain – and I am only getting €10 a day from the ads and €5 from the occasional Aer Lingus booking.

    Shame BA doesn’t buy something in Germany as I am overrun with German speakers!

    • the real harry says:

      1 Jan1 January 19:05

      hablo espanol! 🙂

      • Alan says:

        1 Jan1 January 19:17

        Haha HfP.es run by Harry could be hilarious – I’ve always thought of you as more of a Basil than Manuel character though, Squills!

        • the real harry says:

          1 Jan1 January 19:32

          I’ll take that as a compliment 🙂

    • Matthew says:

      2 Jan2 January 11:09

      Spanish could be a big market (100s millions) there is a lot of Spain to Americas travel with many immigrants as well as travellers.
      Could be interesting for us, in UK (with translation) for more Iberia, Lan etc deals.
      There’s a lot of British EFL teachers in Spain that work have part time work (lessons and off time) and so could help you with bidirectional translations.

  • Alex says:

    2 Jan2 January 01:45

    I second that

• Charlie says:

  1 Jan1 January 18:23

  It may have been mentioned but there’s a lot of comments and I’m a touch short of time to read them all.

  I would think a digest/section dedicated to offers that have been posted as articles for people to update when they receive their points. At the moment people are confined to posting off topic to ask if anyone else has received their promotional wares…every few days until someone can confirm they’ve been successful.

  If that was all taken aside it could leave the bits post a lot tidier.

  • Rob says:

    1 Jan1 January 18:43

    Comment spam is a major problem. We get around 50 spam comments a day which you never see because 98% get wiped by anti-spam software. This is despite the fact that we only leave comments open for 3 weeks.

    As this comment spam is robo-posted to random article, you can safely say that we would get 1,500 spam comments per day if all comments were left open. I cannot leave some comments open and others closed – it has to be date driven. This is the key problem.

• elGuiri says:

  1 Jan1 January 18:27

  I think a Q&A section with frequently occurring questions a great idea.
  However, it should be kept clean otherwise it ends up being more difficult to find the relevant question/answer.

  O/T questions could go into a ‘recently asked’ section, and could also be subscribed to in a separate email subscription, thus only appearing for those that are interested.

  Having the 3 emails arrive early morning is great to be able t read with breakfast / on way to work. Would be happy to receive any other email subscriptions (see above) at this time in the morning too.

  Yes to other schemes (I live halfway between London and Bham, so am interested in non-London deals too).

  Maybe a link to ‘deals closing in next 7 days’ so I don’t have to save the email until I know the deadlines have passed.

  Some info divided by traveler type also would be good. Eg, Solo traveler, couple, couple with baby, family (best cards, deals, offers, benefits) as the make-up of the group flying makes a difference to whatdeals, upgrades, offers etc one should best use.
  Also maybe category for eco/pe/bus/f so that those only interested in bus and above can find their articles easier.

  Apart from that, I think the site/emails are great as they are.

  • elGuiri says:

    1 Jan1 January 18:27

    And email alerts when someone comments on a thread you’ve commented on, like this 🙂

    • the_real_a says:

      1 Jan1 January 20:37

      That would be very nice feature

  • Rhys says:

    1 Jan1 January 19:15

    +1, especially re the comment on traveller type. Having just had a second baby, I am having to rethink what makes sense in terms of hotel types / destinations etc.

• Brian Peers says:

  1 Jan1 January 19:10

  Rob,

  I think I would like a weekly or monthly summary of what avios availability is looking like. At the moment we only really get a view if a new route opens up or if someone goes on a trip there.

  What about doing a region or country per week / month – outlining the airport options, partner flights, potential hotels and the availability.. Could be fun 🙂

  Cheers B

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