One of the hardest things about running a blog is making things simple. There are many in this community that get upset about making things “too” simple but those types, IMO, need to get off their high horse and realize that at one time they were also new. There is nothing wrong about being new.

To that end, I wand to have a post that I can send readers when they ask common questions. One of them is how do I follow you on twitter or facebook or send you an email? You can just click on the twitter or facebook icon at the top of the blog (example image above) and you can get my email in the about me tab.

Next, is how can I make sure I am supporting the blog. First, my huge thanks, then just click on the  ♥♥Best Points Cards♥♥   tab and use any of the text links listed there and I will get credit. Also, I get a bunch of questions about business credit cards and how to get to that link. For Delta AMEX, as you can see above, the GOLD has it’s own link, the other two cards, the Platinum and Reserve, you find a button inside the personal link that says “Are you a small business owner? Click Here to find out about…” So, just click on the “Click Here” button and you will be sent to that page. I am working with AMEX to get dedicated links to make this simpler.

This last one I get each and every day. When I have a giveaway, I need readers to comment on the blog to make it fair to all. If you are an email subscriber, you do not see the “comments” in the email. So, all you need to do is go to www.DeltaPoints.com and then go to the bottom of any post and click on the word “comments” to expand the comments. Then, scroll down to the bottom and enter in your comment. Please be very careful when you type in your email as some times a winner did not get the prize they won in a giveaway because the email came back bad.

So there you are, I hope this clears up some of the most common daily e-mail questions I get and I will be able to send this link to readers when they have questions in the future! – René

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Have you noticed all of the fitness equipment in the sales flyers that everyone got at the 1st of year (and then never got touched)? Does that help with any of your newly self assigned goals to eat right, exercise more, take better care of yourself, or spend more time with your family (I know silly for us who fly all the time but still)?

Or maybe you’ve decided this is the year you’re going to quit smoking. As a longtime (25+ years) ex-smoker myself, I applaud your efforts, much as I did our beloved Delta’s firm stand in 1995 when they became the first airline to ban smoking on all flights. Suddenly all the FA’s had a new paragraph to learn in their safety announcements. Sure, it’s totally standard practice now, but Delta was the first. And aren’t we glad since otherwise we’d never have been able to watch Deltalina wag her finger at us!

I just never get sick of this one

So what else has Delta rolled out that we’ve seen others follow suit on? It’s also been 2 whole years since our Delta was the first airline to make our miles infinitely powerful with no expiration for us loyal Skymilers. So, each point we earn from our Delta AMEX cards, even if we cancel then at some point, are ours forever!

Our Delta was the first in the world to implement fleet wide WiFi service so that we can all get more done while we’re up in the air. Also first to add the rollover of elite MQM’s provision for future medallion earning power. Delta was an early pioneer of the hub and spoke system going all the way back to 1955.

Some things didn’t catch on, or caught on for a while but didn’t last. How do you like your steak? Delta was the first to offer passengers cooked to order steaks in-flight. Complimentary meals during the day in coach was also a first from Delta. When you watch those wonderful cooking shows they always tell you it’s best to cook with “seasonal vegetables” don’t they? Well, our Delta was the first in the industry to introduce seasonal menus nearly 20 years ago.

So what other things does our Delta have in store for us? Will they be good changes? Will they become the new standards or will they fizzle? I have a feeling we will not have to wait too much longer to find out since the 2013 Skymiles guide will be out very soon (here is the 2012 one)! – René

PS – don’t miss your chance for SWAG Saturday

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I have been running Delta Points now for 14 months. I so appreciate every single day getting personal e-mail’s from readers who thank me for the blog, for my work, and say my blog is the 1st thing they read each day and check it several times a day to see what is up. This is truly overwhelming and gratifying and a huge responsibility. I thank you all for the support of the blog.

Yesterday, I put up a post about what Chase may be thinking and trying to find out about “US” to be able to focus offers that we will like. Very smart. They (Chase Corp.) are working to keep us as happy customers and to make sure they get many new ones.

However, I also need to be even more careful about what I allow to be posted on the blog. My blog, unlike some others, is NOT an open forum. As I clearly state this in the “about me” section that I DO proudly censor comments. I DO proudly dump comments that just say: Rene you are worthless or the blog stinks and the like. I run a positive, constructive blog. If all these types want to do is complain, they should please stop reading the blog (it is free ya know).

My spam filter does catch literally 1000′s of spam comments a week. But I also see the “IP address” that is the location of the comment, and if things look fishy I check where they are (like say Eastern European countries or others) before I post them. These sad types seem to have nothing better to do with their lives than to cause us harm for who knows why.

Anyway, I want to apologize for posting the 70,000 point possible card option yesterday. I should have checked to see that the commenter worked for Chase (and I confirmed this via e-mail later on). What I should have done is taken the time to walk into my local Chase and checked to see if this offer is real and anyone can have it; that would have been responsible blogging. I just trusted and said, WOW, and posted. I will be more vigilant in the future. I hold no ill will against the commenter and he has e-mailed me several times I do believe he did this in good faith, not as Chase trying to use the blog for other means.

Anyway, be sure to check back later today as I do have some fun swag to give away to make myself feel better than I do now! Thanks all – René

I love Coke products (mostly Coke Zero); I also love that “my” airline serves Coke products on-board from way back. Reader should all know by now that I collect points from everywhere and this includs the Coke Rewards program. After all, why not, I have paid for them as part of the case of Coke I purchased anyway!

In the past you could get Priority club points for Coke Rewards and the link is still live at Priority Club. This means it is either a very old link or they are about to come back as a redemption option.

This past summer my fellow BoradingArea blogger “New Girl in the Air” had a post about Hilton as a redemption partner, but they have also gone away.

Even the very long time 100 points for a $20 SW AIR code, that I have blogged about before, has dried up. To me this was one of the most valuable travel related redemptions.

In fact right now there are just about NO worthwhile travel related options for Coke Rewards. More bits about this program. They tend to expire points in your account very fast. But, as long as you don’t enter a code in, you can hang on to them until you have a pile of them and are ready for a redemption. I tend to hang on to the real code while others enter them on a spread sheet. The codes are sometimes hard to read and if you hang on to the real one you can try other combinations if you happen to be one letter off.

So, for now, shove them in the sock drawer and hang on to your codes and let’s hope a good new redemption is soon on the way! – René

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We are truly a unique sub-set of society. I have a minor in sociology, but could write a Ph.D. theses on us as a group. Some of us “normally” stay at hotels 99% of the people on this planet will never stay at or would do so once in a lifetime. Yours truly now expects to “turn left” when I get on a plane (sure, I’ll admit it, this is a DYKWITIA statement – do you know who I think I am).

But I opened with the fact that this is a personal post. I want you to understand how much I TREASURE FF points. Before points, I got to see my mom maybe, again maybe, once a year since I was 10 years old. Sweden is a LONG WAY from where I live. Spending the money and taking the time off was (and is) a very big expense.

Now, I go 3 times a year. Thanks to churning cards and other promotions I keep earning more points than I can burn each year. Now, I could go 10 times a year (in coach) to Sweden if I wanted to (that is if did not have to work). This is unfathomable to the “me” of 10 years ago. And, thanks to the “mile-alanche” I get to not only go, but go in business or even now and then in first class on airlines other than my Delta.

I know some who collect so many points that often times they just send family members tickets to Disney. Or, like I do sometimes,  fly my good “buds” to somewhere warm to golf and spring for the hotel on points as well. That is the freedom that our “game” of collecting points can give you.

Then there is value. Think about this. Say you, like I did this year, book a trip on points that would have cost you $4000 otherwise. If you did not have points, you would have had to earn $4000 to take the trip. So if you think about it, the value of the points is not just the $4000 cost of the trip, but the $4000 you can spend on something else! In my head that makes the points worth $8000!

So enough soapbox time. I love what we do. I love being a bit obsessive when it comes to points and have started to find a happy place where some deals I go for while others I pass on. What I want to know is if you have been on the sidelines, lurking and reading blogs and such, how much longer will it be or trip reports will it take for you to read before you too get “in the game”? Why not try it and see!

I also know places like FlyerTalk are scary. There is a TON of knowledge there but users tend to be a bit hard on you it you have missed something that has been posted and talked about 6 years ago in a thread long forgotten. I will not do that nor my fellow BoardingArea bloggers. Have a question? E-Mail me or the rest of the gang. These bloggers are really tops and stand ready for even the most simple rookie question (& often can send you a link with the answer you need)! - Rene

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Photo linked from: staticflickr.com

Last week my friend Greg, THE Frequent Miler, put up a post about the ethics of the game we play. There are lines he will not cross and his wife acts as his moral compass when it comes to just what he will do to earn a point or two.

I too have lines I will never cross. I will never buy something that I never intend to use and will only return. I will never knowingly, and IMO fraudulently, manipulate computer code to get a deal. I think this is both wrong and could result in very bad consequences for you, the reader. I would not sleep at night knowing I had suggested this is the best course of action and then later find out you say got FR’ed (that is “financial reviewed”) by AMEX or even worse, had Chase close your account and ban you from ever having a Chase account again (do you know how much, long term, that could cost you?)!

As far as Delta goes, some DM or PM flyers try to sell or “trade” GOLD or SILVER medallion status on ebay and other places. While you are allowed to give away the status to anyone you want, selling or “trading” it is against Delta’s rules and could result in the DM/PM having their Skymiles account closed forever and all their Skymiles wiped out as well as any booked Skymiles tickets (the same for the one buying the status too)!

So that takes me to the point of today’s post. I am a travel enthusiast. What does that mean vs. a hacker? A hacker will do all of the above. As long as it does not land him/her in jail, it is AOK; a hacker takes risks! An enthusiast, on the other hand, reads rules. They read T&C. They find out EVERYTHING they can do that is inside the accepted terms of the program. They may USE these rules in ways the organizer never ever intended the program to be used, but that is not the fault of an enthusiast. Like the famous “pudding guy”, who collected millions from buying pudding tops and redeeming them for miles, if you have followed the rules you are, in my eyes, just doing what the rules say. This is much like golf:

For those who do not know or care about golf and the rules of golf, a non-fixed item, like say a rock, not in a bunker, can be moved as a loose impediment to your swing. Tiger got a bunch of fans to move a very BIG loose impediment to his swing, the BOLDER you see above. It was not fixed, and thus could be moved. Some say that was cheating. Tiger asked the rules offical, and was told that he was following the rules.

To me, with points, same thing. There are SO many points we can all collect, make and earn that are all, in this same way, inside the rules. Sure, we could make even more doing it the other way, but why? Why take the risk? There are enough points to go around that we do not need to take the step that could result in huge penalties to us and, to me anyway, result in the sleepless night feeling dirty and that I have “done wrong”. I have NO such reservations when I can say, “all I did was follow the rules you put in place!” You know, if a program did not want us to do this or that this way, they should have put that in the T&C.

Much the same thing goes for what I will print on the blog. I have stated before, and still stand by this, that if you can reproduce it I will blog about it. Are there exceptions? Sure, there are things I will only speak about at a “DO” or “FTU”. Why? Not because blogging about them would be wrong, it is just that there are many things that you may do that will not result in the “same” outcome for you or me or the “next guy”. Or, maybe a reader has sent me something or told me something from an internal document from some company. This information can not be verified and the company will never ever say this is the rule or will point to the public T&C. So, blogging about this will result in nothing but frustration and mixed results at best! At a “DO”, there are tips that are shared that those in attendance understand they are a YMMV kind of situation.

What about “free trips”? Rick, THE Frugal Travel Guy, does not accept free trips paid for by say a hotel or airline. I am the same way. Other bloggers will take a 1st class ticket and a huge suite with no other promise that to write about the experience. I have not accepted these nor will I; I will and do accept an upgrade if I have booked a ticket or trip or room. A double standard? I say no, but others may not. I also accept free stuff from companies to give away on the blog to readers. To me if I 100% give it away to you, then that is fine by me.

So what do you think? Are you a travel hacker or enthusiast? Are there lines you will or will not cross? Are there enough points coming in that you are still earning more points that you can burn each year? You tell me (and keep in mind this blog is PG) – René

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When I was younger (& had great hair ) I used to enjoy going to King’s Island amusement park outside Cincinnati Ohio and had a season pass! It just sounded fun and amazing by it’s very name and brought all sorts of imagery to mind of one of a kind rides and games that could only exist in an exclusive place like an island fit for a king. When it was sold in 1992 and the name changed to Paramount Park it just somehow changed it, made it seem strange and branded. The subsequent sale of the park in 2006 brought the name back to the original and into the Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. that also owns another favorite park of mine, Cedar Point near Sandusky Ohio.

We’re barraged with sponsorship these days. Who hasn’t heard of the United Center or Key Arena or Lucas Oil Stadium. But did you know there’s actually a Red Bull Arena and a Pizza Hut Park too? Every Olympics we’re suddenly informed of all of the official – well, you name it – airlines, energy drinks, granola bars, underwear, breakfast cereal, shoes, and sunglasses of the Olympics themselves or the athletes. There have been some major sporting events sponsored by various airlines over the years too, like Ali’s famous Rumble in the Jungle way back in 1974. Did you know that Swiss Air was the official airline for the fight?

So what sorts of things does our Delta sponsor? The pink plane certainly makes a great statement for breast cancer research & awareness, but did you know there was also a 757 with a mustache?

Delta added the image of a mustache to a Boeing 757 aircraft in 2010 as part of the airline’s sponsorship of a then upcoming exhibit of the work of Spanish artist Salvador Dalí at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, for which Delta is the official airline. Delta is also the official airline of several sports teams, as well as having served in that capacity for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Delta isn’t afraid of musical sponsorship either, serving as the official airline of the Grammy Awards since 2008. Back in the early 80’s Delta sponsored the music in the air at Six Flags Astroworld.

How about we end this weekend this way. Tell me (by commenting on the blog), of the above 3 photos, which is the funniest, the photo of me young René, the Swiss Air, or the Delta jet with a “stash” for a random.org chance later today to win a set of iGo Noise Canceling headphones and some other Delta Points swag as well – René

EDIT: We have our winner (127) but feel free to comment if you would like!

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Remember when getting ready for take off pretty much meant getting rid of cups and crayons and making sure your seat belt was fastened? Now we have to power down our phones, tablets, noise canceling headphones, put the laptop away, oh, and get rid of cups and crayons and make sure the seat belt is fastened! When all goes well it’s a short wait from taxi to take-off and then we hear the tone that indicates we’ve reached 10,000 feet and now we can play games and listen to music and read and do all the things our electronic devices allow us to do.

So do you know the 5 electronic items you may NEVER use on an aircraft? Sure, everybody knows you aren’t allowed use your phone to actually make calls, but there are 5 other items, easily found if you know where to look, we are never to use on an aircraft. Do you know what they are?

Last year in December I gave you all a pop-quiz (under the then rules) to see how “Delta Smart” you really are.  Well let’s see how you are this year. I want you to check the image below of 16 electronic devices and see if you can pick out all 5 that are never permitted for use on an aircraft. If you can guess all 5 of them right (comment ON THE BLOG not via e-Mail please), you will have a chance via random.org to win a  $100  SkyMall gift card (a huge shoutout and thanks to Skymall for the generous gift to the blog btw), and if you tell me where I found all of these, and are also the winner,  you will additionally get a $25 restaurant.com gift card as a bonus prize.

Here is the last bit to the fun. I will NOT publish ANY of your comments until the very end so you will not know what others are commenting (you are Delta smart, after all, and don’t need help from other readers)! I will hold the drawing at 10-11:PM EST tonight. – Rene

EDIT: We have our winner – voting is closed!

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I am a bit toast today after my return from Sweden, so I thought I would just share some of the “Pinterest worthy” photos I have been collecting this year and not yet put up . I think some of them are really fun and want input. So please vote for your favorite one.

Then I will use ramdom.org from all the comments on the blog and you can win 2 Delta amenity coupons, a $25 Restaurant.com card and a Delta Points luggage tag too (again no Diamond tag, I just LOVE the above photo)!

#1 AMS

#2 FLL

#3 PHL

#4 Up in the AIR

#5 Train Sweden

#6 Lufthansa 1st Class 747

#7 ATL

#8 Salt Licorice  flavored ICE Cream Sweden!

#9 SBN

#10 Sunset ATL

So there is my top ten list for today (PS don’t vote for the drink coupon, Restaurant.com or DP photos). Why not share your Pinterest link if you have one in your “comment” as well so we can see what photos you like & love too? – René

EDIT: I will pick the winner tomorrow at 5:PM EST

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Delta Points has been nominated on Chris Elliott’s web site for the best travel blogger of the year. Want to vote for Delta Points? You can do it here:

http://www.elliott.org/blog/please-vote-for-your-favorite-travel-blogger/

And I thank you so much in advance – Rene

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
from American Express®
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