I’m all for transparency on the blog, which is why I’m making this post. For years I’ve had the policy of not moderating comments. Moderation is a slippery slope, and not one I wanted to get involved with, because it involves a bit too much bias.

That being said, I guess it was never really fair of me to say that blog comments weren’t being moderated. I get about 5,000 spam comments per day which are automatically caught by WordPress and go straight into the spam folder, most of which involve Viagra, Cialis, Nigerian banks, and heirs to thrones.

So as many of you know (and pointed out over and over), there was a certain commenter on the blog that left hateful comments multiple times a day. I actually felt bad for the guy and thought they were so ridiculous that it didn’t bother me at all. But they were offensive to many, and at the end of the day detracted from the content of the blog because people chose to respond to him.

So I’ve decided to ban said person from posting, simply because his comments are “spam,” as far as I’m concerned. They have nothing to do with the blog posts but instead just focus on his hatred (or perhaps insecurities/self-denial), and I don’t think that’s in anyone’s best interest.

Anyway, my policy really hasn’t changed. I don’t moderate comments unless they’re spam. That’s the same thing I’ve been doing since this blog started. And as far as I’m concerned they’re spam if they have nothing to do with miles, points, travel, or the topics of the posts.

I’ll of course continue to accept hate mail targeted at me, disagreements, and the occasional love letter.

Earlier in the week I ran a giveaway for two Admirals Club passes in connection with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card sign-up bonus being reduced. Anyway, using random.org the winner is john, who left comment 57.

Thanks to everyone that participated!

While I’m not much for contests/giveaways, stay tuned as I have some really awesome giveaways coming in the next few weeks/months.

One of the most frustrating aspects of airline pricing is fuel surcharges. I’m sure you’ve all seen airlines advertising $300-400 tickets to Europe, which turn out to be $800+ after taxes and fuel surcharges. Airlines are unbundling everything nowadays, and that apparently includes fuel (though purchasing it isn’t really an option).

Anyway, for international flights it’s not unusual to see a fuel surcharge be just as high as the actual base fare, but a reader forwarded me this fare, which just takes it to an extreme:

That’s right, that’s a Singapore Airlines ticket from New York to Tokyo for $48.50 each way, so the roundtrip fare is $97. Unfortunately that’s leaving out $782+ (!!!) in fuel surcharges along with the other taxes, for a grand total of $999.

Now, Singapore Airlines isn’t advertising this as a $97 fare so there’s nothing inherently wrong with this since you won’t see the fare breakdown unless you’re specifically looking for it, but this is one of those interesting fares that I figured was worth sharing.

The Chicago Seminar Do, which will be held October 28-30, 2011 at the Holiday Inn Elk Grove, is filling up quickly.

There will be plenty of great presenters, including Gary on award bookings, Rick on credit card churning, and Brian on maximizing American Express points. The full schedule can be found here.

While I was originally just going to cover hotels, the mileage run speaker dropped out, so I’m covering that too. I’ve been told that my 1PM seminar about Starwood hotels is 80% full, while the 3PM seminar is also quickly filling up. Apparently the morning seminar on Priority Club and Hyatt still has plenty of room. Given how small the crowd is I might just have to share some super-secret tips.

Hope to see lots of you there (or you can find me at the Saturday night Halloween costume party, where I’ll be dressed as… myself. Scary enough?).

It’s not often I’ll just point to a thread and say “read this,” but this is quite possibly the most interesting thread I’ve ever read on the internet. FlyerTalk member LaLaland started a thread innocently enough with this post:

So… I have been saving miles for two years now… was planning to take the wife anywhere she wanted to go this Summer. The greedy, ungrateful, unfaithful, (expletive) just tee’d me off in the most unforgiving way… so I’m taking 3 of my 20 or so weeks of vacation and getting as far away from her as possible — ALONE.

What makes this thread more interesting than just about anything else on the internet is that the thread isn’t just a teaser. Over the next 20 or so pages and five weeks, he shares just about all the details of what happened, his life, the divorce he’s filing for, etc. The story is straight out of a movie.

LaLaland works in the movie industry and managed to standby for an earlier flight after coming back from a meeting so he could get home to his family earlier, only to find his wife cheating on him… with a 19 year old.  Apparently it wasn’t just a one off, and they were actually doing drugs together at their house as well (possibly in the presence of their kids).

Hell, he even shares the amount of money he’s having to pay his wife, the story about his wife moving out, and what’s going on in court. Then there’s this most recent post:

Thats not all we’ll have to blur … this kid is 19yo but looks 10yo (down there) on the video… what is up with with these teenage ‘boys’ shaving themselves to nothing down there? A little manscaping is one thing, but I don’t get the whole ‘I want to look like I haven’t gone through puberty yet look’… I guess they are trying to make themselves ‘look’ bigger or like porn ‘stars’ LOL… My atty and I had a big belly laugh when we were previewing the footage. He said this only magnifies the sheer contrast of their age difference. You should have seen the Judge’s face when we put that video up (dropped jaw, eyebrows raised, glasses pushed up from the end of his nose and leaning forward to get a better look see)… he even asked her attorney afterwards… “are you sure this kid is 19″?

Grab an ice cold beer (or ice cold Diet Coke with lime), clear an hour or two of your time, and read the whole thread. You won’t regret it.

Say what now? Yeah, I’m guessing most of you don’t participate in Coke’s loyalty program, though I know at least some of you do, which is why it’s worth a mention.

The one reason I’ve collected My Coke Rewards points since day one is because you can redeem them for Priority Club points. Well, for me the program has been more or less worthless for a couple of years now, since they capped each My Coke Rewards account at one lifetime Priority Club points redemption.

Probably against my better judgment I kept collecting the points. It’s probably not worth my time, even to just enter the codes, but I did it nonetheless. Well, today I was happy to notice that I could once again redeem for Priority Club points, so I picked up about 8,000 Priority Club points this morning. Like I always say, every mile/point counts.

For those of you curious about the conversion rate of My Coke Rewards points to Priority Club points, a 20 ounce bottle of Coke is worth three My Coke Rewards points, and a 12-pack is worth ten My Coke Rewards points. 500 Priority Club points “cost” 160 My Coke Rewards points.

Like I said, when I factor in the amount of time it takes me to enter the codes, there’s no way it’s worth my time. At the same time, my parents own a couple of businesses that go through a lot of sodas, so they collect the tops of the boxes for me. I just can’t bring myself to “throw away” Priority Club points.

At least I’m not digging through the trash for these codes anymore.

So if you’ve been saving up a bunch of My Coke Rewards points without any good use, this would be a good time to cash out!