I Fly Flat

[anat0l]

Some people are too lazy to trawl websites like this. And let's face it, it's probably not the most organised clump of information. It's like mining gold - you'll make a damn fortune out of it, but first you have to liberate the valuable gold from the giant rock which is mostly waste (or verbiage in this case).

As they say - where there is incompetence or laziness, someone can make money out of it. That's what keeps most people in a job - technicians, plumbers, electricians, travel agents, stockbrokers...

I haven't read the website, but I hope it's just brokering miles for people who are too lazy to do so. That said, $550 isn't small change, but for most it may be just a small price to pay if they even get one good Business Class trip.

What you don't want is a business who buys a lot of miles for themselves (the owners), then redeems them for customers. That's against most FFPs' rules. And of course, you are risking $550 upfront. After all, who's to say that the broker will just take your money and run with it? You hardly have a just contract with them, so good luck getting your money back through your local consumer affairs body.

I'm a mileage broker myself. Except I only have two clients - Mum and Dad. And my services are pro bono. :-|

 

[will2rob]

And to think I sent my 15 page "Guide to buying Miles" out to two friends this morning and didn't charge them a cent!

Got this email today from another friend who has just arrived in Paris
Having now completed my maiden flight on “Mhen Air” I must say it lived up to the not inconsiderable hype, even if I did not do the massage in Bangkok. I particularly liked the way the staff (3 of them) came round to each passenger (8 of us), knelt down and thanked us for flying with them, after we had arrived in Bangkok.

Thank heavens for all the free information and advice on AFF and FT

Never knew you could buy miles except from the Airline. Can you point me in the right direction on the board so I can read up on this?

Cheers

 

[The Rok]

Never knew you could buy miles except from the Airline. Can you point me in the right direction on the board so I can read up on this?

Cheers

www.points.com

 

[anat0l]

www.points.com

Note that in several cases, points.com is the "agent" to buy airline miles (or any other FF points for that matter). Points.com process for many FFPs, including AAdvantage, US Dividend Miles, Starwood Preferred Guest and Priority Club.

When you use the Buy Miles facility from the US website, it's actually an app powered by points.com.

Other FFPs offer the purchase of miles completely "in-house" from their website - I believe Avianca is such an example.

 

[Awesom Andy]

Given that rules can change, prices can change, points being constantly devalued, and that you have to rely on aware seats being available, it certainly doesn't make a good business case.

 

[vitagen]

And the massive profit he will make.between buying you the miles and charging you his programme manage fee

 

[albatross710]

However at present it is probably the ability to buy points cheap direct through several airlines during "sales" that makes his business viable. If the point sales dry up he may have a lot of unhappy members.

But, people still don't get anything extra. Maybe they are just saving time by getting him to do the actual website work. Eventually the web makes it too easy to see any easy profits. ie A subscriber gets a J tix bought for him for $5k (saving $2k), meets one of us in the lounge and we discuss how we got it using the web for $2k all up. If the subscription service is greedy then it will fall over.

 

[nato820]

Lazy people = $$$ for some, however on reading what he had to offer I totally agree with the previous posts "It didn't feel right". However advertising on news.com, It wouldn't surprise me on how many people sign up!

 

[markis10]

Lazy people = $$$ for some, however on reading what he had to offer I totally agree with the previous posts "It didn't feel right". However advertising on news.com, It wouldn't surprise me on how many people sign up!

The site does look low rent with not much money spent on it, and its not a bad idea, overseas there are quite a few sites doing similar things, maybe I should set up a competitive site:

Your preferred domain name iflyfat.com.au is currently not registered.

:mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[oz_mark]

People like Steven Hui need to be outed....trying to use info. we freely share here for profit

A whole lot of industries/companies could be outed if that selling freely available information was outlawed!

 

[kpc]

A whole lot of industries/companies could be outed if that selling freely available information was outlawed!

Well the same applies to those companies as well....

 

[lovestotravel]

A whole lot of industries/companies could be outed if that selling freely available information was outlawed!

Property investment advisory individuals/groups....being one....

 

[alieninperth]

They'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

Well some of them will be.

 

[kamchatsky]

I guess that Steve is getting the information from the original USDM thread. Given I am the OP of that thread, he should pay me 10% "GST" of all the profits generated using USDM redemptions.

 

[Mal]

There are multiple sources of information. Sometimes things are posted on aff first (iirc ex RGN fares were not known publicly before being posted here), other times blogs or other forums have the scoop.

While I don't think his business idea will fly long term (he is banking on there always being good ways to easily earn points and as we all know many places are cracking down) with the promises of $xx_x first fares etc, but like everything in life... some take risks and suceed, some fail. Some do nothing.

As I commented elsewhere, a savvy reader of this forum (and possibly another few sites) would know at least 95pc of thr "loopholes" he uses.

 

[HKGNZL]

I agree that this business probably wont' fly. However if there is someone out there who could reliably and consistently source me the best deals like what the AFF can do on this website, so I can save the many hours of me doing it - then $550 a year is worth it. It is not 'laziness' as some previous posts called it, it is balancing how much you put as your hourly rate. My wife always said the time I spent searching for good deals are not worth my savings on them.

 

[anat0l]

Even if the business lasts a very short time, at $550 a pop getting a few people onboard is already decent money. And getting each of them a Business class flight will probably pay back their $550 (incompetence and no effort on their part considered) and make for a few good stories to stick on the website.

Of course, no one is going to explain to customers that this is essentially a rather unpredictable game, and someone is sticking an extra business front on it. It's even more unpredictable than stock markets. Naturally, those that offer services to seek out award seats don't necessarily say that they can't guarantee you'll get the seat you want (though they claim they will find you seats), but AFAICT they only demand payment if they actually find you the seats, rather than before they start. But the fee for such services is not $550 per annum.

The other thing to keep in mind is that a good broker is not just one searching for those seats, but also maintaining all other points balances and keeping that in mind for other redemptions. For example, a single AA buy miles transaction rarely gives enough for a decent return redemption, but I would expect a good broker to talk to their client and set a goal so that (a) the broker can reasonably inform or explain the scenarios of when the client may be able to use their points, and (b) upon setting the goal for the redemption, start looking for availabilities around when the client would like to use said points.

Apart from other things, that's how I see a real points broker. Their participation shouldn't be limited to the buy and burn miles only game.

 

[fifo]

seems like a bit of a joke... anyone using it?

 

[DeKa]

The guy is active on Whirlpool: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2105533 and http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/user/569674

 

[Jleno]

The site does look low rent with not much money spent on it, and its not a bad idea, overseas there are quite a few sites doing similar things, maybe I should set up a competitive site:

Your preferred domain name iflyfat.com.au is currently not registered.

:mrgreen: :mrgreen:

throw a little gimmick in, tweak your marketing and charge your customers $650. Then you sign up for iflyflat yourself at $550 and you forward all your customers' queries to iflyflat. $100 for forwarding emails. Middlemen business is the way to go!