We don’t use affiliate links for credit cards or bank bonuses, for reasons we’ve discussed in depth before. Very rarely, a situation arises where the affiliate links for an offer has a higher sign up bonus than the public offer (or any back door links people can find). This happened on Thursday last week when the Citi Premier dropped to 40,000 points, affiliate links were still showing the 50,000 point offer.
Chuck covered the change (other bloggers had been speculating on it for awhile, although it wasn’t clear how the offer would change) and also included an affiliate link from another blogger (originally VFTW and then OMAAT when it was clear VFTW’s link was actually for the Prestige and not the Premier). We obviously don’t receive anything if you use one of their links, but George from Travel Blogger Buzz (somebody I have respect for) had a mild stroke on Twitter about it.
I think Chuck made the right judgement call, I know some people were waiting to see what happened to the bonus before applying (who knows, maybe it was going to go up) and nobody had any idea how long the affiliate links would last at 50,000. That being said, we’re happy to admit when we’re wrong as well and if there is something readers think that can be improved we’re generally happy to make those changes as well.
So if something like this happens in the future, I think we have three options:
- Tell people that the affiliate links are available from affiliate bloggers and ask them to choose their favorite
- Post the links of all the affiliate link bloggers we can find
- Don’t mention the better offer at all
I’m open to other options as well. Let me know in the comments. Also goes without saying, but keep things respectful.
