Here is another guest blog post for my brother. Apparently he is really getting into the points and miles world! You can read his first guest post here.
It always fascinates me that everyone does not take advantage of free things in life. In a company where traveling is part of the job, how can you not research on points and miles before you travel?! Honestly, you can just google the hotel chain with the word “promotions” and about a million sites will come up. Searching for promotions should not be a difficult task in a person’s life.
I work with an individual who just graduated from college. He started on my work project this past week and travels from Denver to Chicago every week. Obviously, the first questions that came out of my mouth were: What hotel are you staying at? What airline are you taking each week? He told me that he is staying at the Marriott and using American Airlines to get back and forth.
Now the real questions came into place. “What level are you at Marriott and American Airlines?” My co-worker responds, “The third floor and I was sitting in coach”. I asked him again and he gave me the same answer. He did not know there was a status level when staying at a hotel or on an airline. As I have now coined myself as brother deals, I felt that it was my obligation to explain to him everything in the points and miles world and sign him up for every promotion that I am aware of myself. Of course, we went on www.dealswelike.com to check out my sister’s website. I took him into a conference room and about ten minutes later he had a Marriott rewards number, became a platinum member, joined some promotions to get free nights, got him an American Airlines number, and finally got him signed on as a Hertz Gold Member. At this current moment he is upstairs on the concierge floor enjoying his free food.
This taught me that not everyone is so savvy on the free things in life. It also reminded me of how lucky I am to have the one and only Mrs. Deals as a sister.
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Why do this? To make yourself sound smart? Just let the nitwit wallow in his own ignorance. If everyone gets these deals, they die. Or is that too “high level” for you to figure out?
Ron = selfish. Sorry.
Why not help make someone’s life better like the blogger is doing.
Sheesh, the level of paranoia on ese boards/blogs is off the chart.
“Of course, we went on http://www.dealswelike.com to solicit my sister’s website.” – awesome!
Seriously? This poor kid is a baby. The kid is probably confused about mutual funds, health insurance, and mortgages too.
You just sound defensive about your State university degree.
I don’t think you are “stupid” just because you don’t sign up for loyalty programs. He probably just had no idea what the benefits were. If he signed up for loyalty programs and then didn’t bank his points, that would be more along the lines of “stupidity.” This article sounded a bit arrogant. And dropping the H bomb doesn’t make you sound smarter relatively….
Wow so this is the level of prejudice we Harvard graduates experience in the real world – great to be forewarned! I would never assume that a state school education, like the one you got, produces one type of person, one type of student, and one type of mentality. But clearly Harvard does! Not sure what to make of this post other than I think I lost some respect towards the author of the blog but I will continue to milk him for advice, as any dumb Harvard opportunist would!
Hey all. Deals we like here. I’m so sorry if this offended anyone but that wasn’t the point at all. The point is that anyone can collect points and miles, you just need to have the passion and ambition to do it.
Wow…you guys all need a second cup of coffee and a cookie to calm down. I liked this post by the brother of Deals We Like. We all were newbies at one point and it’s now fun to show the other newbies the way to free stuff. Sharing is what it’s all about; these blogs share with us and we’re all on here looking for information. Take a chill pill.
Not sure what the hostility is about. I enjoyed the article, thanks. But I would still enjoy a cookie Mary M! 🙂
Wow some of the posters here need to chill out
Good job! You’ve shown this young Jedi the ways of the Point. Now you need to teach him to Pay If Forward.
Wait a week or so, then tell him he’s taking you out for dinner at a nice restaurant to thank you for your tutelage. Not 4-star, but a step above Olive Garden.
Over dinner explain to him the virtue of giving and sharing, as you did with him. Explain to him that a thank you dinner is a good way to cement a relationship. Explain that it’s OK for the giver to benefit (a la your referral to Deals We Like), but that shouldn’t be the primary motivator.
At the end of the evening, pick up the tab. Explain that you understand he’s just out of college and is just getting on his feet financially, so it’s unreasonable to expect him to pay for dinner. But also tell him that you’ll be watching his progress and how he handles his new responsibilities. Who knows, maybe in 30 years you’ll be saying you knew the next Doug Parker when he was still wet behind the ears.
Brother deals I applaud you! Maybe you can help me!
How did you get him immediate Marriott Platinum?
Nice editing of the title and content
What happened to the Harvard part? 🙂
@Jon, To get Marriott Platinum, call customer service and ask to do a Platinum Challenge. Within a day or two you will get Platinum status and to keep it you must stay at 9 Marriott properties in 90 days. Hope that helps.
Deals we like: sorry about my obnoxious comment above… this post really annoyed. I visit your blog to learn, and the comments are an outlet of asking my own stupid questions. The blog is a nice supportive space for learning about miles and points. The tenor of this post detracts from the generally helpful and supportive overall mission of the blog.
Your final line is “This taught me that not everyone is so savvy on the free things in life.” I totally disagree with the readers that think that you were being arrogant. I have a site that posts free or almost free deals daily. I have also helped so many people who were not familiar with freebies. Keep up the good work and thank you so much for helping others-myself included. You Rock 🙂 @ccduniv on twitter.