Why I Don’t Write About Bad Deals and Options

I get a lot of questions from people asking me: “What are your thoughts on so and so?” My answer has generally been “not worth talking about, there are better options out there”. If the conversation goes deeper, then I would give an example of something better.

Pointshogger is about Maximizing Rewards for Canadians. If I do not write about a certain deal, program or feature, it is because it just isn’t good enough.

Example of a Bad Option

Here’s a recent example of something not worth writing about. Aeroplan recently offered clients a option to fly completely cash-free. Where you can use Aeroplan miles to cover the costs of taxes and fuel surcharges.

The taxes and fuel surcharges in the above example is $160.28. You have the option of using 18,856 miles to pay off that cost. Here’s the math:

• $160.28 / 18,856 = 0.0085 cents per point.

That is a horrible return. It’s so bad that it is pointless for me to talk about it. You are better off keeping your miles to redeem for another reward flight and just paying for the taxes and fuel surcharges.

Why I don’t write about bad deals

Some may argue that I should at least let people know that it’s a bad option. The hard truth is that there are more bad deals/options out there than good ones. So if I get in the business of pointing out all the negatives out there, it will consumer this blog and lose focus on what’s positive. And readers will need to sort through what’s good or bad. Personally, I rather keep things positive so that there is less sorting through the information.

Furthermore, the more attention that I give to bad programs, the more free publicity they get for something that they don’t deserve.

What to expect

We will continue to focus on finding the good deals out there. If you see something that you think we should have included in the blog, feel free to leave a comment in any of our posts, or send us an email!

What do you think?

But to be fair, we would love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Would you prefer that we focus on positive choices that will help Canadians maximize rewards? Or would you rather that we put more energy towards explaining why a certain program is a bad option?