It’s no secret, there are a lot of tricks of the trade when it comes to travel. Some of these “tricks” or “tips” are more widely known, and others are not.
So what happens when one person decides to share the secrets he’s learned on the open internet? You get one very heated debate.
Let’s break this down, shall we?
You attend conferences and seminars to learn valuable information that can benefit you, the other participants and then in many cases your friends or readers – if you happen to have a blog.
Most of the time, when you share information you’ve learned, the presented is thrilled that you’re spreading their message. But, in this case, the presenters are sharing so-called secrets. Secrets are being discussed openly at an event or events which are open to the public, widely attended and frequently reported on. How can you expect anything that you share at a conference to remain a secret?
The Mr. Pickles posted “Down Under Secrets They Don’t Want You To Know” and people criticize him for sharing a deal that’s known by many and say it’s likely going to get quashed by the company now.
As many people know, there was a Boarding Area Conference, called BACon that was held in May. Many non-boarding area bloggers attended (including several F2B blogger, I was not one.) Following that conference one of the bloggers I respect the most, Loyalty Traveler wrote one of the best pieces of the year, in my opinion, called Bacon Bits About Credit Card Affiliate Marketing. Why aren’t the bloggers up in arms about those secrets?
Bloggers frequently share “secret” ways to get status for “free” in their blogs. Why doesn’t anyone complain about that? Last week there was a post about how to get free Virgin Atlantic Silver Status and several blogs (even on F2B) used Virgin Atlantic in the title. If anythings going to tip off a vendor about a “secret” it’s going to be that. My opinion is that you should be more upset with the Virgin Atlantic posts than one that doesn’t call out the vendor in the title. But that’s just my opinion.
At least a few times a year there’s a post on one, or many, blogs about how to get free Hilton status, or free Accor Status. One of the most well respected bloggers out there, Gary Leff who writes View From The Wing shares the Accor status info whenever it’s available. There are threads dedicated to this on discussion boards, and if you think the powers that be at the big brands aren’t following the discussion boards, then I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.
My point is this, you can’t share information in a public forum, whether a conference, a blog or forum and expect it to be kept secret. Imagine Apple saying “We’re going to share some secrets with you about the iPhone 6, but don’t tell anyone.”
If these are such big secrets, then they should be shared in private or in a place where there is some expectation of privacy.