The credit card churning/manufactured spending/travel hack community is a unique community that works to find advantageous opportunities when retail vendors, credit card companies, airlines and hotel companies create advantageous opportunities that the Average Joe can take advantage of and profit from. But, should we advertise where these unique outliers are and who is offering them?

This is a debate worth having and one that is now beginning to occur among those of who us who belong to this community. It is one we should all participate in because it affects us Average Joes because we are always on the prowl for these opportunities.

Let’s imagine, a popular airline called XYZ is offering a $100.00 sale from your hometown to anywhere in the world. Its a programming error. When the sale was being offered, it was suppose to read $1,000.00, but because of a typo, it was entered in as $100.00. It is an error. But, since you have been on the prowl, you have discovered it.

If I saw this opportunity, I would jump on it. In fact I would buy several of these for myself, my family, and maybe even a few close friends. I would spread the word. And, a number of people would be very happy.

But, suppose, I write a blog post about XYZ and their pricing anomaly. Then 100,000 people jam up XYZ’s network trying to take advantage of this opportunity. How long would this opportunity last? How many people would be able to take advantage of this?

This is the debate travel hack people are having now. Do we share these secrets with the masses? Or, do we keep them to ourselves?

Personally, this Average Joe advocates both. I believe all the Average Joes should know how to find these opportunities, how to take advantage of these opportunities, and should train themselves to always be on the prowl.

But, I do not believe in rubbing a vendors nose in their mistake.  That will make the vendor simply be on guard and ever vigilant against making those mistakes again. That is why unless the opportunity’s that I find are published and advertised, like Marriott’s Spring Bonus, I will only give references to what the opportunity is.

For example, in my article Average Joe Arbitrage 303, I never mention where I found the opportunity to make almost $50.00 profit per debit card purchased. I simply talk about the arbitrage opportunity and included a copy of the ad to demonstrate it was real and not something I just made up.  That was an Average Joe Arbitrage opportunity that I wanted to promote, without, causing the vendor to suddenly shut the promotion down, thus eliminating everyone from taking advantage of it.

This is a good debate to have and it is one I am sharing with other travel hacks like myself. But, always I want to hear what say the Averages Joes have to say.