It has been an interesting week for me to say the least, thanks to Ami Magazine, one of the most popular weeklies in the religious Jewish world.
You can read Ami’s long-form article and interview of me here.
It’s been surreal seeing friends and readers send me newsstand pictures from Jerusalem to New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, and more:
A couple of weeks ago, the magazine reached out to see if I would talk about Lufthansa’s fiasco in Frankfurt. I shy away from most interview requests, but Nesanel Gantz is nothing if not persistent and he got me on the phone. The conversation turned when he asked why a points and deal blogger was the one that did a thorough investigation that shined a light on Lufthansa’s action, to the point that it was picked up by the Washington Post (archive version here) and The New York Times (archive version here).
I told him that it was a natural outcome of news stories that I’ve covered in the past. Those have ranged from investigative PSAs warning readers about scams, the dark side of earning credit card points, which I did cover in a couple of interviews on radio and podcast as I felt it was important. I was threatened with a lawsuit for exposing one MLM scam, but I refused to remove the article.
The news that I cover reflects the deals that we cover, it just depends on what interests me and what catches my eye. For a while that took the form of news roundups, though like trip reports, those took an inordinate amount of time to create. Or I’ll do one-off articles where I’ll offer constructive advice for a new airline CEO.
When covering news stories, my preference is to get firsthand information. That’s why I spoke directly to people who have been kicked off JetBlue, Spirit, and Frontier flights for the most egregious sounding mask incident removals, which led to this PSA.
The most highly read DansDeals post in history was this MH370 story which I investigated and then went viral.
Don’t Mess With The Google was another story that was picked up nationally.
Other times it’s just a headline that goes viral, as the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board apparently enjoyed (archive version here).
Sometimes I wind up being the news, such as when Tesla handed over control of their forums to me, a story that was covered by Forbes, VICE News, Business Insider, and CNET.
Or when United diverted a Tel Aviv-Newark flight to Cleveland and a friend and I sprung into action to bring passengers kosher food, which was picked up locally as their front page lead story.
When the Ami asked about my favorite mileage redemption (page 12-13 of the PDF), the last part of my answer was omitted, but I’m happy to share that here,
“The most unique was the time I spent about a million Starpoints to throw out the first pitch before game 7 of the 2016 World Series in Cleveland. I’ve always been an avid baseball fan since my grandfather took me to countless ballgames from when I was a little child until today and getting to bring him, my wife, and JJ onto the field as I got called up to take the mound was something surreal. An ESPN writer Tweeted at the time that I could have used the points to stay in the S. Regis NYC for a month with those points, but who dreams about that anyway?
Once Starwood got bought out they started selling the right to throw out the first pitch and last year it went for $500,000, so it may just have been my best mileage redemption ever at about 50 cents per point!”
I could nitpick about the odd photo edits (hello orange spray tan on the original cover of the actual magazine :D) and not crediting the photographer as should have happened (thanks to Ellie Berlin of Ellie B Photography), but I thought the article was great!
What did you think of the article? Is it time to write a book as one Facebook reader suggested?
Leave a Reply
82 Comments On "How I Wound Up As Ami’s Cover Story"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
Where can I get a copy in Chicago?
You can read it here
For a hard copy Jewel sells it at 2485 Howard St, Evanston, IL 60202, located across from the kosher deli.
Think Kesher Stam also sells them
Kol tuv too
And Sarah’s tent
I thought it was an amazing article and I even got my brother-in-law who hates all the Dan’s deals type of conversations and is a straight shooter 9-5-job kind of guy to agree with me how you rock
The interlinking is genius for seo 🙂 .
Keep it up.
Great article!
PS some may find the link to the photographer ‘tzniyus alert worthy’
We loved this article! Dan you guys rock!
When will MSM pick this up?
absolutely a book needs to be written
Very good article. I guess I follow dansdeals long enough that I found out nothing new
Yes please write the book
+1
Fabulous article, interesting to read and your integrity really shone through. And as a fellow Lubavitcher I thought you did a great job with your answers in general and specifically the one including your outlook based on Chabad chassidus.
Keep the writing coming, a balanced take like yours is as necessary as it is rare!
Is it the first time a lunch break article made made it on the cover?
Is it the first time a lunch break is 18 pages long? Well, I guess when you are self employed you can make the lunch break as long as you want…
Alol.
So you’re saying that the news roundups have no future? 🙁
And the TRs too??? 🙁 🙁
Maybe make a poll of which of these your readers want you to continue.
Didn’t say that. Just need to find the time…
Need to do a TR if you want your restaurants to be tax deductible
Still waiting for the rest of the Antarctica story!
While I hate the Ami with passion after figuring out there ugly agenda against a lot of Chasidisha and main stream chasidish ppl that I canceled my subscription.
But @dan you made me buy last week publication and was well worth it.
Thanks again was a great article
They suck as a paper because they really have no decent professional writers, from some clown who writes the political news to some uber reporter, but the only thing that is very professional, is the business section!
Shloime Zionce rocks!!
Where did his weekly column go?
+1
I am actually under the impression that they cover all “types,” as well as having pretty well written articles.
Great job!
I knew the Lufthansa stuff from following it here but I enjoyed reading about how you got started. Those were some promotions they ran back in the day!
I was also somewhat surprised that your Chabad roots don’t go nearly as far back as your Cleveland roots. Not sure why I assumed otherwise.
In my non scientific “research”, most Lubavitchers are not gezhe.
Gezhe?
Families with lineage.
“It has been deeply rewarding to hear from readers who have told me how DansDeals has helped them stay in kollel longer”
Absolutely true! Thank you DAN
+1000 couldnt have said it better!
Dan my favorite parts of the article was when I was nodding and smiling at all the deals you mentioned that I got, especially the $25 delta tickets to California!
+1
Surprised there’s no mention of the cheap flights to Isreal that crashed dansdeals.com a few years ago
Also no mention of getting credit card points by buying gold from one bank and then depositing it in another bank (until the WSJ article which caused it to be canceled)
Didn’t see the magazine so don’t know if it’s mentioned there just talking about this article.
Here ya go:
https://i.dansdeals.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/30153913/569-Lunchbreak-with-Daniel-Eleff-DansDeals-1.pdf
Its a shame they omitted the part about the World Series redemption. I guess MLB isn’t tznious.
I recall a story told by the Rav of our town about a popular women’s Jewish publication wanting to do a story about the yeshiva in town. When asked about also covering the succes of the seminary, the magazine refused.
The Rav said that in this town both men and women learn to live and love Torah, and if both centers of Torah aren’t showcased in the magazine, then I can show you the exit door. The women’s magazine decided to also cover the girl’s school.
Redeeming points for baseball or a flight to Eretz Yisroel are both amazing.
Certainly. Leaving out a baseball game story is equivalent to leaving out chinuch habonos.
LOL
Not to judge anyone but it does glorify sports to some extent, and not everyone is agreeable to that. It’s the type of thing a “mainstream” Frum magazine will leave out these days, if only for PR reasons.
The point isn’t to glorify a sport, but it’s hard to convey that in a paragraph or 2, as opposed to the numerous posts I’ve made about that redemption.
Agreed, I think that you’re proud of the unique value you got out of those points. I didn’t mean that you intend to glorify sports, only that Ami might’ve been afraid that there would be an unintended consequence of people perceiving it that way.
But I also think that they were trying to ‘protect’ you. Maybe you can take that as a compliment because knowing how these magazines operate, I don’t think that they would’ve left such a thing out if the interviewee would’ve been a non-Jewish or non-Frum person or even very MO.
What’s ami? Never heard of it
Now you did!
Wow, wow, wow! Dan, you officially made it.
Did you mean: The Ami officially made it?
So, how did you solve those murders?
19 pages and no mention of the redesign?
Didn’t come up in the Q&A.
My personal favorite DansDeal was $290 round trip tickets NYC to Johannesburg in 2015!! Thank you!
The yeshiva elementary school principal where I work found your article so interesting that she had copies made for the older boys to read.
You should definitely write a book! My wife just published her first kids book on ADHD using Amazon’s KDP, so, the only investment is your time writing it and layout but not the publishing.
Congrats, Dan! Now imagine if Dan’s Deals was owned by a woman…how would the cover look?
A globe?
https://www.amimagazine.org/2017/12/06/women-know-adina-weinberger/
Great interview, Dan! Really enjoyed reading it. Been following along for years and appreciate your viewpoints on trying to help people out and do good in the world. Your authenticity comes through and I admire how you openly share your viewpoints even if it goes against the grain.
On a separate note, it is interesting how for Ami (and other publications) it’s ok to plaster the faces of men everywhere but a picture of a woman’s face can’t be found anywhere in Ami magazine. So if a woman had traveled the world no photos could be shown of her kayaking or hiking on a glacier, etc.
Thanks.
I assume that it’s done based on market demand? Otherwise wouldn’t there be a startup magazine that does feature men and women?
I did find it funny how they edited the pictures, for example they covered my knees and elbows when I was wearing a bathing suit on the microlight/devil’s pool trip at Victoria Falls.
Not understanding your point. Is their anyone that holds these is a problem with pics of men?
If your anti the lack of pics of women, take it up with your (or their) LOR. But don’t blame it on the fact that there are pics of men
This is so cute. I don’t know you but I’ve been a DD visitor for years and years. Feels like seeing a family do good things. Keep it up!
It was interesting to hear about your round the world trips in one breath.
I actually covered up the ‘Dan’s Deals’ words on the bottom of the cover and showed it to my son.
“Who’s that?” he said.
Then I uncovered the words. “THAT’S HIM?!” he yelled. “He’s Dan’s Deals?!”
“Yeah. He’s from Cleveland.”
“Cool! I can’t wait to get a credit card!”
“Yes, you can.”
Great story, fun read.
Picture very nice your naturally photogenic Read the article, was impressed the way you kept mentioning that your success is all from hashem (way to go!)
About the book don’t write it as anyone on dansdeals wont pay unless your giving it away free or accepting expiring miles as a form of payment:)
All in all I’m a fan for many years and have learned and saved based on your advise so a big THANK U
U repped cle well. ty
Really exited to about a potential book. PLEASE DO IT.
not yet on the book, you still have wase to go. maybe a podcast by monthly.
P.S. Thank you for crediting the photographer and pointing out that she should have been credited in the article!
Ye great article, a podcast hosted by @Dan would be incredible. Would take a lot of time though…
You helped me tremendously in the early days, Huge hakaras hatov
thank you very much for the article particularly the point about being sameach bchelko, which was comforting to hear from someone whose industry requires to be up to date on everything inspires me not to have fomo, if I cant keep up with da.
Dan and JJ thanks for all the work you do. Love the deals and so happy to see that you are having success!
@Dan
Was a pleasure to read, you were the talk of the kiddush especially how you got in the line “I don’t want your Gan eden etc”
You have true selfless Ahavas Yisroel. Keep it up
Bayom Ashtei Asar Yom is a maimor to live by. One of my favorites.
It should be required learning: https://www.sie.org/templates/sie/article_cdo/aid/3798182/jewish/BeYom-Ashtei-Asar-Yom-5731.htm
My favorite Maamer!
Wow Dan!
I see you are a real Talmid Chacham and have lots of Emunah and Bitachon, amazing!
You said that you did Semicha, what does that entail and how many years does it take?
How about making an app
winning smile
Dan I’m familiar with. What’s Ami?
I think the 4 dollars to Hong Kong takes the cake!
A book would be amazing!
https://www.dansdeals.com/credit-cards/credit-cards-points-start-need-know-best-credit-cards/#:~:text=I%20can%20write%20a%20book%20about%20the%20stuff%20I%E2%80%99ve%20done%20for%20miles%20over%20years%2C
Congratulations! I would love a signed copy in Aydlett NC 27916. Thank you