I removed the aff link since a few people think it's detracting from the message of the post. I could care less about the referrals, the point was to get my readers 50% off by using the link.
The point was that you were doing it in an obfuscated way, (using shortened links), without disclosing. I don't think people generally mind when they are explicitly made aware.
I think no one would mind if you just state that it is a referral link, and secondly, if you want, you can give both with and without referral links. That improves the credibility of the post.
I wouldn't worry about it, they're probably the same ones that still disable JS or use NoScript in 2012.