SansSerif

Interesting, both on the timing and content.

kokonutz

Lol, no one in Hollywood reads Variety or Entertainment Weekly. And no bloggers read this forum.

Poor guy seems to need his fans to give him some ego juice.

Fact is he makes his living judging products and people by making his life a product for others to consume. A good living by his own account.

I get that he doesn't want to be judged himself. I'm sure the guy who changed into PJs in the LH cabin would feel the same way if he knew that he was being mocked on that blog.

But a blogger complaining about being judged is a lot like a Kardashian complaining about the paparazzi.

aw4381

I really like lucky's blog

LR2013

Was also amused at the timing of his article this morning. Mighty coincidental coincidence. And yes, it seems he does need reassurance from the fan base on occasion.

I don't think he understands how entitled he sounds sometimes. Similar to Kardashian-like values, Ben's travel world mostly consists of the best international F flight, a bubbly glass of Krug (or 3), the best F lounge or even better, F terminal, Silvercar rentals, hotel suites, and now, apparently, rubbing shoulders with Richard Quest and His Excellency from Qatar airlines.

The blog has gone from good points and miles advice to, "Hello from the F terminal! Look at my Givenchy pj's and Emirates shower" lifestyle-type posts. That is totally fine, it's his blog. Just don't try to convince us that you're culturally "taking one for the team" and suffering through these travels for the sake of the readers, LOL.

SansSerif

After taking a closer look at some of his more recent posts, I feel Lucky shedded the whole "fly first for less" theme a while ago. To add to his defense, I'll remind critics that Ben never started as a frugal fly for free blogger to begin with.

His tone has changed. And since he's a travel blogger writing posts for a living, I'd argue that the "product" has changed as well. I've stated else where that I'm not the biggest fan of this product, but I don't understand the anger or "hate" leveled against him either.

Edit

I also don't think highly of his flippant attitude (or at best, his ignorance) in attaching a photo with a family who in all likelihood earns far less than US$5,000 per annum to further his happiness argument. I don't know those photographed at all or where they live, but a basic understanding of developing world economics and a quick rudimentary analysis of what's pictured tells me they do not earn $5,000 a year.

But I agree with the argument's conclusion.

Edit edit

And an annual income of $5,000 is hardly considered poverty in many "third world" countries.

Edit edit edit

And I'd bet that the people who do live in bona fide poverty would NOT be happy.

Okay, I promise I'm done nitpicking.

84fiero

Having read the post a few times, I never found where he actually supported his post title that the "haters" were "hypocrites". He discusses how they are wrong, shortsighted, or what have you but I'm not clear why the naysayers are hypocrites.

He says

Of course he's correct, he is judging those that are (supposedly) judging him or his blog content. But we all are guilty of judging others, at one time or another, it's human nature. As koko noted above, he makes a living judging products, services, and to an extent the people providing said services. Not to mention, as the comments to this post pointed out, OMAAT has certainly been judgmental (recent Delta post; a recent lounge drama post, etc)

The criticism of OMAAT that I've seen is in two categories - those who get personal and those that simply dislike the style, content, or subject matter of the blog posts (or point out errors). The former are not worth Ben's time even responding to.

However a blogger might want to at least objectively consider constructive criticism of his writing product. Perhaps he would attract or retain more readers by considering some feedback, who knows.

I have no opinion of Ben the person as I don't know him, nor do I need to know him - or any blogger/writer in order to read their writing products and form an opinion of those products. I used to read OMAAAT more regularly for my own information but have found its utility for me personally is no longer there as its tone and excessive fluff/drama content is off putting for me. Clearly he has quite a following so others feel differently - which is fine if that's what works for OMAAT and its followers.

SansSerif

Agreed. I understand why he posted a response to his critics, but he really dropped the ball on the delivery and argument. He seems to have targeted a small subset (the why don't you travel and see things crowd) and goes on to beat that straw man to death.

kokonutz

That argument and especially the use of that photo were particularly cringe worthy. Particularly coming from the champagne, caviar and first class residences blog. A little slice of 'let them eat cake.'

People in poverty can be happy. But no one chooses to live in squalor.

But when I was his age I had the same naive perspective on the world.

Ben, (since I know you are reading this), you should seriously consider some volunteer-vacation types of opportunities. You can get a real perspective the topic of global poverty and do some good. And just think how cool it would make you to write about flying to Peru or the PI in F then spend two weeks helping dig an irrigation system or build a hut.

eponymous_coward

Maybe not. I think Ben would have lots of applicable skills that would be useful in a volunteer setting- running one's own business speaks to some of them. But these are some of the things you want to avoid.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...lidays-madonna

http://pippabiddle.com/2014/02/18/th...irls-and-boys/

I'm skeptical that it's a great idea to import wealthy tourists to do manual labor that requires some skill and training (especially if they are likely to be bad at it, as the links detail).

There are likely some ways to do tourism in undeveloped countries that aren't questionable, but one has to be careful.

B747-437B

At the risk of going further OT, I agree completely. I've seen well-meaning but naive "volunteers" cause havoc and ruin communities with their activities.

True story. There was an orphanage down the street from where I used to live in Ghana. They used to have a full-time staff member whose role was to manage incoming donations of clothes, etc... She would sort, clean, mend, assign and follow-up with thank you notes. Then along came a church group from the USA who decided to "adopt" the orphanage. They showered it with gifts, volunteers, etc.. Wonderful? No. With all these extra bodies on hand, the orphanage management decided that they could do without the staff member managing the donations and let a volunteer handle that instead. So they laid off the local lady and replaced her with a teenaged American volunteer. The lady eventually had to resort to prostitution to make ends meet. Did this really help the local community? I'm not entirely convinced.

Additionally, the security needs for the volunteers often wind up alienating the local population. The volunteers have "security liaisons" (basically ex-military types who couldn't get hired on with reputable PSD firms) whose role is to ensure that they interact as little as possible with "unapproved" locals under the guise of security. When they go to the supermarket, the security folks push local people out of line so that the volunteers do not have to wait in line ("due to security concerns"). This is more of an issue with Americans than Europeans to be fair - European volunteers tend to be as oblivious about security risks as Americans are paranoid.

I'm not against these groups that usually do intend to help, but I do sometimes question what real benefits they do bring.

kokonutz

There are some groups that run great programs. Am wine tasting today in Napa or would provide a link to one i have done.

Volunteers do manual labor and live in the community they are working for. It's a win win proposition.

pricesquire

OMAAT complaint of the day: am I the only one whose sick of Ben using his parents are mouthpieces for the same trips he's taking 2 dozen times prior? I don't need ANOTHER EK F trip whereby I hear some variation of the following (direct quote taken from his moms TR): After a few more glasses of Dom and some caviar I took a shower at 38,000 feet

runfit

I actually enjoy reading his parents' perspective on their trips. As far as being somewhat the same language, it does demonstrate that, for him, it is just as exciting the 10th time as it is for his mom the 1st time.

RFDMinnesota

There's only so much original content one can spew and barring a new controversy, it looks like he has reached that point

CMK10

My only issue with the post was that she spelled "aisle" as "isle". Pet peeve of mine.