yyzvoyageur

Anyone care to share their thoughts on this character? While I'm no fan of his, I do continue to read his travel column in the weekend FT on occasion. I've always considered him to be a self-centred, arrogant braggart who always has some snooty "insight" into the world of commercial air travel. This weekend's column was one of his haughtier in recent memory. In it, he takes it upon himself to inform hoteliers just what type of people they should permit as guests. Specifically, he would like to see a "perfect balance of quiet Kuwaitis, sociable Brits, chic Italians, elegant Turks and literary Americans." Other nationalities need not bother booking a suite as they may offend Tyler's sensibilities. Am I the only one who reads his columns and gets the distinct feeling that he's parodying the life of a trust fund kid?

neuron

Oddly enough, Tyler Brule would not fit into any of these groups! I find his articles to be over the top and he presents himself with an extreme air of entitlement.

obscure2k

Moving thread to FT Newsstand.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

keisari

I really like the FT but stopped reading his articles long time ago.
He is an arrogant SOB and I have no idea why FT keeps his article around.

YVR Cockroach

I did enjoy reading about his experience with some steel woven fabric designer underwear a few weeks ago (it wasn't a pleasant outcome for him, but very satisfying for those who dislike him).

zitsky

I love his columns and think they're fantastic. I make sure I read the rest of the paper before reading his column. I enjoy it more that way. Yes it can be over the top but that's the charm of it. He seems to travel quite a bit and it's interesting to get his impressions. I love it when he talks about "mother". My partner and I are convinced that he's gay. We think all the talk about mom is proof of that.

ajax

Completely typical for this pompous *ss.

He represents something very strange about and IMHO endemic in British culture: you don't need to be nice or particularly likeable or even particularly good at your job in order to get attention. You just need to be someone interesting and provocative. Look at Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan, Sharon Osborne, Alan Sugar (I could go on). They get worshipped by the press and they are only talented at being up themselves. I cannot figure out why this is.

No - except for that I have a distinct feeling that he's being entirely serious.

Yes, he's well known as gay (at least in the UK). That is to say, he's gay everywhere, but it's widely known in the UK.

HeHateY

There are two good reasons to give Brule a pass (no not that kind!):

1) He is editor in chief at Monocle, which is one of the best magazines on the planet.

2) He was behind the marketing and in-flight service design for Porter Air which is IMHO the greatest new airline in North America since jetBlue.

Raffles

I had always assumed that the almost-weekly references to his boyfriend Mats would have been proof enough

Tyler is OK. If you had to travel like him (whilst also, because you run your own business, having the flexibility to control your trips) you'd think like him.

And many vacation-driven hotels, such as the top Swiss ski resorts, already do guest profiling as he suggests. This stops them getting overrun with new-money Russians, for example. And have you NEVER been to a hotel and returned saying 'it was great except for the other guests'?

My only criticism is that, since he returned to the FT after his period at the IHT, the columns are now substantially more travel related and you get less of his views on the best bags / underwear etc.

yyzvoyageur

They tend to have some good articles, but a whole lot of fluff too. When Monocle was first published a few years ago, they claimed it to be "The Economist with pictures", or "A trendy version of The Economist". Not quite!

baggageinhall

Yes, assuming you are talking about Planet Tyler.

It's impossible to take him or his magazine seriously when it has such a predilection with anything Swiss, Japanese, Canadian or from HK, over everything else.

Take a look at this, it's from 2007 but times haven't changed:
Monocle Travel Top 50 - 2007

Of my many favourites, they award best title in the sky to Swiss's 'Maitre de' Cabine' because it 'sounds so much better than Cabin Service Director', a not so subtle dig at BA.

ajax

Arrogance in the extreme on behalf of Monocle.

yyzvoyageur

I actually prefer his FT columns to his old IHT ones.

I didn't catch that column, though wish I had. I'll stick with cotton thank you very much.

I wonder how that would go down in his hometown of Winnipeg.

nycflyer

Not everyone wants to read articles which reflect their own opinions and values back to them. I enjoy reading the Fast Lane columns because of the arch and over the top style, so different from the dime-a-dozen travel articles published every weekend. Presumably the FT realizes its target audience is not looking for more "tips for saving money on your next Caribbean cruise" which can be found in WSJ, USA Today or elsewhere. They want signposts to values and experiences which differentiate them from the bourgeois masses. If that makes him an arrogant SOB to some then so be it.

From a North American point of view his lifestyle seems outrageously privileged with the jetting between London-Tokyo-Stockholm-Switzerland, but as far as I can tell he has built it himself, supported by his magazine and other business ventures. He's more plucky Canadian entrepreneur than entitled European louche. This being FT, I see his musings as a few steps beyond the RTW trip reports in F posted here.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...-bkk-sq-f.html

The role of tastemakers in democratic society is tricky- easily parodied, easily attacked for arrogance. How dare these people stand before us, confident that their experiences and opinions are better than our own. But if we did away with their opinions we would be relegating ourselves to Soviet style lives eating dull food, wearing undifferentiated clothes, driving tin can Ladas and staying in the same Holiday Inn Express boxes on every trip.

ricardobtg

Ugh !! Tyler.

Many many mixed feelings. On one hand I share his passion for ANA amongst other things, and the man really does give out many many good pointers and recommendations.

However most of the time the goodness is just overwhelmed by too much self-centerdness and all around douc**baggery. If the guy wasn't dead serious I could swear that I was reading a column from The Onion. I'm sure there are gazillions of dignitaries and heads of state that could write travel columns and sound less pompousarse than Tyler.

Really... the NERVE to suggest men in the west start grooming their eyebrows, blasphemy !!! (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cd455274-2...44feabdc0.html)