Originally Posted by
cruisr
Nailed it.
Good writer? Sure, if you like stream of consciousness. None of his descriptions of hotels, first class cabins, lounges have any word "magic". It's more like, "Hey guys, I drank more Krug and it wasn't chilled enough."
And if you don't mind overuse (often multiple times in the same post) of phrases such as "in other words" or "not surprisingly"; hit-or-miss attention to word tense and correct plural/singular pronoun usage; choppy paragraphs
Generally OMAAT posts have way too many "I" sentences - even for trip reports. I would say most of the trip reports are rather clinical in their descriptions. As you noted there isn't any "magic" that would draw the reader in if they weren't already interested in the subject...no painting a mental picture with words.
OMAAT trip report pics are usually pretty good as far as showing rooms, cabins, and details within. I guess that is his crutch for a lack of really creative, engaging writing. Sometimes photographs are better or more useful, but not always.
As for the thinly-veiled CC-pimping articles, they're pretty formulaic and predictable, just as they are with other such blogs.
OMAAT writing is better than VFTW or DeltaPoints, I'll say that. However those aren't very high bars. (VFTW would probably be fine with a few minutes of proofreading each post.)