Originally Posted by
FallenPlat
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As as for Littewinglet's earlier comment, he did not "nail it." His comment is, in fact, absurd: Ben is a (very, very minor) celebrity precisely because his blog caught on. It's not the other way around. His blog was successful before anyone had heard of him and while he was still an early twenty-something just out of school . . . and still in school. His blog isn't successful "because" he's a minor celebrity. Saying so gets it exactly backwards.
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He's not so much a minor celebrity, as a very niche celebrity. He appeals to those people who refuse to travel unless they can get there in 1st class, the trip is about getting there and little thought is given to the destination. In fact, destinations don't matter at all, which is why they're always major airline hubs. Outside of Bali and Germany, where has Ben traveled and blogged about that's of any interest to real adventure travelers?
Also, he got popular at the same time as TPG, MMS and a few others. Nothing special. It was just a novelty for most readers to see so much travel done on miles but now that everyone's doing it it's no longer that cool. I certainly almost never read his blog, and wouldn't even waste breath discussing it except I'm very much against shameless credit card shilling, which is what he's really all about.
He creates a fake idea of how much "free" travel can get done to induce clueless newbies to sign up for cards, then makes a half-hearted effort to claim it's not really as easy as they think, but yet continues to shill cards at every step without every fully disclosing how he manages to afford so many paid flights and hotel stays, which in turn allows him to live the fantasy.