Originally Posted by
cruisr
Well, I only go over occasionally to see if there are any improvements and sadly there aren't. No need to give OMAAT a click today so thanks for saving me!
So sad that he continues to perpetuate the lie that one can travel in F for free. Free would me zero cents spent. I guess free for him doesn't count paying for AA miles and using them to redeem for seats. If he takes out credit cards with annual fees in order to generate miles that is not free. To be very picky the taxes and surcharges are not free. It's sad that there are fan boys that believe him and media to hype the bs.
I have traveled in CX twice in F on points and I will not say those tickets are free. That would be a lie.
There's been a noticeable shift with this blog (and others) from being pretty frank that you can save a ton of money with this game but it's not totally without cost and sometimes still a decent chunk of cash (e.g., FFPs that charge YQ). OMAAT's "about" pages used to - maybe still do - even make a point of that fact, which was at least one good thing about the blog.
However he's being a little more "liberal" with the picture being painted of late. This piece just constitutes a total sell-out...completely pushing the "freeee!!!!" line.
I don't have an issue with being a little loose with the phrase "free ticket" and similar, among those of us in the FFP-crazy community. We all realize it doesn't literally mean
zero cash outlay when someone writes "The pre-arrival meal wasn't quite what I hoped for in J on this carrier, but not bad for free" in a trip report on FT or something. But this sort of piece is obviously trying to sell an illusion to the uneducated in order to pump CCs, affiliate purchase point links, or what have you.
This intro to the "article" above was cringe-worthy:
Hi again! It's Ben Schlappig, One Mile at a Time blogger, and the guy who lives an uber-luxury travel lifestyle on points and miles. When we last left off, I was luxuriating in Bali in five-star-style all the way.