FallenPlat

Hmm.

A comment asked, "Did you ever stop and think that possibl[y] white males in their mid 20’s who rarely purchase revenue tickets…just maybe…aren’t their [Air India's] target audience?"

He then answered, "I flew 200K+ worth of revenue flights last year…."

In context, I still believe that the reference is clearly to purchased "revenue tickets" since the underlying substantive point is that Air India targets their ads at people who actually buy tickets as opposed to those who, as Ben often does, merely use miles.

84fiero

I read it the same as you.

bthotugigem05

He meant he flew 200,000+ miles on revenue tickets last year.

Big_Foot

Looks like he posted his Etihad apartment review.

He downplayed that it was an inaugural flight and NOWHERE
he mentioned how it was booked. This site is starting to look really shady.
I guess 3 of them, the boyfriend and the Tiffany person where all
on the inaugural 380 flight, all booked on points exactly when it was convenient
for them to book it. Give me a break.

As real as kardashians' Instagram pictures.

FallenPlat

What on earth are you talking about?

The booking process is laid out in detail at the beginning of the trip report just as it almost always is in all of Ben's trip reports.

I'll save you from having to look it up (posted Dec. 6, 2015):

"The routing looked as follows:

11/23 EY103 Abu Dhabi to New York departing 3:20AM arriving 9:10AM [First]
11/24 AA1987 Newark to Charlotte departing 5:00AM arriving 6:51AM [First]
11/24 AA1993 Charlotte to Los Angeles departing 7:30AM arriving 9:56AM [First]

This cost 90,000 AAdvantage miles plus $39.30 in taxes/fees."

And why do you refer to Tiffany as "the Tiffany person"?

If you would care to share what motivated your post, I'd like to know -- though I think I could hazard at least a decent guess.

iadisgreat

If I had to guess, it is a bit of incredulousness that the author *always* seems to have the exact award/upgrade/etc space open up that he wants. Flexibility is most likely the true reason for this, but it is a bit mind blowing to see it work out *every* time.

FallenPlat

That's simply factually incorrect.

Off the top of my head, the most memorable instance of things not working out well was during his Far Eastern trip for his mother's "round" birthday celebration. None of the space he was counting on opened up, and getting back to the US ended up being a real ordeal . . . including having his mother in a wheelchair. Temporarily, at least.

Anyway, flexibility (i.e., no 9-to-5 gig), as you say, is one key. A second is knowing all the patterns & liklihoods from booking hundreds of tickets annually, both for himself and others. A third is being a genuine aviation geek and actually caring (!) enough about "inaugural" flights to book one.

iadisgreat

I don't remember that trip that way at all and if by "ordeal" you mean "they came close to missing a flight, but a ground worker quickly escorted them and they made their flight," then you are quite correct.

Either way, I was just speculating as to the OP's thoughts. Long time leaders of that blog will surely notice that it is *very* rare that the author mentions something didn't work out as desired and again, as I caveated, flexibility makes that possibility moot.

FallenPlat

I can't speak for others, but I've never been, I'm afraid, much for making stuff up:

So, Sept. 10, 2013:

"Then we flew Cathay Pacific first class on the return to San Francisco. I was hoping Bali to Hong Kong nonstop would open up on Cathay Pacific, though unfortunately it didn’t. Instead we had to fly Malaysia Airlines business class from Bali to Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong.

In the end our routing looked as follows:

06/06 CX807 Chicago to Hong Kong departing 3:30PM arriving 8:20PM (+1 day)
06/09 CX785 Hong Kong to Bali departing 10:20AM arriving 3:00PM
06/15 MH850 Bali to Kuala Lumpur departing 4:05PM arriving 7:05PM
06/16 MH72 Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong departing 9:15AM arriving 1:05PM
06/16 CX870 Hong Kong to San Francisco departing 2:10PM arriving 11:40AM[.]"

That's four flights (inlcuding an ex-SFO "unpositioning" flight at the end) to get home. There was considerable angst involved in all this because of mom's ambulation issue; and a 70-pound suitcase didn't help either.

Your point remains factually incorrect.

iadisgreat

I made it *quite* clear that it's rare, but not nonexistent; your assertion that I'm being factually incorrect continues to be, ironically, itself wrong.

Also, not sure why you're arguing with me about nothing - I have made it clear that I'm speculating as to why someone else seemed displeased. Engaging with me about this just seems to be a big distraction for whatever reason.

gpapadop

Can't wait for the 89th post on the Citi Prestige 4th night benefit, you know it's coming

Big_Foot

Exactly. In this specific case - it's been discussed to death how
there was ZERO awards on Etihad apartment on 380 to/from the US.
And then suddenly, 3 of them flew on the inaugural 380 flight, and we supposed to believe
they booked it using miles. Obviously there is no details, how they booked it,
when they booked and first of all - how where they able to book
an impossible award. Nothing.
And this is pretty much a theme of this blog. Every single time, our lucky Ben
is able to score an award, nobody else is able to book. Sure...

And of course, the other part of this is how many miles would he have.
I brought this before, but he is apparently "spending" millions of miles
every week, twice as many now I guess, and he has an infinite supply
in every possible program. It's beyond me that the frequent flier
readers don't question that...

TMM1982

Well he's called lucky for a reason

Fredrik74

He owns an award booking service. I'm sure that gives him enough money for the lifestyle.

Some who are more cynical would probably say the award booking service is a front for his credit card kickbacks but I wouldn't say that.

iadisgreat

I'm shocked, shocked to find that kind of sentiment here!