Adam1222

We've been through this before. Calling people jealous when you don't know anything about them is insane. I'm currently in Bilbao ending an 11 day vacation through Spain, which I used miles to fly business class for. I'm ready to go home and look forward to both what home and my friends in DC have in store for me, as well as energized to return to a really personally rewarding career. I don't wish I had Ben's life; I'd be unfulfilled and disappointed in my contributions to society. But sure, call me jealous of spending hours on planes for the sole purpose of spending hours on planes. Note I haven't been banned from any airlines or frequent flyer programs, and I'm pretty confident my professional skills will keep me employable until I die.

Ps my vacation has been awesome. I have some tips for amazing hotels, food and drink in Basque Country if you aren't worried about negativity.

Bottom line : how about not psychoanalyzing people based on their comments. You suck at it.

You also miss the entire point: Ben's posts are misleading and don't actually show you what it is to be a typical well traveled person. They show you someone who gets special treatment, and whines when he doesn't have someone making 15 cents an hour fawn over his every move as he explores airports of the world.

FallenPlat

I haven't seen one of those "jealous of Ben" comments on this thread in several months now. There used to be a few commenters of that ilk, or even quite a few, but they all seem to have been chased away. By coincidence. Sort of.

(And, by the way, flying ex-Colombo to get cheap business class fares still just blows my mind. As does flying all the way there and then not even seeing the place. Yeah, I know. Old topic.)

Astrophsx

Wouldn't it make more sense to be jealous of Ford? At the very most he is flying on Ben's miles in first class and staying in 5 star hotels. At the very least he's chipping in for Ben to purchase the miles and putting in minimal hours of "work".

I always think people who throw around the jealous comment are too lazy to give a thoughtful response. Ben no doubt has a pretty good gig, but I can only assume he is consumed and/or addicted to writing his blog. I'm sure he enjoys his time in first class and 5 star hotels, but there is still a decent amount of work that goes into these trip reports that would take away from the stress free feeling of vacation. He's dropped hints about this about how he waits by the gate to be the first one on the plane, spends his time writing the report as he's flying, gives constant updates to his webpage and checking travel news, etc...

AAExecPlatFlier

You do get the concept of this forum and the Internet, right?

TMM1982

I think his point is if you don't like a blog, why dwell on it? Make your observation and be done. It doesn't make sense to spend one's time continually hating on something.

adampenrith

hear hear

TMM1982

I'm still here. But every time I posted something like that, one poster on this thread (I can't name names), would run to the mods and start crying. So I guess I'm not allowed to do that.

FallenPlat

Oh, come on. You're no more jealous of Ben than any of the rest of us; and your posts actually make sense.

Plus, as Astrophysx pointed out above, Ben works practically 24/7/365. I'd last doing what he does for maybe a week, if that. Some life! Maybe even worse than being a junior associate in some big law firm or investment bank. Ugh.

I'm not necessarily against crying myself, but mostly I'm a believer in self help. You know, actual persuasive argument -- well reasoned, well informed, well written. Or that's the goal anyway.

I'm also a believer in learning from the whole process. A lot of the posters here are very knowledgeable about all sorts of surprising stuff.

iadisgreat

I love it when people need to reminded about the internet.

JetAway

Totally agree. From my viewpoint Ben appears to be trapped on a hamster wheel. Then again, hamsters do love their wheels.

Alpha Golf

Have you seen what Ford looks like? Pretty sure jealous of Ben.

fartoomanyusers

ha, ha. "what first attracted you to the points millionaire Ben Schlappig" !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj-9lSEBBm0

cruisr

Nailed it.

oliver2002

Please... I don't know what investment bankers actually do to earn so much money, but the output of OMAAT is definitely not reflecting a 24/7 work ethic. Its a few reviews a week that read like they are a template and a few credit card pitches. Maybe the award booking business is a time suck. But even for that he has 2-3 people working for him?

Ben is a smart amiable person. He could earn far more with much less effort and without any make believe. Right now the business income pivots on cc pumping, affiliate links (amazon, points.com etc), sponsored posts (eg Air Serbia), ad revenue and the award booking business. I'm sure all of it has made him some millions in the past 7 years, but in my simple view of the world its hardly sustainable.

cruisr

A "few" credit card pitches? You must mean a few dozen CC pitches in one post. Did he actually admit the Air Serbia was sponsored because that was not his writing style and read like a press release.