Originally Posted by obscure2k

He must have a P.R. Person. Suddenly, Ben is a Flying Kardashian.

Originally Posted by Astrophsx

He is a salesman and travel blogger.

The misnomer that many fanboys of Ben and other popular bloggers put out there is that he is where he is because of his talent, dedication, and hard work. I think others have just pointed out that the involvement of his family financially backing him from a young age, the UA scam, and making complaints in order to seek compensation also played an important part of his early success (or ability to stay afloat). The article also skipped over the time that he spent as a travel agent...

There is also an element that Ben's experiences are not what one should expect through similar travel. He is a well known blogger that may receive special treatment. He is well known for "reaching out" through social media when something goes wrong. He is well known for broadcasting where he is through social media (checking-in on planes and hotels) and tagging the hotel/airline in the message. He has had relationships with the companies that he often reviews or documents.

Also, it has been disclosed that many bloggers reach out to airlines and hotels before their trip. At the end of the day his blog is still a great resource for photos airline and hotel products if you want to see photos. He also has documented the process of how to use your miles and points to obtain that travel if you have said miles/points in your account.

I still think Ben is talented and very successful at what he does. There are very few bloggers that are well received in this forum... (Frequent Miler, Wandering Aramean, etc..). To some extent there is always going to be some negative sentiment towards travel bloggers as they are for the most part making a living through credit card referrals, bring an influx of new people into The Hobby, and kill "deals" faster by detailing them in full and sending them out to a wider audience who may not have otherwise been involved in the deal due to the amount of time and research involved.

Originally Posted by kokonutz

It's a sad irony that points and miles obsessive bloggers are getting media exposure just as the game is coming to an end. But maybe that's a good thing as this kind of attention is not going to make the programs any more generous. It's only going to make the so-called 'idiots' (yes, I saw the non-apology explanation for that quote) who run the programs clamp down that much faster and harder.

Originally Posted by 84fiero

The point about being a salesman is worth keeping in mind, particularly when looking at the writeups of the cards being pimped and deciding if it's really good advice and even in some cases, whether there are better offers out there for the same card. The old saying that a good salesman can sell a freezer to an Eskimo exists for a reason. And however un-enthused he was about college, Ben did end up getting a degree in marketing.

As with any non-anonymous reviewer or critic, the reader should take such a review for what it's worth. The RS article highlighted how well known Ben is in some (but not all) travel circumstances and that increases the odds that his experience may not be exactly what Joe Schmo experiences.

The M&P advice on OMAAT isn't anything novel and can be found elsewhere on FT and other blogs. I'm not sure how the posts on Creflo Dollar, Metamucil, Mile High Club advice, and such are really useful but it seems his regular readers will eat up whatever is dished out.

The photos are better than some blogs in quality and quantity (I'm thinking of TPG and the cell phone pics he used to always take, maybe still does), I give him that.



It will be interesting to see what happens with some of these bloggers as the landscape changes.

Though the optimist in me (admittedly a small part of me) thinks that while the loyalty game is on a downswing, eventually it will improve when the cycle comes around and airlines are in dire straits again. Maybe I'm just whistling past the graveyard.

Originally Posted by kokonutz

It's a sad irony that points and miles obsessive bloggers are getting media exposure just as the game is coming to an end. But maybe that's a good thing as this kind of attention is not going to make the programs any more generous. It's only going to make the so-called 'idiots' (yes, I saw the non-apology explanation for that quote) who run the programs clamp down that much faster and harder.

Originally Posted by trigleek

I'm truly happy for OMAAT but at the same time was the increase of readers & media attention worth it in the long run? Only time will tell.

Originally Posted by mnscout

The hobby has been dying for the last 15 years. Although, for those who've been doing it longer, I'm sure it's been dying longer, as well. That's one tenacious puppy.

Originally Posted by TravelerMSY

Y'all are being a little hard on Ben.

A friend of mine wrote a little parody of the RS article on his travel site. Enjoy.

http://www.shandypockets.com/the-wheels-on-the-bus.html

Originally Posted by Astrophsx

Just curious does he sound this robotic when speaking at conferences:
https://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/vide...irlines/#page1

Maybe it's because it is live TV.. can't be easy.

Originally Posted by SanDiego1K

My memory of this was that it was a glitch in the UA IT software. You could use points for 1 trip that could become more as long as you flew out of one city, returned to a different US city, flew out immediately again, rinse and repeat. The software only charged points for 1 RT. You had to love flying simply for the sake of flying to do it.

Originally Posted by skunker

Rolling Stone, Daily Mail, Aussie morning show--the PR machine is in high gear!

Originally Posted by joejones

I remember exactly what it was -- UA had a 40,000 mile F award between Japan and Korea, intended for the ICN-NRT nonstop. The IT glitch was that KIX-ICN could be booked via San Francisco, so Lucky was able to fly ICN-SFO-KIX-SFO-ICN (or maybe it was KIX-SFO-ICN-SFO-KIX) in F for less than the price of a domestic F roundtrip. The other two segments were presumably the positioning flight he used to get from the US to Asia.

Originally Posted by Astrophsx

Front page of Yahoo. If people think this thread is negative towards Ben check out those comments...

Originally Posted by Astrophsx

Just curious does he sound this robotic when speaking at conferences:
https://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/vide...irlines/#page1

Maybe it's because it is live TV.. can't be easy.