One Mile at a Time [OMaaT] discussions [merged]
Jul 24, 2015, 12:49 pm
#646
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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I think you're referring to his trip to Mendoza for the Masters of Food and WIne. He was pretty upfront that his trip was covered....
He also notes on the actual PH Mendoza trip report right at the start
So, he was pretty upfront about the nature of the trip.
FDW
Thanks FDW - I stand corrected on that specific trip.
Originally Posted by FlyingDoctorwu
I think it was a visit to a Hyatt somewhere in Argentina. It was so out of place as compared to his previous postings, and I looked carefully and didn't find an acknowledgement of free arrangements. I really didn't want to continue reading a shill blog; that is, one in which the author could not fairly criticize negative factors because he/she had accepted free arrangements/accommodations.
My business class airfare, stay at the Park Hyatt Mendoza, and admission to all the events were comped, given that Park Hyatt, American Airlines, and all of the wineries we visited are sponsors of the event (and I’ll be sure to disclose that in every subsequent post on the subject, though hopefully y’all know me well enough to know that I’m quite outspoken about my impressions, and I have no plans to hold back here).
(Full disclosure: Park Hyatt and American Airlines, sponsors of the Masters of Food & Wine Event, comped my airfare, hotel, and admission to the events)
FDW
Jul 24, 2015, 1:12 pm
#647
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Seattle WA
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1) Booking and flying the KIX-ICN via SFO award F trip was probably the most benign of the examples, given that he wasn't URL hacking the website or switching currency or doing anything abnormal to get that fare -- it was an itinerary bookable by anyone. This "award mistake fare" lingered for quite a while (weeks, at least) when he first reported it via a classic FT post, and then resurfaced (at least once) for another few weeks about a year later.
2) He was also accused of excessively complaining to UA in order to get compensation vouchers. I'll let others try to peg the ethics of this -- although certainly you could argue that UA was willingly giving the comp and could/should have stopped giving vouchers for inoperative lights or tray tables at any point if they wanted to (much like DL/NW famously "fired" a frequent complaining customer). Who knows if UA even had the systems in place to track and monitor this kind of activity then.
3) Then, most aggressive on his part was using those compensation vouchers multiple times, exploiting a UA IT glitch that did not immediately cancel the voucher upon use, allowing the value to be applied to multiple tickets if bought within minutes/hours of the initial redemption. This was done knowingly and willfully to exploit the IT glitch and to gain thousands of dollars of value that he was not entitled to. My understanding is that this is what led UA to finally cut him off, and what he tried to offer to repay them for.
Jul 24, 2015, 1:30 pm
#648
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: DFW
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Yes, I'd forgotten about the Mendoza trip. As something of very junior-grade oenophile, I thought that series of posts was one of the more interesting ones. I got to do a little cross-comparing when SFO777 ran a report on the same region here on Flyer Talk. I had no idea the area was so beautiful, always with snow-capped mountains in the background. The small irony lurking in all this is that Ben doesn't even like wine . . . ex a few glasses of Champagne now and again, obviously.
Jul 24, 2015, 2:13 pm
#649
Join Date: Apr 2005
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I find it extremely arrogant to pretend you discovered something when you merely regurgitated something into your blog that you read on this website.
Jul 24, 2015, 2:36 pm
#651
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Brooklyn, NY, United States
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No matter how you feel about someone, it's always a good idea to try and refrain from rewriting history. Rick's blog was probably the first hobby blog I stumbled upon, with tonnes of original material. Saying that it "merely regurgitated" FT is foolish and baseless.
Jul 24, 2015, 3:44 pm
#652
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
Ben has written that he doesn't do much MS anymore, but I'm wondering how he meets the spending requirements for all those new credit cards? The banks typically award 10K miles per $1K spend-- spend $5K, get $50K miles. If he gets 500K miles from CC signups per year, he must spend $50K/yr, roughly $4K/month. For a single guy, that's a lot of money. Has he ever given us an idea where that money goes? Is it the lower-end hotels he stays at? Some paid flights?
Jul 24, 2015, 4:07 pm
#653
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,737
Also, if you kill purchasing gift cards w/ a CC and loading serve not much out there that doesn't take a lot of time/effort to MS.
The excessively complaining was by his own admission in the article. It seems he didn't put forth the full truth to RS. So one could come to the assumption that the sensationalized claims made about his travels were from Ben's mouth and that there was some cherry picking involved by the author with quotes made. We just don't know what the context of the quotes were, but it leads me to believe that no false claims were made by the author... they came from Ben's mouth.
Jul 24, 2015, 4:29 pm
#654
Join Date: Aug 2009
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Ben has written that he doesn't do much MS anymore, but I'm wondering how he meets the spending requirements for all those new credit cards? The banks typically award 10K miles per $1K spend-- spend $5K, get $50K miles. If he gets 500K miles from CC signups per year, he must spend $50K/yr, roughly $4K/month. For a single guy, that's a lot of money. Has he ever given us an idea where that money goes? Is it the lower-end hotels he stays at? Some paid flights?
Furthermore, apparently his customers sometimes ask him to pay with his own card (I think, by his own admission he was a little surprised about that).
TL;DR - have a business where you can expense a lot
P.S. When Citi has 100K deal for $10K spend, people did multiple cards in one month, IIRC.
Jul 24, 2015, 4:39 pm
#655
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
Meeting minimum spend is not hard if you have predictable spending pattern. Lucky has detailed it on his blog, but basically he spends money on his own revenue travel, on hotels, on purchasing miles during deals (e.g. Alaska miles).
Furthermore, apparently his customers sometimes ask him to pay with his own card (I think, by his own admission he was a little surprised about that).
TL;DR - have a business where you can expense a lot
P.S. When Citi has 100K deal for $10K spend, people did multiple cards in one month, IIRC.
Furthermore, apparently his customers sometimes ask him to pay with his own card (I think, by his own admission he was a little surprised about that).
TL;DR - have a business where you can expense a lot
P.S. When Citi has 100K deal for $10K spend, people did multiple cards in one month, IIRC.
I still think $50K spend is a lot for a single person, considering he doesn't pay mortgage or rent, and his expensive hotels are all on points. And he apparently puts all his food costs on the CSP. I guess the $100/night for the "regular" hotels add up.
Jul 24, 2015, 4:51 pm
#656
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Miami, FL
Programs: BA (Gold), AA (Platinum)
Posts: 8
3) Then, most aggressive on his part was using those compensation vouchers multiple times, exploiting a UA IT glitch that did not immediately cancel the voucher upon use, allowing the value to be applied to multiple tickets if bought within minutes/hours of the initial redemption. This was done knowingly and willfully to exploit the IT glitch and to gain thousands of dollars of value that he was not entitled to. My understanding is that this is what led UA to finally cut him off, and what he tried to offer to repay them for.
Jul 25, 2015, 1:09 am
#657
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: SEA
Programs: AS MVPG
Posts: 117
This is pretty common knowledge on FT, I'm sure someone who follows the saga of Ben a little more closely can point you to a source.
I'm honestly surprised UA just stopped at banning him from the airline and that's it. Outright theft of several thousand dollars in services should get a person in some kind of legal trouble one would think.
I'm honestly surprised UA just stopped at banning him from the airline and that's it. Outright theft of several thousand dollars in services should get a person in some kind of legal trouble one would think.
Jul 25, 2015, 1:24 am
#658
Moderator, Hilton Honors
Join Date: Nov 2003
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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.
6 transpacs in 5 days thread
Jul 25, 2015, 4:12 am
#659
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2005
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I've been experimenting with the newly released IBM Watson Personality Analyzer.
https://watson-pi-demo.mybluemix.net/
Cut/pasted 300 words from Ben/Lucky's 2006 OP linked above.
Fascinating assessment of our peripatetic friend.
https://watson-pi-demo.mybluemix.net/
Cut/pasted 300 words from Ben/Lucky's 2006 OP linked above.
Fascinating assessment of our peripatetic friend.
Jul 25, 2015, 7:47 am
#660
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Virginia, USA
Posts: 4,508
Yeah, but they did MS.
I still think $50K spend is a lot for a single person, considering he doesn't pay mortgage or rent, and his expensive hotels are all on points. And he apparently puts all his food costs on the CSP. I guess the $100/night for the "regular" hotels add up.
I still think $50K spend is a lot for a single person, considering he doesn't pay mortgage or rent, and his expensive hotels are all on points. And he apparently puts all his food costs on the CSP. I guess the $100/night for the "regular" hotels add up.
