FallenPlat

Pricesquire, I'm afraid you're dead, flat wrong. This is an anonymous forum, of course, and so you'll have to trust me a might when I say that I know a little bit about writing. (Or don't trust me; it's entirely up to you.) And I'm here to tell you that Ben's in reality a very good writer. He has a fine sense of pacing, a fine story-telling instinct, and a fine ability to put a paragraph together. It's not perfect in any "by the book" sense, but it flows . . . little glitches and all. That's partly why he has so many readers -- including you and me.

He's very successful for a reason.

Astrophsx

Lets face it.. He's not making 7 figures because he is a good writer. I recall one being something like this lounge is about as bland as a 2 and a Half Men episode after Charlie Sheen left the show. Not to mention the references to Hello Kitty, Taylor Swift, One Direction, Housewives show, etc...

He's successful because of his documentation of aspirational travel and giving the methodology of obtaining that travel. A small part of that success might have been from being at the right place at the right time. Around 2009 the travel industry was suffering because of the economy and you could find several amazing promotions to "hack". While many bloggers were writing about credit card churning Ben had the go to blog to see what you could do with those miles/points.

The RS article and other recent media attention shows this posh jetset lifestyle but his writing style is more aviation nerd/13 year old girl. I would have a hard time believing a majority of his readers connect with that personality. They probably find it unique and amusing and like the aspiration trip reports or are there because they want to figure out how to travel on the cheap.

I guess we have all could have different opinions on what we consider good writing.

littlewinglet

He's successful because he's a minor celebrity among people who have no life of their own, like many trashy Hollywood celebrities who have followings as well, but produce nothing of value.

These days I can find trip reports galore on FT and elsewhere and don't need to be told a dozen times what champagne is served by which airline. I want an actual travel blogger who goes to places and also reviews the destination.

justforfun

^

cruisr

Nailed it.
Good writer? Sure, if you like stream of consciousness. None of his descriptions of hotels, first class cabins, lounges have any word "magic". It's more like, "Hey guys, I drank more Krug and it wasn't chilled enough."

cruisr

I can tell you for a fact that last January there were no chauffeurs for F awards that were issued by Alaska. I had an F award and was told No chauffeur. Others were also told the same. Of course there are many who even on a Free award ticket, when they are told no, make a fuss. I have not read the report and will not read it but if she claims to have used Alaska miles for F and got the chauffeur then I would like to know how that happened. Don't know what happens if your F seat is from any other mileage program,

cruisr

Stop the Madness!

84fiero

And if you don't mind overuse (often multiple times in the same post) of phrases such as "in other words" or "not surprisingly"; hit-or-miss attention to word tense and correct plural/singular pronoun usage; choppy paragraphs

Generally OMAAT posts have way too many "I" sentences - even for trip reports. I would say most of the trip reports are rather clinical in their descriptions. As you noted there isn't any "magic" that would draw the reader in if they weren't already interested in the subject...no painting a mental picture with words.

OMAAT trip report pics are usually pretty good as far as showing rooms, cabins, and details within. I guess that is his crutch for a lack of really creative, engaging writing. Sometimes photographs are better or more useful, but not always.

As for the thinly-veiled CC-pimping articles, they're pretty formulaic and predictable, just as they are with other such blogs.

OMAAT writing is better than VFTW or DeltaPoints, I'll say that. However those aren't very high bars. (VFTW would probably be fine with a few minutes of proofreading each post.)

josephstern

I would actually give Ben much higher marks than Gary, for instance, for simple proofreading. I don't find very many errors in his posts. In Gary's, even the headlines have mistakes all the time. He's banging them out so fast he doesn't even go back for a quick check.

Astrophsx

Bottom Line

At least he doesn't use too many click bait titles.

Non-NonRev

Talk about mileage varying:

Astrophsx

Now lets see a photo of you

work2fly

Gary's a Thought Leader, not a proof reader

thtsapaddlin

Every time Ben uses the word "whereby," a puppy dies.

Tracer_SEA

Even with the revelation that bounties for some credit cards are in the three digits, I don't buy for a second that his blog's ad plus bounty revenues hit seven digits in a year, nor that his net after expenses was seven digits

Comfortable and impressive six figures for both? Maybe.