One Mile at a Time [OMaaT] discussions [merged]
Mar 6, 2019, 3:35 am
#3616
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Economy, mostly :(
Programs: Skywards Gold
Posts: 7,801
Long winded is a bit of an understatement. He has a clear template which is SEO optimized, hence the Introduction, Summary, it's all very repetitive. What annoys me most is when he's following up on an earlier story, but then rehashes the entire earleir story and you need to go to paragraph 8 to get the two lines of new information.
Mar 6, 2019, 4:05 am
#3617
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 4,709
Agree, while the package may be "OK" for what the role is, it's far far below what he would have been earning based on experience/role type.
Mar 6, 2019, 4:12 am
#3618
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Programs: Airline Free Agent, Fairmont Lifetime Platinum, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Honors Diamond
Posts: 3,041
Mar 6, 2019, 4:48 am
#3620
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: London, United Kingdom
Programs: British Airways Gold
Posts: 2,636
He would have been on good money as a 30 something lawyer in London. He might have wanted to quit and go full time but OMAAT couldn't offer that and the Head for Points role may have been too much a step down financially. TPG have have been able to make a better financial offer and meet his desire to do it full time. I wouldn't automatically assume there is any bad blood.
Mar 6, 2019, 7:45 am
#3621
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Economy, mostly :(
Programs: Skywards Gold
Posts: 7,801
He would have been on good money as a 30 something lawyer in London. He might have wanted to quit and go full time but OMAAT couldn't offer that and the Head for Points role may have been too much a step down financially. TPG have have been able to make a better financial offer and meet his desire to do it full time. I wouldn't automatically assume there is any bad blood.
Mar 11, 2019, 9:35 am
#3625
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
Programs: LH SEN
Posts: 48,168
Once Marriott offers a super duper affiliate income for their credit card all bets are off and its back to praising the virtues...
Mar 12, 2019, 3:44 am
#3626
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Programs: Airline Free Agent, Fairmont Lifetime Platinum, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Honors Diamond
Posts: 3,041
Mar 12, 2019, 3:47 am
#3627
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
Programs: LH SEN
Posts: 48,168
This comment of Ben in the Bonvoy post is so weird it needs to be preserved here:
https://onemileatatime.com/marriott-...fluencer-trip/
This from a person who became a millionaire flogging credit cards.
Also:
@ Daniel — It’s a perfectly fair question, and I appreciate that you’re asking it, so let me give a bit of background.First of all let me say that I have editorial independence from credit card issuers. I have affiliate links in one form or another from all the major issuers. Not once have I been told “your coverage of this card isn’t fair, please take it down.” Quite to the contrary, they encourage editorial independence, and me writing about how I feel about these cards. Credit cards are one of the best ways to earn miles & points and get premium travel for pennies on the dollar, and I’ve been writing about cards long before I’ve had affiliate links.Furthermore, nowadays the major issuers have “refer a friend” links, so using that logic, doesn’t that mean we’re all sort of biased if we’re recommend credit cards, since we can all earn some sort of commission from some cards?What it comes down to for me is that first and foremost I report to you guys. We have a huge readership and I’ve been blogging for over 11 years. This isn’t a job, this is my passion. I know that the reason people read is because for the most part they find what I have to say interesting and trust me, or something.At the same time, we also all have to make money somehow. The place I draw the line is that I don’t in any way have financial relationships with hotels or airlines. My goal is to showcase how miles & points can be used for travel, and showcase that in an unbiased way. I actively go out of my way to avoid getting any kind of special treatment from airlines and hotels.Furthermore, I think credit card reviews are fundamentally more objective than an influencer reviewing a hotel or airline with special treatment. Look at my valuations of miles & points, and I think you’ll find that most of them are fair, or at least that I don’t have any obvious biases there, aside from my personal travel preferences (which, again, are self funded). I do think some other sites inflate the value of points to help them sell credit cards, but my valuations are much more conservative. So when I review a credit card, I’m sharing how I value the return on spending by the card, etc.Long story short, I don’t think there’s a single business out there where everyone definitively agrees that they’re unbiased and that there’s not some potential conflict of interest. However, I do my best to be as unbiased as possible, and the place I draw the line is that I want to do everything in my power to give unbiased airline and hotel reviews, and showcase how miles can be used for that. I could go on and on, but hopefully that at least somewhat answers your question.
This from a person who became a millionaire flogging credit cards.
Also:
@ JJJ — I appreciate the feedback. I always clearly disclose how I book my tickets. Sure, I sometimes pay for my tickets with cash, but I also redeem a lot of miles. And you’re right, I redeem a lot more miles than the average person. That’s because I largely buy them, and also because this is my job. I’ve never claimed that the average person can or should travel as much as I do — they’d have to quit their full time job — but rather I’ve claimed that most of the airlines I review and points hotels I stay at should be attainable for the “average” person using the credit credit cards with a bit of planning
Mar 12, 2019, 4:57 am
#3628
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: London
Programs: BA, VS, HH, IHG, MB, MR
Posts: 26,871
Ben makes a fair point though, which is that credit card rewards CAN be objectively valued which impacts the ability to skew coverage.
You can, of course, influence people in a particular direction by the volume of coverage you give one product over another but that is another issue.
Trust me from my own experience. Readers are not stupid and readers know a bad deal when they see one. I can pretty well predict what sort of traction an offer will get when I write about it. I also know that trying to promote stuff which I know is rubbish and, more importantly, that the readers will know is rubbish is pointless - you don't get any conversions anyway and the readers stop trusting you so you get a poorer response when the next genuinely good deal comes along.
If Ben gets the same approaches I get, you will also find that he has quietly had a hand in defining the benefits packages offered by certain cards. I have a meeting next week with a UK travel provider which wants my (unpaid) advice on what they should put into a new premium product - and the more attractive I can persuade them to make it, the more everyone benefits. Yes, I can sell more cards but readers will have a very attractive product to apply for.
You can, of course, influence people in a particular direction by the volume of coverage you give one product over another but that is another issue.
Trust me from my own experience. Readers are not stupid and readers know a bad deal when they see one. I can pretty well predict what sort of traction an offer will get when I write about it. I also know that trying to promote stuff which I know is rubbish and, more importantly, that the readers will know is rubbish is pointless - you don't get any conversions anyway and the readers stop trusting you so you get a poorer response when the next genuinely good deal comes along.
If Ben gets the same approaches I get, you will also find that he has quietly had a hand in defining the benefits packages offered by certain cards. I have a meeting next week with a UK travel provider which wants my (unpaid) advice on what they should put into a new premium product - and the more attractive I can persuade them to make it, the more everyone benefits. Yes, I can sell more cards but readers will have a very attractive product to apply for.
Mar 12, 2019, 6:59 am
#3630
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
Programs: LH SEN
Posts: 48,168
Ben makes a fair point though, which is that credit card rewards CAN be objectively valued which impacts the ability to skew coverage.
You can, of course, influence people in a particular direction by the volume of coverage you give one product over another but that is another issue.
You can, of course, influence people in a particular direction by the volume of coverage you give one product over another but that is another issue.
