84fiero

He and Gary really fancy themselves expert airline CEOs.

bthotugigem05

OMAAT exists because Ben and his team work incredibly hard. You do not make "a name" for yourself with one viral event (whether that event is positive or negative). Staying relevant and popular for as long as the titan blogs have takes a freaking ton of work.

Adam1222

OMAAT isn't where it is because of Ben's "team", really, since he built his name and image when he had no team.
His fraudulent behavior was not "one viral event," so I think you may just not understand what people are referring to.
And yes, jobs take work. He has "worked" very hard by staying awake on his first class flights, etc.. Also contributing factors to Ben's success: Florida's lack of income tax, lax enforcement of federal income tax laws, and credit card sales.

But this is neither here nor there in a thread about The Points Guy Inc., which is a different model. I'd argue TPG tries to sell the notion that "You, Bobby Sue, Jim Bob, and your 7 kids can travel the world for free if you just follow our seven simple tips (and 8 affiliate links)", where Ben's model has become more and more "look at my life as a luxury travel fantasy."

A lot of the writers for TPG have less travel experience than I did in college, but it isn't hard to use google to write a story.

oliver2002

Ben/Lucky must have given his team a month off. Except for 5-6 entries by Steph, one by Andrew and one guest post by Nomadic Matt, all blog posts this month show to be posted by 'Ben (Lucky)'.

skywardhunter

James left and everyone else sucks, so... Tiffany will probably post about some frequent traveler university thing again, her primary spiel, Spencer seems to have disappeared after 4 posts about American credit cards..

AbuCordoba

I am new to this thread but I do read OMAAT have seen the last few posts, am I missing something? what has Ben (Lucky) done.

sbm12

He defrauded United Airlines a while back by reusing travel vouchers repeatedly. Significant sums of free travel were involved.

There are also some ethical questions around the acquisition of many of the travel vouchers thanks to ordering a special meal for a flight that RONs outside a hub, knowing that the special meal could not be catered and then calling in to complain about that to secure a voucher.

But that's way better than the guy I know who used to take a ballpoint pen and jab it into the headphone jack to break it before complaining that it didn't work so he could secure a voucher. At least the special meals game didn't screw others over so much.

GUWonder

Is that vandal a miles and points blogger? I remember hearing a guy joke -- or so I hope it was a joke and nothing more -- about taking a rodent to release in a hotel room to photograph and then use that to ask for the hotel to provide compensation/refund. This was back in the day when it would be physical film in cameras that would need development (if it weren't like an instant Polaroid or like that), and I don't think he ever did that. But even then I knew not to be surprised about the possibility for scummy behavior from even supposedly reputable parties seeking to maximize their own position, and I figured that maturity may not mean the same thing for everyone.

char777

Not all of them...I was a little disapointed to see some FlightGlobal writers such as Edward Russell jump over to the dark side. He's been a really good trade reporter when it comes to UA and other insider airline news.

GK8

I'd be embarrassed wearing that.

Randy Petersen

Actually, not to confuse fallacy with facts, Lucky made a name for himself by being a very helpful member of FlyerTalk who gave a lot to the continuing formation of this travel community. His "name" and helpful demeanor subsequently earned him an election to the TalkBoard of FlyerTalk (by it's members) and he was helpful and instrumental as were others in helping forge and direct the continued success and valuable nature of what FlyerTalk is today—that is how he made a name for himself. He subsequently found it easier (as has others) to use a blog as an instrument to help others with advice and information than the (at times) signal/noise ratio challenges of a long thread in a bulletin board format.

Now you know some of the facts which I hope you find helpful. I can assure you that there's not too many long term members here on FlyerTalk that haven't some sort of indiscretion in their past as they grew up around the topic of miles + points and that includes regular members, moderators and the fabulous volunteers all over this community.

With this information solely designed to correct some information which was off topic—it seems like a great time to return to The Points Guy dialogue—now, where were you?

SanDiego1K

It's always a treat to have you drop by, Randy. Thank you for continuing to care.

ctownflyer

Well said! Nice to see you're still lurking.

lapointsguy

Randy Petersen is a 100% class act. It’s a shame that others now spending hours of their lives writing diatribes to him on the platform he personally built aren’t anywhere near the same.

Adam1222

As the owner of Boarding Area, Randy's defense of a Boarding Area blogger should include a disclosure. Indeed, Randy's website uses OMAAT as an example of a site he will sell you an ad on https://frequentflyerservices.com/advertising/

My response to Randy's post last night:
While this is a nice story, the question is always made a name amongst who?
Brian Kelly made a name for himself while doing recruiting for a finance firm, technically. He also made a name for himself and continues to do so by lending his imprint to conflicted credit card marketing in the guise of expertise rattled off by trained monkeys (with families!)
Ben may have made a name for himself in the erstwhile House of Miles by the way you discuss, but that wasn't what got him a story in Rolling Stone or has allowed the monetization of his site (on your platform).
And while the diatribe that we're offtopic i and stories of days of yore is always appreciated, this discussion had been moved to the right thread more than a week ago and you are the one resuscitating it. It's a shame others are applauding your bad behavior.

Where Flyertalk is today? You mean filled with people who were misled by posts on sites you are responsible that promise them easy free travel, leading them to take out credit, collect points, and then come here when they find it's not as easy as mammaandpappapoints suggested. If you want free help in figuring it out of course, few of the bloggers who get rich off of John Smith by selling him the latest subpar Chase product will do so. Instead those folks will come here to the members of the forum who aren't making a living off of selling false dreams. And they won't stick around a week after a post for a response to correct a "fallacy."

I am not sure what you "continue to care" other than your own reputation, because you continue to be, at least, complicit in the daily deception of consumers at the behest of credit card sales providers or travel providers.

Some indiscretion? I have never stolen from an airline. I have never committed fraud-- certainly not in the tens of thousands of dollars. And if I had, and been caught, I would be deeply deeply shamed. Most users of this website, including the volunteers you are essentially libeling by association, have not been banned from an airline or it's frequent flyer program. To refer to fraud on that level as an "indiscretion" suggests a flawed morality

So that's where we were, Mr. Petersen.