gpapadop

Reader alerted me to the hilarious posts in the latest mega click bait article about the "trick routings" on how to use AA miiles to Asia...

This is entertaining or what while Gary goes kaching

this blog is looking like frugal travel guy two.

At this point, even Elliott is better

..... it I’m Out

After many years….I’m moving on as well.

The only way to punish these crap posts are to not use his credit card links…

Oh and as a P.S. We all know you are a narcissistic as* but calling yourself a “thought leader” is over the top even for you.

Bait-N-Click again.

The quality of the content on this blog has really declined recently, and this post is perfect evidence of that. The content of the post is completely recycled, and the title is misleading. Even worse are the insulting clickbait headlines. You proclaim to be the thought leader in travel, but you insult our intelligence with the clickbait headlines and zero-content posts.

this has got to be the most useless post I’ve ever seen on boardingarea, and that’s saying something!

Apparently the trick was getting us to click through…

To be in true compliance with FT rules because I don't want a moderator to ever ban me again, here is the original post.
http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....o-get-to-asia/

To the commenters: "It's all about conversions"

I keep a tab with reviews of blogs. This one has bit the dust some time ago and it is truly sad. The money is in the newbie eyeballs, look at all the popular commercial blogs, that's who they are after. Move on. I must admit the comments were very entertaining lol

skunker

My favorite one:
I will just add your url to my ....... filter from now.

But this one is just mean:
At this point, even Elliott is better

84fiero

The only worse insult would be that Delta Points is better!

lwildernorva

And he's getting almost no support. The non-critical comments are generally questions about the post itself, not fanboys coming to GTL's defense. At OMaaT, about 50% of the posts by this time would be from folks telling other commenters to leave "their" Ben alone.

kokonutz

Well, he wanted 'reader engagement'. Seems like he's getting it.

CMK10

I found Gary's hot dog article today to be barely coherent and rambling. I'm not sure what point he's making or why he's even writing about it:

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....-the-tourists/

lwildernorva

It's his libertarian streak trying to break through. Government shouldn't regulate, even if the abuses are dire. So it must be the consumer's fault. Although it's possible some of the gullible customers were folks who have heard that everything's more expensive in New York. And aren't HUCA folks--they just pay what they're told to pay. Maybe they can be criticized for that a bit, but really do you want to be in line behind the guy at Target who decides to take that logic to its extreme?

Speaking of logic, I think there are places Gary's logic goes that I don't think he really wants to go, but since his blog is about travel/points/miles and not life in general, I suspect he hasn't even figured out the logical consequences of blaming the victim.

As I've said before, if it fits his narrative about the world, he's willing to publish about it--although occasionally, like his almost obsequious post about Delta on Sunday, he realizes he needs to backtrack or otherwise look like the guy with the tin foil hat.

ScottC

That's the nice thing about owning your own blog - you can write whatever you want. Normally, you only need to worry about people complaining in your comments section about your posts, and not an entire forum on a competing travel board.

oliver2002

A little bit of controversy is always a nice click and comment bait

kokonutz

You're welcome! ^
I don't mind his politics even though they reflect a pro-business Koch-ian view of the world. I just wish his politics were a little more consistently applied. He is very pro-Uber's dynamic pricing because free markets are good and in free markets price is set by demand, ideally in real time. But he is very anti-Delta's dynamic pricing of award tickets because...well, because he doesn't want dynamic pricing of award tickets. Bad for him and bad for his award booking business. But apparently hot dogs are more like Uber than they are like Delta award tickets.

Then again, we all tend to let our personal cupidity trump our political philosophy. Human nature.

oliver2002

How come you attributing a quote by lwildernorva to me? I mean I'm all for dynamic HT and quoting, but not in this case

kokonutz

Still learning how to multi-quote!

(fixed it)

84fiero

Nah, there's no such thing as bad publicity! And I'm sure the Thought Leader on Travel wants as many people as possible to be following his thoughts - such that they are.

We are indeed inconsistent creatures. I didn't quite get all the hubbub over Hot Dog Gate, why it was worth a post on VFTW. I guess it was a slow news day.

Should we have the next FTU include a remedial multi-quote skills session?

lwildernorva

Un-freaking-believable:

"The only thing a military fighter jet is equipped to do in this circumstance is shoot down the plane. None of the coverage points out that these fighter jets could only have been used to kill everybody onboard."

In his adult lifetime, Gary should certainly have been aware of the unfortunate circumstances in 1999 surrounding the death of the golfer Payne Stewart and five others who were in a Learjet that suffered a likely sudden depressurization, probably almost instantly killing everyone onboard and leaving the plane flying until it finally ran out of fuel and crashed. During the remaining time the flight continued after the pilots were incapacitated, the Learjet was intercepted by several different fighter jets, with at least one remaining as an escort until the plane crashed in a rural area in South Dakota. I remember hearing about this event as it was unfolding with several updates on ESPN Radio since Stewart had just won the US Open several months before.

Although the US military denied there was ever a plan to shoot down the jet if there was a threat a crash could occur in a populated area, the actions of the pilots of the fighter jets demonstrate that there wasn't only one alternative in this situation. Fortunately, a commenter to the GTL has already mentioned that. Even discounting the military's denial, I doubt seriously that the US military was prepared to shoot down a plane "in the past in situations where passengers fought over reclining a seat in economy."

As I've said before Gary, please stick to pimping credit cards and miles because heaven knows, you're just lost when it comes to real issues in the world of air transport.

oliver2002

As said before this is just another form of click and comment bait