B747-437B

No, it was more along the lines of he felt school was constraining him to mileage running only on weekends so he decided to withdraw. I remember seeing it in a blog post sometime last year I think?

cruisr

Sorry, that's an unhealthy obsession. He is not old enough, emotionally or chronologically to make that decision. Male teens decision making is not usually the best.

gpeso8

http://pointsfromthepacific.boarding...-miles-points/

Astrophsx

Nowadays people on the internet are so full of ****. They will never tell you the real story. There is a rapper named Bow Wow who took a photo of a private jet and then later was caught flying commercial the same day. I'm not sure what the laws are like in Australia, but I would gather this kid didn't just stop taking classes.

He write as if his parents have money. Maybe not rich, but wealthy. Enough to allow him to buy miles, fly, pay for food, etc... We live in an age where people under 25 want to quit their jobs, become YouTube famous, and get paid to be an influencer and be the envy of their peers. They get by with smoke and mirrors. I think we all know that Ben has been guilty of that. If that's the road the kid wants to lead we can only blame his parents and the people who sell him on this dream.

kokonutz

Dear God. That's one of the saddest, most pathetic things I've ever read.

SMH.

B747-437B

I think the comparisons with Ben are inevitable, but not necessarily accurate.

For all the "smoke and mirrors" surrounding Ben right now, he actually has a college degree and his primary income source is not his blog/media work but rather his "award booking" travel agency services. Certainly the business benefits from Ben's media visibility, but there is an actual business providing services which could theoretically continue to operate if Ben's media presence were to be scaled back.

I'm the last person to criticise a young adult for making unorthodox career choices, but this person neither comes across as an adult nor does his choice come across as a career. I wish him well and hope he doesn't regret this choice in a few years time when it may be too late.

84fiero

And female teen decision making isn't much better, as I've discovered with our daughter

It seems that Queensland law permits quitting school at age 16 or after completing Grade 10, but it seems that one has to continue with some sort of "educational" options outside of formal school until 17. Still seems pretty young.

http://www.lawstuff.org.au/qld_law/t...i-leave-school

He isn't very clear as to the exact timing or nature of his quitting school. I don't know, does having just your Grade 10 in Australia meet the minimum standards that most employers would want just for basic jobs, similar to a HS diploma or GED in the US?

Especially bits like:

(We really need a "vomit" emoji on FT.) I think this kid needs to get out more...and I don't mean reviewing more premium airline cabin flights.

Reading the above post, paints a different picture in my mind than some scrappy kid who worked his butt off to save for the Residence. He doesn't describe any sort of after-school job. The amount of airline travel he describes plus taking flying lessons, mean his parents had to have been funding most or all of this.

I forgot to quote Astrophsx above about so many in the younger crew ending up as posers because they see success as these internet-famous "influencers" and such, but it's spot on.

Astrophsx

Smoke and mirrors is more of a reference to social media influencers, but one could potentially apply it to Ben as he's allowed many media outlets to promote this idea that he travels for next to nothing or for free. It's smoke and mirrors. If you pay to live full time in a hotel in order to obtain points to travel on... that's not traveling for next to nothing. If you purchase miles instead of churning credit cards or obtain them through MS... that's not traveling next to nothing. Then you have the fact that his early career was supported by fraud and not so ethical decisions.

I also don't know if you really need a degree in order to do what Ben does. You might have to defend that argument. Seems like a lot of what he learned business wise might have come with a lot of mistakes and maybe getting mentored by others in the industry.

kokonutz

The whole thing, really. But especially that bit.

His hero is someone who whose goal was to live a traveling consultant lifestyle without any consulting.

He's a shell of a shell of a traveler.

And the worst part is that by the time his prefrontal cortex kicks in it will be too late.

Astrophsx

I would have said a new age credit card salesman. A lot nicer than working at a tiny kiosk in the mall though!

nlagalle

The issue I have with the kid is he isn't honest in his writings and it is evident.

See this post:

http://pointsfromthepacific.boarding...ntas-platinum/

he says he has had Platinum for a number of years. - he had it for 15 months..

he also claimed he received an email from Alan Joyce congratulating him on being the youngest platinum. I know many people who's younger kids were platinum before 15. I also saw the email and no way was it written by AJ or even his secretary - it was clearly a fake.

84fiero

Exaggerating won't do him much good in the long run, that's for sure. The lack of substance behind the facade will come out eventually.

The kid should have paid better attention in school. His grammar, format, and punctuation errors almost make Renes Points look good.

nlagalle

someone called him out on his story in the comments section.

http://pointsfromthepacific.boarding.../#comment-1643

84fiero

Looks like that post has now gone down the memory hole! I'm getting a page not found error.

sbm12

I'd be surprised if award bookings are more lucrative that CC referrals at this point.