When Matt took me on at Saverocity, he had one overriding message: write what you enjoy and write what you want. Normally I avoid writing about other blogs but I’ve been having too much fun so I thought I’d share.
People have lots of varying opinions about Ben, the founder of One Mile at a Time. It’s a blog I check the headlines for though I really don’t follow it much anymore. He seems like a nice enough guy but there is a fair amount of credit card schilling which has turned me off quite a bit. But it’d be disingenuous of me to truly flat out hate on his blog because his trip reports have helped me quite a bit in the past and still do.
Anyway, Ben hired a few writers to help supplement content, which I’m not sure has been a net add. Except to my amusement level.
Last Friday I was cleaning out my RSS reader when I found this gem of an article:
When an Airline Makes You Miss Their Own Check-in Time
One of Ben’s new writers, Daniel, essentially wrote about how he arrived at the airport an hour before his flight and found the lines to be so long that he was forced to cut the line. I think what really puts the article over the top is that he is acting like he HAD to cut the line to make his flight on time and everything was out of his control, when of course he should have just showed up earlier.
Anyway, as everyone knows, internet comments are very forgiving (not) and thus he got absolutely roasted. I found the comments pretty hilarious, though sometimes they are pretty mean; this is some kid who doesn’t know much better (he’s 19).
Fast forward to yesterday and Ben himself wrote a post:
And The “Hotel Check-in Line-Cutter of the Year Award goes to…”
Again, the comments are hilarious, including a lot of “Daniel?” comments.
At least at Saverocity if we write conflicting articles we are on different sites (like I am never posting on Matt’s site), but I find it funny that Ben can write an article about how line-cutters suck when someone wrote on his site two weeks ago about how he was justified in cutting the line. Clean it up, OMAAT!
And if you have a dumb sense of humor like me, leave the articles up and read the comments from time to time as you go about your day to keep yourself amused.
I had a really different experience when I came aboard Saverocity. The message was, “We gotta sell a lot of credit cards, let’s get it done or you’re gone.”
lol. guess by the time you guys let me in Matt had already given up on his titanic dreams
His blog serves a very distinct purpose. People complain that he never reviews the cities he visits but do we really want him to? His writing style reminds me a bit of a high schooler playing at sounding like an adult. I can see that he’s trying his best to sound like an even-handed professional but I also see that there’s a lot of life experience missing there.
Not hating on the guy. He has a comprehensive collection of premium cabin photos that are very helpful. I go there to see pictures whenever I’m planning trips. But I just don’t care for his writing. I don’t need to know the opinions of a socially awkward millennial discussing the minutiae of his conflicts with strangers. A lot of his posts create this false narrative of social injustice that’s designed to elicit confirmation bias in the comment section. Maybe it helps his self-esteem when people cheer him on. *shrug*
I don’t know. He’s making good money so mad respect to him for that but his blog personality just ain’t my style.
I don’t follow OMAAT much anymore either, but I couldn’t agree with you more. You’d think it’s satire rather than hypocrisy, but somehow I don’t think so.