Now, THAT would be a great idea, since we would be building something, other than a review 🙂

I am sensing you will not be contributing to this Kickstarter?

You should start a kickstarter to build a First Class Carton box 🙂

You make some excellent points and I thank you for taking the time to comment!

I stated that I think it was a brilliant move which definitely fits in with his brand. I think some of the wording he chose “I know it is ridiculous guys and it is not going to happen blah blah blah)” turned lots of people off, including me! Innovative? Yes of course. I am not sure what happens if it gets up to $30k. I think Kickstarter stops it when it reaches the goal…but I could be wrong.

And shortly after that we get a Q&A on them Chase cards. Because, you know, we have not them fed to us earlier 🙂

I have no doubt he will do it. I will read the review. But I will not donate. I prefer to donate to Drew’s site to help change a life of a child.

Sure, I could afford to buy my own groceries, but why should I? I can sit on Times Square on my carton box, and let people give me money. More power to me.

Emotionally charged? Nah.

I’m commenting now because I am having a hard time identifying the reason why people are now so emotionally charged about Lucky’s Kickstarter campaign to sample the Etihad Residences. During this past week there seems to have been a discontinuous step up in the enmity toward Lucky, and not just from the heretofore unknown AA spokesperson, but from several other corners as well. Given that:

(1) Lucky has been flying around the world in upper classes of various airlines for the past 5+ years and has built a reputation and a hugely successful blog with a vast readership doing this. Lucky is a brand as much as he is a person.

(2) The Gulf States have been in a continuous battle to try to outdo each other in order to attract the monied elite. There are now luxury hotels, ostentatious residences, high-end shopping, and the world’s tallest building where 20 years ago there was sand. In 8 years there will be a World Cup being competed in one of the States. On the airline side, there are now gleaming new terminals, one with an entire floor devoted to upper-class travelers, and lots of A380’s. The development of the Etihad Residences is only a small salvo in this larger battle.

Therefore, given the existence of the Etihad Residences, it’s logical for Lucky to try to actually fly them as a way of growing his brand. Anyone in the business of attracting eyeballs to their blog knows that doing something like a seemingly outrageous Kickstarter campaign that generates publicity is great for their business. (And I don’t see this as really anything too outrageous or ridiculous, as some are calling it.) I would hazard a guess that there are several blog owners who wished that they had thought of and implemented this first.

Lucky, I am presuming, usually funds his travel by using revenue from the blog ads, his award-booking business, and credit card referrals to either generate points or pay airlines/hotels outright. Isn’t the Kickstarter actually more open and transparent than usual? Sure, he could afford to pay out of pocket, but why should he when people are willing to give him money? It’s not like the people donating don’t know what they are funding. Presumably anyone who funds the campaign can afford it. Indeed, those people think enough of Lucky’s product that they are willing to provide what amounts to a voluntary subscription fee. And in the end we all benefit, because regardless of how unobjective the review will end up being (especially now that Etihad have acknowledged they are aware of the Kickstarter campaign), I bet the majority of people here, including me, will end up reading it anyway.

Another point is that Lucky is well attuned to the reputation that he has built. I think it will be interesting to see how Lucky handles the case where he gets more than what he needs to fund his trip. Let’s say the Kickstarter campaign ends up generating $30K. Does he donate the overage to charity? Does he reinvest the excess revenue into his business? Can he return a pro-rated amount to his backers? How does he handle that situation?

Anyway, apologies for the long, stream-of-conscience comment, but I don’t really find the existence of the Etihad suites, nor Lucky’s subsequent response, too surprising in retrospect. I admire Lucky for his business acumen. In this era where most blogs say largely the same thing (a frequent lament here at TBB), at the very least Lucky endeavors to distinguish himself by attempting to give his readers something different and unique to read about. More power to him.

+1 million

When did things devolve from pointing out bloggers who put their interests first (i.e. clicks ahead of best offers) to saying that a person slaves her daughter because she puts pictures of her kid on a blog that is about family travel with miles and points? She puts pictures of her kid with grandma, or disneyland, or ski trips. So what? Again it is a miles and points blog about family travel. It is not like she is doing an Emily with her. It is stupid comments like this that make me think Rick is right sometimes.

Maybe it is misogyny, maybe it is not. I don’t know. I know we live in a male dominated culture and I know the internet makes it easy to put people down. Take the two of those together and I have no doubt any internet community will be hostile towards women. Is it misogyny or just people being insensitive and not thinking about what they say? I hope it is just the later. I would like to think in real life members of this community, or any community, don’t hate women. I certainly don’t think P’s comment above means he hates women. I think it was just something said without necessarily thinking of what it actually means.