How OMAAT seems to be evolving feels like how TPG evolved. How sad.
Quite the contrary. OMAAT seems to be encouraging MORE comments and community contributions, not eradicating them, like that other place which shall-not-be-named. *shivers*
Lee, I’ve received nothing yet; I frequent many of the other travel/card/aviation blogs (VFTW, LALF, FM, DoC, Cranky), and they have no incentives other than engaging with the community there. I’m just a freak who enjoys this stuff.
I hope that you reviewed the logs of all comments where an email was provided, the site has/had an annoying behaviour of logging itself out constantly so I never bothered to sign in.
Not sure how I feel about what looks like a paid version of flyertalk back in the good ol' days thoguh
We did fix the logged-in user issue a few weeks back. Once logged in, you should stay logged in for 14 days, which we're looking to expand to 30-days.
As for the paid option, everything is available without payment. The paid option is intended to allow readers who don't want to earn status the ability to purchase it for an ad-free experience. Hopefully you found earning Gold status pretty easy; it was designed to be accessible for everyone.
“We degraded the site and gave you the option to pay to make it not suck”
That’s you.
@Jeremy Did you go back through the posting logs for those that commented while not logged in. The numbers didn't look right to me
Hey @kiwi - users need to be logged in for the points to be tracked. We don't store the email address from guest comments alongside the comment, so I have no way to track this. Give your membership activity page a check, though, when you've got a chance.
I don't want any memberships free or paid. Just looking for quick scan on latest points items. Not interested in seat, lounge, hotel reviews. I can likely just go to viewfromawing and get the items I just want.
I like Gary, too, but what are you even talking about? A ‘quick scan on the latest points items.’ LOL. In many ways, Ben (and sites like DoC, FM) has better guides and formats for that to begin with. VFTW is great for industry gossip, fights on planes, long-form debate in the comments section. Also, it’s ‘View from the Wing’ (not a Wing.) Sheesh. Wait, were you doing a sarcasm? Ahh. Got me good. Randy. Diamond member. You…
Is there a glitch. Why does it say I have >2500 points for the 2026 status year but status expires Feb. 28 2027. Shouldn't it expire in 2028 if it works like the airlines do?
I do wonder if this is an example of enshitification — to even post a comment now you have to sign up for a mailing list! I’ve long appreciated Lucky’s dedication to quality content, and I understand it’s becoming a much harder market. Still, I’ve noticed the significant increase in ads that interfere with the function of the site. I hear that the ads here may be under the “industry standard” but the subjective experience (free market research) of readers is that it interferes too much. The tiers system, while creative, seems unnecessarily complex (and this is coming from a points nerd).
I almost wonder why he didn’t try something more along the lines of some Patreon system or a tip jar. I don’t doubt that Ben has thought thought through some of this, and I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, but honestly I’ve found the site less helpful than the old days, and it feels more and more like TPG.
TAKE IT BACK! How dare you compare this to those corporate-shills at TPG who gave up on any sense of Community when they disbanded their comments sections. OMAAT is a thousand suns better than TPG, any day, every day.
Maybe it’s better for now, but the slide starts somewhere. Glad you like the site but it’s clear that I’m not the only one who has this opinion
The ad crap has made the site unusable even with other technology.
OMAAT does not comply with state privacy laws in the United States. All the opt-out options are fake or broken. Wonder what the California AG will think. Tell us how you comply, Ben. You have always ignored these comments.
At least TPG is transparent about what it is doing.
Patreon? You must be kidding. Barely anyone makes sustainable money via Patreon these days.
I've made some adjustments to the post to clarify what the ability to buy points is and isn't. The (quick) feedback is helpful and appreciated. At the end of the day, if you are reading as a guest today and come back as a guest tomorrow, your experience will be the same.
It's easier to earn membership status and get fewer ads with no payment today than it was yesterday, if that's of interest to you. Gold status can be earned in about 30 seconds, and you'll instantly see fewer ads. If you want a more passive path, buying into a status tier is an option today, and it wasn't yesterday.
I hear the complaints about mobile ads, and I'm going to see what we can do to make that better across the board.
I was just writing a long, quality comment to provide some constructive feedback, but the page suddenly reloaded to display banner ads I had cleared, and my long comment disappeared with the reload.
Could you find a way to save comment drafts so I won't lose them when the page reloads?
I have an iPhone Air and don't have other Safari tabs or background apps. If it's happening to me, it's happening to a lot of people.
Ah, good flag. I'll work with the ad platform to see if we can just stop that behavior, but saving comments should also be doable - I just want to fix the unwanted behavior rather than patch an unintended experience.
Can you fix the sort issue? Oldest First vs Most Recent shows different replies. Very frustrating.
Travis Wismer - 100%. This is a caching problem. Will have this fixed this week (and give members the ability to set their default sort preference)
portmanteau - we suspended the partner that was causing the ad refreshes. Should be good moving forward. Thanks for reporting that one.
Any comment I create that is more than a single sentence I usually compose in a real WP program or app
You might consider that.
Especially helpful on VFTW since it doesn't support line breaks but does support paste
This site is useful but not that useful. Paid memberships? "Status", like this is an airline program? Fanboys defending the owner's every move and deflecting the slightest negative feedback? Talk about cult-like behavior. This site went up some people's heads. Thank you for the years of useful information but this is too much for me. I am out.
Are you illiterate? You don't have to pay to keep reading. The site stays the exact same if you don't do anything.
I only read OMAAT on a larger screen, and the ads are manageable there. I first thought the whole approach with points etc was overly complicated, but of course that is part of the fun: it is like an airline program. I suspect I will buy some points, more to support the website than anything else. In the age of AI, we need to support content creators with money; I pay for our local NPR station, for our local newspaper, for some other newspapers, for books I read, for Netflix, for music streaming. I'll pay for OMAAT. I read it daily.
The one functionality I would love (and would definitely pay for) is to be able to automatically blend out posts from certain people.
Maybe Ben can lay out the math but is he benefiting if we pay since there are less ads. My understanding is most of OMAAT revenue is ads revenue
I know in my heart that Ben loves each and every of his readers, but I suspect OMAAT would not be doing this if the math did not come out right for them. The point is to make OMAAT sustainable.
Simple advice Ben, please don't ruin it - you are starting to sound like AA removing IFE from all seats in narrow planes, just saying. If it ain't broken, don't fix it
Site optimization? with all these adds? You also sound like airlines when they cut benefits in awards and sell it like it's an improvement based on customers feedback
As a long time reader (12+ years) i dont like this. I almost had a headache reading the if this then that. Whats next redeem 2500 for wifi? Love you Ben but this is not the way.
I love that the blog finally upgrades and in the process hopefully solves all the small issues.
Having these Airline-like tiers and now the ability to buy points is a fun feature! Maybe you should bundle them with some wortless coupons as not to arouse the ire of the German regulators. 😉
Why is everyone complaining. A website has to evolve, it can’t just stay exactly as it is until we all die. Bravo to the team for trying new things.
The site is absolutely crippled right now. I have a decent laptop which deals with me having a zillion tabs open at once. Opening OMAAT now freezes everything up. I used to come to the site by default multiple times through the day. I do it out of force of habit still. The difference is - I now try and rapidly close the tab to escape the inevitable slowdown I'm about to experience. Making the experience so unbearable to get people to pay is pretty short sighted in my opinion. I've been a loyal reader for years, I doubt I ever would have if I opened the site and experienced what I do right now.
I've said before - I'll happily pay to remove ads. But please just make it a simple substack like monthly subscription. The system in this post is overly complicated. I don't actually know what to sign up for. Make it easy for me.
"I have a decent laptop which deals with me having a zillion tabs open at once"
I think you need to watch less pron.
The improvements don’t unfortunately include the services of an editor.
Thanks Jeremy for the shoutout, and I’m glad to hear that others will have the opportunity to post about their trips too. I’m hoping to make an update on my Capella Hanoi stay tomorrow (I don’t want to say too much right now I was suitably wowed) and also my VN domestic flight to SGN.
I'm not against the idea of paid status, but I do hope that people in violation of the community guidelines (especially when in comes to racism, sexism, homophobia or harassment) will be told that they can take their money elsewhere.
I'd like to think we're doing much better at moderating today than before we revamped membership, but please use the report button when you see something inappropriate, if you remember. The report option helps us get to issues quickly if something slips through the cracks.
Pop-up ads? Some people may prefer to pay $20 annually for Adblock software or use a different browser on their mobile device.
Yeah -- if there was a flat $20 fee/year I would gladly pay for the site. The complexity of the status levels is confusing. Also -- in order to pay for points, you're looking at over $200! Like sorry, I have loved this site and the content, but $200 for an ad-free experience is insane for the level of content. That's more than a New Yorker subscription annually.
Still annoyed that in order to "post" you have to opt in to email list.
I have to say I don't understand the status levels and the new top up thing at all. And what I have to do to make it work. The ads are crazy annoying but I guess that's just how it is now. It's also weird that I made a login and try to stay logged in but clearly am not, and why do I have to keep signing up for the emails? Which I also haven't received any of, also weird. Maybe I'm dumb.
If you want to send me an email, I can take a look at your account and why you might not be staying logged in. Once logged in, you shouldn't need to opt in to the emails. That feature is limited to guests posting. jeremy@onemileatatime.com.
There's an overview of each status tier below if you haven't seen it. It explains how you can earn points and what each status tier unlocks. The point earning is automatic. The top-off option is just an additional option to unlock status tiers by buying points, but it's very reasonable/feasible to earn status without buying anything at all. https://onemileatatime.com/omaat-community-rewards/
How long until the points are deposited into your account for setting up the newsletter and preferred Google source?
Google sources will show up within a minute. If you switch to the Membership tab after adding us as a source in Google, the points should appear in your activity log. Back in the notifications tab, you'll see a note that you've claimed the offer. The newsletter shouldn't take more than ~30 minutes from start to finish before it shows up in your account. Gold status hits as soon as those 2 items post. I added this information to the post, along with screenshots of the confirmation messages. Good question.
If you have any issues, let me know. If not, enjoy your Gold status!
Hey Jeremy, I did the daily newsletter a few hours ago but didn't seem to get the points. Can you please help or direct me to where to report it?
Hey Steve. You're all set. Your Gold status and point count should be visible in your account now.