MileLion Year 4: Reflections

Back in 2018, I made the decision to go full time on The MileLion. Till today, I’m not quite sure what possessed me to do it. For someone who might best be described as “pathologically conservative” (both politically and in terms of ice cream choices), blogging for a living wasn’t exactly where I saw myself ending up.

But with every year that passes, I’m more and more convinced it was the right decision to make. 2022 marked the fourth year of full-time MileLioning (and the website’s 7th anniversary), and I feel just as excited to wake up every morning and get to work as I did at the start. In an age where quiet quitting is all the rage, that surely can’t be taken for granted. 

So, on the eve of CNY, it’s time once again for my annual reflections for 2022 (you can find 2019, 2020 and 2021’s linked here).

2022 year in review

While 2022 started with some trepidation due to the Omicron scare, it turned out to be a charmed year for travel. By the time Christmas rolled round, most people were flying like it was 2019, and even long-time holdouts like Japan, New Zealand, and Taiwan finally got with the programme and reconnected with the world. 

This meant a bumper year for The MileLion, as the site powered to 12.7 million annual pageviews. 

That’s staggering for me, considering the website was launched on an intra-office email thread of maybe one dozen people. I know little to nothing about SEO, servers, web design, or the thousand other things you’re supposed to do to run a successful website, so this serves as a constant reminder that every click, every page view, every dollar of revenue is not the result of my own efforts, but graciously provided by God.

Thanks to the lifting of border restrictions, 2022 was also a bumper year for trip reports. I managed to complete a whopping 13 this year, with reviews of 13 cabin products, 16 hotels, and 23 airline lounges. In fact, I’ve written 17 post-COVID trip reports, more than the entire volume produced pre-COVID!

Oh, these were fun indeed. I was among the first to visit New Zealand, Taiwan and Japan, to bid farewell to Thailand’s tedious Test and Go programme, to spend a whole day at the newly-opened The Private Room. There was even time for a good old fashioned mistake fare to Bahrain.

I do suspect I’ll be slowing down a bit in 2023, though. It’s partly because I’m one year older, and I feel less physically capable of doing crazy multi-city itineraries where I change hotels every night and review every lounge in the airport (I can’t tell you how tired I was by the end of my 17 hours in San Francisco report).

More importantly, however, it’s because travel by and large has returned to normal. 2021 and 2022 were special times in human history, when you needed an instruction manual just to board a flight. Now there’s no pre-departure testing (well, unless you’re going to India), no more pesky forms to fill, no contact tracing apps to install, no isolation on arrival. When I visited South Korea in November 2021, the trip was justified because the byzantine regulations and cumbersome arrivals process really warranted writing about. Now? Maybe for a holiday, but certainly not from a content-generation perspective.

This means that in 2023, the focus of trip reports won’t be so much on post-COVID rules and regulations (what rules and regulations?), but rather on exploring new lounges, hotels and cabin products. This year, I’m planning to review:

• Emirates A380 First Class (shower videos exclusively for OnlyFans subscribers)
• Emirates B777-300ER New First Class (booked before the insane no-notice devaluation they pulled earlier this month)
• KLM B777-300ER Business Class (a cheap Business Class fare on the fifth freedom flight to Bali)
• Qatar Airways A350-900 Business Class (finally, QSuites!)
• Qatar Airways B787-9 Business Class (a unique cabin product created specially for this aircraft)
• Qatar Airways Al Mourjan North Business Lounge in the newly opened Orchard section of Doha Airport (which Singapore, like, totally stole from Qatar)
• Singapore Airlines B737-800NG Business Class (yes, I’m probably the only person in the world who would actively redeem this)
• JW Marriott Maldives Resort (full disclosure, hosted invite)
• Conrad Osaka (and perhaps the Hilton Tokyo, if I find it noteworthy enough)

More on this in an upcoming post. 

Since the day I started The MileLion, one principle has been sacrosanct: providing impartial, objective analysis of all things miles and points related. 

To that end, I regularly turn down sponsored posts, hosted stays or other collaboration requests because there’s nothing here I’d personally find exciting as a miles chaser. And if I see a bad product, I’m going to speak my mind on it. There are companies which hate that, and there are others which accept or even encourage it. 

While it won’t silence all the critics, I’ll simply state the facts:

• Of the 742 posts written in 2022, nine were sponsored. Sponsored posts make up just over 5% of the site’s total income, and are always declared upfront
• Of the 16 hotels reviewed in 2022, only one was an invited stay (a further one was paid by HoteLux, though I had free choice of hotels, and the hotel was not involved in the review)
• All airline reviews were self-paid
• I do not maintain direct relationships with advertisers; all the ads you see on the website are handled by an intermediary agency

Ultimately, the key asset of this site is its reputation (you thought I was going to say “friendship”, didn’t you?). I’m in this for the long-haul, so it makes little sense to sacrifice it for short-term gain. 

Is it still fun?

One question I get asked a lot is whether I still get excited about travelling when it’s basically become a job. That depends. Some trips are more stressful than others, depending on what kind of content I’m planning to write. 

Take an airline review, for example. Since all my tickets are self-paid, each one of them represents an investment (whether in points or money) which needs to culminate in a high quality trip report to be worthwhile. If I screw up by not getting the right photos or the details I need, that’s resources down the drain. 

Therefore, I tend to get very anxious before boarding, since I know I have only one shot at getting unobstructed cabin photos at the start of the flight. This means being that annoying guy who hovers around the gate well in advance of boarding being called, and sprinting down the jet bridge as fast as possible knowing I have at best 30 seconds to take all the photos I need before other passengers show up and give me the side-eye for shutterbugging.

It means being perpetually switched on throughout the flight as I run through my mental checklist: the vintages on the wine list, the number of English-language movies, the brand of toiletries in the lavatory, the speed of the inflight Wi-Fi. How long did the crew take to start meal service after take-off? Are they pouring champagne seatside, or from the galley? Are they greeting passengers by name? 

It also means prioritising the review over all else, even what my body is telling me. I remember my Gulf Air flight to Bahrain. The flight was delayed by two hours, and only pushed back close to 11.30 p.m. I was exhausted by this point, and wanted nothing more than to sleep. But that would mean skipping the dinner service, and it wouldn’t be much of a review without that. So even though I wasn’t hungry, I forced myself to stay awake as the crew ploughed through a full two-hour service. 

Now, before AsiaOne cooks up some BLOGGER COMPLAINS ABOUT HAVING TO FLY BUSINESS CLASS story, I should emphasise that these aren’t gripes. This is part and parcel of the job, and a dream job it is by any measure. I just wanted to give an idea of the behind-the-scenes work that goes on; it’s not just about boarding and getting drunk straight away. 

So, short answer: yes, it’s still fun. I wouldn’t be doing it if it weren’t. But it’s not always what the glossy Instagram fairy lights photos suggest. 

Can your experience be considered “typical?”

This is a tricky question to deal with, but important to address nonetheless. 

I’ve seen people questioning whether my flight and hotel experiences can be considered “typical”, because it’s inevitable that as readership grows, someone might recognise me and provide a level of service or perks that others may not receive.

The honest answer is I don’t know. 

I do my best to fly under the radar, but some of the things I do in the course of the job, like snapping photos of everything, will invariably draw attention. And sometimes, that attention can be downright awkward. I had a hotel stay where it was very clear what was going on. Every time I walked through the lobby, sat down at the lounge, or went to the restaurant, someone from the management team would introduce themselves, give me their card and ask for feedback. They obviously didn’t have any bad intentions, but it was incredibly stressful because I felt like I was being watched all the time.

On the other hand, it’s also clear that some places are completely clueless. I’ve had very bad stays or flights where, after the review was published, someone from the PR team would reach out saying “oh I wish you had let us know you were coming.” That’s…kind of the point. 

Most of the times, it’s just hard to tell. If I get an upgraded room, is it by virtue of my elite status, or because someone at corporate put a note in my reservation? If a staff member goes the extra mile, is he/she just an all-round superstar, or am I getting special treatment?

I hate to think that every good review I write is tainted in someone’s mind because they think “well, he only got that because of who he is”, and I especially hate it when I post a good review and someone says in the comments “my experience was bad and because it’s inconceivable that a hotel can have good days and bad days, you must have been paid to say that”.

But frankly, there’s not a lot I can do about it, short of wearing a wig and booking reservations under a fake name (or getting super ripped because who would believe it was The MileLion then?). 

What I can do is pay my own way and report things as I see them, and regular readers will know that I never shy away from it, not even on hosted stays (I’m sure some hotels have regretted inviting me). 

Internet rage

At the risk of a “water: wet” headline, it needs to be said that the internet is getting angrier and angrier. Or, as the great warrior poet Mike Tyson put it: “social media made y’all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it.”

I realise it’s a by-product of the website getting bigger, but over the past year I have noticed an increase in the number of toxic comments aimed my way, either in the comments or via email.

Some of these are no big deal. From the early days I’ve been used to receiving a regular stream of “bloggers ruin everything” hate mail, basically accusing me of violating the “sanctity of the miles program” (actual quote) by doing what I do.

It’s gotten to the point where I chuckle a little every time I get one of these. Like, what’s the sender expecting to happen? That I’ll turn off the servers tomorrow and say “due to an anonymous message, I’ve decided to shut down The MileLion for good?”

I mean, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I have no intention to stop sharing hacks, tricks and loopholes to help people travel better for less. It’s kind of what we do here, and if you don’t like that, you’re not going to have a very enjoyable time on this site. 

The ones that are more difficult to deal with are those which allege dishonesty or some sort of maleficence on my part. Like the guy who complained that I “scammed” him into applying for an AMEX True Cashback Card because it could no longer be used to get cashback on CPF top-ups (never mind he earned free vouchers in the process, or that the article was updated the moment it was nerfed!). Or the meltdown this dude had because he thought a promotion was targeted when it really wasn’t. There are, unfortunately, more examples of these, but I’m not about to waste my time searching through the comments to find them.

I do, however, want to talk about one particular incident that got me thinking. 

Back in November, I published an updated offer for the AMEX HighFlyer Card. I really didn’t think there was much to it. Yes, the sign-up bonus had been scaled back, but that was always inevitable given how generous the previous offers had been. There was still the option of a first-year fee waiver, it still earned miles on GrabPay top-ups, and you still got two lounge visits plus an Accor Plus membership with a free hotel night thrown in- surely that’s a good deal?

Well, not in the opinion of one commenter, who went on a rant about how this was a rubbish deal, how I was getting referrals “at the expense of my readers” (ironic, since I’ve taken lower pay-outs on cards in the past just so the offer for readers could be higher), and questioning my honesty in writing about this. That’s…a lot to take in. 

Now, my default response to trolls is to either ignore them, or attempt de-escalation: explain the facts, wish them well, and offer to meet up to chat over a drink if they’d like. That may sound strange to some, but I really don’t see the harm. I don’t think there’s any particular danger in doing so, not in Singapore, not if we meet in a public place outside. Besides, my years of military service have dramatically honed my ability to curl up into a little ball until they stop kicking you.

Sadly, it didn’t help. Instead, it just seemed to infuriate him further, as he accused me of pretending to be the bigger man yet deleting his comments at the same time (which was very confusing, since they were all appearing nonetheless) and generally getting nastier and nastier.

I was rather dumbstruck by all the vitriol a seemingly innocuous post could generate, and even got a bit tetchy with The MileLioness when she interrupted me while I was composing a response. Then I thought: this is beyond silly. Here I am, thousands of miles away on vacation with my wife, getting annoyed by someone hiding behind a keyboard. 

When situations like these arise, I can tell you the temptation to send an equally nasty reply is strong. I mean, they started it, right? And if you let that sort of thing go unchecked, won’t people assume it’s true?

But this overlooks two things. First, that arguing on the internet is dumb. Second, that arguing on the internet rarely produces the kind of fruit befitting a transformed life.

In a way, it’s a litmus test for me. 1 Peter 3:9 makes it very clear what God’s expectation is: “Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing.” 

So the question is this: am I willing to obey what God says, even when every instinct I have wants to do the opposite? Or do I only pay lip service to the idea? And if you think that’s hard, chew on this: not retaliating is just the tip of the iceberg; the call is to go beyond ignoring the insults to actively loving and forgiving!

That’s a huge ask, but I think back to the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. At the end of the day, these slights or insults are trivial compared to the slights and insults I’ve committed against God. If I’ve been forgiven all that, how can I not then show the same forgiveness for much, much smaller things?

It’s not easy, but if I wanted an easy life, I probably chose the wrong religion. That’s why the “let’s have a drink” offer always stands (though, curiously, no one’s taken it up so far). 

Still, dealing with situations like this has raised a conundrum I’m not quite sure how to deal with. On the one hand, I think comment moderation (beyond naughty words) can be a slippery slope. On the other, I don’t believe I’m obligated to provide a platform for anonymous individuals to post toxic comments.

Over the past year, I did consider several options, like requiring all comments to be manually approved, or requiring a Facebook sign in to comment. However, my conclusion was that the added inconvenience would penalise everyone, just for the sake of reigning in a few (who, if determined enough, would find a way to circumvent the measures anyway). 

It’s something I’ll need to think about more, but in any case, I’m convinced all the problems we have with online interactions stem from anonymity. If there were a real-name policy, the interweb would be like this.

As it is, it’s more often like this. 

“What’s in it for me?”

I sometimes get messages or see comments which say, in so many words, “you’re earning X per referral, you should be sharing some of that with me”. 

It’s disheartening to read, insofar as it means the sender doesn’t value what you’re doing. This isn’t Carousell, after all, where people post referral links with offers to split the bonus because at the end of the day they don’t add any value. 

Running The MileLion and its community is a big commitment on my part (not to mention the opportunity cost, since I’m doing this full-time). It takes time and money to research, write and publish the content here, whether it’s the various how-to guides for travelling to different countries, the sordid history of the messy divorce of Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines, or what a sexcation in Singapore looks like.

Referrals are what funds all of this, and more importantly, keeps the site free. If the articles have been useful (or at least given you a good laugh), then one free way of supporting their continued production would be to use the links when applying for products.

Ultimately we get the internet we’re willing to pay for, whether explicitly through subscriptions and paywalls, or implicitly through affiliate links. I’d much rather have the latter, quite frankly. 

Expanding to other areas?

From what I gather, there’s two main things that people would like to see on The MileLion. 

The first is video content. I’ve been told time and again that some people don’t like reading 2,000 word articles, and by making one-minute YouTube (or, god forbid, TikTok) clips I could reach a whole new audience. 

That may be so, but making video content is not as easy as it looks. There’s filming, storyboarding, editing, captioning, and other things I am woefully ill-equipped to do. I’ve heard it takes about 5-6 hours just to make one minute of video, and that’s a theory I’m not willing to test. 

What’s more, it takes a certain kind of personality to make video content. I’ve mentioned how uncomfortable I am even taking still photos in a cabin, so I doubt I’d be the type to walk up and down the aisles with a GoPro. Goodness me I don’t even know how to make an Instagram Story, so as much as I appreciate the ideas, I’ll leave the video for someone else. 

The second is cashback content. Now, contrary to popular belief, I don’t have some ideological opposition to cashback. I just think that miles make more sense for my current station in life. In fact, I do write about cashback cards now and then, but usually in the context of GrabPay top-ups, or only if there’s a drop dead sign-up offer you’d be silly not to take. 

More fundamentally, however, it boils down to interest. Cashback cards just don’t get me very excited, and I believe that would inevitably show in the final content. So it’s a pass for me. If you want cashback content, there are other bloggers out there much better equipped to provide it.

Funny emails I get

What would a reflections post be, without sharing some of the hilarious emails that end up in my inbox? 

First, the customary I-am-not-an-airline/bank/PCR test provider/hotel PSA.

Second, SME bosses out there, please don’t outsource such tasks to your PA if they’re just going to outsource them to me. 

Third, I can’t believe I have to repeat this year after year, but please, please do not send me your full credit card number.

And finally, at least you know I’m not cheating on my taxes. 

In summary

So that’s a wrap on year 4 of full-time MileLioning! I want to thank each and every one of you for your continued support of the site, and it’s been really fun meeting so many of you in real life: at the lounge, on the plane, while running through the terminal (sorry I didn’t have time to chat), at the Google Singapore canteen, on the tennis court via Rovo, even crossing the overhead bridge at Corro.

I love hearing all your stories, about the great trips and memories you’ve been able to make with family and friends thanks to miles, about the insane routings you’ve flown, about the stares you’ve gotten for geeking out over an airline seat. It lets me know I’m not the only weirdo out there.

I’m ever thankful for the support of my family (who are still at a loss to explain what exactly I do) and The MileLioness (who never complains when I ask her to siam the hotel room so I can get photos). Thanks also to the Telegram admins, who have thus far refrained from filing an MOM complaint about their shoddy working conditions and illusionary bonuses, and to Matthew for the story tips and sleuthing (someone once asked if we were “more than friends”, and I said “less, actually”). 

Here’s to a great 2023, with miles making merry memories.