We’ve got the party poppers out and popped at Economy Class and Beyond, as we celebrate our 10,000th published post.

What changes have I seen, and what changes have I made over that time?

From GhettoIFE to Economy Class and Beyond… and beyond…

For those history buffs, I picked up a Google Blogger site in 2008 and started bashing content into posts. At that point, I wanted to tell the Frequent Flyer story from the British point of view. At that time, coverage was thin and left to the life in forums such as FlyerTalk (especially the BMI forum) and the then-start-up Head For Points.

Who remembers this – the Original GhettoIFE? And what is GhettoIFE?

The Mustard Era. I really must have been eating odd things at that time to go Ryanair themed (via the Wayback Machine). Atlanta was… an interesting trip.

GhettoIFE’s last Blogger.com iteration. I went grey. My hair has since then. 

I was picked up by Boarding Area in October 2011, where we have been hosted since, as it has helped both grow the readership as well as the quality of it.

When Economy Class and Beyond joined BoardingArea as GhettoIFE.

In Mid-2014, I needed to pivot the blog, as my writing style changed and evolved, as well as what I was writing about, as my travels evolved from just the back of the aircraft to the cabins further towards the front.

Thus, Economy Class and Beyond was born.

 
Economy Class and Beyond as it was re-launched. We’ve kept the template, as it’s very much a “news” site. 

I continued writing the same sort of style until my biggest pivot, which was inspired by Mary Kirby of RunwayGirl Network, who convinced me to attend a trade show. That changed a lot of what we did.

In 2020, we all had to change our focus, which lasted for… too long.

Perhaps the biggest thing I’m starting to tease out over the last year is a more multimodal travel concept. That’s something I’m going to explore more of as the

The editorial style hasn’t shifted much – and I’m glad of it. I’ve always tried to skip the “Red Top” style headlines (be it passenger shenanigans, crew chaos and so forth). If you want that drama, look elsewhere. Sometimes, the hard sciences are that way for a reason – hard.

Speaking of writing…

Sticking to the five-part plan…

Honestly, there’s a plan. It might not seem like there is one, but there is…

Believe it or not, there is a plan to every post on this blog… normally:

• The Hook – The headline and the first line before an image
• The Image – Because images make people click things
• The Body – The meat of the article
• The Quotes – Let the PR people have their say
• The Commentary – Let your writer say what’s on their mind

It’s a style I adopted some years ago, and it helps to give structure. Sometimes, structure works very well on press reports. Even the trip reports have some structure to them.

Otherwise, it’s a throw-up of my thoughts. And that doesn’t look pretty for anyone. That’s why I have Google Docs…

Being Dyslexic still sucks. Tools help… Except when they don’t

Speaking of throwing up my thoughts, mistakes happen when I write. Sometimes grammatical, sometimes structural. Y’all used to them. I’m grateful for that, because some days, things. Your gentle prodding and comedy help me through this, as well as the corrections.

Heck, if there’s not one mistake in a headline a week, I’m doing something wrong.

In the distant past, I used to use the basic Windows/Mac Spell Check, and if I had time, I would round-trip it through Word. It was cumbersome, and to be honest, I gave up doing it as it was painful.

Editing a post in Word is not my idea of fun. The amount of free creappy HTML you get is… annoying.

In recent times, I’ve relied on Grammarly to help with that battle, and it’s worked well – but it always seems to skip over the headlines.

My ever-present nemesis. 

The more things change, as they say.

The Resistance to Large Language and Generative Models (or AI)

I will not make any deals with AI. I will not be stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered! Portmeirion, home of The Village from The Prisoner

Maybe I’m old at this point, but I’m not a heavy user of AI tools (be they generative, question and answer or Large Language Models).  Putting my creator’s hat on (which is one I hang onto as a photographer), the AI slope needs to be pulled in, especially to AI Overviews, which are great for searching, but awful for creator traffic.

And yes, I can see an underlying bubble of traffic in that.

Whilst they can be good tools, they don’t replace the physical work, and the difference is plain to see.

In our writing, I’ll accept the suggestions from Grammarly occasionally, but otherwise, what comes out is what I type. No AI junk.

I have been considering a Text-to-Speech service such as elevenlabs to make articles more accessible, but there are cost implications (as well as some of the models are… questionable).

As such,  I’ve covered this in a post about GenAI/LLM use in Economy Class and Beyond.

The choice not to monetise (or to choose who to support us)

If you’ve been around, you’ll notice there are none of the following:

• No Credit Card Referals
• Minimal affiliate links (direct, Amazon or in between)
• Minimal Sponsorships and stipend acceptances
• Minimal Review Unit Acceptance

I’ve chosen a different path than the one others have chosen on how to start this blog many years ago. That’s to say, I didn’t want to be beholden to advertisers and companies.

Some paths were closed off to me with regulatory changes (which is why I don’t write about credit cards), whilst others, I’ve said no to or ignored (think your sponsored post sort of thing).

I have taken some sponsorships or have accepted in-kind support a few times, when someone was going out of their wallet to pay for something I couldn’t. I’ve always declared that in an article, and always declared who paid when appropriate, emphasising that they have zero editorial control over the content of the article.

It doesn’t get cheaper… like anything in life.

This is a lot more battered, much like your writer. 

Like any industry – and anything else in the world, running a blog doesn’t get cheaper. Far from it, with Google Workspace getting expensive (and my move to Microsoft 365 was abandoned after I did the long-term costs).

And those of you with Google Workspace Starter accounts – you’ll know how hard it is to consolidate and shrink, especially when I need two active email addresses. As such, two sets of costs. It only spirals with Domain fees and anything else.

I’m considering a Patreon or a Ko-Fi thing to help run the basic blog operations. If you want to help, I would appreciate this. Let me know in the comments if you would like to help.

Perhaps the biggest cost is time. I’ve invested more time into this blog, but sometimes I need to balance it out with “me time” – and that’s been hard, combined with the “real world job” recently.

That’s hard at the moment – but never impossible.

Gateful to you all

I know my comments queue isn’t the largest on Boarding Area. In a lot of ways, I’m grateful. I’m also grateful for all of you who click, read (and if you click the adverts, extremely grateful). Last year, we made it to 10 years on Boarding Area, too.

Without the engagement, this blog would have died years ago through boredom.

As such, thank you for reading this blog. 

Here’s to another 10,000 posts – and hopefully, content you enjoy through it.

Whilst the AI revolution has reduced some of us to AI summaries, we’ll keep typing, raging against the keyboard. Providing information, knowledge, and the stupidity that only I know how to deliver.

Especially the fun and the stupidity.

Thanks to a few companies and friends

Some shout-outs to close this 10,000th blog.

• Thanks to Randy and co at the House of Miles and Boarding Area for picking us out of obscurity and allowing this voice to thrive.
• My friends from the FlyerTalk BMI Forum. I see you out there still. May your travels continue to be entertaining and fun. With the odd Thermo-nuculated Cheese Toastie in memory of the glory days.
• To my friends and family who roll their eyes when I pull out the laptop to quickly bash out a post during the holidays or when I visit them. Thank you for your support and understanding
• Thanks to Mary Kirby of Runway Girl Network, who unknowingly changed the entire direction of this blog.
• To John, Jason, Seth, Bernie, Rob, Ryhs, Thomas and the rest of my press colleagues – your encouragement, comments, and humour have pulled me through on many a day, especially when covering the miles in The Hamburg Messe.
• For Companies and organisations, there are a few I want to highlight for their engagement with me. These are in no particular order, as they have engaged over the years to help bring content to you.
  • Recaro Aircraft Seating
  • Panasonic Avionics
  • Airbus Commercial Aircraft/Airbus Services
  • Bluebox
  • Jetway Communications
  • Safran Seating (and Safran Group)
  • ATR Aircraft
  • Stelia Aerospace
  • Thales
  • Collins Aerospace (an RTX Company)
  • Viasat
  • Delta Flight Products
  • … to name a few.

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Economy Class and Beyond is brought to you by Kevin. They provide a no-nonsense guide to aviation network news, passenger experience insights, honest reviews, in-depth coverage, unique research, as well as the humour and madness I only know how to deliver.

If you read the footer, thank you for joining us for the 10,000th time.

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