Yet another newbie to the FT world <waves to the crowd>. Introduced to it this morning by a super nice fellow FTer "NJTravelers". Seems as though I suffer from jet lag quite a lot, so this seems like a nice community to be part of ha ha ha.
Combo traveler - work and leisure. Started off as a starving student traveler, taking one trip a year and spending the next 12 months paying off the VISA card. Oh, how I miss those days ......
A Canuck by heart and by passport
I moved to the SF Bay Area 2.5 years ago after being recruited out of grad school to work for a pharma company here. Most travel is for work, and mostly international. Have had the pleasure of spending a lot of time in Australia the past two years, as well as nice parts of Europe as well. All of my family and good friends are in Canada, so there are routine trips to YYZ, YVR and YYC to visit them all, grab a Timmy's large double double and shower my little niece and nephews with toys and trinkets from around the globe that I pick up.
Try to do two big/bigger trips a year - 2006 was Peru and Spain, 2007 was all work and NO PLAY, so 2008 is going to be (hopefully) Mt. Kilimanjaro and/or a cycling trip in Cambodia/Vietnam, with hopefully some extensions to business travel in Nice, France and Berlin. And a "sanity regaining" beach lazy venture to Peurto Vallarta at the end of this month ...... no blackberry allowed.
For some reason, I stuck with AC for my FF program - I am SE, but I wonder if that actually means anything. I've been spoiled lately with being able to use SSWU and NAU upgrades off of cheap Latitude fares to YVR, but usually my main benefit is the lounge and the pre-15 hour flight cocktails and WiFi. If anyone has tips on how to maximize you status potential, I'd love to hear them.
Thank you