essxjay

To facilitate getting to know one another a bit better, I've taken a page out of CommunityBuzz's playbook and initiated this self-propelling introductions thread. Feel free to take the opportunity to share anything you'd care to about your personal life, your work, hobbies or whatever. You can tell us your life story or share just a few tidbits -- your call. We're all ears.

I'll start the ball rolling:

I'm one of the original members of Flyertalk and one of the troika of original volunteers tapped by Randy Petersen to help manage the flow of discussion here. I modded CommunityBuzz (and also Hilton HHonors for a spell) until early 2003 when the Travel Safety/Security forum was created. I took a sabbatical in 2008 and returned to light duty in the YX forum in April, then added F9 and TS/S to my plate in May. I expect to be around these parts for many years to come.

I became a mid-tier elite with UA inside of six months of registering on Flyertalk, did my first bona fide mileage run PDX-MUC in 1999 and maintained some level of status on UA until two years ago. Paid travel to date has been 99.2% leisure. I'm now down to fumes on nearly every FF/hotel points account but am looking to turn that around soonest.

I spent 16 years in journalism before returning to school in 2002 to earn a second bachelors and do a bit of postgrad work. I currently run a small business out of my home while continuing to ponder whether and when to advance my education. A love of all things aviation -- military and civilian -- seem to run through my bloodline. My great-grandfather was a railroad telegrapher turned balloonist in the Spanish American War; grandfather was a garden variety GA junkie (like me); and my father was a military ATC (read: frustrated pilot) who became a civilian ATC, NTSB investigator and private pilot after we left SAC (O.A.F.B., not the capitol of California), where I was born. A GA license t'would seem a natural next step for me but I do rather enjoy gawking from the pax cabin for the better part.

Now that I have some disposable income again I'm itchin' to fly. UA is IMHO circling the drain so I'm shopping for a new airline to build status with. When Randy asked me to moderate the Midwest Miles forum I was leaning towards AS but I'm now giving F9 thoughtful consideration.

That's my story. :-:

Now it's your turn.......

cwe84

Okay I will go next!

I work for Republic Airlines one of the divisions of Republic Airways Holdings. I am a Flight Attendant based in DCA. I have been with Republic for going on four years now and before that I was with SkyWest in ROA as a UAX/CSR. I also work with the union mentoring new F/A's and also assist with catering, hotel, delay and customers complaints. Before working in aviation I was an apprentice for a Master pastry chef at Virginia Tech.

I will complete my MBA in about four weeks. I also have my Bachelors in Business Admin.-Management and my Associates in Tourism and Hospitality. I currently oversee the Internship program for the Tourism and Hospitality department and also lecture and teach a class or two. I normally teach Customer Service and Sales, Geography for Travel Agents or Computer Reservations. I occasionally teach a basic business course but I prefer T&H.

I have been accepted to both Oxford University (to work on a non business undergrad degree) and the University of Liverpool (to work on Doctorate of Business Admin). I am still debating both. I am not sure what path I want to take. I do know that I would like to start taking a language course. My options are Mandarin, Russian, French or ASL. French and ASL would be the most helpful now but the other two have their benefits as well.

I love the adventure of travel and think of the journey to the destination part of the experience. Whether it’s a hiccup in HKG or a lie flat bed to CDG, it is what you make it!

knope2001

Essexjay, I’m rather honored that our little community is moderated by an original FT member. Did you draw a short straw?

If I may be so dense, what is SAC (O.A.F.B)? My first thought was indeed Sacramento. And are you a long-term PDX’er?

Anyway, time for me to prattle. Apologies to those who have heard some of this stuff before.

Born and bred Wisconsin – a dairy farm kid no less. In July 1981 (summer between 8th and 9th grade), I got my first airline timetable – Northwest Orient – when calling an agent to ask if my older brother’s flight home from Boston was on time. I must have asked too many questions and she offered to mail me a timetable. My love of airlines grew out of that first timetable, and I can still remember the excitement of the next few coming in the mail…OZ, then EA, UA, and RC (Republic) which was the mother lode at the time for a Wisconsin kid. Reading them at the dinner table and in the car on the way to church, making maps, figuring out which cities had the most flights, etc. Thousands more timetables followed, and for years most days saw at least one timetable in the mailbox.

Discovered Geography in college (didn’t even know it was an academic discipline – it was rolled into “social studies” in school) and ended up getting a BS in Geography and a MA in Transportation Geography, with my MA thesis being about post-deregulation changes in the regional airline network of the upper great lakes. Planned to go on for a PhD and become a prof, but I had my fill of theory and academia by that point. Ended up first in banking as a temp and eventually with a financial technology company – 12 years now – and that job has me flying a fair bit. Between work and leisure travel I’ve been at the Midwest Miles Executive level most every year since they added the elite tier, -- some years I far exceed the threshold, but in thin years I have taken a mileage run or two to re qualify.

Learned about Midwest Express a couple of years before their first flight, back when their business plan didn’t even include Milwaukee. I’ve followed them like a hawk through their entire life, and definitely bleed Midwest blue. Obviously some things are changing, but life indeed goes on. And far worse outcomes than this one might have been in the cards for Midwest.


Next....? I like to hear people's long-winded personal backgrounds, but if you're more the name, rank and serial number type, that's okay too...

essxjay

I'm glad you asked that!

It might seem a demotion or left field assignment at first glance but think about it from Randy's perspective. He'd been wanting a mod here for a while, preferably one who could work solo, when I happened to be coming off sabbatical. Since I was willing to go anywhere needed this seemed the logical spot (I gather). Actually, I was happy to have a fresh FF program to learn about, esp. one that I might actually want to join as opposed to, say, Virgin America or Air Berlin.


SAC was Strategic Air Command, hq'ed at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Neb. We moved to PDX (where my father grew up) when I was a year old. Having no memory of any other home, I refer to myself as a native Oregonian and native PDXer. (Yes, we PDX FTers really do say "Pee Dee Exer" in RL.) But if you want to get technical I guess I am originally from the Midwest.


Very . Something about tangible timetables ... and Solari boards ... and paper tickets .... and and and .... still makes my heart race, too.

essxjay

Having done ASL at the university level (and none to well I'm afraid ) I admire your ambition. If you do attain some fluency in it you will be in a remarkable position down the road. Interesting factoid learned: ASL is more like French Sign than British Sign!

Anyway, welcome the forum.

captaink

Funny, I thought I was the only one who read timetables for fun. I've still got an AA one from june of 01 that I picked up on an trip through st. louis, my last until 06 (more on that later).

I lived in KC throughout high school, and I've more or less lived in the DFW area since starting college at TCU in the fall of 08. My first flights were all on TWA, a consequence of having a grandfather who flew all over the world for work. My first flight was on a TW md-80 STL-MCI in 1993, and I still remember it fairly well (down to the "mcdonnell-douglas on the window shades and the "TWA" imprint plastic cup). From 96 through 01, my family and grandfather went on an annual vacation STL-ABQ. I distinctly remember running around the STL ambassadors club looking at all of the planes arranged at the concourses, from the jetstreams and atr's at B, to the lines of md-80s on D, and the L-1011's and 763's at the end of C. That's probably the moment my addiction for flying kicked in, and while it's waxed and waned over the years, it's always been there.

After 9/11, my family didn't fly anywhere for some time. I don't think it was so much because of the attacks, but rather the (relative) hassle of flying after that. Meanwhile, I picked up a related hobby; collecting diecast airliners. Over time, my collection has grown to 20-something of assorted airlines, representing almost every type I have flown on, save the DC-9 (I remember calling the store almost daily to see if they had the Midwest 717 model in stock shortly after it was introduced).

In 2006, I finally got back in the ol' airline seat, and my travel has increased consistently since then. In high school, I had the opportunity to compete in the US academic decathlon, and winning the state title three years in a row meant a trip to nationals on the school's dime. In 06, the national competition was held in San antonio, and the school booked our flights on Midwest Airlines. I went so far as to provide my teammates with cabin shots of the plane we would be flying on and the food options on board. That trip remains my best single airline experience, and makes me really miss the old YX. After that trip, I started to follow YX on this site and the other one, tracking it's growth and decline and learning a lot from reading the posts of one very insightful poster (I think everyone knows who I'm talking about ). For a while, I considered going to school to become a commercial pilot, but in the end I decided I liked being flown more than actual flying, and chose a field of study that lends itself to more business travel.

Since then, I haven't had a chance to fly YX or F9, as most of my flying is out of DFW, and therefore, on AA. Despite that, I've still kept an eye on the goings on at Midwest, Republic, and the Frontier merger, and I am looking forward to a leg on F9 (MKE-MCI) next month. It was originally going to be a DFW-DEN-MKE-MCI routing, but I wound up having to fly to CWA instead (when is that one gonna come back).

In any case, I appreciate the insight and discussion y'all have offered regarding my "favorite airline I never get to fly", and hopefully I'll have the pleasure of running into a FT'er or two in my future travels. I've lost count of how many times this board has saved me time, money, and trouble over the past few years...

BlueHorseShoe2000

I am a Manger of Internal Audit for a global consumer goods company based in the metro Chicago area. My primary responsibilities include overseeing the planning and execution of various operational, financial, and compliance audits. Additionally, I occasionally participate in fraud investigations and other consulting type engagements. This past year I have been heavily involved in the implementation of SAP for one of our core business units.

After graduating from Carroll College in 2001, I worked for a "Big Four" accounting firm and later a large global manufacturing company in Racine before heading south to Illinois.

All of my full-time jobs have required a fair amount of travel, much of it international. I have maintained 1k status (100,000 + miles flown per year) on United since 2004. To some that seems like a significant amount of flying, but those miles add-up quickly if you're going to a place like Sydney, Australia.

My first flight ever was in 1996 to DCA on Midwest Express. I remember being wowed by the big seats and food. At the time I had nothing to compare it to and wondered why there was always so much complaining about domestic air service. Little did I know... After landing my first full-time job in 2001, I actually flew Midwest quite a bit on domestic trips. My most common routing were to BOS, DCA, ATL, and OMA. Shortly after I started working full-time 9/11 occurred and the down-ward spiral of Midwest really picked-up speed. I have a lot of memories flying on Midwest between the fall of 2001 and the spring of 2003, much of it sad. They include flying in the immediate after math of the terrorist attacks to sitting on very empty planes as the fortunes of the airline seemed to get bleaker each day. It was a chaotic and turbulent time. One moment that sticks in my head was a flight from ATL-MKE on a Friday evening in March 2003. The MD80 only had seven passengers on board. Towards the end of the flight, I overheard the flight attendants talking about how bad Midwest was doing financially. One of the FA's was crying.

Despite all of the flying, my interest in Midwest didn't really pick-up until late 2002/early 2003 when I was determining whether buying stock in the company would be a good idea. I eventually bought a decent number of shares and began to have buyers remorse almost from the get-go. By summer 2003 I thought my investment was toast as a bankruptcy filing seemed all but inevitable. Midwest survived and the stock languished for a few years. Then AirTran came along and my fortunes improved dramatically During this time, I followed the Midwest Air Group on yahoo Finance and took interest in the postings by one member in particular Through various social and professional networks, I met a number of people that worked at Midwest. Throughout this time I took a particular interest in the operations side of the airline business and began to find out more about the inner workings of Midwest through several well placed sources. If the airline industry was more stable and paid better, I'd probably be working in it right now. As a side note, I considered taking a position with Midwest in 2006. I ultimately passed and it ended up being a very good decision.

I will be moving to Spain this fall for a two-year assignment and my days of flying Frontier will be ending. Despite being an ocean away, I hope to be able to continue participating in the discussions in the combined forum. While not always agreeing with some of the postings made, I've enjoyed the spirited discussions over the past few years and have learned a lot. We have a great group of contributors on this board and I look forward to what the future holds.

knope...was this long winded enough for you?

cwe84

I really like this thread and hope others continue!


Blue I think you had some sort of time warp!

BlueHorseShoe2000

LOL...it was 1996! Good catch.

boydatageek

Hello,

As of last year, I am a Business School Professor at Texas A&M University - Kingsville just outside of Corpus Christi.

Prior to going back into academia, I held a variety of corporate strategic planning, finance, marketing, pricing and management consulting roles in the telecommunications, financial services, airline, and medical technology fields.

In the late 1990's I wrote the business plan and was in the process of starting Pacific Empress Airlines, a start-up carrier that was going to fly LAX to the East Coast using 767's configured 2x2x2 with 100% window/aisle seating and services ala Midwest Express. The project ended when the ValuJet Crash in the everglades caused the funding and consumer demand for start-up carriers to evaporate.

I hold a PhD from Kellogg and wrote my doctoral dissertation on the economics of airline frequent flier programs.

My Frontier wish is CRP-DEN route, as my condo complex is filled with Colorado liscence plates, and you can't fly west from CRP without going east first (via Houston or Dallas)

essxjay

Welcome to the forum, boydatageek. :-:

RSVP

Looking forward to more meaningful posts from someone with an impressive resume.

knope2001

Lots of shy people around here??

Although some people here have professional backgrounds and/or long wordy histories going way back, please don't feel that your bio isn't worth posting if it is neither of these.

For the most part people who hang around here have some reason or other, even if it's just that you liked the airline. Don't be shy!

mke9499

Or... maybe in the government witness protection program.

MikeFromMKE

I guess I'll go. My first introduction to Frontier was flying SLC-DEN-MKE to go home from college every couple of months. Always had great experiences and got very used to the Denver airport. After I graduated I moved to Austin where I got a software engineering job and have been flying DL mostly. Hoping I can start flying Frontier again now that AUS-MCI and SAT-MKE have been restored. I'm still holding out for AUS-MKE, but that might be stretching it, and the drive down to SAT isn't too bad. In fact, I just booked SAT-MKE to come home over Thanksgiving.