My family likes to travel so I grew up with it, and when I started going to boarding school cross country, and I was flying back home 3 times a year, the miles started adding up and really became worth it.

I have to credit my dad, who was always on top of making sure our FF miles got credited and making sure we were not letting any miles expire on different accounts. He's actually still much better than me at juggling multiple carriers- I've consolidated down to two or three.

It still shocks me, I did an informal poll of my friends and many of them ignore frequent flyer mile programs entirely. The very idea of wasted miles makes me die a little inside.

My boyfriend was NOT a mile collector, so when we first started traveling together I made him sign up for ff programs whenever we flew on a new airline. He was extremely skeptical about the whole thing and thought it was too much hassle. This past summer I got us round trip international business class tickets with miles, and he's not so skeptical anymore.