Actually... most people here know I am married to someone who lives in Canada, it follows that we probably met on the internet (we did) and that she wasn't the first woman I had dated from another city (she wasn't). If you are going to date someone from another city (I'll ignore the "gold-digging hottie" comment) it was often very sensible to use award tickets. Many such dates wind up getting cancelled, and redeposit fees are usually much smaller than losing the entire value of the ticket. Although I suspect that with DL's new "use it or lose it" policy, it's better if you're going to travel to meet someone, to get a paid ticket. That way at least you can use it for the price of a change fee, rather than lose the entire value.

I'm very pleased to be OUT of the (internet) dating pool. But it was quite an experience.