Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: The Castro, San Francisco, California
Programs: UA, DL, AA, Aegean Air, Cal Alumni (go Bears!)
Posts: 594
Me too. I sort of hit the wall with all the searching. Though I haven't flown anywhere near 1MM miles on Star A, I found that I was spending way too much time at this blasted computer screen, searching, trial and error, searching more, just to find the "deal." Finding the deal was the adrenaline rush, not the actual trip. I found that I flew places that I didn't care about very much.
Since I always have loved to travel and SEE other countries and cultures, the one and two night turns just didn't do it for me.
Then on top of that, the "culture" of Tricking has gotten such that it is unfriendly and the polar opposite of what the forum originally was....that is to SHARE your finds. It just became a turn off.
So with the crazy high fares to Europe from N. America this year, I still will pay retail most likely, to go where I WANT to go, not where the deal is.
Sounds crazy to true MRers, I'm sure. But if I calculated how much time I spent "tricking" fares rather than working, I'm still coming out way ahead.