I am also in your boat. I'm 23/college student down in San Diego... I'm doing a couple of MR's to get AS MVP (I don't do it for the upgrades but the mileage bonuses, but also, they have a LOT of flexability on earning miles and getting elite status). I fly abroad 2-3 times a year on breaks to sightsee and visit friends. If the price is right, i'm there. (Next up, BUE on an award ticket)

Basically, I'm collecting the miles to fly for free. I already have 57000 and thats from AS credit card usage and "mileage whoring" (credit card renewals, LD service etc) and a few flights i've taken. (FYI, also have 15k on JAL from a trip to Singapore 2 years ago and 12k on Korean for a HK trip last winter).

Now that i've spent a lot of time doing research, i'm going to concentrate on getting the miles all dumped into one account. AS/NW is very logical for me, since I travel to Asia mostly, but also because I will probably be studying there a year from this academic year. These MRs will give me MVP which translates to a 150% bonus...so a "weekend trip" or a spring break trip to Singapore, Bangkok or Europe translates to 15-30k miles (depending on destination). That's almost what I need to go to Latin America, and its a LOT cheaper than flying from SAN/TIJ or even LAX in most cases.

AS MVP Gold's get 200% miles flown..thats close to 40k on a SIN run, or only 10k away from another ticket to Europe. In a way, doing some long MRs can be fruitful in gaining more miles. Thats why i'm going to invest a couple of hundred dollars right now, since the dividends will outweight the costs after one or two decent int'l flights.

As for what you said about traveling, none of my friends or family members (and I have a small family) like to travel abroad or long distances, so I'm stuck doing it myself. Talking to a lot of older travel vets and backpackers, they swear by doing it alone, and I can see why now. You can decide where/when you want to do something and don't have to worry about someone nagging or hating it. Conversely, if its a party weekend in Panama City....that's self explaintory. We have enough of those down the Mexican coast, and that works for my brother and most of my friends. Its not a cheap lifestyle but with the right timing and work, it can be done affordably. Being in Green Bay puts you at a smaller disadvantage since I'd assume that tickets are higher to go to places like LON and NRT then for me, where LAX is 100 miles up the I-5/405. My parents are also moving to PHL do i'll be doing a few trips on and off to there and the NY metro area which will help aide my status level

I have a serious travel bug, I'm studying International Relations and just biding my time till I can do some serious extended traveling or live abroad.

Anyone want to hire an Intern next summer who wants to live in Toyko?

(Sorry if some of the mileage info is incorrect or inconsistant, I jumped back and forth and used what was in my head)