What a wonderful thread...! Exactly the reason why flyertalk not only is a bulletin board but a unique community of nice people and friends that I've met around the world. Flyertalk has become part of my life now - and even my wife doesn't complain anymore if I bring my laptop on holiday trips and use hours to read and post on flyertalk (at the moment I'm sitting in room 3509 in the Sheraton Kuala Lumpur with a beatiful view of the Petronas Towers just after sunset - you guess it, with flyertalk accessed via my laptop): we fly businessclass on upgraded tickets and have lovely hotel rooms - unthinkable three years ago...

The downsides? The weird look of not yet flyertalking friends and colleagues when I speak of my trips; Mileage runs as a subject of my dreams at night (not yet nightmares); the no-more-coach illness getting chronic; flying FRA-JFK just for a night with strangers to take part in a weird event called Freddies; and finally this strange shivering that occurs out of a sudden if I'm not online and flyertalking for a certain time...