Hello darlins' all. I've just hit 4,000 posts & wanted to once again offer my thankful thoughts & feelings to you all. Some you heard at my 3,000 post; some is new.
Let me start by saying: You all are GREAT! ^ ^
*
THANK YOU TO ALL FTERS!!! You have added greatly to my life, whether it's in terms of airline or hotel knowledge or just meeting (virtually as well as in person) other FTers who always shared, even if they didn't know me. You all ROCK!
* You HAVE made me a more informed hotel & airline program traveler (UA, Marriott, Hilton) - heck, in general you've made me a better traveler (all those other forums!) - thank you
Randy for offering multiple forums on your site.
* I don't think I've ever experienced a better group of people & again, I do appreciate you all (even when we disagree on things, as people in a community sometimes do). You rock!
I do need to win the lotto so I can justify the time I'm spending on FT each day & Chat in the evenings. Geesh....we should get lives? And if not win the lotto, get a client whose retainer will underwrite my attending Dos (and no
Dovster that is NOT 'do' the client
).
* Who woulda thunk I'd start bebopping to places like Tokyo, Singapore, London, Dusseldorf - just for the weekend or to meet FTers for a beer! That still boggles my mind. I remember reading Inside Flyer years ago & thinking who are these people? Are they nuts? They must have more $$ than me (ok, the latter one is probably still true
).
* Having said that I've learned a lot, let me say what I still have to learn - how the heck do you all do a zillion connections for $2 (
Spiff &
Chemist661 seem to be the best at this & are my heroes in that respect) - my idea of a multiple connection is 1! And it always costs me a bundle; sigh.
I'm serious about the
"Come to Sharon's Place at the Beach on the Pacific Ocean & Teach Her This Stuff Cuz She's the Dumbest 1K MM UA Has Do"!
* I hate this part cuz I know I'm going to leave someone out - I apologize in advance & I promise to edit when I remember who I left out (and there are so many more who I should mention!), but let me say thanks to the following for their help my first 19 mths (NOT in any particular order, except for the first person):
RANDY,
his staff & flyertalk web staff (they deserve awards for dealing w/ us IMO; you all be nice to them!),
SweetWillie(and Judi), gleff, Spiff, mjm, wingnut, chemist661, techgirl, auh2o, wingless, premex, dhammer53, thezipper, sandiego1k, robot doctor, travellingwilly, socrates, kokonutz, the ACers at SIN DO 2003, lalala, iluv2fly, ozstamps, bernie, GK, TSAMgr, Bart, ajamieson, beaubo, gfowler, Stimpy, tom911, cawhite60156, ScottC, MrStarAlliance, klau88, prncess674, sea_tigger, newself, alysia, radiocycle, black-jack21 - drat drat drat, I know I'm missing people - but thank you ALL!!! I'll try to update when I remember who I forgot.
* In the pay-it-foward thing, I've been happy to introduce other folk to FT so that they too can learn to be better travellers. In one organization I belong to, I'm known as the 'travel gal' cuz I post tips which I've gotten from FT &
gleff's e-newsletter.
And in the small world category, when I was in AMS a week ago having dinner w/ a colleague who had been in LA a few months ago & I dragged him along to meet a couple FTers at the airport for a quick drink, we were having dinner w/ other biz colleagues in AMS & the guy on the other side of my colleague was talking about travel, & my colleague (who doesn't really travel) said oh, you should talk to Sharon, she's part of this group called Flyertalk - turns out the other guy knows FT & is a lurker on the AA & Amtrak forums!
* There's so much more I'm looking forward to learning (who knows, maybe by my 5,000th post I'll actually have figured out that cheap fare w/ a zillion segments thing; I was hoping to have figured it out by now but it gives me another goal), but for now, thanks FT!! And don't forget to put FT tags on your luggage so I can meet some more of you when traveling.
You're a great community & I'm happy to be a part of it. :-: Cheers.
Sharon