(first time posted on FlyerTalk in 2001)

my personal FlyerTalk ROI (Return on invested 'capital') and EBIT ('Earnings' before Interest + Tax) 'analyze' (after elsewhere here on FT being questioned 'if I still have a life with > 20'000 posts, and some ???? and remarks about quantity and quality of posts):

(I am retired and about 80% 'master' of my time)

'Investments'
*when 'at home' (Uitikon or Wengen = total of about 75% days) I 'invest' about 90 minutes/day in reading FT and probably less than 20 minutes posting. Add another 30 minutes/day for reading and replying to an average of about 15 pivate emails from/to FlyerTalkers.
* when 'en-route' (25% days) I 'invest' about every second day 15 minutes.
* majority of my postings are answers to FT-questions in the LH/OS-, UA-, KLM-, Qualiflyer-, StarAlliance Fora. My answers are not very time-consuming anymore, as the basics (like upgrades with UA miles on LH, etc. etc.) are now on my files in a modul-way.
* about SFr 3'000 during the first two years, for the OMNI-prizes

'Returns/Earnings'
* (much needed) learning/improving my english on a daily (automated) basis
* personal meetings (eye to eye) with now about 450 FlyerTalkers all-over-the-world:
* 'getting' to know (insider) Restaurants (DIM SUM with a chinese-language knowleadgable FlyerTalker telling me what I am really eating; dinners at Walt Disney's private 33-club; wine-tasting at Disney's wine-cellar),
* sight-seeings (touring Seattle Pughet Sound by private boat, private Disney Euroland tour by a long-time Disney-attraction-designer; best outlook-place over Sydney harbour with a side-car in my hand; fantastic sight-seeing roof-place over Castro in San Francisco; 'Duck'-tour in Boston; private Bloomberg Studio tour in New York);
* 2 SuperBowls life (San Diego, Miami);
* (multiple) private Limo-Services from airport to anywhere;
* VIP-lounge access for Lakers home-games (for my children);
* private/reserved seats on the Düsseldorf Mayors balcony for 'Rosenmontag' (bernie);
* sharing private life-highlights/and down-moments (invited/participated to a FlyerTalk chinese wedding; sharing the last days of their lives of very dear FlyerTalk friends; being trusted 'supporting counsellor' when some life-partnerships break);
* being cared for (my family). FlyerTalkers (and Randy) did believe that I might have been involved in a terrible air-crash (I never forget, how FlyerTalkers did contact and care my family/children in Switzerland, when they assumed that I was on that 'crashed' Swissair flight JFK-ZRH; I did fly LH on that day/night).
* receiver of FlyerTalk gifts (49er-jacket, multiple vouchers)
* being proud swiss guide for visiting FlyerTalk friends to my country;
* unique moments of sharing the whole upper-deck of a B-747 with FlyerTalk-friends (PiP flight LAX-HNL 1999) and dancing there
* being able to share the beauty of 'my' Alps with many of you (Wengen, Jungfrau)
* being able to invite some of you as my 49er-guests
* being able to not waste anymore otherwise unused airline vouchers (by gifting them to friends)
* not flying any-longhaule segments in coach anymore (with paying less then ever before)
* was gifted (complimentary) 431'000 KLM points (a comping promotion I learned all the details about from FlyerTalk). These points transfer now into (1.8*431'000=) 775'8000 Flying Dutchman miles on oct-23-2002. I value these miles (4 Rappen/mile) = SFr 31'000!
* getting a business-letter/confirmation that right now provides (currently) additional (legal) SFr 6'000/month more income for me (thank you Punki)
* getting personal autographs from the current best women-swimmer (Coughlin) for my children
* getting excuses (toward myself) for often revisiting my favorite Restaurants (with FlyerTalkers)
* learning (again, and being reconfirmed) that, as long as you have common interests (like Frequent Flying), generation-gaps don't exist

im my eyes/judgement, yes, quality matters more than quantity. The quality of what I got her in return by far outweights any investment I did

Thank you FlyerTalkers (and Randy)