I love reading FlyerTalk!

I travel because I work for a large motorsports sanctioning body, traveling to races and other places I need to be. I don't travel as often as some FT'ers, only 15-20 times a year. But it's enough. Based in Houston, so Continental is my airline of choice.

Amazingly, I had almost never flown until I started the race travel about 10-12 years ago (let's just say somewhere between the ages of 40 and 50). Since then, I've achieved status every year. Mostly I travel around North America, although I've also been to Australia 4 times, Japan twice, and Europe twice doing international races.

I can still remember my first full year of travel. I didn't quite grasp the concept of status, and when my Silver Elite card arrived unexpectedly in the mail, I was amazed. Boy did I feel important. Back in those days before automatic upgrades, you had to call your special Continental phone number the night before and request an upgrade. I did that on the next flight, and as my colleague and I walked down the jetway with the FC boarding, he asked "are sure this isn't costing us any money?" We were awed. Naturally, since then we've become accustomed (or tried to, at every upgrade possible) to sitting up front. I've even participated in "mileage runs" at the end of the year, just to maintain status (or jump to the next level). It's a rat race, but worth it in the long run.

Travelling on the professional racing circuit is not as glamorous as my friends think it is. But it beats having a desk job