Randy Petersen

For an upcoming article, a major personal finance magazine seeks to interview perhaps a dozen asuste elite frequent flyers who are "Masters of their Universe" of frequent flyer miles. Mileage runs? Done 'em all. Know how to play the partner game and win, how to get awards that never end, and have a gold star portfolio of miles and points the envy of the guys/gals at the country club. OK, I made some of this up (the country club part) but nonetheless, looking for those who can explain their success.

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bhatnasx

If you do it, don't give away all of our secrets!

Vaze

Ahh... but do we want to alert the masses as to how it's done?

Efrem

Perhaps not, but we don't have that choice. It's a reporter's job to find sources. Most do their job well. We can't prevent them from finding people who know the FF "game" and are willing to talk about it. The only choice we have is whether or not those people will be from FT.

So, if anyone wants to talk to this reporter, I'd encourage him/her to.

That said, another consideration is the reaction that excessive discussion of upgrades, lounges and award flights may engender among business associates (including supervisors), customers, clients, and so on. If the way such people feel about you matters in your situation, keep in mind that their reaction will not always be positive. It's one thing to get these bennies; another to brag about them on a national platform.

(Edited to correct minor misspelling)

[This message has been edited by Efrem (edited Feb 07, 2004).]

R&R

Since Finance Magazines are late and behind times, when they publish their disinformation on investing, I suspect this means the peak of FreqFlyer Miles is over, as Milesaddict showed with the decreased logons to his Website for Miles.

I thought all the 'astute' elite freqflyers have moved on within the last couple of years!

Droneklax

Hmm. I suppose an "astute" frequent flyer will probably not want to talk

Centurion

Please everyone practice:

PRACTICAL OBSCURITY

What does this mean? The information is available right now to anyone including reporters but there is a cost involved. In this case the cost is time spent reading flyertalk. I think this is a perfect balance.

fallinasleep

Let them spend a few weeks/months reading Flyertalk

monitor

Be well on guard. Always remember that most reporters are simply in pursuit of their own agendas and will not hesitate to distort your comments, quote you out of proper context, nor care about damaging you or your reputation in furtherance of the story that they already have decided exists and now are simply fishing for ideas and color to flesh out their preconceptions.
Rule - Never talk to reporters, it can almost never do you any benefit and will frequently damage you in some way, or in the least, make you look like a fool.

rkt10

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Neal

Boy, you sure hit the nail right on the head!!

LISAA

My feeling is...they will want to skim it. Writer and reader. Get some easy "pointers" to feed the article and try to boil it down to a quick study on how to save $$ and build points for free travel. It is easy for those who do not do the "due diligence" to think that this is a short learning curve; but it takes patience and time and effort to glean the best travel advice and few have the tenacity to really quote it or learn it. It benefits all of us who are willing to "dig in"; to have more headcount in the community, because numbers have power. I think some in these forums have much to share, and little to lose.

Dudemon

I agree with this 100%, just watch your local TV news. Even the most brilliant among us are reduced to bumbling idiots by the sound bites extracted for the sole purpose of sensationalizing the rather boring and bothersome lexicon that equates to what is required, hard work.

As LISAA writes, the “easy pointers” can be summed up with a simple “sign up for all the current promotions.” Outside of that most people would think it absurd turning a short trip into a 5 segment overnight.

Most of us that here at FT that might qualify for astute simply read of a promotion and then figure out a way to maximize it. After all, there’s nothing very astute about simply flying 120k a year for work and being a member of an airline lounge.