onobond

Great read again. ^

Please allow me to add some words of warning: I'd hesitate using the description of IB's FA uniform as "spray-on trousers" and "hot bacon" in the same sentence.

asy949

bisonrav

She gets to come on some of them. The payoff is a family trip in F to Singapore using the accumulated vouchers, etc, though this was rather clobbered by the Satay fare which we jumped all over, it was supposed to be for Chinese New Year 2019 but will be 2020 now. And anyway, the TP run trips are fairly concentrated and sparsely spread, there's a lot of two day business trips mixed up in all of this, which if anything are more disruptive from a family perspective because there's less notice.

One of the things that surprised me actually is that the travel isn't quite as intense as I'd imagined it would be. I have to remind myself it's been 102 flights so far (2 prior to the TP year starting, so not in the stats) because it really doesn't seem like that.

bisonrav

A last minute change of plan saw me on a short trip to Amsterdam in CE, returning today. And as the wheels touched down on a beautiful day in Gatwick, so my Tier Points tally rose to 5040 - or at least it will when they credit. This is ahead of target by about 12 days.

It would be nice to say that the flights had been remarkable, but they weren't. Albeit on the way out I had been treated to a glorious view of Sussex, shrouded in softly clinging mist and red with the tint of Autumn. But just a competent and consistent CE service. Much the same today, an extremely efficient and personable CSM. Nice flight. Chicken a bit dry, lemon scented towels a little less warm than I like. Nit-picking. And just a lovely sunny day when I returned, with a gate near to immigration and a three minute wait for the train home.

And I did score a mini bottle of Kastelnau for this evening when I'll toast the start of a year of LPGS.

It's been a long road. Just about exactly 8 months since the end of my last TP year. I've learned a lot and met numerous delightful people - FTers, Cabin Crew, pilots, et al. I'll probably reflect on all of this later. The first trip - vivid recollections of this - was LUX->ATH special with severe back pain (that's gone now), and I've been North, East and West (though not as far South as I'd like, that will come next year). I've dodged snowstorms and bathed in tropical heat. Apart from 4am to 6am in Athens airport I've enjoyed every minute of it.

So what next? I will probably continue with this account to the end of the TP year. The next trip is a fairly big earner to Shanghai via Doha and Colombo at the end of the month. I might possible try to stretch to 7000 TPs for a couple more gufs. Or I may just take a few cheap day returns to enjoy the perks at LHR.

oxtailsoup

peck

What an adventure - well done bisonrav for sticking out and reaching your goal, it's made for an epic FT thread! You've earned that year of LPGS

bisonrav

I think in summary it's been fairly straightforward. No real problems and everything that should have credited did credit (including 5 missing TPs from Iberia last week). I didn't miss any flights or connections, came close a couple of times most notably making a flight to PHX with a minute to spare, and also dodged a few bullets in the snow last winter. I did have broad contingencies and various fallback plans, but nothing was needed. So what you realise is that fundamentally air travel is pretty reliable by and large, despite the odd high profile problems which I skirted by luck. The only time things went awry was on a work trip to Riga, for which one problem had a knock on turning a two flight journey into 4, but this wasn't bad in the end because I got some more TPs. I was expecting more adventure than actually happened really.

It was a good mix of flights I wanted to do anyway, the wonderful Sun-Air D328 rocketing up through the cloud base in Aalborg, the Ju52, three holidays; work trips (lots of these, religiously POUGed for Europe) and a few TP runs. I've had a really enjoyable year. I could have done lots of it more efficiently in terms of cost, but I had so much fun anyway in flight and on the ground that I hardly noticed that.

Would I recommend it? No. But let me qualify that: I wouldn't recommend any obsessional pursuit that makes absolutely no sense on any rational basis. People should find such things for themselves and follow their noses in without any encouragement. I certainly wouldn't argue against doing it. I would do it again. I am pretty much signed up for next year on retention (not of the CCR card though).

I haven't re-read the thread, but at the start I probably said something to effect of "why not try it to see what it's like" when I was told it was a stupid idea - I have some recollection of that happening. In essence, that's what I recommend: try things other people tend not to try or scoff at. And if you're going to do something, go in full throttle. You find more out that way, and you can corner people in the pub with interesting stories they've never heard before.

Nimrod1965

mtikky

Loved following this report with a slight sense of envy (I have no business travel, so my lower aim is Gold for 2018). Sounds like you've had an amazing time of it!

Keep it Riel

I hope this is the "end of the beginning" of the Bisonrav journey rather than being the end.

LCY8737

Congratulations! Time to update that FT profile.

So where next? At this rate, GfL cannot be far. And GGLfL probably only another 15 years.

bisonrav

I'll update the profile when the status switches - I was half hoping the TPs would credit overnight and even dreamed they did, but they didn't.

I am a long way from GfL - about 9K lifetime TP only. Never say never, but to be honest that's not on the plan. What is on the plan is doing some interesting rather than lucrative trips, trying out some other airlines, and so on. I do also fancy the Tromso to Ushuaia run at some point, North to South. And Svalbard.

frasier

tedcruz

bisonrav