Hi!

My name is Michael and I'm an Australian/South African/Brit studying aerospace engineering in Boston, MA. I've been a frequent flyer for years, and I've clocked 500k+, possibly 1 million lifetime miles.

Right now though I need your help, as a community of frequent flyers. I'm taking a design class right now, and predictably, I figured that frequent flyers would be a great group to analyse and design a product or service for. To that end, I need advice and suggestions.

WHO ARE YOU (Give me a little background about yourself)?

WHAT DO YOU VALUE (Anything! Examples are coffee, sleep, parking, security, daily routines, cleanliness, love, health)?

WHAT DO YOU NEED (Better seat selection, better mileage club management for all your cards, mileage run calculators, better in-flight entertainment)?

OTHER: Do you want to share anything else about the flying experience with me? Do you want to meet up and talk, or discuss flying over skype?

THANKS!

Michael

I'l keep my replies short but useful.

I'm a 29-yr old web developer who uses every vacation day available to travel extensively. A typical year includes 2-3 intl trips, 10 domestic trips (namely to visit friends or conferences of personal interest), and 2 resort-related trips (I own a timeshare and also buy a special week additional). I do no work travel. It all started in 2005 with a college friend's race to visit all 50 states. I've 6 left but a limited # of vacation days, needs to visit friends, and desire for intl travel delays my ability to complete that goal. Travel is the major consumer of my discretionary income and I'm really thankful I can travel as much and well as I do. God willing, it'll continue to many years yet until kids come along.

I value far too much to list here. The question is too big. My Wikipedia profile lists my top values. If you mean relative to frequent travel, I value loyalty (CO, Starwood namely for me), consistency/order, and modest luxury (3.5- and 4-star, as there're financial realities). Travel has so much spiritual value better discussed here. Related thread (which may be useful for your research): Do you think you are "better" than other flyers?

I don't need anything as I'm thankful for whatever the airlines can cook up for us. I suppose I need them to obey federal regulations and that's the only absolute I can rely on. Everything else is personal preference but not a need.

Sure, PM if you need.