20 Years of FlyerTalk: Happy Anniversary!
 

This month is the 20th anniversary of FlyerTalk, as it was officially born in October of 1995.

“October of 1995?” you say? How can that be? Wasn’t FlyerTalk launched in May of 1998?

The answer is yes — the current iteration of FlyerTalk was launched in May of 1998; but the original version was launched 20 years ago this month...

...so please allow me to be the first to wish FlyerTalk a very happy anniversary. I have benefitted more from it than I would have ever thought; and I am thankful that I chose — albeit hesitantly at first — to join as a member and post for the first time.

If I may, I want to thank you — yes, you, as in the one who is reading this — as you are the reason why FlyerTalk is what it is today.

Hmm...that sounds like something Randy Petersen — the founder of FlyerTalk — would say. I will alert him of this discussion; and hopefully he will use it as an opportunity to comment and give a history of the birth of FlyerTalk here.

In the meantime, happy 20th anniversary, FlyerTalk!

Flyertalk keeps flying!

Happy Anniversary Flyertalk! Thanks to this site I've learned more about travel & made many friends worldwide, both in person & virtually.

Cheers.

I started flying for business in 1988. Sometime in 1990 or so, a friend of mine tipped me off to a magazine I might enjoy. It was inside flyer It was the pot of gold for me. Loaded with information on all the car/plane/hotel deals that were out there. Back then, I remember Randy inviting readers to call the office to see if they had any upgrade certs floating around. I never got lucky, but it was a great idea. ^

Back then, Randy would say that he would eventually go online with all this information. Keep in mind that back then, 3 people owned computers, and I wasn't one of them. :D

I read Inside Flyer cover to cover as soon as it arrived. :o edit It's now gone.

Happy birthday Flyertalk. The 3 above posters and I have met many times over the years. I am do for a SkiAdock visit. It's been a while.

Thanks Randy for making our dreams come true.

Dan

20 Years of FlyerTalk: Happy Anniversary!
 

I have not been around as much as the other posters, but I learned a lot from this community.

happy anniversary FlyerTalk!

20 Years of FlyerTalk: Happy Anniversary!
 

Love this site

Happy Birthday Flyertalk and thank you Randy. I could never repay you for all that I've gained from this site.

Likewise

I started flying for business sometime around 1993 and my 1st preferred carrier was DL and it was the good ole days when i was able to pick whatever carrier I wanted for business travel.

I too subscribed to inside flyer and that along with the old OAG magazine kept me informed with what was going on in the travel industry. Plus any articles in the Sunday LA Times.

Man, paper certs were sure a royal PITA, I'm not sure how I didn't lose them all but looking back, they were easier to find availability, maybe because everyone lost them :p

Question, so what happened between 1995 and 1998 before launch?


for the record I found FT when I was commuting (on DL) LAX-LAS weekly for work; I saw an article about it in the USA today; kept the article, went on it at the hotel one night, lurked for probably 3-4 months before I finally found a reason to post. I almost got a timeout the first week when I went at it with (a poster who is still around today) over a question a posted and his response was "search" LOL

I guess I made it through that first week to be here almost 14 years later

No, they were easier to find and use because back in the 90's Randy's voice and Flyertalk hadn't yet reached the majority of frequent flyers. Back in those days a great many frequent flyers didn't even bother to sign up with the programs. It's a blessing and a curse sort of because so many of us learned the ins and outs of these systems that upgrades became harder and harder to find. I recall in the 90's with United that I was upgraded on 100% of my flights. And with those old paper certs you could double upgrade from economy to first on 3 cabin flights. I did that often on the inaugural 777 route LAX-IAD in 1996.

Wow - I do love this site.

“FlyerTalk i had to close after its first three months because no one ‘got it’. 20 years later, many do ‘get it’.”

So born and died and put on hold until 1998? Or born and died and reopened a few weeks later in '95? I have been here since the very beginning and I do not recall the '95 iteration.

20 years ago, many frequent flyers were barely computer literate and going online to communicate with "strangers" over a topic of mutual interest was for the rather young ones and the more nerdy types. The ability to generate money on such a small niche market and not be operating a hopeless financial blackhole just wouldn't be there then like it would be a couple of years later when becoming so-called internet millionaires was the expectation of many more.

20 years ago most of my flights' seat mates wouldn't know an Internet browser even if the browser on the computer screen hit them in the face.

In the beginning there was simply a long list of lines of text, each of which were what became the threads of today. No forums at all. In fact OMNI was the word you put in front of a thread that had nothing to do with points or miles like this

OMNI: Did you see the game last night?

Struggling to recall a version before that.

Webflyer?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/only-...ertalk-bb.html