FlyerTalk Forums - Are we that boring??

On most days I usually just read the American and OneWorld Boards in the hopes of seeing something along the lines of "Another 100,000 Mile Bonus". However due to a rather significant power outage at my job, I have had some time to read many of the threads on FlyerTalk and have come to the conclusion that we on the AA and OneWorld boards are just plain boring.

While some of the guys over at Delta initially plan a competing site when Randy refuses to comment on Delta's decision to basically match the UA and AA systemwide upgrade policy, those same guys eventually rally around Randy and develop a site to Save Sky Miles. The site is even getting some press coverage. They seem to be mad about a lot of things including no upgrades on cheap fares and the elimination of system wide upgrades for those at less than the top tier level. Some are even threatening to move their business to United because of it. The fact that United has the same policies does not seem to impact them. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif I guess we on American will have to live with our upgrade on any fare with no capacity controls VIP2s, but I promise if American threatens to take them away I will be the first to register the www.saveAAdvantage.com website in hopes of selling the domain name to FlyerTalk at a later date!!

Meanwhile, the girls over on the United board seem to be having even more fun. I am not sure if the summer from hell impacted them more then they care to admit or possibly the baggage sizers that UA has installed means they are no longer able to carry the extra-large bottles of Zoloft with them on business trips. Most of the discussion over there revolves around the implementation of e-upgrades and impacts to transferability and the comping of upgrades. Unfortunately at least 50 percent of the threads turn into b**ch fests when some posters who should know better comment in a thread about how rude another poster was in a previous reply. Other new law being developed on the United board include the fact that "True 1Ks" deserve more than the ".84 1Ks" and how many employees are lamenting about the reduction will result in a swelling of the ranks of the UA Top Tier level. The UA board contributors seem so concerned that someone may be getting something they are not that one even contacted a certain large hotel chain to advise them they were awarding extra points to members. These members did not register for a promotion by a certain cut off date and according to a strict interpretation of the rules were not entitled to points thy were receiving. Fortunately a FlyerTalker rescued this hotel chain and a few unlucky contributors had those points reversed out of their accounts. Meanwhile, over at AA, we continue to endure UA re-routed passengers on our planes due to the new mechanics slowdown, In compensation, however, AA has generously elected to provide us with TTBNS and an extra 100 percent mileage bonus until Dec 31.

The CO board has entered the eye of a hurricane since all the craziness there has stopped and discussion has returned to mileage news. Hopefully that will continue. The NW board has had some fun. The thread about someone posting to the internet a form to give you automatic top tier and having hundreds of flyer talkers that had just opened accounts request that top tier has to be the funniest I read. However, the US board is competing with AA to be the most boring (not counting the TAROM Romanian Air Transport thread) as all the discussion there revolved around boring old frequent flyer stuff.

In conclusion I must say I admire our DL friends. Every day they get to battle with the "Revenue Protection Unit". A concept so bizarre that I will just pretend it does not exist. I also admire our UA friends who do massive group mileage runs and meet in fun filled places all over the world while accruing base miles. Next time I hope they hold a meeting in an international location serviced by AA so I can join them.

Well I am off, I need to go cry about the seemingly daily 20 percent hike in the First Class 1-World 5 continent fare. This fare allows us 1-Worlders to fly all over the world in flat beds and get enough miles to keep top tier on pretty much any of the 1-world carriers. Then when it is all over we discover we have earned enough miles to take two more first class round trips from the US to pretty much anywhere. Discussions concerning this are about as exciting as we get.

thanks for listening,
rich