FlyerTalk Forums - FlyerTalk Glossary

From WordNet (r) 1.6 (wn)

glossary n : an alphabetical list of technical terms in some specialized field of knowledge; usually published as an appendix to a text on that field [syn: {gloss}]

Who'd a thunk 2 years ago that FlyerTalk would become such a repository for a growing and "specialized field of knowledge?" But obviously it has.

And as any of you who have ever forwarded on a particularly interesting FT thread to a non-FTer/FFer has most likely discovered, we have come to use a great deal of "technical" jargon. (OK, so some of it's not so technical. It's still jargon. As in "I swapped a AC SWU for a UA HK49 so I could ug from HEL to SUX, and UA had a mech so I was 240'd to DL, but the RPU figured out I was doing a b2b, so I was SOL".)

More important though are the words and phrases (well, phrases, anyway) that were "born" right here on FT. Most of those terms above already existed prior to FT. But someone, somewhere, out of the blue coined the term "mileage run" and a concept, a forum, nay, a movement was born. I mean, when a ticket agent asks "Hmmm... kinda early in the year for a mileage run, isn't it?" what else could it be but a movement? Who knew?

So in a coarse and blatant attempt to steal some of essxjay's thunder (re: the "favourite FT quotes" thread) I propose starting an FT Glossary. I see this as particularly useful for both non-FTers on the receiving end of a FT thread and FT newbies. More importantly, I see it as tremendously humourous. So I'll start with a couple of terms stolen wholesale from the aforementioned thread:

maid run
Checking into a different hotel of the same chain in the same city every night so as to inflate the number of points or awards you will receive for your stay[s] {thus inducing more work for maids by requiring the sheets to be changed every night} (worldbanker)

mattress run
Checking into a hotel with out actually staying the night simply to collect points or some other award (Unknown)

Mexican Hat Dance
Flying from Canada to multiple cities in Canada and the US, in first/business class for a fraction of the economy fare by including a connection in Mexico {RIP} (Ken hAAmer)

mileage run
Taking a flight for no other purpose than to collect points or some other award, and usually immediately returning to your origin (Unknown)

PremEx envy
Not entirely certain, but apparently jealousy of someone else's higher status (Camera Guy)

seat opponent
Not entirely certain, but apparently someone else vying for the same seat and/or upgrade as yourself (Quiet Lion)

[This message has been edited by Ken hAAmer (edited 10-21-2001).]