Jess Schwendinger Welcome to posting on FT
As you may know VA is now a ff partner of the Oneworld airline, QR Qatar. Avois is the ff currency of QR, BA, IB & IE. Subject to t&c's avios can be moved to the ffp's of those airlines. So in AU can earn & burn avios on both major AU domestic airlines: VA & QF.

For a "deep dive research into maximising frequent flyer miles to do more" attend Oz Fest--->https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/comm...28-2023-a.html

Thanks so much for the additional info, I'd forgotten about Qatar.

Greetings from San Francisco. Long time lurker for maximizing points and mileage

I'm Kieran,

I live in Bolton, I'm a proper techy and I love golf. I've got a big family, with 5 kids, two dogs, and obvs the wife.

Glad you remembered the most important detail there ;)

Internation traveler, and train lover.

Hi everyone. Chris is my name from Austria. 20 min drive away from vienna. Global traveler since 3 years. Started right before covid hit.

I'm Ted, semi-retired physician, starting to travel internationally.

I'm really intruiged to read down through these. A lot of folks seem to have vastly different lived experiences to me and it might help me contextualize their travel styles.

I'm a late 20s budget traveler from C1ne. As my financial security increases I may feel inclined to travel differently, however hopefully I never get entitled lol. I work in the travel industry, however not in aviation.

I have so much to learn from everyone and hope to give and recieve value from being on flyertalk.

Newbie
 

Hello All,
I'm a newbie to this group. I am an educator based out of Ontario Canada. I am just getting my feet wet in this points game (I was a previous airmile collector) but the program has been down graded so much that it's not worth pursuing anymore.
I love travel, photgraphy and ancient history.

I am looking to learn lots and give back to the community as quickly as I can. I am looking to see if I can expand my travel options as we live very close to the US border.
Thanks!

Hello from GenZ
 

Hi!
As my username suggests I'm a GenZ frequent flyer!
I'm in my early 20s, based in SYD, and fortunate enough to travel internationally for work 5-10 times/year.

SYD-SIN is a common route for me, and I've gotten very familiar with SQ's A380s.
I've got Marriott Platinum status, but no airline status as I (foolishly) split my flights across many airlines/alliances last year. I do have Qantas Point Club Plus, so at least I get lounge access on QF flights (which I haven't used once, as I haven't flown QF in the past year).
I've got a Oneworld RTW Award trip in J booked for late this year thanks to my aggressive credit card churning last year, which I'm really looking forward to as I usually only ever fly economy (work policy) / premium (if I'm lucky) - I've only ever flown business once before (upper deck on an SQ A380)!
Thankfully, work is more generous with hotel policy, so I've been lucky enough to experience some fantastic stays which has earned me status with Marriott Bonvoy.

Look forward to learning and sharing with you all!
-GenZ

Welcome aboard

Well, it might be a bit late making this post after 3.5 years and over 2500 posts, but hey, better late than never.

Growing up in the US, I had several childhood passions, but none were as strong as elevators. Every Saturday, my father and I would drive from the suburbs to the big city to visit a local hotel and ride their elevators up and down (we switched hotels each week). Luckily, my city had some atrium hotels with scenic elevators as well as some tall hotels for longer elevator rides. Back in the day, hotels were less concerned with security and keycarding elevators - though, I'm sure hotel staff found my giddiness a tad odd.

At the same time, my favorite TV shows were The Golden Girls (which caused me to break my arm as I ran back from the bathroom to catch the show returning from a commercial break and tripped over my own feet and fell into the baseboards on the wall) and Great Hotels with Samantha Brown. I loved that show - corny, but it showed so many hotels that at the time felt like I would have to be dreaming to stay in. One of my favorites was the episode on the Westin St. Francis where Samantha spoke on the many different scandals and controversies and toured some magnificent suites. Of course, the kicker was the exterior scenic elevators on the Tower. Luckily, I didn't have to dream and have now stayed there 3 times (it's one of my favorites).

As a child, I pretty much traveled where my parents wanted to go, which meant weekend trips around our state, Santa Fe (which I hated - the hotels were awful, and I don't like art galleries), and California (mostly LA as my mother was convinced she would see celebrities - she did several times). We originally only stayed in Marriott properties as well as independent hotels in New Mexico and Colorado, but my older brother began traveling for work and focusing entirely on SPG. This got my parents into the hotel points and credit card ecosystem, which they are still in today - though not as much as I am, and fueled many nice trips - such as Boston, Disney World, New York City, and even Hawaii (to the sorely-missed St. Regis Princeville).

My brother's travels introduced me to FlyerTalk as he lurked on the site frequently in regards to Starwood. I remember he became an Ambassador when the tier was introduced, but as a very independent person, never found much value in the service. This was also when I began loving the Westin brand - we had many stays in Westins, and I loved the Heavenly Bed (though, my mother always made us take the Heavenly duvet off as they were too thick according to her). Now, I just want more duvets!

At some point, my brother settled down to have a family, but my parents and I continued our yearly trips fueled by their credit card points, even after the merger between Marriott and Starwood. Shortly after the merger, some of my existing mental health struggles flared up while I was in college in regards to travel, and I didn't go on a vacation or stay in a hotel for over 2 years.

Luckily, as I moved towards college graduation, I made the decision to take a solo vacation and cast away the mental blocks that had caused me to say no to hotels. I opened a Bonvoy account, bought a plane ticket to Boston, and had a glorious 4-night stay at the Westin Copley Place. Even when no status, the staff upgraded me to a River View room on the 35th floor, and I loved it. Traveling by myself was so freeing - walking around as much as I wanted, sleeping as much or as little as I wanted, and eating whatever I wanted. Not to mention, going to as many hotels as I wanted.

Of course, the rest is history and well-documented via my posts. COVID came and kept my travels confined to my home state. After vaccination, I began flying again and took a weekend trip each week to a new US city /state (with plenty of repeats). And, starting in 2022, I'm taking advantage of my youth and health to see the world as I had never left the US before 2022. My parents are shocked, but they love living vicariously through my photos and stories on our hour-long video calls each and every day (even from the other side of the world, as my mother says). I still can't get them to come with me as they can't imagine dealing with my habit of switching hotels every night. Plus, I'm still trying to get Mother to realize consistently that Africa isn't a single country with states :-)

Have signed up a few years back but not really visited regularly till recently. I traveled a few times for work a few years back but other than that my travels are all personal (1-2 times a year).

I like to collect points and since I started doing that, I have been spending more money on certain airline and hotel experiences.

I work for one of the major Canadian banks in the credit card space.