After months reading about accumulating points/miles for travel, I have begun my pursuit of miles for leisure travel. I reside in south Alabama, am happily married and have two great kids of grammar school age. Having lurked for some time, I started to see that some of the offers I was pursuing might be helpful to others, so I decided to join up. The Conde Nast article was pretty good motivation as well.

I just found this site and was wondering how do I become a established community member? I'm a service guy who visits my wife on the weekends. I'm never home. I made DM w/ delta last year and they carried over 92k, so I'm real close to DM for '11. Once that happens I will be earning status for '12. Very hard to believe. Thanks Dwayne.

jumping in the bandwagon
 

Name: Mr. D
DOB: Dec 26, 1977
Base: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

My favourite airlines :
(1) Emirates
(2) Singapore Airlines

Company rules dictates that I fly on Malaysia Airlines which is also fine except their lack of in-flight amenities.

Welcome to Flyertalk! that is an impressive amount of flying so you'll fit right in here.

As to your question on becoming an established community member. I reccommend reading and learning as much as possible. Use the search function whenever you can to avoid reasking previously answered questions. Also, check out the Community Buzz forum more and go to a few events (known as a "Do"). And just stick around, you'll be entrenched beflore you know it.

profiles of two retirees...
 

My name is Rebecca Byer from Kingston, N.Y. now resettled in Phoenix, AZ flying all too often to Florida. My husband Benami still works sometimes travelling to New York upstate.

The real reason we joined this site is to inform all of some very bad practices by a company we all used to love, I believe it was called Rewards Network.

I must go now, but we wanted to share our horriexperience with all members of that corrupt company.

We will be back

first
 

Hello

i am john w smith jr..yes that is correct..a lot of namesakes

i travel approximately 9 months of the yr..for the past 20 yrs

i do consulting on arbitrage and have lived basically all over but now based in Las Vegas (for now at least)

i frequently travel commercial and have a watch with 3 time zones

see you all

Delurking, again :)
 

Hi!
Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I actually posted to a few forums; unfortunately, that was waaaaaay back when I was a student and I not only don't remember my old login information, but I don't have access to my very old student email account.

I've been lurking for a very long time, hoping my memory would recover and I'd be able to keep the old account. Finally, I gave in and re-registered, but embarrassingly, I never started posting again. It's embarrassing because I've gleaned so much information from these forums that I really owe it to this community to participate and give back.

I found myself back here again tonight looking for hints on great mileage runs from PIT. When I thought again about how wonderful this community is, my conscience tugged at me and I decided to get the ball rolling and make this intro post. Besides, being a regular lurker kind of feels like being in junior high again; in my memory, I spent lunches kind of sitting with the 'cool kids' but really being right on the outskirts. I'd hear them chatter and want to burst in, but never got the nerve (that's my memory of it at least, although I've learned no one else saw the situation the same way I did and everyone I knew felt that way).

So anyhow, I'm delurking.

My home airports are MGW and PIT. I fly PIT-ORD or MGW-ORD *very* often for work, every couple of months from MGW-ALB for LD relationship reasons, and as often as possible PIT-anywhere--for the hell of it. I prefer to fly out of MGW because 1. I can park for free 2. It works out better for mileage reasons because of the forced stopover in IAD and 3.I can leave my house 30 minutes before a flight and make it with time to spare. Regional airports rock. :)

I bank with UA as often as possible to maintain status, although I'm always close enough to status with delta that I've been tempted to make a few runs with them.

I've run into a few of you in airport lounges just by happenstance, and hope to begin actually *planning* to do it. Overall, this community rocks, and I look forward to being an active participant!

~Mari

Ahhhhhhhhh.

I spend - on average - at least 5 days a week in a hotel. You'd hope so, I work there. Anything less would be a bit slack, really.

Ladies and Gents, I have been the poor sod on the front desk for three years at various hotels in various countries. You've all spoken to "me" at least once; I betcha ;)
As of this week, I'm moving into back-of-house operations for a major brand in Melbourne. It's terribly exciting for me, I get to wear a suit - my last compnay barely ran to polo-shirts.

Clearly, being a hospitality employee in small and seasonal companies has prevented me from ever having holidays (or a social life, really,) but I do travel as much as possible.

So, time to stop lurking and start posting....

Common theme here - long time lurker, sparsely posted. I've learned a ton from this board in terms of how to maximize points/promotions, but also some nuances of travel in general.

I've been a consultant of some form for the past 3 years and have thus lived my life on the road. Typical engagements for me run about 6 months, so it's a M-R flight and same hotel every week. I'm based in ATL, so DL is about the only option I've got. I'm a former HHonors Diamond who has switched to *wood based on coworker preference, point valuation, and property choice. I look forward to finally being a contributing member instead of leaching info from others :)

To all of our new posters(and lurkers:) Welcome.

Howdy Folks!

I have been a long time lurker but decided to finally join.

Travel about 125-150k a year on UAL

Technology Conference Presenter by trade, golf and wine lover on the side.

Hoping to be able to help as well as learn a few new things.

Leslie

Name: IAD Guy
Home City: Washington, DC
I am a long time Flyertalk lurker, I finally joined today. My favorite Airline is United, fly mostly long-haul international routes.

More delurkage
 

Hi all - I'm Philip and I've also been lurking for a long time.

I seem to fly mainly across the Atlantic with one or two trips a year to Asia and a couple of flights inside Europe. For some reason, I decided to join SAS EuroBonus when I started flying too much because my home airline (now Brussels Airlines and *A) had no meaningful frequent flyer program.

Currently vaguely thinking about jumping ship to Lufthansa, but the 100K miles to stay *gold is a bit much (I have been averaging around 70K over the past few years).

So ... yeah. Another long-time lurker saying "Hello world".

First Post
 

Hi Everyone.

I posted a few times many years ago and have now decided to come back and join in the fun again. I am based out of ORD, am fanantically loyal to UA and the Star Alliance and, like many of you, am a disillusioned Hilton Diamond considering a jump to SPG. I am obsessed with travel and do so pretty much every week, more for pleasure than for work. I have learned a lot from all of you and hope I have something valuable to give back as well.


Jim

I engage many cities across this wide, wonderful world but my heart belongs to Chicago

Hi,

Boarding an airplane makes me a free man. I suppose it would change if I traveled more than once a year, but flying and airports are still extremely romantic to me.

I'm Canadian but my heart-felt home is Berlin, hence my nickname. There is little that makes me happier than the sight of the Tegel control tower: it means I have landed in paradise!

As far as FF are concerned, I simply travel not enough to earn sufficient miles by travelling. I made the "mistake" of joining Miles and More on my first ever trip to Berlin in 2006 so I ended up with 19000 MM points and unable to earn more because I live in Canada (donated 10000 for charity when the first batch expired). Had I known I wouldn't settle in Berlin as expected/dreamed, I'd have used Aeroplan from the start (and I'd have been able to go to Europe for free already). Especially that, being no longer a student, I have changed my credit card for CIBC AeroClassic.

I have flown Air France TXL-CDG and didn't bother joining Fly Blue. Now, I regret. See, except Aeroplan, I'm actually more into the plastic than the rewards (I love to collect such items). Which is why I have vowed to sign up on all FF outside Star Alliance even if I am unlikely to fly more than once with them.

Having been a tour guide there, I know Berlin extensively. My other "fetish" destination is Copenhagen.

In 2010, I'm heading for Iceland. As with Berlin, I have been dreaming of visting since I was a 5-6 year-old boy borrowing travel guides at the local library.

21/Male/student/NY and CA

Change that to TX and CA and you've got me! Which one is school for you? (I go to school in the Bay Area)

NY. I live just south of the Bay Area-well 2 hours south-Monterey.

Hello. My name is Carol, and I am addicted to travel!

First time poster on flyertalk. Long time poster on fodors forums, especially the Asia forum. I fly out of ORD on UA most of the time. Since 2004 retirement, I've managed to make Premier Exec on UA, and now I'm finally a 1K, ending 2009 with 153,000 EQMs! On May 3, I'll have about 75k miles already in my EQMs for 2010!

I hope to get tips on how to maximize my UA FF miles and learn the tricks, if there are any, for getting my upgrade requests fulfilled. :D

Carol

welcome to flyertalk, carol! if you haven't already, make sure you have subscribed to the united forum as there are "tips 'n tricks o'plenty" to learn. :)

Hi everyone,

I'm Iñaki, a spanish guy living in France (Paris area), and also enjoying travelling (I arrived this morning from Bucarest.
I found this site trying to find why the FB page doesn't let me connect in, even that I still don't have the answer I find this forum very interesting.
Due to my work (supplier quality manager, automotive industry), I have to visit our suppliers... that are all around the world (this year already Bulgaria, Brazil, Morocco and this week Romania). That's why it has not been difficult for me to keep the FB Gold even after the changes they've made... Anyway the platinum is far away for me (crisis = eco tickets except for long courriers).

I'll to learn a lot from you, I hope to be able to help someone!

Best regards

Bienvenue ou Bienvenido Iñaki!

Check out our FB forum at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/flyin...rance-klm-594/ and we have a thread en francais a http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/franc...ge-thread.html

Hi everyone.

I just joined cos I recently got interested in all those frequent flier programs, but have nowhere to start.

I'm not really a frequent flier as such. I have 2 steady travels a year because I'm currently in a long distance relationship with someone I love...
Anyway Im sorry if I don't quite fit in here because of this. I always imagine that mostly it's business people who fly frequently :p

My name is Nikki, female, I'm 21, and a student in a Bachelors Web-developer degree. I live in Denmark, and I pretty much like anything that has to do with computers, video games, CG and stuff like that.

Anyway hopefully this was intro enough.
I was thinking about starting a thread, presenting my case and asking for what FF programs to join, but are there already threads like that out here? Like "that basics of ff" threads? I really need that :)

Hopefully I can stick around and have interesting discussions. Hello to you all :D

Thank you!!
It's a good way to start with those threads! ;)

Hello everyone my name is Larry I am from southern Michigan. I am new to flyer talk.
Ehat I am interested in doing is flying me and my family to prague in Juon of this year however I can not find a reasonable price, hoping someone can help.

I am a registered nurse who will start traveling a lot. I have a daughter who is in the Army and is stationed in Hawaii. She has been stationed there before and we made two trips to see her. But both trips had a lot of problems and I want to learn how to avoid those problems this time. I thought this would be a good place to go. One of our doctors recommended this site. She is to be there five years and since we have two grandchildren over there we are planning on making the trip at least twice a year.

I'm a frequent flyer currently in London on business. Spend a lot of time on airplanes, mostly Delta's, and am a Diamond level frequent flyer. Saw some complaining about the Diamond level, and thought I'd join here to see what the problem is. I personally love the free annual membership to the Delta Skyclubs.

Hi everyone,
I'm Anna, a happy newcomer to FT. Didn't even know FT excisted until last week when I read an article about the *A DO and suddenly realised these where my kind of people!

I have recently transfered to Prague for a period of time, from where I bounce around central and eastern Europe, and I go back to Sweden to my love any chance I get. I have been a faithful SK flyer since forever, but now also enjoys the Elite + perks of Skyteam as SK has cancelled pretty much everything ARN PRG.

Look forward to hanging out here with you all.
/Anna

Hey Folks!
 

Hi, Great to join this forum.
I am a graduate student (PhD) in the US - which means spending most part of my productive twenties earning very little money :) - but hey! i love what i do Grew up living around the world and I love traveling to different places/countries
I am determined to use all the wonderful advice available here to do some smart "travel hacking" to still able to travel despite my limited financial resources.

This forum is just simply mind blowing - Great work everybody!!

cheers!

My name is Amy, I'm new to FT but been lurking for several months b/c frankly many of the seasoned posters here are intimidating and sarcastic and I've been afraid to say anything, let alone ask a question but hey I can deal cuz I'm a wedding planner who deals with family dynamics all day long.

I also plan destination weddings which is why I earned PM with DL last year - my next wedding is in Italy and am trying to get out of paying for first but probably will anyway just to make the trip bearable. So thanks for the opportunity to say hello and to hear from some friendly folks at FT.

First of all, my name is Simon, i'm 23, i'm from Copenhagen, Denmark and I fly some few times a year. Sometimes its just for holiday and other times its with my work/hobby as a DJ/Producer. I also like to follow my football team FC Copenhagen when they are in europa playing. This is what I mostly are flying/staying for when I travel.

But I would love to fly often (every week would be nice) - and hope someday I will. :)

New to miles rewards
 

I've just started flying and have accmulated 5000 United miles and I'm worried about losing them. What are your suggestions on the easiest way of keeping the miles so I don't end up losing them. I don't really fly very often so more flying right now is not an option at this time. Any ideas are appreciated!

Ellis here, checking in from the sunny state, with many, many questions to come. Happily married with a new promotion at work and that is why I am here. As a newbie to the world of frequent filer miles, I have many, many questions!

I look forward getting to know you all!

getting started
 

joined flyertalk a while ago but have never started posting and not sure why today is the day! Anyway, fly UA mostly, and *A as much as possible otherwise...like to read about hints for gathering more miles and travelling a little less stressed, and would love to travel more..lived in US for 20 years but currently back in UK at the moment. work in a University as a lecturer so some oppportunities for travel and most favourite flights so far have been SAS Copenhagen to Japan where Economy plus was upgraded to business both ways. Now that reduced the stress no end!

Hi everyone, David from Malaysia Asia, an independent travel blog about traveling around Malaysia and Southeast Asia. I found this forum by chance and it seems very interesting with a lot of information on travel and the works.

I hope to contribute as much as I can from my personal experiences and learn more from everyone here. Have a great weekend ahead!

Regards,
David ~ MA

Name: Ian Seitz
Profession: High School/College Student
DOB: 1993
Home City: SLC, Utah
Birth City: Ashville, NC
Hobbies: Snowboarding, Football, Traveling w/friends and family, Rugby, Sailing, video games, watching tv and basketball
Coolest place that i have been: Uluru, Australia

I just realized I've never really introduced myself in any capacity. :)

I'm Ben, was born in Santa Barbara, CA in the very recent year of 1991. Moved around the Southern California area a bit before settling in Ventura County for my high school years. I've since moved up to Portland, OR for school, but still fly back to California 1-2 times monthly due to various attachments (dentist/doctor appointments, business meetings for my dad's business I help him out on).

Always been fascinated with airplanes. Currently just about to start getting my private pilot's license. Along with that I'm working towards an electrical engineering degree. Once I finish school I'm planning on entering the Air Force as an officer and hopefully landing a pilot position, and maybe some day use that experience to get me a permanent gig in the pointy end of a plane for a commercial carrier.

envious of your career in the automotive industry, wish I could be doing the same instead of sitting on FT unemployed, heh... (sending CV's out)


UA Vacations still owes me 5k miles bonus for a recent NYC-YYC flight, hope I didn't loose it as it never credited.



Loved Malaysia on my visit last year.... Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi and Penang were amazing! Be sure to share your knowledge in the Asia forum.

--Russ

YYZ and OTP
 

I am a Canadian born professional who travels to Bucharest regularly for business and previously provided services to an airline in Romania and in Moldova.

Travel tends to be to different places - Easter Island and Macchu Pichu

My Name is SernYi from Malaysia...

Owned a Online Marketing Business.
Helping Hotels owners, doctors, dentists and more to increase sales online..

I've been travelling quite a bit, mainly, US, Aussie and Singapore.

This is a great forum and has lots of value infomartion.. Thank you for sharing =)