Hi all, Arjan here, digital nomad since a year. Cheers!

Hi there,

I live in a small city in the Netherlands. I'm trying to fly as much as I can and really enjoy flying. Favorite airlines are KLM and Lufthansa. Currently I'm Freccia Alata member due to a statusmatch.

Please keep in mind English is not my native language.

A

What's going on Flyertalk?!

The name is Deric Poldberg and I reside in the heartland of America, aka Omaha NE. I'm 24 and am fairly new to the miles and points game. I don't post much, but spend most of my time browsing and learning as much as I can!

Hello everyone!

My name is Luca and I am an international attorney, mostly for private issues, like citizenship, relocation, estate planning with a cross-border element, expat families, working in Europe.

I have been flying for many years, but before that my travels were 100% in night trains, so I'm a friend of the timetable. Not too elite (yet) but here's hoping. I would very much like to contribute what I can to the community, especially on Eastern European topics.

introducing myself
 

After a decade of lurking, I'm out of the Flyertalk closet. I specialize in Vietnamese contemporary fine art, so for the last 20 years am a very frequent flyer between Asia, Europe and New York, averaging about 40 flights annually. Couldn't do it w/o biz tix! Fortunately my kids have settled along the flight plans, so we meet up reasonably often.
I've become quite expert at using points, Avios, etc to maximum benefit and still enjoy the flying. Scariest flights were vertical descent on Garuda Air to Surabaya (after a full lunch) and early Vietnam Air flights on Tupolevs, when braking required the pilot to open full throttle and the air vents spewed clouds of moisture into the cabin. Best flight memory is hitching a ride in the cockpit from Paris to Tunisia, back in the days when security was non-existent and I wore miniskirts.
I'm a big fan of BA - flights and lounges. Switched from Singapore Air to Thai and am now exploring other options. The personal space on Qatar Air is astounding.
Looking forward to meet Flyertalkers at the upcoming Wine Dinner in June!

I'm curious how you made it to Antarctica without going through South America. Going through Australia or New Zealand is the long and tough way.

Good luck on your hockey arena quest. There will be a new one in Detroit next year. Go Wings!

New member, career-hotel worker, PPL-holder, seasoned-traveller. Born in Australia, grew up in France and Switzerland, still working here now.

Hello!
 

Hello!

Long-time lurker here, first time poster... just thought I'd say hello!

Looking forward to getting stuck into some good nattering about everything above 10,000 feet :)

Hola Cheesy friend (i guess this is a sign i need to get dinner even though midnight is less than an hour from now in Eastern Time)

Check out the helpful stickies in the Info Desk such as

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...faqs-more.html

&

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...ion-about.html

Also attending some of the DO's (aka A BIG TO DO!!!!!, aka meet ups) listed in the current section you posted in for networking opportunities.

Welcome cheesetoast !! ^

Hi from Dusseldorf
 

Hi Guys


I am joining this forum from Germany.
Being relatively new to "frequent travelling" I needed to intensify my research about airlines status programs etc. when my job required me recently to travel much more often.
So I started with research on mostly German sites but in many cases I landed here for the original thread about many interesting fares.:)


I also found that you guys are much more helpful and friendly especially to newbies.^


Some info about myself


age: 35 yr
home airport: DUS (sometimes flying from HAJ or FRA)
flights: eco only
destinations: mainly intra-European, 1 x per year ASP, 1 x USA
FFP: Airberlin Topbonus / Tier: Gold (hope to get Platinum until end of 2016)


Looking forward to exchanging with all of you:)


Cheers
FlyDUS

I live in Florida (hah, bet you thought I was in Texas) and have a job that frequently takes me to WA, TX and VA; less frequently to other destinations.

I'm originally from Norway, but have lived on and off in the US for 15 years (California, Texas and Florida) and have more or less settled down in southeast Florida. But of course, I do like to go visit family in Norway from time to time, so that's the vast majority of my international travel at the moment.

In college, I drove 18-wheelers over the summers. Perhaps an unusual occupation for a computer science student, but it helped pay the bills, and as a bonus, I got paid to see the country. I might also add that while an 18-wheeler may be slower than a Boeing, I got a first-class seat every time. And you can't beat the view. :D

At any rate, I was a Norwegian enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin; hence my CB handle "Texas Viking", which is where I got my nickname from.

I've probably missed out on a few free flights and perks over the years by not being adept enough at working frequent flyer programs, credit card bonuses and such to their max advantage. There's a limit to how much effort I'll put into it -- you won't find me doing "mileage runs" because I actually find air travel a bit unpleasant/inconvenient. However, FlyerTalk has been helpful in trying to figure out the best way to maximize my benefits from the flights I have to take anyway.

(The reason I find air travel unpleasant: Lines, security theater, cramped seats and going stir-crazy being confined in a plane for hours on end. I actually tend to schedule layovers so that I won't be on a plane more than 4 hours if possible, just to get a break from those cramped seats -- and perhaps a good non-airplane meal.)

Hi everyone. I'm Harris and am glad to have come across flyertalk. I spend most of my time in Shanghai but travel to Canada frequently and spend some of my summer and winter there. English is not my first language.

I also travel often within China and try to fly China Southern whenever I can and also fly Air China quite a bit as well. If you ever have questions about Shanghai or the nearby cities feel free to ask.

Off topic but going to HCMC in september
 

To Hanoi in January, where best to see Vietnamese contemporary art?

Hello
 

Hello together,
My name is Peter, i am 28 Years old from Berlin Germany and came accros the flyertalk website due to my travel ambitions.
I am a florida tourist since i was born and i was able to fascinate my wife for the beauty of it as well.
I am a Airberlin Gold, soon to be Platinum Member and enjoy traveling in all its ascpects.

I was hoping to find someone from the us in this forum who would like to bring some small groceries in exchange for a Ride from TXL, SXF or BER
Im just talking of suncreen, chips or snacks which i cant get here, neither in import shops or with international shipping, and i was not going to pay 60$ for a forwarding service. Maybe someone has space left in their luggage and therefore would enjoy a ride to the hotel or else. I speak english and got a nice new grand cherokee, unlike the taxi drivers do :)

Welcome to FlyerTalk, PeterHerz! Your passenger may have to wait a long time for a ride from BER. ;)

There is a gathering or 'Do' of FlyerTalkers in Berlin later this year. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...er-2016-a.html
I know a number of FTers are coming from the US if you don't find anyone to bring your groceries earlier. You may like to attend the Do to meet other FTers in any case with or without groceries. :)

Thanks for the welcome, i will take a look :)

Hello everyone,

My name is Stephen, I am a 32 year old IT Project Manager in Professional Services based out of Toronto for a FinTech company HQ'd in Philadelphia. I'm a somewhat frequent traveller (~30-50% depending on projects) and tend to travel between 3-5 days when needed.

I do have a Nexus card, which as greatly sped up any travel in North America and absolutely love the thing. My home airport is yyz or I suppose Billy Bishop if it would be a convenient hop. I tend to typically travel within the US and Canada, but may need to take the occasional trip to Bangalore.

In terms of programs I'm Diamond with HH and 35K for Aeroplan. Regarding luggage, I have a Crew 9 20' expandable Travelpro that has held up great for a few years.

Hello everyone,

I'm Paul. I'm an IT Generalist out of Durham, NC. I work for a Timeshare company, but since my end is the technology I know little about it. My wife's family is in Colorado and sometimes I have to go on site. That and wanting to get out of town to see more U.S. Soccer means I'm interested in finding good deals online.

RDU is my home airport, and I'm really only subscribed to La Quinta and Southwest rewards programs because they were the most conducive with my last job. Trying to get better at finding deals.

As to my username.....it's odd. It just came to me out of nowhere. I paused and thought "That's silly. Why would I do that?" But then I thought "Why not do that?" The Big Ol' part I come by honestly. I'm 6'8". So spare me any legroom complaints you might have :-)

Seriously though....happy to be here, and looking forward to using FlyerTalk.

Welcome. Here you can learn about things like the Southwest Companion Pass and maybe about some other airline programs.

Greetings to you all...
Sorry for my bad English...

You can just call me with my user ID "anak negeri"...

I'm from Jakarta, Indonesia... nearest airport from my home is Halim Perdanakusuma (HLP) but the nearest international airport is Soekarno-Hatta Airport (CGK), also Indonesia's largest airport which is planning to open its new terminal (Terminal 3 Ultimate) in July...

I'm an owner of small travel & ticket agency, selling flight tickets (almost all airlines) and Indonesian local rail tickets...

since I started my business, my interest to aviation world has been increasing... I hope I can learn more in this forum...

Thanks...

Morning , Sydney Australia here .
I did first post yesterday since joining Dec 18, 05. Took me a while to chat, now that is a first.
I joined as in 2006 I was having my one and only trip overseas and it was to Europe. Amazing trip and quite a few trips later I am Platinum with One World. Did a bucket list trip last year as 1st class return to London with Qantas. Normally tend to travel business or economy. Retired last year and have done a few impromptu trips OS.
Have over the last decade obtained some excellent advice and giggles on here

Hi BigOlTater,
Welcome to this exchange board. Many experienced flyers and airline staff here. RDU is my home airport. Nice place but very limited flight offerings as you probably know. Have you considered a drive to CLT? A better choice of flights/destinations though the fares are high. We would rather drive 3 hours to CLT for a non-stop than spend 3 hours between flights making a connections in a crazy airport, with all the inherent risks.
Raleighrdu

Hi everyone,

since I have been here a while (joined in 2011 for some questions about a flyBA and Air New Zealand flight), I might introduce myself.

My name is Jens, I was born in Germany in 1978 and I work in IT as an programmer and solution architect at an insurance company since 1999. I started my career with a apprenticeship as mathematical-technical assistant (including fun things like "3 weeks math - 6 hours a day"). After that, I got a bachelor degree while working full time and now I have been working in the field of Content Delivery Systems / Output Management for 8 years.

My girlfriend and I like to travel, mostly by plane or train and the technical and logistic of both ways of travelling is what interests us. Also, the brilliant trip reports here are giving us ideas for our future travels.
In October we will visit South Korea for about 3 weeks and next year our current idea includes Bhutan and / or Thailand and / or Nepal.

Home airport is CGN and DUS.

Evening everyone

Like Askartus I have some spent some time looking through the informative posts in this great forum.

I'm Alan, 45, from Leigh on Sea in Essex. I have worked in exports for 28 years and am currently employed by an international bank in London.

I have been married for 13 years and we have 2 wonderful children.

I have been fortunate enough to have flown over 200,000 miles, with extensive travel to Southern Africa, Europe and the USA mainly by economy but ever increasingly through business class.

I look forward to learning more through this forum.

Hello All,

I'm James, I'm 28 and based in Lincolnshire, which is a large but mostly rural county in the east midlands of the UK mainland England.

I'm a director in the family business which specialises in export of tractors and tractor parts. We have a domestic side but I run the export division. Most of my travel is work related, usually only get time for a 'proper' holiday once a year and the odd weekend away with the girlfriend.

The past 2 1/2 years has seen a greater increase in travel for work. Usually Europe/Turkey every other month. I usually get to the USA 3-4 times a year, South American once a year, Far east or Africa every other year.

Fortunately I am now able sign my own expenses off so I am spending a bit more time near the front of the plane. But I'm quite happy with BA new WT+ if needs be!:D

My nearest airport is HUY which is a small local airport running mostly helicopters to rigs and Eastern which has an oil run to ABZ. KLM run services to AMS which is convenient at times but my mild disdain for KLM means I only fly it when it's very convenient. So I do spend some time hauling down the M1 to T5 more and more.

Hiya,

Long time lurker, but finally checking in from LAS (Las Vegas)!

Name is Ed, recently turned 39, and really just starting my foray into flyer status as I have seen an uptick in work travels the last few years. Have also discovered a love for worldly travels with my family (Tokyo later this year).

Fly pretty much exclusively on UA/*A, which seems to be on the up-and-up in terms of product (service still meh). Started out because terminal 3 wasn't as busy as terminal 1, but as I've now made status a few years in a row, hard to pass up on those CPUs. :)

I'm also an avid golfer. If any one is ever in town looking for a round and has some flying trade secrets to share - hit me up! :)

Hello everyone, joined the board recently and thoroughly enjoying reading lots of interesting and enlightening threads.

I'm an aging software engineer with a penchant for long distance travel - mainly with AF/KLM but not exclusively. Currently FB Gold (re-achieved last year after cashing in alll my FB miles back in 2008 before the great devaluation!).

After much saving, scrimping and belt-tightening I've booked myself on an AF J and F class trip MAN-CDG-HND-CDG-MAN in December. I've obviously not done a trip report before so will endeavour to post one when the time comes. So looking forward to the La Premiere experience after years of slumming it along in J ;)

My nickname? It comes from an album title of one of my favourite artists - Jan Garbarek. Used this nick for years on various boards.

Unfortunately, it seems I'm a full 24 years late to this thread. so let me summarize my even shorter lifespan and a little of what I do, and my background.

Fortunately over the last sixteen years, I've had the esteemed opportunity of piggybacking my parents, and specifically my dads benefits, on standby endeavors (mostly to Florida ..well, 90% to FL, but who cares?). Ever since I was nine, I've always been intrigued in specific sectors in the IT field, starting out with IT security, and progressing as far as networking -of which I'll be CCNA in the next two years (in other words, is pathetic fancy talk for saying I'll be taking a three month long networking course). When I was Nine, things got interesting as Delta swooped in and as South Park would say "They took our jobs!". For the next few months, as you can imagine, they sucked and we lived off severance and unemployment benefits; as you can assume, it wasn't glamorous. On the upside however, we were still able to keep our flight benefits, so there was that. :p :)

Luckily a few months after, we found work, however shortly after that they started turning for the worse, and just before things really got bad he got recruited to another company, the yearly dough doubled and life's been great ever since.

Over the last five years, more things have changed than I could've ever dreamed of:
The cool stuff..
-Retiree Badge 2011
-Instead of staying in crappy Comfort Inns, we get Hiltons #Affluenza
-Kitchen Renno
-Bedroom Rennos
-Travel went up as much as 5x (last summer I was in planes and on the road virtually every week to every other week; a dream come true)
The Meh Stuff:
-After a long enough absence, I got upgraded this year, twice. Both seats sucked but oh well (739: 1D (I think the seatmate worked for Nissan.. Interesting PR stuff..), CR9 OO 1A <- That one wasn't bad come to think of it; it was the first time I actually haven't hated salmon.. Well then..)
-New tech setup, blue snowball mic as well
-Bought GE, Galaxy S6. and all of my phones on my own dime
-Started a Minecraft Server and Gaming community (Also from my wallet. Judge all you want, but it's changed my life in ways I couldn't imagine. All the wonderful people I've met... It's like a mini FT, only this time I'm the Randy Patterson.)
-Volunteered to help a server host actually run properly for once -fun job... Though wayy too many hours and way too little pay (Well.. It was volunteering, what should I expect; you don't pay your employees $10/hr when you can't even make a single cent worth of profit.. Coulda' thought it was common knowledge)
-Cousins moved to FL, I'll be honest, it's been an excuse for us to be down at least twice a month.
-Switched from Centurylink to Comcast; it's sad to call that an upgrade :( (but it is :eek:)
-Discovered another forum, has direct support from actual cable companies, for once the people speak fluent english; and are well, useful. What a commodity.
-Achievement Unlocked: Spot a wild, and drunk Kipper ..Amidst the support and unease over poor Gralistair's colonoscopy.

..So yeah, that pretty much covers it. Now just to see whats next.

---

Current Status Symbols:

-Delta Charter KM (gimme the dang brag tag already)
-Delta NRSA
-Shena's beloved nephew
-Nat'l Emerald Club Exec
-HHonors Silver
-Hotels.com Silver
-Global Entry

Hello,

New member here – been a lurker on here for a couple of months and now decided to join as started to get quite into the whole Avios thing via our BA Amex PP cards so will be interested and extremely grateful to hear of tips and offers from experts on here.

I am currently at Bronze but will be at Silver in a few weeks after a transatlantic trip in F – my 2nd time and the wife and little one’s (7 months old) 1st time.

As for me? Live in the North of England and at the moment work has me travelling to North Africa regularly – this has been via private chartered flights for now (no miles earned sadly!) but this will soon change as we have to start using scheduled airlines (cost cutting apparently) so currently weighing up my options – of which there aren’t many to be honest.

Me and Mrs UTFB have travelled quite a lot over the last 10 years, the recent arrival of our first son means things will have to change a bit but I’m looking forward to showing him the world when we can!

That’s it for now. Looking forward to getting into the whole FlyerTalk world.

Hello FT,

I'm a bit late to the party here so I'll introduce myself a bit.

I'm currently an Accounting Student at a state univ. in Ohio and will be working for a multinational public accounting firm after graduation next year. I love to travel wherever and whenever I can, and always try to keep at least 2 or 3 internationals on the horizon. I'm certainly a rookie with only 5 1/2 pages of my passport used so far...

Although I utilise many of the CC earning & churning methods out there, I usually end up flying on paid (sale/error) fares. Will be making my first big redemption on a TATL OW from Japan with OneWorld this upcoming summer. I'm also booked on one of my "bucket list" flights this summer: UA154.

That's it folks. Hopefully I can add some more trips to the horizon.

P.S. - If anyone knows some secrets to get an AF Business Upgrade Award, or knows how often they release availability, please let me know! :)

Hello Everyone!
Long time lurker and have finally joined FT.
I am currently a doctoral student in a social science department in the Pacific Northwest. I am originally from the mid-west and during my masters became involved in this wonderfully addicting game of hoarding points.

I love flying and for some odd reason get more work done in the air than I do on the ground (probably a lack of a certain video streaming service). However, I have never been able to hit that peak of status with any specific airline. Throughout the next 4 years through going to conferences, going home, etc. I plan on putting my full faith and effort to being a true elite. Hell maybe I could even earn status on one airline one year, and then another the next (only time will tell).

You are an incredible bunch of human beings and trust me, be rest assured that your tireless work will be remembered by us in the younger generations (I'm 24) and we will continue your legacy.

Quirky
 

Took the step from being a 'lurker' to joining this forum.

My inaugural post :-)

Welcome to FT, 50wam!

I'm moving your post to 'Who we all are' where posts from other new members may be found.

NewbieRunner
Co-moderator, CommunityBuzz

Expat Teacher in Hong Kong
 

Greetings, flyers!

My name is Barry, and I am an Expat teacher from the USA, living in HK. During school breaks, my wife and I enjoy visiting other Asia destinations. Our children are grown up now (university or older), so we can travel a bit more freely. Before kids, back in 1985, my wife and I visited 20 countries over six months, on an old version of the "Round the World" flight promotion.

I appreciate all the valuable tips and whimsical stories posted here!

Hello!

After a few months of lurking I thought I'd start posting, and this seemed a good a place as any to start.

I'm an expat British financial journalist working in the US in NYC, living in New Jersey and therefore mostly flying out of Newark. As you'll guess this has made me a United flyer, and I have (and love) my Chase MileagePlus card. I fly a reasonable amount of TATL and domestic for work, and domestic with my wife for leisure, but sadly always in economy, so status is a slow grind! Looks like I'll finally get to UA Silver this year though, and am planning my 2017 campaign for UA Gold.

My wife and I are like most of us here both super keen travelers, and are currently working our way through the states (26 states in 4 years so far), and other interests include choirs, skiing, food and opera, roughly in that order.

Welcome. Work for the other FT by chance?

No, nothing that mainstream, but I do happen to be in the same building as them in New York.

Greetings! I'm a bit late posting some info (I've already posted a few times on Global Entry threads), but here goes...

Old timer who's been flying for over 50 years now; recent job has required extensive domestic travel. I remember having to dress up to fly back in the '60's... ah the days!

Going overseas very soon, flying internationally for the first time ever. (ORD-NRT, not looking forward to that looong trip) Started lurking on flyertalk to get info about Global Entry. Got AMAZING information and tips; thank you for that!

Looking forward to giving back.

Hello everyone!

I have been a lurker here for almost a year but never felt I could really contribute much as I hadn't flown nearly as much as most of the people on here. However, this past year I really upped my flying time (went from 12 AC segments in 2015 to now over 50 AC segments this year) and so I want to try to offer what I can to this wonderful community!

Currently living in Victoria, BC but my home (and wife) is in Nova Scotia so at least a monthly trip of 3-4 segments per direction has helped. I am a mid 20s Chemistry PhD student who is actually working through the final steps to apply to NAV Canada to work in Air Traffic Services. I am currently an AC E50K Altitude member, Hotels.com gold member, Aeroplan Black (soon to be diamond), and a Nexus Trusted Traveller. I would love to travel to more international destinations so might try to book some reward seats in J at some point.

Few other tidbits:
I love listening to/playing bluegrass music
My acoustic guitar is probably my most prized possession.
I am an avid photographer
I am allergic to caterpillars (but strangely, not butterflies - go figure)

Cheers!