Hello everyone
 

I want to participate in this year's Secret Santa event so I am posting here as recommended. So who the heck am I?

As my screen name indicates, I am a female writer — a retired journalist, former newspaper editor and reporter.

For years I have been lurking around Flyertalk, but not traveling often enough to have much to contribute. I would LOVE to change that, and am currently Delta Silver, hoping to travel more and move upward.

Originally from the Boston area (Boston University grad), I now live in Connecticut, which makes it easy to go to Broadway shows and the MET museum, two of my loves (as well as pizza from Patsy's in East Harlem).

My life is very eclectic. I love everything from French culture to a Fenway frank at a Red Sox game. If you want to sample flights of champagne at a chateau or have a beer at a local pub, count me in.
I am literally counting the days (199 as of today) until my next trip to Paris.

So who should get me as their Secret Santa? Do you love fine crafted, artisanal chocolates? I live near a shop that makes outrageously good ones. But that's just one possibility. I want to get something fun the recipient will love.

When I have a few hours (probably more like weeks), I will read this entire thread to get to know all of you.

Best, Trish

It was November 2019 when it all started.....

I have always done some travel every year, a bit for work and a bit for play, but 2019 was the first year I achieved gold status with AA. I realize NOW this is nothing special, but at this point in my traveling life I had never worried/cared/chased/thought about elite status ever before. My flight to TPA in Nov of 2019 got me Gold, and my 500-mile upgrade cleared on my very next flight back to DFW. I liked that a lot.

It was at this time that I coincidentally was getting deep down the credit card points rabbit hole, and i had an Amex that credited back the fee of purchasing 500-mile upgrade stickers. TPA-DFW started me on a journey that i cannot now get off.

It was at this point that i really started to investigate the whole world of points/status, as i learned that i much preferred F to Y......... Being DFW based, i decided that i would become an AA loyalist and just see how this goes.

While researching some specific AA questions i had, i stumbled upon this goldmine of literally everything travel (...FT) and little did i know that was just the beginning. I will admit i was a massive lurker at first, just absorbing all i could in the AAdvantage forums. Just seeing all of the incredibly detailed responses from strangers who were answering other strangers questions was so heartening. I really enjoyed piecing together all of the acronyms and fare bucket lingo, and now i catch myself using it when talking to AA representatives who become a lot easier to deal with when you BOTH know what you're talking about. (ps, with all of the aggregated info here on FT, I'm hard pressed to ever find a reason to ever call an airline ever again...). I was getting to the point that my friends would ask me for AA/credit card points info and i actually had answers for them.

Then COVID :(

That was tough, as i have family in YVR that i could not visit and vice versa. But, finally, in July of this year, as the world opened a bit, i was able to visit a few times for various reasons.
But my biggest FT success was this past September. I went to Ireland, and was going via a paid, relatively inexpensive J ticket through LHR, and had the choice of booking through AA or BA. Armed with my nearly 2 years of knowledge, I knew to book on BA and credit to AA. But, the real success was learning, through the BA forums, about the "A-up" or Airport Upgrade from J to F. I was excited to try this as i was flying on their new 787-10 that had a first cabin. So, with a keen eye on ExpertFlyer, i know there were a few seats available on F on the day of my flight. I casually asked the check-in agent about the A-Up and was offered it for $279USD. This was my first long-haul F experience, and i owe it purely to FT. FT also helped me set an alert for Award F availability on the way home, and, on the second-last day of the trip, i got the alert and was able to transfer 20k chase points to BA to upgrade. This let me experience the Concord Room in LHR. I realize this is not the ultimate long-haul F experience (and i hope to eventually experience those), but it was my first and i owe it all to FT.

So, now I'm hooked. So hooked, that i never even knew this section of the forum existed, and now feel compelled to share my story.
I even my first ever mileage run this Saturday DFW-LGA-CLT-DFW while the wife is out of town. (she thinks I'm a nutcase with all of this, until the upgrades clear...)

Thank you to all that post/reply, and take satisfaction that you are truly helping more than just the ones asking the questions.

I was supposed to visit other places, hopefully by next year we can travel and learn more languages, culture, food, and enjoy a lot of other things. Great to be here!

I wanna visit Russia and Eastern Europe next year. Hope the situation there is gonnna get better than now. I head that in Russia there are a lot of restrictions...

Why bother with Russia?
 

Most of what was Eastern Europe is open to travellers. I would not even think of going to Russia!

David,
For your sake, I really hope they work out a Peace Plan soon. I know so many of us FT’ers really hate to have travel plans interrupted by people getting killed all around the destinations we wish to take selfies of ourselves dining, shopping and sightseeing.

First post
 

Hello FlyerTalk!

I'm FindingFoodFluency, both by username and by gastronomic desire.

If it's edible, I want to try it, that's all there is to it!

I have a Wordpress blog and YouTube page by the same name, covering culinary wanderings from wherever the dart may land; of course, I welcome feedback, and hyperlocal meal suggestions from everyone.

And yes, I've traveled a bit, too, being particularly fond of places where I can chat with the cook in the native lingo; Mexico, you spoil me so.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to helping out fellow travelers -- and eaters -- where possible.

FindingFoodFluency

Intro from NZ!
 

Hi all, I am a GM from New Zealand and work for a large Automotive Distributor.

I am ex-British Army. Have a beautiful wife. Three dogs.

I love traveling, I am currently ANZ *AGElite, SQ Silver etc., my most commonly flown routes are AKL-MEL (RT), AKL-SYD (RT), AKL-SIN (RT), FRA-AKL(RT), AKL-CHC (RT)

Love watches, hunting, travel tech and luggage!

cheers,
Cam

I'm glad it's not a beautiful dog and three wives!

Welcome to FT, airbourne_kiwi!

HI all,

I'm new to FlyerTalk. I live in Australia with two gorgeous daughters. I'm originally from Canada and much of my travel is back and forth from there. I've been around the world twice and around Asia a few times on work. I"m a bit more settled now. But hoping to travel more now after the pandemic. My job doesn't give me much opportunity to fly, but I might change that soon and look for a new job.

I've got travel and living around the world as my grandparents and parents travelled and lived all over the world.

Looking forward to talking to more of you!!

Jireh

Greetings from children's book writer & illustrator in Toronto
 

Hello all! I'm new to Flyertalk, mainly reading posts (LEARNING SO MUCH!) and learning more about the site, where to post and not to post, etc.. I write and illustrate books for young people for a living (mainly work with Simon & Schuster but have also worked with Random House and Harpercollins, among others). Before the pandemic, I did a fair amount of flying for work, including some book tours in which I'd have to fly to a new airport every day. I know some of you out there are used to this, but I always found this super stressful. I have only recently realized that I would be less stressed if I take the time to find out more about the various airlines and airports I use, make the effort to find out more about the programs I'm in (I only JUST used my first eUpgrade credits in Aeroplan...I have a bunch accumulated which I've ignored). I know there are many aspects of flying/travel that are out of our control -- and I've had soooo many happen to me over the years -- but there are also so many that I *can* control. My husband and I are also starting to do more leisure travel, and I'm doing more research about how to take more advantage of Aeroplan and other programs I'm in.

Workstuff: My illustrations appear in books by Judy Blume, Michael Ian Black, Linda Sue Park, Aaron Reynolds and others. If you have a copy of the re-issued chapter and middle grade Judy Blume books from Atheneum/Simon & Schuster like "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret", you'll see my cover illustration credit inside (I did not help with the YA books with photographic covers). I also have written and illustrated picture books for S&S and am working on my next. Also working on a middle grade novel and a graphic novel. My FIRST career was a systems programmer/analyst where I programmed in COBOL (yes, I am a dinosaur) for the Toronto Dominion's head office.

Hobbystuff: I am an avid board gamer, and my husband and I hope to someday visit the big trade show in Essen. You can find some of my board gaming comics on the BoardGameGeek website. I am a hobby songwriter and musician - my songs have aired on CBC radio via my music group. I play, with varying degrees of competence: keyboard/piano, flute, Celtic harp, tin whistle, guitar, assorted bangy percussion things. I enjoy creating comics (and someday hope to create a comic or two for the Flyertalk community for the fun of it - though I'm not sure if there is an appropriate forum?) and have had several webcomics in the past including Will Write For Chocolate, My Life In A Nutshell (covers period where I sold my website), Waiting For Frodo (about a fan waiting in line for the Lord Of The Rings movies - some people at Weta Digital were fans!). I am a big fan of virtual reality art since my husband gave me an Oculus Quest headset early in the pandemic, and have been learning how to create stuff that way as well.

You can find more about me at DebbieOhi.com, on Twitter at [MENTION=48055]inky[/MENTION]elbows and on Instagram at [MENTION=10117107]inkygirl[/MENTION]. Looking forward to getting to know others in the Flyertalk community!

Debbie

Hi!

I'm not a new member but this year I've been a bit more active posting and especially reading.

I'm from Peru living for a while in Canada. I don't have family here so apart from tourism, I travel to visit family and friends every year. I go often to California, within Canada, Peru, Spain and Israel.
I have visited many countries, my last one is Panama, more than the average people but for sure a lot less than people in this forum.

I'm Industrial Engineer who works in the Insurance industry. I am lucky as well to speak 4 languages.

Cheers.

Hi!

For a long time i was a silent reader here, but i choose to register on flyertalk today because there are some experience in myself that I can share here.

Actually I'm from Indonesia, but now I live in Switzerland for study.

Love travelling (Not only by plane, but also by cars and trains)

Cheers

Howdy!
 

Hey!

I've been lurking here since 2018, but like many working in healthcare COVID scuppered many a travel plan.

I'm based in Perth, Western Australia, and my main travel destination is East Coast USA to see my family.

In 2023 I have two domestic and one international trip booked so far, but am doing deep dive research into maximising frequent flyer miles to do more, particularly Krisflyer and Velocity.

I love museums, history, and culture when I travel, and I'm currently looking into Milan flights.

Greetings Sandgroper and welcome from a Croweater! (Although living in Vic) :D

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.

Hi everyone,
I figured i'd introduce myself here since i didnt see a specific introductions thread anywhere (apologies if i'm blind)
My name is Ben, I just signed up to Flyertalk after finding the community via an travel hack article that referenced cowtool, I've been playing around with travel rewards (mostly amex and aeroplan) for awhile but i really want to learn everything there is to know and start traveling as much as possible over the next few years so here i am! I look forward to taking in all the information i can and eventually becoming a contributing member of the community.

A bit about me:
I'm currently 27, I'm working as a network administrator in the greater Toronto area, I'm engaged and am looking forward to planning a wedding, destination bachelor/bachelorette party and a Honeymoon to Japan for 2025, while also hoping to somehow afford to travel as much as possible in between. so yea i feel this community is the perfect fit for me right about now. Thank you all so much for what i can only describe as an a massive treasure-trove of information. oh, and while i'm definitely not going to be much help for awhile when it comes to travel knowledge, if anyone needs assistance with tech i'm your guy lol

Cheers,

Ben

Research Study
 

Hello Flyer Talk! Just wondering if you could please help me out... I am a grad student trying to gain additional insight (Planned behavior) into the Willingness of Airline Passengers to Pay More for Better Customer Service.

forms.gle/r2gGTncfqwEU1qQd6

Asking the Flyertalk Community to take a moment to complete this survey as a part of my research study. This should only take ~3 minutes of your time. Thank you in advance! Wes :-)

Hi everyone, new member here.

Decided to register after I found out that I am going to be travelling much more in the future. In my previous life I was working 15 years on cargo ships all over the globe so I have few flight and sea miles under my butt. Now I have stood still for four years in my home country, Finland. At the end of the year I will heading to UAE for new job; it should be three year assignment. So probably plenty AUH-HEL and AUH-BKK action coming in the future :) (I have second home in Thailand)

Hi all,

Decided to join since I love flying and travel quite often (mostly intra Europe). Dutch lawyer here, living in the Netherlands so flying out of AMS whenever I go somewhere. Flying AF/KLM 99% of the time and having Platinum status with Flying Blue.

Hope to both learn from all your experiences and share some of my own.

Cheers!

As my handle suggests, I am an avid baker, power lifter/bodybuilder, and traveler. In addition to my kitchen adventures at home, I’m seeking out the best pastries in my travels around the world and still getting in my workouts!

I just signed up and am looking for info on which rewards program will best suite me. I have been using Westjet but am considering switching to Aeroplan to give me more flexibility.

Hi, All. Oh2Ak here introducing myself. I am a long time member - since 2007! - but have not posted. Obviously I love to travel since I am here. Obviously originally from Ohio and moved to Alaska. A friend once asked how my husband and I could afford to travel like we do. I asked her to look at her big house and our cabin in the woods explaining we simply have different priorities for how to spend the dollars we have earned. We would much rather give our kids experiences and memories than things. I have earned Alaska 100k two years in a row with no mileage runs and am going for a third. My husband said I was only in the game for the chocolate until I gifted him Gold. He now insists I keep it going! I have so much to learn from everyone here and am happy to be here. I look forward to getting more involved.

Long time lurker…
 

I swear I joined this group in the early 2000s under a different email addy and name! I’m a middle aged Canadian, trying my best to make this points game work. Looking forward to delving in and figuring out what all these acronyms mean.

Hi Everyone,
I'm on here because I find tips on new seat maps helpful, like for UA Premium Plus (PP). Plus I subscribed to threads to see what hot meals are being served on UA for Premium Plus and on JetBlue in Mint. I haven't yet flown in PP, though I will before the year is over by using 30k miles for an AM flight SFO-EWR. I have flown in Mint a few times. I try to only sit in the front when I can use miles/points. I proudly waited and got a seat in mint for 70k pts on a transcontinental from JFK to SFO coming up in a few months. I am the type of person who arrives early at an airport enough to get through security and buy a coffee while waiting for the boarding process to begin, however, not so early that I need a lounge. I never fly with connections unless there's no choice.

I am trying to save for a trip to Italy that I think I can manage to do in October of 2024 so I'll be checking out forums for travel by air within the country itself for any tips. I've never flown on Ryanair or Easyjet. I want to fly to Sardinia because I hope to get the best tastings of Vermentino while I'm in Italy.

I usually travel once a year to see friends in NYC. Originally, I am from the Boston area and am about to celebrate 31 years of living in the beautiful city of San Francisco.

I work for a university in the marketing dept. doing a bit of event coordination and writing. I previously held a quality assurance engineer position for Travelocity testing their vacation packages. My position was outsourced and then I decided that the business of higher education is much more stable. I handle website updates now and that's good enough tech-related work for me.

Looking forward to posting my travel experience on the forums.

Canadian based in Toronto, slowly trying to get into the points game, there seems to be endless information to digest but im here for it!