Who we all are
 

This may be a bit of an odd topic, but after reading various threads today, I respectfully ask some of our members to provide a little more information about themselves.

This is not a big-brotherish request - it's more that I am interested to see where people are/what they do/what activities thrill them, and some are very mysterious blanks...

Jim_B is somewhere in South America? auh2o has an interesting name, but what sort of mind comes up with that handle? pjaucutt provides all sorts of information, but seems to spend more time in Paris than at a university in Wisconsin, Jetdillo has a job which allows him the opportunity to critique BA's stewardesses outfits...

Many of the regular contributers change their profiles regularly (and perhaps those who don't should dust theirs off?) Mine may seem strange, but it is all true...

International traveler, tri-continental commuter- Asia-NA-SA.

I'll give my full details (at least any that I haven't already given away on the full-fare vs. upgrade and antitrust threads) only when arturo provides full details!

We all know that arturo is technically deceased, although working on the spac-stashun and haunting us in his time off...

What I'm really getting at is the little box that pops up when you hit the 'info' button next to someone's name. The geographic information is particularly relevant when talking about travel, ff programs etc. And some people have really interesting occupations.

I'm not suggesting that anyone should provide information that they feel uncomfortable sharing with us (thank you for your complete honesty, timchen!) - I am just curious about the characters behind the ciphers. My experience thus far is that the FlyerTalkers are an interesting, if eclectic, group.

Perhaps we should have another OMNI award for the best profile each month (alas, no Swiss chocolates in this one). A recent nominee might be Marvella, with honourable mentions for Rudi, PremEx (for his love of cigars) & the disgruntled Merry... Only profiles based in truth will qualify for this award: arturo, roberto and their ghostly friends have no earthly existence & thus are ineligible to win.

Name: Saint Nick
Profession: Global Delivery Service
Birth Date: NOBODY celebrates MY birthday!
Location: North Pole
Favorite Air Carrier: Antler Airways
Comments: Oy! I've got more frequent flyer miles than even Mister (Since 1292) Martel!

arturo vyolate antitrust laws ef u kno who he be.

My name is David, I'm 34 years old and I live in the Cascade foothills about 30 minutes east of Seattle with my wife, 8 month old boy and two cats.

I work as a senior sales consultant for a company that provides network services to large corporations all around the US with a concentration on the western states. I have been doing electronic/computer sales for 12 years now and am burned out. I want to get more involved with marketing or promotional activities outside of the computer industry; perhaps with a focus in the travel or aviation industry but definetly with something more "fun" than computers. As I am not a geek-minded person, I find computers to be a dull topic after a few minutes. I'm actually very serious about this and have hired the services of an excellent career counselor to assist me in this transition.

In my free time, I enjoy skiing and have three ski resorts withing 30 miles of my home. My wife and I go hiking in the Cascades in nicer weather. I also like to read mystery and adventure novels and consume 3 or 4 books a month. Lately, I'd say I've been spending a lot of time simply being a piece of climbing furniture for my son who has just learned how to crawl and stand.

I'm retired from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) (since 1983) and I work as a consultant to the housing industry on finance matters. Before HUD, I was in the Army, where I was trained as a Foreign Area Specialist in Russian. At HUD, I used my Russian language fluency in executing the "US-USSR Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Housing and Other Construction". I also held a sub-cabinet post for a short time at HUD.
I work actively with the National Asociation of Home Builders (NAHB) and the Mortgage Bankers Association Asociation (MBA) on housing finance issues and I'm frequently called as a witness in lawsuits related to housing.
Is that the kind of stuff you were looking for, baobab?
I don't mind exposing myself, but what does it really accomplish?

A new hompage with more bio than you could want

WWW.Danto.com

My family, career, pictures.....

If you look, it's because you wanted to....

[This message has been edited by NJDavid (edited 02-19-99).]

phil - I wasn't really looking for that much detail.

All I was asking was that the people who have blank 'occupation', 'location' and 'interests' in their profiles tell us a little more about themselves.

PremEx's profile is an example of the sort of thing I'm looking for: he's a designer, he lives in Redondo Beach, California and his interests include 'Fine wine, cigars, and travel...of course!' (I also happen to know that he does some work for Disney, and is thus an expert on getting in & out of & around Orlando, and that he's one of our Party in Paradise co-ordinators) We don't need anything deeper than that: I'm not asking for exhaustive resumes...

Knowing a contributer's location helps when asking specific geographical travel/ff questions, particuarly for those contributers who are located outside the contiguous US. Having a description in the occupation title lets us have an idea of how much travel/the type of travel they might do (eg Catman is an NY-based newsman, the consultants among us are seldom found at home, Rudi travels to California & other exotic locales on business, etc...), as well as particular interests that may be relevant. If djlawman hadn't told us that he's an antitrust lawyer, we would all have missed out on a lot of interesting and relevant information. Finally, putting something other than the obvious (travel) in the interests section lends a human face to us all. Jaws would never have received his Cuban cigar if he hadn't admitted to a fondness for them!

Is this all a bit clearer now? I apologise if anyone thought that I was using Gestapo techniques to shake every last detail out of them...

OMNI POSTING..

I think my bio says more than you all need to know.

But my autobiography's coming otu at the end of the year so that should tell you my story.
It's in Nine volumes (for the nine lives of a CAT)

It's called "WHen THe Cat MEOWS!" (Doubleday
Press, COpyright: 1998!) CATMAN

One more OMNI POSTING...

Warner Bros is offering an option on the movie rights. TOm Cruise, Kevin Costner,
Matt Damon, Leo DiCaprio and Ben Affleck are fighting it out for the coveted role of CATMAN.

Of course I have the option to play myself.
THe Cats will play themselves of course.

If anyone want's teh Reader's Digest version
of my autobio... I'll put together if there's
interest... CATMAN

NJDavid - all I am asking for is that contributers fill in their profiles... I asked because I clicked on auh2o's info button (curious, because I'd worked out 'goldwater' & wanted to see what sort of clever mind came up with that: maybe s/he does cryptic crosswords?) - nada. Ditto Jim_B, when discussing ways of getting around in South America (where is he??), and Jetdillo's occupation (is he an IT person in Boston for a conference?, a prize-winning author on a book tour, etc? Whoever he is, he has taken the time to inspect and critique the BA stewardesses outfits, & has a definite opinion on their hats!)

Catman - you are right: your profile tells us a lot, & we learn more from you every day...

Baobab... you did NOT make an unreasonable request for a ltitle more information in our
FlyerTalk Bios. Initially I was going to leave mine blank then I decided "OH who's going to care that I'm single with cats in JERZEE" so I filled it in.

I think some people are relucatant to put a lot of info in because they may be concerned about companies or wierd people getting their info and using it against them.

Sorry if I babble too much about my life. Reflecting on it, I have an interesting life
with the travel and the cats and my work and interests and my many friends like all of you on FlyerTalk. And I like to share my adventures with someone who will listen!
CATMAN

OMNI POSTING.. Kris... I guess you got paroled from Jail after that insident with the Old Lady in NYC! (For the confused, it's a story I wrote and sent to some friends.)

OK... SO I'm not a comic! I'm CATMAN

Me? - well...

I am just a bill...on top of Capitol Hill... *L*

my homepage:

http://members.wbs.net/homepages/a/u/b/aubie34.html

Well, lets see. I have taught management courses in both France and the US. I currently am a partner at my own venture capital firm in the US and in France (hence the French connection.) I love Chateau Margaux and Moet et Chandon. I enjoy a good Davidoff cigar, and I love to run. (lately been letting that slack) I goto the Opera Garnier as often as I can to see the ballet and the opera. That is about it.

Everyone else seems to live more interesting lives, and catman seems to have 8 more interesting lives than me.

Phillippe

hedlins say arturo to play catman in hes biology. costar to be moris. catman get lot of roilties an buy arturo new DC3 and cow for bakyard.

Hmmm,

I'm probably, by far, the youngest person here on FlyerTalk. I'm a senior at the University of Waterloo in Canada (about an hour drive from Toronto) majoring in Chemical Engineering, minoring in Computer Science. I'm interning in Seattle for Amazon.com from January-April 1999 and I interned there previously during Summer 1998.

My family is very geographically dispersed so I've ended up travelling enough to be a frequent flier (around 40K/year or so) - but unlikely many other contributors, my tickets are (almost) always advance purchase / consolidated / net fares - so I'd bet that I spend the least money for the distance I travel of anyone here !!! :)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

As my profile says, I am a Social Worker with the government. Presently, I work with Navy Child and Spouse Abuse offenders and help to provide treatment for them. Philforest, at what GS level did you retire? If thats too personal I totally understand.

I always thought I'd get around to updating my profile and putting a web page together, but it hasn't happened, so:

My name's Jim Ballentine, and I know live in Santiago, Chile. I work for a large, multinational software company, hence most of my travel is work related, either regionally to visit clients, or to Silcon Valley, to visit the mother ship.

Prior to Chile, I spent 10 years in Germany, hence me corresponding with Rudi in German. Before that, California was home.

I've always enjoyed travelling, and love airlines and big airplanes.

This sorely needs to be updated!!!

My name is...well I guess you all know that already. I work for the National Burglar & Fire Alarm Association, a non-profit 501(c)6 trade association representing over 3,200 electronic security and life safety companies in North America, the Carribean and (a few) around the world.

As Director of Government Relations, I am ultimately responsible for NBFAA's federal, state and municipal relations programs. As you can imagine, being responsible for licensing requirements in 50 states keeps me on the road to state capitals quite a bit. But being responsible for over 17,000 municipal and local governments, well...lets just say that the glamor international segments are NOT where I earn my miles (although Des Moines sometimes FEELS like a different country.) I like to say I earn 'em the hard way: 500 - 1000 at a time!!! And I'm a deep green over you folks who earn 3,000 - 7,000 miles every time you fly. It ain't fair. As those of you who read the United board know, I am based out of the DC area.

I am a 1991 alumnus of Virgina Tech (go Hokies) and am staring 30 years old right in the face. My wife also works for an association (the National Apartment Association) and I am owned by 2 little girls, 4 (Grace) and 5 (Erin) yrs. old.

As a sick 30th birthday present to myself and from my wife, I am in the process of exploring the concept of law school at night (I like to say that I am NOT a lawyer, but I play one at work...and its a good thing I'm not because I would have been disbarred long ago). But that may not mesh too well with my travel schedule.

I read about flyertalk in the magazine, and am proud to have been the very first poster to the United board (the issue then, as today, was raising the threshold for premier status).

That's who I is. BTW, if you have questions about your home or commercial alarm system, I AM happy to help if I can...e-mail me at [email protected]

[This message has been edited by Matt Wald (edited 03-08-2000).]

dup

[This message has been edited by Matt Wald (edited 03-08-2000).]

Unfortunately Megamiles beat me as the youngest contributor to the boards! I am a '96 grad of Cornell double majored in chemistry and Asian Studies (a curious combination, I know). I am now a business system analyst in a database marketing company after being an analyst at a managed health care company (another curious career path). While my current job does entail some traveling, I have not been with the firm long enough to take business trips and start racking up those ff miles and full fare tickets. :-(

I live in Cambridge, MA, USA b/w Harvard and MIT. I travels almost exclusively to LAX (girlfriend) and Taipei (family) on United Airlines. However, just came back from a good trip to Maui which should put me over the 50k mark required for UA's Premier Executive. (Yeah!) Like many that have commented before, I have not received ONE upgrade certificate yet!

Like Megamiles, I always buy the cheapest advance fares since the money comes out of my pocket. Because I am young and thus no $$ and will not likely fly as often next year, I guess I will appoint myself the spokesperson for keep the qualification threshold for elite level at the current level...

Ken

My name is John Goldwater(I hope that answers baobab’s he/she question). I am 26 years old and was surprised to learn that I am not the youngest participant to Flyer Talk. I hold that very generic job title of Consultant, am single, have a Blue Point Siamese name Jed (see Catman there are more of us out there), and last week relocated from San Francisco to Orange County. I have not gotten used to living behind the very conservative Orange Curtain, nor flying 757’s out of SNA. Although, I have been a UA Mileage Plus member for 10 years, I started flying frequently in early August this year and will hit 1K the day after XMAS. I look froward to meeting everyone. For those young folks like myself who may tend to travel on their own $ (actually anyone), if you find yourself in OC and don’t mind sofa or spare bed space, please feel free to contact me.

Welcome to the cat club John Goldwater. We have a lot of cat people, a handful of dog owners and lots of members with current and future frequent flyers (children.)

I don't know how to set up a web site but when I do (need the TIME!) I'll tell the story of my now giant inner circle (which exploded with me getting on Board FlyerTalk) post pictures of my cats Yaz Mainecoon and Sir Edwin Landseer who own me and this great and very handsom shot of me from Maui looking just like Mark McGuire in a Hawaiian shirt (for those who need to spot me someday.) I weigh much less than Mark though! And have touches of Cat hair on my clothes! CATMAN

I'm glad you at least recognized dog owners!

Glad to see other Cornellians here, Kyklin. Class of '78 here.

my name is Jamie Leyerle, I currently live between Tampa, FL (job)and suburban Chicago, IL (house, girlfriend, life...). I work for the international division of one of the RBOC telephone companies setting up cellular systems in South and Central America (so you can take your US cellphone down there and use it just like in the US, and vice versa). My background is in marketing (Michigan State '85, U of Cincinnati MBA '86) I got started as a frequent flyer in my first job out of college--I was a quality auditor/mystery shopper for Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp. I traveled continuously for 10 days at a time in '87,'88,'89 (yes, '88 was the year of triple miles, and I am still working off my Delta miles). Good job right out of college!

well, i must admit that this is not the most original topic discussed here, but...since we're on the subject (name and address N/A), I'll give a background brief on myself.
I am a graduate of the Univ. of Maryland College Park, (1992). I used to work in radio advertising, financial markets, and now am involved with my family business as well as a wholesale venture on the side. If I can help anyone with auto parts questions, feel free to send them! Planes..why am I here? Ever since I was a little boy, I've always loved planes, airports etc. I love to fly, and love to accumulate miles. Gone are the days of getting 2000 miles per trump shuttle segment. this is why i have so many continental miles. My biggest accomplishment to date is getting two first class tickets to and from Hawaii with a stop in Las Vegas on my honeymoon, free of course. profile? I guess that's all for now. happy holidays everyone.

My turn I guess...as most of you know onefreeman & I were recently married-we have
6 kids-2 grandkids & 1 on the way, grandkid that is! (we work fast) Born & raised in
San Diego now live in AZ. I graduated from
Mundus Institute of Travel & Tourism this
past January and dabble in that. Love the
beach (see you in Hawaii in Nov.) or going to
the cabin up north, sit on the porch with a
glass of wine and listen to Rifkin. That's
about it for me. Laid back & easy goin'.

auh20: I love your choice of user names. One question: Why in the world did you ever move out of California? (I was born and raised in the Bay Area. Nothing south of Santa Barbara is in California.)

Geez I'd better get this done now that I see my wife, who normally lurks (not posts!), has seen fit to contribute...

Hi I'm Marty and I'm a quasi Mileage-aholic...

Oops -- wrong forum...

I'm 36, married to raeban (the greatest woman on the planet). Raeban failed to mention our other four children -- four doggies -- 3 min pins (Names: Lady Prancer, Bailey PITA, and Nikki) and one wire-haired red step-dog we inherited (Sam).

Grew up in the San Diego arean of SoCal -- if it's north of Orange County it's a separate country!

Graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa (BBA in Travel Industry Management). I have a MA in International Relations from the University of Southern California (thank you Miami for beating dreaded UCLA so they won't invade us for the Fiesta Bowl!)

Owned and operated several retail travel agencies. Also did lots of mgmt consulting in the retail travel industry.

Moved on to the computer business and the internet. Currently at work for a service and maintenance firm.

Special interests include golf, cigars, resorts and the burning desire to retire as soon as possible...

filferet, yu knot lik arturo nam? mebe i try TiPl.

I suppose it is my turn.

I graduated from Stanford and from University of California @ Davis Law School. I worked for a bank in San Francisco until earlier this year. Now I work for an investment bank in Hong Kong.

As a result of my the numerous reound trips to the states which accompanied my relocation I will be a 1K on United this year. However, starting in '99 most of my travel will be intra-Asia so I will probably be switching to Cathay Pacific and oneworld.

David James

Hi all

I am 33 and I work for the Australian Taxation Office in Melbourne Australia as a Tax Auditor in their Large Business & International area dealing with service industries including air transport.

I hold a Bachelor of Business degree from Monash University Gippsland, Graduate Diploma of Taxation and Masters degree in Taxation from the University of New South Wales. I hope to be studying for my Doctorate in Philosophy in tax at the University of New South Wales shortly.

I am a member of more frequent flyer programs that I can count on both hands but do not fly all that much although I may be called upon to do some interstate travel in the future. My interest is in the area of getting free miles by signing people up to frequent flyer schemes, taking advantage of special bonuses and filling out surveys that give you free frequent flyer miles.

I slao run a website devoted to the hunt for ultra cheap airfares. You can find this at http://www.tbsa.com.au/~ferrett/deepspace.html I get around 400-500 hits per day to my site which is pretty good for an Australian site.

My other interests are ten pin bowling, ballroom dancing, amateur radio, south park the odd live concert and overseas travel where I can get it cheap. I have been married for 4 years to my lovely wife Nicole. We have no kids as yet but I do have 2 fluffy Bichon Frise x Maltese dogs called Skye and Penny.

cheers Peter

As you can see from my profile, I'm from Hong Kong. I'm now 24 (in fact I'm pretty surprised too that I'm not the youngest on the board and there're so many young frequent flyers out there these days). I went to the States 6 years ago, spent 4 years at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (upstate New York) for my undergrad and 2 years at MIT for grad.

That's why I have had a chance to fly United pretty often these years, mostly when I went back to HK to visit my family and friends. 6 years ago I knew nothing about frequent flyer programs and joined Mileage Plus before my first flight to the States just because my family told me to do so. It was not until in 1994, when I received my first Premier card, that I started to know something about the different elite levels in the program.

Since then I've been a Premier/Premier Executive with United until now (or, at least until Feb 2000). So I have had a chance to experience all those elite stuff since I was 20, relatively young I think. And, similar to other student flyers on this board, so far all my travel on United have all been on deeply discounted economy tickets, although probably the amount of travel I did was slightly above an average student (about 30 domestic and 10 international roundtrips in these 6 years). On domestic flights now I almost always upgrade with the complimentary upgrade certificates. On international flights I had the chance to travel in International First or Connoisseur/Business only because of complimentary upgrades and award tickets.

In fact, for international travelers (or members based in Asia), I think usually it is relatively cost effective to maintain their Premier/Premier Executive/1K status (e.g. sometimes as cheap as ~$650 for a roundtrip economy BOS-LAX-HKG ticket, actual miles about 19500, almost enough for Premier, and with Premier Exec 100% bonus - total almost 40000 miles, good enough for 2 roundtrip economy HKG-NRT award tickets already, so $650 for 3 international trips, not bad at all !!).

Now that I'm back to HK and working as a consultant, I am doing much more business travel, usually almost every week, but mostly within Asia so far. I have been traveling mostly on Cathay Pacific these days and I'm even wondering if I'd be able to keep my Premier Executive status next year. So I am in particular interested in hearing about experiences of switching from Star Alliance (especially UA) to oneworld alliance (especially CX). For example, whether it's possible to get a complimentary elite status with CX (membership of The Marco Polo Club) to start with without flying all those miles again. Anyone has experience with that ??

Wow! I'm really impressed with all those credentials out there in FF Land. For all claiming to be the "youngest" - maybe I'm the "oldest" out there? Name - Renee Moss -C.C.N.Y Class of '55 - Still happily married after 45 yrs, now retired to Florida -Mother of 4 (all married) & grandmother of 7. Retired Antiques Dealer & Certified Appraiser. We enjoy sitting "up front" with frequent flyer mileage, and rarely PURCHASE a ticket. Probably one of the most avid collectors of miles without flying for them. I haven't been elite anything since the old Pan Am went out - but that doesn't stop me from enjoying free (mostly business class) seats. I don't use my mileage domestically, but save the mileage for comfort on long haul flights for my "old" bones. Out of the 309 Official Countries listed in the Traveler's Century Club, we have visited 105 since 1985. I love this board, it has been such a help to me - so Thank you to all - and have a really great and joyous holiday!

Even though I rarely respond to these posts I do read through them often. I enjoy reading about all the activity out there. I am a consultant for one of the major Hardware Co-ops. I flew over 160,000 miles in 1998 (all domestic) and have reached Executive Platinum level on AA. I acquired Million Miler status on the same flight that gave me Executive Platinum status. Keep up the enjoyment for those of us that like to read through posts.

The name is Jeff, but most people call me Boomer. It's a reference to one of the all-time great hockey players, and I've had the nickname since I was 4. Which was 32 years ago.

I'm a freelance computer trainer, based in
New York, Single, no kids(that I know about)

I travel approximately 100,000 air miles a year, and another 2000 or so via Subway(no upgrades, no miles, no meals, but no baggage delays either).