Do you FTers know each other?
 

I've seen many quite personal comments and other references to aspects of people that seem to know each other quite well. Do most of you FTers out there know others? If so, was this before joining FT or after joining FT? From business? At "Do's" and get togethers, how do you know who's from FT? Do you purposely go just to meet someone you've never met?

Just wondering...

Do most of you FTers out there know others?

Can't speak for everyone, but I've met about 300 FTers over time.

If so, was this before joining FT or after joining FT?

Both... I've found out that people I knew in my "offline" life were on here... and friends of mine have joined.

From business?

A couple, yes.

At "Do's" and get togethers, how do you know who's from FT?

Don't know of too many non-FTers who come to our DOs unless the are brought by someone who found out about it on FT. It doesn't really matter though... frequent flyers tend to be friendly people and non-FTers often get brought over to the dark side.

Do you purposely go just to meet someone you've never met?

Not exactly. I go to DO's because I'm already planning on being in that city, because I've always wanted to visit that city, because FTers I already know are going to be there, because FTers I've always wanted to meet will be there, because FTers I didn't know I wanted to meet will be there, etc.

I met a few over the last years. Most at DOs, some when I was travelling to a certain town and just happened to meet up with them.
Flyertalkers as a group are some of the most amazing people I have ever met, as it is a very diverse group, yet we all have the love for miles and travel in common. Nearly every Flyertalker I met was very respectful, friendly and helpful and I am very honored to be part of this crowd here. Nevermind that I now can find a drinking buddy in nearly every town on this globe :)

Some I've met in person via attending Dos. Others I've met 'virtually'. Great group of people, even if they are all nuts about the miles & points thing :D

Cheers. Sharon

You mean what you told me was not true? :(

Marty, rest assured, I only went to AMS last January because you were going to be on my flight from ORD ;)

On the original subject, I've met three of the four posters who responded to the original question just from Flyertalk - and I've hung out will all three of them in multiple cities in the world in the last two years.

What is it with flying with iluv2fly :) Oh wait I've done it on one occasion too and IIRC I012609 was on that same flight. Why I opted for a connection in ORD vs. the non-stop to LHR is beyond me :o

I have met about 40-50 F/Ters in person.

A few of them don't regret it.

Considering that there are WELL OVER 40,000 REGISTERED USERS on FlyerTalk.... There are some of us who know each other, certainly, but I highly doubt that "most" (i.e., tens of thousands) of registered FlyerTalkers have met each other. @:-)
After.
Never.
Virtually everyone at a FlyerTalk Do is a FlyerTalk member. The main exceptions are significant others, family members, or friends who have been brought along.
Of course. I have met some 250 to 300 FTers (have made a list that contains over 200 handles, and I've forgotten some of the handles of others I have met). I never knew any of them before FT.

Sort of the same for me.....
 

Well, let's see bursa.....At this writing there have been 8 responses from different FT'ers to your original post.....

I have met 6 of them personally (and am dissapointed not to have met all 8!) - either in my home town or in other places around the globe...

Best wishes, Dave

Bursa,

Wanna meet Flyertalkers? Come to the Freddie Awards in New York City on April 28, 2005. If you want to 'be' with Flyertalkers in cramped quarters, join us on the 5th annual dhammer53 Brooklyn Reality Tour the day after the Freddies (look for a thread in Community soon).

My very first meeting was at the CO Presidents Club in Newark NJ. I read that a few of them wre getting together. I just had to meet some of these people that sounded just like me. They loved miles and points.
My next meeting was at dinner in NYC. I felt like I was a student listening to all these teachers discussing miles and points. The great thing about meeting a Flyertalker is that you will always learn a thing or 2. Even us old dogs can learn new tricks. :o

I've met my share of people since 2000. And there's only one that I don't like. Thats a stat that's even better than real life.

After you're here a while, you'll get to know some posters better than others. Some you'll meet; and some you won't.

I might add that 2 Flyertalkers recently got married. :eek: :D

Looking forward to meeting up with you.

Dan

BTW, I've met all of the above except Dov.

Met a few....

(glad I did for each instance too)

It is not nice to brag about your good luck!

Of course, you can turn it sour by joining us at our Tel Aviv Meet next November. :)

As of this post, I've met five of the posters above and one right below. I think that most FTers who take the time to specifically meet with others tend to hang out in the Community Forum.

FT IS a microcosm of the world, so even though we share a love of travel & gaming the system, there may still be experiences you won't want twice. ;)

Fortunately for me, these have been few in number (2?) and definitely not with the aforementioned group above & below (and you know who you are....). :D

See ya around the airport!

There are a lot of posters who never meet other FT'ers in person but get to know each other via the boards themselves. You can tell a lot about people based on what they post after awhile. There are some posters I'd go out of my way to meet and others that I could pass on meeting without hesitation.

There is a good sized contingent of FT'ers, that is always growing, that do meet with each other in person in different cities around the world. The attendees for each Do are not the same and that keeps it interesting to attend a Do you haven't been to before, or visit a new country. There is almost always someone around to meet up with for a drink or dinner with a common interest in travel, miles & points

Someone I work with showed me FlyerTalk, but I've taken it from there so to speak. While I have met some people at industry conferences who know or post to FlyerTalk, I don't think of this as business related at all.

I enjoy meeting new people and the diversity and experience of the FT group is truly amazing. That said, now that I know many FT'ers personally, sometimes I'll select a Do to attend for the company and at other times it's for the location and usually the combination of the two. :)

To add to the stats above, I have met everyone on the thread with the exception of the OP and two posters.

For the first few years I was on this board I didn't feel like I'd fit in as I wasn't as frequent or knowledgable a flyer as others. My very first "meet in person" was some great guy from the boards named....uh...uhm...what was it now....Oh Yes, DHAMMER.....of the well lauded Brooklyn Reality Tour :D
Having met one member....I braved the Freddie's last year and had a great time meeting others....Goingaway who posted above for one....and several others. When Dan ran the Brooklyn Tour I got to meet a few??? others, lol (about 20 or so I think).
I now feel much more comfortable about attending an event by myself. Try it.....you'll like it!! :D :D

As Marysunshine pointed out I was a little concerned I wouldn't fit in....my first thoughts were it is a lot of businessfolk and as a 19yr old student I'd be a bit out of my depth.....alas over time I built a little online rapport (as one would expect with almost 8k posts in 2yrs!) and so went to my first 'do'. In my dos and chance meetings I'd say I've probably met 20 Flyertalkers, all a very friendly bunch!

fbg's milestones
Joined Flyertalk: Feb 03
Met first Flyertalker: Oct 03 (BahrainLad - final Concorde landings)
First Flyertalk do: May 04 in London
First Flyertalker in natural habitat: Sep 04 - Bartinbrook onboard BA LHR-SFO. By absolute chance, he came over during boarding and asked if my name was Fraser! :eek: )
First arranged Flyertalk Mileage Run: November 2004 (LHR-BCN-AGP-BCN-LHR with flyclub and BA97.com)

Of all those who have posted to this thread thus far, I have met ALL BUT THREE: bursa, underpressure, and fbgdavidson. And I've read lots of posts by the latter two.

And of those I have met, I have met several of them several times!

Am I an FT junkie or what? :eek:

Kathy, that question will be answered in November.

Are you going to Tel Aviv? (And, if so, what exactly are you going to tell her?)

All true FT junkies will be joining us for the big meet. Festivities will last a week (actually, most will be crowded into three or four days) and will include the main dinner in Tel Aviv; a tour of the Sea of Galilee area (including the Jordan River, Nazareth, and Capernaum); a tour of Jerusalem; and a walking tour of Tel Aviv.

It will offer a little for everyone: Orthodox Jews will have kosher food at the Meet; Fundamentalist Christians will get to see Armaggedon; athiests can enjoy the nightlife of Tel Aviv and agnostics will be able to not make up their minds about what they want.

The highlight of the week will be a pagan festival where we sacrifice Cholula. (We were going to have a virgin sacrifice but PlatBrownGuy isn't sure if he will be there.)

Will you be joining the 40 some odd (and some very odd) people already on the "Probable" list?

Over the past (it is hard to believe it is almost seven) years, we have met hundreds of FlyerTalkers in many countries all around the world and made many friends who will be dear to our hearts for the rest of our lives. One active FlyerTalker was only ten when we first met him, and others have been well into their seventies.

We are a very interesting cult, complete with all of the virtues, foibles, strengths, weaknesses, joys and sorrows of life. I have witnessed amazing FlyerTalk acts of generosity and some disappointingly petty acts of jealousy.

FlyerTalk has brought people together into primary relationships, even marriage, and has led to the demise of others. We have shared in the joy of births, anniversaries, new jobs, and successes, and commiserated with one another during times of loss, death, and other personal, national and international tragedies. I will never forget the support we all received from FlyerTalk chat during the 911 attacks.

I think was sets us apart from the rest of the world is the bountiful sense of adventure that prompts us to jump on a plane to meet a bunch strangers for a party, half way around the world, knowing that we will come away friends with most, if not all, of them.

There is something fascinating, almost magical, about FlyerTalk and the personal connections that are reinforced almost daily on line and then periodically in real life. We will be forever grateful for FlyerTalk and its singular ability to connect us with matchless experiences and new friends across oceans and/or across town. How else would I have met Chex? :D

Wow Punki, your comments should be part of the official FT "about us" promo section! Great to be part of such a unique community and eventually I'll meet some of you! :)

FT'ers are like anyone--although just about all of us have a love of travel (or a love of upgrades/freebies etc having to do with travel). The first FT'ers I met were Punki, AnnaS & Comicwoman. I was on a biz trip to Chicago and Punki was in town for a trade show, with AnnaS & Comicwoman locals. It was a really great time and while yes travel was discussed, so were other topics. Since then, I can't count the number of FT'ers I've met, both a DO's and informally. Also I've met a couple that are in the same business as I'm in and even one who works in my company, on my floor!! (I didn't know her before). As a woman who travel a lot, it's good to have the ability to post if I'm planning to be in a city and want to meet up with some others to spend some time with, or become acquainted with a city. I've been to Do's with 40+FT'ers (SIN, Cannes, HKG, CDG etc) and also met up with just one or two FT'ers TXL, ARN, SFO, BKK etc). I honestly can't say that I've ever had a bad or disappointing time with anyone from this group. And while yes, the underlying conversation is generally travel and how to get the best out of it, you'll find an vast variety of personalities, businesses and interests from everyone in this group.

I met the following FTers in order I met them

1. Cholula
2. Viajero Joven
3. redbeard911
4. jan_az
5. myefre
6. TravelManKen

And each one only once, I think I scared them away :D

Didn't know any of them prior to FT, especially since I am the only FTer from ELP ;)

In the case of myefre that is a good thing :p

Um........This may ring to be true. :D Myefre complains too much. Oh wait, that is another site. :D :D

The Flyertalk community is just amazing. I tend to travel to the more obscure places in the US, and have received amazing tips on some of the greatest restaurants (well, those places serving pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, and BBQ).

On my first trip to NYC, dhammer arranged a quick brunch DO at a favorite deli. Among the FTers there was JanAZ, violist, seeya, cameraman, catman, and several others I can't remember (shame on me). Seeya was kind enough to give violist and me a walking tour of Manhattan. I hope to have the time to go to the NYC Reality Tour that dhammer presents.

I have met over 20 FTers, and communicate regularly with several. When I'm home, I try to get the time to meet with myefre and empedocles for lunch and other activities :p

There are many others I want to meet. Eventually I will.

bursa, to answer your question, yes I have the honor tomeet some of the folks that post here. Go out and meet some ^

I am dating and practically living with another FT member and recently I met about 14 FTs at a dinner in Philly.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

:(

:eek: :eek: :eek: That many. :eek: :eek: :eek:

Small Flyertalk world story:

I used to keep my personal life relatively separate from FT, then my stupid SISTER found Flyertalk and started gushing to me about this super-cool awesome website she found about miles and points and very frequent flyers and and I was like, duh! :rolleyes:

Fortunately (and oh-so-much LIKE me), she is an introvert so avoids the community portion of the community. Because, God knows, THAT's what I need: my stupid sister passing around naked baby photos of me at the next London Do... :mad:

My old house number was 1004. Exactly five blocks away was a trade association that had the same 1004 street number. I used to get mail for individuals who worked there all the time. I figured my mail-sort box was either just above or below the mail-sort box for this trade association. Fast forward over 5 years and this crazy madman who used to work there is now a good friend. Oddly enough, I had to fly to TPA to meet him for the 1st time! :)

And btw, if his stupid sister starts passing around naked baby photos of him at the next London Do... avert your eyes at all costs! :p

Too late - we already have them. And the adult ones too...

hmm
 

I have to admit that I until recently hadn't been very interested in the "community" part of the community, having fears similar to Fraser about the FT demographics. But I'll agree with previous posters; FT is far too big not to be all-encompassing. So I am seriously thinking about attending a do or another in the very near future. :cool:

Yes!
 

In the last 3 years I have met lots and lots of people from FT. Many I now consider my friends, not just my online friends. I have gone on vacations outside of FT with many of them. I still occasionally go to "DOs" because I always believe you can never have too many friends.

As far as "have I ever gone some place just to meet a FT person," the answer is yes. I had been reading the posts of one unnamed FT that I just felt absolutely compelled to meet in person. I intentionally flew through his city just to meet for cocktails.

iluv2fly writes:

Didn't you think that the baby shots were a lot cuter? I did. :D :D

Wowser, geo1005, did you first meet Koko at the same party where you first met my sister, who fortunately arrived sans naked baby pictures, but was totallly comfortable stowing Koko in the trunk of her car. I had almost forgotten about that fun party and that amazing wine cellar. :) Those were my pre-digital camera and posted pictures to aide my memory days.

If I knew you well enough like most of the women here, my remark would have been "You mean they had cameras back then?" But since I don't, I'll refrain from such a comment.

That's the one! I think it was February of 1999. Great friends, good steaks and wine at Bern's. :)

I met that silly-freak in the lobby of the TPA Embassy Suites where Catman and I were staying. As far as the trunk of the car is concerned - is there a better place to store your 'nutz ??? :confused:

As for the NoLa Princess flying about just to meet silly boys. Well, that's just silly. :p

Just haven't been in the same place at the same time, babe. ;)

I went from meeting just 3 (bseller at ORD, and jfe and RobotDoctor at arranged meetings) to about 20 at the San Diego DO. Great night at Chevy's!

met a bunch (including about 12 today!), dated one back in California... it's always good times on FT! :)

- Sameer

Uh huh, way too late. And folks, it's not just pictures, there are stories too! Over drinks the other night she shared a couple that really had me rolling... including some of ole' koko's early experiences with ordinary household tools! :eek: