Hey, I'm a relative newbie and I miss arturo

You're really and old-timer when you know the name of Catman's cats. That is scary.

We have teh winnah!

(I'll paws while you reflect on this...)

Eddie and Yaz, right? I've been here a long time too, ya know.

I think so

Lili, Peter and MIleage Addict... you are correct.

Yaz went to Kitty Heaven on Feb 22 and I miss him a lot.

Eddie is now the single cat in the home.

I took in two other cats over the past year that I had to find new homes for because they violated the no pets clause (Eddie was grandfathered in.)

Bonus points and a drink on me if you can name these two angels (The adopted cats.) Moderator if I may go off topic this one post. Thanks.

Reading Randy's history reminded me that there was a time when there was no www.flyertalk.com

IIRC, we had to get in through www.webflyer.com and follow a link from there.

I first found FlyerTalk when we were just starting to plan a two week award trip to Spain for our family. I searched "frequent flyer miles" and was led to Webflyer, and then stumbled on to FT.

By the time we got around to taking that trip, a year later, I was already totally addicted. I can remember sitting in an internet cafe unstairs from a bar in the town square of Fuengirola trying, unsuccessfully to get into FlyerTalk. I learned later that the site had been down for the better part of the two weeks of our trip.

Can you imagine if FT were down for over a week now? It would represent a major disaster for thousands and probably end up as a major story on CNN.

D@rn.. reading this thread really makes me miss arturo. Reading his posts always gave me a smile ^

Ha! I had forgotten about that famous little incident. So funny! We really gave him a lot of heat over that one!

And sometimes you were joined by others:

http://members.aol.com/millionmileflyer/presclub.html

I sure do.

http://members.aol.com/premex/longbeach.html

...but that was not the first. The first organized get together that took place was this one that baobab hosted...

But my friend Catman...you must get your "history" correct. You are off by 2 years! It took place in March of 1999...not 97.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=830

Long Beach took place later that year in June of 1999. But Long Beach was the first reported arturo sighting.

Which sort of brings up the old "Which came first, the check-in or the egg?"

Something I think a lot of people forget is that while some other events took place before the Party In Paradise...the PIP was the first major FlyerTalk event to be organized, and was done so and announced in November 1998...a full year before the date of the event:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=650

What happened was that within a few months of announcing the Party In Paradise...well...people started chomping at the bit and just couldn't wait (or perhaps couldn't attend)! So then a few of these other smaller get togethers started happening prior to the PIP event date.

Here's that San Antonio one:

http://members.aol.com/premex/sanantonio.html

For those interested:

http://members.aol.com/hawaiipip

But keep in mind the PIP was the culmination of an event that was planned, announced, and anticipated for a full year prior to the date of the event.

After the conclusion of the Party In Paradise...things really started to take off with many more major get togethers and "Do's" happening all over the world. Can't tell you how many emails I got from folks after the PIP (after they read the reports and saw the photos) stating they wished they hadn't been so shy or hesitant to fly out to Hawaii to meet up with a bunch of unknown potential traveling axe-murders that they only knew from the internet! After the PIP...many were no longer worried about Jailer and just what his handle might imply.

And here's just one of those wonderful times you hosted some grateful FlyerTalkers up in your little slice of heaven:

http://members.aol.com/premex/naxos.html

I don't know. But while I'm dishing out the old photos, here's Freddie Jr. tagging along with a couple of FlyerTalk bums on one of his very first trips abroad over 6 years ago:

http://members.aol.com/millionmileflyer/freddie.html

You know you're getting old on FT when...

...you realize you have much of FlyerTalk's history stored on your AOL account!!!

Thanks Premex! I knew you would come along sooner or later to set us straight.

I found this website when AA announced their 20/20 promo. I lurked for several months before joining.

I looked for the stiffs webpage the other day. Looks like it's no longer around. I never managed to attend an official stiffs gathering even though it was practically in my own backyard. I always had other commitments the same weekend

Why did arturo vanish?

-Member 9126

Wow memories..I still have the metal tags from 2 or 3 of my STIFF's. Hey BTW where is snake?