I always cared about miles, planes, traveling, etc. and I have been pretty familiar with a lot already.

At some point in August 06, I went to the US as an exchange student and xyzzy and his family hosted me. His first question was: "Do you have an FF account with an airline?" I replied "Yes,with Lufthansa". He said, well, I signed you up for Continental as well. By the way, look at that website... I didn't do it right away, so he asked me again a day later because apparently I didn't do it fast enough ;) At some point I did and my first post was most stupid but whatever.... (anybody knew anyway already about that)

At some point, I was taken to a DO and I was shocked. So many weird people but by now, I basically like them all, it was just "weird". :D

Anyway, I am still here, there are basically no days that I miss reading it. For about 1,5 years, I got up earlier in the morning to spend a good amount of time to read the LH board (each and every post), Germany board, Community, Newsstand, quick Omni, CO and then back to LH... Same spiel again at night and if possible during the day.

Now I kind of cut that habit and just browse once a day through it, don't get up earlier anymore for it but this is just due to my new Vodafone UMTS PMCI card. Now I can read everything on the way too work :-)

Can't wait to learn more and most important: Meet more Flyertalkers while I am on great trips!

I first found FlyerTalk when I was researching a trip to Turkey, Greece, and Morocco. My company was 'forcing' me to take vacation or I would lose it.

My ex and I would take an international trip once a year which back in the day was a lot. I took my ex partner (post ex) to England and Japan and they were the most miserable travelling experiences of my life. Therefore I took a long hiatus.

After coming back from Morocco, I realized that I had this urge. It seemed that only the people on FlyerTalk understood this urge.

I maybe crazy, but FT convinces me that I am not. That is a truth that I want to believe.

I have visited places in the last year and a half that I never thought I would see.

When I was young, I never imagined that I would go to Europe for a long weekend - that was for the rich people - but I did it seven times last year.

All I need now is that my salary is positively tied to the price of oil. :)

I got hooked ...
 

It's hard to believe it's been almost 5 years since I found FT and joined. I got hooked when I started reading posts about how to take advantage of loyalty programs. I flew several thousand miles and stayed a few nights without getting any rewards. Since then, I've been hooked.

what's ft ;)

I originally found FT after reading a WSJ piece - but then barely visted for at least a year.

I got hooked trying to find some information that proved hard to find, and ended up reading a lot of posts trying to find it, and realized in the process that I knew quite a lot already that others didn't seem to know, and yet there was so mcuh I didn't know how much I didn't know. As soon as I realized that the pickings available to game the whole travel system were even greater than I had ever previously imagined, I was hooked.

It has long been my goal in life never to check bags and never to fly coach - and yet before I found FT I flew coach all too often, and even occasionally checked bags. Doesn't happen much anymore :)

love travel, collecting miles and flying but the YYZ-LCA posted by rosj clinched my FT addiction. LCA was my first time to Europe (FCO, MXP). I have been five times since :D

Where is rosj these days?

Thanks to all of you for your fascinating stories. I am glad to hear that there are other people as crazy as I am. :D

It sure will be fun to see what the next ten years bring.

Stumbled in
 

I stumbled on the sight when I needed information on some trips I had planned. I stayed because I found I could contribute to many of the discussions and answer some of the questions (especially on the AS and Alaska state related sites).

Community Buzz keeps me here because of the Do's I've attended and have even put a small one together myself last year. Meeting people from around the world, quite literally, is an added bonus.

4 years and 1,498 posts later, it's still interesting to learn new things about travel almost every day.

I literally stumbled upon this site.

I had signed up for a couple of FF programs and I was like, "How can I maximize my miles?" and so I put "maximizing miles" into Google and somehow, I stumbled upon this site.

So when I got here, I'm like, "Okay, this is cool."

...plus, it's always nice to know if someone else is having a bad day, so I don't feel alone in the world...

That and I'm a member at some NASCAR message boards, which can sometimes become bar brawls if something goes wrong...here, everyone, although there are differences, just seems to get along and doesn't drag out a fight into fifteen new threads, thus irritating the mods...so this place is an escape!!