Ability to Participate
 

I'm new to this, and I can't help wondering how people can spend as much time as they apparently do, just chatting. Just in this thread, there are people who must have spent hours reading and commenting over the past 20 days. When do you guys do your jobs? Or, do you have jobs? I'm a consultant to mortgage bankers, and I can't normally afford to spend more than a couple of hours a week, mostly on weekends, doing this stuff - which I enjoy immensely. How do you guys manage it?

The old saying you make time if you really want to.I have traveled over 4 million actual miles in the last 10 years and if I am at a hotel one night I chat with all these nice people.It's a form of relaxation.It's like a job to most of us to inform people what they can do with there miles.We love doing it.At least I love flying and enjoying my clients.How many people love what they are doing.Do you?

PhilForest...I work early mornings (till noonish) in the wonderful and headache making world of news. Somebody has to put the news on in the mornings.

If you see a lot of entries from me it's because I can type very fast (sometimes my
grammar and spelling puts me in Emmett_nancy's league!) and most times I can
think fast. On my job we have to get the copy out fifteen minutes ago so I've learned
to be fast.

I spend if I'm lucky an hour a day on-line.
I also do "homework" from work on my p-c so when I'm waiting for a reply I talk to you guys.

MSG 53 makes a lot of good points to why we
here, and I like to add one more... it's us
against the sometimes frustrating world of
business and leasure travel. We have to help each other to make it a little easier.

As for me... I think I've learned a lot and
along the way made a few friends and made
you guys laugh a little. CATMAN

philforest, most of us here are professionals with very busy lives. However we all enjoy "playing the travel game" so to speak - as a way of coping with all the airline/car/hotel stuff that needs to be get done.
Alternately, we could be like the people who stand at gates and whine about their lives and their jobs - but rather we choose to accentuate the positive - we are getting more ff points and we are among the fortunate few in the world that have the opportunities to travel widely. We can look forward that somehow, somewhere in the future we will be rewarded with a free, well-deserved trip or an upgraded seat.

Admittedly, spending time on this forum or surfing the 'net for specials isn't cost-effective - i.e. I'm sure that all of us here consider our time to be worth at least $30+ / hour - and hence saving $100 by spending a few hours isn't necessarily the wisest choice if practicality is your only consideration. However if you can have fun doing this stuff, then spending the time is worth-while - I feel good that (almost) no one gets a better deal in terms of fares and ff miles than I do. I spend less than a few thousand dollars each year on travelling yet rack enough miles to see all my friends, family and yes, of course, reach the much-coveted elite status. Everyone's got their own priorities - you choose !!!

Information is power. The 5-10 minutes I spend on occasional days here is worth it--if it wasn't I wouldn't be here. I own my own business and have been in business for 20 years (same company, same business). I gobble up information by scanning all sorts of sources and it has helped me personally and in business. Also if you don't have time for some fun, what's the point of making all that money. I have scored some big coups by watching sites like this. My best was to capitalize on a promotion in a series of business trips that cost my company $1000 (US dollars)in travel to earn me 2 free business/Executive first trips anywhere in the Star Alliance network (my family went to South Africa) plus enough other points to get 2 free awards for economy travel anywhere in North America. I get enough points that I can donate some of them to charities that I work with so they can get their people to places on short notice free.

Because I am so busy, I don't have time to 'phone round 20 hotels to get a room, or mess about with airline schedules because a flight is full...

That's why I listen, learn and share here. I know that a BA Gold card guarantees a seat. The right card at Marriott guarantees a room etc. etc.

Next time you are stuck at an airport for 3 hours waiting for a conection because the direct flight was fully-booked, you may consider 10 minutes a day learning from this site worthwhile?
MERRY FLYER

I think I will be activ here as long as:
- the standard here is so much above average as now (intellectual, witty, real news, real help, friendly, non-aggressiv).
- I travel more than 100'000 miles/year
- I can still learn from others
- my own experiences are appreciated
- I can afford 30 min/working-day, 45 min/weekend-day, all waiting-minutes on travel-days (in airport-lounges etc).
- I meet (online, sometimes even in person) interesting people sharing same travel-interests.

one more reason for me: I learn/improve my english.

how/when did I become addictet: somewhen in 1990 at the old DEN airport (I did appreciate that location more than todays: closer downtown DEN, less miles to my business partner "Coors" and less miles to the skiing-region: Breckenridge/Vail/BeaverCreek) I did buy a boklet written by GEORGE ALBERT BROWN "THE AIRLINE PASSENGER'S GEURILLA HANDBOOK" "STRATEGIES & TACTICS FOR BEATING THE AIR TRAVEL SYSTEM", The Blakes Publishing Group, Washington DC, ISBN 0-924022-04-3, 1989, and on my following flights back to Switzerland I did read it trough lie I do it now with John Grisham's books without closing my eyes = 396 pages.

It deals with everything a flyer could possibly think of. Even with topics I will never try out (I promise) like "the ethics of getting your extra bags on the plane"how to deal with Hare Krishnas", "smuggling a garment bag past the gate", "what to do when you get caught sneaking your extra bag on", "how to ride to the plane on a transporter", "how to pick up sex objects on the plane", the best ways to make love in an airplane", tricks on an Inveterate Casula Smuggler", "taking advantage of the Psychology of the Average Customs Officer", how you or your estate can collect big bucks through the loopholes in the airline's limitation on liability", "a possible way to double the abolute liability limit", etc, etc,

The book may/will be outdated under many aspects, and I didn't look into it for more than 6 years now.

But if you want, I will go trough this book and give you on a daily basis a tip out of it (I hope not to get into conflict with any copy-rights that way - and I will first look into Amazon if there are newer editions of that book).

Need to add a few more things to why I like
FLyerTalk:

*It's fun!
*After dealing with the wild world of news
and depressing story about death, crime and
Starr's report it's relaxing for me to read
the entries, reply to some and maybe help
someone.
*Rudi's tips!!!!

By the way Rudi, I think maybe your should
contact the publisher of Airline Passengers'
Guerilla Handbook about offering tips before
doing more. There are some publishers who
take issue quoting their material.

I will be sending you an explaination why.

OK guys, Maybe I'm going overboard but I'm
cautious about using toher people's material.
If I get a tip from one of you I say "Rudi
said" or "Jaws43 suggested" or "Merry Flyer
told me.." Give credit where credit is due!
CATMAN

Hey, guys, I love your answers. But they still don't give me the basic one: I"ve been on here for over an hour, and I haven't gotten beyond this first thread. basicallay, I'm just trying to read. Tomorrow, if I can find some time I'll just read the stuff I haven't aleady signed on to. I understand the "go on line in your hotel room" thing, but you do have to sleep once in a while. I still don't understand how you can spend so muych time on line and still make money (which most of you apparently do).

philforest: delegate. Top managers first priority: find the RIGHT people you can trust and then delegate.

(but beware if they start to be a threat to your position ...."Macchiavelli").

Management by champignons (sorry for a bad english-version): let "them" in the dark, from time to time put some "**** on them" and if they grow over the limit - cut them.

But, Rudi: How do you delegate when there's only you? More important: Are you saying that these postings that come from "Rudi" really don't? That you've DELEGATED? That's there's no REAL Rudi?

PSSSSTTT anyone: delegate what you don't like to do yourself - do yourself what you like ("Machiavelli 2").

I like doing this talking here (apparently) - by the way in my beverage-business we are about 50 people and in the 18 Pubs, we own, about 200.

And if I can improve by training (and delegation is part of the training) my people be 5% I have reached 250 times 5% = a total of 1250% = the efficieny increases by 12.5 "persons". If I work 200%, I increase my working hours only by one person and decrease my efficiency a lot (Machiavelli 3) and the widow will profit (if she can tranfer the miles then ...).

I prefer to produce from time to time "golden eggs" (and, I admit, also from time to time failures) and have more than average of free time.

PhilForest, in my case it's "organizing my
time." I stay at my office 8, 10, 12 hours
a day. When I go home, I get any "homework"
out of the way and spend about an hour to
90 minutes a day doing stuff I like to do
(read, check out FlyerTalk, play with my cats, etc.) Everyone's different so we all
manage our time differently.

And I do have a social life guys. I have a
lot of friends, I have a lot of interests so
the computer is just a complement to my
life. (My neighbors worry I'm on the computer too much, I'm not!)

If I don't get five hours of sleep a night
I am a Tiger the next day. So I make sure that happens, esp on the business trips.

One more trick: I only read the sites taht are of special interest to me... but I try
to read ALL of 'The BUZZ" and if a funny
post gets my attention (esp if it's directed
at me) I'll read in.

But it's late so now it's time to sleep!
CATMAN

philforest, as already metioned by Rudi and Catman, the key points are delegation and organization. It's nice to get that validation that other people experience the same things you experience when traveling. Along the way, you might meet new friends. People here for the most part are intelligent, witty, and just fun. I think these are good enough incentives to find the time to come here regularly.