Gonna read that as soon as I get home. Took a peek at it...BRB with beer in hand.

This!!! :D
I have a new, time-consuming hobby, and I've become THAT guy to my friends who either come to me for help/advice or avoid me for fear that I'll convince them of the error of their ways!

Same is true for me! On the one side, I spend (waste) hours reading about various things on FT. On the other side, my family gets to travel various places for free!:p

On that note can you and your family adopt me then? lol

BTW great reading the first post in here congrats.

Like others, I had dabbled with miles before discovering FT. Since then, I have become incredibly more efficient in earning free or cheap travel. The result: 5 trips to Europe with the family, Kauai, Canadian Rockies, and other US flights, and free hotels all over. Without FT, such travel would have been rare.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed!

JFK-HKG-BKK this January in CX F using miles from the citi/aadvantage credit card bonuses.

Staying at the IC Hong Kong on a F&F rate on the way back.

Before FlyerTalk, I was an amateur travel hacker - mainly dealing with Aadvantage and Disney Rewards - and a cash back fiend. With FlyerTalk, I have realized just how amateur I was and save cash back, if less than 5%, only for when I am not meeting a minimum spend requirement. My wife and I have racked up 204k combined BA miles, 77k additional AAdvantage miles, 224k Capital One Venture miles, 120k HHonors points (on our way to 280-300k shortly), 45k SPG Points (on our way to 80k shortly), 80k US Airways Dividend Miles, and 30k Continental OnePass miles (before July 19th - We are holding out for bigger United bonuses....). Thank You, FT colleagues.

As far as trips go, we spent around 90k Venture miles for a cabin at a family reunion in a resort in August 2011. We are going to Disneyland in February 2012 and staying in the Grand Californian with family members who are DVC owners. (We paid for their flights using BA Executive Club miles on American as well as the shared cabin at the family reunion using Venture miles.) We went to Walt Disney World using Venture miles on Allegiant and staying in a partner hotel in October 2011. I also used Venture miles for the car rental. We will return to Disneyland in June 2012 and stay at a nearby Hilton or Starwood property. We already used BA Avios for the flights.

and
 

and now I never use cash, have to think about which card to use, have to tell spouse which card to use, my ups man hates me for all the coins I got.
Certain banks know me as the "coin guy"....all in all well worth it.

Sounds a lot like my life for the past year or so :cool:

I had never experience first class before FT. Now I think, "I need more miles" in everything I do. I never thought we could travel and now I am thinking that we can. FT is helping me make memories that will last a lifetime.

Well said...I share your sentiment.

How has FT changed my life?

People think I'm crazy. But they are envious.

When I must fly there, the back of the plane is much worse than I remember from my pre-FT days.

I get annoyed when I get the hotel room I payed for, and not an upgrade.

The wife rolls her eyes when I explain the latest bonus offer, but she now expects to fly in the pointy end.

I go crazy if I cannot access an airport lounge.

I have come to love showering at the airport, in fact I am looking for ways to upgrade my home bathroom using some of the better ideas from various lounges.

I could go on.....

I can't talk about FT per se, but I can talk about points...

I worked for United Express when I got out of college. It was fun, and I got to fly for free, although I never once flew internationally on my benefits. Something about the plane tix might be free, but you can't afford to do much else on $10/hour.

I did get to fly UA's 3-class product domestically more times than I can count, including once when my mom and dad were sleeping on the floor at LAX because they missed their flight to ORD. Me? I was in SFO going back to IAD, and got the F suite.

But all of the those NRSA benefits that people moan about are a gamble. I've got just as much of a chance at getting left at the gate as I do at getting F. You never truly know where you're going to go until you get on the plane. Just getting a middle in seat in back row of economy that doesn't recline, and is next to the lav is a relief. It's a relief, 'cause you get to go home and not chance getting fired for missing work. Calling in sick because you missed your flight is a huge taboo in the industry.

Points gets me a confirmed seat at the front of the plane, with lounge access. I actually get to plan a trip months in advance (if not close to a year) and look forward to actually going.

My wife and I took a six-week trip across SE Asia last year, and we did almost the whole thing on points. Heck, I got SPG C&P every where, which was a bit of a miracle. I didn't have the points for J seats, but AS was running a sale, and we bought enough points to to fly CX J. We paid $2300/pp for those tickets, and it was well worth it.

Had I known that this would have been a huge boon in the miles department, we might have postponed our trip. We picked up almost 1 million miles this year, enough to do a repeat trip next year, albeit in F this time :). We've got our travel more or less planned through 2014 with what we have today, and who knows what comes after that.

I'm doing the same thing, just starting in June. Without FT, I'd still be on my couch... Wishing....