1. The Starwood Amex Optima card - no annual fee and 20% bonus when you convert to airline miles.

2. The AA challenge for FastTrack to Gold or Platinum status,

3. Lowered mileage requirements in 2000 for UA to 2P or 1K.

1. That it might be possible to get comped to Platinum in SPG just by making a phone call.

2. That I could get a "retention bonus" for renewing my Diner's Club card.

dgolds, I have you to thank for finding this board. One day I was doing a www.google.com search for Australia, and your trip report site came up. It was so interesting I read the entire thing and saw a link to Flyertalk. Thank you. I've been here several times a week ever since.

The most valuable things I've learned:
1. That the AA PLT challenge was being offered again. (just 400 points shy)
2. The fast tracks to elite with the hotel programs.
3. How to move miles from one program to another.
4. From the 'What We Do' threads, I've learned that there are suprisingly (to me) many unusual jobs out there that allow you to get on a plane much more often than mine does. I think I need one of those jobs.

What I still don't get:
How to force Travelocity into discounted fares on multi-city itineraries.

Here are some of the best things I learned about in 2000 thanks to flyertalk:

-The FT Tampa Dinner at Berns.
-The Catman Deux in NYC.
-My first Yardhouse experience in Orange County w/Onefreeman, Rae, John and the rest.
-That Onedog was willing to expose me to my first In and Out Burger during a missed-connect at LAX during the SFH.
-A Pai Gow poker lesson in Las Vegas with QL.
-Premex's pre-birthday party in Long Beach and my second Yardhouse experience.
-Pub-crawling in Seattle.
-A meet with Uncle1k in Reno.
-And, of course, Goose in DUS...

And for every other dinner, lunch and airport lounge meeting with other flyertalkers: it was great to see you in '00.

See you in Long Beach in January http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif!!!!


[This message has been edited by kokonutz (edited 12-26-2000).]

I learned that only full Y tickets on TACA Peru earned credit for LatinPass-- and I read that on FT 5 days before leaving for the million mile trip! I had to change tickets at the last minute, and fortunately all worked out in the end.

Hi: I'm also relatively new on FT but this year I've gotten the Frecuenta HHonors points and learned a lot from just reading. But Dgolds: what is a retention bonus from Diners Club? I missed somethin? Thanks to all for their astuteness.

I want to thank everyone who posted all the Bonus promotions. I actually check this site before I check the airlines site for promotions. I think the best promotion was the AA Top Tier Bonus. I had 2 West Coast trips schedule prior to learning of this bonus offer, man these miles do add up. Now only 20,000 short of 500,000 on AA. I still got a ways to go for the million miles but with this board there is hope.

My best FF tip in 1999 was the Hilton Honors/UAL Night program which PremEx turned me on to at almost he last sign-up moment prior to the PIP.

This past year--2000--my best FF information also came from PremEx and all dealt with how and why to make 1K. The result was that both Joe and I made 1K and that I was able to assist in getting the six Year 2000 additional SWUs for both Joe and Rudi as well as for me.

Thank you PremExfor your wisdom and willingness to share your insights. I am sorry that I bugged you with sooooooo many questions. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

There are many things I have learned from this fine board.

First, the Travel related stuff:

*The fine explaination of the True Flyer bonus and other United bonuses. I have netted tens of thousands of miles.
*The Lufthansa bonus for flights USA-to-Europe. Nice padding on the U-A account.
*Going for the Diner's Club retention bonus.
*Various CO bonus mile offers (which makes me read that board more!)
*The Hilton "Fast Track to Gold" offer: although is that more 2001?

And things you can't learn on Flyertalk:

*How to properly drink, appreciate a fine wine, thanks to Rudi and especially PremEx (who introduced me to the most incredible wine which has become my "special occassion [/b] wine.)
*You again BIG BRUDDAR, PremEx, for teaching me the fine art of cigars and more.
*Not being afraid of the rapids in Montreal (Flyme2/Richard and Bridgette) and also renewing my appreciation for fireworks.
*Playing craps, thanks to MileCrazy.
*Showing me a better side of Vegas, that's you QUiet Lion
*How to properly eat a Philly cheesesteak (Burkey) and a Chicago styled hot dog (AnnaS who also showed me what a fine architecture canvas the windy city has.)
* the best lessons I learned this year! Learning not to be afraid to take risks and try new things and push myself to the limit: that's thanks to your support and YALPS! WANDERLUST! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Having found the FT website only some months ago, I'd like to mention one thing I've learned from FT. Mileage Runs. I've never had the idea to do them, but since starting to read and post here I've done trips to Lugano, Bremen, and Berlin just for miles - and it was a good deal!

For the future, I'd love to become part of the famous FT community and maybe meet some of you once. As a matter of fact, I'm always so jealous when I read of all the meet-and-greet events around the globe without me!

Ive learnt TOO MUCH to list but mostly that youre a great bunch of people and everywhere in the world feels closer now.

Too many to list all. Here are the top five:

1. News about AA TTBNS which was initially offered in selected markets. Though my travel starts from SJC (a target), my AAdvantage has the Long Island address and I did not receive the mailing. A quick change of address did the trick and I earned 40K extra miles.

2. Two AA VIPs which were expiring in a week donated to be me by a generous FTer and put to good use by my on my transcons.

3. Dicovering the Sheraton Starpoints card from Amex.

4. Invaluable and otherwise unatainable advice about travel (eg my Fall color to Mass, with rooms paid for by the miles from the Sheraton Card).

5. Delta 6 segments to silver offer.

Oh, so many things... Where to start? Just a couple:

1. The Hilton Four Stay to Gold bonus, which is letting me turn a 4-day trip for three to London into a 6-day trip with two rooms.

2. The AA TTBNS award. Now living in ORD, I would have gotten it anyway. BUT, I found out about it far earlier than otherwise, which allowed me to plan some vacations which let me make:

3. Executive Platinum status on American. Wouldn't be making it this Thursday night without all the tricks that I learned online, including:

4. The amazing J class fares from Canada to Europe. I saved our company $500 and got free-airfare two-night vacations in Victoria BC and Copenhagen as a result of tweaking a ORD-OAK discount Y trip and a ORD-ARN full J trip spaced three weeks apart into a ORD-OAK-YYJ-ORD-CPH-ARN combination.

Looking forward to attending more FT events this year and meeting more of you either here or in person.

In general I have enjoyed learning how to work the system the airlines have structured for earning miles and getting upgrades. It's not always smooth sailing but lots of Flyertalkers have shared their experiences from which I have learned how to benefit from the system.

The knowledge I gained from a posting this year about airline rules enabled me to get a refund on an unused non refundable ticket for $298. That was satisfying.

The best thing I learned here this year was a combination of the US Silver>Gold promo last spring along with the double status miles promo at the same time. I became Gold with US and earned 29K status miles for $420 over a 5 day period!

The next best thing I heard about is ongoing new Delta Optima card promo will net me about 80,000 Delta miles for using a different Amex card for about 6 months.