I got the Discover deal when I called to cancel my card. They said no interest until July 05. No interest after that as long as I make 1 purchase a month. I plan on just donating a dollar to a charity online each month and leaving the cash in my investment account until it's paid from the min payment. They also bumped up my credit line iwhen I called. Gotta love it.

And so I'll stay on the topic, thank you flyer talk for the cheap fares, free miles, and great advice. I can't imagine what life would have been like if I hadn't learned about my *wood Amex on this board.

Here's to FlyerTalk!!

Without FT, I would not have close to 700,000 lifetime miles on AA (about 300,000 earned through goldpoints); 300,000 lifetime miles on US (many earned this year though 3 trips to Europe with the promos to Europe and the credit card deal); Hilton gold and about 200,000 lifetime HHonors points (many Hilton 50,000 point promos); or Hyatt Diamond (learning that it is (was) the best program for someone with a lot of priceline stays) and 60,000 points in the bank.

I know that the above balances are quite small compared to many here, but I would not have even 1/3 of this if it weren't for FT.

I would also not have gone to Europe 3 times last year on the BA $20 deals (and earn enough miles for a BA F trip to ATH) or gone to Iceland this past June.

I also have learned how to pick flights that might offer bump opportunities, as well as learn how to get cheap tickets by tossing out the last seg (like when it was $150 cheaped to fly DTW-DFW-DTW-TOL than just DTW-DFW-DTW).

In all, I've travelled a lot in over the past 2 years (when I really got serious about this) and have gone to Europe about 10 times since then. I probably would have only gone once if FT weren't around.

Thank you.

I have also become more of a "bumpee" after reading many of the tips on this site.

Because of FlyerTalk I have:

Increased my status on CO from Silver to Gold thanks to mileage runs.

Increased both the balance and value of my frequent flyer miles

Increased my Hilton status from Gold to Diamond.

Harvested 3 valueable VDBs.

Saved countless $$ for my business by learning routing/pricing tricks.

Met truly interesting fellow FTers from all over the world in: LAS, SJC, NYC, CHI, SMF, DTW.

I went 10 years of constant business travel with NO status. (lots of short trips and loyal only to the lowest price ticket)

I finally made AAGold with segments a few months ago almost by accident and found FT at about the same time. Thanks to FT, I signed up for the Plat challenge and will make it on my next trip leaving tomorrow. I needed 3500 more points to qualify and my trip would have netted 2000 points, leaving me with about one week left to pull off a milage run.

Thanks to what I have learned on this forum, I re-routed and re-coded this trip from a total of 4 short Eagle segments (including two 2.5 hour ATR flights...YUCK!) to a seven segment Y-UP trip netting me almost 8000 q-points for only $160 more...almost all on jets with upgrades. It does require an overnight layover, but discovered I had enough points in an old Marriott account to get me a nice room.

Without this forum, I would have continued on traveling with no status and been more and more frustrated with flying. Now, it is almost pleasurable....I get to avoid long lines, get plenty of upgrades and most importantly....I get treated more like a human and less like a bovine cargo unit.

Thanks FT for helping to restore my sanity. I shall mooo no more!

I too am grateful for Flyertalk. After several years at 2P I was able to make 1P this year on UA for the first time ever. This was done using normal travel, but taking advantage of non-standard routings that increased the number of segments. Something I would never have come up with on my own.