Originally Posted by Marathon Man (Post 7616599)

good on ya zud!
^

I think what's funny is how people STILL quietly judge someone based on things like their status on an airline or how many miles they've got now. For example, one of your balances is like 26k.. WELL I HAVE 300K ON THAT AIRLINE! :rolleyes: Ok, buster, when the program pulls an Ansett on ya or you forget to check your account every 3 years --no wait, 18 months-- are you gonna like admit THAT to us too? :D

Use them. It's money in the bank that does not come with the financial advice (or security) that mom, dad, an accountant or common sense might include! You are at the mercy of the marketers in unstable, inconsistent and sometimes corrupt airlines that created and can end these precious points programs.

make it work, make it count and then you can be happy.

Sure it helps to be someone who is proactive, creative, risk taking and savvy. But you need to have this as both a hobby and a quest. Not such that you lose your mind or spend so much time and money on promos or credit card finance charges that end up making it cost more, but whatever you can and will handle to make it happen. Many here know this so maybe I'm preaching to the choir in most cases, but you all know those types of people who just don't get it Sad indeed, but hey, maybe they are good at something we don't understand. (my non-mile savvy friend from work was the one who told me about how obtaining a roll of toll coupons for the New Hampshire toll we'd drive through every weekend for 10 years to go skiing in VT would save me like 40% each way! This was before EZ Pass and Fast Lane, and boy oh boy, was I miffed when I finally bought a roll of coins and noted the true savings of it! I was like OMG I wasted like $300 over the years here! There's a free flight!)

Now you, zud, have a TON of things to manage there... I have far less on my plate but iti's all relative, eh?... And that's my point: This may be your forte! ^ We all take on and handle what we can. If it gets dicey, I am certain most of us in FT make adjustments. What scares me is how many people in life do not. You know, the ones who sign up for everything online, shopoholics (ran into one on Ebay and got screwed on a sale I was trying to make), disorganized people who wattle through walmart in fat sweatpants and have a look on their faces as though they've given up (Seinfeld was right :D) and companies you work for or businesses you buy from whose own internal disaray ends up costing everyone. (see: gov't, airlines and working for, well, most everyone other than yourself)

In the end, I earn with CCs, promos, deals that could be found by being creative, and things like hotel car and flight travel when it's paid for as a recoverable expense. We do everything at home by using credit cards and I am of course in here babbling all the time.

go forth everyone! Enjoy!
:)MM

Originally Posted by nerd (Post 7638926)

I belong to all of them.

My balance is bigger than yours.

Originally Posted by Punki (Post 7673449)

Siempre Viajando
Join Date: Mar 2007
Programs: AAdvantage, Aeroplan, Flying Blue
Posts: 21
Writes:



What we should or should not do with our miles, depends heavily on our current and future ability to earn, balanced against our current and future ability to spend.

No one rule fits all.

Originally Posted by Marathon Man (Post 7674282)

One word:

ANSETT