Hello. What a cute community. I was reading a few of the posts on this site and was really wowed by the cordiality of all of you. Being so helpful and sharing your wealth of flying-related knowledge to people from all over the globe I am a new member here and already, I am excited to take a ride on this plane (if you understand my double entendre).

I really have so many questions!

I'm sorry for my lack of wisdom in any of this, and I even feel so embarrassed to ask sooo many questions, as I am 21 years old.. and not a clue as to what "gaining miles" even means... to utilize and get the most out of them etc...Well, I do to SOME extent, but rather limited

Though a bit feebleminded in this realm, I would like to learn. I like learning! I understand that keeping oneself well connected, and globally, is very important, and being informative in all aspects not just in frequent flyer and air miles stuff but also in respects to current events and the arts. Someone I met once upon a time taught me this. I am very grateful for a lot of the lessons he has taught me.

Anyway, before I continue going on a tangent... let me snap back to the topic at hand. I'm still exploring this site so I know I'll come across some pretty informative stops along the way. However, if any of you would be so kind as to give me some guidance as to where a newbie like me should start, to understand the basic miles terminology stuff, how to learn what all the acronyms some of you use in your posts mean, how to go about joining a miles program and with what to keep in mind, and..hmmm what about upgrades? How do you get those? and... and.. well I'll leave it at that.

Well, any help would be appreciated so much.

_Starry-eyed

Oh, P.S. What does YGM mean? I am guessing here.. but.. You Give Me? As in, you give me the ticket, let's trade? I noticed a lot of you say that prior to the closing of a thread.. does that mean you struck a deal?

Hi starry-eyed reformer and welcome to FlyerTalk! YGM is a polite way of saying "You've Got Mail" it notifies the thread-starter that they should check their e-mail. A great place to learn about the acronyms is in the glossary under the Help tab. You will find some other useful pages there too. As far as learning about miles/travel/etc, click on the FT Miles and FT Travel links at the top of your page and peruse the forums. You'll be a guru in no time. I've been on this community only a few short months and already was able to make $1600 getting bumped from flights over Christmas.

Have fun!

[This message has been edited by gt_croz (edited Jan 19, 2004).]

Welcome!

First a simple one, YGM means you've got mail. For example, if I were to send you a private email, I might enter YGM in the thread to alert you that you have mail. Many members of the Flyertalk community/message boards use a different email address for Flyertalk, partially for anonymity. People might send a private email for a variety of reasons like meeting up at some airport, trading coupons, or to say something they might not want to announce out in the open. Something that you might not announce in the open would be an event like, you bought a cheap $200 ticket from JFK to London, and a friendly agent double upgraded you from coach, to business, to first class not requiring any miles, points, certificates, etc. This is a bit of an exageration, though not impossible, but you get the idea. There are travel industry people that monitor the board, and fear is that any loophole or good deed may get reported if posted.

Getting back to basics, you should study which airline you would likely fly the most. Things to consider in pciking an airline to fly the most with are among other things:
For example, what city are you in? Where do you fly to most often? Do you buy cheap or full fare tickets? How important are upgrades to you? Pick a few airlines you might fly the most with, and then review their forum on Flyertalk. For instance, the Delta forum, the British Airways forum, etc.

You can join most any frequent flyer plan on the given airlines web site. This is a very simple process. Similarly, you can join a hotel guest loyalty program on the hotels web site.

Once you fly a lot, usually 25,000 miles or 30 segments in one year, you become what is known as an elite, preferred, or premier member in an airline program. E.g. you are a top customer. There are usually three levles of elite, preferred, or premier membership. E.g. Silver, Gold, and Platinum (each airline calls these lvels something slightly different). You generally reach the second (mid tier) level by flying 50,000 miles or 60 segments, and the top tier by flying 100,000 miles or 100 segments. Recently, however, some airlines (namely Delta and Continental) make distinctions about not only how much you fly, but how much revenue you spend. This is only very general conceptual information, you will need to review the nuances of whatever program you want to focus on.

When you reach the elite levels, you get certain published and undocumented benefits. For example, free upgrades, bonus miles, and special faster lines to check in at the airport. If you are stuck in coach, as an elite flyer, you often can choose from among the coach seats in the front of the plane. Also, largely depending on airport agent discretion, you can get some undocumented benefits by being an elite member of if the agents just like or recognize your face. For example, they may upgrade your friends traveling with you, they may give you more generous upgrade benefits than the rules technically allow, they may waive the standard change fee for making itinerary changes, or they may give you a hotel voucher if you get stuck in Chicago due to a snow storm.

One other thing you will read about is a mileage run. People on this board value their status, probably more than most people out in the population. So people sometimes take trips solely to earn miles and keep that elite status we talked about above. Also mileage runs can be taken to quallify for certain promotions. In a mileage run, for example, a passenger might fly from JFK to London, spend only 2 hours in London, and then return back to JFK. As you can imagine, in these times of security hype, this can raise a few eyebrows though there is nothing illegal about it. Also some people take extra segments to get more miles, and to help them quallify for elite status. For example, instead of flying on a JFK to Los Angeles nonstop flight, a person might fly JFK, Washington, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles. Usually this routing thorugh several cities costs just about the same thing as a nonstop, except you can pay slightly more in taxes.

The degree to which you want to get involved in these mileage programs is up to you. You can just join a mileage program and give them your number when you fly, or if you really get the mileage bug, you might be doing mileage runs and crazy routings to keep or move to the next elite level.

Welcome, and I'm sure others will give you some information as well.

Welcome to Flyertalk! Yes, it is a great community. The above post was great with a lot of information. I suggest you do two additional things: 1) Go to some airline web sites and read their official program descriptions, see what sales they have and bonuses they have. American Airlines has a great web site for all of this. If you register there (free) you can even personalize it to show you fare sales between certain cities. 2) On either Expedia, or another travel site or airline site look up some fares and read the detailed fare rules.

These two bits of information will let you sort of triangulate some of the stuff we talk about here. Have fun!

Hi starry-eyed reformer. Welcome to FlyerTalk.

I think a good place to start would be the How to Begin page of my web site below. Then, reading stuff on this forum and studying all of the ideas of my web site will either adict you or wear you out.

Take you time. There are tons of ways to earn miles and get free flights and upgrades.

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Free Frequent Flyer Miles

The two easiest ways are to ask, and to have Google as your friend. For example, when somebody says they are flying through yyr or something I'll just google yyr to see where that is (airport yyr as the search) and it will tell me that is goose bay airport in Canada.

(no, I didn't know that, I made up three letters and googled it)

One of the good things about this forum, actually two of the good things, is that most people are more then willing to help, and they don't get carried away with secret codes.

Welcome.

On the home page for Flyertalk there is an airport code search tool that works in both directions (city to code or code to city). Well, it works for everything Ive tried except for the international airport in Shanghai that is

Welcome to FT! There are many good people and many resources here, as I have spent insomniac hours discovering! In addition to the excellent advice given to you thus far, I would say to get a credit or debit card, affiliated with either an airline or hotel (or both) with the absolute intent to use it for EVERYTHING; and pay it off each month. This is accumulation, even McDonalds lunch starts adding miles to your account. There is IDINE, a dining rewards program that registers your cc and credits the airmiles to the airline you prefer when you dine at a connected restaurant. This community is active, informed and very generous with information, provided you do your own "due diligence" and use the "search" key to inform yourself; as there are many levels of enlightenment to frequent flyer benefits and status maintenence. I wish I'd had this resource at 21!

Welcome. This is the right place to learn about all aspects of travel. Advice: Listen a lot and only chime in when you really help or answer someone's question. This place has already helped me bigtime. Again,welcome.

Dear FT Friends,

Wow, I am really impressed with your kindness Thanks for taking the time to reply me All were excellent, informative replies.

Having followed your advice, I've done some homework and managed to learn many new things! I've gone through all the recommended areas that were suggested (glossaries, FT Miles/Travel, perused the Forums etc..) and now I think I know how to navigate this site with much more ease and confidence.

gt_croz: This strategy of "bumping" is interesting. How much do you get for each "bump"? And how do you do it? By the sounds of it, if one needed some extra moolah, this may well be one method?? hehe..

jetsetter: Your reply was very lengthy (but highly informative!). I have to say it's very nice you included examples, because as a newcomer to this world of mileage racking and flyer status, examples allow me to have a visual perspective of the scenario which is a better method for me to remember these tips sometimes. I can be quite forgetful! When you say agent, how do you get one? Would I just go to a certain airline I'd like to fly with and tell them to direct me to an agent? And then they would become my agent? (Sorry if it's another silly question). Still learning

You also mentioned elite status. And to reach this, well, I'd have to fly alot right? But since I am just a meagre student at the moment, rarely a time to travel, save maybe during the summer holidays, what would you suggest I start out with first? Like when you first got your first airmiles card or joined your first whatever FF program it is you were/are with, did you start out with Economy? Because I can only afford that No first class or coach or business class as of yet for me.

GadgetFreak: Thanks the glossary and airport codes helped soo much! As for Shanghai, I think the code is PVG, no?

cordelli, USCGamecock: Yes, people here are very helpful and I am humbled. I trust you both that I will learn lots from listening and reading.

pgary: Your hp I book-marked. Lotsa info I feel is very handy! Will read more later.

LISAA]: It's great you mentioned credit cards and debits. I am ready to switch banks and I will inquire about the airmiles program they have in conjunction with these.


Well thanks again everyone.


_Starry-eyes

Welcome Starry-eyes!

In airline terms, an "agent" can mean one of two things. A travel agent is a person who makes their career advising and booking travel for other people. These are typically not airline employees, but they make a commission from their sales.

Airlines also have "agents" that work directly for them. There are a few different types. A reservations agent is someone you'll usually talk to on the phone when you're booking flights. If you travel enough to get elite status, you will often get a special phone number, that goes to agents that are more well trained and/or better equipped to meet the needs of the high-mileage flyer. Once you get to the airport, you'll probably deal with a check in agent, who will help you get your luggage checked, and will print a boarding pass for you. (More and more often, human check-in agents are being replaced by machines, but if you're checking luggage, you'll still have to talk to a human). Lastly, there's a gate agent. In some smaller airports, the check-in agent and the gate agent may be the same person. The gate agent oversees operations at the gate, including seat change requests, other accomodations (do you need a wheelchair to meet you on arrival? do you have a question about the in-flight meal? do you have a question about connections?), and boarding of the plane.

Enjoy your travels

starry-eyes, bumping occurs as a result of what the airline industry calls "overselling" or "overbooking" Because a certain percentage of people decide not to show up to their flights for one reason or another, the airlines take a calculated risk and sell more tickets than they have seats for. Sometimes they can sell as many as 20-30 or more tickets than they have seats. Well, as you can imagine there are times when everyone DOES show up and not everyone can fit on the plane.

Knowing this and having access to the tools on FT which you will learn about you can increase your chances of getting bumped. While the ordinary traveler is terrified at the possiblity of getting bumped, many people on FT go crazy at the chance to get bumped.

The airline has a contract with you to get you to your destination, so if you volunteer to get bumped you will be placed on the next available flight to where you are going. Because of your inconvenience the airline will give you a voucher good towards airfare on that airline. The general rule of thumb is that if you are delayed between 0 and 4 hours from your original arrival time they will give you $200. If you are delayed 4 or more hours you will get $400. Additionally, if you get bumped overnight, the airline will give you a hotel voucher and a food voucher.

If your travel plans are flexible, and you would like to get bumped, get to the gate an hour before the flight is scheduled to board. Tell the gate agent you would like to volunteer your boarding pass to get bumped, and around boarding time they will let you know if they used you. If you get bumped, rush to your next gate and try it again! I got bumped 4 times over 2.5 days flying from JAX-ATL and made $1600 in Delta money, 2 nights in a hotel, and $50 in food vouchers.

Well, I suppose Richard Brautigan can be ruled out.

Reformer, fair travels.
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The mouse eats cat-food, but the cat-bowl is broken.

When I was in College I made my living literaly during the summer getting bumpped every week. My girlfriend at the time lived in Battle Creek, so every friday afternoon I had two flights booked from Detroit to Boston at 5 or so, and every Friday afternoon I was bumped from both of them. I would get $200 each flight and a Round Trip ticket, and back then $400 was like a zillion dollars today for summer work. I'd take the 7:30 flight on one airline, and turn the other ticket in for one a couple of weeks away to do it all over again.

It's not as good as it was, their software is very good at guessing what is needed, lots more people are doing it, and a couple hundred dollars or a free ticket doesn't mean as much as it did then.

Welcome!

If you're interested in mileage credit cards, see if the program you're interested in carries a student mileage card. Sometines they have special ones with extra bonuses for students. Certain airlines might have special programs or other student perks.

FlyerTalk is a great community with many knowledgeable people. I myself haven't been involved that long, but even in that short time I've learned volumes about travelling!