I'm like a crack addict
 

I need to fly more. I need to fly long flights. I get on the plane and am plotting my next flight. What is so darn exciting about hitting the road?

I'm confused. :confused: Are you "like one" or "really one" ?
What is the difference?

Dude, hands down - best thread title today. :p

travelhound, I get it. Maybe there's a 12 step program? :rolleyes:
Meanwhile, don't spend the kids' college funds, and happy trails (con trails, that is)

I concur, addicted. but the past year i have experienced a good measure of obsession. For years I flew, and quite a lot, not caring about miles and the rewards. Then i happened upon FT and it is a whole new ballgame.

I concur, addicted. but the past year i have experienced a good measure of obsession. For years I flew, and quite a lot, not caring about miles and the rewards. Then i happened upon FT and it is a whole new ballgame.

I know what you're saying. But me...I can quit any time I want to. I just don't want to. :D

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Just don't get a blackberry...

I had a refuge from FT.. Work- no longer :p

I have not booked via my bb ... Yet- but its probably only a matter of time - that and I really want to book in-flight-

So yes I am hopelessly addicted - might slow down once I hit 1,000,000 miles (flown) on AS! (Way off) :p

That might explain my addiction. I don't work when I fly - out of touch and care free.

12 step program or 12 segment program. :p

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Exactly-

I've tried to do coursework during flights... with no success... :(

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There's an airline that grants status @ 12 segments :eek: :p

Try 30+++ :D

We are looking at buying a new car. Model A vs model B. Model A is more expensive, far better performance. Model B is adequate, utilitarian.

I am leaning towards B. Why? Like I told Mrs. Gamecock, I can only have 1 mistress; MRs or a flashy car.

Its just like smoking - quitting is easy. I have done it - dozens of times.

I've booked my onward travel from onboard, using laptop equipped with mobile phone data card. Nowadays I suppose it'd be straight from my iPhone....

"Meanwhile, don't spend the kids' college funds"

College funds? I came late to this party, so my kids are well beyond that. They are begging me not to spend all my retirement funds... so I won't be so broke that I need to live with them when I'm 'really' old :D

I'm not retired yet, but my motto is "I work (only) to travel", and I am finding work increasingly inconvenient, restricting travel. Hmm, maybe they have a point. I just hope no one figures out how to do an intervention.

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But can u make a pdf on an iphone-

Cool nonetheless...

My problem is that I don't want a 12 step program - I want to fly!!

I'm already at 100k miles flown or paid for in 2009 so what do I do now? The year's not half over?

I'm thinking of starting over on AA just for the challenge.

One of my best days so far this year was a BB free IAD/LAX MR
;)

Can we meet you somewhere on a mileage run for your intervention? At least we can all get miles and points for it. :D:D

First Post
 

I'm glad that there are plenty of others out there going through this... makes me feel less like an addict (or maybe just better because I have fellow addicts). Since starting to travel for work a year ago I'd enjoyed racking up the miles and hotel points. Then I started to get a little more serious and would go online and look for promotions each quarter trying to maximize miles/points. Then I kept seeing Flyer Talk during google searches, and eventually became a lurker checking here to see what all the experts had to say.

Starting in April, prompted by Flyer Talk, I did my first MR. I'm based out of BOS and AA is my company's preferred airline. I just couldn't pass up the BOS3X and DEQM promotions together with $69, $79 & $89 segments from BOS to LAX. I ended up doing 6 of these round trips!! Once I'd booked one, I just couldn't stop. I saw another weekend or day I could do with those cheap, close connecting segments and couldn't help it. I'd been Plat last year with AA, and biggest goal was to get EXP. 63 k EQM later, I'll easily qualify for EXP once the DEQM post (hopefully soon!!!). And now with my most recent new accounts at work... I'm probably looking at well over 125 - 150 k EQM this year. I didn't need to book all those trips to get EXP... but I couldn't resist.

And I still find myself looking at all the other deals out there even though I don't have much cash floating around for travel and have already traveled a ton this year. What's the cure for this addiction anyway? Does it fade after a few years? Any tips for a recent addict and new member to FT?

I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid.

Welcome to FT Dave. We all have the fever, otherwise we wouldn't be here. To most of us, FT is like finding some secret way of beating the lotto. You will alienate or confuse those around you that don't equate miles and points with something of value, so only talk about this stuff with us. We are your friends now.

Truism - You will only cease to be an addict when travel is no longer important in your life.

-outoftown, posting while on vacation in Cairo

Welcome to FT Dave!

Back in November 08 I knew I would be flying a lot (read TATLs) starting in December 09. I scoured the internet looking for a way to game the system and kept seeing sites providing information that seemed to good to be true.

Then one day I found FT and stumbled onto the AA section and the thread on Platinum Challenges. My first RT TATL in DEC got me Platinum. On my next westbound TATL I was OP-UPed to J. Next RT TATL I got OP-UPed both segs. I knew that I was hooked on frequent flying and knew FT is the key.

I am now no longer a PLT lite but will be a ExPLT lite by July, and have 100K BIS miles by August.

Yes, I have drank the kool-aid.

Are you sure it's not because Model B's dealer will let you put the entire purchase on your airline's credit card....during a double miles promotion? :)

Indeed ^.

The first step to giving something up, is recognising it's a problem and wanting to stop - so 12 step wont work for you :p.

Some addicts dont actually beat their addictions, they just switch "drugs" (or airlines) :D.

For those of you wanting an intervention, I know how to do that, but it wont be pretty and it will cost you at least 200K miles and an F class seat for me to fly over there ;).

The good news is flying doesnt hurt anyone.

WANT an intervention? Heck no!! I'm playing vampire and have Mr Y almost onside. First I got him AA Plat, upgrades, international lounges, good scotch, then lost it through lack of flying (temporary hiccup). Now AS offers double qualifying miles, I dangle a weekend in NYC as carrot, and he's a goner :D
He still won't fly for no real reason, but the reasons are becoming, shall we say, easier.

Yeah, we need some kind of help or recovery program. Maybe the govt. can cover the cost in the Stimulus program? :cool: I did three segments BOS to West Coast and I live in Chicago!

Though, I do call myself a points/miles whore, so there you go :p

Let's hope not!

And welcome to FT, home of the helplessly addicted!

It seems to me that the FT MR forum is essentially an informal 12 step program to maintain our addiction.

Maybe we should start a program for those in whom interest is starting to fade...?

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Very nice-
I've addicted 3 persons to AS via upgrades into F :p

Haha - thanks for all the responses and the warm welcome! I definitely feel reassured that I'm not the only one with this malady. I look forward to being a part of FT for many years to come! (The goal for me is to be an AA MM in 4 years - I'm at 350k now, I think I can do it!)

I hope they have triple miles again in the near future - especially on transcon flights. I'd probably do a MR to another city if the price was right like it was with the BOS/LAX/SFO/SAN.

-Dave

Advancing age and airline take-backs can cure some of it. DL, for example, would give 1,000 miles minimum/segment, have a 500-mile elite bonus and 50,000 miles worth of annual threshold bonuses in the pre-1995 program. That arrangement made segment-heavy bookings lucrative, and I remember doing quite a few AVL-ATL-CVG-NYC ones (staying the weekend at the Y in Manhattan) on a $105 RT deal back in the day. CO also did a targeted triple-miles deal back then, applicable to all fare categories (most promos before 2000 were good for all fares).

Being able to book your own crazy itin back then was a novelty, and the old EAASY SABRE required banging out command lines on a green screen. But you had a first-mover advantage of sorts.

What could happen is you get spoiled with certain arrangements, and then the airlines yank them out from under you and you don't want to go back to doing the hard time in cramped coach or on jungle jets. CO used to be a good airline for EARNING your EQMs flying up front, but then they altered the upgrade policy and flooded the system with RJs. Stuff like that. You also get to see a continuing long-term erosion in value of benefits.

And now.....
 

Ah, grasshoppers beginning this journey (and no disrespect to Caine, RIP). You are but reaching the top of the first stage, and you think the view is fine. The next stage will be churning credit cards, but that will require great discipline and credit, for which you may now be too young, and in the middle of a desert. But this too will pass. Once you have mastered this discipline, which includes using your time wisely in your new enterprise, there will be the next stage of enrolling relatives, real or imagined, and fully realizing all the benefits of capped partner promotions, multiplying them, and then throwing those miles to one vessel. And there are more stages still, including the passing of mileage alchemy opportunities, which, as with a comet, avails every two years, or so..... And along the way, you will learn to pounce, like the jaguar, and to face down your greatest enemy, Regret, when you do not move fast.

This path, grasshoppers, should you choose to follow it, will demand a focus and commitment that you may not have experienced before, including the desolation of followup calling, but be not afraid... the view you have but glimpsed will be even finer. However, you must determine the price you will pay. You will decide whether you will spend a fortune in order to save another.

Haha. Wow. That was an awesome post. I followed most of it (already starting the credit card churning with AA card, Marriott Card, *Wood Card), but you're right, I am a rookie. No idea what you mean (or what the purpose is rather) of enrolling "imagined" relatives in a program/promotion. I think I can understand how it could be beneficial, but how would you pull it off? You can have tickets purchased for two and then somehow check both in and get on a plane scanning both boarding passes? And if you did manage it, how would you combine the miles/points into one FF account??

Definitely gave me more to think about. And bonus points for the style of the post too!

Thanks!
Dave

I prefer Mileage-slut
Thank you very much:p

:D^:D Brilliant.

Great thread...and one must think of this points-status accumulation as an alternative investment strategy...upgrades, lounge perks, free flights, free nights, etc. It's just savvy insight on best use of your hard earned money + bonus of improving life quality...besides, sounds more respectable!

I think it might be time for an Intervention! I'll call the A & E network and see if they can book you. By the way, the Intervention comes with a free FLIGHT to rehab!! :D

You think you're an addict? No, you're just a recreational user. Don't worry. You can quit if you want to......
(sure).

:)

Here's another dirty secret - some of us have many RDM ( me ~1M) in the bank but we don't spend them because we don't earn EQM on award flights. I personally trade mine for upgrades on the CC.

Or -and most will vehemently dispute the wisdom here - keep most of them as a second pension. (Guilty.:o)