Cold Turkey
#1
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: PDX
Programs: On a collision course with Kettledom
Posts: 25,550
Cold Turkey
So, it looks like I'll soon be starting in a new job in a Silicon Valley startup (not a dot com!)...
but my travel will go from about 120K miles a year to maybe 10K or less.
What a waste of Platinum Medallion & Prem. Executive status, huh?
Long hours and little vacation means that it isn't likely I can supplement this minimal business travel with personal travcl.
What is the best strategy for dealing with travel withdrawal? Methadone? Do I need to get rid of my dual time-zone watch? What should I do with my collection of Swiss, Japanese, British, German, French and Finnish currency? Do I try to make, in my own kitchen at home, Omaha steaks, rubber shrimp, tri-color pasta and warmed mixed nuts? Do I need to find a bottle of Green Goddess dressing?
but my travel will go from about 120K miles a year to maybe 10K or less.
What a waste of Platinum Medallion & Prem. Executive status, huh?
Long hours and little vacation means that it isn't likely I can supplement this minimal business travel with personal travcl.
What is the best strategy for dealing with travel withdrawal? Methadone? Do I need to get rid of my dual time-zone watch? What should I do with my collection of Swiss, Japanese, British, German, French and Finnish currency? Do I try to make, in my own kitchen at home, Omaha steaks, rubber shrimp, tri-color pasta and warmed mixed nuts? Do I need to find a bottle of Green Goddess dressing?
#2
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Lost in Translation
Programs: DL DM, Hyatt Exp
Posts: 370
Congrads on the new job.
Time to start stockpiling! Other tips to help you through your tough times:
1. Learn to add 50% extra time to whatever you cook in your microwave.
2. Start giving the guy at the gas station an extra 5% every few months (regardless of what oil prices do, and subject to initiation by other drivers).
3. Paging desk in the garage.
4. Learn the bus routes then flip a coin each morning to determine if your car has "gone mechanical."
5. Invest in a scrolling red LED display (see #3) that permanantly displays "Delayed."
6. Start plucking those pesky www.saveskymiles.com cards from the bathroom mirror every time a DL flyer comes over.
7. Put courtesy phones in every room (don't worry, none of them should work in your house, either).
8. Play the recording from the movie "Airplane" around your driveway and front door area. "There is no unloading in the white zone..."
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Elektrik
Originally posted by opus17:
What is the best strategy for dealing with travel withdrawal?
What is the best strategy for dealing with travel withdrawal?
1. Learn to add 50% extra time to whatever you cook in your microwave.
2. Start giving the guy at the gas station an extra 5% every few months (regardless of what oil prices do, and subject to initiation by other drivers).
3. Paging desk in the garage.
4. Learn the bus routes then flip a coin each morning to determine if your car has "gone mechanical."
5. Invest in a scrolling red LED display (see #3) that permanantly displays "Delayed."
6. Start plucking those pesky www.saveskymiles.com cards from the bathroom mirror every time a DL flyer comes over.
7. Put courtesy phones in every room (don't worry, none of them should work in your house, either).
8. Play the recording from the movie "Airplane" around your driveway and front door area. "There is no unloading in the white zone..."
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Elektrik
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Texas, U.S.A.
Posts: 19,523
- Contact United Asset Management and discuss the possibility of purchasing some old United First seats for your new home theater.
- Purchase lots of tableware, glassware, and cutlery with airline logos from eBay.
- Serve booze at your home only from "minis."
- Make certain your toilet bowl water is dyed a dark blue.
- Subscribe to home delivery of Hemispheres Magazine.
- Install a gate reader at your front door.
- Serve your dinner guests in order of their airline status.
and finally...
- Hang out at SFO on your days off.
Good Luck!
- Purchase lots of tableware, glassware, and cutlery with airline logos from eBay.
- Serve booze at your home only from "minis."
- Make certain your toilet bowl water is dyed a dark blue.
- Subscribe to home delivery of Hemispheres Magazine.
- Install a gate reader at your front door.
- Serve your dinner guests in order of their airline status.
and finally...
- Hang out at SFO on your days off.
Good Luck!
#4
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Lost in Translation
Programs: DL DM, Hyatt Exp
Posts: 370
Originally posted by PremEx:
- Make certain your toilet bowl water is dyed a dark blue.
- Make certain your toilet bowl water is dyed a dark blue.
- Serve your dinner guests in order of their airline status.
#5
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: SF Bay Area
Programs: UA 1K MM, Accor Plat, Htz PC, Natl ExEm, other random status
Posts: 2,876
- Offer your guests at dinner salt and pepper in little paper tubes.
- Keep your blinds closed at home and in the office in the middle of the day for "better viewing by those around you."
- When taking trash out, make sure it fits through the dog door, it'll make you feel like you're using a template.
Don't fret, the same thing happened to me. You just make a bunch more weekend trips.
Greg
- Keep your blinds closed at home and in the office in the middle of the day for "better viewing by those around you."
- When taking trash out, make sure it fits through the dog door, it'll make you feel like you're using a template.
Don't fret, the same thing happened to me. You just make a bunch more weekend trips.
Greg
#6
Moderator Hilton Honors, Travel News, West, The Suggestion Box, Smoking Lounge & DiningBuzz
Join Date: Jun 2000
Programs: Honors Diamond, Hertz Presidents Circle, National Exec Elite
Posts: 36,023
Originally posted by PremEx:
[B- Make certain your toilet bowl water is dyed a dark blue...[/B]
[B- Make certain your toilet bowl water is dyed a dark blue...[/B]
#9
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: PDX
Programs: On a collision course with Kettledom
Posts: 25,550
Thanks for all the replies, I was LOL!
I have decided the following.
1). I will run (loud) dehydrators all day at my house.
2). I will install seat belts on my sofa and use them whenever seated, in case of unforcast earthquakes.
3). I will install emergency lighting in my carpet. White lights lead to red lights.
4). I will institute a house rule that no one is ever allowed to bring me a gift of a bottle of wine.
5.) I will continue to post on Flyertalk, even though my contributions will become dated and ill-informed, until such time that I become totally patheic and am hounded off the board by a series of 5-page flame threads on "The Buzz".
Glad I have something to look forward to.
I have decided the following.
1). I will run (loud) dehydrators all day at my house.
2). I will install seat belts on my sofa and use them whenever seated, in case of unforcast earthquakes.
3). I will install emergency lighting in my carpet. White lights lead to red lights.
4). I will institute a house rule that no one is ever allowed to bring me a gift of a bottle of wine.
5.) I will continue to post on Flyertalk, even though my contributions will become dated and ill-informed, until such time that I become totally patheic and am hounded off the board by a series of 5-page flame threads on "The Buzz".
Glad I have something to look forward to.
#10
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1P; HHonors Silver
Posts: 2,686
#11
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Massachusetts, USA; AA Plat, DL GM and Flying Colonel; Bonvoy Platinum
Posts: 24,233
I think AA is selling some of the seats it took out of its aircraft as part of its More Room Throughout Coach program. Get a row of three from a 737, then invite two very large friends to come over and get in the middle seat between them... For best effect, put the seats facing a blank wall, real close.
#12
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: IAD
Programs: AA Lifetime Platinum
Posts: 27,067
I'm surprised nobody mentioned mileage runs. Take one every 3 months and you could visit far off exotic places and retain the PE status on United. Four weekends is not much no matter how long you work and how little the vacation.
And keep on reading FT for the tips on accumulating miles while at home.
And keep on reading FT for the tips on accumulating miles while at home.
#13
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: PDX
Programs: On a collision course with Kettledom
Posts: 25,550
Originally posted by PG:
I'm surprised nobody mentioned mileage runs. Take one every 3 months and you could visit far off exotic places and retain the PE status on United. Four weekends is not much no matter how long you work and how little the vacation.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned mileage runs. Take one every 3 months and you could visit far off exotic places and retain the PE status on United. Four weekends is not much no matter how long you work and how little the vacation.
The reason status was nice was that I travelled so much, it was a survival tactic. Having status and not flying (except to get more status) doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Hopefully, I will make so much money at my new venture that some day I can afford to just pay for First Class anytime I want to travel (and isn't that the American dream?)
#14
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1.050MM, PersonalCar 0.275MM
Posts: 1,718
Originally posted by opus17:
Hopefully, I will make so much money at my new venture that some day I can afford to just pay for First Class anytime I want to travel (and isn't that the American dream?)
Hopefully, I will make so much money at my new venture that some day I can afford to just pay for First Class anytime I want to travel (and isn't that the American dream?)
I wonder if Warren Buffet ever buys first class tickets. I'd imagine not....
(My aversion only applies to paying cash. Upgrades and first class awards are something else.... )
#15
Join Date: May 2000
Location: WAS
Posts: 1,069
When I was growing up in California (Silicon Valley for that matter), I loved travelling (I got the bug on a short visit to LON at age 8), but my family only had the money to send me and my sister abroad twice between age 8 and 18 to visit our relatives in Israel and the UK.
What we did? We (i.e. my sister and I) saved all the plastic cups, inflight magazines etc., from the plane, and after weŽd get back, weŽd invite friends over and have some pretend flights (we even got to the point where we made and "scanned" in frequent flier cards!). Now that I fly transatlantic 2-3 times per year, it seems like the make-believe might have actually been more fun than flying (when we made-believe, we could always fly in first for nothing - except once when my sister got rowdy and I sent her back to coach ).
Of course, if as an adult you invite your friends over to such an activity, they might try to call the straightjacket people. One suggestion: organize a "themed" murder mystery party - and set it on a plane. For some reason that sort of make-believe looks perfectly mature and sophisticated .
Yonatan
What we did? We (i.e. my sister and I) saved all the plastic cups, inflight magazines etc., from the plane, and after weŽd get back, weŽd invite friends over and have some pretend flights (we even got to the point where we made and "scanned" in frequent flier cards!). Now that I fly transatlantic 2-3 times per year, it seems like the make-believe might have actually been more fun than flying (when we made-believe, we could always fly in first for nothing - except once when my sister got rowdy and I sent her back to coach ).
Of course, if as an adult you invite your friends over to such an activity, they might try to call the straightjacket people. One suggestion: organize a "themed" murder mystery party - and set it on a plane. For some reason that sort of make-believe looks perfectly mature and sophisticated .
Yonatan