Military Forum
 

I believe that it is time to open a forum specifically geared towards military travel. Just like some of the other forums designed for specific travelers - like Disability - a military travel forum would address needs unique to servicemen and their families. Some examples would be issues related to Space-A flying (think non-rev for military personnel and dependents), and reviews/questions about resorts only available to servicemen and their dependents (i.e. Garmisch in the German Alps).

So what do you think? Could this be a productive forum for military travelers and the Flyertalk community?

I am not sure I have seen any specific posts related to these issues... other than in the airline forums and TravelBuzz about elites upgrading military personnel... or airline policies relating to upgrades.

Are there any posts you could point to that would show the types of threads you would see in a Military forum?

At first glance seems rather impractical to me and of minimal potential interest.

FT is a truly global. Disabilities and religion know no boundaries and those newer Forums are useful for FT'ers in any country.

The Australian, German, Brazil, British and Israeli military I am sure have nothing in common with each other re travel arrangements - nor would they really have anything much in common with the USA re military travel arrangements. ;)

Not to be too paranoid; I imagine a few security concerns about having such information available to the general public as well. Would such info not be better suited to a specific military forum? I know several exist on the net. IMO the basic thrust behind FT is about earning points and miles although it encompasses more. I think military travel is beyond the scope of FT.

Hey there!

Thanks for the note. I think your idea is a good one, but to get a forum approved by the TalkBoard, you need to show demand for the forum you propose. This can be difficult in cases such as this where there might not be evidence precisely because there is no good forum for the post, but alas, those are the rules.

FWIW, I tend to think this idea has some merit and would probably generate roughly the same amount of interest/traffic as the recently-created "religious travelers" section.

Good luck!

Thanks for your responses so far, both pro and con. Please allow me speak to some of the issues that have been raised:

1) Security issues

-One would NOT post - for instance - threads about availability of Space-A flights, similar to the "will my upgrade clear" threads that attempt to determine availability for a specific purpose. That being said, various (declassified) protocols for travel are sometimes as (if not more) complex than those of airline FF programs, and clarification is always beneficial

2) Is FT an appropriate home for this forum?

As with all travel topics, there are other forums for information besides FT. The high quality of FT member discussions/contributions is what differentiates this from others. With almost 100,000 members, there would be *some* degree of overlap between the miles/points frequent flyer that was also associated with the military in some capacity. Also, military use the civilian transportation infrastructure (which would make FF/lounge/airport information completely relevant), but use it differently because of their travel circumstances. In response to the salient point raised by ozstamps: like magiciansampras, I don't expect this to be a high-post-volume forum, and that the relative post count would help obviate any issues of disjointedness (FT has forums that, for instance, merge smaller airlines into geographic categories).

3) FT Interest
-I realize there are not many threads regarding this topic, and that in order to be considered, a new forum needs to demonstrate interest that has been "orphaned" in other threads. This is why I PMed Spiff before I posted, and was encouraged to proceed. Therefore, if there is indeed an "untapped market" for this forum, this thread would (hopefully) identify it. But, if the post count stays in the single digits, then everyone has their answer about the interest in the forum, and I will politely concede.

Not necessarily. There haven't been any established guidelines as to what demand is, or should be, that I'm aware of. TB members, please correct me if I am wrong.

You are right. There are no established guidelines.

Nor do I think there should be -- I feel we elect TB members to use their individual judgement when making such decisions. If, for example, an airline automatically got its own forum as soon as 50 threads about it were made in a one-year period, there would be no need for TB to vote on it -- a computer could make the decision.

I would be against a military forum, both for the travel specific aspect of such, which I feel are none, and also because IMO the FT audience here would in general prove hostile.

M8

Do you have any idea how many FT members go out of their way to upgrade servicemen and women where at all possible or the like?

The proposed forum would have no demand here at FT, and I have seen no clamor of related posts. The military transports its own sufficiently well. In fact such a forum would probably set itself up for more abuse than anything else.

M8

This is the key point. As William posted in post 2 - can anyone offer us a range of links of current threads that cover this subject, that would be better placed in a specific Forum? So far I have not seen even one offered as an example.

M8, while I tend to agree with you about there not being enough of a demand for a forum, I do think you are underestimating your fellow FTers.

Even on Omni, the number of people who have insulted U.S. servicemen and women can be counted on one hand.

I don't see a significant number of FTers posting about "Military Travel" matters on FT, and don't see a demand for such here at the current time.

Back on topic...


As a regular reader of Travel Buzz , I don't recall any military related threads recently. This may be your answer.


CMCflyer, welcome to Flyertalk.

dh