Why is FTalk seemingly so obsessed with Champagne and Caviar
 

These two items seem to be the focus of nearly every discussion/TR on F. You'd think they only served Dom at 35k feet.

The Dom is free at 35,000 feet. :D

I think it’s part of the FT mentality of getting lots and lots and lots (i.e., long haul F rewards) for very, very little (credit card applications or flying we do for work).

It’s about getting something we couldn’t normally afford or couldn’t justify purchasing. Sure, I have the money for a bottle of Dom, but I wouldn’t spend it on that. Getting it for free on an award ticket though? ^

Getting a little of the high life without paying for is a big part of FT, IMO.

There is no way I would ever pay for Dom, Krug, or caviar in real life even though I could afford it.

In F on SQ and CX, I will eat it like candy especially since I did not pay for the F ticket.

That is the whole purpose -- "First class taste on an economy class budget" -saw that on another FT'ers signature.

You have to remember the average FTer isn't your "typical" person.

He/she flies on average 198K miles a year.
He/she would rather starve than eat at McDonald's.
He/she would rather sleep outside than set foot inside a 3 star or less hotel.
He/she sees a human under the age of 3 and starts having heart palpitations at the thought of one of "those things" being within hearing distance on a flight.
And most importantly he/she is smarter, cooler, has a better personality and is in general a better person than 98.87% of the general population.

And so yes in this rarefied and elite world, one discusses issues such as champagne and caviar. What do you expect to discuss? Baseball? What are you some kind of plebeian?

Forget Dom and caviar, have you ever been in the UA forum? All that anyone cares about there is hot nuts!

What do you mean you did not pay? Are miles completely free for you?

Even if your miles are entirely from employer/client covered travel, 140K needed for F ticket can translate into $1400 worth of giftcards - that's a fair amount of caviar to enjoy in comfort at home (you don't get the most expensive stuff in the sky after all).

The value of F is mostly comfort in travel, not food - that i can find on the ground for much less and of much higher quality. I'll take whatever is available in the sky but the whole FT craziness with taking picture videos and detailing every menu seems either juvenile or indicate some obsessive disorder to me. :D But then FT is an obsessive disorder to begin with...

I understand you're joking, but I find it rather plebe-ish for people to let the champagne on-board choice influence their travel plans and to try to stuff themselves with as much free champagne as possible while aloft. I'll take a pre-departure drink now and again, but who needs to drinks two bottles of champagne and get tipsy on a 10 hour flight? In bad taste.

or the 400+ post long thread on "fake cheese" in the Delta forum.

Heh. I agree. People love freebies and they will drink themselves silly just because they can. It's like if they don't have 5 drinks on a flight they're getting ripped off or something. Also really awesome when you see these people get off the plane and head to the garage or rental car area to get behind the wheel after getting sloshed on the flight.

I think freebies are very much ok.

But come on, those are not freebies, you either paid for them with cash/miles or you were upgraded due to your loyalty, which you bought.

But really, Dom Perignon is by far not the good stuff at all.
It´s way to bubbly and it´s taste is quite astringent.

For my first business class flight last year, I had read all about champage, Kir Royales etc on BA and tried it out based upon that. Champagne isn't something I would normally drink and paying £30 or whatever for a bottle from a supermarket is more than I spend on a night out.
In my case, it's just following the flock rather than something I normally do i.e it seems to be the done thing so why not be part of that.

Did get a bit of a headache from champagne and altitude so either I'm not used to it or just a lightweight compared to some people here who will easily drink their ticket price in Krug ;)

I must be hanging out in the wrong forums - I can't recall the last time I saw either of those items in a post.

Head on over to trip reports, plenty of Dom and caviar stories to fill your afternoon. :D

Miles are free for me since I HAVE TO PAY for electricity, gas for the home, water, groceries, gas for the cars, insurance and so forth. Might as well earn something from paying the money out to people. If I wrote everyone a check, what would I get back in return?