garykung

I have 2 facts for you:

1. Just because being a frequent business traveler, it does not mean that traveler can travel smartly.

2. Just because being an airline employee, it does not mean that employee know every in-and-out of the company.

davie355

While true, it can boggle my mind. Some years ago on a US Airways flight before departure, the FA wanted to see my boarding pass to verify my seat assignment. (There was a seat dupe)

I pulled up the pass on my phone and showed her.

She stared at it for a couple of seconds and asked "Where does this show the seat number?"

daniellam

I've seen lots of F travelers (usually middle age men) flying routes such as LHR-JFK, NRT/HND-JFK or HKG-JFK vv. leave their boarding pass behind when deplaning. None of them even have a frequent flyer number listed!

Those travelers just drink water and sleep most of the way.

Annalisa12

I'm not interested in frequent flyer programs either and I am here.

DragonSoul

I am neither a 'frequent' nor a 'business' traveller. I'm someone who, sadly, can't travel much so wants to make the most of every trip. This website, and the cumulative knowledge of members, is helping me with that.

Some of the frequent business travellers I've worked with have had 'people' to book flights for them, and seem to be concerned more with times than anything else, except when they are paying for the family. Have come across the odd one or two who couldn't even turn on a computer so it's unlikely they'd be bothered with (or able to find) a site like this.

deniah

Do most people care whether The Pier or The Wing has a better view for tarmac/runway spotting? Or which ME3 carrier stock better hand lotions in their lavs?

Add onto that - people who are in and out of the airport for work, who have a place they need to be on time - can they even be bothered with that stuff? no.

For many the travel is a means to an end. My SO cant bear to sit at a lounge more than 2 hour, she'd rather wait at the gate for a change of scenery. Hey, if we start our journey at a nearby city and have an extra stop, we can get the F fare sale, rather than direct in J? "uhhh are YOU crazy or do you think IM crazy?"

lhrsfo

I think many here, myself included, have an element of plane spotter about them. Whilst I would never stand at the end of the runway and watch planes landing or taking off, I am interested in them. My wife appreciates her (inherited) status, appreciates that I choose the best seats for her and appreciates the advantages of those seats but she is not interested enough to choose seats herself or to bother with any of the FF stuff (other than entering her number) herself. But she can, and does, benefit because she probably has three business trips (intercontinental) per year in economy.

But, the OP cites people who travel regularly for Bain or whatever. These people are incredibly busy, will be seated in Business Class and will probably either work or sleep through their entire flight. They have lounge access because of their ticket. They will probably have flexible fares so they can take the next flight out - and they will take the next flight out as they don't want to waste time sitting at an airport. IRROPS will be handled by their minions. Much of what we discuss here is simply not useful to them - they don't need upgrades, they don't need miles, they don't need tricks for anything. There may well be some useful stuff (which seat, for example) but they don't have the time to trawl through pages of trivia to find the information.

mdkowals

Even among those with a supply of minions to do their deeds, there is a benefit to FT. Most of my travel is business, and I could reasonably just e-mail our travel contractor with a "I have a business meeting in X city from Date Y to Date Z" and within an hour or two an itinerary will show up in my inbox. But it will show up absent my thoughts and priorities, and will not be optimized for either my or my company's needs.

I feel like a tremendous amount of stress in this world is brought on simply because people don't know themselves or their own priorities. As such, those people don't make decisions that are in line with how they themselves truly think and feel. Participating in communities, such as FT, can help you understand yourself and bring you to make decisions that are in line with your values, in addition to helping provide the technical skills to implement those decisions.

Specifically to travel, there are an infinite number of things you can prioritize. Do you value a full night's sleep over everything? Do you value being able to dress for every situation over being highly mobile? Do you value structured timing or a free itinerary? Do you value not being rushed, or do you value getting from point A to B the fastest? Do you value minimizing your time at the airport? Where does money fit into all of this? Where should it fit? Do you really hate driving for the first time in new locations at night?........

When I was a new-hire and didn't think I had any decision making authority, I did book travel via the "I have a meeting in city X from this date to that date" method. Now I e-mail the travel contractor with my specific proposed itinerary that is based on both my values and the company's, and life is better. And yes, some information obtained from lurking on FT over the years has made it's way into that process!

Artpen100

I think few of my colleagues are familiar with FT. What really surprises me, though, is how some of them – though a minority, I think – are completely unaware of how to make flying more bearable.They have their assistant book flights at the last minute, and assume they are getting the best they could get.And so wind up flying on thousand dollar tickets in the last row for domestic flights, with ridiculous connections, running through airports, standing in lines, never been in a lounge, and are helpless if anything goes wrong.They don't put their FF number on their tickets, pass up lots of miles, and then complain about the cost of tickets for their personal travel.Too busy to be bothered.

Fraser

I don't know anyone that knows Flyertalk and most of my flying habits just make for fun anecdotes amongst friends and family or best man's speech fodder....some of my curious flying habits that give me a better seat for less money (not necessarily mileage runs but just out of the way routings) are just things that people think are weird quirks. I don't think anyone really wants to figure it out for themselves and "join in" bar a couple of long standing friends from childhood that are also curious about flying that have dabbled a little.

My father who travelled hundreds of thousands of miles per year regularly and for probably close to 15yrs didn't really care too much. With the exception of joining the BA Executive Club his knowledge of FFPs is pretty minimal and I guided him towards the end of his regular flying "career" but he still made what many would consider rookie mistakes. He, after 30yrs of flying regularly still doesn't understand why BA sell JFK-LON-JER-LON-JFK in F regularly for less than JFK-LHR-JFK in J, for example.

My ex was a corporate pilot and would be positioned all over the US and Caribbean for various assignments at times. Other than a DL Skymiles account she didn't give a crap about anything else flying wise. She had no interest in, and derived no enjoyment or pleasure from flying FC as she was 5'6" and would just sleep onboard regardless of flight length, purposely avoided "boring" airline lounges, etc. If she wasn't in the cockpit it was a means to an end!

For a lot of people flying is just the way from A to B as quickly as possible with as few a stops as possible at preferably the lowest price. Seats don't matter, lounges don't matter, miles don't matter etc.

Annalisa12

I told a relative to look up seat widths on seat guru and they exclaimed.... what??? Seats on planes are diff widths.

CMK10

Whenever my dad and I travel together we'll invariably talk to people we meet who also travel a lot and he always says to me "tell them about Flyertalk". I think less than 10% of people I meet have heard of us. Oh well, more secrets for the rest of us.

davie355

Agreed but back to my original point - I was shocked they didn't know FlyerTalk existed (which requires negligible time), not that they didn't peruse content.

darthbimmer

I started traveling frequently for work two years before I saw FlyerTalk. I'm not one of those people whose first thought is, "Hmm, let me see if there's a support groupdiscussion forum for this."

Once I found the site I joined because I wanted to improve my travel experience and the benefits I earn from travel. Not everyone who travels a lot cares about these things, though. I've described FT to at least a half dozen frequent traveler coworkers over the years, and none have been interested.

Artpen100

But I find it often matters enough that they complain about sitting in the last row, how small their seat was, having to gate check their bags, and how horrible flying is, or make a snarky remark as they pass you in First.