general45

Wow, down to your underwear? Really?

ByrdluvsAWACO

First of all, this is a great thread.

Pic - My first Flight circa 1974


I was born and grew up in the south side of Philadelphia back in 1968. There weren't too many traveling opportunities for inner city youth back then.

In what seemed like some sort of divine intervention, my grandmother was presented with the opportunity to work for TWA 8 months before my birth as a res agent. As an employee she was able to travel all over the globe bringing me experiences and little gifts from other countries. I was so excited to get the little toys airlines would give to kids back then.

I was also blessed to have a mother who loved to travel as well. So in 1974, my mom packed me up and I went on my first plane ride ever to Jamaica. Imagine the contrast of inner city Philadelphia to an island covered in palm trees and surrounded by beaches.

We went back to Jamaica the following summer in 1975. For me this was the spark that led to my travel obsession today.

Loose Cannon

My father was a pilot for American Airlines based in LAX. We had relatives all over the country. Though we lived in Califonia we had relatives in Western Pennsylvania (would usually fly into CLE but sometime PIT), El Paso (much smaller back then), New Jersey (would use JFK, LGA or EWR) and later the Seattle area. We used Western or United as American did not serve SEA back then. As a result of the foregoing I would travel a few times a year.

Later we would go on holiday various places. I remember trips to Hawaii, Florida, Acapulco, London and Greece, New Zealand, Niagara Falls, Ontario and Quebec and part of New England.

For quite a number of years I did little travelling by air. When I got into trucking one company flew me on UA ONT-DEN DEN-OMA and another company flew me ONT-PHX in order to get truck when I was starting a gig as a company driver. There were occasions where employment ended and once I flew MSP-PHX PHX-ONT, once I flew BNA-DFW DFW-ONT and once I flew BNA-PHX PHX-ONT.

When I got into the segment of the trucking industry I'm in now, I started flying frequently (but enough different airlines I can't make status on any of them) and I started posting Trip Reports.

FlyingUnderTheRadar

I fly because of my Grandmother

When I was young my Grandmother would fly to far off places like Africa or the Orient. With each journey she would send me a postcard. Little boy dreams of lions and tigers and samurai. After a while I had quite the collection of postcards. One day my Grandmother made me box covered in stamps from all over the world to hold my collection. As the years went on my collection grew and grew as did her stories. I hoped that someday I could send postcards from far off places and have such stories.

When my chance came to fly on my own I did. My Grandmother's stories were my inspiration. So like her I also flew to far off places. Places that were only a dream as a child became real. And as I traveled I would send my Grandmother postcards of where I had visited. Sometimes my postcards would come from the same places that she had visited 20, 30 or even 40 years before.

Today my Grandmother is 98 and although she no longer flies, she still inspires me to fly to far off places. And no matter where I fly to I always try to send a postcard. Though there are still many places I want to fly to perhaps the best flight now is the one that takes me to visit my Grandmother.



I happened to write this for a contest a couple of years ago - approximately 3 months before my Grandmother died.

DanTravels

I was a late bloomer... I was married and had a kid by the time I flew more than one round-trip in a single year. I'll blame my love of flying on:

1. Getting to ride up front a few times on 8+ hour flights for a former job.
2. Experiencing how much better international Y is than domestic Y.
3. Seeing interesting people and places at the other ends of flights.
4. Kimo recommending an airline to me based on where I live. ^
5. Being treated well as I went from "nobody" to top tier in 1 year.
6. Getting to ride up front a lot of times, sometimes in really neat seats.
7. Meeting various FTers, attending some DOs, and meeting airline staff.
8. Great treatment as an elite, especially from staff who were at the DOs.

There may be a little something in my genes, though - at the time I was born, my father was flying frequently for his job... on the same airline I wound up with decades later!

I have to admit, though, that after having my butt in one seat or another for about 135,000 actual miles in 2007, I'm tired out and ready to scale it back a little bit in 2008!

Oh, and on the line-of-work question... I do odd jobs for assorted public-sector entities funded by 30 or so countries.

birdstrike

I didn't merge flying with the idea traveling until much later in my life. As a pre-teen I crated messages for pilots on high - spelled out in scrap wood on the back lawn. I joined the Air Explorers right out of Boy Scouts, Soled at 16 and obtained my private license a few hours later.

Flirted briefly with the idea of attending the Air Force Academy, but was seduced by the dawn of the computer age into a different path.

Traveled for business for a few years, then discovered that Adventure Travel and photography was my real life goal. I've been struggling to perfect that lifestyle for the last few years. . .

Penguinmoon

My love of travel started when I was a young child, growing up in Kansas City. In the early 70's I lived in a neighborhood close to the airport and was surrounded by TWA pilots and FA's. I was in awe listening to their stories and travels. I knew I had to fly!

In the early 80's, my dad was on the road 2/3 of the year, and must have amassed millions of miles, I always was given a first class ticket to anywhere I asked! Mainly Eastern/Western/and Delta.

In the late 80's, became a FA myself (Braniff). Mostly a domestic airline by then, but loved it! With them until the bitter end.

Job doesn't require much flying for work, but do pretty well on my own...

mcrt

My job has little to do with my love of travel, but I do travel a little for work. Looking at the last 12 months I had a couple of trips to Alaska and one across the state for work and seven for fun.

The roots of my travel go back to my parents divorce and being a 70s shuttle kid. Every year I would fly from Seattle to Indiana to see Dad. I also went to Alaska several times to commercial fish. The first flight I remember was when I was six heading to Fish Camp. That flight was on a 40s vintage Grumman Goose.

I just love to see new places and flying is the best way to get there. I often look out plane windows and think that if I ever lose the love of that view it is time to quit flying.

essxjay

Line of work has nothing to do with why I travel. I travel because I love to.

Where the love of travel comes from is probably a combination of innate novelty-seeking and because my dad, who was an ATC with the USAF when I was born and who also later earned a private pilots license, made the whole flying experience fun for me before I could really remember it. My parents split when I was 7 so I flew UAM lots and lots before I eventually just blew off the FAs -- "Thanks, my dad's just over in the tower waiting for me. I'm fine from here. (Zip)" Airports were like the coolest playground as far as I was concerned. As an FAA employee he was able pull strings a little bit, such as for en route flight deck visits for himself and me (long, long before 9/11). Plus, there's nothing like just firing up the prop on a nice day and taking the Cub out for a spin and a few touch 'n goes. (Kinda like joyriding except better.) That tends to impress most 10-year-olds.

mcrt, YGPM.

stupidhead

I'm being sarcastic.

marel2

In 1959 at the age of six I took my first flight from Massachusetts to Taipei,Taiwan. I started traveling alot for leisure about twenty years ago and 7 years ago started importing. So I get to travel,explore and shop!

moondoggie

I grew up as an Army brat--and loved it. My dad was stationed on Governor's Island in NYC while I was in the 4th-5th grades, and, being so close to the city, we saw tapings of TV shows all the time. At one point my school class attended a taping of a kid's quiz show, and, we were invited to fill out an application to appear on a future show. You had to put your 'dream job' on the app, because each show was centered around a particular profession. Well, mine was, Stewardess, which is what they were called them back then! For whatever reason I got a callback, and was on a show pitted against two other wannabe FAs. Bottom line, I won all the marbles--lots of prizes, and the big prize was a trip to the United Airlines Stewardess School in Chicago. I went with my mom for several days, and did the stuff the Stews in training did. Got a diploma, hat, wings, the whole shebang. Thought I had died and gone to heaven.

I fly all the time now, and no amount of money would make me become a FA, because people tend to treat them like flying waitresses at a redneck bar.

So, when I fly, I usually bring a box of good quality chocolates and present it to the FAs who are in coach with me--they sure do appreciate someone appreciating them!

MJLogan

My dad took me on a business trip (AVP-DCA) when I was quite small (circa 1970). The FAs and the flight crew all made a big fuss over me because it was my first time in an airplane. It was great fun. I've loved flying ever since.

These days, when it's getting harder and harder to love the actual flying, I still do. I almost never fly on business, so I'm almost always going someplace I really want to be, where I expect to have a lot of fun. That makes the sharply declining quality of the flying experience easier to overlook.

ebayj

Fun thread. I'm in payroll management, and have worked for several Bay Area companies. I'm currently with a science organization.

My mother loved to travel, and did quite bit as a young single woman in the 50s, which was rather unusual in North Dakota, before she married in 1959.

I always enjoyed road trips as a child, and my first plane ride was when I was 13 to Washington, DC. Then, I was chosen for an honor band/chorus international group when I was 15 - and flew to Europe for the first time for several weeks (on a KLM 747 no less.) That really set my love of travel for life. I realize now how fortunate I was to see how people lived in other parts of the world from such a young age.

Indylt

I'm currently an Account manager and travel about 130k miles a year almost all of which is domestic.

My love of travel came from two sources. First when I was 5 my family moved from Austria to the Bay Area. Each summer starting when I was 9 I would fly back to Austria by myself to spend the summer with my grandparents. I loved those trips and remember feeling so grown up to switch planes in places other kids had barely heard of (New York, London, Frankfurt, Rome). Just when I lost interest in doing my yearly trips to Austria, I had an incredible teacher my junior year in high school. He taught area studies of places he had traveled like China/Japan, Africa, and Australia. The travel fire was re-ignited and I swore I would visit each of those places when I grew up. I've done two of the three, but of course the list has grown much longer!