Owlchick

We didn't travel when I was growing up, as my mom was a single parent and we didn't have a lot of money for extras. I used to love going to the airport to see her friends off, though, as we would have to duck down behind the concrete walls at take off to avoid the worst of the air swirling around behind the jets (or maybe they were props! I was too short to see over the top of the wall back then).

The first job I had that involved travel was as an Army Reservist, where we spent our two week annual training in Japan Later on, as an exec assistant, my boss made me go with him to conferences that I'd helped plan so that I could take extra carry-on luggage for him (well, that wasn't the only reason...but I did end up hauling around his stuff).

In my current job as a game designer, I get to travel now and then for PR stuff related to our games. More of my travel is for personal reasons, though.

shawbridge

I don't love flying per se but I do like spending time in nice and/or interesting places. For work, I prefer high end traveling but am happy to rough it on a pleasure trip. I really enjoy getting a sense of how people think and how cultures differ in different countries. This also means that not all travel is equally interesting -- I'd rather be going to Paris or Bogota than Cleveland.

I decided when I was in graduate school that I wanted to have a career that both rewarded me financially and enabled me to help the world. I originally thought I would advise what were then called third world countries but they didn't turn out to be such great clients and I now work for corporations and countries around the world. I run a small consulting firm that gives advice in how to handle complex negotiations and builds the capability of organizations to handle certain kinds of negotiation more effectively. Interestingly, things have come full circle a bit and we now have been involved in advising the President of a country and in peace-making in a country engaged in a civil war, so I am doing more of what originally motivated me to work in this area.

My father was a professor and we lived in England when I was 6-8 and traveled in Spain, France, Belgium, Israel, Greece, Italy, etc. on each of our school breaks. I'm not sure that this was what motivated my pleasure in traveling.

GuyverII

I'm a director of international programs for a university as well as an ESL consultant/headhunter. Lots of international travel--Spain, Germany, England, Italy, S. Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia all slated for this academic year. Plus, I get to take my spouse and our little baby along!

I don't really love flying, it's just the only way to get to these neat places. I wish they would come up with a teleporter soon.

groovygrendel

Growing up in Texas, I did a lot of road trips within the state. However, my fascination with other places began when I was in junior high. My dad works in the oil business and he would send me postcards, squeezing as much info as could on it, during his travels. I looked forward to the mail and was just as excited to find out everything about the places he went. We eventually moved overseas as expats and we traveled even more as a family. My parents have moved all over the world for the past 10 years and I've enjoyed visiting them in every place they've lived (Caribbean, Asia, Europe).

I am in the oil business as well and recently relocated to the Bay Area. I hope to one day find an expat assignment too. Until then, I travel to IAH mainly. Not exciting, I know, but at least I can check in on the family and friends while I'm there. My folks have settled in Houston now and I see them more now with all the business trips down there. I'm lucky to have a spouse who enjoys traveling, and we take a lot of trips for pleasure too.

Jebby_ca

I'm a consultant, so I get to fly semi-frequently. It's too bad that my company's clients are mostly around the Mid-Atlantic/New England area, so no long-haul flights for me.

My love of flying started back when I was a child... around 3 or 4 I'd guess. Used to live in HKG back then, and my dad would take me up to his office, which was perfect for watching planes take off and land at Kai Tak. It couldn't get more exciting than to see planes flying straight into a mountain, make a sharp turn, and flying just barely above the buildings before finally touching down on the runway. Unfortunately, the only time I touched down at Kai Tak, I was 6, and I don't remember anything about that flight.

And I remember, after dim sum on Saturdays, we'd always walk past a Watson's that sold Matchbox metal die cast toy planes... I had quite a collection, but never treated them that well. I was a kid after all, and those planes were meant to fly!

yamakake

I work in an academic setting, and my work travel is essentially all voluntary: I decide when and if and where I want to travel. The downside to this is that my funds are generally fairly limited, but the upside is pretty obvious. I'm generally giving a lecture or leading a workshop when I travel, and I find it fun and interesting.

My leisure travel is often linked to my work travel, as I can typically take at least one or two additional days (typically over a weekend) as holiday. Recent examples include a weekend in Amsterdam coupled to work in Antwerp and Rotterdam, and half a week in Prague coupled to work in Frankfurt. Occasionally I take longer holidays, like a week at a spa in France after work in Montpellier.

My family rarely (well, never) accompanies me on work trips, but they do get to travel on award tickets that I've earned with a combination of travel and AmEx use. Last summer all four of us spent two weeks in Italy on award tickets.

Reading. I read constantly as a child, and wanted to experience everything I'd read in person. My first TATL was at age 17, when I was exchange student in France. I've been traveling ever since.

Also influential is the fact that my father traveled (as a consultant) for business quite a bit the last ten years or so of his career. He's the one who taught me how to pack light.

yamakake

oops---double post

ninerfan

This may be blasphemy but I don't enjoy flying. I do it because I have a job that i enjoy and I get to see some cool places but as for the flying itself not my favorite way to spend my time.

oneant

I used to love flying all over the US as a child. Not long after getting out of the military a fear of flying kicked in; I still flew because I had to for work at times and, well, it's usually the fastest way to get from A to B, but dreaded it and decreased the frequency. Culminated in a near panic attack out of DEN ~ 4 years ago when the turb on the entire climb to 30000ft was horrendous. I talked a couple free vodkas out of the UA FA on the way back from the lav during the climb.

Only way I found to get over it was increased repetition. So I flew as often as I possibly could. Now I'm addicted. Especially when I realized the benefits of being elite.

Sanosuke

My line of work is pretty mundane -- retired IT consultant. But I can trace my journey back to when I went to Honolulu as a 1 year old kid in the lap of my late mother. Been flying ever since that time. I wish there were frequent fliers programs in the 70s!!!

Sanosuke!

Justme123456

I don't know how many times I have said this to my boss.

In answer to your questions -
1. Current occupation which requires travel: Auditor
2. When bit by Travel Bug: Childhood (i.e. elementary school). Moving to Africa from Maryland during that time and have traveled ever since.

cpx

I was always fascinated by geography and wanted to see what I had
studied.

Once I started working... I figured out ways to make travel affordable
... I was all over the place from that point on.

line of work allows flexibility and some travel.

goalie

no regular work travel for me in my <gulp> 30 year banking career but i am convinced my love of flying is due to this:

i was born in nyc 5/1/58.
i was the first grandchild.
newly minted grandparents & aunts 'n uncles lived in bos
mid-june, 1958 goalie-mom, goalie-dad and little baby-goalie flw aa idlewild-bos
a/c was a lockheed l-188 electra*
don't remember squat but i'm convinced that has something to do with it and i do still have an "aa skycradle cert" with my name on it signed by the capt, f/o, flight engineer (remember them and (iirc without pulling it out) 6 stewardess.


*fast forward to 1971 and goalie-dad is working in bos but goalie-family is still living in ny. company decided to fly us up (lga-bos) for the w/e and we flew the 3rd section of the old ea shuttle and guess what.....an electra! way cool and i'll tell you this, that sucker moved on it's t/o roll (tho we did have to divert to syr for fuel as bos was fogged in)

brendog

I started travelling frequently when I was a wee lad, as my mother was an international marketing manager who would take me on trips a half dozen or so times per year. I got my UA MP # in 1985 (I used it frequently until this year when I ditched UA for CO...) and became addicted to the perks when I saw the how well my mother was treated (This was back when the airlines gave a crap about their customers and there was no such thing as a RJ...).

Fast forward 20 years and I'm an IT project manager. My travel is highly variable, ranging from 2 to 10 trips per month. Depending on the client, I either fly to the same place over and over, or I fly all over the world. Consequently, my mileage can vary from 50k to 200k miles per year. This year should be good as I've already logged 6 flights and have a couple of trips to Saudi and at least 1 trip to the UK planned. If all goes well, I'll log at least 150k this year.

humanoid94

I had to think about this one for awhile. My first flight was not until 1999 when I was 18. I flew on Pro-Air from Detroit City Airport to Baltimore as part of a school function. Later that same year, I took my first TATL flight on BA DTW-LHR. I wasn't really bitten by the travel bug, though, until NW op-upped me on a FNT-MCO flight in 2003. I remember thinking "this is really nice, I wonder how I can get more of these." A google search for "First class upgrades, Northwest" lead me to Flyertalk.com and within a couple months I was planning my first RTW.

My line of work is "interesting" and the travel is pretty unpredictable. The last couple of years I have flirted with 2p on UA, but because of the government city pairs program I end up my travel being too spread out to make elite on anything other than NW (where I do my personal travel).