Or perhaps FT is to MP as the King James Version is to Good News for Modern Man. Same basic info with the fire and brimstone taken out.
Agree. The knowledge base on FT is amazing and the regular posters and their discussions are really smart. (some too smart). There's one group that panders to those wanting to be spoon-fed and others who chastise them harshly. And there are certainly the "personalities" good and bad. But generally it's a "think-tank" of the most asute traveling pros. It's just so damn hard to search. And yes- 9 months there has gotten me 600K miles for $0 from my desk.
I appreciate the three "Cs" Community, Content & the Comprehensive benifits gained from the first two.
Everything I know about travel I learned on Flyertalk. Boy, I thought I knew a lot based on my own (what I thought to be) frequent travel back when I joined in April 2001. But so many people on Flyertalk knew so much more. I had no idea what I didn't even know. Of course, there was plenty of experience to be gained on the best uses of points, learning about the best promos to earn points, finding out about mistake fares and error rates. But really more than anything else I found a community of friends who enjoyed the same things that I did. And I found some very generous people who were willing to take the time to teach me. More than anyone else, at least after Randy for creating Flyertalk, I owe a deep debt to PremEx who (probably doesn't even know it, but he) taught me more than anyone else about how to think about travel... how to think about loyalty programs... how to talk to people on the other side of the counter in order to get the most out of my own travels. I found that on Flyertalk, and I'll be forever grateful. Now, are there some things that annoy me about Flyertalk? Sure, but there ar ethings that annoy me about almost everything! And I'm not here on Milepoint out of a dissatisfaction for Flyertalk. In fact, I'm probably owed some blame for anything I might not be fully satisfied with there, at least to the extent that I didn't do anything about it. I'm here because I love the people, anything that Randy is starting I want to be involved with, many of my friends are here, and so far I'm really digging the platform. And for me it' s a chance to start over. I spent 10 years of my life on Flyertalk. This for me is a fresh start, and I'm uniquely energized as I haven't been in a really long time to answer questions and try to help out fellow frequent travelers any way I can. Thanks for posting this thread, Punki, because goodness knows that my travel life is far, far better because Randy created Flyertalk way back when. It's hard to even imagine what my life would be, how it would be different (and far less extraordinary) without it.
I found FT doing a search to maximize miles for an executive I was planning for. His miles were all over the place with many different airlines. Thanks to the folks at FT I managed to get him to AA Plat within a year. I've been a member on FT since 2005, not a big poster, but avid reader. I love the feel of MP and while I may not know as much as some, I still feel appreciated here.
