Finally! An introduction from bunza

[bunza]

As the join date may indicate, I’ve been around the traps for a while now, mostly lurking, but occasionally popping my head up every now and then with a question or some idle banter masquerading as advice. I joined at a time when I was young, and flying was a very aspirational thing. At the time I was too young to get a credit card and partake in the bounty of opportunities, such as the (in)famous Amex promotion that saw my neighbour go to the supermarket several times a day, buying only a few items at once, and racking up a million reward points to take his family on an overseas holiday.

Through my uni years I travelled a fair bit, but it was all out of my own pocket. BFOD won every time. Status didn’t mean much to me at the time, even if I had directed all my flights at one airline/program, you’d need to travel a lot more than I did on discount Y to get anywhere.

Regardless, tips and tricks on the way the system works from this site were invaluable. The moment I discovered the Oneworld Award was a genuine jizz-in-my-pants moment, all of a sudden I had a goal. I needed points.

Without AFF I would never have discovered the Citibusiness card, which I took up when ANZ halved the earn rate on their Visa. I would never have contemplated getting a $250 Platinum card just for 60,000 points. I probably wouldn’t have even bothered to look at how little life insurance can cost (though that one was probably more effort than it’s worth).

These days, I’ve recently found myself in a construction job where I am travelling regularly (at the moment BNE-PER-GET), and loving it. I am starting to rack up the status credits, and putting to use all the tidbits of information acquired over the years. So I have decided to finally bite the bullet and embed myself a little more in the community and maybe meet a few new faces as I go. I have been looking at the meetings thread over the past couple of months, but without any luck so far.

So fast forward six years since I’ve been here, I’m about to pull the trigger and book my first J RTW award as soon as the availability window opens. I have four credit cards in my wallet (oops!). I’ve just bought my first two JASA’s after realising their value. And if the ducks are lined up, I should be QF Gold by early February.

All thanks to AFF, I’ve definitely been sucked into the world of frequent flyer points!

[serfty]

As the join date may indicate, I’ve been around the traps for a while now, mostly lurking ...
So fast forward six years since I’ve been here, I’m about to pull the trigger and book my first J RTW award as soon as the availability window opens. I have four credit cards in my wallet (oops!). I’ve just bought my first two JASA’s after realising their value. And if the ducks are lined up, I should be QF Gold by early February.

All thanks to AFF, I’ve definitely been sucked into the world of frequent flyer points!

Good for you. Not sure if that really should be "thanks to AFF" - more like "curses... " ...
... it is addictive.

[Lindsay Wilson]

bunza, yes most of us have that addition as well, some more than others and it's enjoyable to find a forum where your views are more widely accepted than ones circle of friends (who generally think we are crazy!). Great to see tht you are posting as now with your experience, you feel you have something worth sharing.

[JohnK]

I have to agree with you there bunza! The Oneworld award is very good value and worth striving for to achieve. Have done 2 of them in the last 4 years and looking forward to having the time to use up the rest of my points on more Oneworld awards.

[bunza]

Thanks team, the Oneworld award will have a focus on South America, which is quite a pricey country to get to and around and fairly well covered by LAN. Definitely plan on doing a trip report when the time comes, always love to read them, even if I am envious a lot of the time!

On the topic of friends, a lot of people thought I was going loco at first, until they started seeing my points balance grow and my frequency of travel increase, and then started asking questions like which cards they should be getting etc. The curse spreads!