I'll also extend my welcome,
Some of the things I've learnt from this forum,
1. Why fly direct when you can connect (earns more points and SC's for often the same price)
2. Booking eccon on points is often a big waste of points as discounted fares often mean the actual "saving" after fuel fines and taxes is only a few $$$. With exception to 1 trip where it was use points or don't go, I'll always either book awards or get upgrades over booking eccon flights with points.
3. Don't book the higher flexi-fares and play the upgrade game. If you happen to book an upgradable ticket by all means put in for a points upgrade, but I would never pay potentially double the cost of the discount fare on the off chance that you may be able to secure an upgrade.
4. Points are nice, but SC's are the things which make lots of flights great, place value on getting the SC's than just simple points, as enough SC's will do things like getting you lounge access, getting priority baggage (for what ever that is worth) getting you priority boarding (again for dom, for what ever that is worth) and pushing you higher up on the upgrade queue.
5. Don't always book the "from point A->B->A" flights, sometimes being a little creative and devious can score you some really good deals where by you get massive discounts simply because you looked at outside the square options.
6. Do be careful of outside the square options, as sometimes they are outside of the square for a reason and the can bite, however that does lead nicely into point 7.
7. Feel free to ask any travel question you like, we usually don't bite, and even if you find a thread which has an answer to a question, there is no guarantee that the answer hasn't been "enhanced" at some point in recent history.
Happy flying...
