What's behind your AFF user name?

[Seat0B]

I reckon I’ve worked it out -:

Deep in the unpressurised belly of the aviation world exists a clandestine group known only as The Order of the Winged Manifest—an elite cabal of airline insiders who secretly control seat upgrades, in-flight beverage temperatures, and the mysterious algorithm that decides whose luggage gets lost.

Membership is tightly controlled. Each initiate must assume a civilian alias to operate among the general flying public. These aliases must be bland enough to avoid suspicion but encoded enough to signal status within the Order.

Now, our subject—code name classified, real name unpronounceable outside of a headwind—was tasked with infiltrating online travel forums to monitor chatter about flight delays, gate agents who ask too many questions, and passengers who know too much about aircraft maintenance.

He needed a name that wouldn’t raise eyebrows but would pass the Order’s secret naming convention. According to the Cabal Codex:

• “John” is the go-to placeholder for covert operatives (short for Just Observing Human Navigation).
• The “M” stands for Mile High Manipulator, a title given only to agents who have successfully caused a flight to be delayed by exactly 13 minutes for no discernible reason.

So he became JohnM—lurking on forums, subtly steering discussions away from Flight 239's mysterious third landing gear, and ensuring no one ever finds out the real reason why gate changes always happen when you’ve just bought a yogurt parfait.

He is watching. Always boarding early. Forever JohnM.

You have officially won this thread @DejaBrew. Your new novel, The Airline Code, is about to be published I assume?

 

[prozac]

Always needed on a thread @drron!

Quite likely I would not be here if not for the good doc.

 

[Seat0B]

Plenty of crazy beach clubs there - Aqaba, Dahab, Sharm etc. It's always interesting being able to look across the gulf and see Saudi - especially the lights in Saudi at night.

And also Israel from where we were.

 

[Seat0B]

It would be a pity if anyone changed their handles as I've come to associate writing styles (and humour styles) with them.

Yes me too. I even get confused when people change their avatars!

 

[Seat0B]

Don’t be so modest good Dr….

Long before budget airlines and emotional support wallabies, there existed a secret society known only to a few whispered air traffic controllers and a single, semi-sentient baggage carousel in Perth. This group, the Council of Contrails, controlled the global airline ecosystem from the shadows—flight routes, duty-free pricing, even the inexplicable mystery of the warm, damp towel.

At the heart of this council was a man, a legend, a turbulence-whisperer known only as DrRon.

Now, was he really a doctor? Not in any field you’ve heard of. He held a PhD in Altitudinal Quantum Negotiation—a forbidden science involving seat recline angles, airplane coffee phase states, and the quantum mechanics of boarding group envy.

The name “drron” is no ordinary username. It is, in fact, an acronym encrypted in ancient Frequent Flier Latin:

• D – Deus (God)
• R – Reclinare (To Recline)
• R – Regnum (Kingdom)
• O – Obliviatus (Of the Forgotten Overhead Bin)
• N – Nullius (Belonging to No Airline)

Roughly translated: “The God of Recline from the Kingdom of Forgotten Carry-ons”.

DrRon earned his place by resolving the 1997 Armrest Treaty, a conflict that nearly brought down five major carriers. He once convinced a Boeing 777 to land early just by whispering to the seat back tray table. His frequent flyer card is made of eucalyptus bark, and when scanned, it simply says: "He knows."

To this day, “drron” appears on obscure travel forums, quietly correcting misinformation about fare codes, lounge access, and why gate agents always say “We’ll begin pre-boarding shortly” (a logical impossibility he invented to test humanity’s patience).

He is myth. He is mileage. He is drron, and he always knows which side of the plane gets the better sunrise.

Ok you’ve won it twice now! Your second novel, The Good Doctor of the Airlines, is well underway, I see! Ripper plots. I’d buy them.

Post automatically merged: Thursday at 9:37 AM

Never knew that. Has it been a long-standing thing? What happens with the classification systems when the birds diverge?

Typically informative post by @kileskus - one of the reasons I really like his TRs.

 

[Flyerwin]

We also have the same QF/VA status... Are you the talented Mr Ripley?

 

[NM]

I am am person of simplicity. Found two adjacent keys on the keyboard, and two consecutive letters in my lysdexic alphabet. Seems to work for me .

And my avatar is a photo I took of a snowman I once made in my home town of Brisbane.

 

[Flyfrequently]

No mystery or interesting backstory to mine - I just like to fly frequently .....but nowhere near the heights reached by fellow AFFers!

 

[JessicaTam]

Mine is just an amalgam of my names. And contrary to popular belief, I am not a short Asian.

 

[Big John]

I used the same user name of an online game I was playing when I first joined AFF.

The user name has since spread to other areas of my life e.g. running bibs when I enter marathons. Its a real ego boost to hear people cheer "BIG JOHN! BIG JOHN!" when I run past .

 

[NM]

Mine is just an amalgam of my names. And contrary to popular belief, I am not a short Asian.

And your brother Tim is a pretty popular guy

 

[JessicaTam]

And your brother Tim is a pretty popular guy

You know if you make fun of me I could say tam stands for the angry moderator.

 

[ols]

Mine is my nickname given to me by the father of two very well known rugby league brother players.
He coached a team I played for and joined when my rugby union side folded.
I joined after the season started and to make sure I felt welcome as a new player to the team at the start of my first training session as the team gathered together he goes "and how are you today Ols"
That became his standard line at the start of every training session.
Got to the point where all the team would join in and say it with him.
Great man who helped a new guy to the team feel welcome.
Became my nickname and I'm known by that name to all and sundry.
My pic is a special hideaway in Lombok.

 

[NM]

You know if you make fun of me I could say tam stands for the angry moderator.

And that makes me the Nice Moderator??

 

[Daver6]

I spend a lot of time administering computers..

Wait a minute. You're the BOFH?!

 

[JohnM]

Wait a minute. You're the BOFH?!

Would that make you the PFY…

 

[wandering_fred]

I would love to give you the multitude of alternative thought processes which are involved in constructing the ideal vacation trip through the various scenic opportunities presented by the existing commercial airline networks
But that might be considered excess wandering
Fred

 

[dairyfloss]

A drunken game of Scattergories with mates, one of whom couldn't recall what that sugary fluffy stuff on a stick was actually called

 

[blackcat20]

Way back before AFF I was on another forum, I was 20 and liked black cats so..... I pretty much use it wherever I can which is probably not so smart these days but I really can't be bothered trying to hide. Unless someone else has already used it, as was the case with ebay.

 

[OATEK]

My username came from when I first stepped into the world of networked computing (UNIX/TCPIP), and was the standard construct for our organisation of 5 letters, 4 surname, 1 first name. This was back in the '80s. The systems were air-gapped, that is they did not have access to the WWW etc, which was mainly accessed via modem from personal PCs to visit bulletin boards looking for help with drivers, scripts etc.