You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

[MathNerd]

In verbal conversations, do people use "LHR", ZUR" Etc? I would think it's uncommon. Yes, experienced flyers can flummox non flyers with technical jargon, but personally I know my friends and wouldn't swamp then with the gumpf unless I knew they were of like mind ( such as at AFF meetups, then I can easily get lost

Personally I haven't heard anyone use codes like that, but I do like to use them myself (especially as all this AFF "stuff" has become somewhat of a recent hobby/addiction/timesink/dream to me)!

 

[SponsorSFC]

Yeah I find I now use J or F without thinking in verbal communications which I have to translate. Occasionally EK, SQ or CX get a run as well.

 

[boomy]

... Two things here come to mind. I'm sure they've been covered already, but here's my personal experience:

• When you converse (verbally/SMS/etc) about cabin classes in their respective alphabetical codes (Y/Y+/J/F/R) instead of Economy/Premium Economy/Business/First/Suites, especially to friends that aren't familiar with these codes, and then having to do a full explanation as to what these mean: "Hey I'm flying to the US for 10 days but only taking 3 days annual leave due to Easter/Anzac holidays" "Awesome! You going in Y or J? QF, VA, EK, EY, SQ, TG?" "Dude, what the hell are you talking about?"... And then discussion commences.
• When you converse about destinations using their airport codes: "Heading to Europe for our honeymoon at the end of the year" "Awesome, which parts of Europe?" "Well, we're landing in LHR and departing out of ZRH" "Where's that?" "LHR is London Heathrow and ZRH is Zurich Kloten" "Oh, that's interesting, any reason why?" "Well, this was the only availability I could find for both of us in SQ J and also to avoid the damn LHR APD" "Whoa, calm down dude you lost me"... And so begins the next discussion.

How many of you here have personal experience with the same/similar situation(s)?

Non-FF friends sometimes ask why I keep going back to Paris and Frankfurt each year on my trips to Europe.
“Because these are the cities where I can get award availability to/from in First while avoiding London”.
What do you mean by award and First? Why avoid London?
Ahhh never mind, lets talk about something else...

 

[Spongbob]

Many people might say "JFK" ?

 

[MathNerd]

Many people might say "JFK" ?

Yep, my wife is one of them! Planning on heading to the US in mid-2020 and I ran the plan past the wife - "So, we're heading to the US Westwards, stopping off in SIN for 18 hours, then hopping over to FRA then onto JFK". "Wait, I thought JFK was a person" "Yes, dear, he was a president of the US but now New York airport (one of them) bears his name" "Oh, I see, where are we departing back to Melbourne from?" "From LAX, SFO or SEA" "OK I don't want to talk to you anymore"... *cue awkward silence*

 

[harvyk]

Many people might say "JFK" ?

I use terms like LAX, or JFK as those codes are very well known. Start using terms like DCA or ORD or PVG and you're likely to get blank stares from the uninitiated.

 

[MathNerd]

I use terms like LAX, or JFK as those codes are very well known. Start using terms like DCA or ORD or PVG and you're likely to get blank stares from the uninitiated.

Indeed! Even locally, codes such as OOL end up not being understood (That's Gold Coast? Why isn't the code GOL or GCT or similar? are typical replies).

 

[JessicaTam]

Russia?

India. I am glad I didn't have to give dates, so I just started working my way through the continents. It was only after hitting submit that the 20 country max came up.

Visa came through today.

 

[eddie 73]

When you set an alarm for T-80... and it’s at 4am!

Oh the curse of 4A.

 

[wandering_fred]

When you set an alarm for T-80... and it’s at 4am!
Oh the curse of 4A.

In that case I think T-76 would work.....

(showing my age but) Just wandering
Fred

 

[harvyk]

In that case I think T-76 would work.....

(showing my age but) Just wandering
Fred

Whilst I tend to agree with you, not everyone will be selecting their T-80 seats from the same timezone. I've got a MEL-CBR flight next week where the T-80 time is 12:15 am (AEST), but in SF where I'll be it will be a nice respectable 7:15am.

Edit: And just a. knowing that T-80 exists, and b. working exactly what time that means, is a sign that you're a frequent flyer

 

[Hvr]

b. working exactly what time that means, is a sign that you're a frequent flyer

Having an Excel macro so that whilst keeping track of your trips and entering the take off time it automatically populates the column showing T-80.

 

[Blinky]

For me it was when a got home after two weeks in multiple Australian cities. I was driving straight to the MCG to meet my family at an AFL match. As I was on the Tullamarine Freeway I kept reminding myself “I must not miss the exit to the Gold Coast”.

Don’t suppose I should have been driving.....

 

[Alyopsis]

Well, as long as you take the Nerang exit

 

[Blinky]

Well, as long as you take the Nerang exit

That or the Jolimont one......

 

[ajca]

... you realise that you've flown 105,000 miles in the past 10 months!

 

[Moindardt]

• When you converse about destinations using their airport codes: "Heading to Europe for our honeymoon at the end of the year" "Awesome, which parts of Europe?" "Well, we're landing in LHR and departing out of ZRH" "Where's that?" "LHR is London Heathrow and ZRH is Zurich Kloten" "Oh, that's interesting, any reason why?" "Well, this was the only availability I could find for both of us in SQ J and also to avoid the damn LHR APD" "Whoa, calm down dude you lost me"... And so begins the next discussion.

How many of you here have personal experience with the same/similar situation(s)?

Same on so many ones but this in particular. I just booked EK F BNE-MEL-DBX-AMS and SQ F CDG-SIN-SYD for my parents for the 50th anniversary present. Friends of theirs ended up deciding to join them on a river cruise and trying to explain to them why (and what was APD). Especially the couple who are very weathly and fly paid J/K all the time and not FF members of any program and almost never use their credit cards. And so begins the next discussion.

 

[harvyk]

You haven't bothered taking the foreign currency out of your wallet because you know you'll be heading back to that country within a couple of weeks.
For the last 2 weeks I've just left the US dollars in my wallet because I'm heading back there next week.

 

[nat965]

you can recite the safety briefing of a few airlines word for word.

 

[p--and--t]

Shamefully I must no longer be a "true FF".

I am a lowly Bronze these days and pay for my own flights or use reward points.

The following going back several years in time, may qualify me as a "past FF" (domestically only).

• Every staff member on every shift at a certain hotel knew me and I knew them. They jumped to explain whenever someone new had been employed and introduced me.
• You are miffed that just because the F1 event is on and every hotel in town is fully booked at rack rate, you (travelling alone) haven't been upgraded to the best 2 bedroom corner suite in the house paying the lowest discounted rate possible.
• Your hotel room always has a little welcome note from the manager, a complimentary bottle of wine and some other nick-knack.
• A cabin manager points out I have flown more sectors in the last week than he has.
• The lounge dragon (any of them on different shifts) nods and smiles and waves you through without checking if you have a boarding pass
• 1A was often my seat even though work only ever purchased Y tickets.
• One one flight an off duty captain seated in 1A spoke to me in 1B saying the cabin manager had mentioned it was my usual seat and apologised.
• A cabin manager asking me if I would like to sit in the jump seat because we were approaching an airport I hadn't been to before and might like to watch the approach.
• A specific driver that picked me up from work and took me to the airport every week to catch the same flight.
• A recurring booking every week for the same 3 sectors with additional ones added as work required.
• Some weeks,approx each 3 months, visiting every capital city in AU between Sunday night and Friday night.
• Having a permanently packed carry on bag with all the essentials (wet pack, shaver, medication, electronics shoes etc). At the end of each trip just the dirty clothes came out washed and put back.

Since paying for my own seats,

• my purchase of lifetime QC >20 years ago was one of the best investments I ever made
• 17 envelopes in the study with different currency waiting for my next trip.
• a half packed carryon with spare chargers, cords, USB sticks and nick-knacks that I will need for the next trip always sitting on the study floor
• a bathroom cabinet filled with soaps and little tubes of this and that from amenity packs that I will never use in a lifetime
• regularly being able to quickly answer geographical questions on capital cities, countries, continents, major monuments, etc before the contestant on TV quiz shows
• even purchases of $5 go on the credit card because 5 points is 5 points
• repeated sessions around the kitchen table with neighbours and friends explaining once again the ins and outs of planning and executing a 140k/280k award trip