OK I am curious…..

[Anna]

And - profound thought that occurred to me this morning while gardening - there's no such thing as the right way to book something. There's only bookings you are happy with and go ahead with, and other choices you aren't happy with and don't go ahead with. The decision is yours.

There will always be someone on the internet who will bob up and say 'if only you'd taken a positioning flight to Beijing you could have flown J via Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka for 10K less points'. Ignore them. The only real response to that sort of nonsense is 'I think you must mean fewer points'.

 

[Stargazer]

I am truly amazed at the depth of knowledge and the speed of reply — even complex queries. It seems that AFFs have all this information at their fingertips. It’s not just things like conditions of carriage that sometimes require interpretation. But also links to specific answers on websites, blogs, other forums etc. As I asked in my opening post — how do you acquire and retain all this knowledge. I mean there have been some incredibly complex answers that suggest members have worked with airlines at a senior level. It’s just awe inspiring

 

[mrsterryn]

I am truly amazed at the depth of knowledge and the speed of reply — even complex queries. It seems that AFFs have all this information at their fingertips. It’s not just things like conditions of carriage that sometimes require interpretation. But also links to specific answers on websites, blogs, other forums etc. As I asked in my opening post — how do you acquire and retain all this knowledge. I mean there have been some incredibly complex answers that suggest members have worked with airlines at a senior level. It’s just awe inspiring

My area of expertise isn't flying lol. I rely significantly on the people on this board. Asking many daft questions and hoping one day to get to a meet up .
However my area of expertise was in the past older Australians under the social security and the admin acts. If I didn't know I would ,more than likely, the key words to look up the guide etc to find out the information.
To me I would think that is how the experts here are some through employment either side of flying , some through just wanting to know. Unfortunately also some having to know the T and C's to fight battles .

 

[Anna]

@Stargazer interesting that you are put in mind of airline executives when you read AFF. I am more often put in mind of Eric, Norm and Wilbur from the Jack Irish series

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I know not asked of me, & hope lovetravellingoz doesn't mind ...

I occasionally skim sites like One Mile at a Time, View from the Wing and Executive Traveller. The first two are heavily American focussed and anything useful there will get picked up and put on AFF pretty quickly. ET is Australian and interesting but again, you'll rarely see anything 'breaking' there that isn't on AFF soon, or prior. Their 'how to' guides (get status match etc) can be handy.

I also try to learn from and stay close to my Travel Agent. They still get deals and specials not available to the public or on the web, and can sometimes get rules bent by the airlines on request.

Yes those. FlyerTalk, Ozbargain, The Man in Seat 61, Forums for particular airlines, Trip Advisor used to be very good, but is still quite handy. Travel forums for the type of travel you like.


You have to be alert for patterns and wrinkles. For example for a few years when SQ changed metal ( aircraft type,) it used to often through up glitches in their booking engine. IE Could upgrade from J to F for free. Could suddenly get J/ F availability when there was none. Sadly they fixed whatever that aberration was. I used to look for metal changes to take advantage of it. Or if I had a existing booking would try a F upgrade if a metal change happened.