Introduce yourself here!

[parismama]

I'm a commercial photographer from Florida. I travel the globe photographing resorts and cruises. Would love to get info on level 2. I have many expenses that I can not pay with credit or debit cards and hate spending money that doesn't earn miles! So I'm constantly researching trying to find ways to spend those funds in mile earning ways. I would also appreciate a pm on what DC Broker's XXXX is! Many thanks in advance.

 

[Mazeltov]

Hi I'm Joey from D.C I love being able to travel for next to nothing. Thanks for the great forum, I am interested in the level 2 forum since I just got a few new cards.

 

[Alan]

I'm Alan and live in Silicon Valley. I've been pretty successful generating miles and points- just got back from a trip to Vienna & Prague where I travelled business or first and had paid for my 5 star hotels with points. Recently started doing MS leveraging Evolve which has worked out great. Looking to learn more.

 

[Helixcardinal]

Hello all, I'm Calvin from California. Just came back from my honeymoon in Australia and Maldives, all funded with miles/points! Look forward to reading and sharing some tips.

 

[cboss3]

Hi everyone. My name is Cynthia and I'm in the DC area. I enjoy traveling and want to do much more so I look forward to participating in this community.

 

[robster]

Hi, this is Rob from Chicago. Interested in learning and sharing anything that can make this MS process sustainable. Matt, I'm also from the UK. Guess when you don't speak to someone on the phone you don't pick up on the shared heritage.

 

[newhousejim]

Hello,

I'm Jim from Dallas. I've been in the Travel Hacking game pretty hardcore for the last 5 years and the MS game for the last 2 years. I'm always looking for a place to gather and share info.

Jim

 

[Dealsformelanie]

Hello! I'm Melanie from CT. I'm pretty new to travel hacking and MS. I have been reading blogs for the past 1 1/2 years, and finally collected enough UR/United points to book a trip for my family (husband and 3 kids) to China and Israel in Feb 2015!

 

[James K]

Hey everyone! I'm James, originally from Chicago, been living in South Korea for the last few years, and will be moving out to Germany next month for the next 3 years. I found travel hacking living abroad has had it's challenges, but it's definitely doable of you're willing to put in the effort. Thanks for putting this together Matt.
-J

 

[chiz]

Hello all,

I'm Chiz; currently in Tyler, TX, but relocating to Dallas in the fall. I've dabbled in miles, points, and cashback for several years, signing up for the occasional credit card offer, but started getting serious about 18 months ago with sign up bonuses. Great to have a like-minded community to share the hobby with. Thanks Matt!

 

[sophia1]

Hi all - I'm delighted to have found this forum. Matt has already much impressed me with his helpfulness. My husband and I are retired and live in Cambridge, MA. I am here for all the travel tips I can digest. We have recently been to SE Asia, Germany, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Iceland, all at slightly better than backpacker level without points. We are ready for upgrade and easier travel! We are in our 70's and still hoping for India and Australia.

Sophia

 

[ms_sfo]

Greetings from the City by the Bay. I started reading some of the bloggers before they quit their day jobs, but things have changed - that's why I appreciate the "new" crop of bloggers and this forum - thanks, Matt!

Looking forward to learning and contributing and maybe even attending my first DO this year.

 

[seekingsun]

I followed Matt's tweets over here. Living in the DC area and out of the MS and miles games for a year now due to little ones. Trying to catch up and would welcome access to the MS forums. Thanks and see you!

 

[Zhuo Liu]

Hello all,

My name's Zhuo, currently a grad student living in VA, been doing MS since last March. Completed 55k MS since Feb. and got several big sign-ups. I fly AA a lot and made AA Plat status last month. Feeling great to have communities like this (also FT, TravelingBetter, etc) to learn lots of creative and interesting things about travel and MS everyday. Thanks Matt

BTW, how can I become a Level 2 S.H.I.E.L.D Agent?

 

[Hooverman]

Hi, this is Allen from BHM. I found Rick's blog by accident serveral years ago, and spent times to learn the tricks, slowly (lots of time on FT). Now this hobby is part of my life. It led our family (wife and two kids) to several vacation trips to Europe (all in coach though, and I found them perfectly fine). I went to one ORD DO (where the Nightline crew was there), and met a few bloggers there. The Points Guy just quitted his job. Frequent Miler was kind of new. I met George there too (not a blogger then), and had serveral great conversations with him. I love his blog and what he recommends. The trip was fun, but I didn't feel that I wanted to go back to ORD DO, and FM is now the only blog I still visit from then. How things had changed! I heard the CLT DO was a huge success. Maybe I can go that one next year. Thanks Matt and everyone!

 

[TokyoHyattFan]

Hello. I am the Tokyo Hyatt Fan. I run a blog of the same name. I arrived here through a mysterious link that I cannot access, and would like to learn more!

 

[Zooter]

Hi all,
I'm Zooter here and on FT, Zoot on FWF, and I live in NJ.

I've been doing this sort of stuff since 2000, back when the hot thing was credit card arbitrage. I would pull massive balance transfers at 0%, with the fee capped at $75 or $100, and credit cards were willing to direct deposit the funds into my checking. 5% savings accounts were common back then and I'd just enjoy the interest, with automatic ACH pulls and bill payments set up to fire off minimum payments to all the cards I had borrowed from (at one point $130k worth of float).

Nowadays, I churn cards and manufacture spend but I find ways to turn most things to cash to cover pre-school tuition for my toddlers instead of taking crazy vacations. I love experimenting and discovering new things and Level 2 sounds like a great place to share.

 

[taildragger]

Hi, I'm Claire from NJ and have been ramping up my miles and points-earning activities for about two years. I connected with a great group of like-minded women at FTU in LAX who hail from all over the country and together we have helped each other to maximize our travel by staying in touch through email and yearly meetings. We have been focusing on MS lately and would like to become more adept at that. My curiosity has been piqued by Matt's comment that he knows people who are MSing 7 figures a month. I hope to learn how this can be done.

 

[PatPat]

Hello everyone,
I'm Pat and I am from the DC area. Currently a Master's student. I just started learning about travel hacking, manufactured spending, churning late last year from reading numerous blogs (and eventually weeding out the blogs that care more about you clicking their affiliated links!). I haven't been able to put into practice things I've learned until this year due to not having much of a credit history.

I'm hoping to learn a lot from fellow members. I haven't participated in an online forum since my high school days!

 

[SomeRandomGuy]

Hello, I'm Some Random Guy, and I already did the forum wrong by posting a thing before introducing myself. Anyway, hello, I like Ukuleles, hedgehogs, catapults, and birds, mostly. Especially birds. I am married to one of the forum members here, but can't reveal who, due to a Non Disclosure Agreement.

 

[Dkelly1110]

Hi Everyone, I'm Dave from Northern NJ. Looking forward to chatting and learning more about some new topics.

 

[jleey98]

Hi I'm James from Philly. Been manufacturing for more than a year now and am eager to learn more.

 

[erny5796]

I am erny and I am from NY. Looking to learn from all of you guys and contribute in return.

 

[MilesAddict]

Hi all! I'm MB. I'm a nomad.

My office is in Chicago - so I usually spend a week or so there every month. The rest of the time I'm travelling for a combination of work, fun, and visiting family.

I've been concentrating on paying off debt (stupid, wasteful youth). But, I'm finally seeing light at the end of that tunnel and want to get more involved in some MS opportunities in addition to the standard points and miles game.

Since I live in hotels full time and pay out of pocket quite a bit, I have become a something BRG ninja. So, if you have any questions about that, I'm your girl.

 

[carrot]

Hi all, my name is Carrot and I am based in the San Francisco Bay Area. I look forward to conversing with you all in the forum.

 

[cbb13]

my name's Jose, Sunnyvale !

 

[steventravel]

Hello Everyone



A little about me, I started playing this game unknowingly at 18, when I use to sign up for credit card signup bonus offers. Originally I focused on cash back only, until I found out how to use miles for more elite flying.





In our family I am in charge of getting the miles, and my wife is in charge of redeeming and spending them.

Have been to Bali, Bangkok, and Seoul last June. My wife wanted to fly the A380 on Thai first class.



We also have the Southwest companion pass so we have been taking many weekend trips. We get 4 weeks a year of vacation from our jobs and try to run negative as much as possible on our PTO.



Rome, Italy, London Last Thanksgiving, and did our Free United One way in Puerto Rico in February 2014



This years lineup is Maldives Hyatt at predeval rates, Singapore on Singapore suites, Hong Kong and Tokyo. With something thrown in at Christmas. Been heavily playing the mileage and MS game since 2011



Steven

 

[Ethan]

I'm Ethan from the San Juan Islands in NW Washington. I'm fairly new to points and miles, but am jumping right in! In particular, I'm interested in learning ways to manufacture spend from the comforts of home (I have to take a ferry to access the chain stores of mainstream America). I'm also interested in the personal finance side of things (considering using Chase sign up bonuses to fund my emergency savings account). Would love to attend a gathering on the West Coast, voting for PDX!

 

[Kellyl]

Hello, I'm from San Diego. I've been collecting points and miles for a couple of years. I'm interesting in learning more about MS. Definitely interested in Level 2 information.

 

[Evernyte]

Hi everyone, I live in western PA, about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Just got back from Scotland, paid for with miles and pts, still a relative noob to the game. Looking forward to learning.

 

[swifter]

Hi Everyone, I am from Michigan and am generally more interested in seeing those awesome deals. Not so much manufacture spending. Looking forward to some exciting info here.

 

[Nelumbo]

Hello Everyone. I am Nelumbo from Massachusetts. I've subscribed to Saverocity for a few months and look forward to conversations on this forum. Thanks Matt.

 

[blankpage]

Hi! My name is Kate and I am the miles collector in my family. My husband likes premium travel; I like cheap premium travel. Happy points hunting, everyone!

 

[rst113]

Hi everyone. I'm Russ from Pittsburgh. Been in the game about 7 years now. Free vacations for the last many years! My favorite story is how my wife finally let me sign up for credit cards for her as she was very skeptical at first (after the first free trip she stopped asking questions!). At a time when she wouldn't let me sign up for any cards for her she came home from Costco one day all excited and said "I got a case of water and a tote bag for signing up for this credit card!". After explaining that she could have gotten about 100 cases of water and 50 tote bags if she let me pick the card to sign up for she finally gave in! Now we each have approximately 20-30 open cards at any given time(all managed by me of course!).

 

[holidaygirl]

Hey Everyone, I'm Carol from the Bay Area. I have been actively collection points since 2012 and am keen to learn and share with all!