Anybody here into credit card churning?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. Thank you.

My very first trip as an airline employee was from Washington DC to Tucson, AZ, my former home town. I was not yet 21, flying first class, and cheerfully drinking alcohol. I was not only young, but I looked a lot younger than I was. Around the time the flight attendant poured me my third drink, she asked, "Does your father fly for us?" meaning was my father one of their pilots, because she clearly could not imagine I was an airline employee myself. "Nope," I said. "I'm a ticket agent at DCA for Mohawk Airlines."

My first international trip was to Australia, in the spring of 1970. I flew United Airlines (first class of course) from IAD (Dulles international) to Los Angeles, then Pan Am from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia, with a stop in Honolulu. Back then, the planes couldn't make the entire trip from LAX or SFO to SYD without a refueling stop midway. The Pan Am employees were very aware of my status as a non-rev, meaning non revenue passenger as we weren't paying a fare. Actually, the flight on Pan Am was totally free, no service charge of any kind. There was a bit of a myth that we employees paid some kind of tax, but in reality the tickets we got usually had some kind of a service charge, sometimes were free. The Pan Am pass was completely free.

I knew that I was being spoiled. I knew that I was living almost as if I was very rich, since I was travelling around the world, first class, for free. Oh, and when I got to wherever, I got discounts on things like hotels, tours, and other stuff. On one trip to Australia when I was buying a fur coat, I somewhat jokingly asked if they gave an airline discount. Of course! was the response. Wow.

Nowadays, many decades later, I not only don't have free travel, but I have a very limited budget, like so many of us. I'm trying to work out what I call a land cruise, based a bit on two ocean cruises I have made, one in the Caribbean and one to Hawaii. My land cruise would take me from New Mexico to Chicago on the Southwest Chief. Then to Seattle on the Empire Builder. Next, the Coast Starlight to Los Angeles, and finally the Southwest Chief back to New Mexico. I'd love to be able to book a bedroom for that entire trip, but that would probably be far more money than I'm willing to pay. A roomette, especially one on the lower level, gives me the small room along with a lot of privacy. I just have to actually make the plan.

The main hitch in that plan is my two cats, although I have found a very good cat sitter.