At 9:04 a.m. MT on June 6th, Ralf Schumann of Munich, Germany logged the 1,000,000th post on FlyerTalk.com — an unprecedented achievement for an online travel-related bulletin board.
Mr. Schumann’s post was entered in the SkyMiles forum and marked an extraordinary milestone, though the post was typical in many ways as well — shedding light on an American Express Membership Rewards bonus offer that could prove beneficial to other members — and it exemplified the characteristics that have driven FlyerTalk’s success; knowledge and cooperation.
Originally launched as an online discussion forum dedicated to members of frequent flyer programs, FlyerTalk has grown to include forums devoted to the topics of General Travel, Dining On the Road and Airports. And members of FlyerTalk don’t limit themselves to online meetings and discussions. Recently, approximately 80 FlyerTalkers from all over the United States and Europe gathered in Chicago to share travel tips, make new friends and, in some cases, meet for the first time people with whom they’ve been chatting for years online. Nearly every week of the year will find an in-person FlyerTalk get-together being held in some part of the world.
Currently, more than 2,000 posts are added to FlyerTalk each day. In an average month, FlyerTalk will host over 425,000 visitors and, after having logged 500,000 posts in its first three years of existence, FlyerTalk has seen that number double in the past year. At its current rate of growth, the board should achieve its 2-millionth post in about 12-15 months.
As part of its continual growth, FlyerTalk is entering into an exclusive joint venture with the highly popular Smarter Living (http://www.smarterliving.com) Internet Web site. "We’re excited about this opportunity to work with Randy Petersen, the acknowledged leading expert on airline frequent flyer programs," says Dan Saul, CEO of SmarterLiving.com. "We look forward to the interaction between our readers and the miles mavens of FlyerTalk."
Recently Rupert Duchesne, President of the Air Canada Aeroplan frequent flyer program said, "We find FlyerTalk a real help in terms of leading edge thinking." In fact, many travel programs around the world use FlyerTalk as a real-time study group and some have even assigned dedicated personnel to monitor and assist their members with enhanced customer service of FlyerTalk.
FlyerTalk is somewhere you’ll definitely want to visit. Judging by the numbers, you probably already have.
