FREQUENT
FLIERS, WHO ARE THEY?
To
get the sense of what airline travel used to be, an elegant pursuit of a
pleasure, one has to read books of that world that long disappeared, I remember
being fascinated by Frater’s description of the British Imperial Airways (later to become BOAC) flights to Australia from
London: Beyond the Blue Horizons by Alexander Frater
When
I began my journeys, the era of Boeing/Airbus had already begun, but still
remember and retain the exhilaration I felt when the aircraft races to take
off. I read Medicine in London while retaining my Melbourne social and cultural
identity. In my final year of my
studies, I remember making the London-Melbourne trip five times. But unlike the
BOAC days from Frater’s book, flights were getting longer. In those days there
were no complaints about cramped seats or poor service, as airlines competed
with each other for service and making money didn’t seem to be the primary
objective of the CEOs who are now being paid in millions of dollars. Flying
first class in those days was beyond even dreaming and sitting with Trail
finders or Flights Savers agents in travel shops in London was sufficiently
exciting.
Traveling
during Medical studies did influence my decision not to go into private or
organized practice of Medicine. I sculptured my medical career around how I can
travel while sustaining myself, physically and also in the ever gushing forth
field of medical knowledge.
While
doing my preliminary medical training in Australia and advanced postgraduate
studies in the USA, travel was always a priority. Stationed myself in Miami and
during my postgraduate studies, managed to explore the Caribbean and Central
America
When
it came time to make a living, using my profession, travel requirements was the
deciding factor. I decided to become an International Humanitarian medical
doctor, choosing projects and countries of my choice, while maintaining my literary
interests in South America and musical delights of Cabo Verde. I chose to base
myself in Havana, an intellectual paradise and a wonderful place to accumulate
genuine friends.
What
prompted me to write this blog was an article that appeared in Flyertalk, a
frequent flier site for information, advice for frequent fliers.
Annoying Things Points and Miles
Collectors Do.
The people the writer was
referring to, are the newly emergent group of travel bloggers who make a living
out of writing about how to travel well but cheaply and how to circumvent rules
put their for other people. Many of these people can be obnoxious and perhaps are
best avoided. They use legal and semi legal ways of accumulating miles and
points and travel well and write about it so that others can follow their
footsteps. I have never met one during my travels, perhaps because I avoid tourists.
Travel for travel’s sake
without a serious interest in your destination or purpose of your travel would
become tedious soon enough. Plus they begin to forget the burden they become on
people elsewhere on the planet trying to make a living, in many cases a meager
one.
The points she made were:
1. Bragging about your
travels to people who are not in a position to travel.
2. Having a sense of entitlement,
as in Why don’t they speak English, what happened to my pajamas on Etihad
airways? Upgrade list?
3. Making
people think that quitting your job and doing blogging full time is an easy
task, while showing pictures of their MacBook pro with a coconut drink next to
them. Also making innocent people believe that blogging about travel is rather
an easy job but those financially successful bloggers are tired, physically
unwell most of the time, have to constantly travel, chasing miles and using
them.
I travel, but
always there is a purpose to my travels, it is not about collecting miles or points,
which has never been my priority. But certain weaknesses exist: to fly LATAM
business class to Easter Island for a reasonable amount, but have to fly out of
Mexico City but would be able to attend Rapa Nui patients with Diabetes. Or being able to fly QR anywhere in and out
of Asia, while dishing out medical advice about metabolism, newly encroaching
obesity rates, nutritional changes (I refuse to eat what they are longing to
eat, such as toast with ham or bacon or plastic bags of potato chips, you get
the picture). Give me any day, a noodle dish, a mohinga or a pho, a dosay or
idli or Malabar prawn curry!
So I wrote the
following comment on the article:
Not all
frequent fliers are businessmen or bloggers or point chasers. But it is
possible to lead a meaningful life while traveling well (QR Bz) and staying modestly
(Double Tree KL)and see the world, (close to 100 countries and territories
visited).Let me tell you my story if you are interested.
While
studying Medicine in London, I knew that an office or hospital based full time
medical practice was not my goal in life, but working/volunteering in less
developed countries was an ideal choice. But to generate an income to volunteer
in poorer countries, you need to generate an income in a richer country, also
choosing not to become a slave to their system.
I work as
a doctor intermittently, in underserved communities in a rich country, while
living a developing country, which is intellectually and socially well advanced
and travelling to various developing countries. Initially I used to organize my
voluntary medical work, but these days, voluntary work comes to you. I have
been in Sri Lanka less than a day, already have been of some assistance by
giving relevant medical advice.
PS To do
this in a culturally sensitive fashion, once I finished my basic training in
Australia, I did go back to university to complete postgraduate degree in
Anthropology. I used to be monolingual but now I can communicate well in four European
languages, it does help
