[buzzsprout episode="6841" player="true"]

by Margery Wilson

On our February 16 show we had the great honor of speaking with Randy Petersen, one of the pioneers of internet blogging and social networking.  Most of us know him from FlyerTalk, a forum community for frequent fliers originally launched as a bulletin board in 1995.  Randy will talk with us about the history of this immensely popular forum.

Randy is editor and publisher of Inside Flyer.  Considered the leading publication in the world about frequent traveler programs, Inside Flyer has readers in all 50 U.S. states and 134 countries. He is also the editor of The Official Frequent Flyer Guidebook; a regular speaker at business travel seminars and conferences in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia; and is often called upon by the industry itself for his comments and suggestions about frequent traveler programs.

Randy is referred to as “the most influential frequent flyer in America” by the Wall Street Journal. As a former marketing and merchandise presentation manager for a large menswear retailer, Randy spent much of his time flying and keeping accurate records of his mileage awards.  “Nearly everyone I knew would come to me for advice on their frequent traveler programs.”  When it got to the point of constantly advising people, many which he had never met, Randy started his own newsletter and the business has grown ever since. In fact, it now consists of 12 separate businesses, all of which deal with frequent travel programs. To get an idea of the range of Randy’s innovation, check out his website WebFlyer and browse the programs.

Randy is witty, charismatic, and knows everything there is to know about making every mile count!  Give this interview a listen.

We’ also talk about ways to keep all of your loyalty programs organized as we welcome the creators of Award Wallet , an online tool that acts as your personal mileage manager. An innovative, secure, free web service, Award Wallet helps travelers track their frequent flyer miles. It also does much more.  Award Wallet has been operating a data tracking, retrieval, and management system following customer loyalty programs for several years with positive reviews from the media, travel writers, and their own frequent flier customer base.

Our Jetiquette Radio European Correspondent, Raymond from the Netherlands, joins us to give us his latest news and views. You can follow Raymond on Twitter at @Raymondstar.   We are fortunate to have Raymond on our team, as he is an up-an-coming talent in Europe. Catch his appearance at FrysGig in London by clicking HERE

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