I'm concerned that I might be selling out and becoming part of the system, but this week I applied for a credit card. It's a fancy one that earns frequent flyer points when you use it. This means I had to join Qantas frequent flyers to get it, but with the amount of travelling I seem to do (Brisbane at Christmas time is my latest plan) I figured that couldn't be a bad thing to join. The catch? It is extremely difficult to join Frequent Flyers without a credit card.

Seriously, every form I collected asked for credit card details. The box at the bottom for payment options just listed some common cards and asked you to pick yours. Most people just sign up online, but I had to take my forms all the way into town to the Qantas office in person.

So there I was, I needed to join Frequent Flyers to get my credit card. I needed a credit card to join Frequent Flyers. I fronted up to the desk with my forms and my joining fee in cash and explained my dilemma to the lady at the Qantas service desk. She didn't seem to understand why I was trying not to laugh at her. She had to ask for advice from her supervisor because the computer system wasn't set up to handle cash payments. She could process my identification and automatically assign points from a flight a booked six weeks ago to my new account, but the whole system crashed down under the pressure of one man without a card.

It kind of makes me regret my decision to get one in the first place. I feel motivated to wander around the city and see what other systems I can devastate with my ferocious cash payments of destruction.

Unfortunately my desire to be able to purchase concert tickets from my office is too great.

Far from home

Garry with 2 Rs

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