Live Blogging: Frequent Traveler University

Good morning from the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel in New York.  Event begins soon.  I’ll blog about what I can.  Some things I won’t share for “security” reasons.  🙂  But I will summarize my thoughts at the end of the day.  Just learned that Travel Channel is filming….sweet.

Program starting now.  Flyertalk founder Randy Petersen speaking now.  Randy talking about his start with miles and points.  Very interesting, and entertaining story.  Randy’s been doing this for 25 years.  Wow!  Has “the world’s best job.”  No doubt.

Lucky is up now….looking forward to his presentation on earning miles by flying.

Now Frugal Travel Guy, Rick Ingersoll is speaking.  Terrific presentation on earning miles from credit cards by Rick.  Now I just need to develop my own tracking system.  Now it’s break time.

Back from the break.  The group is now divided into breakout sessions by alliance.  I’m attending the Star Alliance session hosted by Lucky from Onemileatatime.

Now that lunch is over, the focus turns to burning miles.  Looking forward to presentations from several including Gary Leff.  Gary is speaking about tricks and tips to use your miles for international premium class travel.  One thing for sure, I’ve got to get myself into that Lufthansa first class lounge in Frankfurt!  😀

Had to bail for the airport as Gary was finishing his presentation, so I missed the charity raffle and final session.  All in all, a really great day.  Informative beyond belief.  I enjoyed all of the presenters and learned something new from each.  Rick Ingersoll’s presentation on credit cards really piqued my interest.  I don’t think you’ll ever see me running around with dozens of credit cards, but I’m now convinced I can turn things up a notch with mileage earning cards.  I’ve got great credit, and I aim to keep it that way, but it’s silly to let a deal like the 100,000 mile British Airways Visa pass by without at least trying for it.  Steve Belkin’s presentation on alternative programs worth considering was quite informative.  I have to admit, I have never given the first thought to transferring SPG points to LAN and using those for short haul flights, but now, I know that’s an option.  Gary Leff did a great job with tips on redeeming your miles.  Do your homework!  And I’ve never been so inspired to fly Lufthansa in First Class just to get a ride in a Mercedes to my plane!

Administratively, the venue was nice, and the meeting facility was great.  Everything from the evening social on Friday all the way to the end was well done.  My hat is off to the organizers.  Heck, even the wireless internet worked pretty well with all of us data nuts surfing the net during the meetings.  I’m looking forward to the next event, and hope I’ll be able to attend.  I know I wasn’t overly detailed in the information I’ve shared here, and that’s on purpose.  If you have any specific questions, shoot me an email or comment to the blog, and I’ll try my best to answer.