Frequent Traveler University: December 5-7, Hyatt Regency Crystal City
The next Frequent Traveler University, in partnership with USA Today, promises to be the biggest gathering of frequent flyers ever — topping even last April’s sold out event in Northern Virginia.
The event will be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City minutes from Washington’s National airport.
It’s a fantastic venue to support us all, and Hyatt has made available (2) $250 Hyatt gift cards for me to give away here. Gift cards that could be used on your stay during Frequent Traveler University!
All you need to do to be eligible to win is leave a comment on this post. You may answer one of two questions,
- What would you most want to learn at a gathering of frequent flyers? Or..
- What is the most important thing for a conference host hotel to know, or to do?
Since there are two gift cards, and two questions, you may enter up to two times.
Just leave a comment or two comments and I will draw the winning comments at random from those left by October 14 at Noon Eastern. (Void where prohibited by law. All of my decisions are final and unappealable, I want to make giveaways as easy as possible and with the fewest headaches possible.)
And I hope to see you at the upcoming Frequent Traveler University!
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Top of my list to learn more about are manufactured spending techniques and booking partner airlines for award travel.
Conference hotels should know that free wifi is a must.
Don’t block the WiFi
I’d like to learn about the best ways to use miles booking award tickets.
What would you most want to learn at a gathering of frequent flyers?
How to maximize free stop-overs on award travel
I would love to learn the ins and outs of miles redemption like partner airlines and alliances. Also, all the ways of MS in order to do miles redemption.
What is the most important thing for a conference host hotel to know, or to do?
Offer free wifi everywhere
I would love to hear about the tricks and techniques that don’t get discussed on public blogs.
What is the best way to get in the know on mistake fares in time?
I want to learn more about fuel dumps!
Gary,
Thanks for all the great tips and pointers.
Doug
What do I want from FTU? Knowledge about how those involved in “the hobby” can all help each other. I have attended 1 FTU before, and I loved the sense of community and willingness to share tips among bloggers and attendees alike. I am attending FTU advanced and my husband is attending FTU. We’re hoping that the organizers will focus on fostering community and knowledge sharing.
1.) How to participate in multiple programs without spreading your spend too thin
Everyday I send an inordinate amount of time deleting Junk emails but I ALWAYS read yours! I find them informative and enjoyable.
I’m new to the “Miles & Points” game, but your emails keep me up to speed. Thanks for your hard work in learning and sharing this valuable information.
The most efficient method to book flights with miles.
The most important thing a host hotel can do is provide good Wi-Fi.
Would love to see the Hyatt give existing Platinum members 60 days of Diamond status 😉
2.) Provide coffee!
What I’d most want to learn is how to make the leap to being a nearly full-time traveler like most of the major bloggers.
I would want to learn more about award tickets.
Most important thing for the hotel is free wifi. It’s a must.
Best tip would be how best to combine points from different programs in one trip, specifically a cruise since cruise lines not typically members off SNY alliance
“What would you most want to learn at a gathering of frequent flyers?”
Advice from others about what airline program to choose when my company-required choices are Delta or American.
I’ve been Delta Platinum for several years (made Diamond once by the skin of my teeth). I’m thinking about leaving Delta for American because of how they have butchered the SkyMiles program and how hostile the relationships between Air France, Korean Air, and Delta have become, but am not convinced I will be better off at American because the tier thresholds there are higher.
A conference host hotel should have coffee setup round the clock, and have ample WiFi hotspots.
I would like to know the best way to maximize points.
“What is the most important thing for a conference host hotel to know, or to do?”
A conference hotel desk employee should have all of the information about the conference, every important thing about registration, meeting rooms, schedules, etc. The response of the hotel employees should never be “You have to go hunt down the conference information desk” for basic and important information.
Sufficient power outlets and status acknowledgment are a must
I would love to learn more techniques to leverage the lifemiles program!
What is the most important thing for a conference host hotel to know, or to do?
Sometimes guests NOT associated with the conference may be staying at the hotel. My silly “precious metal” elite status shouldn’t always be trumped by drunk conventioneers. It would be nice to be given noticed of a convention before arrival and then given the option to go somewhere else, especially if it is a convention group is essentially politically or morally reprehensible to me as the traveler not affiliated with the conference. Example: someone who is a victim of gun violence should know that there is a NRA event at the hotel before check-in and visa versa- a pro gun person may not want to be present during a Handgun Control Inc conference.
A conference host hotel should strive for excellence in “comfort breaks” ! That experience at LAX was not cool!
I most want to learn to find better award availability.
i would be interested in learning more about manufactured spend.
Sharing ideas and information from like minded people.
I’d most like to learn about hacking award charts for hidden value.
I am most interested in learning manufactured spend techniques.
And what the hotel should know, as Mark said above, is that we’d like to have access to good, fast Wifi.
When to consolidate balances in various hotel/airline programs
2 – provide shuttle service to nearby restaurants/entertainment
Love the site
Love to learn how to maximize points
How to earn and redeem enough miles to fly business class to Asia
I would want to learn the experts predictions on the future of miles/points.
Make sure the host hotel has ample award availability during the event.
I would want to learn more advanced MS techniques
I’d most like to learn what methods veterans of this hobby use to easily remember and identify which cards in their wallet are the best choice for each category spend. Do you put stickers on the cards, mark them in different ways?
Fast and free/included in the rate wi-fi for all devices should be standard for a conference hotel.
Thank you!
Most important thing for a conference host hotel is to know the theme and schedule of that conference, so you can possibly adapt your checkout time policy to be more convenient for conference attendees, or to adapt your breakfast hours or room service hours to better suit the needs of guests.
More than anything I want to learn how to be more efficient with Manufactered Spending other than just credit card sign ups.
I need to learn new ms methods that I can’t find on FT.
The hotel must have free WiFi.