The event in Los Angeles was fantastic, and the 400 spots sold out long in advance.
Confirmed for the spring event so far as speakers (in addition to yours truly) are Ben from the One Mile at a Time blog, Brian Kelly a.k.a. The Points Guy, Mommy Points, Daraius from Million Mile Secrets, and though I don’t think he knows it yet I intend to twist Frequent Miler’s arm to join again too.
Although the event is nearly 5 months off — April 26 through 28 at the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner — over 300 folks signed up right away when things were announced last month, and the room block sold out as well.
Folks were reporting that rooms were coming up at the host hotel for $179 a night rather than our negotiated $89.
We managed to get the hotel to open up additional rooms at the $89 as part of our room block.
Event registration is available but tickets are going faster than expected, this could be the biggest frequent flyer gathering to date.
More details as they’re available, but I look forward to meeting many of you in April!
The cool kids are staying at the SPG Sheraton Premiere at Tyson’s Corner thats 2800 SPG points plus $45 a night…
got my tickets, and am excited!
now having been to a few of these – any chance of getting some fresh voices on the agenda too? i’m hoping that it won’t just be hearing the same bloggers with the same message
If I cannot make it, is there any possibility of cancellations?
Thanks Gary, looking forward to it!
Why not get some other bloggers? Time for some fresh blood.
The hotel reservations are cancellable. The tickets are not refundable but are transferable.
I just havent done the schedule yet… whon do you suggest?
I’d love to hear from some of the long time posters from the boards (who don’t have a blog and who haven’t presented before) who’d like to share there tips and stories
It would be great if you could get Frequent Miler. i am pretty sure 5 months from now, he wont give the same talk.
The problem is who knows what will be going on in the travel blogosphere in 5 months from now. No one knows. I would like to hear from Jared at onlinetravelreview.com (claim to fame is the IcelandAir award redemptions to Hawaiia) or the guys from theflightdeal.com
i forgot to get in on the one in LA. damn…
I second on Frequent Miler. Perhaps you could identify a few frequent posters (willing to speak of course) from Milepoint and FlyerTalk for a panel discussion. I’m a nobody but even I would volunteer to moderate…. But really that would add a new spice to things. Some of the topics that seem to be at the forefront of peoples interest (and by all means correct me if I’m wrong), Tricking fares (something that necessarily is opaque), Increasing points given the increasingly changing dynamic, and also the changing importance/value of Alliances (e.g. Virgin’s recently announced JV with Delta, but also, how Alliances can still prove/sell their value, which I think is a much longer discussion).
You really need some new talent. All of the presentations have been the same for the past 5 events. How about other BoardingArea bloggers? I’d like to get to know them – even some of the newer ones.
Count me in!
I love theflightdeal! But Milevalue and Frequent Miler were amazing as this last even too! (and of course you old timers!)
Trying to book now and it says “Please note that the group rate you requested is unavailable. Available rates are displayed below.” New rooms already gone also??
Like gleasonja said, I also got the message “Please note that the group rate you requested is unavailable. Available rates are displayed below.” What happened to all the New rooms reserved??
i just bought the FTU DC ticket, booked my flights and hotels! Anyone else coming???
Looking forward to my first FTU!
@mike – there have been only 3 events, and there’s been a good deal of variance in speakers (eg frequent miler and milevalue were new in Los Angeles, so was Cranky Flier, Mommy Points spoke only at Sheraton Meadowlands, etc)
mike may be lumping in this with chicago.
my take is with all the well known bloggers, we already know their voice and their speil and take on the game… so although mommypoints (For example) didn’t do LAX (though she’s done chicago and NYC) i feel like a lot of us know what she’s going to say (again not to single her out)
Group code?
Yea…. Still don’t see any rooms available
I’d like to hear Matthew from UPGRD.com-he’s a law student who has interned at Star Alliance in Germany and should have some great insights.
Rooms sold out again? Was trying to add a second room, but looks too late!?
Looks like they only added 50 yesterday and they sold out. We have most of the hotel already. Trying to get more rooms today and also working with an overflow hotel.
Thanks Gary!
I’d be more interested in going to another FTU event if it involved more travel and small panel discussion, less 300+ people looking at slides on credit cards. More Rick Steves/Anthony Bourdain-ish, less “how do you get a 5x bonus on Vanilla Reload”?
The LA one I went to was fine as it was, but I have a feeling a lot of the content would be recycled from the previous ones.
@eponymous coward — I’m quite sure that most of the content will be “recycled”. However, for me, the real value of these events are the tips you learn form socializing with other attendees.
@eponymous coward – we’ll also run concurrent sessions most of the time so if you saw something before an think it’ll be similar to one of the sessions you can go to the other one running at the same time 🙂