As someone who is greatly fond of traveling the world, I can’t believe it took me so long to find such a great thing as Frequent Traveler University (FTU). It just happened by luck that I was searching the web for topics on my blog when I came across FTU. Luckily it was a couple of weeks away, and I managed to pull it off and attend recently. This last one was held at the Crystal City Hyatt, just next to Reagan Airport. I decided to stay in a hotel for the weekend, and it was a good thing because I was busy with it from 9 in the morning til 11 at night! LEARN, EARN and BURN is their motto and I see why!
It was my first time to one of these events. Let me tell you, there is a whole world out there that I didn’t know but I WAS READY TO JUMP IN HEAD FIRST. Our first event was a cocktail reception from 6:30-8. It was a great way to just mingle, ask questions, and make friends. What an eclectic group of people! There was a very savvy 18-year old student, a retired woman who judges dog shows, several lawyers and lots of young professionals. They all had one goal – to maximize value in travel.
All day Saturday and Sunday were filled with very informative seminars, usually 2 to choose. There were seminars on different credit card programs, how to use award points, hotel and car award programs, and many, many more. They were all so interesting and informative, I couldn’t type fast enough. After a long day of seminars, we would spend our evenings sitting around sharing our experiences in small groups at the hotel bar. I met some great people and they have been so helpful in answering questions for me as I enter the “game”.
I have started implementing some of what I learned. It’s really a mindset and just learning how it all works. I think once you understand the systems, thinking about it all becomes second nature!
My husband was so excited when I told him about all the things I had learned. As I learned at “university”, it’s very important to have a partner who is involved in your endeavors. So my hubby asked, “when is the next event?”. I am planning on going to another one as soon as possible following my big trip to Spain this week.
Anyone care to go? There are different organizations that put these events on – Frequent Traveler and Flyer Talk are two that I know. Next FTU is December 4-6 in Newport Beach, CA. Not sure about Flyer Talk – the site is so amazing, check it out!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.