Lets slide on my awesome water slide in my private island, make you sad you did not get your ticket for the WestCoast DO seminar, learn about higher Bluebird & Serve daily loads, watch some awesome crashing waves, check out some nifty world maps, look at some pictures of the shipwrecks around the world and the awful old Athens airport and then finish with some dogs including Dogbert!
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I find myself bored with most travel miles points credit card posts lately so this will be a post I dump everything I was holding lately. You all enjoy July 4th holiday! I plan to do this in my private island along with my entourage lol
The successor seminar to the Mile Madness Charlotte meeting was announced this morning and sold out in just two hours! I happened to be online in the morning and bought me one ticket and am looking forward to it again. November 8th #WestCoastDO. This is the snapshot written by Matt the Saverocity dude who now can add “diaper changing expert” to his title:
The Event Snapshot
- Date: 11/8 Saturday from 10am (doors open 9:30am)
- Location Firesky Resort, Phoenix
- Confirmed speakers: Frequent Miler, Marathon Man, Miles Professor, Bengali Miles Guru, Points2PointB and Myself
- Unconfirmed speakers: we expect to have a couple more people joining the line up.
- What’s new: Panel Q/A for an hour to get more interactive with the group, more time between speakers, longer lunch to socialize
- What”s the same: Lunch is included (trying to get it outdoor as a grill session, but it will be great wherever it happens) A Social hour with Drinks and snacks
- Ticket price: $115 there are 120 tickets on sale, no earlybird pricing, and we are all buying, including me.
Bluebird and Serve increases daily load limit to $2,500. By Frequent Miler. A welcome move nevertheless.
Photographer Dives Into Crashing Waves To Capture Their Raw Power From Within. By Bored Panda. Incredibly stunning pictures!
25 Maps to Help You Understand Your World.
31 Photographs of Ghostly Ship Graveyards Around the World. At Dashburst.
Speaking about dogs, isn’t this the cutest dog or what?
It’s a 3 day weekend…
Now get out there…
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First?
2 -dog night. I’m punchy….. And already whining that I can’t make the second DO.
It was pretty fast I gotta say- we sold 40 in the first 5 mins and then things became a more dignified mosh pit.
Quite a good feeling- and now the pressure is on to live up to expectations!
Congrats to Matt. I think the center of gravity has moved a bit. Maybe a big bit.
Thanks Sam!
Well done!
Just wondering, why go to Phoenix, but not Chicago. Also, since DO is in caps, what does it stand for?
I never said we wouldn’t go to Chicago. And DO is in capitals because of it’s importance.
@Christian: Look here:
http://saverocity.com/travel/knowing-made-epic/
Cool sell out, but still worried about the inflation of seminar dos, we had 10+ this year?
Haven’t a clue, I don’t follow other sites or events – but good luck to them.
Oh, really… 😉
Just counted, 8 events this year so far, the summary is here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/external-miles-points-resources/1552294-mile-point-conferences-best-why.html
Thanks for that – do drop into FT every now and then, but I don’t follow things very closely – for example I don’t really understand who runs the Freddies (or what they are for) or what FTU is, or who is behind what and for what reason etc…
I remember when I set up the first DO that I asked to list it in the Community section of FT (was a bit scared it wouldn’t sell out and I’d have to pay up the balance!) but it went into that silly area ‘travel and dining – external…’ , frankly I’d rather it had no mention on FT anymore, it doesn’t need the publicity and I think, based on feedback that we are doing something very different.
I set the event up last time in the way I would want to have it, more like a big social event – then was amazed to hear people crying out that they couldn’t believe there was no selling or pimping stuff.
The way we see our events is purely about get together’s, the presentation parts (though really excellent and with great people) are an after thought.
Well commercial Dos have no place in Community buzz. All/most of these events started out on the altruistic ‘just getting together to talk, no motives at all. The fact that you are using word like ‘sell’ does show that the effort put into it is worth something for you even if it just street cred for the saverocity brand. Time will tell. 😉
I just realized that the EMPR forum is under Travel & Dining! Really?
My review of the first Saverocity #MileMadness gathering:
http://travelbloggerbuzz.com/charlotte-clt-mile-madness-meeting/
Breaking News: The Chicago Seminar just sold out…finally 🙂
Looking forward to our secret blogger meeting at #westcoastDO George. You show me your Amazon affiliate link, I’ll show you mine. Happy 4th of July!
Buzz. I had to KICK MYSELF in the ASS yesterday! I missed out on the PHX November DO because I waited too long for the “old bat” to get back to me tell me she wanted a ticket too. Dam I really wanted to go. Any truth to the rumor Ingy bought a ticket under an alias?…….If anyone out there reading this who is holding a ticket and cannot go, let me know, I’ll make it worth it for you.
I only got mine as I happened to be online when I saw the announcement!
@ Shawn: You made it!
@ K2o: Oh no, it will not be the same without you!
@ Matt: You could have easily opened it up to more attendees but you didn’t. #respect
@ Sam: True
@ Christian: Go West was the theme 🙂 There are many writings about what DO “is”. Please someone feel free to link to a reference!
@ Oliver2002: Yeah, getting hard to keep up with the seminars to travel for “free” lately lol. Getting ready to watch the Frenchies make Merkel upset. Do it for Battiston, Revenge 🙂
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/france/10942263/Patrick-Battiston-still-haunted-by-Harald-Schumachers-brutal-foul-in-Frances-1982-Tragedy-of-Seville.html
@ Grant: Lol, looking forward to it!
As I recall, the word “DO” came into frequent use thanks to Ingy. He used it to describe one of (if not the) first get togethers for the points crazy world, which he set-up. I think he got it from his grandmother.
Now I don’t mean to sound angry in using Ingy and “do” in the same post, regardless of what one thinks of his blog. In fact, his post last Monday featured an interesting write-up on how he’s using cards for re-selling.
DOs long predate ingy’s involvement. The 1999 Party in Paradise was a DO.
See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/communitybuzz/480017-whats-flyertalk-do.html
Great, thanks for the link!
See you in Phoenix! Most of the other “DO’s” are commercial operations. As someone involved with planning these I can assure you these are done with no intention of commercialism. While the other may claim they are not for profit, they offer up big sponsorship ops and a chance to push credit card sign ups. What we are doing is a much better formula
Is there any background info on why the #westcoastDo is in PHX and at a Kimpton? I’m just curious. It looks like a lovely property. Hopefully Kimpton can honor the room rate that was previously agreed upon. Cya there MilesAbound. Happy 4th of July.
We tried every property we could think of and decided this was the best. I’m not kidding.. I had about 40 RFPs out, we went through CA, NV, didn’t go further north due to time of year, cold weather etc.
The close runner up in CA was nice, but not super convenient, as we wanted that ‘retreat’ style feeling, a real relaxing and fun time.
We took Kimpton because it offered the best value per dollar for the guests, it looked stunning and we got more from the ticket price. Additionally, it was a property that had others nearby for cheaper options, something that CA didn’t offer in the runner up- everyone would had have to pay $250 per night in any hotel in the surrounding 20 miles.
I’m working on the rates, if you wanted a room please get back to the email I sent out earlier promptly so that I can collate and discuss true demand with them.
Thanks for sharing the background info. It’s hard enough for me to set up a simple get together, I can’t imagine the hours involved in planning a big miles and points event. Have a great 4th of July weekend.
Dude (Grant), disappointed in your remarks the other day about doing “doing well” and moving up from Prior2Boarding to BoardingArea. Sounds Greedy! I hope the next R.P. reincarnation is not named $avero$ity
The relationship between BA and P2B is a bit confusing. Some of the “best” P2B posts (not sure who decides which posts) are promoted in BA under “things you may have missed” and vice versa with BA to P2B. I didn’t mean any disrespect to P2B, I was just sharing some of the info I was told by the BA team. I’m not very good at sugar coatings things, just sharing things in my own terms. Have a great 4th of July weekend!
Happy 4th everyone, including you Brits and others who hail from the old empire! Glorious weather here in PDX where we’ll have a relaxing day followed by a barbecue with good friends. I hear there are lots of great games to watch today 😉 including for PDXers a Timbers game. Folks here were all reporting they’d be watching all three. Maybe the USA team would have done even better if it had its own Timbers Army of fans.
Hey George, saw your last comment on the previous post. Hope the knee issue resolves quickly.
I’m among the lucky ones who snagged a DO ticket. Had to get up early to do it and will need to rearrange some already made travel plans. But I expect it will be well worth the effort. The community that is growing up around #MillionMileMadness and the #CharlotteDO is such a great alternative to the snarkiness/secrecy/good ole boys of FT; the so-called seminars and FF universities; and the
credit card shillstravel hacking bloggers that welcomed me when I got involved in 2012.Enjoy your day!
Hmm, I am sure you all know which words I meant to strike!
Did OMAAT just compare Africans to Mr. Peanut?
“On another note, I realize that I was completely under dressed for this flight. We were the only male passengers not wearing a three-piece neon colored suit and top hat. Next time I’ll come dressed as Mr. Peanut.”
I wonder if Gary is going to go after him as he did after that AA girl called OMAAT’s kickstarter project ridiculous?
I have stopped bothering to read about his flights, bores me to oblivion
I don’t know, man, I think it just bores you to Bolivian.
Lol, that was way too funny!
Just back from a weekend trip to Vancouver/Seattle, and it was nice to see different Costco stores 🙂 Would love to go to the DO, but it was sold out too fast. Looking forward to see the Brazil game. Thanks.
Brazil got lucky as the Colombians (as did the Chileans) gave them way too much respect instead of taking the game to them like they did after they went down 2-0. Big part of the WC at these stages is all mental. Germans would not be as kind towards them 😉
+1. I thought that the Colombians had a chance to tie the game since they played really strong in the last minutes (unfortunately, our cable network went out in the last five minutes). Now, Neymar and Silva would be out of the next game. German team seems to be the favorite. Thanks.
I was shocked about the Neymar injury. I thought he was milking that as he usually does. Unless, he recovers miraculously and comes back in pain to play for the national team in all its glory…will sell well, no? 😉
Ben at One Mile at a Time shares a flight with Ethiopian businessman dressed in traditional garments. His comment: “Next time I’ll come dressed as Mr. Peanut.”
Hope he got those guys to hit some app links. Pot meet foreign culture.
Is Steve out of town?
As I said above, I have stopped reading his trip reports and happenings in his flights. Bores me to death actually.
I stayed with some people from Ivory Coast in the Holiday Inn Fortaleza before the Greece vs IC game. We had a very nice chat with many of them over breakfast. I didn’t make a reference on how they dressed or took pictures of them 🙂 Actually, I felt sorry for them after their loss as they had already made plans for the next game as losing to Greece was unthinkable..
That is exactly what makes his travel (and his reports) so sterile, in my view. There is absolutely ZERO interaction with locals (at least as reported). The only interactions with locals are with the staff at the club lounge or the servers in the hotel restaurant or the car driver based on which he paints a picture of the entire country. Just to highlight the contrast, I would recommend reading Lucky’s take on India, vs. Drew’s recent take. I am not saying everyone should travel the way Drew does but at least be sufficiently self-aware that you are experiencing a very skewed portrait of local life based on your restricted set of experiences.
There are many blogs that do that. The kid writes about luxury travel and he has developed a following with readers who love this stuff. He obviously likes this lifestyle and is making some big bucks with it which is great. I guess I am not the target audience and neither are you 🙂 Hope he limits the social commentary about conditions in Qatar or India 🙂
I actually have hundreds of photographs of Côte d’Ivoire from 30 years ago. I was in places such as Abidjan, Grand Bassam, Bouaké and Korhogo for approximately three weeks. I slept in everything from beds in fancy hotels to burlap sacks in mosquito-infested huts in villages; dined on fancy meals to food roasted over a bonfire at a village gathering; drank wine fermented in a dead palm tree; and rode for greater than 60 miles in a bush taxi on unpaved roads.
The photographs are not digital, as they are in the form of — gasp! — slides; but if I can find a way to digitize them, would it be too cheesy to post a series of trip reports from 30 years ago?
What is this thing you say? slides? 🙂
Well, it would definitely be something we have not seen before. But not sure if it is worth the trouble….Bought a device once to digitize all my records and just…never got around to it! So many other priorities! Your call!
The words self aware and OMAT can not be used in the same sentence. He is so self absorbed and he seems to be evolving into a narcissist.
Ditto Gleff
Really tough not to develop into one when you do luxury travel reviews, have an expertise in earning and burning, and know everything about credit cards too!
Sadly, these two old timers at this blogging thing have allowed the affiliate bosses to drive their content lately. They can deny it all they want but it does not mean that it is not true. I find it very disappointing. Face palm to me they made some money off my household,.
I say the top 10 credit cards come out on….Monday 🙂
I just scanned the home pages of F2BNews, BA and P2B. While I actually liked the new layout at F2BNews – I never found the layouts of F2B to work for me – we simply do not need so many blogs in this space! There were links to blogs I’d never heard of, and truth be told, probably do not need to read.
I think I will just come here, go to Saverocity, pop in occasionally at HackMyTrip, and follow the bloggers I like on twitter so I can click through to their latest if the title makes me want to do so. Add in visits to The Forum and enough is enough!
I see a “Hungry for Points” blog listed in P2B. I am now waiting for a “Thirsty for Points” to appear there too lol.
The explosion in blogs is just mind boggling!
If I did not have a real job I really like I could do so much in this space. I have so many ideas but no time at all to implement them!
Amazing how this space has evolved…It was just a small community of quirky people helping each other around Flyer Talk threads. Then the money came in and it changed everything. Speaking about how money changes people, this is a good article (I can see several bloggers in this article lol):
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/03/7_weird_things_money_does_to_your_brain_partner/
If you feel passionately about something, why not do a guest post for one of your favorite bloggers? If your goal is just to share some helpful information, I’m sure they would be more than happy to post it.
I am not into this guest post thingie. If I am going to sit down to write something I would rather post it here 🙂 I don’t do that too often. I do my thing linking to stuff I like, and just like to have my voice here ranting occasionally now. Reshifting my priorities slowly to where they should be dude…like focusing in my real job. Sometimes I wish the darn market goes down to help me sweat…this bull market has made me a little lazy lol.
I’ll admit that I am occasionally guilty of thinking that the bloggers represent the normal travel style in this community. One thing I appreciate about the comments here is that it reminds me they are perhaps not the norm. I posted my thoughts on my recent stay at the Vendome that I thought you all might appreciate.
http://www.portlandtraveltips.com/2014/07/06/why-the-park-hyatt-vendome-in-paris-sucks/
Well done, Scott! But since B&B’s don’t take hotel points, good form dictates you should have included an Arrival card affiliate link.
That was a good review, I enjoyed it.
We are all different, we should not generalize too much. Those “bloggers” make money from selling their brand which pushes them to, well, push the flat beds and Vendoming repeatedly. It’s different…it’;s a business. Money talks.
Besides, you can connect with people in the lounge over your fresh omelet prepared just for you by the cool looking chef…just kidding.
I used to enjoy following Ben’s blog-really young guy travelling way above his age group. First Class travel when he wasn’t old enough to buy a drink. Now he’s sort of like the cute bunny you got for Easter when Halloween comes around-Hey, that big rabbit’s cage needs cleaning again.
I agree with the comment above that he rarely writes about the places he goes outside of the hotel he’s staying in or other facets of getting there, sleeping and going home. Someone said “Life’s a journey, not a destination”-oh, that was Aerosmith.
I found his (justifiably) holding Korean Air’s feet to the fire on blocking gay sites in their lounge, followed by his junior high-like crack about African passengers clothes, a little contradictory. Want some tolerance? Give some.
Thinking about doing that run called Color Run where they spray you with a bunch of colors….Guess we will all look like peanuts.
I see the BA bloggers are holding off on the credit cards until Monday 🙂
I am starting to take my own advice….to ignore them! LIfe is too short to bother with the 98% of the blogs.Which leaves just 2% the angry educated ones LOL.
I need a drink!