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| Flying…Somewhere (see fog pics link below in travel section) |
ON MY MIND
An FTU ticket on ebay, are u kidding me?? 650 tickets sold out! If I was not going to Norway that month maybe I would attend. I may make the Tampa FTU event. It is funny that many of the people who attend these (yes, they are a lot of fun and can be addicting…like this hobby!) brag that they fly for free. If only they added: seminar registration fees, hotels. airfare, meals, incidentals, card annual fees, VR charges, debit fees, Star Mega Dos, charity raffle tickets, all kinds of airline fees, etc etc…the only certain thing is that we certainly don’t travel for free:-) (HT to View from the Wing)
Why stop there? You can go to the Executive Luncheon with Randy Petersen for just $149 (goes to charity again). This happens the day after the Freddie Awards. Can you take more? Go for the whole thing: the FFP Spring Event. Please note these are not my affiliate links lol.
This is a business folks. If you are in the business full time perhaps you should attend. If collecting miles/points and traveling is your hobby maybe splurge in a seminar event once a year to see your friends. If you follow the blogs and my blog (including comments) you are not going to learn much from the actual speakers. If you are a newbie, these seminar events are tailor made for you. You will realize you are not a freak, we understand you:-) Just don’t get too carried away because this hobby can suck you in and mess up your life priorities! When you listen to the bloggers giving you more tips to earn more miles/points just be aware that they want you to apply for the credit cards using their links as they can make A LOT of money from you getting approved for more and more credit cards…this ain’t no charity!
I must admit this seminar craziness is getting way too commercial for me. Sometimes I wish I could quit cold turkey, my life would be soooo much simpler lol.
MILES/POINTS
TAM officially announced today that they will move to Oneworld alliance. Not like it was a big shock or anything. Soon, if you want to burn miles to South America, it is very likely you will fly on a Oneworld airline!
Hack My Trip had a really good post about a WSJ article reporting that Indonesia will start limiting the number of credit cards its citizens have. Can you imagine this happening here? We would be arranging for a Million Miler March to Washington. Our spokesman will be Frequent Miler crying out loud “How can you do this to me, no more Million Mile months anymore?”. Can you all picture this? All of us with our credit cards demonstrating “we want our miles and we want them now”, “hell no we won’t go, this unfair law has to go”. Mega lol. On a serious note, I hope to see some similar laws in my lifetime in the US!
A resolution to the United incident about throwing a blogger off the plane for taking pictures. Kind of. At Live and Let’s fly at upgrd.com
TRAVEL
12 Breathtaking Monasteries. From Must Look. Yes, truly breathtaking indeed!
30 Mysterious and intriguing photos of fog. From Francesco Mugnai. Woooow!!
Not Constantinople: 9 Misconceptions About Istanbul. From Gadling. Very nice article about a city I visited last year and enjoyed very much. You still see cheap fares to it on Turkish Airlines. You should pay a visit!
This is a long detailed article about the implications of Facebook’s news feed update on the travel industry. From Tnooz. Read only if interested!
ODDZ & ENDZ
10 Little Habits that Steal Your Happiness. From Marc and Angel
If you are net paying “VR fees” you are doing something wrong. You should be netting a profit from VRs and the like.
Yes…I was just pointing to the fact that there is an initial cash outlay. You know, it takes money to make money:-)
One of your better posts. Can’t stand the commercial nature of these meetups disguised as “helping.”
Thank you, I really appreciate your comment!
“If you follow the blogs and my blog (including comments) you are not going to learn much from the actual speakers. If you are a newbie, these seminar events are tailor made for you.” This is just what I concluded, after looking at the schedules and some posts summarizing presentations at previous seminars. I am new, but probably not new enough to find a lot new in what the speakers have to say. But I haven’t been around long enough to have lots of virtual friends to meet IRL.
Been following the tweets on an alternative DO. Have you all ever had any meet-ups/seminars in Everett, WA, where you could tour the Boeing Factory? I am still new and perhaps you’ve all already done the tour, but if not, it might be a good location. It’s only about 25 minutes north of Seattle. I’ve been around airplanes my whole life (my dad worked for TWA for 44 years) and I loved it when I toured in late December. If you actually do do a DO, would it be an open event, or just for old-timers?
I believe both Ben of One Mile at a Time and Scott of Milevalue hold informal get togethers in the Seattle area. Also check the two forums in Flyer Talk Community Buzz:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/communitybuzz-380/
Can someone post the equivalent link to Milepoint?
I did the Boeing Factory tour during the Star Mega DO II event. It was awesome.
As I said, I have no time to plan a DO, I don’t even have time to do an “About Me” page!! If we pull one off it will be open. It will be nice to have a Twitter connection, all of us who are busy on twitter…It should be open. As you know, I am all NOT for censoring and other autocratic methods lol.
Maybe I should also start a section in my blog and call it something like “Straight Talk to Newbies” or something like that with lots of caution not to get sucked in:-)
Thanks for the reply. I think the Milepoint link you had in mind is:
http://milepoint.com/forums/forums/meetups.148/
I saw elsewhere in the comments a mention of the A2 art fair. So that continues! Loved it back in the 70s. My husband and I bought our first real grownup pieces of art at the art fair in ’76.
Not sure if you are as into videos as photos, but your photo yesterday of the boulders reminded me of this one. It shows Lynn Hill, a woman who was, for a while, the best rock climber in the world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WfL3dVEgeQ
Her moves are so fluid that it is really beautiful to watch her.
Happy weekend.
Elaine: Thanks for the links! Yes, the Ann Arbor Art Fair is still going strong!
The Airline Information event is an industry conference that will be attended primarily by frequent flyer program executives and by consultants hoping to sell services to them. The Friday lunch will similarly travel industry execs.
But it’s available to frequent flyers at $99 rather than through Airline Information for $149 (as emailed out yesterday to FTU attendees)
http://www.freddieawards.com/summit.php
Yes, thanks for the follow up.I can see some full time bloggers should attend this and blog about it. For the occasional miles/points collector why market it to them? Well, why not I guess…
George, remember the Ann Arbor Do events when the cost of arranging the room for all in the library was 5$/attendee :p The info transferred there and later at dinner was equivalent if not better than any mass market event that is en-vogue today :rolleyes:
A few observations (since this topic is boiling right for lack of super duper CC offers):
– speakers:
It seems some of the bloggers are dancing on both weddings so its not really black and white.
Beaubo helped set up the FTU in the early editions, notably in the spring of 2011, and he is a speaker in Chicago this year.
– non-profit:
Whether people make or don’t make profit from an event shouldn’t really matter if attendees find value for their money.
It starts getting murky when people insist its not for profit and start waving charity flags but don’t provide transparency.
If you claim to be non-profit then the principles of 501(c)(3) exemption should be applied: I qoute the IRS:
—
The organization must not be organized or operated for the benefit of private interests, and no part of a section 501(c)(3) organization’s net earnings may inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.
—
– social aspect of events:
I’m sure there are a ton of events out there that allow you and others to meet and chat over a beer. I see you and Bikeguy are having the Ann Arbor Do again this year: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/communitybuzz/1421464-ann-arbor-art-fair-do-9-july-20-21-2013-a.html
Regards Oliver
PS: fix your comment thingie… I don’t have access to any other options other than Anonymous :p
I agree with everything you stated, for the record!
The Ann Arbor Art Fair event is small and I think the informality of it is the best part of it! Unfortunately, it is so small it is already in waiting list mode:(
I can’t fix the blogger awful commenting system. I am meeting with a web designer on Monday who specializes in WordPress. Hopefully I can pay her in miles/points to help me out as I don’t want to sink money into this as future revenue from this appears to be minimal/remote (at least for the foreseeable future). After what I have called the banks here I just don’t see them hooking up with me in my lifetime lol.
‘Hopefully I can pay her in miles/points to help me out as I don’t want to sink money into this..’
Dude miles/points = money, have not learnt anything so far??? Or do I have to send you to a seminar? :p
Regards Oliver
I have so many now and always earning they are starting to resemble…drachmas:-)
Amazing pic! I think this might be my 2nd favorite (after yomadic’s “failed travel bloggers” of course)
Glad you liked it! I like to post unique pics. I agree yomadic’s “failed travel bloggers” pic is my favorite too! I was actually thinking about reposting it last week when I had trouble coming up with a worthy pic to post here! I may do it next time I have this problem.
Great post.. Love the picture.. 12 Breathtaking Monasteries really must see..