If your Saturday is free and you’re in the Seattle area or able to get there, consider a last-minute ticket to Frequent Traveler University (FTU). It’s going to be a great day in Des Moines (Washington, not Iowa!).
Coming Up: FTU Seattle
Frequent Traveler University (FTU) comes to Seattle on May 6, 2024 and the full speaking schedule has been announced.
I’ll be speaking on United Airlines and other speakers include:
- JT Genter, AwardWallet
- Katie Genter, The Points Guy
- Charles Hagadorn, Seattle Travel Hacker
- James Larounis, Upgraded Points
- Ben Nickel-D’Andrea, No Mas Coach!
- Jon Nickel-D’Andrea, No Mas Coach!
- John Ryan, Bougie Miles
- Bryan Sklar, TravelWise Advisors
- Victoria Walker, Travel Reporter
The schedule, available here, contains a packed day of sessions, including lunch:
| TIME | SPEAKER | TOPIC |
|---|---|---|
| 8:30am-9:00am | All Speakers | Welcome |
| 9:00am-9:45am | Jon & Ben Nickel D’Andrea, Charles Hagadorn | Making the Most of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and New Changes |
| 10:00am-10:45am | John Ryan | How to Get Cheap Rental Cars |
| 11:00am-11:45am | JT Genter | Why to Be Loyal to International Airlines |
| 12:00pm-12:45pm | James Larounis | How to Deal with Travel Irregularities |
| 12:45pm-1:30pm | Lunch | Lunch |
| 1:30pm-2:15pm | Matthew Klint | Advanced United Airlines |
| 2:30pm-3:15pm | Bryan Sklar | Award Search Engines – The Good, The Bad and They Ugly |
| 3:30pm-4:15pm | Jon & Ben Nickel D’Andrea | Reselling to Earn Points |
| 4:30pm-5:15pm | Katie Genter | Maximizing the Choice and IHG Hotel Programs |
| 5:30pm-6:00pm | All Speakers | Closing Panel |
This year, FTU will be held just a short distance from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport:
- Four Points by Sheraton Seattle Airport South
22406 Pacific Hwy S, Des Moines, WA 98198
I think it represents a great balance of topics and it is nice to see the varied line-up of speakers speaking this year.
Whether you’re an expert or just starting out in this great game of miles and points, consider spending a day or two in Seattle this weekend. It would be my pleasure to meet you there.
Oh that’s the Chinese mob hotel! I’ll be there this weekend too. (Albeit up the road a piece) Be careful around there at night.
The hotel thinks pretty highly of itself: $181 or 54,000 points a night for Friday-Sunday.
Yeah it was always suspiciously overpriced given it’s location where other hotels in the area in the $45-50/nt range or hourly rates.
They had a card room there for a while on the first floor until the state shut it down for……..illegal activities.
The fact that such an event even exists shows how farcical the points/loyalty world has become. But Seattle is (read: once was) a beautiful place; hope you enjoy it 🙂
I’m completely covered up this weekend. How about doing it on May 13th instead?
Interesting that everything is kinda squeezed into one day. The other meetups/gatherings I’ve attended were for 2-3 days unless it was just an informal local get together for a few hours. Is this largely targeted to people in the Seattle area?
3.2 miles is not a “short walk” by any definition. It may be “walkable” for someone who wants the experience, but even at a reasonably quick pace, this is an hour walk… which is not short
Does the junkie that founded TPG ever show up at these things anymore or he too busy blowing his cash on coke and c#ck?
Why don’t you look down and ask him yourself?
Sorry, I mean bark! Bark! bark! Bark!bark! Bark! bark! Bark!bark! Bark! bark! Bark! BANG
Lay off Brian, he gives great headache.
Hello Matthew. I’m looking forward to your presentation in Des Moines. Point of order, your 2 blog posts (that I bookmarked) regarding the event state “12:00pm-12:45pm Victoria Walker Maximizing Hyatt Category 1-4 Certificates” and “4:30pm-5:15pm Katie Genter Maximizing the Choice and IHG Hotel Programs”, whereas the FTU schedule page states “12:00pm-12:45pm James Larounis How to Deal with Travel Irregularities ” and “4:30pm-5:15pm Katie Genter Tips for Maximizing Your Hotel Points” (implying discussion of multiple hotel programs perhaps including Choice and IHG). As a Hyatt loyalist these minor differences are significant.
Please confirm accurate Schedule, Speakers and Topics.
Thank you.
(BTW, you have my respect for tolerating and not deleting comments from all the #$*%^&#s. Maybe it’s all good from a “click-through rate” point of view? Maybe the same theory as my deployment on an aircraft carrier in the late 80’s before email and mobile phones when communication with others was via once every few days COD (Carrier On-board Delivery C-2 aircraft) “better to get a letter of reprimand than no mail at all ”?)
Schedule changed. The FTU website is the correct one.
Thank you.
Thank you for your cervix