Chicago Seminars October 11-13th, 2013 will again be a great event covering so many travel topics you need to know about. From a rookie to a pro, you will learn so very much. Clearly, John Nielson and I will go over Delta in ways that will blow your mind; but I may just touch on some AMEX info you did not know about (like how to avoid/work around the FR process)!

• Brian Kelly, the PointsGuy
• Ben Schlappig from One Mile at a Time
• Summer our MommyPoints
• Daraius Dubash Mr. Million Mile Secrets
• Our Mad Scientist Greg the Frequent Miler
• Rene from Delta Points
• Captain Denny Flanagan
• Stefan of Rapid Travel Chai fame and offbeat adventures
• Mr Steve Belkin “Beaubo the Contrarian”
• Hans Mast of Shopping Portal Fame
• Marshall Jackson on Cruising
• John Nielson on Three Trips for Two
• Bikeguy with Rookie Bootcamp
• Howie Rappaport with Managing Family accounts
• Cara Kretz ITASoftware by Google
• John Lopinto of ExpertFlyer
• Cliff Stratton with Computer Help for all
• Rick Ingersoll the Frugal Travel Guy

Last year the event sold out months before the event date and I sure this year will be no different. You can look at the list of speakers above and events detail at the FlyerTalk page HERE! – René
 

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Great news! The hotel registration for the HOST and others for the  Chicago Seminars October 11-13th, 2013  is now OPEN HERE! If you have never been, it is a great time and a wealth of FF information. This year you will get:

• Brian Kelly, the PointsGuy
• Ben Schlappig from One Mile at a Time
• Summer our MommyPoints
• Daraius Dubash Mr. Million Mile Secrets
• Our Mad Scientist Greg the Frequent Miler
• Rene from Delta Points
• Captain Denny Flanagan
• Stefan of Rapid Travel Chai fame and offbeat adventures
• Mr Steve Belkin “Beaubo the Contrarian”
• Hans Mast of Shopping Portal Fame
• Marshall Jackson on Cruising
• John Nielson on Three Trips for Two
• Bikeguy with Rookie Bootcamp
• Howie Rappaport with Managing Family accounts
• Cara Kretz ITASoftware by Google
• John Lopinto of ExpertFlyer
• Cliff Stratton with Computer Help for all
• Rick Ingersoll the Frugal Travel Guy

I have been to them since year one and, as you can see, will be speaking with John Nielson and helping out on other Delta parts. The registration for the event will open up either today or tomorrow but I would not wait to get a room if you want to be at the host hotel! – René

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I don’t want to rush you, but in a little over a month tickets should go on sale for this year’s Chicago Seminars Oct 11-13, 2013 hosted by none-other than Rick THE Frugal Travel guy and Brian THE Points Guy!

Last year, Summer aka Mommy Points was kind enough to give me a Delta Skymiles Ashworth polo shirt to give away to readers. It is marked XL but it is really TINY, I mean kid size. So, if you have a young one this may fit them! Thanks Summer for the gift for the blog.

Also, I will toss in my last “M-Size” Delta Points T-Shirt, a luggage tag and a $25 restaruant.com coupon card. To have a chance to win, via random.org late tonight, [EDIT: Tuesday 5:PM] just tell me if you are planning to attend the event this year by commenting on the blog below. I will be there speaking on all things Delta so I hope to meet you there! – René

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Photo linked from: staticflickr.com

Last week my friend Greg, THE Frequent Miler, put up a post about the ethics of the game we play. There are lines he will not cross and his wife acts as his moral compass when it comes to just what he will do to earn a point or two.

I too have lines I will never cross. I will never buy something that I never intend to use and will only return. I will never knowingly, and IMO fraudulently, manipulate computer code to get a deal. I think this is both wrong and could result in very bad consequences for you, the reader. I would not sleep at night knowing I had suggested this is the best course of action and then later find out you say got FR’ed (that is “financial reviewed”) by AMEX or even worse, had Chase close your account and ban you from ever having a Chase account again (do you know how much, long term, that could cost you?)!

As far as Delta goes, some DM or PM flyers try to sell or “trade” GOLD or SILVER medallion status on ebay and other places. While you are allowed to give away the status to anyone you want, selling or “trading” it is against Delta’s rules and could result in the DM/PM having their Skymiles account closed forever and all their Skymiles wiped out as well as any booked Skymiles tickets (the same for the one buying the status too)!

So that takes me to the point of today’s post. I am a travel enthusiast. What does that mean vs. a hacker? A hacker will do all of the above. As long as it does not land him/her in jail, it is AOK; a hacker takes risks! An enthusiast, on the other hand, reads rules. They read T&C. They find out EVERYTHING they can do that is inside the accepted terms of the program. They may USE these rules in ways the organizer never ever intended the program to be used, but that is not the fault of an enthusiast. Like the famous “pudding guy”, who collected millions from buying pudding tops and redeeming them for miles, if you have followed the rules you are, in my eyes, just doing what the rules say. This is much like golf:

For those who do not know or care about golf and the rules of golf, a non-fixed item, like say a rock, not in a bunker, can be moved as a loose impediment to your swing. Tiger got a bunch of fans to move a very BIG loose impediment to his swing, the BOLDER you see above. It was not fixed, and thus could be moved. Some say that was cheating. Tiger asked the rules offical, and was told that he was following the rules.

To me, with points, same thing. There are SO many points we can all collect, make and earn that are all, in this same way, inside the rules. Sure, we could make even more doing it the other way, but why? Why take the risk? There are enough points to go around that we do not need to take the step that could result in huge penalties to us and, to me anyway, result in the sleepless night feeling dirty and that I have “done wrong”. I have NO such reservations when I can say, “all I did was follow the rules you put in place!” You know, if a program did not want us to do this or that this way, they should have put that in the T&C.

Much the same thing goes for what I will print on the blog. I have stated before, and still stand by this, that if you can reproduce it I will blog about it. Are there exceptions? Sure, there are things I will only speak about at a “DO” or “FTU”. Why? Not because blogging about them would be wrong, it is just that there are many things that you may do that will not result in the “same” outcome for you or me or the “next guy”. Or, maybe a reader has sent me something or told me something from an internal document from some company. This information can not be verified and the company will never ever say this is the rule or will point to the public T&C. So, blogging about this will result in nothing but frustration and mixed results at best! At a “DO”, there are tips that are shared that those in attendance understand they are a YMMV kind of situation.

What about “free trips”? Rick, THE Frugal Travel Guy, does not accept free trips paid for by say a hotel or airline. I am the same way. Other bloggers will take a 1st class ticket and a huge suite with no other promise that to write about the experience. I have not accepted these nor will I; I will and do accept an upgrade if I have booked a ticket or trip or room. A double standard? I say no, but others may not. I also accept free stuff from companies to give away on the blog to readers. To me if I 100% give it away to you, then that is fine by me.

So what do you think? Are you a travel hacker or enthusiast? Are there lines you will or will not cross? Are there enough points coming in that you are still earning more points that you can burn each year? You tell me (and keep in mind this blog is PG) – René

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What a weekend! This was for those of us who are slightly obsessed with all thing points and miles and the like to enjoy time with others who think everything we say is completely normal (unlike everyone else in the world). Later this week I start my first of my mileage runs and everyone I talked to over the past few days totally gets flying to LAX and staying for a few hours and then flying home (and doing this again the next day too btw). Other “normal” people seem to think this is just silly! At least we do some normal things other people do like field trips, but we go to places like “Office Depot” as Greg (The Frequent Miller) did with some friends on Friday!

Anyway, so what was I up to over the weekend event? Lisa & I drove up on Thursday and helped setup a bit on Friday first thing. Then, just before noon, we got into my van. Walking by was Will run for Miles blogger, Kathy and Indulge the Wanderlust blogger, Jeff. They asked what we were up to. We said, we were going to ORD to pick up Frugal Travel Guy team member, Howie and fellow boarding area blogger MJ on Travel (also known as MJon), Marshall and then going into the city to have lunch at the 95th floor of the Hancock building and said “wanna join us?” Sure was the answer, and off we went! We had a blast and the buffet was just perfect. Thanks to the clear, blue skies the views were awesome too. We tweeted like crazy and it was kinda silly since we were all at the table tweeting each other.

Then back to the Host Holiday Inn in Elk Grove, that btw did a GREAT JOB hosting the event for us, to check in most of the 500+ streaming in to the event. Friday was rookie stuff and John Nielsen talked Delta. This Flyer Talker knows his stuff. When he talks Delta, you should listen. He does speak in outlines of ideas, so it will be up to you to “get it” and say hummm…. now what does he mean and go explore. I respect that he does not spoon-feed you how to do everything and you will learn better if it takes some work on your part. Next year he and I will speak at the event and it should be a blast!

Friday night I learned about “Foursquare” as they had a 1 cent beer if you checked in and showed your phone to the bar staff. Not free beer, but just about (you only got one but that was fine). Speaking about “Shelby Campbell’s” the bar and eatery at the hotel, was and is really good. I have to tell you “most” hotel restaurants are really bad. This is NOT the case at Shelby Campbell’s. The first night was a HUGE Reuben and the next night an awesome steak wrap. This place rocks. Plus, it was fun to meet readers all around the room.

The rest of the weekend was full of so many tips and tricks that I just cannot cover in a week’s worth of posts. I had the privilege to help out with the Delta breakout and the few who were there on time snuck off to a private room and talked about bleeep beeeeeep AMEX bbblleeeeep. And the best part was about beeep blleeep beeep! I know, who knew you could get free Delta bleeeppp beeep bbllepppppp(I guess you really just had to be there).

Sunday was more of the same great info plus a tornado warning. Yep, we all had to “snuggle” in the middle of the hotel, but it all worked out. Even a storm cannot stop us from learning how to enjoy 1st class travel at prices we can all afford as we all chatted one-on-one about our favorite pastime!

I want to also take the time to say just how much I appreciated all who came up to me to say “hi” at the event. Each time I get to see Rick, The Frugal Travel Guy, I cannot believe he is just as nice a guy as he seems to be on his blog. I hope I am the same way to all of you each time you meet me! -  Your friend – René

******************************

PS – don’t forget to comment for a chance to win a $50 Marriott gift card HERE!

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This weekend has been so much fun. Rick, THE Frugal Travel Guy, and his gang, have put on an amazing event. MJ on Travel and so many other BoardingArea bloggers have shared priceless info on points and miles.

Yours truly had a great Delta breakout session along with Rapid Travel Chai, also from boarding area, and the brilliant John Nielsen know as fti on Flyer Talk. We talked AMEX financial review tips, how to get more Delta upgrades and the unpublished Delta phone numbers! I guess I have to agree there are reasons to make the time to come to the #Chicagoseminars each and every year!

Anyone else going to be buying tickets the day they go on sale next year? – Rene

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Rick the Frugal Travel Guy asked me to let everyone know there are a few open rooms at the HOST HI hotel for the Chicago Seminars. There are:

5 open rooms tonight
20 open rooms tomorrow!

If you want to stay here you will want to call ASAP direct to the hotel. 847-437-6010 – Rene

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Just think, one week from tomorrow I get to meet a bunch of you readers. I can not wait and be sure to say “HI” at check-in as both Lisa & I will be there (we will be hard to miss in the Delta Points shirts). And for me, I get to be a total Frequent Flyer geek as I get to meet and hear information from some of those I respect the most in the frequent flyer world! Those like:

Rick Ingersoll – THE Frugal Travel Guy
Randy Petersen
Marshall Jackson
Ben Schlappig
Mommy Points
Hans Mast
Brian Kelly
Greg Kane

…and many more! So, in preparation for the event, I have spent some of this day loading in PROMO codes HERE and HERE for Priority Club so I can maybe walk away with 10-30,000 points for my weekend stay that I am paying for (and the room I am giving away as well I might add)!

Have you made the time to do yours yet? Be careful as some of the codes you can only use ONE or the OTHER not both so please read and pick the ones best for you that can maybe work for you.

Also, there are some Delta ones going on that should work for anyone who would like to earn some Skymiles with HERTZ or one for you if you fly Delta Fukuoka (FUK) to Honolulu (HNL) HERE

Don’t forget to enter for a chance to WIN a seat for the
MegaDO with Randy!
and
If you are going to the Chicago DO,
check out my host hotel room giveaway!

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I accidentally booked and paid for an extra KING size room for next weekend’s Chicago DO event. The event is sold out so not everyone will be able to take advantage of this deal (ie you must already have a ticket to go). But, if you are going to attend, how about going as a guest of Delta Points.

The T&C about this drawing are this. Delta Points will cover the cost of the room (Friday and Saturday night 12OCT+13OCT, 2012) including tax. You will be required to provide your own credit card to cover any other incidentals during your stay. Since Delta Points paid for the room, I get the points for your stay (did you really expect anything else?). So, by entering, you agree you will be going and you will use the room as I do not want it to go empty!

Hotel info: Holiday Inn, 1000 Busse Road Elk Grove Village , Illinois 60007 United States
877 834 3613 Link to the hotel is HERE.

This Sunday October 7th at 6:PM EST I will use random.org to give away a room on Delta Points. You will have until Monday October 8th at 12:00PM to respond via e-mail or a runner up will be chosen from the entrants. Lastly, you must use your “REAL” first name to enter. You may use your FlyerTalk handle, but you must also include your first name as well.

To enter, all you have to do is comment on the blog and tell me if this is your 1st, 2nd or 3rd trip to the event! – Rene

EDIT: We have our WINNER!

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If you already have tickets to the SOLD OUT Chicago DO and want to stay at the host hotel, it seems some rooms have opened up as you can see above. These will go VERY FAST so if you want them, don’t wait! – René

EDIT: 7:30AM  – Looks like all of SAT night rooms are now all gone but some remain for Friday.

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