I figured I might as well cross-reference this here. I’ll be hosting a dinner near SFO on Sunday, October 10, following United’s annual Fleet Week event. Check out the FlyerTalk thread.

Hope to see lots of you there!

I must have a huge fan club (or maybe just a single fan that’s very dedicated), because I’ve received four emails from this PERSON club over the course of less than two hours this evening.

This email is being sent from “Luckycoins fan,” whose email address is onemileatatimefanclub@______.com. First of all, I’m flattered! So I wanted to take the opportunity to respond to your lovely emails one by one on my blog. And maybe instead of emailing them to me, we can make this the consolidated “ask your lucky fan questions” post (because I’m sure you all have sooo many questions you’re dying to know the answers to, like the ones below).

Email number one:

Dear Luckycoins,

My readers has asked if it’s true that “a real mileage runners are mostly nerdy type of person?”

“IN THE KNOW ZONE”

United will offer passengers flying in Economy Plus a free drink during the first beverage service August 6-16.

Yes No

Email number two:

Dear Luckycoins,

My readers has asked if it’s true that “you want to be Ryan Bingham but in the VDB version?”

“IN THE KNOW ZONE”

Did you know United offer Economy Plus seating up to 5 inches of legroom.

No

Email number three:

Dear Luckycoins,

My readers has asked if it’s true that “you grew up in the air?”

“IN THE KNOW ZONE”

United offer delicious buy onboard products such as fresh items breakfast,lunch and dinner for $9.

No

Email number four:

Dear Luckycoins,

My readers has asked if it’s true that “you dropped out of college to become a full-time mileage runner?”

“IN THE KNOW ZONE”

Did you know? United offered free headset to all customers.

No

Keep up the “IN THE KNOW ZONE” questions. As someone that flies United 250,000 miles/year, I had no clue!

Don’t worry FANS, I still love you…

After some technical problems with changing the sidebar poll question, I finally managed to update it. So please check it out and cast your vote. Do YOU think one of the US legacies will offer a double elite qualifying miles promotion in the second half of 2010?

And yes, I promise to update the poll question more often from now on. Maybe once a month?

I just posted Captain Denny’s flight schedule for June, and as you can see, he has a long layover at SFO on June 19. Anyway, we’ll be having dinner with him that evening at around 5:30PM and we’d love to have as many people as possible join us. So if you’re interested, please let me know in the comments section, via email, or in the FlyerTalk thread. It should be a fun time.

Registration just opened for a frequent flier seminar that will be the weekend of October 16 & 17 in Chicago. It’ll be taking place at the Holiday Inn Elk Grove, and we have a special rate of $89 plus tax, including breakfast and lunch for one person, internet, shuttle service, and Saturday night cocktails. Apparently the hotel will be entirely occupied by FlyerTalkers, which sounds like quite the event. The registration fee is $20, and you’ll have the opportunity to attend five of the following seminars:

1. Rookie Bootcamp led by Bikeguy
2. Mileage Run #1 with Viajero Joven as leader. Hooray VJ is back.
3. Mileage Run #2 with Wanaflyforless
4. Booking Award Travel by Gleff
5. Good Credit = Free Travel and How to Bump by Ingy and Lucky9876coins
6. Hotel Loyalty Programs by Ric Garrido of the Loyalty Traveler blog
7. The Rental Car Kings with Mrp Alert and Evan!
8. The Legends of Flyertalk with confirmations so far by Pudding Guy, Beaubo, MrPickles, Wanaflyforless and more to come. Yes, we have asked Randy.
9. Coupon Connection Event moderated by Beaubo
10. Alliance Roundtable with Wanaflyforless on OneWorld, Beaubo on Skyteam and Gleff on the Star Alliance. The LCC’s will also be included

Make sure to secure your spot for what should be a geeky (and fun) weekend!

As I posted about several weeks ago, the Birding Festival is tomorrow, Saturday, May 1. A portion of the proceeds from this event go to the Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund. Captain Jason Dahl was the Captain of United flight 93 on September 11, so this scholarship fund helps aviation students pursue their dreams. It’s a great cause in memory of an amazing guy.

Anyway, if you’d like to make a donation, check out this page of the Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund website. In addition to the sponsorship levels of $20, $50, and $100, there’s a silent auction for some pretty nifty prizes. The coolest has to be an hour long ride in one of United’s flight simulators at their Denver Training Facility. There’s also a silent auction for four Rockies tickets and two Broncos tickets.

Now, if I had to bet, I’d say the flight sim ride might just be a huge bargain. Getting a ride in a full motion flight simulator is very, very difficult nowadays. This is an incredible cause and while I haven’t had the opportunity to fly a full motion flight simulator yet, everyone I know that has raves about it. So why not give it a shot, in support of a great cause for something that could be a great experience? If you’re not at the event and are interested in bidding in the silent auction, please email me and I’ll give you the phone number to call to place a bid.

Oh, and if you’re feeling generous, enjoy my blog, and the thought of flying out to Denver to ride in some boring airplane doesn’t excite you, I’d gladly go in your place and write a full report.

And, as always, for anyone looking to make a donation to this great cause, this can be done via Paypal here.

Thanks to all that participated in the Australia Gold Coast giveaway sponsored by Boarding Area and American Express. This afternoon I picked a winner via random.org, selecting a number between 1 and 481 (sorry Kim, you are late when you submit your entry before midnight mountain time when I clearly said the deadline was eastern time).

And random.org selected comment 70, which came from reader Blake:

Use your rewards for something you cannot afford — premium class flights, expensive hotel rooms. You get to feel like a star and it has the best % return!

And random.org chose a great entry! Not only is Blake a reader and frequent commenter, but he actually left a worthwhile comment. I was concerned the winner would be one of those dozens of entries that didn’t involve miles and points, was two words, or said “pick me.” Fortunately I didn’t have to face the dilemma of what to do if such an entry won.

Blake will be advancing to the final round, where he has a 1 in 20 shot of winning a $10,000+ trip to Australia. And you can bet I’m crossing my fingers he wins, as there’s an iPad in it for me.

While it’s not quite time yet, I wanted to give anyone that might be interested a heads up on a pretty nifty auction that’s coming up, which Captain Denny told me about. On May 1, as part of the Birding Festival (if you’d like to attend, click the link), a one hour ride in a United simulator will be auctioned off. The proceeds will go to the Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund (which, by the way, is a fantastic charity; Captain Dahl was the Captain of United 93 on September 11, and this scholarship fund gives some lucky people the opportunity to take flight lessons when they wouldn’t otherwise be able to).

Anyway, it’s going to be a silent auction, and bidding will start at 10AM mountain time on April 30 and ends on May 1 at 5PM. I’ll post the phone number you should call if you’re interested in bidding the day before.

As far as the simulator ride goes, it’s good for you and up to three friends for an hour long ride in the simulator, along with a tour of the training center in Denver. It’s valid between May 2010 and May 2011.

Anyway, if you’re able to, this really is a nifty auction. It’s a fantastic charity, and there’s nothing cooler than being able to take a ride in a sim.

If you have any questions in the meantime feel free to email me or post here and I’ll get you an answer. And even if you’re not interested in the sim ride, consider making a donation to the Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund (they accept donations via Paypal in the link to the website above).

You have three days left to win a trip to Australia’s Gold Coast. Be sure to enter in the official entry thread (NOT this thread) by midnight on March 28 and you could be off to Australia, earning miles and points the whole way courtesy of Boarding Area and the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card.

As I outlined on Saturday, Boarding Area and American Express are partnering for a pretty nifty giveaway — you can win an all expense paid trip to Australia’s Gold Coast; they’ll even take care of the taxes for you! Unfortunately this is only open to residents of the US 18 and older. There are about 20 Boarding Area blogs participating, so the way you win is by leaving a comment on any of these blogs answering the following question:

What’s your top tip for travelers who want to earn and use their loyalty points?

One winner will randomly be picked from each blog, and then from those 20 or so winners, one will be picked for the grand prize. You’re allowed one entry per blog, so be sure to improve your chances by checking out all the participating blogs.

So with all that out of the way, what’s your top tip for travelers who want to earn and use their loyalty points?

Hit the comments below. You have until midnight eastern on March 28 to enter. And here’s to hoping one of you wins.