Chicago Seminars Review

October 31, 2011 - Rick

We all had a fun-filled weekend and I was so glad to see all of you who made it, and hope to see those who missed it next year. Unfortunately, I’ve fallen behind on answering emails and moderating comments and will try to catch up in the next day or two.My interview with ABC Nightline was a blast. After some preliminary duties at the hotel, I drove over to O’Hare Airport with segment producer Elizabeth, cameraman Bob, and sound guy Rene to meet John Donvan, the reporter. John is indeed a mileage-and-points guy and was as easy to talk with as any one of you. It is all a passion for us and John has the bug like all of you!We were whisked through security by Steve, the supervisor of Global Services in Chicago, and wre joined also by a member of the United team downtown at headquarters. We shot segments in the United Club, walking the hallways of B concourse, the tunnel to C concourse, the Premier Access line and security line, and down by baggage claim.

The highlight segment for both of us was the time we spent in the first class cabin of a 747 headed to China, I think, before passenger boarding began. Everybody from United was very helpful. The camera guy, Bob, sound guy Rene, and producer Elizabeth understood more about “the game” after seeing the first suites seat on the 747. It is a terrific way to fly. I caught them talking to other attendees most of the afternoon and learning some of the tricks of the trade. The expected airing is sometime around Thanksgiving. I can’t wait to hear the stories that Nightline picked from our attendees to air.

The seminars themselves and interaction with all the attendees was such a positive experience for me. I watched people saving money within the first hour of the gang starting to arrive. Howie was the first I saw to receive a great tip. The initial estimate was that it would save him $4000+ per year on hotel rooms. I’m looking forward to that post and expect Howie will have it up tomorrow or next Tuesday.

We had great reactions to all the seminars. In particular, the moderated breakout sessions by airline or hotel program seemed really popular. How often do you get to sit and share your experiences and knowledge with like-minded people in your favorite program? Will modify it a little in the future with a better acoustics situation and the chance to jump from session to session.

We are learning and hope to further improve the program next year with some new speakers and fresh material. If you have a topic you’d like to see covered, speak up now as we are already working on next year. More to come on that.

On behalf of Win Schaefer and myself, thank you to all the volunteers, speakers, and sponsors for your effort and time. And thanks to all the attendees this year. Our proposed dates for next year are mid-September, and I’m guessing we will all be in one large hotel on the blue line closer to O’Hare.

First Year Fee Waived: 50,000 Points Transferable to Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, Continental and British Airways

smedleyb

And I thought I scored big when I cashed out my rapid reward points for 800 bucks in Walmart gift cards.

Rock on Brian, rock on.
~J~

Are you worried about your credit score being affected by all the credit checks they do for all your new cards? And when you no longer use a card, do you keep it open or close it? I'm new to this. thanks!
smedleyb

J,

I'm definitely worried by all the credit checks. Like Rick says, your credit is the most important thing. Don't jeopardize it for some travel vouchers. Monitor your score while spreading out your card applications to the different card companies (Chase, CapOne, Citi, Amex). Rick gets 3 cards every three months; it works for him and it works for me based on my due diligence and hearing from the experiences on great sites like FTG.

As far as keeping a card or closing it, I'll give my own example: my first card since I started churning aggressively (late July) was the Southwest Card — $100 fee, $800 in vouchers. Yet when they recently offered a 25% bump in gift card purchases, I was able to transfer all of my Southwest rapid reward points for nearly $800 in Walmart gift cards (I was able to accrue nearly 15,000 additional RR points by taking advantage of cross promotional deals, so it worked out to 16 $50 Walmart gift cards for 64,000 points).

Believe it or not, that was an agonizing decision for me. 65,000 RR points are worth like $1200 in travel on Southwest. But the reality for me was:

a) The nearest airport with Southwest service is 3 hours away. Not to far but far enough;

b)I've recently started accumulating points to fly (and when I say fly, I mean my entire family of 4) with my traditional airline (JetBlue) which operates only 45 minutes away;

c) The thought of getting nailed with hundreds of dollars of card fees next year (I got 7 so far in 4 months, all costing between $50-100) forced me to plan today about which cards I should definitely cut;

d) The 25% bump in Walmart gift card purchases (walking away with $800 as opposed to $650 in gift cards), which like I said is like money in the bank for me. I needed the cash!

e) Even with sacrificing the Southwest points, I still have (or will have soon enough) between $6000-$7000 in travel vouchers which I plan on redeeming over 2012.

Based on these considerations, I plan on cancelling the Southwest card after 11 months, unless they swap out the card for a non-fee Southwest card (which I don't they even have). Bottom line, I just don't want to pay $100 again.

Circling back, that $6000 figure represents nearly half of what I spent travelling both in 2010 and 2011; $6000 for my family is not insignificant and precisely why I play this game.
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Chicago Seminars Review

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