The weekend at the Chicago Do certainly exceeded my expectations. I went alone and had never met any of the attendees. Volunteering at a conference with wonderful likeminded people is certainly a way to make new friends and have the best weekend. The seminars were packed with information and many of the speakers were legendary. I want to thank the the Frugal Travel Guy team Rick, Katy, Howie and Wynn for making this Do happen. Frugal Travel Guy

The Points Guy Link , Brian Kelly, was one of the sponsors of this event. He and his team Eric, Danielle and Emily held a fun reception for some of his readers and Brian was available to provide helpful tips throughout the weekend. Thanks for the tips Brian! Together we hope to run some local small group meetups around the country. Looking forward to meeting and sharing with more of you.

Brian and Rick gave a great presentation together about maximizing rewards from credit cards for airline miles and hotel points. Big bonuses, frequency of applications, flexibility of use and partner transfer options were important points to remember.

David, The Pudding Guy, took us down memory lane about all the great deals discussed in detail on Flyertalk. The article about him that appeared in Time Magazine helped me find Flyertalk.com. Here is a link to the article. Pudding Miles Since reading that article back in early 2000, I have been enjoying this wonderful hobby. Thank you David for taking the opportunity to publicize your adventures with Health Choice pudding.

Dlouise37, as he is well known on flyertalk, gave an excellent presentation about improving technology skills. This seminar was not only immediately helpful, but provided suggested homework that I will probably procrastinate about getting started with until later in the week. Every time I am sitting at my computer, I hear his voice telling me that I am wasting time with my old computer habits. It is time for me to take the time to memorize some short cuts and to move faster and more effortlessly as I read more about earning and burning points and miles. Since he and my younger son both work in the computer networking field, I gained a new understanding of my son’s frustration while sitting next to me at the computer. Thank you Dlouise37 for being the go to tech guy all weekend.

Randy Petersen, has been following frequent flyer programs since they began in the 1980s. He is the creator and founder of Flyertalk.com, one of the founders of MilePoint.com Link and the editor and publisher of InsideFlyer magazine. To my friends and family I have always referred to Randy as my guru. I knew from everything I had read and heard about him that he is a wonderful man. But I certainly did not expect that the first weekend I met him he would be carrying my luggage down four flights of stairs, when the elevator at the hotel stopped working. This was right before he was going to be speaking to our group of 500 people. He is amazing!!! As my husband says as we depart for each trip, “What do you have inside those bags’” and I reply, “luckily no luggage to check.” My suitcases are much heavier than they appear. Hopefully Randy is not feeling any pain from my packing habits. Thank you for being my knight in shining armor and providing me with the tools to give my family and I a lifestyle we never imagined was possible!