Booked: PointsU Weekend

The third installment of PointsU is only a few days away, with the first evening reception taking place this Friday, November 3 at the Hotel Clique near Calgary Airport. The main event will be happening on Saturday, November 4 at the Marriott In-Terminal Hotel, and we’ll be spending the day immersing ourselves in the wonderful world of travelling the world in luxury at bargain-bin prices.

The Event

I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to buy a ticket and attend. Speaking from experience, the rewards I’ve reaped as a direct result of attending PointsU Toronto last year have far eclipsed the ticket cost in value.

Of course you’ll be learning plenty of nitty-gritty secrets (ranging in topic from First Class flights, to US credit cards, to manufactured spending), but the real payoff comes in the form of the connections you’ll make with like-minded travellers. As I’ve mentioned before, having your own “inner circle” that you can trust really matters in this game, and makes the difference between being able to book one luxury trip a year versus five luxury trips a year.

I expect this year’s event to be hugely successful given the new interactive format, so if it’s at all possible, try to make it out to Calgary and participate!

If you are going to be in attendance, come find me and say hi. I love meeting my readers and would be delighted to hear about your upcoming travel plans, what you love (or hate!) about the blog, and how I can help you elevate your travel even more. For what it’s worth I’ll be moderating the sessions on Manufactured Spending and the Hands-On Award Search (see here for the full agenda), but if you talk to me during one of the breaks or the evening reception, it’ll definitely be “anything goes”!

The Flights

Nothing fancy here, just a return trip from Toronto to Calgary. I’ll be heading out right after work on Friday to hopefully catch some of the evening reception. Meanwhile, my Sunday evening departure leaves me a bit of time to check out what Calgary has to offer (I’ve actually never stepped outside the airport in Alberta before). Hopefully Jayce from PointsNerd will be happy to show me around 😉

I used Aeroplan to book my flights, but I actually spent some extra miles by booking Market Fare Rewards (at 17,950 miles and 19,700 miles for the outbound and return flights, respectively), rather than the Fixed Mileage Rewards we’re all familiar with (which would have been 12,500 miles each way).

This was because there was no award availability for the exact flights I wanted, and the difference in mileage cost was tolerable due to my Aeroplan Diamond discount. The upshot is that Market Fares don’t come with carrier surcharges, so I’d say it all balances out quite evenly in the end.

The Hotel

I’ll be staying at the same hotel where the conference is taking place: the Marriott In-Terminal Hotel Calgary Airport. It’s a brand new property and the photos look quite impressive, so I’m quite looking forward to my stay and to reviewing the hotel in full. As published on the PointsU website, conference attendees were able to book a special rate of $144/night, so that came to $323 in total for two nights, after taxes.

My total out-of-pocket cost for this trip came to the below:

• Taxes and fees for Aeroplan Market Fare booking YYZ–YYC: $36

• Taxes and fees for Aeroplan Market Fare booking YYC–YYZ: $39

• Marriott In-Terminal Hotel Calgary Airport, two nights: $323

• Total: $398

Conclusion

I’m hugely excited to be part of the upcoming PointsU conference. Not only is it going to be a jam-packed day of sharing travel tips, strategies, and inspiration with fellow enthusiasts, I’m also particularly looking forward to learning a few new tricks for myself from the rest of the community. It’s important to stay up-to-date when you play the game of Miles & Points, and these get-togethers represent the ideal way to do just that. Big thanks to the organizers for putting it together, and I look forward to a successful event!