glennaa11

Wasn't there supposed to be an "advanced" track and a regular track? Or did they not do that.

I went to the one in Tyson's Corner last year (and also attended the Chicago seminar the year before) and didn't feel like I got much out of it. I think these events are best for people who like to meet new people. Or who are already part of the "in crowd".

rehoult

There was an FTU Advanced stream and a FTU regular stream.

rehoult

You would be shocked how many people didn't know what FT or MP were when the weekend started. Our advertising was heavily focused outside of the forums with a resulting 80%+ of attendees there for the first time.

I think, and hope, that we'll see a few of them join FT/MP in the coming days.

If he got a refund it must have been from some kind stranger, because we haven't issued any.

From my position, this event hasn't received any more complaints or complements than usual. We always have some people complain, but we also always have significantly more people tell us they had a great time. As of this morning, I've got 8 emails saying well done and zero complaints.

Not to suggest it was perfect or that there are no valid complaints; There are a couple things that will definitely be modified next time:

• Registration was once again a bottleneck, so it's got to change. Not sure of the solution yet, but there will be one.
• Enforcement of FTUA seminar/meal access. We caught multiple people trying to sneak into the FTUA event, not surprising for a group dedicated to working things to their advantage. What was surprising is that they'd argue when caught; I question if these people self-upgrade on planes as well.
• Clarity of expectations. People had a good point that we didn't make clear what they could expect for meals, so some people expected a full breakfast but we were only serving a continental breakfast. I'll be ensuring that this is much clearer in the next events.

Now to focus on DFW.

kokonutz

Yes, this event was targeted at those who read the (co-sponsor) USAToday green and orange sections. That's why I expected to see a (glowing) review on a USAToday travel blog: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/. But nuthin'.

Or at least a review from one of the points and miles or transportation bloggers who participated. I mean, I can still google up all of their pumping the sessions as the largest gathering of frequent fliers ever...but not a single report on how it actually went.

Just seems odd.

Hmmmmm.

Ok. Good luck with DFW.

Thanks for checking in! ^

BXIAN

My husband and I attended FTUDC last weekend. There were both good and bad points, as noted below:

The Good:
1. I would consider myself an intermediate, and my husband would consider himself a beginner. I've been to one FTU before (New Jersey), but my husband had not. I went to advanced, and my husband went to the regular FTU. We both felt that we learned something from most of the speakers. We also felt that we were more advanced than we thought, since we were each able to share tips with others.

2. The community aspect was wonderful-lots of sharing of information, and we truly enjoyed everyone that we met.

3. Lunches were good, although a little something sweet (like a cookie) to round out the meal would have been nice.

4. I liked the fact that there was a charity fundraiser.
5. Lucky shared chocolate covered pretzels with members of the audience before one of his talks.
6. Speakers were friendly and made themselves available for questions at meals.
7. Rob at the front desk handled the issues mentioned in item 5 below very well.
8. We got a nice sized allergy free room even though we are only Hyatt Platinum-I did not ask for allergy free, but the room size was a nice surprise.

The Bad:
1. Registration bottleneck.
2. Random unexplained and annoying seminar room changes which were not well communicated..
3. Almost no food and so-so wine at the cocktail party-after driving in rush hour traffic 3 plus hours, and in view of the fact that many had traveled by plane to get there, more food and better wine would have been nice.
4. A breakfast so puny that most Hyatt Diamonds bolted after day 1 and chose to have breakfast in the lounge.
5. Bad food service experiences in the hotel overall-there was broken glass in the floor and on the seat of the both at Cinnabar, and a small shard wound up in my husband's finger. We met local friends for happy hour on Saturday night-our server waited until 2 minutes after the conclusion of happy hour to ring us up, so my husband had to pursue happy hour pricing and get the front desk manager involved.
6. A somewhat disorganized communication of the raffle prize winning numbers from the charity raffle-our speaker was given a drive that had a spreadsheet with the winning numbers, but they did not fit on the screen.
7. A little too heavy on the flights rather than nights aspect of things.
8. Very poor advance communication of the agenda-and even when it was communicated, not much detail was given.

I heard some people complain that the advanced sessions were not advanced enough. I have found in my professional career that there is a law of diminishing returns-if you keep going and gain more experience, you don't learn as much "new" stuff as when you are new. That does not stop me from attending-I always pick up a few new ideas, and the community aspect can be very valuable.

kokonutz

Thanks so much for sharing your experience! ^

muswei

Does anyone have any opinion on if the FTU Advanced sessions? Is it worth it? Would you learn the same from just skimming the flyer talk threads?

kokonutz

I asked Gary if he was planning on doing a write up of the event when he posted an ad for the Dfw event and he said that he was too busy and that he didn't have a good feel for how the event went overall anyway.

He also doesn't know if it was 'the largest gathering of frequent flyers ever'

kokonutz

https://ftuniversity.com/events/ftu-dallas/

Note re-branding in title.

Otherwise appears to be the same cast doing the same show in a different city.

ChrisFlyer66

At the FTU advanced sessions, you'll mostly get the same info as you'll get reading the blogs and forums. The only reason I'd go is to meet and network with fellow frequent flyers.

satman40

The shows are never worth it unless you do it

Education is just a tool if you don't use that tool is not worth nothing

glennaa11

I agree that these things are most useful if you like meeting people and networking. Otherwise you can learn most of the same stuff on the blogs and FT.

jackal

Since this topic is about one of the several miles and points resources outside of FlyerTalk, let's go ahead and move this over to our External Miles & Points Resources forum for further discussion.

jackal
Moderator, Information Desk

aviationp

I totally agree with what ChrisFlyer66 wrote; you don't learn anything new.

Also, the separation between FTU Beginner and FTU Advanced was poorly handled in DC, so there were a lot of people who had paid for Beginner but made themselves into an Advanced attendee

satman40

The people Who spend the bucks to go to the shows are little more serious, than many of the BS who talk about thing but never seen to do nothing,

I use to have salesman asked for a $10,000 opening order, i'd ask them if they're going to have a booth at the builder show and they say no it's too expensive

One thing about it more shows are being put on so somebody's get something out of them