So… I’m back. I know it’s been quite a few months of intermittent posting, but I had some personal issues going on which finally are not interrupting my blogging schedule. I definitely look forward to be posting great content soon and more frequently. As many of you know, I spoke at the PointsU conference this weekend at the Sheraton Wall Centre, which was fantastic. If you didn’t come, SHAME you missed out on a great deal of tips and tricks. For those who are interested in the next conference, it will be in Toronto later in the year. If you have Twitter, follow me and vote for the month that would be best for you.
MS is Alive and Well in Canada
As you know, MS is utilizing your credit cards to generate spend to earn miles, often done through other financial products and methods. To my knowledge, this is both a win for you and the issuer, since this lets you generate miles while the credit card issuer profits from increased interchange fees. It’s not an issue as long as you are not money laundering. I knew of several methods to manufacture spend before, but they were always at a cost per mile that wasn’t feasible nor efficient for me.
However, even the experts can learn tips at a conference, and I realized that by stacking the right mix of credit cards, loyalty programs, and quadruple-stacked promos, you can earn 6.5%+ back on you spend at certain stores. This isn’t as good as 5x Chase Ink points in the US, but definitely isn’t bad in Canada at all.
Sharing My Secrets
I’ve focused quite a lot of time in this space, learning a tremendous amount thanks to all my mentors and friends. For some reason, the organizers listed me as presenting about “Travelling on a Budget.” You know that I generally don’t do that here from the reviews and trip reports you read. My presentation was on Advanced Miles/Points, and I had a tremendously fun time talking about tips for travel tools, discount fares, hotel deals (IHG BRG’s ;)), airline sweet spots, and many others.
A lot of the info is not publicly on Flyertalk or other blogs, all y’all who didn’t come – you missed out. Because of that, I will not be posting my presentation here on the blog. However, if you attended the conference (and I’ll verify) and took notes, you’ll know the general topic areas I was talking about. I’d be happy to answer any questions if you send me an email.
Stuff Coming Up
I have some great content coming up, so I’m looking forward to continuing my journey with miles/points! Thank you all for your support this weekend – and it was nice putting faces to names of my best readers.
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Hi Jeff,
It was nice to finally meet you in person and thanks for the tips. The conference was very informative and I highly recommend all Canadians who wants to travel hack to attend the next event in YYZ.
Jack
Wow, I wish I knew. Last year I went to FTU in Dallas. It was good , but so USA geared. I look forward to this in Canada !
Will you be attending the conference in Lad Vegas?
When’s that?
Hi Jeff!
It was really nice to meet you in Vancouver ! Thanks for the tips you shared there 😉
See you later this year for PointsuYYZ !
Hey Jeff,
Thanks so much for speaking at PointsU. I found your presentation to be one of … if not the best one at the conference. Thanks for spending some time with me at the afterparty as I learned a ton just from that discussion. Looking very forward to PointsUYYZ!
Your presentation at the Points U was excellent and agree with the comment above, it was one of the best. Although I consider myself pretty knowledgeable in the points and miles game, I still managed to learn a lot. My only regret was not getting a chance to talk to more people after the conference too. Should not have booked such an early flight back home to Victoria.
Great job!