Over the weekend, I announced that The Milelion was partnering up with GoBear to hold Singapore’s first ever miles and points conference. I’m really excited to present more details today of The Milelion’s Miles Masterclass (it tested well with focus groups), a place for both new and seasoned miles aficionados to gather for a great afternoon of geeking out.
As mentioned in the banner above, we’re holding this on Saturday, 7 April at Capital Tower, on the 9th floor’s event space. We’ll start with lunch and registration from 11.30am, and kick off with the show at 1pm.
Tickets are now on sale at this link.
There are a limited number of early bird tickets going for $20 each, withย regular priced tickets $25 each. What do you get for your money?
- Your choice of three of six talks led by seasoned miles junkies
- Buffet lunch with buffety goodness
- A goody bag
- A chance to win some great prizes in our lucky draw
- Access to a couple of special card and travel insurance promotions
Choose your adventure
When you sign up, you’ll be asked to register for three sessions, each of which has an A or B option.
If you’re already familiar with the basics of earning and spending miles, you may get the most out of 1B, 2B and 3A or 3B, depending whether you’d prefer to do three sessions on airlines or want to gain some insights on hotels too.ย If you have friends who are new to the miles game, 1A, 2A, and 3A would be a solid combination.
What’s on the agenda?
Session 1A: The Credit Card Miles Primer
Louisย Tanย will take this session of credit cards 101 for people who are new to the miles game or need a brushing up on the fundamentals. We’ll explain the things you should factor in when selecting a card, how to think about credit card spending strategies, maximizing sign up bonuses, getting value out of annual fees and picking the right card for each category of spend.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand key considerations for choosing a credit card
- Know the categories of specialised spending and the best cards for each
- Be able to construct a card portfolio for optimal mile accumulation
Session 1B: Advanced Krisflyer
I’ll be covering some of the most requested topics on Krisflyer. How do I plan and book round the world awards? How does that $100 stopover trick work exactly? How do I make the Krisflyer partner award charts work for me? And just what is that KVS Tool I keep seeing screenshots of?
Learning objectives:
- Understand how to identify, verify and book round-the-world awards
- Learn how to maximize your Krisflyer miles through stopovers
- Capitalize on sweet spots available through the Krisflyer partner award chart
- Learn the basics of the powerful KVS Tool
Session 2A: An introduction to airline frequent flyer programs
Jeriel Leong, the man who can game the SQ waitlist butย can’t finish a trip report on time, will be giving the lowdown on frequent flyer programs for the novice user. This is a great session to attend if you’re just getting started with awards and want to know more about the ins and outs of Krisflyer, how to earn elite status, and how to find and book award space with minimal pain. As a bonus, he’ll cover mile valuation and some alternative ways to chalk them up.
Learning objectives:
- Get the basics on frequent flyer programs (especially Krisflyer) and elite status
- Learn the basics about finding and making award bookings
- Understand how to value miles
- Learn how to earn miles beyond flying and credit cards
- Understand the basics of airline alliances and the implications for award travel
Session 2B: Advanced Asia Miles
Shyh Jie over from Card Cow leads this session on Asia Miles for the experienced user. With the recent Krisflyer devaluation, there is some serious value to be had through Asia Miles on particular routes. Given that banks offer points transfers to Krisflyer and Asia Miles at the same rate, this would be a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with the program and some of its sweet spots.
Learning objectives:
- Understand Asia Milesโ partners, award charts and stopover rules
- Compare KrisFlyer and Asia Miles awards and determine which is better for your needs
- Learn about the thought processes and useful tools behind the construction and booking of Asia Miles awards
- Get introduced to award search tool Expertflyer
Session 3A: Hotel Hacks
Because I’m a glory hunter (but more because Mark from The Shutterwhale has a clashing commitment- next time!), I’m going to take this session on hotels too. Some people say we give too much love to airlines and cards on this site, but it’s worth remembering that airlines affairs are measured in hours and hotels in days, so you’d better know how to get maximum value out of your stays too.
Learning objectives:
- Understand the different hotel loyalty programs, elite tiers, and how to earn status fast
- Learn how to enjoy the benefits of status on your stays, without actually having status
- Learn about special hotel rates like BRGs and Family and Friends
- Discover arbitrage opportunities using hotel points
- Use opaque booking channels to score deals on luxury hotels
Session 3B: Alternatives to KrisFlyer and Asia Miles
Troy Liu, the Founder and CEO of Mileslife, will head this session on non-traditional (from the Singapore perspective, at least!) frequent flyer programs and where the sweet spots lie. If you’ve already figured out everything there is to know about Krisflyer and Asia Miles, why not come for this session and see what more there is to (miles)life?
Troy was one of the founding members of Boarding Area so this might also be a good platform to ask him about some of your favourite bloggers…
Learning objectives:
- Understand the full range of frequent flyer programs you can earn with in Singapore
- Learn about useful sweet spots available through lesser-used programs like Flyingblue, Avios, Miles and More and Mileage Plus
- Discover ways of racking up miles quickly with such programs
Bottom Line
Ever since I started The Milelion, I’ve been wanting to host an event like this. Needless to say, if the meetups are anything to go by, everyone is in for an amazing time. I look forward to meeting up with everyone there!
P.S: If this Flyertalk thread is to be believed, the MCC of Peatix is 4816, which means you should earn 10X points with UOB PPV and the DBS Woman’s World card. Why waste miles, right?
Woohoo snagged an early-bird!
Oh mannnnn I will be on a weekend mileage run on 7 April. What a waste. And what an irony… Would have definitely attended if I’m in town. Will this be held annually? (:
I am willing to pay for a recorded version of the talk or a webinar. I can’t attend this. Is it possible to arrange that?
we won’t be doing a recording, but stay tuned for future events!
Hopefully will be another one coming soon, so sad will be overseas on that day!
I wanna goooooo! But if you are partnering with Amex, are you obliged to say nicer things about their cards??
Well come and you’ll find out!
But if itโs going to be a Amex sponsored event, you are obliged to only say nice things on Amex cards and tell us their cards are the ones to get right? A little doubtful man.
Well, you’re welcome to pre judge things, or you’re welcome to buy a ticket, see the event for yourself and come to your own conclusion. But it sounds like you’ve already pre judged it so I think you know your answer already.
Yah. I agree that the content will definitely be skewed since it is a sponsored event, just like any sponsored post by social influencers or bloggers and even sponsored posts on your blog. It will definitely be ridiculous if sponsor allow content to reflect badly on its own product.
I hope those going for the event is able to make a sound judgement by themselves.
Can we pay the $20 using credit card to earn miles? ^^
Of course. Wwmc/ppv preferred for 10x
Very interesting topics. I’d like to throw in a challenge, though I might be too late since you’ve probably finalised the topics. Maybe you can consider doing a blog post on it later. I’ve been thinking about it myself as well – What is the exit strategy? When do we stop? Some people might say we don’t, but I’d like to go with the “Let’s plan properly” theme. One might start with a “honeymoon” trip in mind, saving up to say 300K or 500K miles for that dream trip. Does he/she stop there (and how)? Short of buying Alaska miles… Read more »
My personal take: 1) When to stop – this is an interesting question, one that I’ve been wondering about as well. That said, your time horizon seems to be far shorter than the norm – most ppl are probably trying to earn as many miles as they can in order to redeem trips whenever they can. Nothing wrong with flying business class annually, is there? ๐ (Even if your earn rate is slower – once every 2-3 years, perhaps?) What I think is more likely to shift mile accumulation behaviour is when you have changes in family structure – you… Read more »
I mean this is as much a philosophical qn as anything else. We know you shouldn’t hold too many miles, but so long as you’re still traveling I imagine you’d want to continue earning and burning? It is an interesting qn though, will give it some thought
Something triggered me to look up this old thread and revisit this question. If you’d humour me, do you have any further thoughts on this?
The answers to the queries donโt entice me to fork out the 25!
Any chance of getting a ticket? Early bird & regular sold out!?
Ticket has sold out ๐ any chance i can get 1 slot for myself?
Sorry, but stay tuned for the next event!
Hi Aaron and team. Yes petty seems that ticket sale start was not broadcast out and now sold out. Had submitted topics earlier when you asked. Ok I join next time.
Still waiting to see you cover more on travel insurance and compare what is offered as part of cards and what is offered by 3rd party in market. Currently travelling in Australia and taking insurance from renter is expensive. Some cards cover if you book with them – while other not. Big mess and big jungle.
Haha, thought it was 11 instead of 1130 ๐
On the flip side, looks like i am the first person here according to the registration desk ๐
The masterclass was superb!! Worth every cent even without the food. Thanks Aaron and Team for a really informative session! ๐ Only minor gripe : just tried to register the KVStool.com diamond trial gift code that Gobear emailed out post-masterclass and the KVStool.com people emailed me back with a single line : “Please re-submit your request using a legitimate e-mail account”. I have been using the email account since 2000 and its under my own personal domain, not Gmail or a free provider. Whether my email address is legitimate or not is defined as whether i am contactable through it… Read more »