One of the goals I had was to build out the community aspect of The Milelion by creating more opportunities to meet up with the great people who read and support this site. We started off with the in-person monthly meetups at the end of last year, before creating both Facebook and Telegram groups for people to share knowledge and ask questions. The recent Milelion Masterclass was amazing too, and I’m heartened to see from the feedback that so many of you found it useful.
Events like the Masterclass are lots of fun to run, but also require a lot of work to put together. Venues need to be sourced, speakers need to be confirmed, sponsors need to be found, publicity needs to be done. It’s the best feeling in the world when it all comes together, but the logistics involved mean it’ll have to be an event that runs a 2-3 times a year rather than something regular.
At the same time, there’s always so much to learn, new tricks to discover and existing ones to refine. And there’s something about a 240-seater auditorium that doesn’t exactly foster the type of back and forth interaction that’s needed for some of the trickier topics. Think about it like your university experience: you had both lectures and tutorials. Lectures worked great for some things, tutorials worked better for others.
That’s why I’m very excited to announce The Milelion Mini-Modules, a tutorial-based format of smaller, more intimate events capped at 35-40 people per session. Mini-modules focus on tackling a single topic, with the opportunity for interactive learning and plenty of time for hands-on demonstrations and questions.
Module 1: Power Award Searching
The first mini-module I’ll be running is on the tools that help you search for awards better.
You can use airline websites to search for award space, but each site has its own drawbacks. Some don’t have award calendars, some don’t display all their partners online, some show phantom availability. Moreover, you’ll soon realise that no site is truly comprehensive, and there are award options that regular airline websites won’t put together. And if you have very specific criteria like only wanting a certain cabin product or flight time? Searching through airline sites is going to be a long and arduous process.
That’s where award searching tools come in.ย If you read Flyertalk or Boardingarea or SQTalk, you’ve no doubt come across names like ExpertFlyer, Award Nexus and KVS.ย These can be very powerful toolsfor planning your perfect award trip, but they come with steep learning curves and can be intimidating for first timers.
The purpose of this module is to:
- Explain the need for dedicated award search tools
- Help you understand the different award search engines and the pros and cons of each
- Provide a hands-on demonstration and deep dive into the features and usage of tools like KVS, Award Nexus, Award.Flights and ExpertFlyer
- Illustrate use-cases for each of the tools and how you can integrate them into your trip planning
- Teach you how to set up automated award searches, filter-driven searches, seat alerts, manually construct awards, and much more
Here’s the details:
Venue: iFast Training Room,ย 10 Collyer Quay, #26-01, Ocean Financial Centre, 049315
Date:ย 11 May (Friday) OR 19 May (Saturday) 2018
Time:ย 7.15 pm on 11 May and 10 am on 19 May (The event is 2.5 hours long with Q&A)
iFast Financial, a wealth management services firm, will give a brief presentation at the start of each session.
If you attended Session 1B during the Masterclass where I briefly touched on the KVS Tool, not to worry. We’re going to go much deeper than we did during that session, not just for the KVS Tool but other useful additions to your award searching arsenal. Believe me, there’s a lot more to cover.
There are currently only two sessions available, but if response is good we’ll look at opening more. This is not a straightforward topic to tackle, but hopefully I’ll be able to break it down for you guys in an easy to understand manner!
More mini-modules coming up…
Over the next few months I’ll be creating different modules that will cover some of the most requested topics, although you’re welcome to suggest topics of your own too.ย There’ll be a good mix of more advanced topics as well as simpler, 101-style courses for those who are just getting started in the miles and points game.
Really looking forward to seeing you there!
oh no..i wont be able to attend both slots…due to biz trips.. any other schedule in the future?
if these 2 events sell well, yes! if not…i’m going to stick to writing behind a keyboard.
Hi, I am keen to sign up, but any suggestion what kind of profile would be likely to benefit most from these modules? I am worried that it will be very advance and difficult to learn.
you should already know how to book basic awards on airline websites. eg you know about searching for award space on singapore airlines and united and aeroplan, and want to take that one step further
Kvstool is nice and all but we have to purchase it which adds to additional cost for those of us who only travel occasionally. For this session, will there be coverage of any similar but free integrated online tools (i.e. not the standard airline search engines) or tool-neutral search methodologies as well? If the focus of this first session is mainly going to be the frequent flyer who would be more willing to pay for a commercial subscription of a tool such as kvstool, then perhaps another separate in-depth session using any free tools or combo-search-methodologies aimed at those of… Read more »
we will be covering award nexus, which has a free community version of its tool with limitations (but still useful). we will also cover award.travel which is absolutely free. i don’t think there’s a big enough niche to further subsegment this into free tools vs paid tools, so we’ll be covering both sets and then the idea is attendees see which one suits their needs best.
Hi Aaron! How did the events go? I would be very interested to join one of those later this year. Do you think you will be able to organise another event or two of this kind this summer? Kind regards, Wil
be on the lookout for one coming up soon!