Yesterday was the 3rd Family Travel for Real life conference and I had a blast. I thought that I would share my thoughts on the conference
When I first started out in the travel hacking hobby, I was somewhat off-put by a lot of these conferences and get togethers. Why would I want to spend hundreds of dollars
Now I realize that much of the benefit of attending these conferences comes not from the content of the presentations themselves (though there’s usually several good nuggets in there even for the most grizzled veteran), but from networking with other like-minded folks. We even found out yesterday that Rich the Points Jock grew up with my brother-in-law :-D. It’s always fun to talk to other people who know what you’re talking about when you
Dia always does a great job of a) keeping the costs down, b) organizing good speakers and c) providing ample time for those of us at the conference to interact together. I think nearly 80-90% of the attendees also went out to dinner together after the conference (I, unfortunately, had to catch a flight to head home).
Here are the recap links to my live blogs of the 5 sessions in case you missed them, but I thought I’d also share some of my notes for things that I want to do better
- Family travel conference this week (introduction)
- Dan from Points With a Crew: Panning for Gold in Category 1: Hotel Tips, Tricks, and Steals
- Trevor from Tagging Miles and Kenny from Miles4More on Creative Ways to Earn Miles and Points
- Jeff the Wanderer on getting the most out of your miles
- Haley Bach on Disney Debunked: Making Friends with the Mouse
- Rich Kerr on Asian Destinations with Families
- What you missed by not attending #FT4RL this weekend
What I learned at FT4RL
- Trevor and Kenny really taught me that I need to up my game in earning points. I’m not signing up for “enough” credit cards, and I think one of the reasons that I’m not is because I don’t spend a lot of time manufactured spending. The thing is that a lot of manufactured spending (especially things like reselling) are really in my wheel-house – it’s things that I would enjoy and I think would be good at – I’m just not dedicating myself to it. I need to treat it more like a business and get serious about it
- I also need to get myself some Nationwide VisaBuxx cards, especially given how many social security numbers I have access to 😛
- Angelina (Just Another Points Traveler) mentioned a website called Mercari, which is like Craigslist but with nationwide reach. Basically you snap a picture of something you want to sell (think clothes or household items), and when someone wants to buy it, Mercari gives you a postage-paid envelope to ship it to them, and there’s no commission! I don’t know how they make any money but maybe they make it up on volume 🙂 You’ll want to use her referral code (RJWCJJ) if you sign up
- I’m not sure I can go to Disney next year or any time soon – it seems very intimidating (and expensive!) I’m just not sure it’s worth the price and hassle when there are so many other places to go for cheaper
- Rich shared some CRAZY things on the Etihad Guest partner award chart. He actually wrote an article for The Points Guy on the topic a few months ago – definitely something to check up on.
Most of all – I enjoyed seeing some old faces, meeting new folks and sharing my knowledge with everyone there as well – see you next time!
Were you there at #FT4RL? What were the things YOU learned?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
On your Disney comment, I am not sure of your points balances but I am planning a 5 day Disneyland vacation for my family (2 adults, 1 kid and 1 infant). Here is my breakdown:
120k HHonors points: This is for 5 days at a nearby Disneyland hotel. Includes free parking, free breakfast and free cocktail hour. Very affordable Disneyland shuttle ($24 total for all of us for 3 days).
62k UR points: This is for 3 R/T airfare from DEN-SNA AND rental car for 5 days.
Cash: $396 for 3 military Disneyland 3-day Park Hopper Passes. $400 for lunches /dinners and other spending.
So approx: $900 or less for a 5 day trip to Disneyland. I could do the same for Disney World but with an infant, that is a bit much.
Ditto on the info from Kenny and Trevor. You provided some really good info for us “regular” folks. Disney – every year if possible!!! Need to know – who was the lady that spoke at the end – with the baby? I need to follow her!!!
Hi Kathy,
Her name is Toni and she’s on Twitter as @Tonibologna14. If you’re looking for anyone from FT4RL I have a list created from anyone using the hashtag here: https://twitter.com/TheDealMommy/lists/ft4rl. Subscribe to that list and you’ll see tweets from anyone who uses the hashtag (I’ll clean out the interlopers from time to time so there’s not too much spam). Great meeting you!