Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  We are only 1 week away from FTU Advanced in Orange County (October 28-30).  FTU stands for Frequent Traveler University and is a travel conference with your favorite travel bloggers from Boarding Area and beyond.  I will be attending the conference, but I am not presenting.  I am flying down from SFO on Friday night after work, so I won’t be able to attend the Friday night happy hour (someone, please drink for me).  I am staying at home, not at the host hotel (The Westin South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa), but I will be at the conference all day Saturday and Sunday.  I will be wearing my classic Travel with Grant shirt (much to the chagrin of Devil’s Advocate).  If you see me, don’t be afraid to say hello :)

---

Earlier this week, the FTU Advanced Seattle conference was announced (February 24-26).  Tickets are still available and the host hotel (Four Points by Sheraton Seattle Airport South) has group rates for $99/night.  Alternatively, you could redeem 7,000 SPG points / night or 3,500 SPG points + $55 / night.  I think the group rate is a better deal, but you can always stay at another airport hotel and walk over to the conference if you can get a better deal elsewhere.

I already purchased my event ticket and hotel rooms, so now I just need to book my flights.  Looking at Google Flights, I can fly out of SFO on Friday night (pitstop at the SFO Centurion Lounge) and fly back to Oakland on Monday morning (OAK usually has less delays than SFO in the morning).  I like flying Alaska Airlines so I was ready to book.  It looks like the 2 flights I selected are also coded as American Airlines codeshares.  Immediately, I think Citi Thank You Points at 1.6 CPP for American Airlines flights…

I entered my flight details for SFO to SEA, then selected American Airlines and Alaska Airlines as my preferred airlines.  On the results page, the same flight shows up for both American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, but the price is 5,000 Citi Thank You Points cheaper when I select the America Airlines flight.  I quickly booked that flight with Citi Thank You Points (more info here) and then began searching for my return flight.

I entered my flight details for SEA to OAK, then selected American Airlines and Alaska Airlines as my preferred airlines.  On the results page, the same flight shows up for both American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, but the price is 5,000 Citi Thank You Points cheaper when I select the America Airlines flight.  I quickly booked that flight with my Citi Thank You Points.

Since the flights were booked with American Airlines, but are operated by Alaska Airlines, I called Alaska Airlines to get my confirmation number for both flights.  I then added both of those flights to my Alaska Airlines account.

After I added the flights to my Alaska Airlines account, I added my Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan frequent flyer number, I picked my seat, and added my trusted traveler number (for TSA PreCheck).

All the logistics are taken care of for FTU Advanced Orange County and Seattle.  Now I can look forward to meeting new people, catching up on old friends and bloggers, and joking around with Devil’s Advocate.  Are you planning on attending either FTU Advanced conference?  If so, I look forward to meeting you there.  If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.  Have a great weekend everyone!