I’m happy to announce that I will be hosting the inaugural Montreal Miles & Points Event in a month’s time.

Join myself, your fellow Prince of Travel readers, and the wider Montreal travel community on Saturday, October 19, 2019, from 5-7pm, at Notman House for an evening of networking and lively discussion on the latest tips and tricks in the world of travelling on points.

The Notman House is a beautiful historic building located at 51 Sherbrooke St W (at the corner of Clark St) in Downtown Montreal, a short walk from both Saint-Laurent and Sherbrooke Metro stations. We’ll be hosted in the Clark Room, the Notman House’s signature event space on the upper level of the building.

Please note that there is no elevator in the building and the Clark Room is accessed via stairs only.

The Event

Similar to the Toronto event earlier this year, we’ll kick off proceedings with a short presentation focusing on the advanced topics that you might not find discussed online.

After the presentation, I’ll also do a quick Q&A session with the audience, to address any questions you may have about the topics we’ve discussed, or really anything at all that you’d like to ask me.

Then we’ll break out into a networking session for the rest of the evening, allowing you to connect with your fellow points enthusiasts in Montreal, share your latest strategies for earning and burning, and enthuse over any upcoming trips that you’ve got booked. I will personally be making an effort to meet and chat with everyone in attendance as well.

And lastly, while the event technically ends at 7pm, I encourage everyone to stay longer if at all possible, since we almost always take the action to a nearby pub or restaurant and continue our discussions well into the night.

After all, the networking session allows you to briefly meet a wide range of people, but the late-night gatherings over good food and drink is where people begin making lasting friendships.

Food & Drinks + Guest of Honour

The Notman House will be providing us with some form of catering in the Clark Room, although I’m still in the final stages of confirming exactly what will be on offer.

At previous events, I’ve typically ordered a few light appetizers to be passed around for everyone to enjoy, although I’ve also been toying with the idea of providing guests with drink tickets from the bar instead. If you’ve purchased tickets to attend, feel free to chip in in the comments with your thoughts on what you’d prefer.

In any case, I’ll update this section once the food & drink setup for the event is finalized, which should happen very shortly.

I’m also very happy to say that my friend Jean-Maximilien Voisine, the founder of Milesopedia, will be in attendance as our special guest!

A fellow Montrealer, Jean-Maximilien is the man behind the leading French-language resource in the Canadian Miles & Points space and one of the most active members of our community, and I’m delighted to have him at the event to share his wisdom with everyone.

The Prizes!

For this event, one lucky attendee will be drawn from the raffle to win a grand prize of 25,000 Aeroplan miles!

That’s right, you could walk away from the event with a round-trip ticket to anywhere in North America, or a healthy boost towards your next big Aeroplan Mini-RTW redemption.

Also, similar to my previous events in Vancouver and Toronto, Plastiq has very generously provided the following prizes to be drawn among the attendees:

• One prize of 5,000 Fee-Free Dollars (FFDs)

• Five prizes of 2,000 Fee-Free Dollars (FFDs)

Plastiq is Canada’s favourite bill-paying service that allows you to pay large bills such as rent, tuition, and property tax using your rewards credit cards and rack up the points, and these FFDs will allow you to pay $2,000 or $5,000 worth of bills using your credit card without having to pay the 2.5% transaction fees – a value of $50 and $125, respectively.

Finally, I’ve picked up quite a healthy stash of business class and First Class amenity kits over the past little while – including some very special Emirates First Class ones! – which I’ll be distributing as prizes as well.

Why You Should Attend

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: attending an in-person event like this accelerates your learning process by many orders of magnitude, because you get to learn firsthand from a large group of fellow practitioners, who are all extremely eager to discuss our shared passion with other people who are just as passionate about the same thing.

By taking advantage of events like these to build your network and connect with everyone else, you’re able to absorb information and learn the tricks of the trade much faster than simply reading scattered anecdotes on online blogs and forums.

Over the past few years, I’ve witnessed many individuals going from an absolute beginner to a seasoned practitioner in very a short span of time. All of these people had recognized the value of in-person events at the beginning of their journey, taking the opportunity to meet others, make friends, set up group chats, and exchange knowledge over the long run in a mutually beneficial manner. That’s the key to success in this game if you ask me.

On my part, I’m trying to put together as many of these events as possible in order to facilitate these conversations and get more people interested in Miles & Points. In doing so, I’m convinced that we can spread the joys of travel far and wide and help as many people as possible go on some amazing trips that they’d otherwise never get to experience.

Get Your Tickets Now

Tickets are $29 per person, and I have no doubt that you’ll be getting excellent value for money from the both my presentation on some of the more advanced topics in our space, as well as the wealth of knowledge and experience that you’ll learn from fellow attendees.

Every time I’ve asked for feedback at events like these, attendees have said that the ticket cost pays for itself many times over, since it allowed them to pick up new nuggets of knowledge and strike up new friendships with other Miles & Points enthusiasts.

If you’re interested in attending, please purchase your tickets using the Eventbrite below, or by following this link.

Space at the venue is limited, and some people were left disappointed at previous events when they dilly-dallied on purchasing tickets and the event reached capacity. I would therefore recommend securing your tickets sooner rather than later!

As always, if you’re a newbie to this stuff and you’re interested in attending, feel free to get in touch with me and introduce yourself. I’d love to answer any initial questions you may have, get to know your story, and figure out how I can best help you make your travel dreams a reality. And if anyone has any questions about the event, don’t hesitate to reach out as well, either by sending me an email or by leaving a comment below.

See you at Notman House on October 19!