My visit to the House of Miles.

Last week, I had the very exciting opportunity to visit the House of Miles.

The House of Miles is home (well, office) to frequent flyer guru Randy Petersen, who founded FlyerTalk, BoardingArea, and InsideFlyer. He is also one of the founders of Milepoint.  While The Wall Street Journal refers to Randy as “the most influential frequent flyer in America,” and The New York Times tagged him “the world’s leading expert on airline frequent flyer programs,” to me, Randy is just a big sweetheart and one of the most generous, kindhearted people you will ever meet.

Because I’m kind of new to Boarding Area, I thought it would be a good idea to fly out to Denver and spend the day at the House of Miles. I like being able to put names to faces. Also, I’m much better in person than I am via email. (Aren’t you? Isn’t everyone?)

I couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome or a better day. They even surprised me with an award! (Well, I already knew that I had earned it, but I didn’t expect it to be framed or presented.) I got the award for having at least 1,000 readers each day for at least a week…so really, I have to thank you guys! Thanks so much for reading my blog – I really love writing it, and I am thrilled every day that you choose to read it.

Randy has assembled an incredible team who works on so many things at once that it made my head spin to see them in action. While I was there, they were working on top-secret plans for the next Milepoint Premium membership, and putting the finishing touches on the Freddie Awards voting engine. They called back and forth to each other, answered constant chat pings online, and kept up a steady stream of information flowing my way. There was a constant hum and buzz in the air, kind of electric. A film crew came by at one point and no one batted an eyelash. “Happens all the time,” they told me.

Everyone was so knowledgeable and nice.

I spent the entire day learning about the nuts and bolts of blogging. There is so much to absorb, and I had so many questions! The hours flew past, and it was after 5 pm before I knew it, and time to leave for my flight home.

I was seriously sad to leave.

Thanks again to Randy and the team – I feel so lucky to be a part of something so great.

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