Talk: How to Fly First Class for Free

Funzing is represented on Meetup by at least two groups, and one of them - London Speaks Sessions - advertised, some time ago, a talk on How to Fly First Class for Free. (Weirdly, all mention of this talk has been removed from the Meetup site, as of today - go figure.) Anyway, I mentioned it to Helen, she said she'd be interested, and we booked. In the meantime, however, she got a new job - started this week, and was too busy to go, after all! So she sent her husband.

He was coming into Waterloo, and I arranged to meet him there at a certain time. When I arrived at Clapham Junction, even the London Departures board was confused - they never did say anything about the adjacent Platform 3, but when I passed, a train to Waterloo was due in one minute. Didn't actually arrive for a couple of minutes after that, but still.. for once I wasn't late, arriving at Waterloo a couple of minutes before my companion was due, which gave me time to grab cash at the ATMs across from where I was to meet him, outside Boots at Platform 12.

Jubilee Line to Canada Water, Overground to Shoreditch, was the easiest route Google Maps found for me. So off we schlepped, on cramped trains, and when we finally got there, turned right, under the bridge; first left on to Quaker Street, continued to the crossroads. Turned right onto Brick Lane. This much was easy. Now, Funzing has a major fault of being very cagey about telling you where its events are on - they don't even give the correct postcode on the event page. When you book, pretty much all they tell you is the postcode.. I'd thought the venue was one where Hard Facade played once. Nope, as we passed it, it seemed pretty closed. Well, we passed the doorway for no. 91, the address given for the venue.. followed some other folks who were looking for it.. and found Cafe 1001, the stated venue, just around the corner in the alleyway.

The website had said they had a bbq menu, and sure enough, a covered stall outside the door served a decent range of burgers, with beer and soft drinks. Sandwiches inside the cafe - I fancied a burger though, and that's what we had. We grabbed a nearby picnic table when it became vacant, and our burgers were cooked on the spot - a choice of salad ingredients and sauces. They came with wedges, we were told. We discovered that the "wedges" were (quite spicy) half potatoes.. also that there were neither napkins nor cutlery. Hey-ho, we managed, it was tasty, and we finished just as it was starting to rain - and a lady with a Funzing cap popped up inside the cafe, with a list of names.

My name was checked off, and we were each given the customary 10% discount voucher - for Funzing events booked in the next month. We made our way upstairs, across a landing populated with leather sofas, and through the double doors to where we could see people sitting. As we entered, a screen to the right showed "Miles Mogul" - yes, we were in the right place.

The bar wasn't free, unfortunately, so that obviously isn't a regular Funzing thing. And what she thought I ordered, I may never know, but it was obvious that she'd misheard my order for white wine when she made sure to warn me that they didn't have draught..! Mind you, I can hardly blame her, with the racket coming from the fan to the side. Drinks in hand (and they only seem to do small glasses of wine), we perused the seats.. an eclectic mix of sofas, armchairs, and metal chairs covered in some material that was unravelling rapidly. We picked a couple of those, near the back in the middle.

Well, this is hipster-central, and both crowd and venue were well suited to the area. The crowd? Predominantly young and white (I did see one black guy), men primarily sporting perfectly groomed hairstyles and beards, women generally slim, in jeans and t's, long hair. Photos now here.The venue? Shabby chic. Bare brick walls to the rear, illuminated red bars either side of the screen that looked like enormous heating elements. Eclectic seating, as I say. The lampshades over the bar were falling apart. Really though, the unravelling chair covers took the biscuit - I mean, the damn cover on my chair kept poking and scratching me for the whole talk!

The talk started inauspiciously. With no mic, he had to shout to make himself heard over that blasted fan, whose off switch they didn't seem able to find for five minutes. Nor could they find the switches for the lights they wanted to turn off. The door we'd come through kept creaking distractingly, and at one point, the talk was completely drowned out by the sound of the hand dryer from the toilets! Really, I'd be dubious about coming here for a drink, but for a talk it's a terrible, terrible venue! Avoid like the plague.

Right! Well, we were here for a talk, and a talk we got. Funzing advertises itself as a stepping-stone for people who want to promote their small businesses, and funnily enough, just like at the last talk I attended, this guy's mum was in the audience. He was less proficient than the last speaker, mind - probably less practiced at speaking in public - but what did come through was his absolute passion for two things: aeroplanes, and flying first (or business) class on the cheap.

He has his own website: http://themilesmogul.com/. In fact, he's on loads of different platforms - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, tons of YouTube videos. And as I remarked to my companion as we were leaving, what I found most remarkable about this was the level of opportunity out there to express your inner geek! It's truly fantastic - no matter what your passion, there is a forum for you, there is an online community. He's gone into this in a huge way, and was delighted to find one fellow #avgeek (aviation geek) in the audience (in the front row, natch).

He could've skipped the intro, about how his passion for planes grew, although of course it was a chance to publicise his videos, a few of which we watched. All we were really interested in was the nitty-gritty of how he does this, which he split into two sections - "Basic" and "Advanced" hacking. I really don't remember all the details, but it was all about airmiles - as he pointed out in the Q+A afterwards, he's not one for rocking up to the airport and trying to blag an upgrade. Although one helpful point about that was when someone asked whether prebooking a meal lessens your chances of an upgrade - no, the avgeek in the front row said, not necessarily, unless it's something complicated, like halal or vegetarian. Ditto, you're more likely to be upgraded if you're a solo traveller - less hassle, basically.

Basic: credit cards that are attached to airmiles. AmEx featured, but there are others - he mentioned tricks like partners each signing up to a card, signing up to a card via a referral, in which case both parties get a bonus: and also "churning" - an "advanced" hacking feature, whereby you keep signing up to cards, cancelling them, and signing up again for another signup bonus. The main thing, of course, is to concentrate your credit card spending onto the card that you want to boost points on. Tesco clubcard points can be converted to airmiles. TopCashback featured - this'll be the handiest for me, short-term at least.

Advanced hacking featured, as well as churning, ex-EU (nothing to do with Brexit, this is the idea of flying out of the cheapest European airport for taxes), upgrading to a higher passenger status to earn more points, and tier flights, whereby people fly to far-flung destinations just for the points. A whole world of complicated routes, and price and points comparisons, was unveiled to us, with websites like Flyertalk and the potentially very useful flight matrix from Google. Mind you, you can always subscribe to the Miles Mogul mailing list - the guy is always at it, and is a mine of useful information.

Despite the iffy location, this was really a talk with something for everyone. If you have any cause to fly anywhere, you might consider these sites and what they discuss. And now I know why, on the few British Airways flights I've been on, most of the passengers seemed to be in some higher class than simple Economy..

And so home, to bed early, and Guildford today. Tonight, no fewer than four Meetup events were advertising a comedy night in Hammersmith. With John Hastings as the headliner, I was keen - and, it being free, I've signed up for all four! So that's Random London, London Live Comedy, and two (for goodness' sake!) from Funzing's other Meetup group (that I know of) - London for a Tenner or Less. I think the two non-Funzing groups are actually run by the same guy.. so if you will duplicate, well, so can I!

Back to Ireland for the weekend, and next week is all mapped out - first time in a while that's happened. On Monday, I'm finally gong to Kinky Boots, in the Adelphi. Got my ticket on an Amazon offer - always, always shop around for the big shows. On Tuesday, similarly, I'm headed (finally) to Motown, the Musical, at the Shaftesbury Theatre. Best value in that case was from the venue itself. And hey, I got a reminder email from them today! which was nice.

Speaking of value, on Wednesday I'm headed to the National, to see a reading of Stuff Happens, with Bill Nighy. Also in the room will be London Dramatic Arts, who are charging £2.50 more than the standard £10 for this production. It's been a while since I went with them - and at this rate, it'll be a while longer! Anyway, I've booked a seat upstairs, where hopefully I'll avoid them. (Pure badness of me to book at all, I know, but it sounds good.)

In complete contrast, I'm with the Man with the Hat on Thursday and Friday. Thursday is back to the Globe (whoopee!) for a performance of Macbeth that didn't get a great review in the Metro. What the hey, I don't pay much attention to those - and it'll be a great night anyway - great venue, great group. And on Friday, he's taking us back to the Royal Opera House, for Il Trovatore.