Does anyone know of the eqm's for the international portion of the trip? Or is the 7500 all inclusive?
EQMs for the TATL are whatever the normal earnings are between JFK-LHR-DFW, not taking into account any fare class EQM bonuses. The 7500/10000/15000 EQMs & RDMs are for the charter portion only.
Is anyone, at least with the few details we know thus far, a little disappointed with the tied-in promos? Both the bonus miles from AA and the bonus points from Hyatt are appear targeted toward very frequent travelers and therefore big spenders or busy corporate travelers. That's important for an company, I realize. But this isn't an event for the average frequent business traveler either. As a lower tier (and generally leisure) traveler, it's a real time and money expense for me to attend this event. While I know there will be more goodies forthcoming, I'm concerned the perks aren't targeted at everyone. When you compare Hyatt Diamond access given to SMD3 guests versus up to 200K points for OWMD participants that can move into a Hyatt every night for the next 3 months - I'm not enticed by the latter. I've wanted to go the the SMD every year so far but the timing has been bad. I could quite likely find a way to make the US portion of the OWMD but just wanted to know if any special perks will be available to the plebeians who are aviation nuts but not heavy travelers!
The promos announced last night were pre-do promos for attendees. Hyatt is giving everyone an instant diamond challenge with simple requirements to keep the status after the do, and aa is doing free challenges, with a fairly minimal set of requirements. Bonuses on the hyatt side have not been announced for the do itself, but considering the quality of the robes they gave away at the party, I think we can expect something decent.
Just a friendly heads up -- AAdvantage does not normally give fare class EQM bonuses only EQP fare class bonuses.
Thank you for the clarification. As a Star Alliance person taking a look at AA/OneWorld, it's intresting to note these key differences when it comes to qualifying/requalifying for elite status. One of the things I told Maya on Sunday was that I definitely thought it is a competitive advantage for AA to offer 8 SWUs at EXP that were good on any fare, vs. UA issuing 6 SWUs at 1K, but only good on W fare class and higher on intenational segments (SWUs can also be used on any fare for domestic segments, but that's a terrible waste of a SWU, when we also have regional & complimentary upgrades at our disposal).
The fare class based elite qualification is great for those who generally purchase expensive fares, anything Y/B and above, including discount business and YUP fares earn 1.5 EQP per mile. If you fly most of the time on premium fares, say for business, and need an extra boost to hit EXP, you likely will have a difficult time doing that with ultra-discount fares, however. Those fares only earn 0.5 EQP per mile, which makes that last 10k EQP twice as hard to get as 10k EQM. In the same vein, if you regularly qualify on EQM, but purchase a premium class ticket every once in a while, it probably won't do anything more towards your qualification than the ultra-discount Y ticket because your EQM is already much higher than your EQP.
Very interesting. So in this vein, it kind of makes sense that AA allows its SWUs to be used on any fare, because of the "difficulty" one has in reaching EXP were one to combine business and leisure travel earnings on AA and/or its partners. You spend more upfront with AA (in the form of higher fare classes for EQPs or more flights for EQMs) versus w/UA you can reach 1K with a variety of EQM/EQP multipliers depending on the fare paid, but then they force you to buy a higher fare to redeem the SWUs. Clearly, both AA and UA think they each have a formula to maximize revenues and maximize loyalty. As this great shakeout and rule-shifting occurs at AAdvantage and Mileage Plus, it will be interesting to see what plays out with each carriers top-level fliers.
I've never thought about it like that, but your interpretation makes sense. SWUs on all fares is a relatively recent change (2-3 years?) for AA. I think the best value is upgrading cheap I (also newish) fares to F and still earning 1.5 EQP.
It's one of the many reasons that has caused me to look at AA. Spending $xxxx on a UA W+ fare and then not clearing is very annoying. Don't even get a refund for the difference between a non SWU fare. Sent from my iPhone using milepoint
I'm trying to read as fast as possible, but I'm afraid I've missed something... I see that the "booking site" is not up yet; however, I see many posts from people saying they booked their flight. What am I missing? I'll be booking my flights up/back from SCL separately, of course, but are there flights that are part of the DO that need to be booked apart from the charter flight(s)? Thanks.
Some folks may be trying to book awards on the non-charter, regularly-scheduled transatlantic (TATL) flights. Others may be booking their personal "positioning" flights to get to JFK or DFW and/or back from LAX. But neither the charter nor the special group pricing for the optional TATL is currently available. And when it does become available, folks who were at the launch party will have first crack at seats for an exclusive 24-hour period (at least so said two of the OWMD organizers, Tommy & Randy.)
This is really useful post for the ones, like me, that would like to join the OWMegaDO. I introduce quickly myself: I live in Italy and I travel frequently across Europe and less frequently across the Pond. I also loke to fly far for my holidays: last one was in New Zealand. Infligh I sleep much better of Airbus planes, I don't now why. Now I hold a good selection of FF tiers, specially for airlines. I hope to have the chance to meet you at the OWMegaDO and my congrats to organizers for making this possibile.
Welcome, FlyIce (I'm glad you put the Icelandair disclaimer in your profile, as it's one of my "main" airlines)! I'm new to MP today, as well, and just introduced myself in the Newbie thread if you'd like to check that out. I look forward to meeting a lot of new people at the OWMD, too!
Welcome here FlyIce Actually I'm a FTer and rarely post here, but it's nice to have a long time friend to join the community!
Hi, I'm new here and this Mega-Do sounds like a great trip/event. Does anyone know what to look for when they actually do announce the event is available for booking? I don't want to overlook it....
Welcome alfagirl! I'm new here, too, brought in by the OWMD. I've set myself up to "watch" most of the OWMD threads (there's a Watch Thread link in the upper right-hand corner of the thread or you can set your preferences to do it automatically for any thread you've posted in) that have any mention of booking. You can chose to be notified by email when there's a new post when you watch a thread, too. I think your best bet, though, is to check here often! Hope to see you in DFW!
Thanks zpaul... I am now 'watching' this thread.... fingers crossed that I'll be able to purchase tix. to the OWMD.
Those who attended the MegaDO Launch party will get a 24 hour window to book their seats prior to it going public. Since many of those who attended the Launch party are MP members, I'm willing to bet that as soon it's up, chatter will start on these threads and it'll be easy to note. Btw, welcome to MP!
As a couple of EXPs, my wife and I are looking forward to this MegaDO as the first step towards a more, shall we say, aggressive approach to travel! Since we have a few more days before the booking engine goes live, a quick question or two: - Does registration only include the air travel component, or is the hotel included also? - If the hotel is included, has there in the past been a way of specifying how to share a room with a specific person? Thanks for the info...we are really looking forward to this!
A clarification: when booking the charter, the fees are paid to the folks at MilePoint / Frequent Traveler Education Foundation. Hotels have traditionally been pay-as-you-go at the hotels when one checks out. Put another way, the charter fee does not cover hotel costs. So if the pricing for the hotels has already been figured out, then there likely will be a link to a Hyatt booking engine. But I'd give 10-to-1 odds that when Megado.com opens up for charter booking that neither the hotel component (nor the optional TATL) will be ready for prime time. Call it experienced intuition on my part When the booking engine / booking link for hotels does go live, if there is a requirement that "folks stay at the hotels to acquire the as-yet-unstated benefits," as long as each person does not have to pay for their own rooms, then you won't even have to worry about listing who is staying with you.
Newbie here. Just signed up for MilePoint as a result of this event. I saw it mentioned on FT (I've been around there for over 10 years). We are really excited about the possibility of attending the MegaDo. Do they normally sell out like a U2 concert, or will newbies like us have a chance? We are both huge aviation fans and of course big AA fans (both lifetime multi-million mile Platinums). Look forward to meeting everyone! John
Welcome to MilePoint! Star Mega Do 3 (SMD3) sold out in about two months - much faster than SMD2 (partly because smaller aircraft was used). Interest in OWMD has been high (pent up demand, I suppose), but Tommy777, an organizer and MilePoint co-founder, said his bet is that OWMD will fill up in about the same two-month period, maybe a bit faster. So while you may not have to sign up the moment the booking engine at Megado.com opens (and folks who were at the launch party supposedly get a 24-hour head start), that does not necessarily mean that you won't be stuck with a middle seat if you wait a few weeks to book the charter.
