oneworld MegaDo | Master Thread

I want to add my thanks to the organizers for a Job well done! I am so honored to have been part of this group. You are all amazing individuals and I look forward to staying in touch with all the new friends I've made.

There was a group of us from the OWMD on the flight to SFO last evening and we ran into several Flyer Talkers on mileage runs. They all wanted to hear about our adventures on the DO and several of them had been following the action on various blogs. It made me realize how lucky I was to have been part of it!

Safe travels to all and I hope we cross paths again soon. Chris

Me too. I'm back home at DFW pondering the week and it lived up to the billing of "once-in-a-lifetime field-trip".

Perhaps Tommy summed it up best at the Flight Path reception ... Best Megado Ever!

Echo all the above thanks to Ed, Melinda, Tommy, Nathan, Gary, Suzanne, Jen, Todd & others I had less contact with. And all the folk I hung out with in NYC, London & the US portion of the OWMD1.

Serves me right for flying UA today... Earlier rise than I would have preferred, quick breakfast in a well stocked but deserted Consellation room with Oceanbreezes & +1, cab solo to LAX (we'll plan better & get the pink limo next time), Premium checkin experience still put me into a 20 minute queue for security, the usual secondary screening done, boarded & ready for my 1103am departure sitting comfortably, pilot goes out for visual inspection, doesn't come back , deplaned, 2 hours in queue to rebook to 4pm departure to DEN, requested upgrade, found food, sitting at gate surfing, started paying attention to board at -60 mins, my name isn't on upgrade pending list , should I bother them or not? -the reticketing agent seemed to know her way around her computer..., decided to go ask, name not on request list so now entered, back to waiting area, now #1 of 18 with one F seat still unallocated. 25 minutes to go till boarding. 2345 arrival in SAT sounds a long way away..

Should have booked a later flight right from the start & stayed in bed for an extra few hours.
Should have booked AA so that even with a mechanical I would have been in the wonderful Flagship lounge when the rest of you came through.

On the bright side, was able to dispense ideas to all the folk in queue with me, so that they had several suggestions to make to the rebooking agent when they got to the counter. And about 8 of them wrote down milepoint.com as their 1st stop when next they travel

Just announced that First has checked in full..

Sorry to hear the upgrade didn't clear. But so great to see you again!

You too!
Tell me please, at #1 on the list with F checked in full, if I board and someone in F doesn't show at the gate, will they come find me in my Y seat and move me to F, or do I miss my spot?

On AA, in my experience, usually, but not always.

Yes, there were a few of us in First and even more in the Flagship lounge - it was a great way to end the MegaDO.

Can't wait for the next one.

Very often they do, I think that the only time they don't is if they think it will delay the flight.

Well, so I'm at the gate to board 50 LHR-DFW, 2 on the list, clear into 13E....

Then the GA announces a mech ground hold and 6:35 decision...
Is it me? 51, then 9455, then 50?

I asked the TA at the Flagship yesterday about this and she confirmed that the #1 priority of the GA is to push back on time and there is no requirement to go find you and move you up. It's a judgement (and probably their mood is a factor ) call. If you don't need to get on right away (i.e. overhead space) make sure the GA know's you're there and wait to board.

Ask them if it's the same plane we had last week. If it is ask them if it's the door. If it is re-ticket on something else 'cause that's just not good

If you go mech overnight you should get a decent room (ask for the Hyatt ;-) but the food voucher will be no fun. Give me a call, I'll come get you and we'll go have Hard Eight or Bone Daddy's BBQ.

Trip home went smoothly, though I wasn't selected for PreCheck this time.

I will second all the posts thanking the organizers, sponsors, and everyone who attended. Great to meet so many milepointers and frequent travelers of various stripes. For those of you whom I didn't meet, or met only briefly, well... there's always OWMD2. Right???

As a lifelong AA guy, I have rarely had this happen to me personally. More often when I'm sitting in F, I've seen someone else fill the seat last minute who wasn't an F passenger as they try to get the plane off the gate on time. When I used to be Gold and Plat, I would wait to board to minimize this. Since I clear well over 90% of the time before I even get to the airport now, I don't have this issue.

So, apparently Gabriel Leigh (who was in 30F on the charter and took some great photos/video) needs another $1200 to finish the full-length documentary on frequent flyers. The link below has the short he did a couple of years ago. Given that we just raised close to 80 times that on the MegaDo, I bet we can finish that off before the weekend's out!

http://millionmilesecrets.com/2012/01/21/8167/

As a subject of Gabriel's film mentioned above, I went ahead and contributed to his efforts to get this new project off the ground. I've also pledged to bridge his funding gap if he's not going to make it. But, since he's so close, I'd love to see the community jump in and help him get over the top:

Funding Link

Just to make things interesting, anyone who sends me a receipt showing they funded Gabriel's film (even if it's only a dollar!) will get entered into a drawing for one of my UA SWUs.

NOTE: This SWU does NOT expire in 2012. I'm using one that expires next year.

Anyone who donates $10 will get two entries into the drawing. $25 gets you three entries, and $100 gets you 10 entries. Then, we'll let the RNG figure it out.

Thanks to everyone involved in the planning and execution of the first ever OWMD. My sister and I had a delightful time, and we're grateful to have been able to participate. I enjoyed meeting all of you.

Any updates on Paul? He was the first person I met upon arrival last week and his enthusiasm was infectious. I hope his recovery is as rapid as his ready smile.

If everyone on the Do kicked in $10 he'd be all set and you'd get something in return as well. At $10 a digital download of the film according to Kickstarter. (Follow the link!)

I'm in, receipt to follow Ed. Thanks!

Yes, I would also appreciate an update on Paul.

That's the spirit!

Anyone have the data on the exact departure and arrival times for both legs of the charter? Gate info? Was having too much of a good time to pay attention. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I'm in as well.

Here is the data from FlightAware:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL9454/history/20120126/2330Z/KDFW/KSEA
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL9455/history/20120128/0000Z/KSEA/KLAX

Can't remember the gates.

According to Flightaware,
9454, 5:54cst depart and 8:06pst arrival
9455, 6:38pst depart and 8:46pst arrival

IIRC the departure gates were D16 in DFW and A8 A9 (corrected per legalalien below) in SEA

Wow, just Wow!!!! What an amazing adventure!!!! Many thanks to the organizers, sponsors and fellow attendees. I could never express my appreciation for being part of such an amazing event.

AA9455 SEA-LAX Depart 6:19pm Gate A9 Arrive 8:56pm Gate 40