Star MegaDO 4 - Pre event discussion

All,

It's that time of year again. The SMD team are preparing for the 2012 shenanigans! As usual, we need your input on our ideas.

The team:

Firefly - Melinda. excel sheet master and logistics queen

Pizzaman - Ed. Executor, right hand man

gleff - Gary. Blogger, propaganda minister

Randy Petersen. The Godfather - money collector/ seat assigner.

tommy777 - Tommy. Mega DO founder and king.

First of all, it will be in September. It's the best month to charter planes and also to get reasonably priced group tickets.

What we already have decided is that it won't be a north American charter this year. We have also executed our own merchants account and I am THRILLED to say that we have kicked the worlds least favorite way to pay and get paid, Paypal to the curb. It was with GREAT pleasure I terminated our agreement with them!

We are looking at three possible scenarios and would LOVE your input on what you think looks best

The Nordic affair with a touch of Poland -- Participating airlines: SAS, Blue1, LOT and Lufthansa.
Charter- FRA-ARN-HEL-WAW-FRA

The Mediterranean medley -- Participating airlines: Turkish, Aegean, TAP and Lufthansa
Charter- FRA-IST-ATH-LIS-FRA

Asian Dawn -- Participating airlines: ANA, Asiana, Singapore OR Thai and United
Charter- NRT-ICN-SIN/BKK

Of course the Asian alternative will be a little more costly to get to.

Please comment and submit your vote asap

Let the fun begin!

UPDATED INFO:

NEW INFO:

No, we are not announcing the itinerary yet. But, we have 3 things to report regarding registration.

First, for those attending the launch party....

Each attendee of the launch party will receive one entry (and one entry only) into a drawing to be held at the launch party. Give me one ping, Vasily. One ping only, please!

Winners of this drawing will have early access to booking SMD4. We will be selecting 25 winners as follows:

5 BizFirst winners
20 Coach winners

Each winner will have 48 hours to book one ticket once pre-sales open for SMD4. No, you will not be able to book a ticket for a +1. No, your prize is not transferable.

Second, for those who got shut out of the launch party and anyone else who wants to guarantee themselves a seat....

We will be auctioning off 15 pre-sale slots for SMD4. The auction will start tomorrow and run through next week, exact end time TBD based on when we get pre-sales open.

3 of the 15 slots will be for BF seats, 12 for Coach. You can bid on up to 4 slots. Upon full payment of your winning bid, you will have 48 hours to book a seat during pre-sales. After that, you will lose your slot.

All proceeds of the auction will go to benefit LIVESTRONG.

Third, for International participants....

In the past, some have commented that we should guarantee people who participate in the Intl portion of the MegaDO to have a seat on the domestic portion. This year, that is the case. We are holding 80 seats on the charter for people that purchase tickets on the Intl portion.

We will hold 15 BF seats and 65 Coach seats.

I am in on all three events, but would love to do the Asian dawn

Thai are getting their 380s next year and ANA just took delivery of the 787, so the plane nerd in me would enjoy this the most

All of the above!
They are all great choices but my order of preference would be Mediterranean, Asian, Nordic-Polish

A couple of questions -- 1) Would it be possible to get the sponsoring airlines to also provide discounts for positioning flights?
2) any possibility of more than one day in each locale? esp for Istanbul!

Wow!

You know these are great choices because when I asked Mr 999 which he liked better or worse, his answer was "Wow, they all sound great". But on the strength of weather (neither of us likes hot weather) we both like the Nordic affair best (even though Med. medley covers the most airports/cities I personally haven't been to: 2!)

Since I was already considering a holiday in Europe in September, I'm going to cast my vote for that!

A 787 charter in Asia would've been AWESOME!!!

But I cast my vote on the Mediterranian, as I think the Nordic one would be too similar to our Nordic DO earlier this year, and the Asian version would be too expencive for me after spending 6 months in Asia without any income...
Hopefully the DO will end up being affordable for myself, but I sadly think I won't be able to attend...

Asian Dawn without question. The airline/airplane offerings are far superior and much more attractive.

All 3 look great. I voted for #1 - Nordic affair.

Some of the nicest sponsors on SMD1 - and we only had a chance to visit Oslo.

With LIS on the itinerary and my love of Port the Mediterranean Medley is the obvious answer for me.

I would prefer the Asian Dawn, then the Med-medley and would not consider the Nordic affair.

(will there ever be an around-the-world DO as Tommy once dreamed about? )

I love all of them, so I don't really care. Price would factor into the equation some, but other than that they all sound great. If I was forced to pick I would say: Asia, Med, Nordic, but all awesome.

This is exciting, but I have to get over the excitement of the OWMegaDO first! Voted for Mediterranean because I think we will be too fast paced to fully enjoy Asia.

We were already considering a trip to Northern Europe later next year, so my vote would be for Nordic.
That said, if schedule permits, we will probably join regardless....

I would love to see behind the scenes at Thai!

Asia is a MUCH better trip than Europe.

Two thumbs up for ASIAN DAWN from jetsetr and mrs. jetsetr!

Asian Dawn!!

Asian Dawn for all the aforementioned and subsequent reasons I shant duplicate to save on attention spans .

LOVE THE EVENT! After missing SMD1 & 3, I'm dying inside.

So much for 748i delivery.........

I vote for Asian smd.... Med is bad idea if Athens is involved. Unpredictable airport ops with strikes etc.

Asian Dawn!! Whichever is chosen, please give prior SMD participants first shot at seats. We've proven our loyalty.

Asian Dawn FTW

Asian Dawn please!!!

I live in Japan and we usually miss all the fun events, credit cards, and mileage opportunities, so this would be fantastic...

Asian Dawn please, would love to go

I see Asia is winning, but John and I are in for the Nordic Affair :-D This is super cool! Thanks much to Randy, Tommy, Ed, Gary, and Melinda for putting this together!!

The med medley sounds like fun

I like Lufthansa......... I like it a lot