Teh Penalty Box | part 2

2x F opened up on LH's 744 (they aren't running a 748i tomorrow) IAD-FRA. Parents should haz an enjoyable ride on that, I should think (seat map shows new F).

That does seem to be a big positive for the DOs. Although, even teh Box has been nice to get to know at least TrustGuy and genemk2 since we all are right in the same neighborhood here.

Me too. But most of those good friends aren't here posting about how they're thrilled to death to be dropping $6000 for SMD4. I really wish we had done the first two, but since then, it has clearly changed quite a bit.

Check out the Hyatt Regency O'Hare or the Hyatt Regency Montreal. There was nothing particularly luxe about either of them.

Now if you think Fairfield Inn or Hampton Inn are luxe, yeah, then our segments may differ. I consider St Regis or Park Hyatt to be luxe. Maybe the Hyatt Regency in Tokyo. But most Hyatt Regency's are no better than a Sheraton or Hilton.

And my seat on the charter was Y-. I seem to recall the meal on the flight was a foil-wrapped burger. But there was beer. In cans.

If you are looking for a luxe experience, there are a lot of better ways to create them.

Yeah, been there, done that, don't need a repeat.

+1 Best part

Econ for LAX-FRA-ZRH-SFO is about $1050 and its 999 for the Charter in E-, 1249 in E+ - which is what I will do. I am using points for PH, but also suggested teh Sheraton which is a block away to others.

As GT and SeaCarl have said, teh fun part is meeting people and hanging out -- I am less inclined to nash my teeth if everything is not on schedule or not fully to plan (unless I am organizing something myself -- and then you see me Type A all the way! )

Ain't no one I know who's thrilled about that. Mostly sticker shocked. Tommy created a sense of scarcity which probably serves his aims.

We know it won't be on schedule nor to plan!
I have to go counter to my tendency to want to control my destiny and just let it happen

FWIW, T777 said 27 have already expressed interest in Biz!

Indeed, but I meet people at lots of events. I don't need to spend that sort of scratch to get the value desscribed.

There are a number of people talking about liquidating other investments to pay for this. That is batshit crazy in my world. I hope they are joking. Sadly, I doubt they are.

I believe that LH sells all their 744s with only 8 F seats upstairs regardless of new config or old. If it is old F, every passenger gets 2 seats. I did it with my spouse and we used to seats as seats for eating, movies, laptop, and the other 2 seats were set up as bed. It was a great experience even with the old seats.

And to head off any discussion of how expensive, sale Z fare upgraded with SWU. We wanted to experience the FCT too - glad we did it last year since Z can't be upgraded with SWU any more

That's just crazy.

Those aren't. 4k a pop in C and the PH Zurich are. And that seems to be the lead ask from the SMD crew these days...at least from what I have seen.

They played a bit of a switcheroo. Offered seats in Y and said the C offer would be forthcoming on Monday. Tommy posted C wouldn't be below $3K. Nothing further. Then Y is sold out, and C is announed as $3994.

Those are only the lead ask because they aren't in a position to sell the other stuff yet. The whole order of operations on this thing is a mess. You have to buy the charter flight to be allowed on the TATL part of the event but they are selling the TATL first. What will they do when someone has a non-refundable LH fare but doesn't get in on the charter? The whole thing is, as always, a mess. One of many reasons I walked away.

And that's just the international portion, not even counting the charter and domestic accommodations.

Classic problem of letting salesmen play at operations.

Sales guys were born without the gene that causes an operations person to say, "whoa, we don't even know how we're going to do that yet, you can't go promising it to people."

Knew it was Hot and Humid but holy batman... 104 with the humidex here today!

More check-in weirdness.

Did the check-in, chose the correct passports that were available, verified the info, and completed check-in. Received "This is not a boarding pass" boarding passes (no big deal), but looking at the upgrade standby list for ORD-BRU and we aren't on the upgraded customers list and it only shows one person checked-in.

AUS-ORD shows us on the upgrade standby list as cleared but can't tell if we're counted in the checked-in count. I'm guessing as soon as we get to AUS and check-in, everything will clear itself up but I thought it was odd.

Hotel BRG win

free night at a mediocre hotel where I'll spend at most 6 hours >>> medium priced night at a slightly farther away mediocre hotel

They have promised everyone who buys the international portion a chance to buy a seat on the charter before it is opened to general sales.

Not an unreasonable observation at all.

That is quite a generous version of history...That's not what he actually posted:

http://milepoint.com/forums/threads/smd4-official-master-thread.37286/page-20#post-1459024

It is true that $3994 is around $3K and not under, but it isn't all that close. In fact, it is more than 30% higher. :-:

Yep. No way we would be doing that here.

Here is a good way to pay for SMD4.