mnmag

I believe that the negotiations were with each property, individually, and the management of said properties set the cutoff dates! I am absolutely positive that Tommy & the crew did everything they could for us -- in those negotiations!^

oliver2002

We are now scrambling to make the payment next week. With the deadline for paying passing, participants are canceling at the same rate as new ones are signing up and we are stuck at aprox 30 seats empty

It is puzzling to only get 180-190 participants in a good economic year when last year we managed 229!

So please spread the word!!!

margarita girl

I initially booked a cash and points rate, and recently changed it over to one of my free weekend nights. So that could be an option if you have either of those available to you.

margarita girl

Anything further on this? I have a paltry 12K miles in my US DM account, but an even paltrier 1500 miles in my UA MP account!

Powers106

Yes, that is what I am thinking. Since I will pay for the room in Houston and get all the SPG benefits that way, (the Gold status plus 1,000 per night), it would make sense to use a different points program for a free stay. Wonder if I could get the 1,000 bonus SPG points if I book the Westin for free on another program?

mnmag

I believe that it was specified that one needed to book through the dedicated links provided (ie. a revenue stay), for each individual property, in order to get the 1k SPG bonus pts.

SkiAdcock

Well I wouldn't say it's a good economic year as the economy still sucks, but it is perplexing that given the charter is based in the USA that so few of the US (as in country not program) folk have signed up.

I did get one to sign up from the email I sent (non FTer who has now joined), and am hopeful for one more.

But as BristolTraveller suggested, perhaps people could Facebook or twitter folk to this. Or people can continue to spread the word in their respective *Alliance forums or just PM folk they know & let them know it's a fab trip & technically they're only out of the office for 1 day (the Friday)!

I've still seen some posts where people either think it's the entire week or that it's all day Thurs & all day Friday. I know oliver adjusted the first post to reflect that it's just Friday, but I think when they see the entire itinerary there's still some confusion.

Cheers.

Shareholder

Face it, the US is in a deep recession no matter what the official word is. This is the type of event only a few can take advantage of and even though most of it is taking place in the US, most American FTers have little or no job flexibility (if they are still working), and 1/3rd the official vacation/leave time that Europeans have. Those of us who are coming are pretty much our own bosses and not part of the regular labour force. I'm not really surprised that this is not yet a sell out for those and other reasons I won't go into. You are witnessing first hand the decline of the American empire. You'll see this clearly if you have time to actually visit Houston or Phoenix or even Seattle. They all pale by the state of repair of European cities and particularly those of the new China!

tommy777

Folks, I had a conversation with the Westin Seattle on Thursday, they promised to get back to me about adding another 20 rooms. Stay tuned, will call them tomorrow if I don't hear back. Hopefully, it will work out ^^

Now now... That's a little bit too dramatic. As long as we are all alive, the most important economy will be the US one...

The point Oliver was making, was that last year was a lot worse than this year and we were still able to sell out.

What happened now is that even people who have paid a deposit are backing out. Hopefully, we will sell out, but payments have been slow and the charter is due on Friday.

So again, everything that can be done to get the word out, is greatly appreciated.^^

cedric

I started a thread in the US forum. Seems that if US is participating, we should have more than a handful of Dividend Miles members that might be interested. We'll see if that helps...
When can we expect to hear if US will be offering miles on the charter? That might be a big incentive to those on the US forum.

tommy777

Thank you.

I have a call with them this week. Will hear back then

ande777emt

Anyone else besides me trying OS?

oliver2002

OS 88:
SensFan
ande777emt

LX 15:
Pat+
hughw
mccartneys

anat0l

I probably would have tried OS88 instead of LH405 had I not assumed that the offer was not on the table any more due to lack of interest. I would've got to try two different Y longhaul products, and a new airport.

Ah well, doesn't matter any more...

supermasterphil

Totally OT but I definitely admire the stuff you smoke