Yay! I'm in!! I've already marked off Oct 15-31 on my calendar for *MegaDo2 wherever it takes us. Now I just need to start saving some moolah ...

I haven't read through the whole thread so don't rain down on me if the following have already been covered ...

1) keep in mind that the visa fees for some countries are $90++ (yeah yeah I know - the US included) so hopefully that won't get out of hand. On the up side, living in DC it's a snap for me to run down to the Embassies and get the visas.

2) I saw the word "India" being thrown around and just thought "uh oh". I missed out on the 1st *MegaDo because I went to India+Nepal for work for 3 weeks in Nov. Which reminds me I need to post a trip report on that escapade now that I've finally recovered from not eating fruits & veggies for 3 weeks but I digress ... in brief let me just say that India should not be under consideration for this adventure. Those who have been there will understand. Those who haven't just take my word for it and save it for another trip. For a country swarming with masses of people day & night, it may seem weird to comment that "time stops" in India while you're traveling but it's true. Like a black hole when it comes to travel time. Any *MegaDo momentum will be sucked away as if someone opened a plane door mid flight. Just sayin'

Be great if you can make it! We missed you last year. I don't think actual dates have been posted yet, so you might want to mark that in pencil, although I think most are anticipating it being in Q4.

Cheers.

And respectfully, I disagree with your disagreement.

The Condor flight (the charter) flew us FRA - OSL - TLS - FRA. i.e. Start and end points were the same. Logistically we need same for MegaDo II - a charter needs to start / end in the same airport.

Outside that of course, we need flights from wherever to the starting point of the charter (VIE).

I concur that VIE is not much of a hub so we could switch to ZRH instead if it's more convenient for the majority of the gang. For North Americans though, I don't think it's difficult to get from VIE to YYZ / JFK / ORD. Similarly I think most Europeans can get to VIE easily enough.

At the same time though, this is European-centric. If the goal is to get to Boeing, the Pacific rim makes a lot of sense too but pricing / timing remain obvious issues.

Starting point note conceded. Basic reasoning FAIL on my part.

ZRH/VIE-ATH-CAI-IST-ZRH/VIE.

Co-workers: Where did you go on your vacation?

SS255: Toronto, Vienna, Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore, Auckland.....

Co-workers: Cool. What did you see?

SS255: Nothing.

I used to have that type of conversation fairly often. Then my coworkers stopped asking and just decided that I was nuts.

+1

Definite would prefer South America or Asia. Brazil would be great if we wanted to visit another manufacturer (much prefer an Embraer visit to a Boeing visit.

Agreed

Let's not forget our beloved BMI in Donington Hall (no LH HQ doesn't count!)

I like the idea of Asia (I think that is currently my preferred option) and a possible addition of AC and Bombardier would be cool too (though less important for me).

I'm definitely liking the ideas and I would still support a RTW, however after reading here and thinking it over I think I actually would prefer a SMD II to be the Asia hubs and possible wait with the RTW till SMD III

Many good thoughts here.

Here are some issues we'd face with some of the ideas:

-- Brazil -- visa and very far and costly flights if we were to do a charter from the US just for 1 location. Difficult and time consuming for people based other placed than the US. I would love to visit Embraer, though.

-- US -- Even with the exploding underpants incident and the TSA, we wanted to have activities in the US. A solution could be using an AC aircraft. US and AC were neglected in the previous DO and we wanted to do something for the members of those programs

-- Middle eastern DO -- security and visa issues and even if the cities involved are exciting we won't take a guided tour of Istanbul or Cairo and neither of the two airlines do any maintenance in the scale like CO, LH, UA and SK. They are also small carriers who have close to no members on FT in their programs and have very little interest to many.

-- Asian DO -- has been considered by Oli and me. To do SIN-BKK-PVG-ICN-NRT-AKL-SIN as an example would be almost as costly as doing a RTW and time wise it would take the same amount of time as a RTW when you add looooong flights to and from Europe and the US.

-- RTW -- time is our only enemy here. We don't have the full picture of how much it will cost, so that could kill us too.

AC cited financial concerns for non-participation. US...haha...I don't think US would willingly subject themselves to an invasion of FTers, unless we wrangled a guest appearance from Sully.

AC did not site any financial concerns, time was the issue. They will gladly be a part of the next DO.

As for US, they are a Star partner that most of us use frequently (and they are 100000000 better than CO irt irr ops ). Capt. Sully has been discussed as a guest if we should decide to visit them

You'd also have visa issues if PVG was involved. However, there'll be the World's Fair going on there till the end of October, and that might be fun. I may have a friend or 2 with some connections there, and would be happy to help out if that's what's decided on.

It is worse when the conversation is about what you did in the weekend

AC flies YYZ - GRU as a regular flight. Y starts around $1000 all-in while the front of the bus goes for a lot more. Hopefully there would be flexibility if we take the whole airplane. GIG and RIO are also available via AC. Agree that length of flight is long-ish though, particularly for those in Y.

With respect to visas, not everyone needs one. Essentially it seems that South Americans and Europeans are exempt. For those who do need a visa though, the fees are stiff to say the least!

Tourist visa requirements have been waived for citizens of Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Morocco, Monaco, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, S.M. Order of Malta, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Surinam, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uruguay, Vatican, Venezuela.


Tourist Visas Apply to:

* Lecturers at conferences.
* Visit relatives and/or friends.
* Unpaid participation in athletic or artistic event or competition (in this case an invitation letter from the sponsoring organization is Brazil is required).
* Unpaid participation in a scientific/academic seminar or conference sponsored by a research or academic institution (in this case an invitation letter from the sponsoring organization in Brazil is required).


http://www.brasembottawa.org/en/cons...rist_visa.html

What about a mini circle pacific? US, AC, NZ covering western USA & Canada, NZ, possibly Australia or an island in the pacific (fiji or cook islands perhaps)? This could be done M-F leaving weekends at each end for people to get to & from the start and end points. Few visa issues. Travel hassles are less in the south pacific

If SEA was the main event having it on the weekend would allow people to a) join for the weekend in SEA or b) start during the week, do SEA and head home or c) start in SEA and continue to the end.