I went to school in Cuba. Any problem stopping there? For me yes, I want to see new things not places I already know.

I would love to go again.

I felt that the length was just about right... would like to see it be Tues-Sun perhaps.

I like the Boeing idea.

I read a lot of folks upset about the notion of flying to the states. I just flew back to the states--from CDG- within the last week and it wasn't that bad....just the extra security check at the gate. Yes it was a hassle but I find the liquids rule to be more of a hassle. So I would tend to think that too much is being made of it. That's just my opinion though.

I love the idea of Boeing. I've done their little tour at Seattle and thought it was great.

It seemed a shame to have so many leave on Saturday There could have been some nice social things planned for Sat if nothing else. I know personally that i wouldn't have been able to attend if it involved missing more than 4 workdays...I know I could never get enough time off to do a RTW.

The money was about right. I would hate to see something drastically more expensive. For me, to do the first one was a definite luxury.

Maybe we could hit up Boeing and the SE Asia *A members with a circle Pacific routing? You could call it the "Ring of *Fire" DO!!

Hopping around Asia: I'd second that, as I'm based in BKK. I also hope AC will participate this time around.

Missed the first SMD - but read up all about it in the blogs and here. Very cool. I'm looking forward to seeing it on CNN tomorrow.

How many days can you be away to participate in a DO
Up to a week for me would be ok.

How much money will you be willing to spend
Less is more for me, as I'm anticipating several personal trips this year (for both me and missus), so would like to keep costs down.

I think it's great that you're already thinking of the next DO, and that you're asking for input.

I'm also a little glad, although it was fun, that you aren't going to be the FA's because sitting in Row 1 meant that my seatmate and I missed out on food and drinks that somehow had always run out before it got to us. Worse for him than me, because I was in the aisle seat and had a great view when the cockpit door was open for the TLS flyby; and it was fun it help out with the safety briefings by handing up the next item to be displayed and explained, especially the oxygen mask.

I'd go for a weekday run with weekend bookends, but won't know my schedule until much closer to the actual time for it. Much more so this year than last. Cost would depend on what's going on.

I like the Istanbul idea (was last there in '74) and also Cuba (have never been), the latter on the way down to see Embraer? Stop in Panama for Copa on the way back and visit the Canal, from a time of a different form of travel? Or, if RTW, Panama Canal & Suez Canal, though I'm not sure about *A aspects of that. And the last idea I have if you set it up for Brazil - a side trip to Iguazu Falls.

Definitely would love to have that Condor gang along with us.

Looking forward to reading up as you go forward.

Thanks again.

This is actually a really great idea, especially since *A has another hub coming online in ATH in the not-too-distant future when Aegean joins this year.

I'm sure you could make it work on the corporate side as far as Turkish and Egyptair are concerned. I don't know about Aegean though - they're a small-ish airline, so I don't know what sort of resources (financial and otherwise) they have available for something like this.

I would love to come as well! - And if you guys need a Portuguese translator for the Brasil leg, I can help as well....

Why thank you, sir.

Regarding the small size of Aegean, I would submit the following: maintenance hangars and bag sort facilities all start to look the same. I for one, would love to see Aegean do something along the lines of SAS and do a presentation...but here's the catch. Up to the point of confidentiality concerns, I'd like to hear from their executives about the process of joining Star. The back end of integration, rescheduling, what actually happens once you sign the MOU to join. I want to be taken through that process, and Aegean is just small enough that such a talk could be kept to a reasonable length and still be made interesting, and what I don't want to hear is "We chose Star because of the seamless connections and ease of status recognition blah blah blah". I want (and I think some others here would) a real nuts and bolts lecture on the logistics of joining an alliance. There's also the aspect to their operations of switching to the new Athens airport.

Two words: Island. Hopper.

+1

It's perhaps a little MBA-like, but it would be interesting and again, it's a side of flying that we generally don't get to experience otherwise.

I'd like to add that for CO, I was on the tower tour which was cool, but I'd like to have an opportunity to see the kitchen ops somewhere.

Myself and most of the Penalty Box contingent that was on the MegaDo did the Chelsea tour at EWR. Seeing a production kitchen is one thing, but a production kitchen that works within the constraints of the airline industry was quite interesting.

CO laid out a great presentation last time. While a good idea, IMO it's time to expose some other Star partners to the traveling FlyerTalk circus.

That's exactly the beauty of the idea, IMHO. It's a facet that we've not been exposed to. :-:

Make the start and end points VIE and I think that works.

Otherwise the idea of a Circle Pacific was raised. Given that we're trying to get SEA in the mix, this makes sense. If we can get AC on board with this then we could do YVR - SEA - SIN - BKK - PVG - NRT - YVR.

A potential issue here is that AC only has 2 classes of service (though the J pods are quite nice). And if AC is not interested then perhaps UA might be so we'd fly in / out of SFO probably.

Lastly, I know that private aircraft at YYZ use a private entrance with similarly upscale screening / customs etc. I'm not sure if this exists in YVR nor if they would let us use the private area if we're flying a 77L, but if they do this would avoid a bit of CATSA / TSA sillyness.

Disagree slightly; here's why. The party flight last year was JFK-FRA. This time around it could be YYZ/ORD/JFK-IST. Then the charter portion, and you end in either VIE or GVA. This enables a long flight over and a shorter flight home, albeit on a Star partner (I'm speaking North America-centric here) that, granted, has fewer options back to North America than LH but also has choices that would enable the map geeks among us to get some freaky new lines and dots.