USirritated

I have done that several times for conferences, and a couple of times on pure pleasure trips, and even included my laundry once, which made packing for the return flight home a breeze!

fsfguy

Paypal is probably not blocked since in March, they reached an expanded agreement with UnionPay, the monopoly Chinese credit card processor to allow the Chinese to register their cards on Paypal.

If you want to set up a proxy server/VPN service to get around blocking, you could take a look at:
https://www.secure-tunnel.com/
It's $9.95/month after a 1 week free trial. I haven't used them, though it was the service I was going to try in China 2 weeks ago but a friend set up a VPN through his personal server in the US.

USirritated

ROFLMAO!!! Hilarious, made my afternoon, so far!

USirritated

By the way, I meant no slight to the moderators/organizers by my above comment, it was simply meant to let the poster that I was replying to know that I had not planned for that eventuality, because I was not aware of it before booking the DO. As far as I am concerned, the organizers have done a fantastic job, and I was before and continue to be very grateful for all of their hard work and incredible logistical skills! ^


Thank you seacarl, for your great suggestion about shipping to the hotel. A refinement of that, for me and for others who are continuing on, for business or other reasons, after the DO ends in SEA would be to ship the extra luggage directly from our homes, "pre DO," to our "apres DO" destination hotels. In my case that would be the New Orleans Marriott, where I am very friendly with the hotel's "elite coordinator," who I know would be happy to store my luggage until my arrival.

If the organizers are not able to make arrangements for checked luggage on the charter, which would be my preference (and save the cost of shipping a second piece), then that is what I will do, since I will not need those extra items on the DO portion of my trip.

Shareholder

Thanks for the tips guys. Just remembered that I will have access to the Canadian government hospitality lounge at Expo which should have a safe, clear internet link. If not, I'll check out those alternative links, or maybe just send my Winnipeg friend, GoldenToque, my PayPal details...

tracon

Any word on mileage for the charter?

zkzkz

So I was interested in this event but I think I've decided that I can only really justify the expense if I tack it onto some business travel. There is a real chance I'll have a business trip to the US around that time of year so I wouldn't say no just yet. But I won't know until it's a lot closer to the day. When will be the last possible day to join assuming there's still space?

cova

LH405 on Nov 1st schedule change:

Was Depart 10:45pm, Arrive 11:10am
Now Depart 10:40pm, Arrive 11:20pm

That is 15 minutes longer. Wonder what that means? A380 is slower than 744.

SkiAdcock

Probably means nada, nothing, squat. I get change in schedules all the time.

I'd be the first to say I'd love LH suddenly putting the 380 on our route, but think it unlikely.

Nor am I concerned enough about the potential schedule to check it that far in advance. Presumably all of us will get there in time to make the flight & don't have a meeting immediately after landing (well, I might actually have a lunch), so 15 doesn't matter.

And I have this feeling that if by chance LH does put a 380 on that route that day, that tommy/oliver/reb/seth will tell us on this thread & we won't have to guess.

Cheers.

cova

Since I am already ticketed, my reservation shows red in the system due to schedule change - which I have to accept to clear the red highlighting.

I am not checking schedules at this point - it was flagged to me.

Xyzzy

I guess you must have missed the bold letters and the, "READ EVERYTHING," note as well.

Xyzzy

SkiAdcock

Yeah, I get that all the time too on my ressies w/ changes (which are usually minor, such as your 15 minutes).

Unless it says A380 in the schedule change I don't start conjecturing that the reason for a slight flight schedule adjustment is because the 747 is now a 380

xyzzy, I noticed the READ EVERYTHING & did go back & read it. Of course I was so excited to put flight info in, I did forget to check the box & had t go back. Thanks for the alert & not saying hey stoo-pid, ya forgot something & deleting the ressie

Cheers.

Xyzzy

Hey --I missed it too many, many times while debugging the site.

Xyzzy

USirritated

My guess is it is simply the gradual increase in flight times for all flights in major markets due to both US and G20 airport congestion, and NOT due to the relative speeds of the two different aircraft. For the record, the cruising speed of the 747-400 is 570 MPH, and the cruising speed of the A380 is 587MPH, although Airbus characterizes the cruising speed slightly differently from Boeing. The likelihood of LH running an A380 for our JFK to FRA flight is incredibly low, since LH has taken delivery of only ONE A380 as of June 2010.

cova

I have flown the QF A380 to MEL. Flight times increase about 20 minutes when an A380 flies versus a 744.

LH takes delivery (I believe) of 3 more A380 by years end. Need to analyze the receipt dates and the start up dates of the 3 LH A380 routes.