Thanks to you too Seth. I have a great photo of us in the foyer of FRA Sheraton at SMD1 with Hawaiian garlands. No doubt see you in NYC some time.

OK, back to the present.
Welcome Pizzaman! Whatever Tommy has told you about the SMD groups..? It's all true!

My next StarMegaDo will be my first one. Are there any tips/tricks to really maximize the experience? I feel like I'll be the wallflower and everyone is going to look at me funny, like who invited this guy.......:o

I went to the first StarMegaDo. You have all kinds of people attending. But almost everyone there has some facination to aviation. So long as you love planes, you will blend in well. I am hoping to attend SMD 3 as well. Looking forward to meeting you

Bring a spare liver. :D

Think of it as a Star Trek convention without the costumes. ;)

You'll be able to share your passion with other people who won't think you're crazy!

Re alt 1 and alt 2. Would love to see a European component to either. As was pointed out there are a lot of European carriers that will hopefully co-operate that have not been involved in the past. Ok so LH owns most of them.
Flying to GRU in Y on a charter for 12+ hours does not sound like a heap of fun, and TAM does not map into fare buckets that will deliver full FF points into most other *A programs.

As not everybody can attend all days it should be possible to booked only parts of it and not like last year - basically all or nothing.

That would be a logistical nightmare, even more than the logistical nightmare that pulling a SMD already is. I can't fault them for the all or nothing. It was that way for both SMD1/2.

I also second bring a spare liver. :D :D

Cheers.

It wasn't all or nothing last year and we will make it even simpler this year:

The main event is the charter and the event itself is only 2 days, that's what we will market. Everything else is optional and will be secondary.

I think SMD2 had more pink-clad superheroes than Comic-Con!

We seem to definitely be an odd bunch.

pardon the interruption but nothing has been release for SMD3 correct? Just the kickoff party so far?

Yes, that's what the kickoff party is for :D

What we forget from time to time is our organizers aren't travel agents. They are just folks like us with regular jobs. :) Given the amount of postings that went back and forth last year even the "all or nothing" approach generates lots of special requests and extra work for the organizers. Entertaining partial bookings could very well be a logistical nightmare.

Is the rumor true that people who attended SMDI and SMDII are racking up points for future preferred seating? ....a platinum entry carpet? :D