Southwest/Midway
 

We flew into ORD on Aer Lingus on Friday but took a Southwest flight out on Monday morning. We had a local relative pick us up on Sunday and we stayed Sunday night at the Midway Holiday Inn (not the express). The hotel was great (for the 12 hours we spent there) and it was probably my fastest check-in experience ever.

Our Southwest flight was a morning non-stop to California and it was on one of the new 737-800s that Southwest bought in anticipation of the Hawaii routes. Coincidentally, we were on one of the new planes a few weeks ago to Boston and got the exit row both times. The capacity is much larger than their "normal" 737s and has 2 exit row windows on each side. It seems as if no one wants to walk all the way to the middle of the plane, where the exit rows are.

I would have never dreamed of flying Southwest prior to getting the companion pass (Thanks Daraius/Million Mile Secrets), but now it seems as though we have a Southwest flight once a month. It is definitely a great option for the status-less (as we all know that anything less than top tier status is not a great deal anymore thanks to Beaubo - sorry Ben). The plane was immaculate and on time, staff was cheerful and don't seem to hate their job, snacks were passed out liberally and wi-fi was great at $5 for the day.

We're planning to attend next year, but will probably fly Southwest to/from Midway (albeit a bit of a hassle). Perhaps we can get a Midway ride sharing thing going next year.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first event and enjoyed meeting everyone (thanks HMPS for saving me a seat for The Frequent Miler's session). What an amazing and professionally done conference ! Kudos to Rick, Howie, Brian, Sharon, Cliff and all of the speakers and volunteers. It was an amazing bargain, but I would definitely be willing to pay more to help more with the speakers' expenses and have a little more overage for the charities.

P.S. Is there any way to code the raffle as "office supply store" for credit card payments ??? How about "selling" us a pencil with our raffle ticket ? My guess is that contributions would double ...

Not even a few days' break and we are off to organizing the 2013? You guys deserve to be fired for working too hard - take some time off on the doctor's orders!

I am also missing the lively discussion about fruits that took place after the 2011 seminar. :D

planning for 2013 was going on in the bar Saturday night :eek:

^ Kudos to the host hotel for providing me with a private room for my medical needs!

I stayed at the host hotel the previous 2 yrs but due to my late planning, the host hotel was sold out this year so I made refundable hotel/car reservations due to my medical situation.

Top notch conference!! Looking forward to attending next year!!

As always, a great conference!! Got alot out of all the talks and I look forward to attending next year.

Kudos to all for listening to me talking with my speech impairment. I trust I didn't disturb others with my coughing, etc but I do not have any choice as I can't swallow or eat/drink by mouth. I enjoyed discussing points/miles, etc. I had to write down on paper but I trust the information was helpful. I got alot out of all the talks & "side" discussions on points/miles, etc.

As always, the talks were very interesting and NEVER a dull moment. Even with a tornado warning, I enjoyed overhearing points/miles discussion. :)

I took home 3 apples (Jonathan) from one of the boxes on Sunday afternoon. My wife had one apple and she enjoyed eating it. ^ I grew up on Michigan apples as I grew up in Michigan until I graduated college in 1980.

To everybody that gave me advice on medical stuff (and encourgement in that area--a BIG thank you!!!). My procedure is set for this next Tuesday, Oct 23. I hope it will be good news!

My return flights on Monday afternoon went out on time and I was hoping for a $400 VDB voucher on the ORD-SLC flight but it didn't happen. At least I had the whole row (3 seats) on the RJ to myself. :)

Can't wait until next year and I am glad it is back at the same hotel.

A big THANK YOU to the organizers/volunteers for putting on a GREAT conference!!

I even won something in the raffle. ^

This year we should have tried to see if the hotel could do Crab RGN and LX cheese.

Oh, and funnel cakes. :eek:

Seriously, many thanks to the team for the time spent in organizing the event. It was great!

You know that everyone here is rooting for you. All the best!

Great to meet a few and take in all that was this year's event. Cheers to the success of many more!

Excellent! Sounds like I (had to) miss a great convention. Good news is that the same event we had to go to is the week before next year. ^

Yes we are! Good luck!

Cheers.

The stay points and bonuses posted for my 2 nights at the Holiday Inn, Elk Grove. I earned a total of 15,527 Priority Club points. How many points did you earn?

Qualifying Nights
2

Earning Details
2,018 pts.

1,009 pts.

ELITE MEMBER NEXT STAY BONUS
3,000 pts.

ELITE MEMBER NEXT STAY BONUS
3,000 pts.

1,000 BONUS POINTS FOR 60 DAYS
1,000 pts.

ANNIVERSARY BONUS OFFER
1,000 pts.

WELCOME BACK BONUS
1,500 pts.

NEXT STAY BONUS
1,500 pts.

NEW MEMBER BONUS PROMOTION
1,500 pts.

If we get 450 attendees posting their hotel totals, I'm definitely unsubscribing to this thread ;) :p :D

Cheers.

Luckily, everyone did not stay at the Holiday Inn Elk Grove ;)

Thank you to Rick and team! I had a great time at my first official FT event. I even reconnected with someone I attended college with! It was a great time and I hope to go next year. The weather did cause for quite the delay in my flight home - I was already scheduled for a 9 pm departure and it was almost 11 pm before we left. Needless to say, I didn't get much work done on Monday!

sorry to be redundant, but it was a great event and I am already looking forward to next year!

Thank you to everyone who made this such a great weekend - even the tornado warning made it special...