Punki

Every time I see this thread pop up, I feel like crying.

I can't believe that we have free first class tickets and can't go.

We still haven't cancelled the tickets, just in case the nephew and girlfriend suddenly break up.

Hunki and I will be missing you guys more than we can say.

ozstamps

Punki -- two x 747 sleeper First suites are a rarity .. hold them. There is NO cancel penalty after all! Has your niece ever met David Beckham by any chance? Just a passing thought.


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Nice one. ^^

Hmmm. A "Dry Meeting" of Flyertalkers. Joh and I were talking about this today, and it really seemed to make more logistical sense to look at a possible Qantas Club visit AFTER the tarmac tour.

And coff ..... what time of day does that take us to ....

thadocta

ozstamps, well yes, I *did* think of that. Perhaps we could use your Amex to purchase eight or nine fully refundable one-way tickets to BNE or somewhere so that we can get in, have our pissup and then you could get the refund!

I don't want to ask them to overly break the access rules, I thought I did quite well getting us in there on the Saturday morning without anybody actually flying.

Perhaps we could schedule it for the Friday afternoon, when we would then legitimately be able to book a meeting room (and under the old rules too, they don't change until 1/6/04).

But that would clash with the tour of the Blue Mountains....

Dave

QF WP

I agree that it might be easier (as well as having more participants) if it is held after the FT Tatmac Tour...after all, we'll all be on a natural "high" after the tour (and the night before), so what better way to kick off the day than another drink...

Dave, Glen and Joh, do you need me to organise with SYD QP? I know Dave gets on well with some of the QP staff there (well, bar staff anyway, they know him on a first name basis ).

I'll be on again later tonight but then offline over the long weekend. Got a wedding to attend on the Gold Coast Saturday PM (overnight at Marriott surfers Paradise) and staying/drinking with friends on Sunday PM (to organise a skiing trip in Sept for our wedding anniversaries - cheaper than an eternity ring ). Worse luck, we're partially moving office on Monday (great cure for a hangover, no rest for the wicked )

Joh

GREAT TO SEE EVERYONE POSTING, keep bumping this thread...

I know that some of you are working behind the scenes to make this an even better event than it already promises to be - THANK YOU!!! More will be revealed later...

Hunki & Punki I'm still the only 'sailor' around...
If it happens, the sail will start around 11am, probably from the Fish Markets. Close to the CBD this gives us easy access to p/u everyone. From there we'll cruise/sail into Darling Harbour. Subsequently it's under the Harbour Bridge, followed by a C/U sail past the Opera House and the Botanical Gardens. From there the Harbour is our "Oyster", seeing the homes of the rich, famous and infamous; magnificent and unsurpassed scenery from a different angle combined with the tense tranquility of full sails. It's likely we'll anchor off somewhere around the sheltered waters of Rose Bay or Chinaman's Beach for lunch. I recommend to have lunch on board but the option of visiting the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (home of the Sydney to Hobart Race) to get a taste of Ozzie 'Salty Dogs' is there as well... Now doesn't that wet your appetite?

HERE'S THE UPDATE I PROMISED, please check if I've got you listed correctly:

========================================
EVENTS:
BM = Blue Mountains: 21/5, 0800-1700+-
SHS = Sydney Harbour Sail 21/5, 1100-1600+-
DC = Dinner Cruise 21/5, 1930-2200+-
TT = Tarmac Tour 22/5, 1000-1200+-
Lu = Lunch Brighton-le-Sands 22/5, 1230-1500+-
Di = Dinner CBD/Central 22/5, 1930-2200+-
Br = Harbour Bridge Climb 22/5, midday or twilight
Jt = Harbour Jet Tour 22/5, various times pm
Cr = Harbour Highlights Cruise 22/5, various times pm
HVT = Hunter Valley Wine Tour 23/5, 0900-1800+-

DEFINITE:
Shareholder DC TT Lu Di VT
Joh BM SHS DC TT Lu Di HVT
Ozstamps BM DC TT Lu Di HVT
MrStarAlliance BM TT Lu Di Br23 Cr22
Cathaana TT Lu HVT
Mwenenzi TT Lu HVT Br22/23
Chrisreid DC Di HVT Br22
OzTraveller TT Lu
OnePassLover BM
KiwiFlyer TT Lu Di
franjelley TT Lu
thadocta TT Lu
kpc TT Lu
yyzprincess DC Di
David Noble DC TT Di HVT
KathyWdrf (99%) BM DC TT Lu Di HVT
Corbetti TT Lu HVT
Any-Travel-Is-Good + 1? Di HVT? Jt Cr
QF WP + 1? DC TT Lu Di?

DEFINITE MAYBES:
dOOt + 1, knows around 25/26 April
prspad
Spiff
Kurwah, knows 26 April
Ferrari DC Di, knows around 10/5

MAYBE:
SkiAdcock
RichardMel, knows around 22/4
Tinkybelle
Denoit
og

=========================================

DEFINITE NO's (now deleted from my list):
tazi


HAVEN'T HEARD BACK AS YET FROM (If anyone 'talks' to the people below, please ask them to respond to my email OR POST ON THE THREAD):
connex2me
kawoh
tmeyer

==========================================

Joh

QF WP & thadocta: thanks for your enthousiasm and willingness to participate in the organisation - it's always a team effort that makes "things" happen...

IMO, whoever has most 'clout' in whatever area and/or can access the people who can OK our request with the minimal fuss, should take charge of specific or individual tasks...

I have plenty of Member's Guest Passes left over from my 'frolic' days with Qantas when I had Gold status. Two other FT'ers have offered to 'escort' guests into the Club - These offers are there if need be. I sense/hope that once the Qantas PR Dept sees the credentials of our 'convention members' they'll roll out the 'red carpet'...

A visit of the Qantas Club after the Tarmac Tour sounds more appealing to me. BTW what time does the bar open nowadays in domestic?

og

Joh: Apologies for the tardy response. I am still a "maybe" to "definite maybe" for the TT. IF it becomes a problem for the numbers, drop me off - no worries for me. I actually participated in a similar tour during the week and I know SYD quite well (living fairly close). I'd like to meet the group though.

thadocta

Joh, if QF WP can get us all into the QP for a "meeting" after the Tarmac Tour, then that would be great. As a humble SG I do not think that I would be able to get us all in for drinkies, since there will not be anybody travelling. Since meeting rooms are not normally available on weekends, he will need to use his WP influence to try and get hold of one on a Saturday.

This is why I said that there would be asolutely zero problems if we could do the QP thing on the Friday afternoon, apart from the problem that it clashes with the Blue Mountains tour - meeting rooms close at 1700, and you would just be getting back into town around that time.

The bar opens at 1300, btw.

Dave

RichardMEL

Sorry... misspost

RichardMEL

Sad to say that it looks like I am a no go for the Syd event.

The finance dept is screaming at me (guess who spent too much $$ on a mini MR to CNS and DRW?). I'd love to pop up if even for the TT and the QP "inspection" (;-) ) but I actually already have a cheap MEL-CBR red-e booked for 22nd 1240 dep MEL (I wasn't thinking when I went on a booking spree during one of those sales in recent months ). I could maybe trade that in for a MEL-SYD-MEL but that may cost me more than it's worth (any suggestions on best way to do that one - ie: most economic) would be useful

To actually contribute something a little useful to this thread, because so much great work is going into this from a lot of people, rough statuis equivalences that I am aware of:

LH SEN (*G) -> OWE Emerald
LH FTL (*S) -> OWE Ruby
UA 1K (*G) -> OWE Emerald
UA 1P (*G) -> OWE Sapphire
UA 2P (*S) -> OWE Ruby
US CHML -> OWE Emerald
US Gold -> OWE Sapphire
US Silver -> OWE Ruby
SQ PPS (*G) -> OWE Sapphire/Emerald* (I suspect most PPS would be Emerald eqiv, but SQ has PPS Solitaire which is the highest level)
SQ Silver (*S) -> OWE Ruby
TG Gold (*G) -> OWE Sapphire (you only need ~50k miles for ROP Gold, so it's mid tier equivalent)
TG Silver (*S) -> OWE Ruby
AC SuperElite (*G) -> OWE Emerald
AC Elite (*G) -> OWE Sapphire
AC Prestiege (*S) -> OWE Ruby
NZ Gold Elite (*G) -> OWE Emerald
NZ Gold (*G) -> OWE Sapphire
NZ Silver (*S) -> OWE Ruby

Hope this helps!

thadocta

I am still waiting to see those "credentials" - I have only received four responses so far, and I know two of them personally ( so did not actually need to receive their responses).

Just to RE-ITERATE - Qantas want me to forward to them a listing of EVERYONE who will be inspecting the lounge. They want your name, and also your level in whatever FF program you are a memebr of.

As I said before, I do not think that this is unreasonable. None of us will be entitled to access at the time we will be in there, they are doing us a favour by allowing us access.

And as I said before, this was sold to them on the basis that we were all top-tiers with various alliances - in order to make it a possible selling point for oneworld.

I think if QF WP can organise more access than I can, then that would be good. Otherwise, if a "session" is in order, then Friday afternoon would be the go.

Dave

Kiwi Flyer

Dave - I cant remember if I sent already, so YHM

QF WP

thadocta and Joh, more than happy to help. I agree that withthe numbers and the fact that most (if not all) are non-flyers on the day, then booking a meeting room will be the simplest procedure.

Now, access to the QP is "open" to QF Platinums (we don't need to be travelling on day of access); whereas for all other levels (Gold, Silver, Bronze and/or QC Members) plus non-QFF members, we need Guest Passes (unless they are QFF members and have travelled or are travelling later that day). The definites to the QP "session", (Dave Noble and I) are both Platinum, so we can get 1 person in free (i.e. without having to use Guest Passes). However, better to have more Guest Passes than necessary, so Joh as many as you have, stick in your pocket that morning (any anybody lse who wants to help with QP Passes).

Now it's just who "has" to organise it. If thadocta can "arrange" the booking with his contact (using my name + number), great - unfortunately the next time that I'll be in the SYD QP (1 May) is a weekend and the Business Centre is closed. His contact can always ring or email me to discuss (Dave has my details).

tmeyer

Sorry for being absent from FT for quite a while, but i was very busy over the last weeks and could not find my FT password after the new version came up..

I canīt participate on May 21st, as I have to do some business in SYD (the official reason of my trip). However I would be glad to join TT Lu and Di on 22.05.

Greetings

Thomas

cranford

umm...i think i am sposed to say, UA 1K, Hilton gold...ok? sorry, been offline a bit, usb wireless card is playing havoc with other things..oh and i forgot to say, my name is fran jelley..in the phone book, totally respectable old lady