I was looking at those pictures again and what struck me is that Monitor looks so relaxed that he appears to be on vacation, not at some ultra important FT gathering.

It was a regular full-sized plane, probably an A320 or 737. Our bags just didn't meet the European rules. We know that they would have fit just fine in the overhead bins as we carried the bags on our inbound trip to VCE on the same type of plane.

In the past 5 years we have checked bags only four times. Out of those four times, we have had problems three times. Twice our bags were just lost and once we got caught in the huge strike at LHR and had to spend hours digging through huge, unsorted piles of bags to find ours. It took BA six weeks to finally get all of the bags delivered to their proper owners.

Hopefully our bags will show up on the 5:00 p.m. flight tonight.

You are so right indufan! :)

In this picture, we were sitting with monitor and Frannie on the veranda at the Gritti Palace sipping wine. It was one of the most idyllic moments I have enjoyed in a long time. Perfect weather, lovely friends and a killer setting. Lucky us. :)

I hope you get your bags as soon as possible, Punki.

Because my flight from Prague to Venice on Czech Airlines (CSA) was on an ATR-42 propellor aircraft, the gate agent handed me an orange tag to gate-check it and tied another orange tag on my bag. I knew from my experience with flying on ATR-72 aircraft in the United States that there was enough room for my bag in the overhead compartment, but I knew better than to waste my time arguing with the gate agent.

As soon as I was out of her sight, heading towards the aircraft, I detached the orange tag from my bag, crumpled it and put it in my pocket. I then boarded the aircraft and placed my bag in the overhead compartment with no problem.

Sometimes you have to simply do things your way without letting anyone know about it...

---------------------------

Interestingly, this flight had meal service and a Business Class section in the last two rows of the aircraft, since boarding is in the rear of the aircraft.

A flight attendant informed me that the only difference between the two classes of service is that Business Class passengers get an extra drink or two and have their food served on china instead of in the typical trays — otherwise, both classes have excatly the same meals, seats and service.

Thanks for sharing..... I loved the pictures, both because I got to see Venice again as well as some previously-met FT friends :)

This was an "ultra important FT gathering"?
 

Stange, but I didn't see any important people there. Only fun, adventure-loving ones. OK, and a couple of brave souls who attended their very first FT do and realized that we aren't all "ax murderers", or at least at FT do's. :D

My compliments to all of the organizers, O2K, dovster, and everyone else. This was one of the best ones that I've attended. I couldn't determine whether it was the people or the location. Whatever, both were great.

One of the best things that I noticed is that I lost 5#s on the trip. Must of been all of the great food and wine. :D

Can't wait for the next one. Now only if we didn't have to work in between the trips.

Hunki

Punki...thanks for posting the pictures! We have a bunch which we will post in one form or another.
Mrs. Cholula and I made it back to LAX on schedule today although it was a white-knuckler in CDG this morning!
Note to self....NEVER plan a trip through CDG that involves a change of planes and terminals in less than an hour...:eek:.
We had a superb time and enjoyed both seeing old friends and making many new friends. :)
Looking forward to the next DL/FT Meet. A group of us....over mucho bottles of vino/grappa/whatever...made plans for the next Meet a couple nights ago. It was tentatively named the Penguin Do-Do and is planned for early 2006.
Details to be forthcoming soon if any of us can recall what the details are.....

Hunki, don't worry -- I think I found those five pounds.

There really is no purpose in denying the presence of VIP's at the Meet. In a tight community such as FlyerTalk, word is certain to get out that the chairmen of Delta, AA, Hertz and Hilton were all there and gave each and every F/Ter in attendance lifetime top-level status in their programs.

We might have been able to keep secret the free Centurion Cards that the Amex chief gave us, but I really don't see the purpose in hiding that either.

Sometimes I become resentful of Hunki's tall, slim, elegant (stuff your face forever and remain slender), aristocratic genes, but then I remember that I sought him out specifically to contribute an offset to my short, fat, peasant genes, for the benefit of our progeny, and then I celebrate. While the progeny sometimes complain that they consider themselves genetic experiments, they are, for the most part, extremely grateful for my foresight and planning. Can you believe that Hunki is the fattest person in his family. I am the slimmest in mine. GRRRRRRR! Go figure.

So, dear Dovster, do not pretend for a minute that you can lay any claim to any of Hunki's lost pounds. Sadly, we keep them in the family and I am the only member of the family that has a sufficient genetic disposition to accumulating fat to acquire those mysteriously lost pounds by osmosis. :o I would be happy, however, to sell them to you for a good price. :rolleyes:

We are still "without luggage"! I have given up hope of meeting up with the luggage before we take off for Whistler tomorrow.

I need to sleep a bit before I can figure out how to replace all of my lost travel gear on a holiday. Darned airlines!!!!

Sorry to hear about your luggage woes - especially on a holiday weekend!

I'm happy to report that Delta did right by me - they were able to transfer my checked bag from the original JFK/TPA flights to the Song flight that we changed to after we got to New York. I wasn't expecting to see it in Tampa, but there it was!!

Punki,

Sorry about your luggage. On the way to VCE, I was on DL 144 JFK - VCE. I had a couple of drinks on the flight up to JFK, and maybe a couple in the Crown Room. My rollaboard must weigh 60 pounds if it weighs an ounce! I just couldn't get the rollaboard in the overhead, it kept slipping onto my shoulder. Some nice gentleman helped me, and remarked that it's a good thing I wasn't on Air France because they would have made me check it.

I was wondering about the European airline baggage rules. I prefer to carry on everything, so I'll keep that in mind.

Well, carrying my computer and accessories was almost a useless effort, because the dialup in the room was terrible! :mad:

I only got online in the hotel once for about 30 minutes. I tried many more times but it just wouldn't work, or I got a 14KB connection. The computer in the hotel's business center had a useless mouse, and it was a long walk to the nearest internet cafe which wouldn't let me use my own computer.

Well, enough complaining! It's Thanksgiving, I'm home safe, and have wonderful memories of the trip, and will have wonderful souvenirs as soon as they arrive. I'm looking forward to the next meet. The next one for me will be London in February, unless something comes up sooner. This meet for me was like seeing 26 old friends that I hadn't met yet, plus 7 that I had met at previous meets.

Happy holidays, everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have ATTGlobal.net dialup which worked fine for me in VCE. A local number in Mestre ---(still had to put in the 041 though--) and I was quickly online....

Downside of this of course is I pay $20 a month for it and use it possibly 5 times a year.......but for those of you much travelled road warriors who were chasing after your T Mobile hotspots without too much success I recommend it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I was rather pleased and surprised (in a good way) when Hunki told me this in person.

While the location certainly did not detract from the Venice Meet, I can attest that the people definitely contributed to its success — and I am certainly not a people person by any means, as it usually takes me quite a while to warm up to virtually anybody. Quite a number of the people who attended were also at the South Florida meet earlier this year, and that was a resounding success as well, and the people whom I have met for the first time were just as incredible.

Thank you, obscure2k and Dovster, for the idea of having this Venice meet in the first place and for all of the hard work you put in to ensuring that the Venice Meet was a resounding success, at least for me.

As a few of the FlyerTalk members who spent some time with me know, I was grateful...

I had the same situation as dedehans. I use Earthlink and they have six local numbers for VCE alone. I was getting 49.9-54 kbs connections all week. The only downside was that Earthlink charges $6.00/hour for International dial-up and the hotel charges about 4 Euros/hour connect time. I think this was the only hotel I ever stayed at where my phone charges were higher than my bar charges.
On the luggage fiascoes, we had 4 hours in CDG on the way to VCE....and, of course, our luggage never made the VCE flight.
Returning we had less than an hour in CDG and, of course, the luggage made it to LAX. Go figure.....
Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Where/when is the next meet?

ps... I love the pictures, thanks! Keep them coming. :)