And it will be Franny's and my pleasure to see you and many others whom we met in DUS and at some other affairs since we've been coming to these meets.
I guess it's early to talk about hotels except that I remember that Mike always stays at the Intercontinental and we had reserved the Conrad before business stuff knocked us out of last year's Do.
^ I can already taste the pepper crabs. ^

Please put me on your probable list......Don't know about the MLK and crab fest but it has to be better than that moon cake (yuukk) festival in September....plus I would love being at another FT Do with Monitor and Franny!

I am pleased by the response to the upcoming version of this event and will try to get the website created as soon as possible. All posts to this thread are acknowledged and will be reflected on that website.

Talk to you guys soon,

Mike

Don't worry Dede -- there's more than just pepper crab & chili crab to be eaten in SIN!!! The food options are abundant. :)

Lets not forget - the massages :)

I promise to be in a better mood this yr - and hopefully there will be no misconnect in HKG

:eek:

Count me in this time then..... :p

I'm also heavily considering a side trip to tie in with the SIN Do.. just to add some excitement. If anyone's interested, let me know and maybe we can throw something together.. (ie, BKK, CNX, KUL, DPS.. or maybe even MNL).

Last year I did a 4 day side trip to Jakarta - it basically sucked. Had I done some research before hand, I would have realized that Jan is in the middle of the rainy season :o The one bright spot was that the Shangri-La was a fantastic place to stay. The shopping was really cheap too :)

I'm definitely up for another side trip this time around. I've been thinking about Vietnam but that may warrant more than a few days. I bet DPS would be a great long weekend.

I thought about SGN/HAN but there's a visa involved.. and that's annoying.

I did a side trip to Borneo from Singapore two years ago. It's an easy flight into Kuching. There's an excellent Hilton there. You can go see long houses and orangutans.

I'm a 'definite maybe' - depends on schedule & finances. Too soon to know either way. Hmm, bit concerned about no upgrade space available on UA. I'm Marriott/Hilton gal, so if I make it will stay at one of those. Cheers. Sharon

I am looking pretty definite too......short trip arrive pm1/ 12 leave pm 1/16 as busy season for this professional still trying to exit her business.....oh, not what you might think.....
Hoping to stay at RC Millenia which I absolutely ADORE but still shopping for best hotel rates for my profession .....keep some of you all guessing....haha ;)
I love SIN and relish visiting again after 3 years....think I might want to share that cuppa java with the chimp at the zoo this time...weelll, not so sure.....

Going to try to convince my sweetie to show up with me
this time. But at the very least, I'll be there.

Michael

Vietnam visa is a piece of cake. Unlike China which stopped mail-in service, Vietnam still does it. For my last trip, mailed in my app on a Monday to the SFO consulate, had my passport with visa in it back Thursday the same week.

And I forgot to add...Mike...mark me as a yes for 2006...

Must have sweetie to use up those SWU;s :)

I'm definately interested and flexible! I too was looking to do a side trip probably to Bali, Bangkok and Saigon. So keep me posted..

What little effort is required to get a visa is more than worth it to visit Vietnam.

Sorry - Lonely Planet says this:

Visas: Bureaucratic hassles will be your first problem in getting a visa - expect delays of five days or more. Bangkok is the best place to get one. It's usually best to get your visas through a travel agency. Expense is the other problem; tourist visas valid for a single 30-day stay cost about 40.00 in Bangkok.

Glad to hear that people have better experiences.. but for a 2-3 night sidetrip, I don't know if that would do SGN/HAN justice.. but who knows? We'll see about the logistics of the sidetrippers. :D

izzik, get your Vietnam visa while in the States. It's easy, just takes a bit of money and time while the passport is out of your hands. I suspect Lonely Planet is telling backpackers with uncertain schedules how to get a visa while on the road; you've got no need to do it that way.

I like your idea of Borneo -- eastern Malaysia sounds exciting and very different than urban Singapore. There's still a ways until Jan 2006.. so I'm hoping to tally a list of ppl who are interested in sidetripping.. then narrow down the choices based on mutual interests, etc.

Put me as a maybe for side trip, but only have the Saturday available.

Best way to get visas from USA
 

I suggest you get your visa(s) through Zierer Visa service. It is well worth the extra you pay and they will do it almost overnight (for huge fee) if you need it quickly.
www.zvs.com

J: The additional factor has made travel planning interesting.
If she doesn't use the certs, we'll talk.

Count us interested.

Is someone posting good fares? When does UA start letting us use our 2006 upgrades?

I am in.....arriving on 12 January pm, staying at Ritz Carlton Millennia....returning home late late pm on the 16th.....

Anyone else at the RC?

Yes, I will be staying there. What room category and rate did you book ?

I will pm you...

If last year can be used as a planning "tool".....then you should get 4 of them deposited as early as October-ish, which would then be "usable"...

Best wishes, Dave

Is it wrong to take the longest flight in the world, perhaps circumnavigating the globe (if the winds a right) for just two days?

Having just returned from a two-day stopover in Singapore, which I found as thoroughly charming as I did on my first visit six months ago, longing for more flights on SQ (even though I'm not a KrisFlyer but a DL SkyMiles member), and wanting to get to know more FT SQ hands (met some very nice folks at Bali Do but didn't have enough time to get to know 'em), that's exactly what I'm considering. Only have to take one day off work, the Friday. Connect from ATL to EWR on Thursday evening, then take SQ 21, which would put me in SIN on Saturday morning. Have that full day, all day Sunday, and a liesurely Monday morning before SQ 22 takes me back to the States on MLK Day. Assuming he's still living there (hopefully he'll be Stateside), Mr. Megatop will fly down from BKK. For accommodations, toss-up between FS and RC-- liked them both, would opt for the better rate--though we might try the Fullerton.

So put me and Mr. Megatop on the list as definite maybes. If anyone spots good fares on SQ 21/22 with no minimum stay, give me a shout!

Yes, Yes, and Yes

I can't wait... I love SIN-Dooooo!

pool team, pool team!

^ We're only one shy of an Original Pool Team reunion!!! ^

Having never SINned before Jerrie and I are in.

Paging SPGs to the SINDo2006 Courtesy Phone...
 

While there isn’t a “hotel central” for SIN Do, each of the majors does a pretty good draw of FTers for the weekend. Several FTers stayed at the Sheraton SIN (currently SPG’s only option in Singapore) during SIN Do 2005. A few of us were talking recently that if we have a similar number (or more) for 2006, there’s a pretty good chance we could work out group rates for those wanting to stay at the Sheraton (particularly since we’ve seen considerably better rates for this property than are currently available for the weekend of SIN Do 2006). I’m more than happy to do the legwork and see what we can work out with the Sheraton for rates the weekend of SIN Do 2006.

If you’re considering staying at the Sheraton, please send me a PM with the following: which nights you’d likely be at the Sheraton (Fri/Sat/Sun/others), which (if any) would be award vs paid nights, and your SPG status. At this point I only want to hear from those who are very likely to stay at the Sheraton whether we have group rates or not. If we can work out a rate, it will be extended to any SIN Doer who is interested, but for now I’m trying to figure a realistic starting minimum number of rooms for the weekend. Any other questions, feel free to drop me a PM.

Cheryl - great idea, but how do you want to handle folks like me that will only pay for the room if the price is right, otherwise I'd go with an award?

Let me know both ways -- if the rate is "right" how many paid vs award nights would you have, vs at the current rate how you'd be willing to book it. Also, let me know what rate/night would make a difference for you in paid vs award nights.

Thanks Cheryl - you have a PM from us.

any AA flyers finding availability?
 

Now that my move to the dark side is complete (UA to AA), I'm finding Cathay award availability from anywhere on the west coast to SIN is a challenge (YVR,SFO,LAX). I can't find one business class seat, though AA would be happy to route me in F via London on a OneWorld award for 180,000 miles as a backup (24 hours in the air, about 28 with ground time at JFK and LHR). As much as I'd like to see mjm again, that's a little too pricey for me (and too long). I even tried award travel from NRT to SIN, figuring I could buy a ticket to get to NRT, but Cathay has nothing there, either, to get me to SIN.

I'll check with AA in the weeks ahead. Maybe something will open up that works for me. Anyone with suggestions PM me. Magic111 has been quite helpful this week with ideas.

Have you tried revenue all the way? AA has a codeshare flight with JL from NRT. I've done US-NRT (upgraded with a VIP) and then NRT-SIN on the JL codeshare... its in Y unless you ticket otherwise, but its surprisingly tolerable for the comparably short flight. Cathay is going to be more difficult to come by because you are having to in essence find two seats each way (NRT-HKG and HKG-NRT). Have you looked at awards on JL?

Oh and Cheryl, if I do come, I'll be at the Sheraton.

I had checked that (though a Cathay routing)..over $1,000 with taxes.

I just called AA again, and had them recheck for award travel NRT-SIN-NRT (I thought I had asked for that last night and they told me nothing was available). Surprisingly, I am now ticketed on award travel in business on JAL, into SIN on the 13th, and back to NRT on the 16th. I'll just buy a separate SJC/SFO-NRT ticket, and spend a few days in Tokyo on this trip on either side.