The value is questionable. They could charge $1 and view that as a inaugural sale. Airlines many times have cheap promotional fares - like $10 fares, etc. The later value that the ticket may sell for is not applicable. Class of service does not matter if the airline sells the ticket for $1.

Plus this could be viewed as a gift, under $12K. I believe this is a selection to give the ticket, not a lottery prize.

I do not specialize in tax law but I find the characterization of an airline ticket given by a business to an individual not previously known as a tax free "gift" to be somewhat dubious.

In any case, here's a better question, and, I am sure everyone would love to know this: how are the winners picked? Is this a lottery where every FT member has the same chance at winning?

They will print our emails, stack them up and randomly picked the 20 winners.

Phew .. good thing I used a pink background on mine!

Not likely. Every FT member probably won't send an e-mail, significantly reducing their odds of winning. ;)

I ran into Randy tonight at the *wood aloft party in Hawthorne NY and asked him this question.

Randy says... this is a tax free trip. @:-)
He went on to discuss that this was a freebee that he was passing along to 20 of his closest friends. He went on to say, that if anyone somehow got 'stuck' for the taxes, he'd shell out the dough. ^

dh

Randy, you da man times two!^ ^ ^

Wow! ^

Entered!

I'd like to see figures as to how many people enter....
I would tend to think it is a little bit of a low-entry contest....as of now, the announcement only has 4k reads, and I'm sure a lot of people can't go for various reasons:
1. not in NYC or unable to get there
2. 1.5-2 days off work (with less than a week notice)
3. other events previously planned
etc...

Pretty cool of OpenSkies to make the offer as well!!!^^^

I am all about this. Pre-party in the RCC then the LH lounge then the KL lounge then back to the BA lounge. Oh yeah - please pick me Randy!

Randy knows and has met on several occassions many of the people on this board. We are not a group of "not previously know individuals".

Yesterday afternoon, I snagged an elusive two-night award at the Hilton Paris (can't bring myself to type those two words in the other order). That was after reserving a two-night award at Hilton Orly earlier in the day when no awards were available at Hilton Paris. (That Orly res is another story. Will post that story in the HHonors Forum later.)

Now to wait and see if my luck holds out today and I get picked to be one of "the FT 20"! ("The FT 20" ... sounds like a group getting ready to be brought up on charges.)

THANKS, RANDY!!!!

Well if you've ever seen one of the anti-MR posts that sometimes go up in MR deals....they usually make it (MRs/excessive flying) sound pretty criminal.

On another note...do they know to pack lots of extra wine and booze on these flights?

Hmmm.... I'm wondering if the collective "just in case" Hilton award reservations will be cancelled by those not selected as FT20s to make room for those who are, or if the weekend will become an impromptu FT Do for a larger group!

Fingers crossed !!

Would be doing a trip to NYC to pick-up the Openskies flight back if picked :eek::eek::D !

John P