CGNC

Ok friends, time to lighten the mood in here a bit

About every two years, I arrange for a group of five a complete surprise trip. The travelers, good friends of mine, fill out a survey with a whole host of questions that help me whittle away at a potential destination, and with any luck, I find a destination where I can book us all on SkyMiles. Those traveling receive a packing list five days out with loose weather forecasts and anything abnormal that may be necessary. Previous destinations have included the likes of southern Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Costa Rica.

So where do I need your help?

In two days, we depart on the 2022 edition! We have a layover in ATL before boarding to our final destination. On trips past, I've handed an envelope with boarding passes to a random passenger on the people mover to announce the destination and back when we had inflight magazines I created a scavenger hunt in the magazine itself to reveal our next flight.

We have 1h56m in Atlanta on Thursday. I've thought about seeing if I could get one of the tech stores to perhaps play a song that announces the destination, but that might be futile. So here's the question--how would you reveal a surprise destination somewhere in the ATL airport?

I'm all ears!

Dallascaper

Go to the One Flew South restaurant, in Terminal E, I believe. I am sure they will play along. If not, they still have great cocktails.

Last week, I surprised my wife with a mystery trip from Atlanta. I told her to dress for chilly weather, bring her bling and her passport. On the way to the Atlanta airport, we made a little video about the mystery destination, but I still didn't reveal where we were going. As my wife waited curbside, I whispered our destination to the Uber driver, and he gave me a fist-bump. Then my wife and I walked into check in, and as we walked up to the ticketing agent, the agent asked us where we were going, and I said, "Paris." My wife let out a shriek, which startled the agent, and I won the husband of the year award for 2022.

High Technology

Me, I like the idea of making them work for it. Drop clues via text to them along flight to ATL -- one while boading the outbound flight to ATL. Another mid-flight, and a third at landing in ATL. Just random examples: the first clue, based on the packing advice is it's in a ___ climate. The second might be it's east (or west) of ____ (perhaps your home city) or north/south of the Tropic of Cancer or the year it was first settled. The third might be some OBSCURE fact, or country/island only has a resident population of X, it's home to __ miles of beaches. Tell them to save your guesses until we get to ATL (no guesses on the plane) -- since none of these have really narrowed it down.

Now once in ATL stop at the seats near your arrival gate, and give them a fourth clue -- be more specific but be creative so you don't give it away. Give each person one guess after reiterating the 4 clues.

If nobody gets it, start walking to your departure concourse / gate. If it's in another concourse, give another hint at the after you get off the AirTrain at the new concourse (before going up the escalator) Again, one guess max per person.

If nobody still has guessed right, give the final clue in the departure concourse (after the escalator ride up). At this point, make it an easy one so many will guess correctly (so everyone gets a trophy, err trip to ___!).

One of my first trips after I hopefully retire in a few more years will be something like this with my wife not knowing where we are going.

navi_jen

When you need an even number, I'm just a state away. Just sayin'

I think you order a drink of the destination. And have them guess.

navi_jen

With this type of game, one wonders why this is your first post at FT. Welcome!

zrs70

Years ago, I arranged a puzzle of our destination. My husband had to put it together to reveal the vacation!

paterwdb

I arranged a surprise trip for work colleagues. We were headed to Mexico City - and I had gotten passports from all of the spouses, so they didn't even know we were leaving the country. A few spoke Spanish, but not fluently.

I had all the connecting boarding passes, so once we checked in at the Sky Club, I let the agent know it was a surprise trip. I grabbed the bartender's attention and he started making up some margaritas, and I spoke with the manager of the Sky Club, she pulled in a Spanish speaking club employee, who walked up to our group, as the bartender brought out the margaritas. She spoke (intentionally) to us, fast and in Spanish and started telling everyone what a wonderful trip we would have.

One of the group started trying to interrupt her and tell her she had the wrong people and that we didn't speak spanish, as the bartender is shoving margaritas in their faces. But the thing that put it over the top was when the Sky Club woman starting handing each person their passports and boarding passes. One of the group said "how did you get my passport ma'am??" It was a great way to reveal it, and a total surprise for them all.

miles4CDG

Welcome to FlyerTalk! Fab first post! 👍🏻

Mr. Tickets

I am trying to figure out in this day and age, how you can possibly keep this a secret. People can just check their frequent flyer accounts.

Bluehen1

I did this with one of my best friends a few years back. Told her the type of clothing she needed to wear and to take her passport. I also told her I’d tell her when we got to BOS. She kept asking me on the drive there, when we parked, and on the parking shuttle. Each time I told her we were not at the airport yet. When we got there and we walked up to the checkin counter, she assumed Germany because I had booked on Lufthansa and I told her that I hadn’t said the final destination yet. When the agent asked, she found out it was Paris via Frankfurt. Got pretty much the same response you did.

Fly2Connect

Just don't attach a FFN. Super easy if no one has status as you can credit the flights after the fact. Slightly more difficult with status though as you'd probably want it attached at checkin. Regardless you could easily keep it a secret until arriving at the counter.

CGNC

No FF number appended and carry-on luggage only requirement by the trip organizer

paterwdb

I've got another surprise trip coming up in January with my cousin and his wife. He knows the destination (needed military OCONUS approval in advance) but she doesn't. But he can be kind of careless and slip up, so he's been intentionally mentioning random cities in conversation occasionally over the last few months. I'm fairly certain at one point, he said where we were going too confidently and she might have picked up on it. So just to add some confusion, I booked her a flight with her SM attached to an alternate city, which I will just cancel a week or so before the trip. She won't intentionally look in the app (she's up for the surprise) but I'm fairly certain she will either get an email or push notification about the trip at some point. I'll put their SM numbers into the itinerary once we get to the Sky Club for the final leg.

Though I realized that since we're using VIP services at ATL, there's possibly a chance we could actually get her on the plane and she wouldn't know the destination until they announce it overhead - since with VIP the agent usually handles scanning the boarding passes!

Mr. Tickets

I understand that, but OP said he used miles and I am only assuming he used miles from the travelers account, but maybe not.

altabello

Send them pictures as clues. Could be partial images. Typical foods, the skyline, piece of beach, historic events, night time aerial image, locals doing traditional things, etc. Everyone gets one guess after each image. This is how a committee I serve on reveals our next meeting place (always in the US).