mnmag

I think a great b'day tribute to Jenny would be a donation to the designated charity for this DO - The Connection at St. Martin's!

She's set up a justgiving page here & you can even put the donation on a credit card! Only 260 pounds has been raised out of the £2,000.00 goal -- so please be generous!

Let's show how charitable FTers can be & not just focus on the raffle prizes that Jenny worked so hard to obtain for this DO!

price123

This is really sweet of you. We still need to put the cash donations we received on Saturday night onto the Just Giving page (we need to check out about Gift Aid first). At the moment it comes to around the £750 mark if we include those.

mnmag

I know that a number of the attendees come from cultures that are not accustomed to making cash donations to charities (or will only do so when they have a tax deduction/credit. In the US, we can't claim a donation for a foreign charity unless they have the applicable tax status in the US).

Let's hope that others feel moved to open their hearts & pocketbooks to those less fortunate!^ Thanks, Jenny for everything you & Andy have done for this DO, and for arranging the visit to St. Martin's!

DHalltheway

Touche.

I have donated again to help inch closer to the charity target if it helps.

Likewise, I would implore others to do the same.

The best way to make this DO a success is to help the organizer exceed this target.

price123

Thanks for your donation. It is really kind of you.

HaryoS

So Jenny, how much money (cash) do we collect in total for the donation on 27 October 2012?

GBP 320 is pretty low amount (online), considering how generous the sponsors are giving away on the DO. Keep us, up to date Jenny

price123

Cash was £515.

Goody bags were worth around £80 each, depending on the Espa product received. Dinner about the same. But then many people had to pay a lot to travel to London.

travelkid

FTers are savvy people. Even in this somewhat upscale FT group I heard many never paid this much for a hotel night.

It was one of my most expensive weekends ever I mean considering I grabbed the 1st prize. But paying 1100$ for airport transfer, + all courses except BF at the sole upscale restaurant. Not to forget travelling to MLE itself. And for 3 nights, no way. So add some more $$$-nights. Great marketing do you ask me

Anyway managed to chip in a 5 night PE before they closed down^

Of course one could also consider a charity auction for some or all prizes? Then you would also avoid the fact that many cant use their prizes. Hard to use a 2 night in WAW expiring in 2 months living on the other side of the world etc. Im of course very grateful for the organisation and the prize(s) but just presenting a few cents

DHalltheway

I think you raise some good points about the charity auction. But, it is debatable unless the hotels are donating it towards the charity rather than the DO.

I think 1,100 is cheaper price considering that someone is going to stuff your scuba gear with some 'elixir of life' as someone in the DO called it.

price123

I wondered about an auction, but then
A) some prizes may not have got bid on
B) we would have had to give all information about the prizes (which we didn't have for all of them) ie dates, blackout dates...
C) I didn't want the better offeople getting all the prizes
D) I wanted everyone to get one.

We did try to extend expiry when we could and it is probably worth asking hotels directly. Of course some prizes were more useful for some than others, just as no one from US will want to come to Warsaw for 2 nights, there's no way wew could travel to new York or Hawaii for just 1 night.

TK, I wouldn't worry too much about Maldives food cost - I think we spent about $400 over 5 days, maybe less. I'm sure your 8 night stay will be wonderful though. Just a pity bmi weren't bust - via SIN was a great redemption!

travelkid

You would have gotten charity bids on all items- I promise
Once I raised all items in a 30 item charity auction by 100%, but that was very early stage, and ended up with a third And with info disclose on website and even in welcome papers, you wouldnt have wasted time during dinner.

But I fully repsect C and D. Thats great thinking^

Actually the MLE price had a (1st) April expiry, with 2 longer blackout dates. But as it was 1 year of expiry from issue in April, the lovely manager (Kirsty) present at dinner extended it to one year from raffle- as most prices did.

I loved the BD trick flying via SIN to MLE. I did it first time with 4 nights topover in SIN outbound and same in BKK inbound. This routing was cheaper than flying to BKK/SIN only.

Mind you that TK is starting flights IST-MLE now so *A awards will be easier.

nighthawkrs

Easy is definitely the wrong word, as long as your route doesn't make sense via SIN or you "cheat" by booking an routing via SIN thats not, let's say, correctly charged or booked by a program that goes by final destination and not routing. At least when you're talking of C awards, and I guess beside some rare occasionns nobody of us wants an Y award
OS is impossible anytime during season late December -April (even as SEN or HON).
DE only has very limited award space and their Comfort Class is more a premium eco.
TK has some limited seats at release date, but they are normally gone when released, limited to a max. of 2, and no additional chances to get awards with Elite or above.

DHalltheway

Since I am based in South East Asia, I would gladly take it off your hands in exchange for my prize!

travelkid

I bet Nights booked already. No complaining

Did you win a spa cert or someting?

DHalltheway

Nope, New York Hotel.