Until canarsie provided some information recently on nat'ls, my take was that the proposed forum is already handled by existing regional forums and/or not enough justification for a stand-alone forum. While I can't speak for other TB members, my guess is that they felt the same hence not a lot of responses on the 2-month thread.

I don't believe in lame duck TBs. We are a current active TB until the elections are over & the new TB is installed.

I don't have a problem with motions being voted on during the election process as long as votes are done before the new team comes in; no cross-over. We have a new TB every year, & there are always current members on as well as new members. Short of the (very very short) cross-over period when new members come on/current one departs, I think our focus should be on the issues/what needs to be voted on, and not get tied up in how close or far away it is from an election.

I don't know if this will be made into a motion at all, although canarsie has provided some reasoning why it should be considered. If the motion is done so that the vote ends before the short cross-over, that's fine. If further discussion delays a motion so that it ties into the cross-over, then we'd probably wait.

Cheers.

What can I do to help members of the TalkBoard consider creating a motion pertaining to this discussion?

Will get back to you on that ;), but I am going to bring up the topic for discussion in the private forum.

Cheers.

I do believe they like to see the following questions answered:

The following are qualitative criteria that the TalkBoard believes are useful to consider when evaluating proposals to create, close, split, or move forums. Whenever a forum change is discussed on the TalkBoard Topics, the TalkBoard encourages posters to fully address these criteria in addition to any other reasons supporting or opposing the change.

1. Will the forum be (or is it now) beneficial to FlyerTalk? Given there are a number of existing threads spread throughout various FT forums, there does seem to be both an interest in this topic and at least some desire to discuss it. Canarsie has stated within this specifc thread that there are at least "490 discussions about parking throughout FlyerTalk, with a minimum of 153 discussions about parking in the TravelBuzz! forum alone and at least 11 more discussions in the S.P.A.M. forum".

2. Will the new forum benefit a relationship with FlyerTalk? E.g., does the forum provide value for FT members, such as a friendly ear highly placed in the company? Given there are quite a few existing threads already within FT, it looks like there is already a perceived benefit.

3. Is FT the best place to discuss this subject? To quote Canarsie again "...because parking at an airport is part of travel — speaking for myself, of course — and there are frequent parking loyalty programs which not only offer points, but some even offer bonus airline frequent flier miles. Miles and points has always been the core discussion and raison d’être of FlyerTalk.

Based on this line of reasoning, discussion dedicated to frequent parking loyalty programs deserves its own forum on FlyerTalk — but that is merely my conclusion."

Where would there be a better place to discuss this topic?


4. Is there a passionate following? This is essential in order to provide dedicated expert helpers to get questions answered. I"m not an expert on who is passionate or not, I would say that 490 existing threads shows at least some "base" of interest in this topic. And given travel points/miles is core to FT's mission, this would seem a very good fit.


5. Is a critical mass of posts and readers anticipated or existing? We need adequate traffic to keep everyone visiting frequently. One living forum is more valuable than two mostly dead ones. While the aforementioned 490 threads may be spread over more than a decade of posting, it does show a potential "base" of posting traffic.

6. Is this the best place on FlyerTalk for this subject? This is the classification issue. The answer depends primarily on achieving and maintaining critical mass. It also depends on whether or where the discussion might (or does) occur in the absence of the forum. As stated above, this pertains to travel points/miles and thus should be considered core to FT's mission. It might be worth looking at the dates around those 490 threads to see when they occured, how much discussion went on, and possibly to see if there has been an increase in discussions over the last few years, versus 10 years ago. That might show an increasing desire and posting base for this topic.

7. For proposals to split a forum, is the split expected to improve the signal to noise ratio? Why? While this proposal doesn't really suggest a forum split, it does suggest a topic "consolidation". The fact that there are probably discussions about Freq. Parking programs spread throughout various geographic forums, TravelBuzz!, S.P.A.M., and probably MilesBuzz! as well, can make it very difficult to find all discussions around the various Frequent Parking programs. One would have to search through all those forums to find the information. Having it in one place provides a single location for all that information, thus making searches much easier and more likely to successfully find it.

As I stated earlier, I'm not necessarily for or against this, but I think there is at least some potential merrit to a Freq. Parking forum. And thus it is definitely worth discussing.

What will happen to the parking discussions in regional forums? Are all of these, even though many contain discussion about parking lots that have no alliance and operate independently, going to be moved to the new parking forum? Or is this new forum only for those that have nationwide programs with benefits? What happens when the thread contains discussion of multiple parking lots at the same airport, both independent and nationally affiliated. Where does it go?

I would think it would be treated like all other forums are today. If the topic moves away from the Freq. Stay program and more to a specific airport parking discussion it would be moved to the appropriate regional forum. Just like today if a topic in the AA forum ends up being specific to the DFW airport, it will get moved to the Texas forum. And just like today in all the existing forums, if a topic moves to a specific program, it would be moved out of the region's forum and into the appropriate mile/points program.

That reason makes sense. Still, MyPoints has to be much more popular than the largest frequent parking program.

Also, restaurants are related to travel and their programs don't have their own forum home.

Maybe we should expand the official charter of S.P.A.M.?

I'm sure canarsie appreciates you helping to flesh out his suggestion. :) And it does help TB members (or at least me!) when considering suggestions for new forums.

If a new forum is created, that's pretty much how I'd imagine/envision it.


Although not 100% sold, I'm starting to lean more towards the creation of the forum. FWIW - when I think of loyalty parking programs, I don't think of going to S.P.A.M., but as has been done to date would check TravelBuzz, regional forums, etc, if the forum didn't exist.

Cheers.

I have no technical objection to a motion being crafted and put forward before the elections. However, although I respect Canarsie very much and hold his opinion in high regard, I am not convinced that the forum would be a success and would instead be filled mostly with the sound of crickets.

In the rare event I need to search for discussion of airport parking lots, the destination forums prove both sufficient and a logical home, and I believe moving those discussions out of the destination forums is a bad move.

For broader discussion, modifying the charter of the S.P.A.M. forum as was suggested earlier is the likely best option to pursue. While parking is indeed a travel-related subject, I don't believe the potential volume is nearly enough to warrant a dedicated spot.

If it is brought to a motion and seconded, I will likely cast a "no" vote at this time.

^ I think this is a great idea and would certainly provide a gauge for exactly how much traffic a dedicated forum might garner. If parking program (not location-specific parking) discussion takes over SPAM, I think that would be the appropriate time to create a separate forum.

Maybe it's time to rename S.P.A.M. (which is, let's face it, a goofy name) to "Odds and Ends: Small programs, deals, and freebies"

IIRC, there was a pretty heated discussion a few years back re: what should/shouldn't be in SPAM, so I imagine that expanding the scope will take a bit of research & input & goes beyond just folding parking into it.

Re: the subject of this thread, perhaps canarsie can provide further input on why he doesn't think SPAM or regionals fit & a stand-alone forum would better meet FTers needs. I think he made some good points & also think how hhoope01 mentioned the regionals would be handled solves that part. I'm not 100% convinced we need a stand-alone forum, but I'm leaning more towards it than jackal and nsx are to date.

Cheers.

This is not a terrible idea.

Is there a thread for Airport Parking?
 

My search for airport parking does not yield any results. Is there one here?

Typically the threads are located in the specific geographic forums. An example: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/los-a...ns-thread.html

So if someone were wanting to ask a question about an airport parking awards program (i.e. park-n-fly's frequent parker program) which spans many different airports/cities, where would one post questions? MilesBuzz? TravelBuzz? Somewhere else?

Most recent thread discussing the program seems to be 2014:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/midwe...ned-days.html?

I requested the creation of a forum to discuss the various frequent parking programs, and a list of active programs was brought to the attention of TB - all in this thread.

It turned into "bring up the topic for discussion in the private forum" and then pretty much left to die.

Apparently S.P.A.M. But no one asks these questions.

IIRC there are also some fairly recent frequent airport spender programs that give points for spending at airport retail outlets (merchandise as well as F&B) in a number of airports. These programs might fit into the same category as airport frequent parker programs that span a number of airports.

Are you referring to programs like BAA awards for London airports and the Heinemann Duty Free program?

Vaguely the BAA plan, but mostly one I've seen advertised that applies to a bunch of USA airports. It didn't interest me so I didn't check the details.

Does anyone know whether any programs like Clear or Privium grant discounts in certain airport concessions?

ThanksAgain offers points based on airport spend at participating merchants, including parking.

Now I am a member of TalkBoard; but my opinion has not changed.

Unfortunately, I do not believe there would be enough traffic to support a new forum dedicated to frequent parker loyalty programs.

We've merged your query into the existing thread for the sake of discussion continuity.

/Moderator

I'm with Canarsie so far. I actually use an offsite parking place (Fast Park & Relax) but I do not see the market for a forum about the subject. Obviously I'm open to having my mind changed but there doesn't seem to be much demand on the subject.

I lost all interest in parking programs the day Parking Company of America told me that my 2 completed punch cards for 10 days free each were now almost worthless in their new points program. I fired them: I have never used them again.

I now park with Expresso Airport Parking, which has the lowest rates and which makes no promises about future benefits.

Parking programs don't need a forum. They need a thread warning our members that those programs are often managed without integrity.

The family near LHR I found through parkatmyhouse.com several years ago has been awesome.

Prior to that, I used LHR parking and, once, Purple Parking...it only took one use (and not even my own car) to make me realize I was not going to use them again.