More Starwood news for Star Mega Do 2010
Starwood Hotels, the official hotel partners for Star Mega Do 2010, have announced some additional promotions for the event. On top of the previously announced 1,000 bonus points per room per night for all participants that was previously announced, here are some other benefits that participants can enjoy:
- Everyone participating will get Gold status comped immediately: For folks who do not hold status with other programs this is a great way to jump in to the SPG program and get a feel for their into level elite tier. You’ll earn bonus points on all stays, have access to some room upgrades and other benefits.
- Platinum status match if desired & eligible: For folks who currently hold a top-tier status in a different hotel loyalty chain, Starwood will match this status to their Platinum level. SPG Platinum Preferred members earn even more points per stay, are eligible for suite upgrades in some cases and receive complimentary high-speed internet access at properties where it is normally a paid service. A welcome gift upon arrival at the hotel, complimentary gym access and the Platinum Concierge are also part of the benefits. This status match is subject to the regular SPG one-time only restrictions.
- Current Platinums will get goodies as well, but it will be a surprise presented later: We’re not in a position to announce the exact details of these benefits publicly yet, but believe me when I say they are quite choice. If you have the means I highly recommend it.
There’s still more to come. every time it seems we cannot make the event better another partner steps up to prove us wrong. We’re almost sold out – only 30 seats remaining – so sign up now and join the fun!
The status match benefits will be valid through the 2011 program year.
Friday night party plans for Star Mega Do 2010
We knew from the beginning that Star Mega Do 2010 was going to be one of the biggest parties thrown, with action in 5 cities on two continents. But even we didn’t know just how big it would be. Big just got a bit bigger, with confirmation from Starwood regarding the details for a cocktail reception on Friday night after the tour of Boeing’s Everett facility. We’ll be mingling with Starwood executives and enjoying some quality adult beverages at the host hotel, The Westin Seattle.
Just one more awesome event in what will be an incredible week of travel, tours and revelry. Join us by registering here: www.StarMegaDo.com.
Group Rate Booking for the Sheraton IAH hotel is now open
The special StarMegaDo group rate at the Sheraton IAH ($99/night+tax) is now available for booking. You must use this link when making your reservation in order to get the special 1000 bonus Starpoints per room per night from Starwood for event participants.
The group rate is available for the nights of November 3 & 4, 2010. The Frequent Traveler Awards ceremony will be held November 4th, and the hotel is expected to be sold out then. Please book now to avoid disappointment.
Earn with United Airlines’ Mileage Plus program on StarMegaDo 2010
We’re happy to announce that we’ve reached an agreement with the folks at United Airlines so that members of their Mileage Plus program can earn points as part of the StarMegaDo 2010 event. This is in addition to the participation of Lufthansa and Continental as mileage earning partners.
For participants who choose to credit to United the following rules will apply:
- United will give both Mileage Plus Award Miles and Elite Status Miles (EQM) to Mileage Plus members on the CO charter flight
- Mileage Plus miles will be awarded as if the customer were ticketed on a paid Continental flight, crediting to their Mileage Plus account
- Miles will be awarded based on the actual routing flown by the customer-i.e. if one flies IAH-PHX-PAE and takes a different return flight, miles will only be earned on IAH-PHX-PAE
- Mileage Plus elite members will receive the appropriate number of Elite bonus Award Miles, based on their elite status at the time of the charter flight
- Customers ticketed in the First Class cabin will receive the appropriate Class of Service bonus for Award Miles and Elite Status Miles
We’re very happy to have United as a partner again this year and look forward to a phenomenal event this November!
Not registered yet? Sign up now. You know you want to.
Starwood steps up for Star Mega Do 2010
As the official hotel brand of Star Mega Do 2010 the participation of Starwood Preferred Guest in the week’s events was never in doubt. Nor was earning of SPG points for stays booked as part of the event. But there was a small amount of unknown about just what special benefits the brand would bring to the program. At least part of that question has been answered with an announcement last night.
Starwood will be providing all paid rooms with 1000 bonus SPG points per night for stays booked on the discounted group rate throughout the week. These points are in addition to any other benefits, earnings and promotions that would be accrued through stays at the properties. In addition, Starwood is offering an instant status match to Platinum, the top tier in the SPG program, for top tier folks in other major programs. Enrollment for this match is expected to be available in August.
Combined with the commitment from Continental and Lufthansa to issue miles for the charter portion of the trip – and we’re still working with other Star Alliance carriers to secure their participation as well – the earning potential for the event is significant. It is still outweighed by the behind-the-scenes experiences that all participants will get to participate in, but certainly a nice little bonus.
Registration for StarMegado 2 is now open!
Registration for our 2010 event is now open. Use this URL to sign up.
Please take a moment to carefully go through all the information on the FT master thread (posts 1-6) and the text in the form.
After filling the form, the system will display you the information it received. Once that is acknowledged, you will receive an email in a few days with a link to the page where you can press a button to initiate the paypal payment process for the 100$ deposit.
Please note that you have to send the 100$ deposit via Paypal to validate the registration. If we don’t receive the deposit, your registration will be deleted. The timestamp of submitting the form with the registration will count for all matters where we have restrictions (F/Y choice, seating, etc)
The registration form is primarily for the charter and the deposit will be applied to the charter only. We will use the information in the form to make reservations for you at the event hotels and prepare the group reservations for the scheduled flights. You will pay the hotel yourself when you stay there. The scheduled flights will be ticketed by the airlines after you confirm the booked flights and provide us a method of payment.
The dinners and events are planned to be sponsored by the participating airlines and hotels. However, the dinner at the frequent traveller awards will have to be paid by yourself. The reason for this is that the award ceremony is not only attended by the Starmegado participants and the organization is done by a separate entity. The price for this dinner is going to be approximately 35$ which will include some drinks. The exact details for this will be announced once the sponsors confirm their participation.
In that spirit we’re looking forward to your responses and seeing you all again at the event in less than five months!
Regards Oliver, Tommy, Reb & Seth
Star Mega Do 2010 Bookings open on Friday!
By now you’ve probably read all about the itinerary and just how much fun is going to be had during Star Mega Do 2010, so much so that you’re ready to book. Right? The wait is almost over. Booking will open this Friday, June 11, at 12 noon EDT.
The best part is that you do not need to pay the full booking price this Friday. You will need to pay a non-refundable $100 deposit for your space on the charter. The balance of the payment will be due towards the end of July. Space on the charter is limited and will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis, so if you want to guarantee a space for yourself – particularly in the highly demanded first class cabin – you’re going to need to book quickly.
The booking process will require you to specify, among other bits:
- Your personal details
- The legs and class of service for the charter
- which of the scheduled flights you intend to book and on which date (UA feeder flights, TATL eastbound on LH/OS/LX, TATL westbound on LH, final TATL eastbound SEA-Europe on LH)
- Specify if you require a discount / Continental MeetingWorks code to get to/from IAH and later SEA
- Indicate if you will stay at the Starwood properties that will host the event on the ground
If you do choose to stay as part of our negotiated group at the hotels then we’ll take care of all the ground transport issues and the booking process; you’ll be responsible for paying the hotel directly at the time of the stay.
Got any questions? Post a comment or send an email to airbusdo@gmail.com.
Pricing announced for StarMegaDo 2010
Following on the recent announcement of the itinerary, we are pleased to announce that the few lose ends have been tied up and that we have finalized the pricing for the event. Here’s a recap of the schedule:
November 1
We meet at JFK airport for a snack and drinks to board LH 405 (dep 22.45) to fly to FRA
[or for those who want to try LX: we board LX 15 (dep. 20.55) to fly to ZRH and then LX 1072 to FRA]
[or for those who want to try OS: we board OS 88 (dep. 18.55) to fly to VIE and then LH 1235 to FRA]
November 2
We arrive at FRA, the participants starting the SMD2 in Europe join us from this point
Evening reception at 19.00: TBD, we surely will make it an event similar to last year
November 3
We board LH440 (dep. 10.40) to fly to Houston (arr. 15.30)
Evening reception at 19.00: will be a quiet event, to allow people to recover from the past flights. Participants starting the SMD2 for the domestic US portion join us from this point
November 4
Continental day: CO will host us in IAH.
Evening: we take a break from SMD 2 to join the Frequent Traveler Awards event in Houston
November 5
8.00 am Charter flight in IAH to fly to PHX
The charter will be operated by a Continental 757-300 with 24 F and 192 Y config. We have the option to add a 737-900 with 20F/153Y or bigger if the booking situation demands it.
On arrival in PHX we join US Airways for an event.
~12.30 pm: We depart PHX for PAE
TBD pm: we arrive in Paine Field at Boeing to tour the facilities and visit LH’s latest aircraft type, the 748i
November 6
Participants start their their journey home:
Europeans take LH 491 (dep. 15.45) back to FRA,
Domestic participants take the CO plane back to IAH at 9 am. This is optional, you will have the option to request the additional leg if you desire. This will a be no-frill standard catering flight back as if you are flying a regular commercial flight; if there is overwhelming demand seats will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
There are two cost components that we have details available for at this time, the TATL flights originating in the USA and the charter flights.
For the TATL there are three Star Alliance carriers offering discounted rates for us, Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian:
- LH JFK-FRA-IAH: 2748US$++ (3128$ a.i.) in Z, 320US$++ (700$ a.i.) in W/S
- LX JFK-xZRH-FRA: 1566$ a.i. in Business, 341$ a.i. in Economy (P)
- OS JFK-xVIE-FRA: 1369$++ in Business (J)
For the charter flights there are two classes of service available, First and Coach. In addition to the bigger seats the first class cabin will include premium catering and booze, though the back of the plane will hardly be a dry experience. The pricing will be: $1,499 for first class and $699 for economy.
The charter price includes transportation and service from/to IAH-PHX-PAE. If you choose to attend the event starting in PHX, no discount will be available. As mentioned above the repositioning leg back to the location where the charter came from is optional (so PAE-IAH on the morning of the next day is included in the price, but you don’t have to take it and can stop in PAE/SEA). Also included in the price are all the meals noted above, ground transfers, tours and more.
Sign up will be coming soon, just as soon as we have a booking system in place.
Star Mega Do 2 Happy Hour in Stockholm: 3 May
No, it isn’t an official part of the main trip, but for folks in the Stockholm area interested in having a few drinks and chatting about SMD2 with one of the organizers, Tommy is going to be drinking in Stockholm on Monday, May 3, 2010, and you’re all invited. No guarantees that it will be as much fun as the official launch party last week, but there’s a pretty good chance of fun and just a bit of troublemaking.
Scandic Anglais, Humlegårdsgatan 23
102 44 Stockholm
Time: 9PM–
A Mega itinerary for a Mega Do!
This past Friday night the itinerary for the 2010 Star Mega Do was announced at a party in Marina del Ray, California. The room was packed with veterans from the 2009 edition and other FlyerTalkers who all wanted to be involved in the event as well as folks looking for a good party out on the West coast. Some of the photos suggest there were upwards of 50 folks crowded into the room for the event; the bar tab suggests even more. Either way, this luck group was the first to hear the official news.
And now that I’ve recovered from the rather vicious hangover (Marty, I’m gonna get even!) here’s the itinerary for everyone else to chew on:
Monday, November 1
JFK-FRA: We expect that to be on the LH A380 though the aircraft is not yet confirmed to be on that route.
Tuesday, November 2
Arrive FRA. Party with *A and LH in FRA.
*For folks starting in Europe you will be invited to join on Tuesday evening
Wednesday, November 3
FRA-IAH. Arrive IAH and dinner with CO.
*For folks who want to only do the USA part of the event you’ll be joining us in IAH for the dinner or tomorrow morning for the tours.
Thursday, November 4
CO tours in IAH.
Thursday, November 4 – Evening
The First Annual Frequent Traveler Awards!
Built on the legacy of The Freddies, the FT Awards will allow the community to honor the loyalty programs that make everything we do just a bit more fun.
Friday, November 5
Charter flight!
IAH-PHX: Meet with US Airways in PHX
PHX-PAE: Fly in to an airport that doesn’t really see traditional commercial service (cool new dot/line) and go on a special tour of the Boeing factory where the 747-8i is being built.
Party in Seattle area Friday night
Saturday, November 6
Charter flight back to either Chicago or Houston, depending on which aircraft we end up chartering.
We thought we had figured out the details of which aircraft we’d be using for the charter but we had a last minute entrant from another carrier that is interested in providing us with that service. So we are still working out the details and hope to have more specific pricing and an answer to which aircraft we’ll be using (747, MD-11 or 753/73E/738s) in the very near future.
Regarding pricing of the event, we expect that the charter price point will be at or below last year’s price. Depending on the aircraft selected there will be a mix of F, C, E+ and E- available. The TATL flights will be about the same price in Y (~$600) and will be more expensive in C (~$3000).
We’re getting a great rate with Starwood for the hotels along the way and there will likely be a Fast Track promo for status associated with it.