Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend. A few months ago, I wrote 2 Centurion Lounge Meetups: SFO @ 12pm and LAS @ 6pm (Saturday, November 7). In that post, I announced that I would be holding 2 meetups at 2 different Centurion Lounges on the same day. Some of you thought it was a great ideas, while others of you thought it was a crazy idea. I actually agree with both parties. A few weeks after writing the above blog post, TravelCon Las Vegas was announced and it is being held the exact same day as my meetups. The easy thing would have been to reschedule the meetup for another weekend and go to TravelCon Las Vegas. Unfortunately, I know a few people who booked flights and made hotel reservations in anticipation of the event. I would have felt terrible changing the meetup date and costing people money, so I decided to forgo the TravelCon Las Vegas conference and hold my meetups as originally planned.
A few weeks ago, I received an email from an American Express Public Affairs & Communications representative. To my surprise, she was very excited and enthusiastic about the meetup idea and asked if there was anything she could do to make my meetups more special and memorable. I thanked her for reaching out to me and I asked her if she could reserve a few tables in both lounges and if we could receive a behind-the-scenes tour of the lounges. She responded,
“We look forward to hosting you all. We’ll be sure to hold tables for you at both locations. I am copying in our lounge manager for SFO, (name), who will help set up a space for you all at SFO. (name) is also working with our LAS team to make sure you all have a few tables held as well. Additionally, the team is happy to provide you all a mini tour behind the lounge, per your request.”
I don’t know about any of you, but a behind-the-scenes tour of the lounges sounds like a very cool experience. I want to keep each meetup to a reasonable size and I think 10-15 people sounds like the right size. If you are interested in attending, please let me know so I can work with the lounge managers at SFO and LAS. As a reminder, you are responsible for getting to and from the lounges, and for having your own American Express Platinum Personal or Business Card for access to the lounges. I think I already promised 2 friends that I could guest them into the lounge, so I will not be able to guest anyone else in. Here are the times of each meetup, along with my flight from SFO to LAS:
- SFO Centurion Lounge: 12pm to 3pm
- Southwest Airlines Flight 3783: 3:50pm to 5:20pm
- LAS Centurion Lounge: 6pm to 9pm
After the Las Vegas meetup, I will be spending the weekend in Vegas and flying back to SFO on Monday morning. I have a Dig This Groupon reservation Sunday morning, but I will be hanging out with the rest of the miles and points crowd on Sunday afternoon/evening.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
3 of us will be there!
Awesome, cya guys there :)
I will be at Travelcon II and we finish up around 6PM Saturday night. We should meet up for a drink or two! I leave for home Sunday morning but will be there Saturday night after the event.
Cool, do you want to meet in the lounge after TravelCon Las Vegas ends?
I will still be in Vegas that night and flight departs 10AM the next day. Will you be out and about in Vegas also?
Maybe a little. I don’t know what I’m doing Saturday night after the meetup.
I’ve changed my mind a few times but at this point I plan on being at Travelcon and the LV meet up – unfortunately I don’t have a way to get myself into the lounge (and I don’t think I’m still on your list at this point – if I am, let me know :)
I was saving one of my guest spots for you if you still want in at the LAS Centurion Lounge. Let me know if you can still make it. What hotel are you staying at?
oh great, yes I’m planning on being at LAS but not SFO. I don’t have a hotel booked yet – any suggestions?
I’ll probably book a hotel at the conference but I haven’t booked anything yet.
It would be great to see you in LAS!
Cool, hopefully I will see you at the LAS Centurion Lounge
I’m interested in the LAS event. I’m attending TravelCon but flying home that night. I can guest 2 people in.
Awesome, that’s very nice of you onto guest 2 people in. I will see you at the LAS Centurion Lounge.
I think the 2 of us will be at the LAS meetup. Just need to hurry over after TravelCon. Planning to book nigh time southwest flights and cancel them after we get in.
Cool, I will see you guys at the LAS Centurion Lounge.
It turns out I will be in SFO until 12:50 (assuming no flight changes) on my way to a cruise leaving the next day from Vancouver. I’ll see you for a few minutes!
Awesome, I look forward to seeing you and talking to you for a few minutes (look for the guy wearing the Travel with Grant shirt).
The t-shirt should definitely help! ;-)
If you follow me on Twitter, I will tweet where we are in the lounge, but it shouldn’t be hard to find me.