A week-long Frequent Flyer party

GoJet CRJ-700 N153GJ operating as United Express, my ride to Chicago, with a Continental 737 in the background

When the concept of the “Star Alliance Mega Do” was first proposed I was immediately enamored with it.  I also thought that there was no way the organizers were going to be able to pull it off.  Private tours for 200+ people with behind the scenes access to airlines, airplane manufacturers and airports seem pretty ridiculous to arrange.  Add into the mix a privately chartered Boeing 757-300 and traversing six different airports over 4 days and the whole thing seemed like a pipe dream.  Yet here I am, flying to Chicago to meet up with many of those 200 to start this week long event.  It is really happening.

The itinerary is somewhat crazy.  Day one includes a tour with United Airlines at O’Hare in the morning followed by a flight to Newark to meet up with Continental and more tours.  Then a bus ride to JFK and more celebrating before approximately 100 folks climb aboard Lufthansa’s flight 405 with service to Frankfurt.  Day two is a tour of Lufthansa facilities for many and a select few – including me!! – get to participate in some of the training activities that the Lufthansa flight attendants go through.  Oh, and dinner with executives from Star Alliance and Lufthansa.  Day three has the whole group flying on the chartered 757-300 to Oslo to meet with SAS and pick up more aerophiles joining the fun.  Then onward to Toulouse for the main event: a tour of the Airbus facilities where the A380 is manufactured.  Day four is more tours of Lufthansa in Frankfurt.

It is exhausting just describing the schedule.

There were two different contests held to give away seats on the flights, generating over 100,000 entries.  Yeah, people are really excited by this event.  And I cannot blame them at all.  Flying on specially chartered planes with custom catering, special themes and access to facilities and people that normally don’t open their doors up to some crazy guy who loves flying, much less me AND 200 of my friends.  This is going to be one crazy week.

I’ll be posting more about it here throughout the week as well as on my Twitter @WanderngAramean.  You can also follow along at www.StarMegaDo.com or at twitter.com/StarMegaDo to share in the experience.