The Meeting Planners podcast source for what’s new and exciting in meetings and events industry!
Mike McAllen of Grass Shack Events & Media
Tom Hillmer of Creative Group Inc
Jon Trask of Alliant Event Services
:45 Mike screws up intro of show.
1:13 Sponsors Hilton Hotels eEvents, BlueSkyFactory and BrandCreative
2:00 More talk about the AIG incentive meeting that has gotten so much media attention. Wachovia Greek isle cruise and other perceptions and realizations about meetings and incentive trips.
Jons link
6:45 Possible to swing the bad press to good? Maybe AIG should have given the incentive trip to Military families?
11:00 LAX has been sending money to attract meetings and tourism and the FAA is not happy. This is actually not legal according to the FAA. Rules on Airports are in the fine print.
12:38 ITME conversation: Is the economy hurting your business? Public owned companies will start to drop meetings. Fresh RFPS are still coming in for Grass Shack, Creative Group and Alliant. Meetings industry actually can do better through hard times like this. Companies have a real need to get together in these times. Face to face interactions.
15:25 Mike brings some interesting. (Upgrade Travel Better blog) Don’t use melatonin when flying to Dubai. A Producer spent 3 weeks in jail in Dubai because Melatonin is illegal there.
16:45 (Stuck in the Airport blog) reports Naples Florida airport was shut down because an alligator was on the runway. A TSA found a human skull a lady was bringing home for a Halloween treat.
18:08 Tom reports Orange County American Airlines belt broke and lots of bags were not delivered. Do you still have to pay if your luggage does not show up? What are the policies?
19:01 Jon found a website called Unique venues.com website which he liked.
19:38 Mike will share the meetingspodcast google reader which has a ton of meetings, hotels, and airlines blogs to see. Just email meetingspodcast@gmail.com (I think you may have to have a gmail account to do this)
20:16 Mike: TSA Blog- Evolution of Security. TSA screener/employee in Newark was stealing all sorts of valuables. CNN reporter found his camera on Ebay which the employee was selling.
21:27 Jon reports that a NYC hotel had a huge sewage leak. Hotel shampooed the carpet but still masked the smell by bringing in several popcorn machines/carts. Draped the leak area and just made popcorn for the whole tradeshow that was going on. The smell was then of popcorn not well, Poop. Exibitoronline.com has a plan B area which covers backup plans pretty fun column.
23:17 Tom shares a airline tips from CreativeGroupInc.com newsletter. American Airlines a la carte menu like Air Canada has. United has dumped the TED brand. United Airlines also started a new service at www.united com/appreciation. A place to complain and get rewarded for their trouble depending on frequent flier status.
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Brought to you by Grass Shack Events & Media
Copyright 2008 MeetingsPodcast
Transcripts:
Female: You are listening to the Meetings Podcast with Mike McAllen, Jon Trask and Tom Hillmer. The Meeting Planner podcast source for what’s new and exciting in the meetings and events industry. The information and opinions expressed in this podcast are of Mr. McAllen, Mr. Trask and Mr. Hillmer and are theirs alone and do not reflect the opinions of their past, present or future employers.
Please send in your question and comments to MeetingsPodcast@gmail.com and make sure to visit our website for pictures, video and show notes at www.MeetingsPodcast.com
Mike McAllen: All right. Welcome back to Meetings Podcast. I forgot where I was for a second there.
Tom Hillmer: Or who we are.
Mike McAllen: My name is Mike McAllen, I’m Grass Shack Events and Media and my co-hosts are Jon Trask, CMP, Account Executive from Alliant …
Jon Trask: Alliant.
Mike McAllen: Alliant sorry, Events Services. Tom? Sorry.
Tom Hillmer: I guess it’s one of those mornings, isn’t it?
Mike McAllen: Well, it’s bad. I heard that. Of course, Tom Hillmer, Senior Vice-President and Account Executive with Creative Group Incorporated. Hey, Tom.
Tom Hillmer: Hi, guys.
Mike McAllen: Hi, guys. And I’d like to thank our sponsors before we get started. Hilton Hotel, event and group accommodations made easy, Blue Sky Factory, our e-mail provider of choice, they are a great company to maximize your e-mail marketing channel, and Red Creative, helping you creatively brand your company.
So, hi guys.
Jon Trask: Hello.
Tom Hillmer: Howdy.
Mike McAllen: Sorry about my …
Tom Hillmer: And there’s half the show. Okay.
Jon Trask: See you next time.
Mike McAllen: All right. So, we started to chat a little bit before we started to record and it’s an interesting thing going on.
Jon Trask: Yes, it’s such you know, such a relevant, timely topic. Obviously, when the presidential candidates are talking about you know the meetings industry and it’s getting such a national attention. We of course, are talking about the AIG issue about their resort meeting and I was just – before we start – it really started the show here looking at some of the different reports that I’ve seen in various papers and online and you know they had another one planned for later on coming up at a different resort property that they’ve now canceled as of yesterday. They had one that was scheduled for as the reporter puts it, “A posh California Hotel.” which was the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay.
Mike McAllen: Right.
Jon Trask: And then there was another article in yesterday’s LA Times about how Wachovia was taking an all-expenses paid cruise to the Greek Isles and sort of taking them to task for sort of the you know, fiddling while Rome burns comments and I just was asking Tom, in particular if he’s run into any of his groups that are seeing some pullback on incentive travel and in particular the financial market.
Some of the criticisms, they seemed to be coming in for, to me seemed a bit uninformed because I don’t think the reporters completely understand who incentive trips are for or why they’re planned or how they’re done? And so, that was where we were starting and we just figure we better start talking about it here. So, it’s Tom.
Tom Hillmer: Yes, it’s interesting because I’ve got to believe – I mean, obviously perception is everything so I’m sure that what’s people are picking up on them that’s why it’s such a hot topic right now but the being said too I mean, I’m sure everyone of these reasons has their own unique set of circumstances surrounding it.
I mean, I was just out in Laguna Niguel, California in the last couple of days on business and I’ve lunched with some hotel friends out there of one of the properties and we got on this very subject because that specific event I believe that you’re talking about, the AIG one took place at the St. Regis out there.
Mike McAllen: Yes.
Tom Hillmer: And you know, what we are all saying is you know, not to use the term in defense of AIG but you know what, people probably don’t realize this but chances are probably when all things started going down, they had some meeting that was booked there when they thought everything was fine and they probably were going to pay some, almost probably closed to a 100% penalty for these programs.
And you know, and if all of a sudden now there’s you know, if your option is you pay the 100% penalty and get nothing or you at least operate your meeting and try to eat up your penalty because I’ve got to believe too when I saw that there’s certainly $22,000 on spa appointments and what not. Okay, again incredibly – I can – I appreciate how that appears incredibly ridiculous but you know, maybe they had a 500-person program booked in that property that they canceled. They needed to do a 100-person program of some sort and they were for the penalty anyway so they figured they might as well you know, get something for the money instead of getting nothing for the money and they were probably trying to eat up what is I’m sure minimum revenue you know, a minimum revenue commitments in their contracts to the hotel for coming in for a far smaller group.
You know, all these stuff, you just don’t hear about any of it. They don’t explain any of that to anybody. So …
Jon Trask: Right.
Tom Hillmer: … all you hear in the press is – and I don’t even know if that’s what happened but as professional meeting planner and I see it, I can look at it from a mile away and say, “You’ve got to believe that that’s probably had some impact on it.” That these executives are not that stupid that they would just you know, in this day and age with everything going on, “Oh, let’s go on some boon dial and spend a half a million dollars,” or whatever it was to go you know, play for a couple of days.
Now, I’m sure those were some of the financial things behind that I’ve got to believe but I can also appreciate, it just doesn’t look good either.
Jon Trask: Right.
Tom Hillmer: So, then you go to a point where sometimes it’s just best you know, even if you get nothing for your money, it’s probably still best to walk away from it and maybe that was the decision you know, the wrong decision that was made but I’m sure there’s more behind this stuff than meets the eye.
Jon Trask: Well, that’s been my issue. It’s very much sound right kind of politics and you know, reducing what we – because we’re in the industry know to be a very complex situation to a very simplistic sort of answer. “Oh, they shouldn’t have gone.”
Tom Hillmer: Yes.
Jon Trask: Without having any of the details that as you say you know, the penalties and the things like that involved. I saw some of those blog and I’ll have to find it again. Actually, my wife found it because we were talking about this topic.
Ironically, she works for a large insurance company and so we were talking about this topic and because I know that you know, her company sends people on incentive trips and they send their top agents and you know, those are the last people you want like mad at your company or with the impression that your company is struggling because they’re the ones who are out there pushing your product. And so, you know motivating those guys and it’s – you know a lot of them go to these sorts of things every year. It’s a networking thing.
Mike McAllen: Right.
Jon Trask: It’s important to them to keep these contacts. So, there’s a whole bunch of things underneath it. The one blog that I thought was interesting because as you say, Tom, there’s kind of smell test on it that you know, people without the analysis just look at it and they’re very concerned about.
Someone said, all right, they’ve got this penalty they’re going to have pay, so go ahead and use the rooms but go find a charitable group or something like that and tell your guys, “Look, we just can’t do this.” You know, things are too bad. We can’t have even the appearance of this because people aren’t going to understand this.” So, turn around and like find a local military base and tell a bunch of the families there, “You guys just got a free weekend at the St. Regis Resort.” And bring in some people so that you can turn it around and make it a PR thing.
Tom Hillmer: Interesting, yes.
Mike McAllen: Yes.
Jon Trask: And I thought that was one of the best analysis I’ve actually seen somebody break into and come up with a solution that seemed like it made sense and seemed like yes, you’re still going to pay the money but you can make it from being this negative into hopefully being something that is at least neutral, if not positive.
Tom Hillmer: Yes, they still would have turned it up, they’ll probably anyway.
Jon Trask: They probably would have but you would have a much justifiable case to say, “Well, look we understand and this thing has been booked for two years you know, we’ve had the contract signed for this long and we didn’t want to just waste the money so we thought if we send you know, all these wonderful servicemen who served in Iraq and their families …
Tom Hillmer: Yes.
Jon Trask: … up here for a great weekend, at least we’re doing something positive with that penalty we’re going to have to pay.
Mike McAllen: Right.
Tom Hillmer: Right. That would have been a good idea.
Jon Trask: That was – I was impressed. I’ll try and find that blog link to send you so we can put it on the website. It was actually like a legal blog but the guy really seemed to understand our industry.
Mike McAllen: Say you know, they do have to have – I know it’s [00:08:31] you think that they still do have to have business. I mean you know, this hopefully the economy won’t stay this way. I know it’s an incentive thing but maybe they’re having a little bit of meeting you know. They have to talk about the future and …
Jon Trask: Yes.
Mike McAllen: … get things rolling.
Jon Trask: Yes, I have one of my major clients is in the financial sector who I do a lot of work with every year and you know in a way, they not only still have to meet, it almost becomes more important that they meet because everybody is going there to try and figure out a course into the future and where we’re going and what are we going to do.
And so, while it appears you know, gosh if everybody is coming from all over the country and meeting in Las Vegas or whatever, at this resort place, there is a real business core reason for it and you know, people, as Tom said earlier, they don’t often understand the rates and things that are negotiated and the fact is, they maybe paying less to stay at a resort property than they’d be paying to stay at a Holiday Inn and you know, or a more mid-level property.
Sometimes the resorts have an open window and the planner can strike a good deal as we all know and you end up getting a tremendous value. And so you know, again that’s the analysis that doesn’t seem to come with some of the sound bite reaction to things.
Mike McAllen: Yes, I agree. Yes, it is the time. It is interesting because it is such doom and gloom of course because that everyone you know, the way the financials are going but it is actually a time to kind of try and turn it around and buckle down and you know, not stop marketing and doing everything that you do because that’s going to turn this stuff around.
Jon Trask: Right, right.
Mike McAllen: To get the economy rolling. So …
Jon Trask: Well, as somebody said you know, “Stocks are on sale right now. You can buy them really cheap.”
Tom Hillmer: Yes, I’ll buy it.
Jon Trask: Yes.
Mike McAllen: Yes, there you are.
Jon Trask: Well, that’s just – that seems you know, to be such a timely issue, I really – I was definitely interested in hearing what Tom had to say about it and what you have to say about it, Mike, because it – when you know, major front page news touches our industry, it does get a little frustrating sometimes when people don’t quite get it.
Mike McAllen: Yes, now I agree.
Tom Hillmer: I agree.
Jon Trask: So, well and there was a little other front page news this week here in Southern California because the FAA is apparently fining or going after LAX, L.A. International Airport, who’ve provided something like $40 million since 2002 to LA Inc., which is the Convention & Visitors Bureau here in L.A. and apparently the FAA rules and I didn’t realize this are very specific on what they can fund as far advertising and promotion.
It has to be about very specific things and they’ve been sending a fair amount of money annually to help promote the general region and do things to attract meetings to Southern California and that’s not sitting well apparently with the FAA. So there are, there’s some tremendous penalties that they can because if the can’t refute the findings, they can seek a civil penalty which is up to $50,000 travel damages and they have to pay – they have to get the $40 million back from LA Inc. plus interest.
Tom Hillmer: Wow.
Jon Trask: So, that could have a real effect on the Convention & Visitors Bureau here Los Angeles.
Mike McAllen: Yes. Wow. That’s crazy.
Jon Trask: And so that, that was something that I just – I had no idea that there were those sorts of rules on airport as far as what they could or couldn’t promote. And again, there are oftentimes, this sort of obscure things that none of us even realize are out there.
Mike McAllen: Yes, so true.
Tom Hillmer: If I can just jump back a second to the economy and stocks and all those. The other thing this morning, I was watching as the doom and gloom of you know, the Wall Street reports here. Today was the first day really started the dooming. We’re having – we’ve had many conversation even back at ITME a couple of weeks ago, the tradeshow here in Chicago as you know, conversation was about you know, light conversation question, has the economy affecting your business or your customers?
And you know, when I answered I’ve been pretty proud on that in terms of you know, it isn’t so much economy-driven. We’re not – we have an in based city, the economy is bad so we’re cutting our programs but when I’m – I’ll tell you what I’m listening to today and I suddenly had sort of this moment of panic was, “Holy cow! All of our customers are publicly held companies that you know, have stock you know, values that they to have obviously continue to try to drive to.
That’s where it starts to get scary because if things continue to plummet like this and you know, you have two ways, you can increase your stock, increase sales or you know, decrease your cost and you know, they have to start cutting cost. They could very well start cutting meetings and some of these things. So, that’s a little scary.
Mike McAllen: Yes, it is interesting because we are kind of working off the budget that are still going from last year, right?
Tom Hillmer: Yes.
Mike McAllen: So, now they’re doing to do budget for next so that will be, that’s really when we’re going to start seeing it. Well, I don’t know.
Jon Trask: Although I have seen this – a really fair amount of business for like this quarter next year still coming on with fresher fees.
Tom Hillmer: And there’s also a significant turn for us on up there that says you know, that in a lot of you know statistics to prove it that you know, sometimes when the going gets tough if you will, that’s when the meetings industry actually picks up because that more than ever is when people need to pull their organization together …
Mike McAllen: Right.
Tom Hillmer: … they need to do some group hugging, they need to kind of do some (combining 00:14:13) to make sure people are on the same page with regards to the direction of the company, what we need to do to navigate through this rough waters, et cetera, et cetera, and people would naturally do that in person, in a warm and fuzzy setting than do it you know, via you know web pages or I mean web you know casts and all that kind of stuff.
So, I mean I remember that was very specifically right after you know, even after 9/11 when everybody thought that was going to be the end of the world of travel as we knew it and then you know, the following year was one of our biggest years ever. So …
Jon Trask: Yes.
Mike McAllen: Yes.
Tom Hillmer: … you know, you just don’t, you just don’t know.
Mike McAllen: It’s a time of opportunity a lot because people are not – their competitors, they don’t know what their competitors were going to do so it’s not the status quo anymore you know. It’s kind of like …
Tom Hillmer: Right.
Mike McAllen: … now is the time to jump up and start doing stuff. Interesting. It’s really interesting. It will be interesting to see how it all works out.
Jon Trask: Yes. Well, it’s you know, never dull in this business.
Mike McAllen: No, not at all. So, I guess, I had something that I found. It’s not serious. It’s kind of – I thought if this was Friday, I was looking for things that are kind of interesting but I guess this will go out this next week, on Monday or Tuesday so but I found a couple of things that were kind of interesting. This one thing was, if you’re ready for me to start this because …
Tom Hillmer: Oh, absolutely.
Jon Trask: We’re always ready for you, Mike. Jump right in.
Tom Hillmer: We’ll glide you up to speak.
Jon Trask: Ladies and gentlemen, Mike McAllen.
Mike McAllen: Well, I saw a couple of things that I thought were interesting. This one was if you’re traveling to Dubai, I saw this blog it’s called Upgrade: Travel better by Mark Ashley. It’s a blog, kind of interesting blog. I’d been kind of reading it lately and it says, “Don’t fly – don’t fight jet lag with melatonin.” I don’t know if either of you use melatonin?
Tom Hillmer: I never have but I know people do.
Jon Trask: Yes, I know people who do.
Mike McAllen: So, this person, a producer went to spend three weeks in jail without being charged for possession of melatonin jet lag pills in Dubai.
Jon Trask: Wow.
Mike McAllen: Because it’s illegal there. So, I thought it was kind of interesting that he got turned in jail. So – and they were saying that the Dubai jails are less flashy and luxurious than their hotels or resorts.
Jon Trask: I can imagine there’d probably be a little downgrade in the accommodation.
Mike McAllen: Yes, so it’s kind of something to keep in mind you know when you’re traveling. I don’t know how you would know that or even be able to figure that out but it’s kind of an interesting little note.
Another one was earlier this week, I got this from Stuck at the Airport, which is also a really great blog, if you get a chance to look at that. It’s by Harriet Vasquez, it’s called Stuck at the Airport and she wrote that earlier this week at the Naples Municipal Airport in Florida, the airport was shut down because an alligator was on the runway and her plane was landing.
Tom Hillmer: Nice.
Jon Trask: Explain that to your boss.
Mike McAllen: Right. Your plane was delayed because of an alligator but they tied the alligator to a helicopter, tail of a helicopter that was walking by I guess. And another thing she had, which I thought was funny too that on Wednesday, Security Officers at the Tucson International Airport discovered a human skull in the checked piece of luggage. The woman transporting the skull told the TSA that her boyfriend had given her the skull and she was taking to Philadelphia for Halloween.
Tom Hillmer: Oh, my God.
Mike McAllen: So, those are kind of some interesting things that I found. I actually …
Tom Hillmer: In the luggage, I flew to California this week with [00:17:46] flew to California this week and flew American Airlines and we got out there and there had to be you know – I don’t want to be exaggerate it but there had to be 25 people – none of us got our luggage and it turned out apparently American here in Chicago had a bag belt, one of the baggage belts break and a whole bunch of luggage didn’t make it to the final destination.
So, things were a little tough for American Airlines on Wednesday. I got to tell you. I felt bad for the poor guy in Orange County who is trying to service all these people but …
Mike McAllen: The on time machine was not on time, huh?
Tom Hillmer: Yes. You know and I’m lucky and this is one of my business board, one of my questions comes in and I still don’t a definitive answer to it and it didn’t apply to me because I’m you know, Platinum or whatever it is with American Airlines but for their premiere members, they don’t charge for the luggage fees but you know, if you’re paying like all this money to check your luggage on this flight and the luggage doesn’t show up, our people you know, they get your money back. I mean, you know after going through hassle, I mean, what’s the you know, what are airlines doing you know?
Jon Trask: Yes. That’s, the second question, I wonder what their policies are?
Mike McAllen: Right. Well, maybe somebody can e-mail in or call in and …
Jon Trask: Yes. Well, I had another quick thing before I’m going to have to pop out of the show here. Actually, a couple of them, one, I just found an interesting website when I was doing some looking around at other links called Unique Venues. And it just seems to me an entire website devoted to searching by country and state for just different sorts of places that you’re going to hold meetings and I thought that might be a nice resource for people who are looking for something a little bit more off beat or interesting or different.
Mike McAllen: That’s very cool.
Jon Trask: Yes, So, uniquevenues.com.
Mike McAllen: You know, I have a my Google Reader which I just – I’ve been collecting of these blogs, you know tons of these travel ones that I can share with anyone to have it. You can just send me, send e-mail to MeetingsPodcast@gmail.com and I can share it with anybody.
Tom Hillmer: Cool.
Mike McAllen: You can just come in and look at it which is pretty cool because I just have a ton of. I’ll add Unique Venues to that so and you too, too if you …
Jon Trask: Yes.
Mike McAllen: …want to get that because it’s kind of cool. I have ton of them now. I have one other thing, one other which I though was kind of interesting, the TSA guy got – I don’t know if either of you heard this, got arrested for stealing.
Jon Trask: No.
Mike McAllen: That does TSA – there’s another blog called the – that the TSA does called the Evolution of Security. It had a post …
Jon Trask: That of most taking things?
Mike McAllen: No, but they reported on it that the screener at the Newark Airport is accused of stealing. He stole 66 cameras, 31 laptop computers and 20 cellphones.
Tom Hillmer: Oh, my God.
Mike McAllen: Yes.
Jon Trask: I’ve had my own Newark experience that somehow that doesn’t surprise me.
Mike McAllen: Yes, and they were writing it on this, on that blog, as the TSA’s own blog and they were really – the guy really was pissed off. Supposedly writing on their – but the one thing that’s funny that he didn’t get caught by the TSA. It was actually a CNN employee who discovered his stolen camera was being sold on eBay and called the police.
Jon Trask: Oh, man.
Mike McAllen: So, they even didn’t catch him. It’s somebody else, that reported caught him. So …
Tom Hillmer: Wow.
Jon Trask: Well, I had one little humorous one before I, before I exit the room here. If anybody reads Exhibitor Online, they always do a little section called Plan B and this one I just found worth reporting. It was particularly amusing to me. These folks had a one day tradeshow floor and the week before their expo in this New York hotel, they had a sewage leak in the exhibit hall. And not like a stopped up toilets sewage leak like 10-foot paddle.
So, the hotel came in and shampooed the carpet and basically as the guy writing the article says, “They’re masking it with an industrial carpet shampoo, doesn’t really take it away.” And so they were trying to figure how they were going to get through this and I thought they came up with a very creative solution. And that was they thought about fresh flowers and they decided you couldn’t get enough, strong enough smelling flowers to cover it but they rented three popcorn carts and they draped the area off and put the popcorn carts right in front of it and just kept them running all day. They had bags and bags, it says, trashcan bags full of fresh popcorn. They were just stashing behind the drape because they couldn’t give it away fast enough.
Tom Hillmer: Oh, my heaven.
Jon Trask: But they kept them going all day and everybody smelled popcorn instead of the negative other option that they were faced with.
Mike McAllen: Wow.
Jon Trask: And I thought you know, there’s some creative thinking.
Tom Hillmer: Yes.
Mike McAllen: That was.
Jon Trask: And it seemed to have worked. It was their plan B that they came up with on site and so Exhibitor Online always has these plan A, plan B things that are always sort of fun to read because it’s just how some people overcome these challenges we all run into. So well, I’m going to tell you guys to have a nice week and I’m going to exit the room here and I will talk to you next week.
Mike McAllen: Okay.
Tom Hillmer: Okay.
Jon Trask: All right. Take care, you guys. Bye.
Tom Hillmer: Yes, you too. Bye.
Mike McAllen: See you later.
Tom Hillmer: Hey, Mike one thing I was going to mention is our company, every week we distribute to our employees and customers a weekly newsletter just on kind of what’s going on in the airline industry and you know, sometimes some of the things, some of the tidbits are a little more interesting than others but it just came out today and we actually – there’s actually three things on here that I thought would be worth just sort of mentioning real quick that people might find interesting if they’re out there in a travel world.
This one I thought, American Airlines has announced it will launch an a-la-cart unbundling pricing structure in 2009 offering only a few basic fare plans with additional services for a fee. American is looking to emulate Air Canada which currently has a fee – has such a structure, which currently has such structure with four fare levels of which the two most expensive are fully refundable and include priority check in, food, and other amenities. Air Canada’s most basic fare class is nonrefundable with extra fees for food, advance seat assignments, flight changes, et cetera, even offering a savings if the traveler is willing to earn less frequent flyer miles on their itinerary. So, I thought that was interesting. So …
Mike McAllen: Yes.
Tom Hillmer: However much, whatever you want in services basically you’re going to pay for them. Another [00:24:20] for people to know that United Airlines announced not too long ago that they are doing away with Ted, which is their low cost carrier, which I’m kind of surprise with that because I thought they were doing pretty well with it but apparently not.
So, it says here, “United Airlines is going to convert all Ted-configured planes back to a mainline configuration with first and coach class seating. Ted was launched in 2003 as an all coach airline within – as an all coach airline within an airline. The conversions will begin in March of 2009. So, Ted as everybody knows it will be going away.
Mike McAllen: Wow.
Tom Hillmer: And then the last item I thought was kind of interesting here, which I actually thought was really interesting. Again, United Airlines, they are touting apparently this, their new web – a new website called www.united.com/appreciation whereby travelers can provide feedback on flight disservice such as no audio or laptop power.
Furthermore, travelers affected by flight delays or cancellations that fit certain criteria on United or United Express flown flights in the U.S. can log in and then select an appropriate gesture of goodwill based upon mileage plus status.
Specifically, in cases where a flight taxi out is greater than four hours, taxi in is greater than 90 minutes, diversions are greater than four hours or a diversion that cancels, United will make an on-board announcement to log in to united.com/appreciation where mileage plus frequent flyers can choose from travel certificates, percentage off coupons, miles, or upgrades. Travelers should retain their boarding pass and their flight information to complete the online form.
How about that? So, if you’re stuck on an airplane out there somewhere, instead of getting all upset and frustrated about it, they’re going to tell you, go to this website on American Airlines, based on your status with us you can choose what you’d like to have – what you’d like to receive as a form of kind of appreciation from us for your patience today and we’re really sorry for the inconvenience.
Jon Trask: Wow. That’s kind of crazy.
Tom Hillmer: Isn’t that amazing?
Mike McAllen: It’s a good idea.
Tom Hillmer: Yes.
Mike McAllen: It’s a good idea, yes. Huh, how interesting.
Tom Hillmer: So …
Mike McAllen: So, anyone could do that or you have to be …
Tom Hillmer: Well I think, it says here based on your status. So, it’s not to say anybody you know, if you’re somebody who’s never flown United before and you’re stuck on a plane for six hours or something, I’m sure there is some level of you know, satisfaction …
Mike McAllen: Right.
Tom Hillmer: … be given to you but if you are you know, a premiere executive and you’re stuck on that same place, same plane your you know, your reward if you will or appreciation you know, acknowledgement will be probably somewhat greater than somebody who never flies them but …
Mike McAllen: So, interesting. That’s great. Great stuff. That’s great.
Tom Hillmer: Well, there you go.
Mike McAllen: There you go. That’s great. All right. Well, maybe we should, we should – we’ve done a nice little show I think and …
Tom Hillmer: Yes.
Mike McAllen: … why don’t we talk again next week.
Tom Hillmer: Well, I’m good.
Mike McAllen: Are you off traveling anywhere?
Tom Hillmer: I am. I’m heading to San Diego on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then heading to the desert in Vegas here in the middle of next week. So, I’ll probably be talking to you from Vegas next week.
Mike McAllen: Okay. So, and I’m going to be around here I think for a while. So, that’s good. And in closing, I’d like to remind everyone to call in and use the comment line. It’s 510-735-9690 or e-mail us at MeetingsPodcast@gmail.com. And I guess we’ll talk next week. Right, Tom?
Tom Hillmer: Perfect. Sounds great. Thanks, everybody.
Mike McAllen: Yes.
Tom Hillmer: Have a great day.
Female: We appreciate and thank you for listening to the Meetings Podcast. You can find Mike McAllen at grassshackroad.com, Jon Trask at alliantevents.com, and Tom Hillmer at creativegroupinc.com. The Meetings Podcast theme music comes from the Delgado Brothers which can be found at DelgadoBrothers.com. Special thanks to RipTideGraphics.com for the audio editing of this podcast.
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