How does March 28-31 in Denver sound for BWE '19?

[stefan]

'89 Lynch from a magnum! Sounds great.

[Blanquito]

I’ve got a magnum of the 1980 Montelena Estate Cab for Friday night. One of the best Cali cabs I’ve had. Not the 89 Lynch en magnum, but hey.

[SF Ed]

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I'll bring a 1989 d'Yquem at minimum for Saturday.

SF Ed

[Blanquito]

Jim, can you add Ted to the list? He’s in for Saturday with an 89 Magdelaine.

[JimHow]

Will do!

Potential attendees:

Patrick + Bro
Tom + Gail
Jim How
SF Ed + Lisa
Stefan + Lucie
Ian + Maureen
Bill + Linda
danzur + Lisa
Winona Chief + Marjorie
David + Peggy
Arv
RPCV
MichaelP + Nalan
Glenn
Krista + Gabor
Jacques + Jill
Steve + Stephanie
Rob + Sue
Stuart + Kathy
Gerry M
Nicola
gene m.
CabFan + 2
Ted

Total: 41

[Comte Flaneur]

Question - if we are over 40 we will need at least 2 bottles of each wine....one bottle of a particular wine will be insufficient. Even two will give minuscule pours. How do we deal with that problem?

[JimHow]

It hasn’t been a problem in conventions for the past decade or so.
A significant percentage usually decides not to attend in the end.
We haven’t been doing any blind tastings, either, it has just been an orgy of wine.
You know me, I’m always of the mindset that more is better, but I defer to the organizers.

[stefan]

Ian, you just resign yourself to not trying every wine.

[Blanquito]

It hasn’t been a problem in conventions for the past decade or so.
A significant percentage usually decides not to attend in the end.

This has been the case. Assuming so this year too, that it will work out fine.

But once the smoke clears, we’ll be on a rough cap of ~40 given the size of the venues.

The one convention i attended that had a blind tasting on Saturday night had a flight of 4 wines with multiple bottles of just those wines so that everyone got good pours. I’d be up for trying something like that again.

[AKR]

Not sure if this is actionable but I'm seeing stories that the Grand Hyatt Denver has some of their bigger suites available on sale.

https://extremehoteldeals.com/hotel-deal-alerts/ which if you scroll down and look for Denver it leads to this

https://www.hyatt.com/shop/denrd?rooms= ... d=HI101520

Their 800 ft exec suite is $200 for that Saturday night for example.

Some of the other potential bookings have Club access

I don't have a sense for what room rates are in that city are though.

So for those of you who might have an eligible Chase card, and haven't booked a room yet, you might look at this

https://www.lhrcollection.com/

The Denver Grand Hyatt participates in that program.

Basically the difference is that you get treated like you're a Hyatt member with status, for only a couple of bucks more, and you get to append your WOH loyalty number (if that matters).

Most OTA bookings don't allow that, although booking direct through Hyatt does.

To compare

Booking a cancellable Sat night room through Hyatt (2 queens) $135 all in
Booking a cancellable through LHR, if you have an eligible Chase card, $149 but that booking includes Breakfast, early/late checkout, potential for upgrade, internet etc.

The LHR website is a little wonky, and the room types are a little murky. I would look closely at Hyatt and then make the assumption the order is the same e.g. you can't tell which of the 392 sq ft rooms is actually a King vs 2 Queens, but most online booking channels sort this hotel by King first, Queens second.

However these are traditional pay at the hotel rates with cancellation permitted, they don't have the Pre Paid rates offers.

For a variety of reasons specific to my card I would rather book a prepaid rate, so I don't think I'll avail myself of this but I think for couples, or anyone with no Hyatt lovin, this looks good.

This Grand Hyatt doesn't seem to participate in other stuff like Amex FHR, VisaSignatureHotels etc.

Generally I don't use those booking programs, but they have their fans, especially for those who are doing shorter stays, when there can be some value.

PS: I ended up booking a Sat night room at that Grand Hyatt afterwards through the normal Hyatt site, along with an (overpriced) Southwest flight back.

[JeanFred]

Excellent, I'm going to put you down Nicola. How about JeanFred?

Potential attendees:


Total: 36

JeanFred just wake up...

I will be in Denver BWE at the end of march

I am very happy to be present and I can not wait to see you again

JeanFred

[JimHow]

Welcome to the thread, JeanFred. Looking forward to seeing you!
We thought you were going to be in a marathon or something.

Potential attendees:

Patrick + Bro
Tom + Gail
Jim How
SF Ed + Lisa
Stefan + Lucie
Ian + Maureen
Bill + Linda
danzur + Lisa
Winona Chief + Marjorie
David + Peggy
Arv
RPCV
MichaelP + Nalan
Glenn
Krista + Gabor
Jacques + Jill
Steve + Stephanie
Rob + Sue
Stuart + Kathy
Gerry M
Nicola
gene m.
CabFan + 2
Ted
JeanFred

Total: 42

[JeanFred]

Welcome to the thread, JeanFred. Looking forward to seeing you!
We thought you were going to be in a marathon or something.


Total: 42

Effectively, I will run the Paris Marathon on April 14th. That why I hesitate to be the there and I was late to answer.
But the temptation to be at the Convention was to great. I will do both. Drinking then Running

[Nicklasss]

We'll be staying at the Grand Hyatt as well. And it's no game.

Nic

[Tom In DC]

BUMP.

Any others? 42 seems one of the bigger groups we've seen in a while, but I'm the same age as DavidG so my memory might be failing. Happy 2016 everyone!

Tom

[Blanquito]

We are finalizing Friday and Saturday venues, and we are at right about our cap (45 is the absolute max), so if you’ve been watching this thread but have yet to declare your intent to join the Convention 2019, please do so soon.

[RPCV]

Apologies but I am too lazy to look through the entire thread for our hotel of choice. Many thanks and Happy New Year.

[JimHow]

Grand Hyatt Denver:

https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/color ... nver/denrd

[JimHow]

Potential attendees:

Patrick + Bro
Tom + Gail
Jim How
SF Ed + Lisa
Stefan + Lucie
Ian + Maureen
Bill + Linda
danzur + Lisa
Winona Chief + Marjorie
David + Peggy
Arv
RPCV
MichaelP + Nalan
Glenn
Krista + Gabor
Jacques + Jill
Steve + Stephanie
Rob + Sue
Stuart + Kathy
Gerry M
Nicola
gene m.
CabFan + 2
Ted
JeanFred
hm$ + Lisa

Total: 44

[Blanquito]

Shaping up for an epic turnout, fantastic!

[JimHow]

hm$ will be in the building.

[AKR]

"86 Talbot in Imperial is the greatest. I said that even before I knew who HM$ was"

[Michael-P]

Arv: tell us about the great photo!

Our good friends in Denver, Rich and Liz, say they are sending their check for Fri and/or Sat......

Michael-P

[Blanquito]

Michael, does Jim need to add Rich and Liz to the master list, as it looks?

[JimHow]

Will do...

Potential attendees:

Patrick + Bro
Tom + Gail
Jim How
SF Ed + Lisa
Stefan + Lucie
Ian + Maureen
Bill + Linda
danzur + Lisa
Winona Chief + Marjorie
David + Peggy
Arv
RPCV
MichaelP + Nalan
Glenn
Krista + Gabor
Jacques + Jill
Steve + Stephanie
Rob + Sue
Stuart + Kathy
Gerry M
Nicola
gene m.
CabFan + 2
Ted
JeanFred
hm$ + Lisa
Rich + Liz

Total: 46

[Sdayton]

Rob and I will unfortunately be unable to attend! We miss all of you!!!!

[danzur]

Well, Lisa and I are out too. My job has been relocated and we will be moving in early March. We won't have the opportunity to travel back anytime soon.

Bummed that we will miss it...

[AKR]

For those of you are flying into Denver on Southwest, take a look at current fares.

Due to their ongoing mechanic slowdown issues (40 planes a day are out of service etc.) they have had to cut fares.

Since WN lets people cancel and rebook for free, it gives travelers a free option on falling airfares.

I just took 5 minutes and cancelled/rebooked my exact same flight home and saved 40%.

It had dropped 10% before, but I had not bothered, but with this move I decided to do it.

It's actually pretty painless and can be done online.

A fair point can be made that maybe one should simply cancel and find a different carrier.

But I guess I'd say that if one was willing to deal/risk WN already, they might as well keep the hand.

Most of the time this "option" can't be exercised since fares tend to climb closer to travel dates, but sometimes the stars align for this.

PS: note the prior confirmation number, since you can re-use the taxes paid previously if you were using RR points.

[AKR]

For those who are not staying at the Grand Hyatt, and might want / prefer the Hyatt Regency, there is a Pay 3 / Stay 4 promo that got released

https://www.hyatt.com/promo/hyatt-regency-free-night

Just be careful and check the actual rates involved.

Sometimes these 'free' deals pump up the rates vs. the normal BFR to make it look like its a deal.

Deal doesn't apply to the Grand though.