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Final HfP Christmas Party tickets sold at 10am – three new raffle prizes added

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The 2nd and final batch of tickets for the Head for Points reader Christmas party, sponsored by Qatar Airways, will go on sale at 10am today, Saturday.

The party will take place on Tuesday 12th December from 6pm to 8pm at the Dry Martini Bar at the Melia White House hotel, Regents Park (Great Portland Street tube).

The link to buy is here.

melia-white-house

The first 75 tickets sold out in a minute yesterday.  If you missed out, hopefully you can jump in today.

(It is quite clear now that not everyone who wants to come will be able to make it.  Sorry.  Last year it took us 8 hours to sell 150 tickets – and the price was cheaper – so we never expected such overwhelming demand this year.  It looks like around 1,000 people tried to get tickets yesterday.  Next year we will look at a different model, potentially a nominal entry fee with a cash bar and space for 300 instead of 150.  However, for 2017, we are where we are.)

Three new raffle prizes added

Every guest on the night will get a free raffle ticket.  We now have roughly £4,500 of prizes to give out.

Warning – the raffle could take a while, given how many prizes we now have!  The upside is that your chance of winning is better than 1 in 10.

Here are the three new prizes we are announcing today:

  • Avios Group – 20,000 Avios
  • Virgin Flying Club – 20,000 Virgin Flying Club miles
  • Vueling – a €500 flight voucher, which should be enough to get two people a return flight in ‘Excellence’ class (terms and conditions apply)

Thanks to Drew, Karen and Adam for these prizes.

As a reminder, here are the other raffle prizes that have generously been offered so far:

The main prize:

  • Qatar Airways:  1 Business Class return ticket from the UK to any Qatar Airways destination (some small print applies, but not much)

And:

And a goody bag

Every guest will take home a goody bag.  We have some decent items lined up to include.

If your company would like to contribute promotional material (150 sets needed) to the goody bags in return for a contribution towards the bar bill, please email me at anika at headforpoints.com.

How do I get my ticket?

Because we need to ensure that people who ask for tickets turn up, we are charging £20 per ticket.  This price includes VAT.

However, your £20 ticket covers unlimited house wine and beer between 6pm and 8pm.  Soft drinks will also be available.  Spirits etc can be purchased for cash.  We are not making a penny from this and indeed Qatar Airways is footing the bulk of the cost.  After 8pm, the bar will remain open for cash payments for anyone who wants to stay longer.

The 2nd and final batch of tickets will go on sale TODAY at 10am via this link.  Realistically I would not expect them to last beyond 10.05.

You can buy up to two tickets per person. American Express is accepted.

Thank you to Qatar Airways

We couldn’t have put the party together without generous financial support from Qatar Airways.

Regular readers will know that we rate the Qatar Airways business class product very highly – especially the new Qsuite currently being introduced (photo below) which comes with its own door.

The fact that you can earn Avios and British Airways tier points when you fly with Qatar Airways, due to their membership of the oneworld alliance, is an extra bonus.  If the prize winner books themselves onto a Boeing 777 service from London Heathrow they have an excellent chance of being able to try Qsuite!

There will be Qatar Airways staff at the party if you want to know more about what they have to offer.

Qatar Airways Qsuite

Comments (160)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Ro says:

    at 10:00 it already said sold out!

  • Rob says:

    For everyone who missed out on tickets – anyone up for having a drink in the pub across the road from the Melia around 6.30 and then heading in to the bar at 8? Might have a problem if 500 people turn up!

  • David says:

    Likewise Stuart 2 days in a row sat refreshing from 09:57 – bang on 10:00 said 50 left – pressed checkout and they were gone.

    Maybe we need the I am not a robot thing in case the IT wizzes found a way to grab them!!!

    A shame but enjoy the party everyone who managed to get tickets

  • Solar says:

    Yes same issue with me. I was refreshed at 10.00am, clicked through to Buy and they had gone.
    Not Robs fault of course, maybe some kind of ballot next year?
    Or some prizes for distance prize draw entry 🙂
    Shame, I will be in London on 12th evening and will have to find something else to do now!

    • Rob says:

      Come down at 8pm for a beer.

      • Mickael says:

        Is there an after party? 🙂
        Happy to turn up at 8pm for a drink as no luck to get a ticket for the event itself.

      • Polly says:

        As l said on the other page the real party starts at 8!…rob you did miss a trick there. Surely you can get back on to the Melia and negotiate that or else everyone goes across the road!

  • Jamie says:

    150 tickets isn’t a lot for the size of this site and number of users interested so obviously most people will be disappointed (including myself). But it’s a nice thing for this site/community to do so I hope people are not too negative. A quick google shows lots of ways of using bots for eventbrite – so hopefully a fairer method, or some kind of raffle is used next time… maybe someone successful can advise on using bots? I’d quite like to go to Glastonbury next time round…

  • andijs2000 says:

    Well that ticket sale was about as big a fiasco as the Amex Pop up lounge access!
    Logged on at 09.58, refreshed page and At bang on 10.00am it constantly shows ‘unavailable’ despite refreshing the page.
    Maybe a ‘lottery’ system next year HFP…. would be fairer!

  • Mikescores says:

    My wife and I sat at our two computers – on mine, first not yet on sale, then less than ten seconds later, unavailable, then shortly after, sold out.
    Not your fault, Rob, I’m sure, but there is something amiss, maybe at the event site ????
    As Tony above says, some people or something are playing the system, or there is something going on at Eventbrite.

    • Steve says:

      It’s just pure luck. I was hitting refresh from around 2 minutes before 10am. I did it many times like this on eventbrite for different events. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes not. If 300+ people are trying to snap 75 tickets it’s a simple math. Whoever will refresh at the right time gets the ticket. That’s how it is.

  • Rachael says:

    I sat there from 9.50 and for 15 mins it said not available and went separately on Everbrite and the same not on sale and then bag all gone ???!!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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