Join us for an exclusive Head for Points private dinner in Soho

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• Ed says:

  21 Sep21 September 06:36

  Hi, I’d certainly be interested in attending, but because I don’t live in London, heading down midweek knowing I have to be back and up for work the next morning makes it prohibitive. I understand why the economics may not work on a Friday night or Saturday lunchtime, I also know you already get feedback about being too London-centric. Perhaps you have stats that tell you 80% of your readers are London based, but I’m sure it’s doubtful 80% of Exec Club members or Virgin Atlantic members are etc, so excluding use seems to exclude a lot of view points.

  • Callum says:

    21 Sep21 September 06:49

    I really despise this argument… No-one is excluding you, you’re excluding yourself. If you don’t want to put in the effort to get there (completely understandable) why should they be expected to put in the effort to travel to where you live? It’s not like this is a public service and you’re being deprived of anything major if you miss it.

    Though granted, this format is the perfect one to take around the country given its relatively simple to organise, so I guess they may do so in the future.

    • C77 says:

      21 Sep21 September 07:04

      +1
      And no I don’t live in London either but I accept the MAJORITY of the sites demographic will gravitate towards the capital city. Lets face it if people felt the absolute need to attend for whatever reason, they’d make it happen and wouldn’t be moaning about the location or work the next day.

      • Andrew says:

        21 Sep21 September 07:44

        It’s the “angry mum” attitude – wanting to know why “nobody” runs youth or sports groups.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      21 Sep21 September 07:09

      No idea of the demographics, but If it was outside London one thing’s for sure; you wouldn’t still be making a big per person loss after filling a room for a set menu at £65/head… 😉

  • Nick says:

    21 Sep21 September 10:14

    Such attitudes are life long

    Almost certain it was the same in your late teens when friends said “we’re going to x for the weekend”. And you relied. “ I would come but….”

• Planning Geek says:

  21 Sep21 September 06:46

  Why is everything in London?

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    21 Sep21 September 07:14

    It is because HfP are speaking in an echo chamber. If you came to our event (in London) you will have received a survey. Now we are hosting a proof of concept (in London) where a judgement will be made on future viability. Presumably feedback such as, I’d rather meet in Holborn will be warmly recieved.

    Given the ease of transporting this concept, and the regular feedback about more diversity of location, it is a shame that this wasn’t done in this instance if only for PR reasons. Good chance that those in Edinburgh, Manchester, or Bristol would have gladly paid full whack rather than HfP subsiding. At £65 this is a steal.

    • Rob says:

      21 Sep21 September 09:57

      The ‘proof of concept’ is the whole concept – the room, the food quality etc. Any future sponsored events will be in the same room in the same restaurant unless the sponsor wants to go outside London.

      • Mr(s) Entitled says:

        21 Sep21 September 10:29

        Ah, that was not the inference I took from the article about future events. To be fair, I can see the logic behind picking a sole location as it removes a number of variables in terms of cost, quality, ambiance etc if you were to move around. Unless of course you picked a restaurant with a national presence and strong uniformity. I’ll take the Sloppy Guiseppe and and bottle of Peroni Libre please.

        • Rob says:

          21 Sep21 September 10:34

          If we’re going to ask companies to stump up £3-4k to pay for a dinner then we have to know exactly how it will work.

  • Andrew says:

    21 Sep21 September 07:43

    It’s the same kind of whining no matter where an event is held.

    We held one in Edinburgh (instead of London), nothing but angry weegies complaining about having to travel to the capital. Identical with Leeds/Manchester.

    We’ve given up trying. The venues are cheaper in London (yes, really!), A vast number of people live within 90 minutes of key London venues, we don’t have to pay accommodation for organisers as we all live within an hour of London and we don’t make a loss.

  • Ian M says:

    21 Sep21 September 08:06

    London is the capital and has by far the biggest population of any city in the UK and the best transport links to it from other areas. It would be rather odd if it wasn’t in London! I say this a someone that does not live in London, but has some common sense!

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      21 Sep21 September 08:16

      All of which is true, but there is a difference between trying to fill a room with 200 people or a room with 20.

      Which is not to say that the decision to host in London is anything but logical. But that doesn’t preclude others making a contrary point that it could have been viable elsewhere. Never more so than the first event where there is no suggestion of having to convince an employee of a travel company to spend the day/night in a “backwater”.

  • John says:

    21 Sep21 September 08:27

    Nothing is stopping you from organising your own meet up.

    If the aim of this event is to meet other HFPers it can happen anywhere. You could make a proposal on this post or any Bits post. If the aim is to meet Rob, as he lives in London the event is probably going to be in London.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      21 Sep21 September 08:35

      Or Yorkshire.

      • Lady London says:

        22 Sep22 September 21:43

        With better food.

    • Mikeact says:

      21 Sep21 September 08:36

      I’ve been to a couple of FlyerTalk meet ups, and they certainly weren’t in London, but I wanted to attend, and made the necessary arrangements…..my own time…..my own money.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    21 Sep21 September 09:04

    Because everything is in London…

  • Lady London says:

    22 Sep22 September 21:42

    Why is everything in London?

    Because everyone is in London.

    🙂

• Genghis says:

  21 Sep21 September 07:15

  Good idea. I can’t make 10th (work travel) but I’d be interested in future events.

• Shoestring says:

  21 Sep21 September 07:16

  I presume it’s not ice cream for the starter!

  Stracciatella is a term used for three different types of Italian food:
  Stracciatella (soup), an egg drop soup popular in central Italy
  Stracciatella (ice cream), a gelato variety with chocolate flakes, inspired by the soup
  Stracciatella di bufala, a variety of soft Italian buffalo cheese from the Apulia region

• Polly says:

  21 Sep21 September 07:34

  Shame, we are away that week. Love the idea. And yes maybe hfp will take it to a couple of key areas outside London in the future.
  Seriously, some people are never pleased. Stop moaning.

• Sam says:

  21 Sep21 September 07:50

  Presumably if Rob, Rhys and some airline / hotel executives have to traipse up to some backwater to attend an event then that’s going to add to the costs.

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    21 Sep21 September 08:26

    You don’t have to presume. You can deduce.

    The article specifically mentions no outside involvement. It also stipulates that only Rob and Rhys will be in attendance. It lists the ticket as £65 but the actual cost “over £100”.

    Now we can make our first presumption. Let’s say to be conservative the actual cost is £101. A £36 loss multiplied by 24 attendees is £864.

    Do you think travel to a “backwater” for two is more or less than £864? Does your answer change if accomodation is required? Does your answer change if additional business can be extracted from the day/travel to said “backwater”?

    The big question is really one of time/value. Much harder to be definitive on a subjective call.

• Brighton Belle says:

  21 Sep21 September 07:51

  Extinction Rebellion might take a few seats which will be an interesting evening of unintended consequences. Ok I’m joking today but this is going to become a possibility soon to make easy headlines.

• Mackem says:

  21 Sep21 September 07:52

  Chill out peeps.

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