Thank you for coming to the Head for Points Summer Party last night

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• Froggee says:

  28 Jun28 June 08:46

  Sorry. There was a party and I wasn’t invited?

  • Peter K says:

    28 Jun28 June 12:33

    It must be because it didn’t rain so it wasn’t “nice weather for frogs” 😉

• Sundar says:

  28 Jun28 June 08:48

  Great event as usual, thanks Rob, Rhys, Sinead and rest of HfP for arranging/organizing. Lots of industry folks to speak with and some great new contacts made with like-minded folks.
  Congratulations to all the winners, although building up the suspense for the big prize to be the last would have been even better 🙂
  Looking forward to the Winter party/meet-up, we need more such events and local ones to be self-arranged(Forum idea)

  • Rob says:

    28 Jun28 June 08:56

    Agree with you in theory but, because Malaysia wanted to say a few words, we thought it made sense to draw them first and keep all the speeches together.

    • Flyer123 says:

      28 Jun28 June 09:12

      Makes sense Rob. Thanks for the event, great speaking with you yesterday and looking forward to the next event already 😄

• G1801 says:

  28 Jun28 June 09:01

  Great event, thank you very much to the HFP team and everyone else involved. Was lucky enough to snag one of the Hilton prizes which I am thrilled about and can’t wait to use!

• Davedent says:

  28 Jun28 June 09:15

  Is it possible to have it up North next time ? ….

  • PaulC says:

    28 Jun28 June 09:18

    + one

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    28 Jun28 June 09:30

    + 1 and I know a few people I met last night would plus 1 if they contributed to the comments!

    • Rob says:

      28 Jun28 June 09:37

      No, basically.

      Rhys may do a few more impromptu free drinks events when his travels take him outside the M25 though. The Liverpool one went down well.

      However, as a reminder, we only got 10 people to come out in Liverpool even when we offered to pick up the entire drinks bill for the evening and made no charge for coming along. We can sell 500 tickets for a ‘buy your own drinks’ London event in 3 minutes ….

      • SammyJ says:

        28 Jun28 June 09:59

        With a bit of notice and a decent raffle prize you’d easily sell out an event in Manchester/Leeds in just as short a timescale. I’m not going to drop everything with a few hours notice and get a train to Liverpool for a very low-key couple of glasses of wine with one journalist (no offence to Rhys!), but would happily travel for a proper event with lots of industry experts and a few weeks notice.

        • Rob says:

          28 Jun28 June 10:16

          Not sure where we’re meant to find any travel loyalty industry experts in Leeds but if we track any down ….!

      • Aston100 says:

        28 Jun28 June 10:17

        To be fair, there was something like 24-36 hours notice for the event in Liverpool, so not really a surprise if there wasn’t a big turn out.

        • Peter K says:

          28 Jun28 June 12:36

          I agree with Aston100. The really short notice, and only really mentioning it on the forums, means that a poor turnout was basically guaranteed.

        • Rob says:

          28 Jun28 June 13:23

          It was in a mainstream Bits article, emailed to 17k people plus however many read it on the site.

      • No Longer Entitled says:

        28 Jun28 June 10:33

        Impromptu drinks tour of outposts outside the M25 would be welcomed and I’m sure with notice would be well attended. Not ‘London Party’ well attended, but better than sitting in a hotel room on your own well attended.

        I might even bring one of my cars so the Rhys can have a picture with his hands all over it. ;o)

      • Robert says:

        28 Jun28 June 13:24

        Really enjoyed the event, with no issues travelling from Newcastle. Great to meet Rob, Sinead and the HfP team. Had some great chats with the reps, lots of useful insights. Shame I missed Emyr and a couple of others. I’ll also look out for any future impromptu events in the northern cities. Edinburgh would be great, maybe around the W opening! Big Thankyou to Rob and HfP team, Seatspy, Marriott, Malaysia, Hyatt, Qatar and all involved for making it a truly memorable occasion.

        • Rob says:

          28 Jun28 June 14:23

          Emyr was there but left before the raffle, which is why he didn’t get a shout out.

    • Rhys says:

      28 Jun28 June 09:54

      Isn’t it easier for you lot to come down to London than it is to get to each other’s cities? Newcastle to Manchester or Birmingham must take as long on the train as it takes to London….

      • SammyJ says:

        28 Jun28 June 09:59

        In a word, no, it’s not.

        • Rhys says:

          28 Jun28 June 11:07

          The train times are remarkably similar 🙂

        • Peter K says:

          28 Jun28 June 12:42

          Agreed, it’s really not. You assume that everyone in the north lives in cities. Those who don’t do so have to potentially drive to a station and will likely have 3 or 4 changeover of trains to get to an event in London.

          It’s certainly *much* easier to get to multiple cities in the north than London.

        • mvcvz says:

          28 Jun28 June 13:39

          That’s three words.

      • MattH says:

        28 Jun28 June 11:13

        I popped down from Manchester yesterday having successfully got a ticket. Last time I bagged a spot was the 2016 Christmas Party and very last minute I could not make it! It was just me on my own and I knew no-one but it was great chatting with a lot of friendly folk, including Rob and Rhys! I don’t personally feel a need for a separate northern meet-up – a large annual event is always going to be more enjoyable than smaller and more regular events, and of course the Renaissance is an absolute doddle to get to from on the train from MAN to EUS.

        And you can get a photo by the Spice Girls staircase 🤣

        • Super Secret Stuff says:

          28 Jun28 June 16:27

          I’m really annoyed I didn’t find the staircase!

      • yorkieflyer says:

        28 Jun28 June 11:36

        Sadly true

  • Peter K says:

    28 Jun28 June 20:52

    I’ve just checked and it seems the email and bits article for the Liverpool drinks was sent out the day of the event.
    I have no issues with HfP deciding that only having events in London works best for them. That is true for many things and it makes sense for many reasons. I think it’s disingenuous to use this one Liverpool event as your proof that regional events don’t work however.

    A small thing with a week’s notice up north would be welcome for many more in sure though 🙂

    • Rob says:

      28 Jun28 June 21:31

      The forum post went up of Monday 22nd for a meet-up on Wednesday 24th. The email went out Tuesday 23rd.

      • ADS says:

        29 Jun29 June 17:29

        Yes indeed – I think that’s the point

        It’s unfair to claim “only 10 people were interested” when there was only just over a day’s notice !

        [sent from London]

• CatS says:

  28 Jun28 June 09:22

  +one for a northern party event please

• Super Secret Stuff says:

  28 Jun28 June 09:31

  Great event and well done to the organisers!

• Philondon says:

  28 Jun28 June 09:59

  Just wondering if you invited Virgin Voyages to the event? They might be a good business to invite with the interest on the cruise for 80,000 points on here.

  My partner and I just returned from the Greek Glow cruise and loved it! Thanks so much Rob for writing about it.

  The cruise was like a 5 star hotel. All employees were very friendly and helpful especially the people who clean the cabins. Restaurants were very good, as were the shows. We’ve already decided we want to do another VV cruise either in December (if there is another points deal) or next summer. Fingers crossed for points deals.

  • Rob says:

    28 Jun28 June 10:16

    Virgin Voyages were there, yes.

    • Stephen says:

      28 Jun28 June 10:20

      Unfortunately couldn’t make it due to work, any insights from them about ongoing / future Virgin Red offers?

      • Rob says:

        28 Jun28 June 10:21

        I never actually spoke to the guy …. not sure if anyone else did?

• Doommonger says:

  28 Jun28 June 10:10

  Not enough bar staff, PA not brilliant, but being a bit mutton maybe its me, cup cakes sublime, good beers, some interesting guests, and the usual bores such as myself. Finished off the evening in the company of a couple of delightful east European ladies in the Booking Hall bar.

  • Rob says:

    28 Jun28 June 10:13

    Compared to parties past, the bar was better run this year (and our contract this year specified a minimum number of staff). It’s never going to be perfect unless we stop it being a full bar (obviously people ordering cocktails doesn’t help) and restrict it to a tight range of easy to pour options. I never saw any major queues though, and having wine available at the door this year meant that most people could get a drink in their hands before they even got to the name badges.

    I agree the audio sounded muffled to me but, as I was standing next to the stage, I wasn’t sure if it was just me. It’s a difficult room for acoustics though.

    • The Original David says:

      28 Jun28 June 13:08

      Strongly support removing the “full bar” option. Anyone ordering cocktails at that sort of event needs to take a long hard look at themselves…

      • Rhys says:

        28 Jun28 June 13:11

        Don’t think anyone could to be fair!

    • Tariq says:

      28 Jun28 June 18:00

      Wine at the door was a very effective addition, thought it was a really good idea.

  • Rhys says:

    28 Jun28 June 11:09

    Queues were fine right up until the raffle when everyone decided they wanted to get a drink before/after, understandably.

    Annoyingly the hotel only had a couple of card machines – spoke to the team about this after and they are just as frustrated and fighting to get that improved.

    Re:audio I asked this of everyone I spoke to, and I think so long as you were in front of the speakers you were fine. If you were behind (like we were on the stage) it was impossible. But that’s done for feedback issues unfortunately – don’t want to give anyone tinnitus!

    • MattH says:

      28 Jun28 June 11:18

      Audio sounded very good. A casual glance at the kit, and I suspect it may have been cranked louder, but then you need a tech (£) on hand to keep things in line/avoid feedback/distortion/damage!

      Indeed you and Rob won’t have heard it clearly behind the speakers without monitoring on stage, but that brings its own costs/complications!

      Personally I would have asked Malaysia rep to say the words with the speech and then let them wait side of stage till the end of the draw to build the most tension for the top prize, but just my tuppence worth.

      Great event! WELL DONE ALL!

      • StanTheMan says:

        28 Jun28 June 12:05

        Isn’t there some odd rule/law that a top prize must be drawn first. If you leave it till the end, the smaller prize winners are deprived of having a chance of ever winning the big one….

        • Rob says:

          28 Jun28 June 13:23

          Fair point, didn’t think of it that way but I see where you’re coming from.

        • MattH says:

          28 Jun28 June 13:59

          Excellent point @StanTheMan! I suppose the numbers would have to be pre-drawn earlier and could then be revealed in an alternate order for that “suspense” to be a fair draw!!

        • StanTheMan says:

          28 Jun28 June 15:26

          I’m sure this was tested in a bizarre case years ago when a load of smaller prize winners demanded their ticket money back in a raffle. They had bought them with the lure of the big prize, but their tickets werent in the draw to have a chance of winning it!

        • memesweeper says:

          28 Jun28 June 18:58

          You are right – draw top prize first is mandatory.

          The order you *announce* is not mandatory…

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