Star Alliance MegaDO 2 Travel Blogger Buzz TBB

Travel with the Star MegaDO crazy frequent flier group!

TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order!

You can support TBB by applying for CREDIT CARDS and clicking/forwarding any of our Referral Links

Flipping through my computer I found these pictures from Star MegaDO 2 back in 2010. I never got around to do a trip report so here it is! Memory is very fuzzy so please comment if you were there and add your commentary to improve it!

What is the Star MegaDO?

Well, you can read the site set up for it and the blog posts about it HERE. I believe there have been four Star MegaDo events to date.

TBB, are you crazy, you paid how much for it?

Hey I am TBB, I love trips for FREE! And this was totally free!

Get out, stop joking around TBB, tell us how much you paid for it?

Not joking, it was FREE!

Holy crap TBB, how did YOU do it?

I won a contest on Twitter by Lufthansa! Here is how it went down. A week before the trip Lufthansa came up with this simple contest on Twitter instructing followers to RT (retweet) one of their tweets. Contest only lasted a few days. So…I did. A few days later (and about 5 days before the trip started) I received an email that I am a winner and must contact them. My first thought was…Yeah right…is this phone number in Nigeria? Actually it was not! Since I lived in Detroit it was a little more difficult but working with the nice Lufthansa folks everything was set up in a few days. I told family “I am going to NYC, Frankfurt, Houston, Phoenix, Boeing factory, Seattle, Houston next week” for free! They told me “we are so proud of you!”.

Come on, was it really free? What did it cover?

Reception in the JFK Senator Lounge by Lufthansa

Flight JFK to Frakfurt on Lufthansa in Coach (almost got Business class)

Wined and dined in Lufthansa Headquarters in Frankfurt

Night at the Frankfurt Sheraton

Flight Frankfurt to Houston on Lufthansa in Coach

Two nights at the Sheraton by Houston airport

Entrance fee to the Frequent Traveler Awards

Continental Charter flight to Phoenix

Entrance fee to the Lufthansa Pilot Training Center with time on the actual flight stimulator

Continental Charter flight from Phoenix to the Everett Field in Boeing’s Factory

Tour of Boeing Factory

Bus ride to the Westin Seattle

Starwood Reception in the Seattle Westin

Continental flight Seattle to Houston

Continental flight Houston to Detroit

You rock TBB!

Thanks. You have no idea how long this took! Click my links lol.

So here are the pictures (You can click the pictures to make them larger), here we go:

boeing factory floor group picture tbb — Group picture. Boeing Factory Floor

detroit airport dtw star mega do 2 — Detroit Airport. Here we go! I was so fat back then!

I had to pay my way to New York City so I can make it to the small reception in the hotel before starting the trip the next day. Lufthansa was willing to fly me direct from Detroit to Frankfurt and join the group there but I preferred to burn some Avios miles and join the group festivities in New York. I stayed one night at brother in law’s apartment about five blocks away from the Westin #winning.

westin new york city times square — Nice hotel, perfect location!

flyertalk star megado reception new york city — We had a little informal gathering at an Italian restaurant nearby before the reception at the Westin

IMG_0823A — Nice small reception by the hotel manager, a Starwood rep and yummy stuff by the Chef

Flyertalker MegaDOers in the lounge tasting the food by the Chef

lufthansa senator lounge NYC airport — Next day we made our way to JFK & Lufthansa’s Senator Lounge. Impressive. Like I know what I am talking about lol.

lounge senator lufthansa new york city jfk airport — Lots of networking in the lounge!

lounge lufthansa senator first class business New York City JFK airport — Loved the food and drinks, they taste so much better when they are free!

jfk airport senator lounge new york city — I like to talk about drinking but I am a lightweight really. Here I am drinking…water!

food reception lounge senator nyc jfk airport — Since my attempts to snag a Business Class seat were not successful…I had to get my money’s worth for dinner!

lufthansa airline staff reception senator lounge jfk airport nyc — Lufthansa airline folks giving us a little pep talk about being German and stuff like that.

senator lounge first class jfk airport nyc — Took a tour of the Senator Lounge and got a peak in the First Class lounge.

senator lounge jfk airport nyc lufthansa — Time to fly, lets go!

lufthansa frankfurt airplane nyc jfk airport — Hello there, take us to Frankfurt!

lufthansa economy coach airplane seats — Packed like sardines in coach. Seat was hard as a rock. I am not complaining, just telling it like it is.

sheraton frankfurt fra airport lobby — Gathering in the lobby of the Sheraton in Frankfurt to

lufthansa frankfurt airport bus — ride the bus to the Lufthansa facilities inside Frankfurt’s airport

lufthansa flyertalk frankfurt airport — using our cool FlyerTalk badges.

lufthansa frankfurt airport security screening — Private security screening for our group, suck it TSA!

lufthansa airplanes frankfurt — We toured airplanes

a380 lufthansa frankfurt airplanes — First A380 about to fly soon thereafter for the first time…I think

airplane lufthansa frankfurt tarmac — Sometimes, once in 1,000 pics, I manage a great one. This is one of them!

seats business first class lufthansa — We played around with the seats

lufthansa first business class seats — Even checked out the flat beds

lufthansa flat bed airplane — Is this flat or what?

business class seat lufthansa — I remember I was so tired as I did not get much sleep the night before on the plane. Those flat beds looked so good!

airplane lufthansa seats tour — These events attract lots of aviation geeks. I love flying but I do not consider myself an aviation geek by any means. Never heard so many ooohs and aaaahs.

economy class seat lufthansa airplane — This economy class sure looks so much better than the seat I flew on the night before. My back was sore for a few days! No joke. #goodproblem

airplanes a380 lufthansa. — Remember this was back in 2010. I think this was the first one about to start flying! Ooooh!!! Aaaaahhh! Aviation geeks were besides themselves.

a380 cockpit airplane lufthansa — A380 cockpit. At this point the aviation geeks were having instant orgasms lol

a380 cockpit pilot traiing tbb — TBB. Cool. Look at me.

a380 tarmac lufthansa frankfurt — Playing around the A380 like boys and girls

a380 engine airplane lufthansa — Why do I suck in pictures? Trying to look cool #fail

a380 airplane tires landing gear — TBB. A380. Tires. Deal with it!

a380 engine lufthansa — A380. Engine. Wow. I wish I had more sleep

lufthansa headquarters meeting focus groups — We then went to the Lufthansa HQs where we all split and participated in focus groups. Mine was in the “Inflight entertainment” focus group. My suggestion to get rid of Channel 9 was almost met with threats for my physical safety by a few aviation geeks. Lol

lufthansa headquarters reception frakfurt — We then went to the cafeteria room where we had a reception by Lufthansa and some other airline reps who had set up booths

lufthansa headquarters massage free — Oooh…massage…yes!

massage lufthansa headquarters — Oooohhhh…..I went back for a second one. Aaaaahhh

lufthansa headquarters — Lufthansa’s CEO came by to greet us all. I thanked him personally for the two massage sessions I received. Danke schön!

lufthansa headquarters frankfurt reception — It was a really nice reception. Food was decent and alcohol plentiful. I thought the massage ladies were the best…or maybe it was because my back was killing me!

desserts lufthansa headquarters — Back then i had no idea what diet and controlling myself was about!

lufthansa airplane replica — Scored swag!

swag lufthansa frankfrurt — More free swag, I am killing it!

passport stamps traveler travel — Aviation geeks comparing how many stamps they have in their passports!

We then were taken to the famous Lufthansa First Class Terminal and we had it all to ourselves. It was pointless to grab a duckie, they were all gone. I still don’t have a phucking duckie from the Lufthansa FCT. We were all checked in for our flight to Houston the next morning. My impression about this that so many bloggers rave about? It is a nice lounge and the raving reviews are a little too much, come on! What follows are some pics from the lounge, sorry no duckies!

frankfurt lufthansa boarding process — After sleeping a little at the Sheraton it was off to Houston. Frankfurt boarding = zoo 🙂

lufthansa economy coach flying — Day flight. Much more enjoyable than last overnight flight!

hotel bed crash houston — Crashed in my hotel room at the Sheraton by IAH. This much flying is really hard on my body, I am no youngster anymore!

united continental houston iah — After a reception at the hotel we were driven to the Houston airport where United/Continental had a reception for us.

united continental merger airplanes — “Together we will make the world’s best airline”. Yeah, sure, hahahaha!

united continental merger synergies — “The synergies will undoubtedly make us Number 1”! Woohoo!

united airplane continental jet engine — Hope no one starts the engine right about…now!

gary leff frequent traveler awards — Back at the Sheraton we had the Frequent Traveler Awards. It was a nice event & still can’t get over how many times Marriott won. WTF! I believe this is Gary Leff. Do I suck in taking pictures or what?

frequent traveler awards 2010 houston — I remember sitting at a table with a Delta Airlines rep. On the way to the buffet I asked him: “Excuse me but what are you doing here?” He was a good sport: “Have no idea why I was invited” LOL

frequent traveler awards sheraton houston 2010 — The big enchiladas. The maestros of the event. The organizers. The Gods & a Goddess. We are not worthy. Ok, I better stop now…

frequent traveler awards houston sheraton — The Points Guy was also in my table. Very nice guy. He was just starting out back then. He pounced on the commercial opportunity. I may not care about his blog much at all but do not underestimate what he has been able to accomplish. And he is not selling drugs, just plastic 🙂

shuttle hotel bus airport ride star megado 2 2010 — VERY early rise to line up for the hotel shuttle buses to take us to the Houston airport. Sleep deprived is an understatement. You must be young and have lots of stamina to make it through these events!

conttinental presidents club lounge — Spent the time in the Houston Continental President’s Club lounge. Some others did a lounge crawl so early in the morning drinking. I wanted to crawl into a flat bed and catch up on sleep!

continental presidents club lounge houston airport — I remember it was an excellent for US standards airline lounge. Now with United it has probably turned into a dump?

continental flight airline airplane boarding — Time to board our Continental charter flight to Phoenix, all aboard!

continental airline flying pilots — The Continental pilots in our charter flights. Very cool crew all around. Continental was a class act!

continental flight crew — Flight was a lot of fun. Silliness galore aboard!

continental flight crew fun playing around — Did I just say there was a lot of silliness aboard. Oh, yes I did!

Somewhere along the charter flights there was a famous pillow fight that made national news! Here is the VIDEO

continental crew charter flight — Awesome crew!

phoenix continental flight charter — Landed in Phoenix!

continental flight phoenix — Buses are coming to take us away

flyertalk megdo doug parker — Most MegaDo participants came for this event

doug parker us air american — Q&A with Doug Parker. He now runs American Airlines and he is coming for you…just give him a little more time. Can’t pull an America West job lol.

lufthansa flight pilot training manual — Only ones who paid an extra fee got to go to the Lufthansa Pilot Training Facility. I paid nada, thanks Lufthansa!

lufthansa pilots training — This German dude on the bus gave us a pretty good overview of the Lufthansa way of training pilots. Impressive!

lufthansa pilot training — Bus ride was a little hike outside of Phoenix in the desert but we are finally here!

airplane lufthansa training pilots — Oh look it’s a bird…no, it’s an airplane!

lufthansa pilot training facility — Tour of the facility…

lufthansa flight simulator — Yes baby I get to FLY….on the simulator that is!

flight simulator pilot training — I was so clumsy I crashed a few times and LOVED it!

lufthansa flight simulator training facility — This is me about to crash…again, YES!

german food spread — Not bad for German food, not bad

lunch lufthansa facility pilot training food — It was nice that the staff mixed with us. Very nice laid back lunch session

airplane pillow fight — Back on the charter flying from Phoenix to Everett Field in the Boeing Factory. I think this is THAT pillow fight or we just started another one. Who’s counting?

After an amazing time in Boeing watching a presentation and then going on a tour of the factory along with going into a few airplanes being put together we took a bus ride to the Seattle Westin. Why no more pictures at Boeing? Not allowed!