Affiliate Summit West 2010 Here I Come!

I finished wrapping up my trip planning for Affiliate Summit West 2010 in Las Vegas.  This will be my third Affiliate Summit and my second one in Las Vegas.

This year I’m staying at the Las Vegas Hilton on Saturday night, playing in a charity poker tournament at the Rio the same night.  Then Sunday and Monday night I’m staying at the Palms, across the street from the Rio, where I got a smoking hot deal on a room for about $87 per night AFTER tax. 

Got that through Orbitz, which was technically cheaper than Vegas.com after I used the 10% off coupon code that I found in a batch

Coupon Code: WELCOME10  10% off Hotel Reservations

    Expires: March 31, 2010
    Submitted: November 04, 2009

ORBITZOT150 $150 off 5 Nights Hotel + Flight

AFFORB40 $40 off 3 Night Hotel Stay

AFFORB50 $50 off 4 Night Hotel Stay

This year, I’m flying to Vegas on Delta/Northwest.  I’m using up some frequent flyer miles on this particular trip (hey its a recession).  I’m a little concerned because the trip will have me stop over in Minneapolis / St Paul on January 16th.  Hoping snow isn’t too bad that day otherwise I will be late.  (fingers crossed)

With Frequent flyer miles I didn’t really have much of a choice.

Plus, when I was trying to book, Delta kept offering me a price of $178 round trip, then as I went to push the final check out button, they would raise the price by $30, I’d say OK, and try to hit the final check out button again and it would go up another $30!

I was pissed, but tried to check out again and it failed all together and told me I had to go ‘Back’ and start over.

So I went back to the beginning, tried to re-create my trip from scratch and it offered me the $178 price again!

So I try to accept and go through check out and it again raises my price by $30!  WTF

I was trying to get some travel insurance in case a snow delay hosed up my frequent flyer trip.  Ultimately that price kept changing too, by a stupid 75 cents. 

So finally I removed the insurance and it ultimately processed the trip with just one extra higher rate of an additional $30.  (What ever delta, get rid of the teasers and just give me the price already!) 

Anyway the hassle is all done for that trip and I’m ready to go.

WordCamps/BarCamps and more WordCamps

Today I also spent some time sending off speaking proposals to Boston WordCamp and a Indianapolis Realtor Barcamp.  Tomorrow, I have to finish my Atlanta WordCamp speaking proposal as well.

The first two (Boston and Indianapolis) take place on the 23rd and 25th of January right after Affiliate Summit.  I may fly to Boston that weekend, then drive to Indianapolis on Monday for Barcamp.  Or possibly I might just drive to both.  Kind of depends on airfare, which looks kind of cheap, but I don’t have my travel budget, cash in hand just yet. 

Funds for travel in January should clear in my business sometime next week, so I can’t book until then.

The Atlanta WordCamp takes place the same weekend as CES.    That makes things a little complex.  I think I might try and go for CES during the week, maybe Wednesday and Thursday night, go to the Las Vegas Hilton Tweetup Friday night, then catch a red eye back to Atlanta for WordCamp, then try and get a connecting flight home that night or something.  That might end up being a bit of a pain, so I may just come home Friday morning, and drive down Saturday morning from Charlotte to Atlanta for WordCamp.