Purpose of a Virgin Lounge thread

[777]

Sorry, slightly annoyed that this other thread (http://www.australianfrequentflyer....a-velocity/im-in-the-lounge-thread-40689.html) got prematurely closed with a tag to say "continue the discussion in the appropriate 'Meetings' thread as linked above" when it was very obvious that it would have been very off topic to discuss the merits of a Virgin "I'm in the lounge now" thread in the June 2012 meetups thread. I'm not attempting to turn this thread into the "i'm in the lounge now" thread but to discuss the merits of it. If someone wants to move it to the meetup section that's fine but it would be nice to talk about it in the Velocity section for a bit IMHO.

So, what's the point of an "i'm in the lounge now" thread?

Well it's a place where people can look/ post when they find themselves with a layover, delay, time on their hands, feel like a chat. Both SilverShadow and I were in the Sydney lounge at the same time last week but failed to realise in time to meet up. While the meetup threads serve a purpose they are virtually useless for attempting to work out who might be around now or in the next few hours. They are useful for guesting but not very useful for simply casually meeting each other. They are particularly tricky from a VA point of view because while VA have a small number of lounges you have to search through every lounge, of every airline in the world over a whole month to find a match. Also many/ most of us don't plan our travel a month at a time - and particularly with the "Fly Ahead" benefit many VA flyers find themselves being in the lounges at times other than what it says on their ticket.

So, i would propose a thread either in the VA section or the Meetups section (ideally with a sticky in here linking across would be nice) when people can post/ see if they are actually in the lounge or actually going to be within the next 24 hours or so. It's not for guesting so much as simply enabling us to meet each other (although I have no prob with requests for guesting). I would propose it is VA specific or at least specific to those lounges that VA and its partners uses as it simply helps separate the signal from the noise for practical purposes.

Can we have the discussion?

 

[TirEoghain]

I'm with you on this one.

As you say, I do fly ahead now and again, and often my flights are only booked a few days in advance.

I find it difficult to find out whos in any lounges from the meetup section, because they are almost all in QF lounges, and not even always in Australia. The threads get a bit long so it's hard to find.

I would very much support the idea of a VA lounge thread for this purpose. For the reason I mentioned above, I rarely frequent the meetup section as I'm only interested in VA discussion, so I'd prefer to see a thread in here.

Cheers

Edit: I'm in th SYD lounge from 3:30pm today for a 5pm flight, and can guest one, plus have 5 passes..

 

[SeatBackForward]

Have you seen this?
June 2012 - Compiled Lounge Details - Blogs - The Australian Frequent Flyer Online Community
or
July 2012 - Compiled Lounge Details - Blogs - The Australian Frequent Flyer Online Community
?

 

[TirEoghain]

Have you seen this?
June 2012 - Compiled Lounge Details - Blogs - The Australian Frequent Flyer Online Community
or
July 2012 - Compiled Lounge Details - Blogs - The Australian Frequent Flyer Online Community
?

Hadn't seen this before. Had never been in the blogs before.

This certainly makes things a lot easier.

Do the times refer to the time of the flight or the time the member will be in the lounge?

A possible improvement may be to include what airline the lounge is for, and whether domestic or international. I do understand that would involve a lot more work though, and the information may not always be available in the original thread.

Kudos for putting this together.

Cheers

 

[SeatBackForward]

Hadn't seen this before. Had never been in the blogs before.

This certainly makes things a lot easier.

Do the times refer to the time of the flight or the time the member will be in the lounge?

A possible improvement may be to include what airline the lounge is for, and whether domestic or international. I do understand that would involve a lot more work though, and the information may not always be available in the original thread.

Kudos for putting this together.

Cheers

Regarding times, I just put the starting time that people post up in the Monthly threads, some posters probably put their flight times, others might put up the time they intend to be at the lounge, I just transfer whatever details they've posted. Similarly with the lounges, some put up the lounge information in detail (ie. SYD T1 QF F Lounge) others might just simply put up Dom/Intl - and some don't put anything up at all. Really the best thing is to Private message that person who might be at least in the same airport vicinity as you are intending to be to sort out specifics.

As each poster puts up their details differently, there's no consisent data extraction method I can adopt, so I just pick up the easiest bits of information which is usually user, date, airport,time. I don't want to get all uppity about posting to a "standard" format or whatever, but if you kkept data in the following format, I could definitely import it easier:

Date,Time,Airport Code, Lounge Details, No. of Guest Spots

 

[moa999]

The blog should replace the monthly threads, with anyone able to edit it, but not sure if the blog software is good enough for that purpose.

 

[777]

Have you seen this?
June 2012 - Compiled Lounge Details - Blogs - The Australian Frequent Flyer Online Community
or
July 2012 - Compiled Lounge Details - Blogs - The Australian Frequent Flyer Online Community
?

Yes, as i said it's a great resource for guesting but almost useless for casually crossing paths. I think a thread for short notice meet ups would be well utilised but maybe i'm just uniquely disorganised compared to everyone else here.

 

[TirEoghain]

The blog should replace the monthly threads, with anyone able to edit it, but not sure if the blog software is good enough for that purpose.

Or alternatively people comment under the blog instead of posting in a thread, and then the blog owner can update the blog and hide/remove comments already dealt with?

That way, any comments that remain visible will have new information since the last time the blog was updated.

 

[AaronBradford]

I agree with you 777, and I also suggest that while there is a good community here a forum/blog is not really a great platform to see who's where now. One could always use Planely or something similar, or Twitter/Facebook among friends, but I suppose it would be nice to have an in-house way of doing this. Perhaps there could be a chat feature included in the iPhone/Android AFF app (I wouldn't know if there is that feature currently as I don't have paid AFF membership).

 

[LiamR]

I agree a thread like this needs to happen.

I booked to fly OOL-MEL today, only to have the flight cancelled and be routed via SYD with a stack of time on my hands. Would love to have a thread where I could simply post "I'm in SYD for the next hour, anyone wanna chat over a drink?" and see who responds.

(Ps. If anybody's in the SYD Lounge now, stand up, wave your hands air the air and shout Liam!!!)

 

[wingspan]

I certainly see no reason why the thread got closed so quickly! I agree with you, 777. There have been many instances where I've been in a lounge somewhere and had a delay, or sudden reason to fly (hence not having contacted people via the monthly threads or blogs) and thought it would be nice to have a coffee with someone - if only I knew someone around. If there were a "in the lounge now" thread this would be a really useful way to make connections

 

[wingspan]

I don't want to get all uppity about posting to a "standard" format or whatever, but if you kkept data in the following format, I could definitely import it easier:

Date,Time,Airport Code, Lounge Details, No. of Guest Spots

I don't think it would be uppity to have a 'standard' format. If it's going to make it easier for us to meet with one another at some lounge/airport somewhere then maybe it would be really useful to have some kind of standard format.

Also was just struck that some members may not have lounge access but may still want to catch up for a drink at a particular airport or something? It could, then, be good to not necessarily have to include lounge details?

 

[777]

I think the by the month meetup threads serve a purpose but i think they have their origins in an era before everyone had their own mobile devices/ laptops/ smartphones and had the capacity to simply say "i'm here now" or "i'm heading out to the airport, anyone around?" and it would be nice to be able to do that.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Also was just struck that some members may not have lounge access but may still want to catch up for a drink at a particular airport or something? It could, then, be good to not necessarily have to include lounge details?

Thats one of the reasons why I didnt bother with Lounge details initially, on the chance that you happen to be at the same airport, at about the same time AND want to meet someone, then contact the person directly..because I'm sure there'd have to be arrangements to meet up somehow (unless you already know each other, in which case you probably didn't need these messages anyhow)

 

[serfty]

The OP of the closed thread should have taken it up with Admin prior to posting.

For now I have moved this thread to a more appropriate form for discussion.

Posted on a wing and a prayer ...

 

[777]

The OP of the closed thread should have taken it up with Admin prior to posting.

Can you explain why? Surely people start threads here all the time without having to consult with admin in advance?

 

[777]

Can you explain why? Surely people start threads here all the time without having to consult with admin in advance?

Oh, now this has been moved to the feedback/ suggestions section can we change the subject to "An 'I'm in the lounge now' thread?" or similar?

 

[serfty]

Can you explain why? Surely people start threads here all the time without having to consult with admin in advance?

Because the intended purpose of the thread was generically off topic to the premise for 'children' of the "Airline Loyalty Programs".

At first glance this overall type of thread is logically more suited to "The Playground" - indeed the thread was closed was due to its non-conformance with its placement and the context in which it was written.

Having typed that, it can be understood the purpose of a "Lounge" thread within a specific sub-forum and admin may indeed give it the OK.

By running it past admin first and if such agreement is reached, it would avoid these threads being closed as happened in this case.

 

[777]

Because the intended purpose of the thread was generically off topic to the premise for 'children' of the "Airline Loyalty Programs".

At first glance this overall type of thread is logically more suited to "The Playground" - indeed the thread was closed was due to its non-conformance with its placement and the context in which it was written.

Having typed that, it can be understood the purpose of a "Lounge" thread within a specific sub-forum and admin may indeed give it the OK.

By running it past admin first and if such agreement is reached, it would avoid these threads being closed as happened in this case.

Thanks for the explanation. I would strongly argue that such a thread, specifically aimed at the users and members of Velocity Frequent Flyer program is something the Admin might really want to consider appropriate for that section and that discussion of it in that section would be the best way to gauge its likely usefulness.

To the extent that this thread has drifted to discussion of the general nature of meetup threads i can understand why it has been moved. I really think creating the opportunity for serendipitous (as opposed to planned) meetings would be feature that would add value and drive traffic to the site - particularly now that many/most of us have access to AFF when in and on our way to the lounge.

 

[777]

Oh, while i'm at it, the one other great benefit of an "i'm in the lounge now" type thread is that by definition the useful posts will be the most current ones and the easiest to find. No need to wade back through page after page if it was limited to current or next 24 hours or so. I think many people would find it very convenient to simply browse the most recent posts.