Hi All, I am just catching up on the 9 digests I had to received after being away from the computer for about 4 days. I spotted the message from Christina who wrote: <Thank you all for the information. For those of you nearby Air Tran is having a sale on fares now. I did book through travelocity, after checking both the air tran site and a couple of the other sites. I also have a room(from the marriott chain), which is being totally renovated next month, at $54 a night. > I have also booked my flight to Denver and my lace friends have rooms booked at the convention hotel. Can I persuade you to change your room reservation for two reasons? 1) When a hosting group contracts with the hotel to use all the meeting space and probably bedrooms as well for workshops, vendor rooms, banqueting, etc., it is usually on the understanding that the group will use a large number of remaining bedrooms for attendees. If the number of bedrooms used by attendees falls short of the contracted amount then penalties might be charged to the host group. This has happened in the past leaving the host guild with a good deal of money to find after the event. Hosts try to keep the costs of registration and workshops down to a minimum to encourage more people to attend which leaves a small margin, if any, to pay for the shortfall. Denver has got a good room rate this year but what would happen if we all chose to stay at Motel 6 or similar budget chain rather than the convention hotel! 2) If you have not attended a convention before you will not be aware that being on the spot is very desirable, especially if you have to carry lots of lace paraphernalia around with you. It is more convenient for your room to be 2 minutes away from your classroom than 2 miles, or even across the road. There is little time between workshops and events so it is nice to have a place to drop your stuff and say, get into the sales room with free hands for your purchases. We usually double, or triple up the number of people in a room to keep the costs down, especially if the room rate is high and it is more fun to be able to entertain lace friends in your room on the spot when there is free time. As I said, we have booked our rooms and I would suggest that others do the same now even though we might not know if we get our desired workshops until May or June. Don't forget to mention to the hotel that you are coming for the IOLI convention so that the host group gets credit for your stay. Regards travelling with pillows, I used my honiton pillow, just because it is small, to travel with this week down to Florida by plane. I checked it in our suitcase which was opened on the flight down as the TSA put an explanation card in the bag to say that it had been searched. I guess they wanted to see what the mass of pins were on the pillow. Coming back, it returned unexamined to my knowledge but who knows as in the States you cannot lock your suitcase any more. I have travelled with a 22 inch pillow in the past and I usually pack it in the suitcase surrounded by rolled up tee shirts and underwear. One time I purchased a roller pillow in Denmark, packed only in a black garbage bag, and it was too big for the overhead. I carried it on under my arm and tucked it behind my knees for take off and landing. I had a window seat and was able to stand it next to my legs near the wall of the plane. I did pack the roller part in my suitcase. No-one asked what was in the b ag!! Janice Crystal Lake, Illinois where the snow is still deep on the ground but I didn't have to dig my car out of the airport parking lot, just scrape off all the ice!
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