Brian E Carpenter wrote: > Starting from Europe, San Diego seems to be no harder to reach > than any other major US city. The SPF route from Geneva > has two hops (e.g. via EWR or JFK). > > I agree that major hub airports are a little easier to reach, > but maybe that's why we can get meeting space more easily > in non-hub cities? Meeting space is gotten more easily at hub cities when planning is done farther in advance. If a non-hub venue offers dramatic net price savings, fabulous facilities, or some other strong justification, it makes sense to go there. Otherwise, a non-hum city forces virtually the entire set of attendees to: 1. Experience an extra flight, each way, with its attendant inconveniences and risks (higher risk of lost luggage, missed connections, etc.) 2. Pay higher air fares, since secondary venues do not have the airline competition that major hubs do. 3. Experience a higher risk of losing access completely, because of that lack of airline competition... The primary airline to the non-hub might go on strike, for example, as (nearly) happened to us in Minneapolis one time. 4. More generally, secondary venues have less total airline seating capacity and the concentration of our 1200-1400 attendees flying in and out close together usually has a noticeable impact on their flights. d/ _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf