On 19-jul-2006, at 15:45, Dave Crocker wrote:
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?
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.
I certainly don't fly as much as the next IETF-er, but in my
experience, direct flights are almost always more expensive than
indirect ones. Obviously a direct flight is much more convenient, but
some indirect ones are actually pretty good while others are terrible
and some direct flights are also pretty bad. Based on my experience
past few years I would be happy to change planes again in Iceland
(and probably in any other Schengen country where you only go through
immigration when entering the Schengen zone initially) but not in the
US if I can avoid it because either you have to build in ridiculous
amounts of extra time or you run the risk of missing a connection
because of the lines at immigration, especially at large airports
such as JFK and LAX. As a rule, smaller is better, upto a point. This
seems to go for the planes too, those 747 air-dinosaurs aren't very
convenient, particularly with (un)boarding.
Another issue is ground transportation. I guess most people don't
mind using a taxi, but having to stand in line for one isn't exactly
what I need after an intercontinental flight...
All in all, San Diego seems like a pretty bad choice for a meeting
place: it's even hard to get to from inside the US, and it's as far
as you can get from Europe without leaving the continental US.
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