This has been an absolutely fantastic month in terms of going places. Earlier in the month, after I found my way out of the anxious spot that the Brits put me in, I managed to go over a lot of cities in a short span of time. And once I got back, it was time to prepare for Vegas. Which essentially meant I was going to travel another 10,000 miles to meet the good folks at the House of Miles, and my BoardingArea fraternity of bloggers.

While last year, I treated myself to Etihad First and Singapore Airlines All-Business class redemptions to be at the conference, this time around, I chose to be in the back of the bus on a revenue ticket. I just needed the bump up on my elite requalification for the year ahead, you see.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas? Not really

Boarding Area Conference (BACon) came into its second year, and the fact that I travelled that far to be with the folks only denotes how I must have liked the first one so much.

There was discussion and debate on how to improve your blog with some pretty awesome speakers. If you’re a blogger in today’s age, you’d appreciate it is more than just putting posts out. There is a technology backend you need to be good at, and of course a part of getting the word out is to be better about the various mysterious ways of social media. Content is king, but everything else starts to matter too. Some great conversations were had, and discussions done.

For me, BACon is also the opportunity to get facetime with the House of Miles staff who are in a timezone 12 hours away from me, and hence I don’t get the opportunity to pick up the phone and talk to them as often as I’d like to, since I’m always on the go. I’m hoping some of the stuff we’ve discussed over the days gets implemented sooner (than later) and you’ll also have a better reading experience of this blog in the days ahead.

The afterparties were great too, with some fantastic views of the Sin City from both ends of the Strip.

So, thank you Randy Petersen and the BoardingArea team for taking the time to host me, and all the other bloggers, over the past couple of days.

The Mandalay Bay

It was my first time in Vegas, and I really did not get the opportunity to try the $20 trick for an upgrade. I did get a decent room which made me feel like a fish in a giant shark aquarium. Maybe I should have pushed like some of the other bloggers did for rooms at the Four Seasons or at the Delano. But the $20 came handy at the slot machines later, where I did, in typical Vegas fashion, lose some, win some, lose some more, and then sheepishly withdrew!

And then of course, there was the 3 AM false alarm on a night when I was still not totally adjusted to the timezones, and I was surely muttering under my breath when I had to evacuate the room because someone, somewhere in the hotel decided to set of the smoke alarm.

Bye Bye Vegas!

With a promise to come back. Its now time to start wrapping up my whirlwind trip and head over to the airport for the long journey back home!

Regular posting resumes soon! For now, I am getting back into Jet Lag mode I suppose.

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