You know what they say… getting there is half the fun! Why not find out how some of your fellow attendees are arriving in Boston (please be advised that the Muggle Liaison Office has notified us that the Broomstick arrivals are completely booked, and the Floo Network will be offline that weekend for annual maintenance. Sigh. Bureaucracy!). If you want or need to travel with others attending the conference, here’s your place to meet and greet, make plans, and enjoy the entire process!

Please be advised that LeakyCon 2009 cannot be responsible for finding a travel companion for those attending, nor are we responsible for how any traveling partners may behave. Be VERY careful about who you pick to travel with, and who you give personal information to. All personal information should be exchanged via Private Message (PM) and not posted on the boards for anyone to see.

Be safe!

If I am able to go, I am driving there. Coming from Michigan gives me an option of ducking down under the lakes, or going through Canada. I haven't decided which way i will go. Depends on how much of a deal it will be going through Canada, as it shaves off a couple hours travel.
And yes, driving, not flying, as I like to drive and dislike spending endless hours in airports. Ive done that enough of the past 2 years...

More later when I figure out if I can go or not.

Myself and my boyfriend are coming from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Could be by bus unless we work out a drive but either way, it should be a blast ^^

I have a feeling that the Muggle Liaison Office will probably not allow the Knight Bus to be exported over here to North America, so it looks like I will have to fly from the western part of the country.

LOL! It's too bad that the Knight Bus isn't available for just such an occasion. I know that, when Prophecy was coming around, there were a few people talking about renting an RV and driving from OREGON and CALIFORNIA across country to get there...just for the fun of it! However, now that gas is about $3.75/gallon, it would seem that flying is the most affordable way to make a trip like that!

Muggle Liasion Office...oh, I wish.

Since I'm coming with a bunch of people we are all going to get a big train car "family room" and are going to arrive Hogwarts Express style. It actually is a lot cheaper than flying with that many people, but the downfall is that it takes about 24 hours from Wisconsin, but all the more fun I guess.

I live about 60 miles south of Boston, so I'll be driving up. LeakyCon is my first conference, so I wasn't sure how far people are willing to travel for them...I'm really excited to see that people will be coming from far and wide to attend! I can't wait to meet and chat with everyone! See you there!

I'll either fly or take the Hogwart's Express out of Penn Station. I actually prefer Amtrak, very relaxing and nice scenery.

My broom is not approved for cross country trips, so I will be taking a commercial flight. I'd love to go cross country via car and have a massive road trip... but Boston is about as far from Arizona as it gets. I think a flight would be a better idea. I'll be more rested and able to whoop it up at the con!

im getting a flight all the way from england. i hope its not too complicated. lol

Oh, you will be in good company! I know of a couple of people already making their way across the Pond to come to this Conference. This should be a good place for you to meet up and talk about travel plans!

A friend and I are planning on comming all the way from Los Angeles to come to our first ever convention. If anyone in the LA area, are planning to go also, let me know if you want to try and go together, to help keep the cost down for everyone.

I'm hoping to attend (fingers crossed), and I'll be flying from England. I think I'll be going solo, so if there's anyone who would possibly like to travel together/share a room, let me know!

My boyfriend and I are still trying to figure out the room, we'll probably be looking to room up with some people to lower costs. We're not much of a PDA couple so no worries about mushiness

EmmaCMF and groovygal2k, I'll be traveling from London too.

Great, Neil in Scotland, I think we should all try and fly out together. Hanging around an airport for four hours and then being on a plane for another eight with nothing much else to do other than talk is a great way to get to know people.

Any there any other Brits flying out of Heathrow that are up for going as a group? Groovygal and I have been PMing, and we're up for it, and it'd be nice to arrange a meet up (possibly the London premiere of HBP?) prior to the con.

Hey EmmaCMF, that sounds like it could be a good idea. It'd certainly make the trip go by quicker! A meet up would be cool too- hopefully the guys'll come over for another live PC (actually, it's about time we had one up here in Edinburgh!!!).

I'll be coming from Toronto, Ontario, and I have no idea how I'm going to get to Boston! This'll be my first conference as well (don't ask why I didn't go to Prophecy, XD). Hopefully I'll wrangle some of my local buddies to hitch a ride/Greyhound bus with me!

My friend and I are hopeing we can go if we can get some money together ... I'm sure a year will be long enough to save . But we've got to discuss this tomorrow when she is in a better state.

We'll be travelling from either Glasgow, Edinburgh or london. Whatever is cheaper. Just been trying to check out prices for flights but it won't let me look for that far ahead.

This will be our first hp convention

I, too, prefer Amtrak. Unfortunately, from Northern Arizona, it is a 37 hour trip just to get to Chicago. So, I am going to have to fly.

It makes me happy that LeakyCon is encouraging people to go to these events who haven't before. I went to Prophecy last year and it was the best few days of my life. There really is nothing like being surrounded by fellow Potter fans. It's wonderful.

I'll be flying out from the UK, and by then it'll be my 4th such event. I look forward to meeting everyone

I'll be looking for room/travel-mates nearer to the time, but I really need to know which of my friends are attending LeakyCon first, and that won't be for quite a while.

Like me

I'll prob be flying from either Gatwick or Heathrow, as they're both cheaper than Cardiff, and I'll prob fly with some Leaky Staffers. I flew from Heathrow to Prophecy last year with a Leaky Staffer, which was cool and much more fun than flying alone! I'm not sure when I'll be arriving, but it'll prob be a few days before LeakyCon, so I can do some sightseeing and have more time to hang out with my friends. A week at Prophecy just wasn't long enough!

I'll be flying from Arizona to Iowa, then joining up with a friend and taking the train to Boston. It's going to be a blast. I had a great time on the train last year for Prophecy, so I don't see this trip being any less fun. Except that I hate to fly :|

i hate flying too Kelazma, but if i didnt, id never get away from the uk, grr lol

Maybe we'll be lucky, and the flight will still be showing Half Blood Prince and we can watch it constantly on the way over the pond. Virgin Atlantic were showing OoTP up until my last flight with them in January, so I think we stand a good chance of that.

oh i do hope so. lol. i wish june would hurry up and get here already! i wanna book a flight! lol

I can't wait to buy my con ticket and book the hotel! I suppose I should really ask my boss if I can have the time off, but I can't make annual leave requests for 2009 yet, so I'll just tell all my colleagues that they're in trouble if they dare to book any time off for the end of May.

EmmaCMF, does that mean you'll be looking to go on Virgin then? That's who I'd rather fly with. I went to Florida with them a few years ago and the were great. Also it means that you get to avoid terminal 5!!!

I'm lucky in that I'm self-employed so I won't have trouble getting the time off. I hope your colleagues take their warning!! Lol!

I always fly Virgin whenever possible, even if they work out to be a little more expensive than another airline. It's worth it just for the inflight entertainment alone - and that's just from the staff!

I'll just threaten to talk Harry Potter to my workmates, and they'll toe the line ;)

Yeah, I remember a very nice young lady keeping me and my Dad entertained with an endless supply of vodka on the way to Florida!! We were very well behaved and she kept coming over to talk to us and have a laugh.

how could it be possible to buy our own tickets but get to be on the same flight? lol i heard virgin r cheaper than ba.

My last flight with them, the steward told us that 'we could all go home and say we've just had the best eight hours we've ever spent with a Virgin', LOL! He made snarky comments all the way through the safety video ('if you have two children with you, now is the time to decide which one you like best, and put the oxygen mask on them first'). I've never laughed so much on a flight before! He was also running little competitions throughout the flight, and then when someone won a bottle of champagne, he gave us their seat number so we'd know who to mug in the customs queue!

Sorry, completely derailed the thread here!

Is it May 2009 yet?! Blimey, I've got to calm down at some point, otherwise I won't need a plane to fly to Boston!

I usually book direct through Virgin's website as they always have the lowest price, but you can go through travel agents to book them too - I've sometimes got a bargain if they've block booked a section of seats and want to get rid.

The flight schedules are normally published 10 months in advance. All we need to do is agree on what day and at what time we want to travel, and we can all book the same flight. We might not all get seats together (unless they're allocated at check-in), but we might be able to swap once we're on the plane. Let's face it, if we all start singing Wizard Rock songs I'm sure they'd want to keep us all locked up together!! Lol!

Emma, that sounds like one hell of a fun flight!!

And don't worry, I'm sure the next 12 months will fly by!!

ok cool. well personally i wld like to get there a day or so before the convention just to get my bearings. but its a case of whos going to book? lol i dont mind, but if someone else wants to take dibs then thats ok wiv me lol

Yeah, I'd like to arrive at least on the Wednesday, ideally the Tuesday, just because jet-lag is a killer, plus it'd be nice to at least do a bit of sightseeing.

If we all agree on a flight, we can go off and book seperately, then log into the airline website with the booking reference and select seats near each other (I pity the other passengers, because I imagine that we're all going to be stupidly excited).

This is just going to be completely fab!

My experience with flying overseas is that the best way to get accustomed to the new times is to have a night flight, and don't sleep on it. Then spend the entire day there awake, and if you have to, go to bed a little early that night in the new time zone (American Eastern Time Zone). That way you sleep during the new time zone and you'll automatically be converted into the new time zone. I've been to London and Paris and never had any problems with jet lag.

My plan is to book through Airmiles because I've got a lot saved up and I'm hoping that my return flight to Boston will be free. They are a registered travel agent and the will price match it you're getting the same flight/holiday cheaper elsewhere (though I would need to check to see if they'd match the airlines own website that Emma mentioned). I'm pretty sure that anyone can book through them though, even if they don't have airmiles to use up (again, I'll need to check).

It's very hard to find a night flight to the States flying out of the UK. I think the tiredness the next day is mostly because I've been awake for about 24 hours, rather than any jet-lag.

It's coming home that's the problem for me - I sleep fine the first night, but for the following two weeks, I have trouble getting to sleep at a normal time.

I'll book through Virgin's site as I have about 20,000 airmiles with them and they do a miles+money offer, and it's usually about £100-£150 cheaper than booking it without miles.

Fingers crossed that you get a free flight!

You tend to find that most transatlantic flights FROM the UK tend to leave early morning and arrive early/mid afternoon, so that by the time you go to bed you'll have been up for a full day (even if you need to go to bed earlier than normal). When flying INTO the UK they tend to takeoff at night and land early morning, so that you can sleep during the night and wake up as normal in the morning nd drive home or whatever. My problem is that I can't sleep on planes!!! Booo!!!

well ive never flown out of my timezone, other than europe which is only like 1-2hrs difference if that, so i duno how id cope with 5hrs difference lol.
o i just wanna book already!! not long to go, just gota get thru may n then i can get more prepared. ok so if we all decide to book via virgin, what day does anyone wanna book? im booking asap lol, mainly cos then i can stop moaning about not being able to book lol haha sorry, im addicted to booking things lol

You'll be alright. It's not too bad flying to the East Coast. Just get plenty of sleep the first night there (because you won't be getting any sleep for the rest of the con!) and you'll soon adjust.

There's nothing more exciting than booking a holiday!!!! YAY!

Cheers Em!! I think I need 5000 airmiles for a free flight and I've got 4758 saved up, along with a 1500 mile voucher, but I'm not sure I can use that for this trip. I should get over the 5k mark soon!!

Are your airmiles through Virgin themselves, or the Airmiles company like mine?

Mine are just Virgin Miles. I fly to Los Angeles a lot to visit a friend, so the miles have really racked up over the years.

Anyway, off to bed for me, as I have a 7am start at work in the morning, yuck. I'd much rather stay up and chat!

Night Emma!!

groovygal2k, we've got a couple of months or so to sort out what day we'll go on. And as Emma said, jet lag is more of a problem when you come back home.

Don't worry about the actual "booking" side of things. If you have any problems when the time comes, I'll be here to help, and I'm sure Emma will be too. But, ... damn this is gonna be fun!!!!!

im actually gonna book either on the 22 or 23rd of june, cos im sure i will be able to by then. ohh maaaaaaan!lol

I wish I could get on a flight with all of you! It'd make it much more fun, because we'd all be so excited.

The thing is though, it'll almost certainly be cheaper to book later. I can't afford to pay more than £450 for a flight, and I'm aiming for around £300 if all goes well. (I'm getting really good at finding cheap flights.) To do that you have to be really watchful of prices and take whatever you can get. I probably won't have a flight booked until October, and maybe as late as December. But if you lot are all getting on the same plane and you find one at less than £375, let me know!

To be honest, I've no idea how much flights to the US are these days. But I doubt we'll be looking at less than £375, mate. But we can always let you know which flight we're getting so you can keep an eye out for it.