Like a 4 year old Christmas surprise, we got notice we are actually inside a 787 Dreamliner. The FlyerTalk crowd at SMD2 went absolute wild. Christmas comes early this year …

Here’s the action onboard the flight: a FlyerTalk pillow fight at 33,000 feet. At the end, some 150 pillows from coach were headed to first class.

One of the highlights of the Star Mega Do 2 is the charity raffle that took place on the leg between PHX-SEA. Among the many prizes were model aircrafts, first class amenity kits, Bose headsets, several Five Guys hamburger gift certificates and an iPad.
The GREAT news is that nearly $7,000 was raised for various charities that this SMD2 will donate to by the sales of raffle tickets onboard.
Very cool.
Among the winners? The Captain of the plane won the iPad.
We take a lot from the industry (miles, points and upgrades), but we also give back.

In a really close race, the ballots have been counted and the winner of the 2010 Star Mega Do 2 swag bag recognition award goes to US Airways — everything in the bag, including the bag itself was useable. I mean, when is the last time you took home a real cactus from a mileage run? Point made!

OK, you’ve heard rumors of us being dragged out of bed against our will to make the 5 a.m. buses to the terminal. You’ve heard of the champagne-fueled sendoff and of course rumors of us partying in the aisles of CO charter flight #1905 and emptying even more champagne bottles before landing in PHX at 7:45 a.m. Well, that’s all true. There is no denying that we are having a ball. With US Airways Chairman Doug Parker speaking to us all — very straight, very forward and highly entertaining — I realized we have no badge for this event, but we did get this very, very nice gift. US Airways has been an extremely generous host and we could not have been treated better.

Overheard in the lobby: “I had five wakeup calls and never heard any of them. It was the noise in the hallway of everyone leaving that woke me up.” Gee, were we that loud?

OK, count this post in the “Got Ya!” file. Along the way, this mileage run gathers a lot of booty and just coming out of Germany I’m heading for baggageville. OK, no self-respecting member of FlyerTalk should ever have to pay a bag fee given the troves of advice on how to earn elite and bypass the piggy bank of flyers that forms to your right. So, here’s just a sampling of my “take home” pay just so far:

OK, for those of you out there counting, we’re up to four badges so far. For movie buffs, you’ll remember this line from the movie The Treasure of the Sierra Madre where Humphrey Bogart says, “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!” or the condensed version of the same line in Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles movie.

As it turns out, we really do need badges!

Remember the day when getting your picture in the cockpit was the “must have”? FlyerTalkers have moved on .. the new “must have” is your picture with an open engine. This is clearly the most popular moment of this early day–as witnessed here.

With the day beginning for SMD2, members find themselves being bussed to the days first event. Eyes are bright and the talk is … wonderful.