This morning, the Lenzerheide Local Organizing Committee pulled a “Crazy Ivan” or, as I’m calling it, a “Psychotic Sascha” and cancelled all current lodging bookings for the World Airlines Ski Championships 2024.
They then put in place an 8 step process for all Team Captains to book lodging as a group. This process required that all Team Captains become the single point of payment for all lodging.
You need to know that I found out the same way as you. I had no prior knowledge of this change, nor that it was even being considered. In fact, the IASF Board of Directors was caught by surprise also.
I believe that this was done because of a small but “vocal” group of Airline Ski Teams who desired to book all of their group’s lodging together. I personally do not understand the desire to attend an international event such as this and want to surround yourself with people you already know. But, that’s just my point of view.
You should also know that this change is going over like the proverbial lead balloon. There are many other Airline Ski Clubs making their displeasure known.
I need to ask you to please be patient while we try to figure this out. I can almost say for certain that there will be yet another change in booking procedures. At least, I certainly hope there will be.
I’m not aware of the number of registrations we have to date. I wasn’t even going to concern myself with that until at least a month into the registration window. That’s still a week away. It was at that point that I was going to create a LZH only email list.
I’m am aware of the fact that I do not want to be your travel agent. During the Kitzbuhel, Austria WASC several years ago, I was tasked with handling tens of thousand of dollars of your money. I did not enjoy that responsibility. I do not want it again. I had to manage bookings up to our day of arrival because of late registrations. It wasn’t fun!
I’ll update you as soon as possible. In the meantime, let’s get ready for our first NAASF Ski Week of the season in Keystone, Colorado. I’ll switch gears and send out a December update in a separate email… After I cool off a bit.
Regards,
Woody
(a really bad travel agent)