Discussion: Hey, I haven't been trying to ...

Hey, I haven't been trying to discourage people from coming to the Team Trials--the more the better. But I would have never expected a big turnout in your geography post mid-May for this event, beyond a strong showing in M21 and F21. I'm pretty sure that in all the years SLOC has been hosting Spring "A" events--and this goes back to the 70s--this is the first time there's been this late in the calender, and I'm guessing it's not an accident.

For me it's that St Louis in May appears to be an extremely expensive place to fly to. Fares from Boston for that weekend haven't _ever_ dropped below $325, and I've been checking since November at least once a week until recently. I still might come if there's a weekend last minute bargain, assuming entries are available, but I'm not prepared to pay $350 (as it was most of the time) for a 1000 mile flight for the weekend. (As a comparison, BOS-STL flights through the end of March could be obtained for $220.) Therefore I chose to save my money for cheaper weekends. I really enjoyed Hawn at the last A meet there, so I'm sorry not to be coming, and I hope the meet goes well.

'its not an accident'????

Yeah, Southwest (only discount carrier serving STL) has bumped their fares, no doubt in response to fuel prices. With all their cheap seats to/from Manchester sold for that weekend, I wouldn't expect any discounts at this point.