Just a quick search for Phoenix:

Newark - Phoenix $364

DCArea - Phoenix $238-$328

Does Vegas count as West Coast? There are almost always chep flights there from everywhere!

Vegas = Pacific Time, I thnk that counts as West Coast.

No localistas, though.

LA-istas kinda count as local.

I love Vegas.

Vegas is certainly not central, so, I think, counts as West. Denver, I think, is where the fuzzy-ness starts setting in.

Teppy, if we're going central-ish all the time, we should get that decided soon, and it needs to be voted on.

Anybody have any thoughts on when would be reasonable to vote on dates?

Interesting. My comment wasn't an "I told you so"; it was just my opinion.

Actually, 'that ITYS' wasn't about you at all. I'm the one feeling "I told you so" because what was supposed to be central and easily reached turned out to be prohibitive to so many people. Which is why I didn't vote for it. But it's too late for that now except to learn from it. And this year its the west coast's turn try and drum up a place easily accessable to them and hopefully they won't blow it. And if they do it's my opinion they should wait their turn until they get another stab at it. And, no, that's not written in stone but its a reasonable and fair custom to let them take a crack at it now.

I hope that we all make an effort to make this one as affordable as possible. As marvelous a time as I had, it would have been better with more of you there.

centralish all the time strikes me as demographically unfair

Does Vegas count as West Coast? There are almost always chep flights there from everywhere!

That's right, isn't it. I mean, I've never been, but it always seems like Vegas is relativley reasonable to get to for people. And aren't there often crazy good hotel deals to be had? No dog in the race; just chiming in with, "Good point."

Vegas sounds good flight-wise, but I wouldn't even think of going there in June. April - okay. Personally, I'd love Vegas because I want to check out all the hotels that have ETC lighting in them.

Actually, 'that ITYS' wasn't about you at all. I'm the one feeling "I told you so" because what was supposed to be central and easily reached turned out to be prohibitive to so many people.

Ooops. I totally read that wrong, then. Thanks for clarifying!

centralish all the time strikes me as demographically unfair

I know, but -- and I haven't done any kind of airfare comparisons to prove/disprove my theory -- it just seems like a centralized location would be most accessible and affordable to the largest number of people.

It's kind of a communist idea, I guess. Instead of making it cheaper for one part of the country one year (and possibly, as a side effect, making it more expensive for other parts), the centralized/communist idea makes it affordable-ish every year for the largest number of people. If that makes sense.

Like --

Year 1 (NYC)**: East Coasters, cheap; West Coasters, screwed
Year 2 (San Diego)**: West Coasters, cheap; East Coasters screwed
Year 3 (Kansas City)**: East Coasters, average; West Coasters, average

Every year: outliers (Australia, Israel, Maine), PISSED.

**And these are TOTALLY generalizations; I pulled the cities out of my ass; I realize some magical places always seem to get good airfare price mojo, no matter what region they're in.

but I wouldn't even think of going there in June

Is that because of heat? Or crowds? Or both? I'm a Vegas virgin.

The problem with central-all-the-time, is that there are people who will never be able to go. At least, the way it is, there should, in general, be at least 1 year out of 3 when a given person (in the continental US) can expect to be able to attend.