Oh, Canada!

But the membership to Worldcon is so expensive. I didn't go even when it was in my city.

Yeah, it's cheaper when you pay two years in advance, heh. Now that I've gone to a few in a row, I've already pre-supported and voted for this year, so I converted to an attending membership quite some time ago.

Are you in Toronto? I went to that one...

Kou likes to be a little coy about where he is on public entries, but you definitely came to the Worldcon here, and there is no gambling on the buses.

What's the most you would pay to attend an SF convention of any sort, then?

I'm not trying to be sarcastic, honestly. I am one of those people who thinks long and hard about Worldcon expenses, and I'm not thrilled at how expensive they've become. (The price has increased at roughly twice the rate of inflation from 1984 onward.) Using 1984 (when I attended my first Worldcon) as a baseline and assuming only inflation, the cost of an at-the-door membership would today be around US$130. Would you pay that much? If not, how low would it have to go. Compare with the cost of ~$75 at-the-door for four-day SF cons like BayCon.

There's a lot of reasons that Worldcons cost so much. The main one is that it's a stand-alone event every year, so you have all of your start-up costs, never have any backup, can't build up a reserve or re-use anything, and you tear it all down after the event is over. It's sort of like the Olympics that way. Also, the convention is almost exactly the wrong size. If it grew to >10,000 people or shrunk to <2,500, the price would drop, but where it sits now (5000 +/- 1500 for most North American and European Worldcons), it's stuck in a fixed-cost rut.

I will be going, as you probably already know. I'm taking the train with Lisa. While it's "free" in the sense that I'm using a mountain of frequent-purchase miles to take Amtrak and for the intermediate hotel nights in Chicago, Schenectady, and Los Angeles, you can figure that it cost around $200,000 spread over the past twenty-plus to spend enough to earn the points to get the free travel.

Have any space in your room? :)

I don't think you'd ride well as checked luggage for six days. :)

Ah, I mean your room in Montreal. I already have my own means of getting there.

Sorry, I shouldn't have been flippant in my response. No, sorry; Lisa doesn't share rooms very well with other people. She only barely tolerates my presence as it is.

I'm only able to use the frequent-travel points for the intermediate hotel nights -- not at the convention itself, because the hotel is mostly blacked out except for us. OTOH, I rather hope that they'll recognize my platinum-level status and upgrade us to an oversized room and grant my request for a mini-fridge. That would save a lot of money right there by letting us stockpile milk and other perishables, saving lots of time and money on breakfasts.

I have a room in the Embassy Suites and am looking for a room share. I have a possible offer from someone else, but if that falls through I'll get back to you.

And alas, I simply don't have enough frequent-flyer miles to buy two business-class tickets to Australia, and that's the only way Lisa will fly. (She would go bonkers in a coach seat for that long a trip; even business class to Japan was a real challenge for her.) I left her behind in 1999, and she's never forgiven me for it.

If you're not picky about specific hotel hotwire has some great rates.
Well they always do pretty much. Usually about 1/3 of the price of normal rates on average I've found.