The $50 a day is fine, normally you'd have to eat and pay for your food anyway unless your still at home in which case that might not apply. If you look at the 50 bucks as a supplement to cover the inflated meal costs instead of an end all be all to pay for your meals its plenty. Don't forget you're also getting almost $190 a day for being there on top of the per diem. Also what would stop family members and friends from bringing you in the occasional lunch or dinner, groceries, snack foods like energy bars, drinks and stuff like that? I don't know if it's in the rules but if not that would totally make the allowance more then enough. I doubt they are monitoring you're hotel room.

I think the person who does this has to look at it like some sick life experience and not as a job. It's not for everybody probably not for most.

i think i'm going to apply.. I have video/marketing skills and nothing else holding me back. It would be a great way to get my name out there for a better marketing/media job afterwards :bigthumb:

Update:

Jaeger Mah will be stranded for 80 days and 80 nights at the Vancouver International Airport starting Aug. 17.

But he's no cranky traveller. Mah, 29, was announced Monday as the winner of the Live@YVR contest, which was looking for someone to document what happens behind the scenes at the airport.

"I just got my security pass so I can get into all the secret places in the airport," Mah told The Vancouver Sun on Monday afternoon. "It feels like I won the lottery."

Port-Alberni-raised Mah campaigned tirelessly for two weeks, with help and support from his friends and family, to get votes for his video entry.

He claimed ultimate victory with 4,128 votes - more than double that received by the first runner-up. He was among five finalists selected from 96 original entries.

His prize includes an 80-night stay at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel, three meals a day at the airport, and near-unlimited access to the airport.

That's close to 12 weeks of fully-paid-for confinement at North America's best airport and best airport hotel, as judged by Skytrax's World Airport Awards 2011.

"I love the thrill of different challenges and something like this is perfect," Mah said. "I'll basically be living in a new world, and I have this goal, which is to interview people, share their stories and showcase the hearts behind YVR."

Mah said his first investigation will be to find out what happens to confiscated items.

"My grandpa's pocket knife that he passed on to me was confiscated at an airport a long time ago," he said.

"I've always wondered what happened to it. Did it get recycled? Melted? Trashed?"

And those are exactly the kind of insights the airport authority hopes to reveal with this 80thanniversary project.

"It came from the desire to quench the public's curiosity and to let people know what happens at the international airport," said airport spokeswoman Rebecca Catley.

Catley said members of the public are encouraged to send their own questions about the airport to Mah via Facebook (Live@YVR | Facebook) or Twitter (live@YVR (liveatyvr) on Twitter).

Mah hasn't started blogging and filming for the project yet (Live@YVR), but he's already thinking of how sad it will be when it ends.

"I take a lot of pride in meeting new people and making new friendships," he said. "There may be lasting friendships created, and when I'm done the job, I'll be back home in the apartment thinking, 'I wish I was still at Fairmont.'"

slaw@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

Stranded at Vancouver Airport, and happy

nice

hahaa i forgot I had started this a long time ago....I should have applied like I was planning on

the guy has a company that is all about video editing....i can't compete against that and probably thats why he won

He should get a friend and do this:

You feel like shit after living in a hotel for a month, let alone 80 days. Good luck to that guy.