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Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for July 2004.
Free stuff
Sign up for two free years of Best Life magazine.Free mousepad for Virginia residents from the Commonwealth… wonder why my state government needs to be giving away mousepads? Oh well, you can also get a free mousepad by signing up for a psoriasis support group!
Free flat-screen TV
The same company offering free iPods (see post below) is also offering free flat-screen TVs. The offer works exactly the same way. The company making the offers can’t lose — they only ship the stuff to you once you’ve taken actions that get them paid by their advertisers. So really that’s who is bearing the cost. The key is to take advantage of advertisers’ offers that won’t actually cost you anything.
Free iPods
There’s a longrunning discussion at Flyertalk.com about a website offering free iPods. You sign up, complete one of their offers, and get five friends to complete offers as well. Then they send you an iPod. Seems pretty generous, in fact my first reaction was that it was too good to be true. But now that tons of folks have already taken the plunge, and confirmed that iPods have been shipped, I’m sharing this offer. The economics are pretty simple: this website gets paid for each offer you and your friends take advantage of. The commissions are enough to cover the cost of an iPod. And since many folks won’t complete all of the steps, they’ll keep commissions on some folks who they don’t ever have to pay out to. So how should you approach the…
Free Earbud Offer from Sprint is Back
Sign up for a free earbud from Sprint. (Thanks to Samir for the pointer.)
Hijacking ‘dry runs’?
WomensWallStreet.com carries an unsettling first-person tale of a US domestic flight, suspicious activities by a group of Middle Eastern passengers, and the concerns of one passenger. It raises the prospect of airplane hijacking “dry runs,” construction of bombs in mid-air, and difficult questions of civil liberties and racial profiling. I’m not quite sure what to make of it, but it’s worth a read even though the author loses 90% of her credibility when quoting Ann Coulter. Instapundit is covering the article and developing story. Michelle Malkin has confirmed the main details of the story.
South African Likely to Continue non-Star Airline Partnerships
The Star Alliance will not require South African Airways to drop its partnerships with outside airlines such as British Airways, Air France, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas when the African carrier joins Star next year.Chris Klick, Star Alliance’s vicepresident for corporate affairs, said yesterday that although the organisation would prefer collaboration among member airlines, it would not demand that new alliance members relinquish deals with other airlines. “We are striving for a win-win situation. A decision to join (or relinquish certain partnerships) should not hurt the bottom line,” said Klick. Star Alliance’s six-member team was in SA to start the process of integrating SAA into the alliance, Klick said. The integration would include harmonising the ticket booking systems and frequent flyer programmes. SAA spokesman Onkgopotse Tabane said the airline would communicate with its current code-sharing partners…
Southwest’s CEO Steps Down
Jim Parker resigned and was replaced by CFO Gary Kelly. “Personal reasons” are cited, though anyone who knows the real story please e-mail me.I’ve been in Washington, DC long enough to know that ‘personal reasons’ are never true. Southwest remained profitable throughout Parker’s tenure, even as other carriers were losing money across the board — although Southwest’s second quarter profit was down 50% year over year.The move seems to this outsider to come out of nowhere, begging the question: what happened?
Double Elite Qualifying Miles on USAirways
Register to earn double miles towards Preferred Status on USAirways through September 30.Update: Though this isn’t clear from the USAirways website, the offer does appear to be targeted and thus not everyone will succeed in getting the double status miles. However, some folks who have not been targeted do seem to be successful at getting USAirways to agree to let them register anyway.If you just sign up on the website, it will look as though you are successfully registered but you may not get the miles. Best advice is to call USAirways and ask to be registered. If they say you aren’t targeted for the promotion, press further and ask if there’s anything they can do. Heavy USAirways flyers have little to lose, lots to gain. But I wouldn’t make extra purchases just for this…
Wondering how much Hilton HHonors points are worth?
One of the most common questions is “how much are my miles worth?” And one of the most common answers is “two cents apiece.” That is an imperfect guess at best, and I think the answer usually varies from about a penny to eight cents (and as a rule of thumb I usually use about 1.5 cents). But what about the myriad of hotel currencies? Starwood points are worth more than an airline mile – at least 25% more. And Hilton HHonors points are worth less. How much less? One data point is that Hilton will sell you points directly for one penny apiece.
