I’ve been promising a review of Randy Petersen and Tim Winship’s new book, Mileage Pro, for some time. I read it about six weeks ago, and really did enjoy it. It’s absolutely the best introduction to the miles and points game I’ve ever come across. But I didn’t actually learn anything from it.* They’re quite upfront about their target audience, and it’s not the expert with over 10,000 posts on Flyertalk. Even so, I absolutely enjoyed reading it and I even gave a copy to my father-in-law — who poured through it voraciously. (* Strictly speaking that isn’t true — I learned that you can swap miles into Delta via Points.com on p.94, and though the book and I agree that this is rarely advisable I didn’t even think this was possible since Delta’s participation…

Continue Reading »

Reading through the February issue of Inside Flyer and some recent posts on Flyertalk by Randy Petersen I’m struck by a few of his predictions for changes to frequent flyer programs in 2006. Among the no-brainers, American and United are extending their 15,000 mile awards for short-haul travel (flights under 750 miles). Other airlines will certainly match. Continental has announced its own 20,000 mile awards for flights under 1500 miles — more miles, but longer flights, and interesting competitive response. Short-haul flights tend to see better award availability, since most flyers don’t see them as a good value for use of points. Fewer points make sense. But in most cases they’re still not a particularly good value. Randy has seemed very high on these award offerings, but they really don’t excite me one bit. More…

Continue Reading »

Haven’t been over to the Freepay (aka Gratis Networks) sites in awhile, as they haven’t introduced anything new and I’ve gotten just about every electronic item they offer. But I checked it all out this morning and there’s what looks to be a new easy offer: a free four-week Stamps.com trial which you can cancel at no cost, and credit for the offer should post to your account in a few days. My kind of offer! Though I’ve received all the iPods (the original, shuffle, photo, nano) and the Mac Mini, the desktop computer, the xbox, the TV, the camera, and the handbag, I still have three to complete: Free laptops Free PS3 $300 SuperCertificate (from giftcertificates.com) I’m going to use the Stamps.com offer on the PS3 because I’m closest to completing that one.

Continue Reading »

When I need to book travel online, I may go to an airline or hotel website or to Orbitz, Expedia, or Travelocity. A small business can go to one of the major online travel retailers and have them set up a special portal customized to the business, implementing the company’s own travel policy. Depending on the volume of travel it may be free or a small setup fee may be involved. Employees of the company then book travel through the dedicated site. Government generally approaches this ‘problem’ by working with GAO-approved vendors. The Department of Defense, though, goes its own way. They’ve spent almost $500 million over the past 8 years on their own online booking system. And it doesn’t work. Among its many problems, the system doesn’t properly display flight and fare information, causes…

Continue Reading »

Hotel Chatter fires Donald Trump as its travel agent. The Donald apparently has a travel site (who knew?) called GoTrump.com. GoTrump.com is all about “The Art of the Travel Deal. ” Online travel is a huge business – an $80 billion business. That is why negotiating to get the best rate matters. There are plenty of other sites out there, but only GoTrump.com gets the best deals. And on the site, Trump offers his recommendations for best hotels. Hotel Chatter’s criticisms are twofold — that it’s unlikely Trump has even been to some of the properties he recommends, and that the suggestions are boring and unimaginative: Considering that there are about 53 cities listed, we doubt that Trump has been to all these hotels but there’s a good chance he may have. We’ll give him…

Continue Reading »

Okay, no need for the jokes. They’re too obvious. But if you’re actually flying to Wichita anyway, there can’t possibly be a better way than Airtran’s Buy One Get One program. Through February 28 every roundtrip to Wichita earns enough credits for a free roundtrip ticket. You have to sign up for Airtran’s “A2B” business program to be eligible for the promotion.

Continue Reading »