Flying doesn’t lend itself to private conversations, even flying in first class, or even in an international first class ‘suite’. That’s a lesson that someone needs to teach Under Secretary of State Robert Joseph. The Washington Note reports that Joseph was not much of a diplomat on a recent Dulles-Oakland flight. Bob Joseph was on his way to meetings at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. He was having a loud conversation with someone he was sitting next to. (Of course, “loud” is a relative term — but let’s satisfy that with “loud enough to be heard by others in first class.”) The key point of conversation is that Joseph reportedly stated “I miss the Soviet Union, because they knew what the rules were, and now we are stuck with these ‘surrender monkeys’ in France and Germany.”…

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Craig Depken looks at what it cost to travel from New York to New Orleans and back in 1906. From the Jan. 28, 1906 NYT is an advertisement for the Washington and Southern Railway: MARDI GRAS – NEW YORK TO NEW ORLEANS AND RETURN – $37.75. Tickets on sale February 21 to 27, good returning until March 3, 1906. Extension of limit March 16th can be had by depositing ticket and paying 50 cents at New Orleans. I don’t know how long it would have taken to get from the Big Apple to the Big Easy on a train, but I would figure two days or so. The folks over at EH.net estimate the following 2004 values for the $37 round trip: In 2004, $37.75 from 1906 is worth: $789.69 using the Consumer Price Index…

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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…

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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…

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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.

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