Issue #92  --  May 4, 2000

<< M I L E S >>

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Three Meals = 500 AAdvantage Miles
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Hungry for miles?

AAdvantage Executive Platinum, Platinum and Gold members can earn 500 bonus miles by dining at three different participating AAdvantage dining restaurants each month.

Any miles earned are automatically posted to your AAdvantage account along with the bonus 500 miles. This offer is valid through February 28, 2001. You must be a registered member of AAdvantage Dining to qualify. To enroll or for additional details about the AAdvantage Dining Program call 1-800-806-0786.

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American

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2X America West Miles for Gas, Convenience Store Buys
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In a promotion reminiscent of recent Amex offers, America West is offering bonus miles to holders of its FlightFund-branded credit card for charges at gas stations and convenience stores.

Effective immediately, and running through October 31, FlightFund Visa cardholders can earn double miles for credit card purchases at more than 3,000 76 gas stations and Circle K convenience stores nationwide. Miles will be automatically credited to the member's FlightFund account.

"The expansion of this program translates simply to more miles and more rewards for cardholders," said Jinine Martin, vice president, partnership marketing, Bank of America.

FlightFund members who do not have a FlightFund Visa card can apply by calling 1-800-691-2933 or by enrolling online. New cardholders receive up to 5,000 bonus miles upon first-time approval of the FlightFund Platinum Visa card or 2,500 bonus miles of the Classic Visa card.

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America West

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Earn Alaska Miles for Dollar Rentals
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As of May 1, members of Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan program can earn miles when they rent from Dollar Rent A Car.

Members of Mileage Plan earn 50 miles per rental day at participating Dollar locations worldwide.

To promote the new relationship, Mileage Plan members will receive double miles (100 miles a day) through August 31, 2000, when renting a compact car or larger with a minimum rental of one day. You must cite promotion code "ASDBL" at the time of reservation to receive the double mile offer.

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o Alaska Airlines
o Dollar

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Book WorldPerks Awards Online for Less
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Northwest Airlines is offering a 1,000 mile discount to WorldPerks members who use the carrier's website to book award travel between May 1 and June 16, 2000.

An award trip at the 20,000-mile level, for example, would require 19,000 miles when booked online. The discount is applied immediately upon purchase of award travel and will be reflected in the online booking process.

Online award travel reservations are available to WorldPerks members who reside in the U.S. and have a valid credit card with a U.S. billing address.

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Northwest

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HHonors Points for New E*Trade Accounts
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Open an E*Trade account by July 15 and earn up to 50,000 bonus points in the Hilton HHonors program.

For an initial minimum deposit of $1,000, you'll earn 7,500 HHonors points; for a $10,000 deposit, earn 25,000 points; and for a $50,000 deposit, earn 50,000 points.

You can apply online at the E*Trade site referenced below. You must enter "MSE" as the Special Offer Code.

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o E*Trade
o Hilton

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Sol Melia Hotels Join SkyMiles
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Sol Melia is the latest SkyMiles hotel partner.

Sol Melia offers more than 250 hotels in 25 countries through its three brands -- Melia Hotels, Sol Hotels and Paradisus Resorts.

Through August 31, 2000, the following special offers are in effect:

o Receive a complimentary room upgrade in Sol Melia properties worldwide, upon check-in, when paying published standard or corporate rates. This promotion is subject to availability.

o Earn double miles -- 1000 miles while staying at Melia and Paradisus properties and 500 for Sol Hotels, Melia Confort and Sol Inn hotels.

o Earn up to 5,000 bonus miles -- 2,000 miles with a minimum three night stay, plus an additional 500 miles per each additional night, up to a maximum of 5,000 miles.

If you're not familiar with the brand, Sol Melia hotels are located in major business travel locations such as Mexico City, Caracas, Panama, San Jose (Costa Rica), Guatemala, Lima, Sao Paulo, Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, London, Brussels, Munich, Hanoi, Jakarta and Bangkok. New Convention Centers are available now at the Melia Cancun Convention Center, Beach & Spa Resort, Mexico; the Melia Cabo Real Convention Center, Beach & Golf Resort, Los Cabos, Mexico; and the Melia Caribe All-Suites Golf & Conference Resort, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

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o Delta
o Sol Melia

<< S T E A L S & D E A L S >>

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Deal Alert from SmarterLiving.com
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Two hot deals from SmarterLiving.com...

>> US Airways Summer Sale Starts at $150 R/T

US Airways is offering discounted fares on U.S., Canadian, and Caribbean travel starting at $150 round-trip. Travel is valid through Saturday, September 30. All tickets must be purchased by Friday, May 12.

For more details, go here.

>> Children's Fare Sale on Northwest

Northwest is offering kids' fares from $98 round-trip. Two children (ages 2 to 17) may accompany each adult traveling. Travel is valid through September 6. Tickets must be purchased by Friday, May 12.

For more details, go here.

<< B U S I N E S S T R A V E L T I P S >>

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What to Bring and How to Bring It
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The following is part of a continuing series of business travel tips from Chris McGinnis's "The Unofficial Business Traveler's Pocket Guide--165 Tips Even the Best Business Travelers May Not Know."

>> Avoid Wrinkles

o Wool or cotton-polyester blends do not wrinkle as much as pure wool or 100 percent cotton. Don't even think about traveling with linen, which wrinkles at the sight of a suitcase.

o Pack clothes in the plastic bags from the dry cleaners, which prevent wrinkles by allowing clothes in your suitcase to slide instead of rubbing up against each other.

o Hang wrinkled clothes in the bathroom and close the door during your shower. Wrinkles will fall out.

o Most hotels will supply an iron and ironing board on request.

o Pack larger items first, then stuff rolled-up underwear, socks, or other items around them.

Chris McGinnis
Travel Skills Group
http://www.travelskills.com

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American Increases Business-Class Legroom
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In a follow-on to its economy-class initiative, American Airlines announced this week that it is expanding the space between business class seats by approximately 20 percent on 3-class international and most 3-class transcontinental flights.

The new seating configuration will extend legroom from the current 48-50 inches to 60 inches, amounting to a significant 10-12 inch increase. The additional between-row distance will allow business-class seats to recline 150 degrees.

The new configuration will be made on the following aircraft types -- the Boeing 777, Boeing 767-300 and Airbus 300. The program's first aircraft, a 777, rolled out Tuesday. The project has a planned completion of fourth quarter 2001, and will ultimately affect 88 aircraft.

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American

<< F R E Q U E N T F L I E R F U N N I E S >>

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True (Funny) Travel Stories
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A reservations agent tells of the call she was taking when the caller became ill. The sounds of someone becoming physically sick did little for the agent's digestion, but she gamely held on until the caller returned to the line. Apologizing, the lady said she wasn't sure what was wrong, but thought the large bag of "M&M's" she'd just eaten weren't agreeing with her. They continued with the reservation and were nearly done when the woman became violently ill once again. Controlling her own nausea, the agent again waited until the woman could talk and completed the call.

At that point, the agent took a much deserved break and left her position without knowing that the call had been monitored by a training class in progress. When she returned from her break, she found a gift on her computer... a large bag of "M&M's", donated by a prankster trainee.

[FrequentFlier Funnies are true stories told by pilots, reservations agents and other travel industry professionals, from William Joric's "Air Sick Humor." The book can be purchased at the FrequentFlier Bookstore at http://frequentflier.com/ffp-books.htm]

<< S I T E 2 S E E >>

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The Ticket Express Portal
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If you're a regular reader of The Crier, you know the name Chris McGinnis. Chris is responsible for the "Business Travel Tips" section of The Crier, and is a trainer, consultant and writer.

In addition to his expertise in all things business-travel-related generally, Chris has made it his business to be an expert on Atlanta. So his newsletter, The Ticket, is particularly targeted to Atlanta-based business travelers, and his newly launched portal likewise focuses on Atlanta-originating travel.

The portal's tagline sums it up: "Too busy to sort thru the Web to find what applies to YOU, the Atlanta-based frequent traveler? Then make this site your favorite place."

So, if you travel to, from or via ATL (or if you travel at all, for that matter), the Ticket Express Portal is a site that should be among your bookmarks.

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The Ticket Express Portal

<< B A C K O F T H E B U S >>

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Verging on Convergence (Not)
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If you follow trends in technology (as I expect most Crier readers do), you've no doubt heard reference made to one of the darlings of all current tech trends, convergence. Convergence is... well, convergence. The combining of disparate hardware and software into new hardware and software which combine (and hopefully improve upon) their forebears. So, for example, computers and television are converging as WebTV. Cellphones and Internet-capable PCs are converging as Internet-capable cellphones. Cellphones are also increasingly converging with various PDA functions. And so on.

I'm all for it. And for the best of reasons: because I really need it.

I'm currently on the road for a 2-week business trip, and as I was standing in the back of the aircraft waiting for my turn in the lavatory, it occurred to me that I had with me no fewer than 4 electronic devices, each with its own set of capabilities.

The Laptop. Since I will be writing and editing 2 issues of the newsletter during the trip, a laptop with a full-size screen (13.3 inches in this case) is a must. Also during the trip, I expect to make several website changes, on FrequentFlier.com and on other sites I maintain. So again, the display size counts, as does a hard drive loaded with Web development and graphics software.

The Handheld. This is an NEC MobilePro 770, running Windows CE. Instant on, instant off. Eight-hour battery life. A keyboard which is 75% as large as the laptop's--small, but big enough for composing long documents comfortably. A 640x240 color display. But it's truly portable (1 pound, and 1/3 the size of a laptop), and is my preferred tool for working during meetings, conferences and airline flights (I've been typing for 3 straight hours now, at 33,000 feet, and 80% of the battery remains).

The PDA. The Palm is such a standard (and the Palm V is such a beauty), that when I was recently given one as a gift, I loaded up my Outlook records (which also reside on the desktop, the laptop AND the handheld) to see what all the can't-live-without-it fuss was about. Now I'm hooked, and the Palm goes pretty much everywhere the cellphone goes.

The Cellphone. And of course, who goes anywhere these days without their cell?

So? I do hope you weren't expecting a tidy resolution to this dilemma. I don't have one, and convergence may or may not eventually meld some or all of these appliances into a single, lightweight, drop-dead-gorgeous killer app.

In the meantime, in consideration of the bursitis in the shoulder on which I hang the bag which bulges with all the high-tech, redundant toys, I'm thinking of jettisoning everything but my steno pad and Bic ballpoint. In fact, I've made a note to myself on my Outlook "To Do" list, which has now been propagated to the laptop, the handheld, and the PDA. And to be extra-sure, I'll try to remember to leave myself a reminder message on the cellphone's voicemail box.

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Actually, less would be better.

Until next week...