Issue #97  --  June 8, 2000

<< U P F R O N T >>

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Win 50,000 Frequent Flyer Miles!
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This is the 97th issue of The FrequentFlier Crier, which puts us well within reach of our 100th issue.

As you know if you read last week's issue, we're marking the occasion with the "100 Criers" prize drawing

Every subscriber in our database on the day we publish Issue #100, June 29, will be automatically entered to win one of 47 prizes from 11 companies, including--

o 50,000 American AAdvantage miles from American Airlines
o Copies of "Fly Free As Easy As 1-2-3" by David Crandall
o 50,000 Delta SkyMiles from Delta Air Lines
o Eliteflyer luggage tags
o 50,000 greenpoints from S&H greenpoints
o Two nights stay at any Hilton HHonors hotel in the continental U.S.
o Subscriptions to InsideFlyer Magazine; FlyerTalk T-shirts and luggage tags; and Frequent Flyer coffee mugs from InsideFlyer
o Cool hats and T-shirts from JohnnyJet.com
o "Diving in Malaysia" books from Malaysia Airlines
o Free 1-week GSM phone rental from Planetfone
o Subscriptions to "Travel Holiday" magazine donated by SmarterLiving

We will notify winners by e-mail following the drawing on June 29. Prize winners must respond to the award notification within 7 days or prize will be forfeited and an alternate winner selected.

We continue to receive prize donations from companies in the travel and loyalty area, so check the website for a current prize list.

>> More <<
Prize Drawing: http://frequentflier.com/drawing.htm

<< M I L E S >>
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OnePass Doubles Miles for New Routes
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Members of Continental's OnePass program earn double miles for flights on the following new services:

o Anchorage, AK -- Via Houston 6/14/00 - 8/14/00 (promo code 50022)

o Dallas (Love Field), TX -- Via Cleveland 6/1/00 - 8/1/00 (promo code 50023)

o Oakland, CA -- Via Houston 6/14/00 - 8/14/00 (promo code 50044)

o Sacramento, CA -- Via Houston 5/2/00 - 7/2/00 (promo code 50021)

Be sure to register to receive the bonus miles, using the promotion codes shown.

>> More <<
OnePass

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Northwest/Visa One-Million-Mile Sweepstakes
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Visa is giving away 1 million WorldPerks miles to 1 lucky winner each month.

To participate, use your Visa card to purchase a Northwest ticket through July 31, 2000 and you will automatically be entered into the sweepstakes. Visa will select a winner through a random drawing of each month's entrants once a month in May, June and July. The May drawing is history, but you can still qualify for June and July.

No purchase or obligation necessary. Eligible participants include legal U.S. residents, 18 years and older as of 5/1/00.

Check the NW site for complete rules and restrictions.

>> More <<
Northwest

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Earn HawaiianMiles for Domino's Pizzas
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Another way to eat your way to a free trip... Hawaiian Airlines is offering members of its HawaiianMiles program miles-for-pizza.

When the pizza arrives, show your HawaiianMiles card and pay with a Visa, Mastercard, JCB or Discover credit or debit card, and earn 5 miles for every $1 spent. Not valid with other promotional offers.

>> More <<
HawaiianMiles

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Canadian Airlines Will Quit Mileage Plan
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Canadian Airlines' participation in the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program will end on August 20, 2000.

Mileage Plan members can still earn mileage credit and redeem for awards through August 20, 2000. Mileage Plan members have up to one year from the time of redemption to complete their award travel.

>> More <<
Alaska Airlines

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BA Flights Earn Elite-Status FlightFund Miles
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British Air flight miles count toward elite status in America West's FlightFund program.

Fly full-fare round trip transatlantic flights on British Airways on Concorde or in first, business or economy class (Y, S, B, J, F and R fare types) and the actual mileage flown will be credited toward earning elite status.

>> More <<
America West

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SkyMiles Members Get the Beef, for Less
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Delta SkyMiles members with a taste for red meat can indulge themselves for less with a special offer in conjunction with Omaha Steaks.

With this offer, six 5-oz. Filets Mignons are $29.99 plus shipping, compared to the regular price of $54.99.

>> More <<
To place an order or request a free catalog, call 1-800-228-9055 or visit http://www.omahasteaks.com and mention the Delta SkyMiles Omaha Steaks special offer, selection #469EN.

<< 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...

>> Delta Introduces a Sizzlin' Summer Sale!

Delta Air Lines has announced a sizzling summer sale, with reduced fares to/from over 20 U.S. cities. Travel is valid between now and September 28. Fares are available online only and must be purchased by Monday, June 19.

Sample, round-trip fares include:

 $130 between Philadelphia and Myrtle Beach
 $134 between Atlanta and Boston
 $152 between Atlanta and New York (LaGuardia)
 $164 between Boston and New Orleans
 $188 between Chicago (Midway) and Houston
(Hobby)
 $188 between Dallas and New York (LaGuardia)

Fares must be purchased at least 7 days in advance of travel. One-way fares are also available. Blackout dates include July 5 and September 1 and 5.

For more details, go here.

>> Discounted Fares to/from Florida and the Caribbean

US Airways is offering a summer sale on Florida and Caribbean travel, with round-trip fares to/from the East Coast and Midwest starting at $158. Florida travel is valid from now through November 15, and Caribbean travel between September 5 and December 14. All tickets must be purchased by Friday, June 16, and there is an additional five percent discount for tickets purchased online. TWA is offering a similar summer sale.

Sample, round-trip fares include:

 $158 between Washington (Baltimore) and Key West
 $178 between Boston and Orlando
 $178 between Harrisburg and West Palm Beach
 $319 between Hartford and San Juan, PR
 $329 between Philadelphia and Grand Cayman
 $428 between Raleigh/Durham and Cancun, Mexico

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."

>> Plan More and Lug Less
o If you're traveling by car, pack a smaller bag for hotel and motel stops en route. This way you don't have to lug all your heavy bags into every hotel or motel on the way. Important: Be sure that the bags you do leave in your car are out of sight. Use your judgement in deciding whether it is smart to leave anything in the car overnight.

o If you are assigned to a certain city on an ongoing Monday through Friday schedule, you might tire of hauling your bags back and forth between your home and the same hotel every week. Inquire about leaving your bags at the hotel. Many "business" hotels are virtually empty on weekends. Inquire about the possibility of simply leaving your clothes in your room without charge.

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

<< R E A D E R R A N T S & R A V E S >>

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Code-Share, No-Care
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Your readers may find this interesting, especially in light of the proposed merger between UAL and US Airways... I recently flew on a Canadian flight between Calgary and SFO. I booked the flight months ago, and came to find out at the airport that the flight number had changed to an Air Canada flight, codeshared with Canadian. Ok, no problem, I can't get AA miles on an Air Canada flight. I got to the gate, and found out the plane was a Canadian 737! When I inquired again about earning AA miles, I was told the flight was operated by Canadian for Air Canada (hence the AC flight number), which then codeshared the flight back to Canadian. Then the agent had the nerve to tell me she wasn't going to bother with trying to deal with my FF request since "you're locked in with Oneworld anyways" (I'm AA Platinum).

Seems to me they should be trying to earn loyalty via customer satisfaction regardless of FF affiliation.

 - Mark

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Fly By Night
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Just wanted to let everyone out there know that you can't always believe everything you read. Recently went onto a search engine called TravelHub.com. Looking for airfare from Seattle to San Jose, Costa Rica. We were delighted to find an incredible airfare of $1400 roundtrip for 2 adults and 2 children. We immediately booked the flight and were informed that our reservation could not be confirmed at that time and that someone would contact us regarding this and it would be completed at that time. Well, it turns out that TravelHub aka TravelEnterprises aka FlyByNight is truly a FLY BY NIGHT operation. After checking with the operator and directory assistance and all of those people, there is no phone number for these people. I e-mailed them with the request of a phone number, got e-mailed back and the company even called me back after business hours (they are in Pennsylvania).

Now, the fun begins! It turns out that the fare is $2800 not $1400 and that they don't have children fares and "they" can't imagine where the quote came from. It's supposedly their search engine and they don't know where the info came from. Needless to say, there is no satisfaction as far as this customer is concerned. It was an entire wasted 2 days of run around from the above 3 companies, who just happened to be the same. I know because the phone number leads to the same person each time. Would you like to have this person's name? Also the airlines informed me that they have no control over what these search engines post as prices. Now I ask you, would you trust a company that has these business practices when they tell you "we've shredded all of your personal information including your credit card information". NOT ME! Be on the look-out for these companies. This company should have one title and that is FLY BY NIGHT.

 - Robert

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Seating Rant
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I am a subscriber to The FrequentFlier Crier (different e-mail than I use for messages.) Here's something I have to get off my chest. I plan my own travel, always through the Internet. I shop, I plan, I pay attention not just to prices but to routes, times, and plane types. I always attempt to maximize flier miles, but I do want comfort and convenience during my travels.

So here's my rant. I plan my trips months in advance, find direct routes where possible, and choose my choice of seats for me and my teenage boy who travels with me. But every time, almost without fail, by the time the actual trip comes around the routes have been changed, and not just minor time changes but plane type changes, and airport plane changes for what was previously a direct route and that sort of thing.

But my really big rant is that they end up changing my selection of choice seats to something much less desirable. I often try to book on MD80's 5-seat configuration, and put us in the A/B side up front. But everytime they change the route or plane number, the computer starts bumping people around to different seat numbers. On our upcoming trip, we were up front in the 2-seat A/B side for a red-eye, only to get bumped back to a 3-seat side E/F (middle seat) in the back due to a flight number change. It made no sense to me, since the basic route (at least for our leg) was the same, and by all appearances originated in our City.

Thank goodness I keep on top of our reservations, first weekly and then as we get closer to travel on a daily basis. So I call up and request an agent to change us back over to an A/B (but never as choice as what we had, since our original seats were given to someone else). They tell me it's all done by computer, so sorry. But if that's the case, then they need to change their computer programming. If the computer must reassign reservations around, then it should do it based on the date of the reservation, first come first served, preserving the seat assignments and choices of the earliest customers who obviously care enough to plan ahead and should be given priority. Otherwise, what's the point? Price? Not always (in fact, I could have saved some dollars if I had waited on this trip, based on recent checks of prices for the same trip; and since I didn't all my original seat selections on my multi-leg trip were changed with routes and schedule changes, my hard worked was totally fruitless.)

For an industry that is supposed to be customer service oriented, they need to look at the effect their route and schedule changes have on their customers by the changes their computer programming inflicts on them. I guess they think people don't care, or shouldn't care, where they sit, but some of us actually plan for that. Am I being too picky? Or perhaps they expect me to pay for First Class seats if I'm that picky and don't want to get moved all over the plane by the time I fly (as in, Who cares about Coach passengers!) Imagine if I didn't keep on top of things and showed up at the airport with all my seating arrangements altered to highly unsatisfactory locations! How upset would I especially be then? What kind of customer service is that?

Thanks for listening.

 - Marcus

<< 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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An irate caller demanded to be taken to Miami in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. Ignoring the explanation that Miami International Airport was closed to all traffic due to unsafe conditions, she told the dumbfounded agent that she had been planning this vacation for over a year. "If you don't get me there on time," she threatened, "I'll sue!"

[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]

Until next week...