Issue #3  --  July 11, 1998

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Kudos to Consumer Reports
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     Buy the July issue of Consumer Reports. There, tucked
between reviews of life insurance and comparisons of front-
loading washers, you will find their review and analysis of
frequent flyer programs. More than just good information, the
article exemplifies a critical approach to earning and using
miles.

Frequent flyer programs are about rebates, and at the end of the
day, a bigger rebate is better than a smaller rebate. The
challenge is to describe your options in such a way that the
values of the available rebates can be compared.

For example, you'll likely get better value using your hard-
earned 25,000 miles for a free coast-to-coast flight than
for a free short-haul flight. To illustrate the calculation
underlying the rule, assign a dollar value to the award ticket
and divide by the number of miles required for the award:

Route:        Ticket Value* / Required Miles  =  Value of Miles
---------------------------------------------------------------
L.A.-N.Y.         $829          25,000            $0.033/mile
Dallas-Chicago    $223          25,000            $0.009/mile
L.A.-San Diego    $165          25,000            $0.007/mile

* Assuming 14-day advance purchase economy class with no day/time
  restrictions

By quantifying the values associated with your award options,
it's easily seen that the transcon ticket gives you five times
more value for your redeemed miles than the L.A.-San Diego
ticket.

By the same token, it may be better to buy a cheaper ticket on an
airline which doesn't offer FFP miles, when you factor in the
real value of the miles you would earn by flying on a higher
fare. So assuming that an earned FFP mile has an average value
of 1.5 cents, a comparison between two carriers flying the same
2,000-mile roundtrip itinerary might look like this:

Airline:  Ticket Price - Value of miles* = Ticket Net Value
-----------------------------------------------------------
A**           $300           $30                $270
B***          $250            0                 $250

  * 2,000 miles x $0.015/mile = $30
 ** Full service airline offering FFP miles
*** No-frills airline offering no FFP miles

In other words, you would be paying an extra $50 on the full
service airline to get FFP miles which are only worth $30. The
"rational consumer" would choose airline B over airline A.

>> More <<
The Consumer Reports site:
http://www.consumerreports.org/Special/CurrentIssue/Reports/9807f
ly0.htm
(While the main article is available online for all to read, some
of the related sidebar articles can only be accessed by site
subscribers. You might just want to buy the magazine.)

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Preview Extends its Reach
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     Preview Travel, one of the Internet's most successful (and
pervasive) online travel agencies, has signed on as the travel
provider for Snap, CNET's Internet search engine. Preview is
already the featured reservations service on AOL, Excite, Lycos
and others.

>> More <<
Preview's own press release:
http://www.previewtravel.com/newsroom/snap.html

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Why 'Net Ticket Sales Don't Take Off
************************************
     According to a recently released study, consumers still
consider credit card security an obstacle to purchasing travel
online. This in spite of the assurances of experts that the
incidence of such fraud is practically nil.

There's a bright spot in all this for frequent flyers. Because
airlines want consumers to book directly with them on their
websites (because it's a very low-cost form of distribution),
many carriers are offering bonus miles for Web bookings.

>> More <<
Go to http://theffpsite.org/ffp-002.htm, link to your favorite
program and see what kind of bonus is currently being offered for
online bookings.

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PBS Goes to the Airport
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     Here's PBS's own description of "Airport," a 3-part British-
made documentary: "This program offers a never-before seen look
at London's Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport,
capturing the quirky and serious aspects of airport life, from
Joan Collins' dash for the Concorde to customs officers'
interrogation of suspected drug smugglers."

Particularly potent was the confrontation between airport staff
and a planeload of passengers stranded by a canceled Sabena
flight. My blood pressure went over the top in sympathy with the
outraged passengers as the Sabena staff dissembled shamelessly.
Other threads followed the progress of would-be flight attendants
going through the British Airways training program, and an
airport photographer snagging shots of Melanie Griffith,
President Clinton and Mick Jagger. Highly recommended.

In Los Angeles, the second episode is scheduled to air at 10
p.m., Thursday, July 16th, and the third episode on July 23rd.
Check your local listings.