Issue #109  --  Aug. 31, 2000

<< U P F R O N T >>

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The Wall Street Journal Wants YOU
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Well, not YOU exactly, but YOUR STORY...

A reporter from The Wall Street Journal is preparing an article on frequent flier programs. If you have had interesting recent experiences with a program and would like to share them, please email him no later than Monday at Jesse.Drucker@wsj.com. Please include a brief description of your experience and your phone number so he can call you to discuss it.

<< O N S I T E >>

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FrequentFlier Forum Topics
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As always, there's plenty of activity on the Forum...

Glenn is looking for ways to convert his Marriott points into Mileage Plus miles. Vickie wants to use her AAdvantage miles for a business-class trip to Europe. Dee is trying to use frequent flyer miles to take a family of 9 on vacation. And Ronald has more greenpoints opportunities for us.

Do you have questions? Do you have answers? Post them to the Forum!

>> More <<
The FrequentFlier Forum

<< M I L E S >>

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Miles, Money, Merchandise @ MilePoint.com
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Consumers can earn miles for everything except breathing. And many do, with the result that tens of millions of us have mileage accounts. And many of those accounts have enough miles to qualify for 1 or more free tickets. But free seats haven't proliferated nearly as fast as miles have. So there's a disconnect.

In a nutshell: the airlines have allowed demand (redeemable miles) to outstrip supply (available award seats). Frequent flyer members are left crying "foul." And the airlines have been scrambling to address the imbalance.

And then there are the mileage-poor, the infrequent flyers who are hard pressed to reach the minimum threshold for an award ticket.

What's needed are more opportunities for consumers to redeem their miles. And those opportunities must meet 2 criteria: 1) they must be attractive to program members; and 2), they must be affordable to the airlines and hotels which operate the programs.

Enter MilePoint.com.

MilePoint will allow members of 6 airline frequent flyer programs (Delta, Northwest, Continental, US Airways, America West and TWA), as well as members of Hilton HHonors, to redeem their miles for discounts on merchandise at Amazon.com and SkyMall.com (itself comprising 100+ online retailers, including Sharper Image, Orvis, Hammacher Schlemmer. etc.).

To redeem their miles, frequent flyer program members must first register their accounts on the MilePoint website. Thereafter, they can use their miles as partial payment (between 10% and 25% currently) when they make purchases from participating e-tailers on the MilePoint Mall site. Airline miles will have a cash value of $0.02 when redeemed with MilePoint.

MilePoint is not the silver bullet that will cure the supply-demand disparity afflicting the industry. But it's a step in the right direction, providing mileage-holders with an important new outlet for redeeming their miles.

Milepoint launches in October.

>> More <<
MilePoint

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Earn Double WorldPerks Miles for Memphis Flights
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Fly on any Northwest flight that begins, ends or connects in Memphis between September 1 and November 15, 2000, and earn Double WorldPerks Miles.

You must register for the promotion at least 7 days prior to travel and no later than October 31, 2000. Visit http://www.nwa.com/offers/memdbl or call 800-508-2000 and enter registration number 3584.

Offer valid for WorldPerks members residing in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. All travel must occur on Northwest coded flights operated by Northwest, KLM or Northwest Airlink.

>> More <<
Northwest

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5,000 WorldPerks Miles for New EarthLink Customers
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Also from Northwest, WorldPerks members who sign up for Internet access with EarthLink earn 5,000 WorldPerks miles.

In addition to the sign-up bonus, you'll earn 5 miles for every dollar you spend monthly with EarthLink (7 miles for Elite members).

This offer is for new dial-up customers only. The 5,000-mile bonus will be deposited in your WorldPerks account within 8 weeks of your second paid month of EarthLink Sprint Internet service.

>> More <<
o EarthLink
o Northwest

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Miles for Loans
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Need a loan? If you're planning to go the home equity loan route, here's a way of getting both cash and miles in the same transaction.

You can earn 5,000 ClickMiles when you book a home equity loan or line of credit through Citibank's myHomeEquity.com.

>> More <<
ClickRewards

<< I N D U S T R Y U P D A T E >>

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Holiday Weekend Strikes at Southwest?
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Over the past 2 days, there have been rumors of possible "wildcat" sickouts by Southwest Airlines ramp workers over the upcoming Labor Day weekend.

Southwest has denied the reports, but the buzz persists. If your Southwest flight is cancelled or delayed, or you misconnect, you should be aware of the following. Since Southwest does not have interline agreements with other airlines, you will not be accommodated on another carrier. So your options are limited to--

1) Waiting for the next Southwest flight which has available seats;

2) Receiving a refund for the unused portions of your ticket.

Just in case...

<< 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...

>> Northwest and US Airways Extend European Savings

Northwest Airlines and US Airways have extended their sales on travel from the U.S. to select European destinations. Travel is valid between November 1 and March 18, 2001.

Purchase tickets by Tuesday, September 5, and receive an additional discount of up to five percent when you book your tickets online.

For more details, go here.

>> Save 15% on Select Sun Country Routes

Sun Country has released a sale offering a 15 percent discount on select routes to/from Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Boston. Travel is valid from September 1 to 30. Purchase tickets by Tuesday, September 5 at 11:59 p.m. CT.

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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Surviving the Airport
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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."

>> Introduction
While airports have not historically ranked as anyone's favorite place, they are getting better. Remember the airports of yesteryear? Think beige, stuffy, low ceilings, frayed (or no) carpeting, linoleum, plastic bucket seats, ashtrays, sullen store clerks, Muzak, and overpriced, steam-table food. Airports used to look and feel a lot like office copiers: grayish and brutally functional. But all that is changing with the introduction of in-airport gyms, name-brand or fine dining, specialty shops, full-service bank branches, 24-hour ATMs, and even clinics and chapels. If the shopping mall has become the new town center of Middle America, the airport is now the town center for business travelers.

Airlines are tinkering with their airport operations and taking steps to make their flight schedules more reliable. They are speeding up the check-in process, requiring earlier check-in times, reducing advance boarding privileges, and cracking down on the number of carry-on bags allowed on the plane. While all of these changes are serving to minimize flight delays, it means that more responsibility is placed in the hands of the travelers. As always, there are certain predicaments that airlines can't avoid. Bad weather and air traffic congestion will continue to delay flights, no matter how efficient the airline itself is, but cooperation between airline and passenger definitely helps to speed up the process.

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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Frequent Flyers' Fast Food Feelings
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How Do Frequent Flyers Feel About Fast-Foods on a Flight?

In January of this year members of FrequentFlier.com participated in a survey aimed at finding out how frequent flyers felt about receiving brand name fast foods on airline flights. The objective of the study was to find out how US domestic coach class passengers felt about the foods that they receive when flying, and would they prefer a fast-food item that they are familiar with. Almost 200 members responded to this survey. As the study focused on domestic coach class passengers both international and first class travels were removed from the data before final analysis.

The major finding of this study was that consumers would like to see brand name fast-foods added to flights. However that did not want to see McDonald's and Burger King in-flight based on the greasy smell of those products but would rather Subway Sandwiches and Taco Bell.

Juline Mills, would like to thank the members of FrequentFlier.com for participating in this survey. Without your valuable support I could not have finished my thesis...Thanks a Million.

 - Juline (now working on her Ph.D. at Purdue)

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Fooling the System
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The story from Johnny Jet about his frequent flyer miles and booking 2 roundtrips. If I understand his story correctly he did what is called "BACK to BACK" and the airlines do NOT like it, even if it is with their free tickets.

I am in the airline business and have seen people stripped of all frequent flyer miles or pay the difference between the lower fare the received and the fare they should have paid. Again, if I am correct in following his story, he may have found 3 US Air agents that said he fooled the system, but if he gets caught he may be the one fooled.

 - Nat

[Editor's Note - Moral of the story: if you're going to be creative, and you're risk averse, verify in advance that your tactic falls within the program's rules.]

<< 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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Reported comments to reservations agents...

When asked for flights to unserved cities, most airlines' reservations agents will refer the caller to a competing airline to help them get where they're going. On one such call, the agent reports telling the passenger that her destination was served by Delta, Continental and American. "Forget it," the caller snarled, "I'm not making that many connections!"... and hung up!

[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...