Bye, Bye 2007

This is the final newsletter of 2007. It will be a short one, as will be next week's. We'll get back to full issues the week after New Year's.

It's been another dismal year for travelers generally, and for frequent flyer program members in particular.

For a wrap-up of the year's changes, see "Airline Mileage Programs Continue Downward Spiral" feature. The title tells the story.

As a companion piece to that article, I'm working on a feature for SmarterTravel.com which pulls together the positive developments affecting the frequent flyer community during the past year. It's a tough piece to write -- there simply isn't much good news to report.

If you'd like to comment on 2007, or to share your hopes or predictions for 2008, send a note to this email address and we'll include comments in the "Rants & Raves" section of a future issue.

Finally, thanks for spending the past year with us. We appreciate your attention, your trust, and your feedback. Next year promises to be another bad-news year. But whether the news is good or bad, we'll be there to keep you in the loop.

"Up Front" Blog Entries

Following are some of Tim's recent blogs:

• Airline rules defy logic
  Many airline policies are illogical (and nasty).
• Maxjet shuts down, stranding holiday flyers
  There will be no merry Christmas for Maxjet, or its customers.
• Airlines fail to stymie New York passenger rights bill
  Law guarantees flyers basic necessities on grounded planes.
• Pssst, wanna trade frequent flyer miles?
  New online exchange permits consumers to trade airline miles.
• Are credit cards killing mileage programs?
  As airline programs erode, credit card programs are flourishing.
• Top five miles and points deals for December 2007
  Offers from American, Continental, and more.

FrequentFlier Forum Topics

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

In the "Airline Programs" Forum, ronald returns from "other activities" to share several discount offers (Northwest, United, etc.). Welcome back!

And in the "Contests & Sweepstakes" Forum, DJHerm has information and a link to a sweepstakes with a grand prize of a half-million miles. AAdvantage miles, that is. (See "Sweepstakes & Freebies" below for details.)

Questions, answers, opinions? Post them to the Forum!

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Back next year!

Deal Alert from SmarterTravel.com

Back next year!

Win 500,000 AAdvantage Miles

Enter the Celebrated Living "Readers Choice" sweepstakes by February 14, 2008, for a chance to win the grand prize of 500,000 AAdvantage miles, or one of 10 second prizes of 50,000 miles each.

To enter, choose your favorite hotels, spas, and cruise lines.

:: More

[Visit http://frequentflier.com/sweeps.htm for more travel sweepstakes.]

Feedback from the Frontlines of Travel

"About airline taxes: In November and into December I was enjoying a frequent flyer trip from Newark to Amsterdam (one day planned layover), continuing on to Calcutta, India via Delhi, flight from Calcutta to Amsterdam, five day layover, then home to Newark for 90,000 ff miles and $90 in taxes which struck me as a very good deal.

"This was through the Northwest Airlines award miles program." [Karen K.]

Until next week...