Year: 2012

As a July 4th event, I am donating two United SWUs (new name GPU) to the person who donates the most to my favorite charity the USO.  I will run this contest for two weeks and see who can send me a reciept for donating the most to this worthy charity. For those of you who missed my blog from last November on donating to the USO, the link for the USO is here.  As a reminder, you can get a consolation prize of American Airlines miles even if you do not win the contest, not to mention a tax deduction.  The link for donating to the USO and getting 10 miles per dollar is http://joinus.aa.com/uso-care-packages. To enter please send your reciept for the donation to my email address shown on the About Me page.  As a reminder, United only let’s a SWU be used on a W fare and higher.  Be sure and check before asking for me to upgrade you. Happy Fourth of July to…

Here is the follow-up post I promised concerning flying while in uniform.  The last one focused on the actual rules for doing so while this one I want to talk about the moral issues with doing so.  To me, we always struggle with correcting someone when they are wearing the uniform incorrectly.  No one enjoys…

Do you do it?  Why or why not?  We are past the years when we were required to travel in uniform in order to remind the public that we were a nation at war.  Now it is optional for most military members and dependend primarily on mission and commander’s descretion.  I am going to address the legal aspects of traveling in uniform in this column and next time discuss the moral issues. Legally, a commander is at his or her descretion as to whether to require you to travel in uniform or even forbid you to do so.  In the 90’s it was thought to be a counter-terrorism measure to forbid the wearing of the uniform on a plane.  I never bought this argument as it is pretty easy to pick out a military guy or gal even when they are not in uniform – the…

Roy and Scott told me they were working on getting Veterans’ Advantage members access to the Ford X-Plan discount.  They finally got all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed a couple of weeks ago.  Just in time for me to buy a new car for the daughter after her graduation from college.  The timing couldn’t have been better!  The X-Plan works by accessing their website here.  The website is kind of neat in that it will display you the model you select and then let you play around with color and options available thus giving you a good idea of what you want and don’t want before even entering the dealer’s showroom. The X-plan T&C’s are here and give you some pretty favorable pricing.  Note that there are four types of discount plans for Ford so make sure the dealer knows you are eligible for the X-plan and not something else.  Here is the formula for the discount: The X-Plan price is noted on the dealer invoice. Ford Dealer Invoice – (0.4% * Dealer Invoice)…

The National Park Service is recognizing the contributions and sacrifice of our service members by giving them and their families free admission to all our national parks. “An annual pass will be made available to members of the military free of charge beginning Saturday, which is Armed Forces Day. The America the Beautiful National Parks…

I fly one to three times a month.  I used to keep track of all my various itineraries by printing out the various airline, hotel and rental car reservations and keep them in my Franklin planner for the appropriate date.  I was all for a smarter way to do this when I learned about a…

Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza has created quite a ruckus by denying a 76-yr old cancer patient a refund after his doctor told him that he was too sick to fly to his appointment in New Jersey.  Jerry Meekins paid $197 for a ticket from his home in Florida to New Jersey where he could…

A hotly debated topic among frequent fliers is whether to hoard your miles and save them for a rainy day or spend them right away on a flight before the airline can devalue the miles.  Devaluation typically comes in the form of a revision to the program’s redemption rate meaning that you need more miles…

A few months ago, my wife and I were both sent an e-mail to sign up for Alaska Airlines TSA Pre-Check list since we are both MVP Golds.  That day arrives on 24 April, although only if you are traveling out of SEA.  PDX will follow next month and hopefully ANC will not be far…

So to continue from last time, I interviewed Scott Higgins, CEO of Veterans Advantage, and Roy Asfar, Marketing VP, for further details on what the program offers.  Here are some of the discounts that they wanted to make my readers and I aware of: AMTRAK.  15% off of any ticket.  AMTRAK was the Veterans Advantage first…