Year: 2012

I was very pleased this week to receive an e-mail from Roy Asfar, the VP for Marketing of Veterans Advantage asking if Scott Higgins, the Founder and CEO, could have a chat with me.  I eagerly agreed and the three of us got on the phone for about an hour.  First of all, I have to comment that I think that Scott is a great guy and is all about finding ways to get an advantage for his fellow veterans out there.  A 5% discount might not seem much for some of the discounts offered, but you have to remember that for many services, such as airlines and rental cars, 5% of the total price is a huge amount of their profit.  A small discount adds up over time.  Scott and Roy are working hard to get whatever discounts they can from as many firms as possible for the members of Veterans Advantage. To start, Scott and Roy wanted to take issue with my last rental car analysis.  They actually thanked me because my blog caused them to review their system and found that the Dollar discount was not functioning correctly. …

If you are not already familiar with it, Trusted Traveler is a TSA program to speed certain low-risk people through the TSA screening process.  It basically requires you to only be screened as you were before 9/11.  So no taking off shoes, belts, taking out your laptop, etc.  Although randomly you will be selected to…

Alright, so I am trying a few more of the discounts.  Let’s see how they do with rental cars.  I need a rental car for about a week when I go to my daughter’s graduation from Johns-Hopkins in May.  I need full week because I’ve got to help her buy a car and move to her…

To read the latest on the Veterans Advantage Card, please go here. I have to admit that I am one of those guys who follows the old rule “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”.  So when I came across the Veterans Advantage Card on the Deals & Offers tab on…

There was a lot of press lately about the FAA, under pressure from Congress, raising the nuber of hours pilots must be allowed to rest between flights.  For years, the rule was eight hours of rest before flying and, starting Dec 2013, it will be raised to ten.  This was a result of several crashes…

Have you ever wondered whether those sites advertising military discount airfares are really accurate?  I personally dismissed them along with other specials, such as bereavement fares, many years ago when an American agent actually told me that they are discounts off the full fare and usually you can find a better discount on your own….

Imagine driving down the freeway and deciding now would be a good time to change lanes for that upcoming exit you want. You make a call (hands-free, of course) to a controller who is monitoring the freeways and request permission to change lanes for your upcoming exit. The controller is very busy handling everyone else…

To all my followers (all three of you), I apologize for not posting a lot lately. I am working with the airlines to get a list of military benefits, but the airlines are so slow to respond. They obviously do not realize who I am! In the meantime, I thought I would solicit whatever questions…