I have blogged a couple of times on the TSA’s Pre-Check which is like a Pre-9/11 standard of going thorugh security for certain people. I actually have four ways to qualify to go through the special TSA lane. o Global Entry Card, used for getting through Customs, but also good for TSA Pre-Check (This card…
So the daughter and I were sitting around watching Comedy Central. Along comes a one hour special of a guy named Kyle Kinane who proceeds to spend most of that hour hilariously talking about his adventures on a plane. For the record he does mention being a Delta Gold so he obviously does his share of flying to different venues. Check out this sample audio on Youtube. It is even better with the video, but you’ll have to look for it on Comedy Central or buy it. Trust me it is a lot funnier with the video especially the TSA part. After listening to this you will have an irresistable urge to bring a bag of pancakes on your next flight!
One of my readers, Harry, wrote me to say that he loved using the “Salute to Heroes” and other military discounts near Walt Disney World, but had a hard time finding them all in one place. I previously wrote about these discounts last year. Steve from www.militarydisneytips.com has researched and compiled all of the various discounts from Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, and Busch Gardens. He also has links for many, but I expect not all, hotel discounts in the area. This is a great time of year to start planning those Spring Break and summer trips with the family to Orlando. Steve has also come up with a great graphic to simplify the eligibility questions that people often ask. I have included it here below, but suggest you go to this page on Steve’s site for more details. You can click on the image below to get a full view.
Here I sit in the United Club in Honolulu. I arrived from a weeklong senior leader seminar in rural West Virginia at noon and leave for a mileage run to Newark (EWR) in nine hours. Trying to get in all the miles I can before fares go up later in the year. No sense leaving the airport, I might as well sit here and tell you of my latest adventurers and how they may affect you. I spent a great week attending an Army War College seminar meant for senior strategic thinkers which included lectures from GEN Odierno, Chief of Staff of the Army, and other key leaders. Obviously, the key topic was what will happen with the coming sequestration talks which were delayed by two months. I was glad they were delayed otherwise I would likely not be attending this key training! Anyway, the basic message was that the Army, and by extention the other services, do not know how much they will have to cut in thier budgets, but expect to take some cuts in addition to the $457 billion already agreed…
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago – like two years ago – there existed a fun mileage running tool on Farecompare.com. It allowed you to plug in a starting city and define regions of the world that you were interested in flying to, then display a long list of flights in order of cpm (cents per mile). This was perfect for the mileage runner who was looking for a fare from thier home city to wherever as long as it was cheap. This site disappeared over a year ago with a promise that it would return, but “soon” has stretched into an eternity. I missed spending free time plugging in my home city and seeing what the possibilities were. To be fair, there were a lot of “false positives”, that is, there were fares advertised which you could then never find on an airlines or other booking site. Now, finally there is a sort-of replacement. I was tipped off to www.skyscanner.com by Scott McCartney who writes the Middle Seat column for the Wall Street Journal. …
OK, gang, here are the other half of my tips for maximizing your frequent flyer benefits for 2013. Make the most of as many of them as you can. Some people seem to spend their every waking moment working on the best FF deal they can find. I presume most of my readers are not in that category, so use the tips that you have the time for. And above all, have fun doing it! 6. Fly as much as you can in the first quarter of the year. After the holidays and before spring, everyone tends to hunker down. This is the least traveled period of the year. Fares are cheapest from about the second week of January to the start of Spring Break in March. Mileage runs are easiest during this period, plus it is a great time to go get some winter sun by turning your mileage run into a weekend vacation. Look for flights that are 4 cents per mile or lower. That is the holy grail of the FF mileage run. This will be very hard to find during the summer or holiday travel periods. 7. Subscribe…
Now comes the most depressing time of the year – when all your EQM totals roll back to zero! So toast a glass to all the miles and points you accumulated during 2012 and get ready to do the ritual all over again. To help you out, I have compiled a list of my top ten tips for achieving the status that you desire (or have thrust upon you if you are forced to travel the miles like I do). These go in to some detail so I will list five now and the remaining five next week. Feel free to ask for more details as I really could write a page on each one of these subjects. 1. Plan your year. Don’t be one of the many who are scrambling next December because they just realized that they need 2,500 miles to make Unobtainium Level on their favorite airline. Make a simple spreadsheet which lists all your known or probable trips by month. If you fly on multiple alliances, total them in…
How was the year 2012 for you? It worked out well for me as my daughter graduated from Johns-Hopkins, I assumed Brigade Command and published an article in Parameters, the Army War College Journal, and my readership increased from two to three (jk). Perhaps more to the point of this blog, I acheived my goals for frequent flying this year. Here is how I did this year: United (Mileage Plus) – Goal: 100,000 miles, Actual: 134,292 EQM Alaska (Mileage Plan) – Goal: 50,000 miles, Actual: 51,822 EQM (over half were on AA or DL) So I requalified for 1K on United and reaped 6 GPUs(International Upgrades) and 6 RPUs (Domestic Upgrades). On Alaska, I requalified for MVP Gold which gives me a good chance…
Well as simple as anything in the military is… As long as you know the rules, you can profit from them, but if you are not aware of them, you will certainly be disappointed in the results. You may think it is sacreligious for a frequent flyer to advocate using Space A travel, but it does have its uses – such as being almost free to use. It is a great service to use if you are young and don’t have much money or you are retired and have more time than money. I remember using it on my honeymoon to travel all over Europe. We flew from Travis AFB (I was stationed at Ft. Ord at the time) taking two days to finally reach Frankfurt. we spent a few days each at Frankfurt, Naples, and Mildenhall using them as bases to take day trips to various adventures along the Rhine or to Pompei. We did run intl the main problem when you take Space A. That being that we ended up only able to…
Last post I talked about finding and flying the dreaded end of year mileage runs. These tend to be stressful as you are worried about not making status, there is little time along with everything else for the holidays, etc. On the otehr hand are mileage runs done at the beginning of the year. These…
