About five years ago, the military finally caught up with the way the corporate world had planned their travel needs and establish the Defense Travel System (DTS). Thiscomputerized system allows users to pop in their desired cities and dates of travel and it lists flights that the traveler may select. Upon approval, the tickets are…
OK, my turn for a little holiday cheer. I have a couple of Systemwide Upgrades on United/ Continental that I want to give away to a deserving military member or thier family. Entrants can post replies to this blog post on why they best deserve an upgrade when flying to see their loved ones this…
We all deal with car retals everythime we go TDY and sometimes when it is just a family vacation. Some general advice regarding miles is to never ignore them even when they don’t seem to be much. The standard miles awarded for a rental is 50 miles per day. Even when you can take advantage…
For many flyers, obtaining status is the most important reason to fly. Free upgrades to First Class, free drinks, seating with more legroom, no baggage fees are among many benefits that airlines give to their best customers. As previously discussed under alliances, all the miles from different airlines in the alliance can count to raising…
Everyone has heard of the USO, but hopefully you know it more than that group who sent Bob Hope over to entertain the troops in WW2/ Korea/ Vietnam/ Desert Storm (yes Bob went to all those conflicts)! The United Service Organization was borne out of the various Army and Navy organizations at the start of…
Greetings from Guam this week where I am enjoying the high humidity and 7602 miles for flying here. This week’s topic is alliances and I am not talking NATO vs. Warsaw Pact. Back when I was a Lieutenant, every time I flew on a different airline, I had to sign up for that airline’s frequent…
My plan for this blog is to alternate between posts explaining the basics of frequent flyer programs and more advanced techniques for those military members that are already proficient at maximizing your benefits. For this post, I am going to talk about both involuntary and voluntary denied boarding. If an airplane has 100 seats, the…
We all know the military runs on RUMINT (Rumor Intelligence) which is often not true. This happens quite frequently when discussing frequent flyer miles as most people can’t believe you would be able to do all that I do for free. To be fair, there was a time in the 80’s and 90’s that the…
Listen up Troops! You are about to receive a series of highly unclassified briefings on frequent flyer miles. Now I know that some of you may have knowledge of this subject and for you there will be advanced training. However, for the majority of you this is something you are dimly aware of, but probably…
