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…

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…