1000 AMERICAN AIRLINES MILES FOR NEW MEMBERS

Join the American Airlines Aadvantage program here: aa.com .

After you have received your membership number and a password, get the new member bonus here: aa/bonus offers by entering your aadvantage number and password and promotion code BNR08

Remember this is a new member enrollment bonus only.

FARECOMPARE A MUST WEBSITE

This is a MUST link for you. farecompare.com has a page that has been developed for advanced travelers that offers info not readily available to the general public. It was developed for readers of flyertalk.com , the granddaddy of online websites for travelers. You now have that page by clicking the link above. Please note that this particular page is for Traverse City, Michigan. Just change the last three letters of the web address to your home airport code before saving as your favorite.

Farecompare offers email alerts for city pairs and your favorite destinations. But most importantly it offers the page you can link to to check recent price changes by price, PPM (price per mile), savings and destination airport code.

Think about what this does for you? Go back to the Continental Low Fare Guarantee article in the blog. You can now tell before a price change, that a price change is going to happen and use this info to invoke the Continental Low Fare Guarantee.

Rick Seaney, the owner of farecompare, is constantly changing and improving his website. There are glitches, like the disclosure of rates without the fuel surcharge, but the overall early warning and info provided, far outweighs his aggressive and constantly changing format.

I will make two suggestions:

1. Read, study and play with the farecompare link I gave you.
2. Sign up for fare alert changes for cities of interest to you. You will then know before the airlines post their rates. A distinct advantage for you the frugal traveler.

REDEYE FLIGHTS FOR AN EXTRA VACATION DAY

Sleeping on a plane can be very frustrating or a very rewarding experience. Your preparation has a lot to do with sneaking an extra days worth of fun out of your trip by returning eastbound on a redeye flight.

Domestic US carriers schedule many flights with late night departures from the west coast and Hawaii to eastern destinations as they are able to keep their planes working all night long. By leaving at 11 PM to 1 AM the flights can arrive on the east coast for an early morning return west the next day.

On many occasions you will find more availability, lower prices and actually more award availability on redeyes.

Our recent quickie trip to Hawaii using a redeye return gave us a full day on Kauai as we did not leave the island until 8 PM to catch our redeye flight from Honolulu scheduled at 11:15 PM to Denver. I really enjoyed the extra day on the Garden Island and got a full night’s sleep on the 7 hour flight back east.

I have several personal suggestions that work for me.

I look at the flight load when booking my flight. If a flight leaves at 11PM that is fairly full and the next leaves at midnight empty, I’m flying at midnight with an extra vacation hour. If the flight is going out empty and you’re traveling on a wide body jet, there are often many rows of completely empty seats. After takeoff, or even after the boarding doors has closed I grab a seat in an empty row and start to set up my nest. A pillow on one seat, book on another, computer on the end seat, subtly lets the rest of the passengers know you are going horizontal as soon as possible and they won’t intrude. It is a bold move but the attendants don’t care. Before retiring for the evening is sure to buckle a seat belt around your waist and keep it visible or they will wake you if the seat belt sign goes on.

I’m a big guy and need at least a three across empty row to go horizontal. I prefer a four and love a center section five across all to myself. I have even bought chocolates for the gate agents to have them help me find an empty row and they can sometimes steer late arrivers away from your bed in the sky.

If I have a choice of a First Class or Business Seat that does not recline a full 180 degrees, I would much rather have a four or five across row in economy on a redeye.

If I am going to be partially sitting up, a window seat is a must for me. It provides just a touch more personal space and a place to lean your head while sleeping. If you’re asleep and on an aisle the odds are good you’ll get bumped into and awaken.

I cut out all caffeine products no later than 6PM and try to stay hydrated as the planes are so dry at times I wake up just from the dryness.

Noise canceling earphones or ear buds help cut out the distractions which can lead to an easier time falling asleep.

And lastly is a sleeping aid. I am NOT a doctor. I am NOT giving medical advice. That can only be handled between you and your physician.

There are many non prescription sleep aids that work for people.
Tylenol PM, Benadryl and Meclizine, the sea sickness pill often work wonders as a sleep aid.

I fly so often I have a prescription for Ambien regular, (not CR) which works just fine for me. I only take it on redeye flights and personally have had no negative effects. Ambien is a PRESCRIPTION medication.

Again, if you are going to be using these products, consult your doctor before taking any sleep aid medication.

By following these simple suggestions last night’s Honolulu to Denver 7 hour flight lasted about 10 minutes for me. I never heard the announcement allowing the use of electronic equipment when we reached 10,000 feet and was awakened by the announcement of “store your tray tables and electronic equipment. We will be landing in ten minutes.”

Pleasant Dreams Redeye Fans

AIRFAREWATCHDOG.COM

Every serious frugal traveler needs to have airfarewatchdog on their favorites list. It is constantly updated with new fares and offers two locations on their website I check daily.

Fare of the Day gives you their latest bargain find both domestic and international. Some of these are missed by the other websites as these guys monitor Allegiant, Southwest, Spirit and a lot of the international carriers. another feature I like is they indicate which booking agents are offering the bargain fares.

Top 50 Fares is another section to be monitored. Most of the combinations are just low prices, but yo will occasionally find a real gem among their top 50. I use it often for determining possible mileage run combinations as it gives the city pair and one click later I can see which airline is offering the fare.

The third feature about this site that is helpful is the email sign up list for monitoring your favorite city pairs. Although it does not seem as effective or complete as the farecompare site which we will talk about in the next day or so, having multiple sites reporting to you insures your best coverage for low fares and fare mistakes.

Check airfarewatchdog out, add it to your list and join their email alert system for low fares.

AMERICAN EXPRESS "GOING ONCE" SALE

Prices decline every 20 Minutes until all packages are gone.
Of course you must use your American Express card.

Thank you to the FW member for alerting us to this one. It looks like fun.

Prizes are:
2/4 - Cabo San Lucas
2/5 - Tuscany
2/6 - Alaska
2/7 - Tanzania
2/8 - Croatia
2/11 - Polynesia
2/12 - Greece & Turkey
2/13 - Buenos Aires
2/14 - Hawaii

Imagine this: Nine unbelievable travel packages to choose from. Amazing destinations for every type of traveler, packed with once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Best of all, once the trips go on sale, the price drops every 20 minutes. But don't wait too long - there aren't many packages available, and at such unbelievable prices, they won't last.Each incredible destination is offered for one day (12PM-8PM ET), and this promotion is only open to American Express® Cardmembers. Start exploring trip details January 21, 2008. Plus, get other vacation packages at special, Cardmember-only prices and save on car rentals, cruises, and lodging with exclusive travel offers from select merchants. Visit this link for more info:
http://goingonce.amexnetwork.com/index.html?cid=go08-trifold-bluebox-Network

Note: Copy and paste above address if necessary as I'm on a semi functioning public compter typying away.

How Going Once works:

DECLINING-PRICE PACKAGES• There are nine declining-price packages, offered one per weekday from 2/4/08-2/14/08. Each day, a declining-price travel package will go on sale at 12PM ET.• Starting at 12:20PM ET, the package price will drop every 20 minutes until 8PM ET or until all the packages are sold. Click “Get Details” to find out more about what these great packages include.BUY NOW• Because Going Once is exclusive for Cardmembers, you must enter your Card number for verification in order to participate. You will be asked to do this when you click“Buy Now.”• Your Card will be secure.• You must use the Card you enter here to make a purchase.

THREE DAYS IN HAWAII ON FARE WAR SUPER BARGAIN

Hello, from Waikiki Beach on Honolulu, Hawaii with a Fare War Story. Several months ago, our friends in the revenue management departments of United, Northwest and Delta Airlines gave frugal travelers a 5 day fare war that has sent me here for a couple days in the sun with friends. This one was one of the stranger fares wars I’ve seen as it involved three carriers, not the typical two, and had brief periods of TRUCE followed by raiding one another’s customers again and again and again.

As I recall it started with United Airlines offering fares from Detroit, Michigan (A Northwest hub) to Honolulu for $287 round trip. It quickly spread to include Minneapolis, another NW hub and eventually Memphis the third NW hub. Northwest of course retaliated by offering matching fares from Chicago and Washington Dulles, two United hubs. They quickly redrew the fare from Washington IIRC. And somehow shortly thereafter, Delta felt left out and they began offering this fantastic fare from the NW and United hubs too. United then absolutely had to offer the fare from Atlanta, a Delta hub. My chronology may be mixed up but these were the players and cities involved.
I got involved about the second day with four friends from Hilton Head Island as Atlanta is just a short drive away. Two of the group have never been to the islands which makes it all the more fun for me.
Getting a group together for a trip is tough as everybody has to check schedules, some have children and work, and some are just slow making up their minds. Time was of the essence, as these fare wars can end any second and the $200 fare becomes $700 again. My single travel buddy Bob, is usually a quick yes and he wanted Stuey along for a Hawaii first and his Bob’s girlfriend Susie had never been to Hawaii, but we needed to get Mimi to watch the kids for xx?? number of days. Richard decided to join at the last minute and was able to get in on the price, but only the second time it showed up. In other words he was too late at first. The price disappeared and miraculously reappeared. That never, well I guess it does, happen. Here is how it played out.

With Bob and his short term attention span, and Susie leaving the kids with Mimi, we decided on a real quickie trip and it will be action packed. Our airfare round trip was $217 each with United Airlines $100 off ecertificates.

We arrived yesterday afternoon, rented a car and are stayed at the Sheraton, a block from Waikiki. We took the short walk to the beach, to view Diamondhead, see the tourist sections of downtown Waikiki and we were off to bed. I was able to secure three rooms with 12 United Airlines more $100 ecerts and $135 in the cash and points SPG program. I got them all from a friend that eventually turned out to be fraudulent, and had to replace some of them with other items of value that I had laying around. The airfare worked as the ecerts were already used and honored. We also used ecert trades to upgrade ourselves to first class with more trades, some of which went smoothly and several I need to make replacement for certificates that did not get used. Our actual flight cost was $267 with what I had in the ecerts. I got upgraded on all 4 segments, as I have status, Bob get three segments and all of us had the first row in first class on the 777 from San Francisco to Hawaii yesterday afternoon.

Today is Pearl Harbor EARLY this morning as it does get crowded and we have a very full day. The rental car will wait in the Harbor parking lot with our carry on bags as nothing is allowed in the visitor center or at the memorial. Then we take the short hop to the airport and short Aloha flight to Lihue, Kauai. When we got the tickets I traded for three of them arranging for a first class upgrade for a friend on an American flight. My cost was 15K American miles and he gave me 3 x 5K (a nice redemption from United) for the Aloha tickets. Bob and Susie paid $99 round trip each.

This afternoon on Kauai will be spent laying around the pool at the Kauai Sands hotel, grabbing a bite to eat and a hike down the beach. The Kauai Sands was one of the last locally owned hotels on Kauai. Katy and I stayed there a couple years ago. It was a clean, well taken care of mom and pop hotel that has now been bought out by a chain and I’m anxious to see what has changed. The price was $108 per night, a real bargain, for Hawaii.

Tomorrow morning, Stuey, Bob and Susie are off for the 8AM fifty five minute helicopter tour of the island while I sleep in and Richard does his paperwork. The hotel is close to the airport, so they’ll get us when done and then off to Princeville, Hanalei and the NaPali coast of Kauai. The scenery will be magnificent; hopefully no rain and we’ll hike and snorkel where the movie Jurassic Park was filmed. It is a truly wilderness area and access is across the Seven Bridges if your heading that way.

The trip is winding down tomorrow night as we fly back to Honolulu and catch the redeye to Denver leaving Oahu at 11:15 PM and arriving in Denver the next morning to connect to our last flight back to Atlanta.

People say to me, why do you go to Hawaii for only three days? And my answer is, because that is all the time we had. The price was right, I road in First Class all the way, slept, wrote, read , ate and watched movies, and got to see two friends experience the islands for their very first time.

And to top it all off, I bought all 5 tickets using my CitiPremier Pass Elite card and I now have 50,000 Thank You Points in the bank for future use. (10K RT each ticket). And I am another 10K miles closer to my British Midland Airlines BMI Gold Status for 2009.

The experiences of life make it rich. This experience cost so little monetarily, and will return all of us memories for a lifetime.

THE BEST RATE GUARANTEE SITE

Link List #2 Goes to http://bestrateguarantee.blogspot.com/ or BRG site for the latest in available Best Rate Guarantees for free hotel rooms. As explained in an earlier Blog entry, the Triprewards program offers the absolute best online rate guarantee. They basically guarantee a free night the first night of your stay if you book through the Triprewards site, and then find a lower price for the exact room type and number of occupants from a competing online website. The claims process is easy and quick by filling out an online form and submitting to the Triprewards guarantee department. You'll usually here if your claim has been granted in 4 hours. Does it work? Absolutely. Here is my best rate guarantee story.

Two years ago the BUG, my bride, had shoulder surgery requiring her to get plenty of rest. We were facing the trip from Michigan to South Carolina with our car for the winter and decided to take it slow and easy. Five days to be exact. Day one Traverse City to Flint, Michigan and the Wingate hotel, free night. Day two Flint to Lexington, Kentucky and the Ramada Inn Express, free nightt. Third day Lexington to Asheville, North Carolina, Ramada by the Biltmore Estate (a great day trip) free night. Day four Asheville to Columbia, South Carolina and the Days Inn, free night and the last day Columbia to Hilton Head Island, SC, free night as our place was not ready yet.

I had found a competing website that had lowered the rates on each room by .99 per night. The Triprewards site listed rooms at $89.99 and http://hotelsatanywhere.com/ would list the same hotel for $89.00. All five claims were approved.

Dave's Blog is new and growing rapidly. You won't be able to use every deal he finds, but check in often or subscribe to his blog for future hotel savings.

CRUISING TIPS FOR THE FRUGAL TRAVELLER

Cruise season is upon us as the masses head to sea for short weekend trips, week long adventures, extended cruises with varied ports of call and the ultimate Around the World Cruise 2008.

I'll digress for a short story.

We cruised sporadically until about 6 years ago, when one eventful night on a 2 week cruise with two of our four kids our cruising lifestyle changed. While eating in the formal dining room, I noticed a elderly lady at a nearby table coughing and gagging. A commotion erupted and the man sitting at her table stood up and started patting her back. The sputtering and frantic look sent me into action. "Katy, she is choking. go help her I pronounced loudly" and my bride the ER nurse of 20+ years springs into action. They really are pros when this stuff happens. Her quick initial assessment confirms a blocked airway and the Heimlich maneuver begins. The "BUG" as we all affectionately call my wife is not a big thing, about 130 lbs at most, has her arms around a large woman thrusting mightily to remove the clogged article. It took several thrusts ("much harder than I thought it would be the BUG said later") before the offending foreign object (steak) is dislodged across the room. The patient left the dining area embarrassed for the incident and my wife is the heroine of the evening. Sporadic applause from nearby diners and hearty thanks from the crew members in the area. An tragic incident has been avoided.

When Katy returns to our table, humble as always, we ask ourselves "I wonder what they do in the event of real emergencies on, like heart attack or stroke?"

The next morning, curiosity overwhelming us we head down, down, down to the infirmary and meet another Katy, the nurse in charge. After brief introductions, a tour of the medical facilities on board and questions about how Katy got to be a nurse on a cruise ship another Cruise Nurse was Born. My Katy had no idea she was involved in a new part time career, but when I heard and "the spouse travels for FREE", we were all signed up.

The cruise line was looking for part time nurses with a minimum of 5 years critical or emergency experience that would take 2 to 3 assignments ( Ha, free cruises a year). The hours were good, 4 hours one day, 6 the next and off every third day. The pay was awful, but we were now staff. I became a "HOB" or Husband on Board with all the rights and privileges bestowed in my honor.

We had a ball, travelled the world. Katy would bid for cruises , and we could accept or reject any cruise offered. By our third year I had this all figured out, and we were looking for the hard to come by cruises.

We sailed to Alaska 4 times, Mexico, and too many trips in and around the Caribbean. We did three repositioning cruises from Florida through the Panama Canal to Seattle or Vancouver and had the pleasure of 21 days in the Baltic and Mediterranean. We learned quite a bit about the cruise industry, met some wonderful vagabond travellers and saw parts of the world that we had never seen before. Glacier Bay must be experienced. St. Petersburg and the Hermitage were amazing, Vigland Park in Oslo was outstanding. The Panama Canal should be transited by everyone at least once in their lifetime. The French seaside villages are just picturesque and Rome, well it is an adventure in itself. That was a pretty long digression, or "prestory" as Katy would call it.

Here are the Tips

Fly in the day before. If you let the cruise line book your travel, sure they will guarantee you get to the ship, but it can be a last minute hassle and with bad winter weather you sometimes end up catching the ship at its first port of call. Arrange your own transportation to the departure city and get there the day before. I had to pay my own transportation to the ship (Katy's was provided) and I always was able to find cheaper flights than the cruise line could find for Husbands on Board.

Very rarely, are the tours offered by the cruise line a good value. As a rule of thumb, the cruise line takes the normal cost of an excursion bought onshore, and doubles it. If you like large groups, riding in buses and knowing the ship will wait for you if your excursion is detained, then book through the cruise line. We would normally step off the ship and hire a local taxi driver to take us where we wanted to go, they'd wait for us and we'd go on to the next place of interest. You'd make a local friend by the end of the day, they would take you places for true local experiences, no crowds, you will save money and if you can read your watch be back on time before departure. There are exceptions. You can't go on your own in the Soviet Union unless you have a visa or seaman's card, and some tours can ONLY be booked through the cruise line.

Book your cruise with an agency other than the cruise line itself. There are too many cabins available for the number of cruisers and the cruise lines give these cabins to travel agencies that specialize in low cost cruise travel. Before working on the ships, we would use http://vacationstogo.com/ for their discounted prices and they handled the paperwork very effectively for us. If you have your heart set on a particularly unique itinerary, or small ship then booking direct may be your only option. And of course, some cruises do sell out quickly, but typically the best prices are within 90 days of sailing.

And my last suggestion for frugal travel is book an inside cabin, midships if possible, and as low in the ship as possible. You'll have the smoothest ride in rough weather, it is nice and dark at night for sleeping and the prices for inside cabins are the best. Your just going to sleep there anyway: Correct?

FREE FREQUENT FLYER MILES MY FIRST LINK EXCHANGE

I sold my business at 43, kicked around with other endeavors for 4 or 5 years but never found my passion. I've always loved travel and being frugal, the idea of "free frequent flyer miles" really appealed to me. About eight years ago I did a Google search with just those words and out popped http://www.freefrequentflyermiles.com/index.htm. I had found my passion. Frugal Travel. I have read Gary Steiger's website every since. It was high on the google search list 8 years ago, and still is today. Gary was gracious enough to do my first link exchange with me yesterday. You will now see the start of my LINKS LIST on the right side of this blog.

Free Frequent Flyer Miles is all about the collection of frequent flyer miles from every source imaginable. Gary has a huge network of followers sending him tips, and I check in on his "Whats New" page often. He has recently expanded his offerings to include the referral to credit card offers that give you sign up bonuses for using his links, and he has never been shy about asking if he can refer you to a particular offer. I have recently used Gary's referrals to sign up for a TDAmeritrade offer for SPG points and several other bank bonuses unrelated to frequent flyer miles. Put his site on your favorites list if you are serious about Frugal Travel.

We had a discussion last night about our differences in frequent flyer mile earning styles and it has become clear to me that we do differ in our approach. It makes us both better at what we do. Gary's approach is to collect frequent flyer miles known as RDM "ReDeemable Miles". Every frequent flyer mile is a RDM.

I look at both types of frequent flyer miles, RDM's and EQM's or Elite Qualifying Miles. All EQM's are RDM's, but not all RDM's are EQM's (repeat 3 times fast then memorize).

An Elite Qualifying Mile is much more valuable to me. I will only buy (ugh, I hate that word) or acquire ReDeemable Miles at 1 cent each. Elite Qualifying Miles are worth about 3.5 cents to me and I will pay that for an airline ticket that gives me EQM's in my frequent flyer program of choice. When I switched away from using Airline affiliated credit cards for everyday purchases, I sacrificed earning RDMs for the sake of better EQM earning capabilities because I do fly so often.

Elite Qualifying Miles are what give you status within a airlines frequent flyer program. The status gives you: more RDM's per mile flown, free or discounted upgrades, higher standby priority on full flights, a dedicated Elite phone line to the airline, and extra assistance in the event of irregular operations.

It is "travel today" tommorrow. I am taking 4 friends to Hawaii for a four day quick trip. The fare was a mistake fare I found, that ending up costing us $217 each from Atlanta to Honolulu. I did some trading with other friends and got us upgraded to first class on most of the segments at about $50 for each of us. So we are off to Pearl Harbor on Oahu, and Waimea Canyon, Hanalei (home of Puff the Magic Dragon) and the NaPali coast on Kauai, the filming spot of Jurassic Park.

I'll blog again from Hawaii.