I'm Now Flying American Airlines

I just totaled up my Elite Qualifying miles with United for the year 2009 and it came to 102,000 with the flights I have booked. It took the end of the Double Elite promo for me to be able to calculate where I am and I have no more need to fly United this year unless I have a great fare or upgrades are expiring.

It is on to the American Airlines Platinum Challenge for me. Effective June 16th the fee for the challenge went to $200 but status is good until March 1 2011. With no more incentive to fly United this year and 16-500 mile upgrades sitting in my AA account, it is time to find the right fare to complete the challenge. I can start the 1st or 16th of any month and must earn the 10,000 points in 90 days. One trip to Europe does that if the fare class is right and I have a $900+ voucher I just got, while relieving myself of some of my United vouchers :)

I just wish the triple miles for the Boston to California routes was still good. I'd better check that one out.

Traverse City to Lost Wages, Nevada for the World Series of Poker

I'm still trying for the coveted Gold Bracelet as the World Champion of the Seniors Texas Holdem Tournament. There will be about 2500 entrants, if I qualify, for the event which starts on the 22nd. My trip today is to get into some of the one table satellites where I hope to win the $1000 entry fee. ( I did last year). I'm using United vouchers for the tickets and took advantage of the MGM Grand $49 per night including breakfast for two deal that has been around for some time now. I called to confirm my benefits and was told that I did not register under that promotion. I told the MGM reservations that I would be cancelling some of my four night stay unless we got that straightened out and now I have the free breakfast all four nights.

I hope to run into Marty, the rental car king, and Samir, Mr Marriott while in town.

And the 85 year old grandma that knocked me out of the tournament last year, well, I hope she has a mild case of the flu and misses the event this year.

She just crushed me. Talk about a humbling experience.

Photo Mirabell Gardens: Salzburg, Austria .

Howard Helps with Free Wifi Access in Airports and Hilton Two for One

I got an email from Howard indicating that the Delta Skymiles clubs now offer free wifi for guests as well as members. The access is T-Mobile and they offer a "visitor/guest" option to log in for free.

Your access is just outside the club entrance, in any airport that does not offer free wifi.. Just use t-mobile as the access network and visitor/guest and wham you are online for free.

As a reminder, you should always check for free access at any place you turn on your laptop. I hate paying hotels $12- $20 for one day access and my first move when entering the room is to check for free access from adjacent properties.

Thanks Howard

Hilton Two for One Promo Except USA

Hilton 2-4-1 worldwide excl USA

Book by 17th August, for a minimum of two nights between 26th June and 31st August, and when you pay for one night the second is free. Or really unwind: book for three nights or more, and enjoy 50% off the price of each extra night.And remember, as a Hilton HHonors member, you'll also be rewarded with both HHonors points and airline miles for the same stay With over 205 participating hotels the choice is almost limitless.

But availability isn’t - so if there's one time you need to hurry, it's now.Make the most of summer with our 2 for 1 offer. Don't miss out - book by 17th August.Stay at the weekend,and the pace is even more leisurely:

Enjoy our famous breakfast lazily till 11am

Make the most of the day with a late check out until 6pm

And, if you are travelling with kids remember they stay and eat for free any day of the week†

Select your destination from the regions below:

UK & Ireland

Central & Northern Europe

Southern & Mediterranean Europe

Eastern Europe & Scandinavia

Middle East & AfricaAsia

Pacific

The LINK

Ts & Cs:

Subject to availability at participating hotels in the UK, Ireland, Europe, Middle East, Africa. Full non-refundable payment by credit card required at time of booking. Stay must be booked between 19th June and 17th August 2009 and completed between 26th June and 31st August 2009 at participating hotels. Minimum length of stay of two consecutive nights is required. Rates are per room for 2 night stays and other than VAT, exclude taxes, gratuities and incidental charges. The prices featured are 'from' and as such may increase prior to booking depending on availability and demand at any given time. The 2 nights for the price of 1 discount represents a 50% saving from our 'Bed and Breakfast flexible rate'. Additional nights (3 or more) will be charged at 50% of the published 'Bed and Breakfast flexible rate'. All rates for this promotion shown at the time of booking are already discounted to reflect this 2 for 1 discount offer. Late checkout valid on weekends and are subject to availability at some hotels. Lazy breakfast is available until 11am on Saturdays and Sundays. However, the free breakfast at Hampton hotels is only served until 10am. Local market defines weekend and as such, weekend benefits may only be valid on a Friday and Saturday. Kids 18 and younger stay free when sharing room with adult. Some hotels may charge a fee for families. Kids 10 and younger (or 12 and younger at some hotels) are entitled to free food and drink in the hotel's designated restaurant, when accompanied by a paying adult guest. Some hotels do not provide free food and drink to kids, please check at time of booking. HHonors offer cannot be combined with HHonors promotional points or miles offers. Hilton HHonors membership, earning of Points & Miles, and redemption of points are subject to HHonors Terms and Conditions.

If You Are Churning Credit Cards, or Thinking of Doing So: Start with Your Free Credit Score

The American Airlines Gold and Platinum Challenge

For those of you that fly considerably in a year and would like to attain status with American, this unwritten benefit is very timely now. By completing a challenge offered to you by American Airlines you can bump up your status from base member to either Gold or Platinum until February 2011 within 90 days for considerably less mileage.

Step #1 is to determine if the cost and effort is worth it to you. The costs for the 90 day challenge is $100 for Gold Status and $200 for Platinum. The fees are new effective June 16th this year, but the benefits far outweigh the costs if you are a frequent flyer. And the status is good for the remainder of this year, all of 2010 and January and February of 2011.

Upon earning the required points not miles, during the 90 day period , you will be upgraded to the desired level you tried for. If Gold is received you will now receive 125% on your miles flown and the opportunity to book exit row seats at time of ticketing. If you choose and achieve Platinum status you earnings will be 200% of mileage flown. With either level if you fly 10,000 miles in any given quarter of the year you will earn 4-500 mile upgrade certs for upgrades based on availability to the next class of service.

As mentioned earlier points are used to determine your progress towards the 5000 point goal for Gold and 10,000 points for Platinum. Points are determined by the fare class of your ticket purchase. The cheapie deep discount tickets earn .5 points per mile flown, discounted coach tickets 1.0 points per mile flown and the higher fare classes like full Y and business and first class earn 1.5 points per mile flown. Your goal will be to find bargain fares in either discounted coach or higher so the flight miles will not be extreme. I am ready to do the challenge again and will as soon as I find the right fare for the majority of the 10,000 points required.

I did the challenge several years ago for Platinum status to help my overall AA mileage balance with 200% miles earned. It also gave me the opportunity to request a status match with Continental Airlines, which then gave me the chance to get a status match with BMI where I loaded up on miles at 625% per mile flown on first class tickets after reaching the 38,000 base mile threshold. Complicated scene, yes, but well worth it for me as it funded a majority of my hotel stays on our last big adventure.

For more information on the American Airlines Gold or Platinum challenge go to the Wiki page here.

Expedia Coupon Good for $30 Off

Send me your name and address and I'll send you a coupon good for a $30 savings on a hotel stay between now and December 31st.

My Next Travel Adventure New Zealand South Island and Southwest Airlines Contest and Partner Promo

The South Island of New Zealand is our next big adventure scheduled for December 28, 2009 to January 17, 2010.

We were last in New Zealand on the $1400 Business Class mistake fare two years ago and have waited for the opportunity to go back. This time it will be all on the south end of the South Island with our base of operations being Queenstown.

The tickets are paid for with some of our remaining Thank You points earnings prior to the big devaluation last year. The routing is through Sydney to see our son Andrew again, and the beautiful city of Sydney which we can't seem to get enough of.

We have confirmed upgrades on United on both transpacific segments using the system wide upgrades I earn for the 100,000 mile 1K status. The ticket costs, if we had to buy them, was $2400 each, but thank you again Citibank and the Thank You program. Our out of pocket was my favorite price...... Free again.

Hotels are a bit more of a challenge as there are very few chain hotels in the area that offer award nights. The cities we will visit are Queeenstown, Te Anau and Lake Wanaka so far on the itinerary. We may add Invercargill as a long day trip through the country side. The sites of primary interest to us are Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound on the southwest corner of the island.

For hotels we are using the Expedia Refer a Friend vouchers we receive for referring you to the program. You too may partake in the vouchers but as I mentioned yesterday Expedia UK is screwed up, and their computer program is not accepting multiple vouchers from the same account, although the promotions allows ten vouchers to be used per person. The workaround is a PITA but can be accomplished with patience. This is an example of:

DO NOT CALL the TRAVEL PROVIDER

I, and several others have tried to get them to correct their programming error and all has fallen on deaf ears. If you decide to participate, PLEASE, do not call them again as they may shut the whole thing down. And before you get involved, read the thread on Flyertalk in the Hotel Forums section on the Expedia Refer a Friend promotion. The beauty of this deal is it lasts all year and we save about $60 per room. So far Katy and I have booked 9 nights at a $60 savings per night. Remember, these are all prepaid rooms. No cancellations or refunds.

So those of you that have gotten the vouchers from us, read the thread, start your referral network, reap the savings and keep your mouths shut if you know what I mean :) Happy savings.

Southwest Airlines Contest

Win a Companion Pass for free Rapid Rewards tickets by registering. Earn other entries by using Southwest partners.

And take a daily spin of the wheel for instant prizes.


Win free travel and a Rapid Rewards Companion Pass for one year!1

Start celebrating! Because with Southwest Airlines® Rapid Rewards Partnerpalooza, you can win all sorts of amazing prizes, including:

Grand Prize: 12 Rapid Rewards Award Tickets and a Rapid Rewards Companion Pass for one year!

First Place: Six Rapid Rewards Award Tickets and a Rapid Rewards Companion Pass for one year!

Second Place: Two Rapid Rewards Award Tickets and A-List status for one year!

Instant-win prizes: Play daily for a chance to win!

Simply make a purchase with any of our Preferred Partners and provide your Rapid Rewards number to receive entries into the Sweepstakes.2 Even applying for the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Credit Card from Chase® or signing up for Rapid Rewards DiningTM will get you closer to a prize.

Visit southwest.com/partnerpalooza to register and get all the details. But hurry; promotion ends September 15, 2009.


$30 Off Your Next Hotel Stay with Expedia

Send me your first and last name along with your email address and I'll forward you a $30 off Expedia Hotel coupon. ingy104@gmail.com

Expedia UK Voucher Holders READ THIS and Regional Airline Incompetence in Dayton

You Can Edit Your Bookmarks or Favorites

We, meaning the computer geeks supporting me, hav directed the name frugaltravelguy.com to this site. You can update your bookmarks if you'd like to just frugaltravelguy.com or leave it with the blogspot. They both point here now and the website is temporarily out of commission.

Expedia Refer a Friend

Many of you have requested, received, and in some cases used the 20GBP vouchers I offered here on the blog. I hope you realize that you can put together your own network of referrals and earn 40GBP vouchers for yourself.

Warning: Expedia.co.Uk is Screwed Up

You will only be able to redeem one 40 GBP voucher in your own account although the program allows 10 referrals. Each referral must be booked in a different account and with a different credit card. It gets complicated but will work out. I tried to play it by the books for a week or so, but they will not correct their programming error.

Before you get deeply involved in the referral side of this deal, I strongly recommend that you browse through the Flyertalk thread in the Hotel Deals Forum about the Expedia Refer a Friend Promo.It will provide you the answers you will need to get multiple 40 GBP vouchers booked.

Dayton Airport Disaster

When I checked in at the United counter several days ago, the ticket agent had a great story,, well kinda, but sad all the same.

United had replaced their feeder airline in Dayton to save a few pennies. The ground and air service was being operated by the infamous Comair of Delta airlines fame.

The first day of the switch over the passengers flying United could not get any service, there was no one to service planes and no gate agents. It seems the Comair employees forgot that they were now handling United flights.

As it turns out, the United passengers had to be rerouted from Cincinnati and they all headed to CVG for a later departure.

The regional airline passenger plane pilots flunk their flight tests and the ground personnel can't remember who they work for?????

Scary isn't it?

The US Airways Lounges Passes are Gone

The four lounge passes we had and offered here yesterday are spoken for already. I hope you enjoy your visit to the lounge of your choice.

Entertainment Books Reduced to $15 with Free Shipping

A New Look for the Blog and Last Day Restaurant.com 80% Off

I have some wonderfully talented friends that read the blog and make suggestions. Several have suggested it looked tired and cluttered and who reads the header anyway? So now you can see our smiling faces every time you log on. That will teach you Dave.

I'm interested in spreading the Frugal Travel word further, am now at a crossroads, and need and want your input. In addition to continuing with the blog do I:

1. Write a book with the ten basic techniques that find the deals?
2. Do public speaking engagements?
3. Develop a series of low cost webinars for those rookies interested in getting up to speed without reading the entire blog archives?

If you have feelings about the topic one way or the other, drop me a note at ingy104@gmail.com


The Value of Your Time?

I had an instant message chat with a reader this week and he was talking about E-Rewards and the points he earned for Hilton. There are other sites like E-miles that also give you miles for your time basically and the info you provide them.

I quit doing them several years ago as I did not think the time invested was worth the miles or points received. I'll do a 2 minute survey for 100 miles but not do repeated E-rewards ones for months to get the meager points they offer.

Have you ever considered the value of your time? If it takes me one hour to save $60 on a hotel room, I'm ok with that. And I guess from my willingness to do a 2 minute survey for 100 miles the math to determine the value of my time would be:

60 minutes divided by 2 minute survey= 30 surveys per hour.

30 surveys x 100 miles per survey =3000 miles per hour at 1 cent each is $30 per hour.

I guess that is my limit as I would not do one if it took three minutes for 100 miles.

How about You?

Restaurant.com Coupons for TWO Bucks. Today is the Last Day

The coupon code is PRESENT to get your $25 coupons for only $2. Take a friend to dinner.




Freebie Giveaway

Katy and I have a total of 4 US Airways Club passes going to waste. They do have our names on them but we have been told that it makes no matter at most clubs. If you fly US Airways and would like one, drop me an email.

In addition, I still have two BMI Gold member upgrade vouchers. If you are not a BMI Gold member they are worthless to you, but if you are and need them, same deal, drop me an email at ingy104@gmail.com

It is FREE and a Great Email Subscription

A New Blog for You to Check Out and Follow

Many of you were followers of the Best Rate Guarantee blog that helped us load up on Wyndham Best Rate Guarantees. The guys are back again after a sabbatical of just a little over 60 days. Dave is back with two partners and TripTipGuys.com for your reading and browsing pleasure.

I trust Dave will continue to offer meaningful content and help you further your frugal travel goals. The travel industry is too big and too complex for any one site to be able to keep up with all the latest deals and happenings.

It is an honor to be "a friend" of their blog and I am pleased to add them to my links list. Give TripTipGuys.com a try. I'm sure you will not be disappointed.

Delta/Avis Offer

Several readers have notified me of this promo for 5K DL miles for every two day rental from Avis. The maximum is 25,000 miles in earnings. Here is the link Rentals must be completed by July 31st.

Thank you for notifying me of the promo. I think I'm feeling less than impressed as last years 8K for a one day rental made more sense for us mileage hounds. But for business travellers, it may be a worthwhile offer. Enjoy the miles.

MY Wife Loves Coffee

Here is her Creed:

"Among the numerous luxuries of the table...coffee may be considered as one of the most valuable. It excites cheerfulness without intoxication; and the pleasing flow of spirits which it occasions...is never followed by sadness, languor or debility." ~Benjamin Franklin

"It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity.~Dave Barry

80% OFF Restaurant.com Coupons

The coupon code is PRESENT for $25 coupons for only $2. Check it out




This Email is a Winner at Finding Great Deals and FREE