Enroll in The Extra Mile program by Dec. 31, 2007 and receive 50 percent more miles for every eligible fare* you purchase.
The program lets you earn miles between Jan. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2008.

Choose from three offers:
Offer 1 Pay $50 and receive a 50% mileage bonus on all flights up to 5,000 bonus miles.Register for Offer 1 using registration code AC8M01.

Offer 2Pay $100 and receive a 50% mileage bonus on all flights. Cap of 10,000 bonus miles.
Register for Offer 2 using registration code AC8M02.

Offer 3Pay $150 and receive a 50% mileage bonus on all flights. Cap of 15,000 bonus miles.
Register for Offer 3 using registration code AC8M03.

Pointswizard.com Spin: An inexpensive way to get extra OnePass miles. Click blue line aboveto get to the offer

Labels: Continental Airlines, OnePass Miles, travel

AP) – Q: My frequent-flier accounts have been inactive for too long, and my miles are going to go down the drain. What’s an inexpensive last-minute save?A: Inactivity periods can creep up on frequent-flier members, especially since some major airlines have been reducing the amount of time fliers’ accounts can rest idle — no miles earned or redeemed — before wiping clean program members’ accounts.

American Airlines’ 36-month inactivity period switched to an 18-month limit on December 15, United Airlines will make the same switch on December 31 and Alaska Airlines will cut its inactivity period from three years to two years starting April 1, 2008.Other airlines’ inactivity periods range from JetBlue Airways’ one-year expiration date to Continental Airlines’ indefinite commitment.But saving miles is easy — no need to rely on travel to earn miles. A program member can shop, eat out, take a survey, watch an online ad, donate miles to charity or order magazine subscriptions to add mileage to an account in small increments, keeping it alive.

“It’s hard to believe that we would be talking about frequent-flier programs and someone’s worrying about their miles expiring,” said Randy Peterson, publisher of InsideFlyer magazine. “Virtually any activity counts toward extending your miles, all of which are pretty easy and pretty everyday.”Leisure-time solutions such as holiday shopping with the airlines’ retail partners or eating out at one of the thousands of restaurants linked to major airlines’ flier programs require little extra effort or spending.”All of the big programs these days have what I call mileage malls, which are networks of online retailers,” said Tim Winship, a frequent-flier program expert. “The larger such malls comprise up to 200 and more online retailers.” To use these malls, program members must first go to the Web site of the airline on which they want to accrue miles and click through to the retailer’s site via the mileage plan window.To use a dining program, register a credit card number with a mileage plan (free), then pay for meals with that card.Purchasing groceries can also net miles — United, for example, has a relationship with several major grocery chains.

Transferring miles to another account or buying up miles are not good deals, said Winship and Peterson.Many airlines charge 1 cent per mile transferred, with an additional transaction fee. On Northwest Airlines, for example, transferring the minimum 5,000 miles would cost $75, with no additional miles gained.Alaska requires a 1,000-mile minimum purchase when buying miles directly — not a bad deal for $25, plus taxes — but gaining free miles via regular purchases and activities has more value.”You would be hard-pressed to think of anything that you might want to buy that you couldn’t earn miles for,” said Winship. “Many of these online malls have in place right now bonus mile promotions that go through Christmas”Many major airlines’ program members can also sign up with Web sites e-rewards.com and e-miles.com.

Sitting through a short ad or filling out an online survey posts 10-15 miles per activity to a previously-specified airline, ensuring that infrequently-used mileage accounts don’t die.And while miles stored in American’s mileage program expired on December 15 if the last activity registered was in June 2006, the airline offers a one-month grace period, until January 15, 2008, for program members to redeem or earn miles and win back expired accounts.If all else fails, some airlines offer mileage reactivation.American can retrieve expired miles through December 2008, at a cost of $50 for every 5,000 miles, plus a processing fee; Alaska’s reactivation, available up to a year from the day of expiration, costs a flat $75.United does not currently offer a reactivation plan. (via -AP- cnn.com)

The Pointswizard.com Spin: click blue line above to see this article

Labels: frequent flyer, travel

While SIR PAUL McCARTNEY is a Christmas-time regular at the Hilton resort on Rangali Island in the Maldives where he enjoys snorkelling and swimming, this year he is staying closer to home. The music legend is spending Christmas Day in the UK with four-year-old daughter Beatrice. McCartney is planning a family Christmas at his Peasmarsh estate in West Sussex, along with children Heather, Mary, Stella and James. Paul has another reason to be near home - he is about to become a grandfather again. Mum-of-two Stella (Miller, two, and Bailey, one) is expecting her third child with husband Alasdhair Willis around Christmas Day.

Paul’s ex-wife HEATHER MILLS is expected to be nearby. The former model owns a home just 15 miles down the road from the McCartney estate and will undoubtedly want time with her little girl as well. Shortly after the festive period, Heather is rumoured to be heading off to her holiday home in Slovenia for a winter break.

Despite their recent move to LA, VICTORIA and DAVID BECKHAM are coming home to England for Christmas. The pair are planning a typically Beckham overthetop celebration with their three children and families. Currently in the middle of her Spice Girls world tour, Victoria has the week off, and the Beckham brood will be staying in their mansion in Sawbridgeworth, Herts. Sons Brooklyn, eight, Romeo, five, and two-year old Cruz will be joined by Victoria’s parents Tony and Jackie, along with her sister Louise and David’s mother, Sandra. MADONNA will be spending Christmas ………….(via Dailymail.co.uk)

The Pointswizard.com Spin: click blue line above to read the whole story

Labels: travel

To register a trip outside the U.S. with the U.S. State Department takes only about 5 min. You can do it on line. They ask for only your passport number, an address where you are going, and the names and passport numbers of the people you are traveling with. Should there be an emergency where Americans need to be evacuated, the State Department then knows how to contact you. If someone desperately needs to contact you, the State Department knows how to do it. go to https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/ui

The Pointswizard.com Spin:
In the event of a hurricane, etc., if they don't know where you are, you are left with trying to find out where they are and adding yourself to the list of Americans they are compiling; it's much better, to be on the list to start with. Click blue line above

Labels: State Dept., travel

"In fact, many smart travelers are converting at least part of their loyalty to the hotels. How does it work?

Well, if you're on the road quite a bit, chances are good you're staying a hotel. If you're traveling around the country, you might have developed a good relationship with one or more hotel chains. Almost every chain has a loyalty program these days. Most are linked at some level with the airline programs.

But here's the important point: take a look at your total travel bill. Chances are good that your hotel costs were more than the charge for your airline ticket.

So the question is this: how can you leverage your hotel cost for discounts and freebies in the future?"
[Via www.adn.com]

The Pointswizard.com Spin:
Click blue line above to read the whole article

Labels: Air Miles, Airlines, mileage, travel

In order to provide you with a more personalized travel experience, we’re inviting you to fill out our Travel Survey. Doing so will help us better understand your travel interests and allow us to serve up deals and promotions that are more customized to your needs. And we’re offering you 250 AAdvantage miles just for completing the survey and opting in to our email! It’s our way of showing how much we appreciate your time.

The Pointswizard.com Spin: T
Do the survey - keep your miles in good standing.
Customers must stay opted in to the American Airlines Vacations email for three months to receive the offer.

Labels: Air Miles, american Airlines, travel

"This is how Ben Baldanza CEO of Spirit Air responded to a complaint letter from a first-time customer:

"Please respond, Pasquale, but we owe him nothing as far as I'm concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He's never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny."

Which might have been ok, had the email stayed inter-office, but Baldanza seems to have hit "reply all" and accidentally sent the message back to the original complainant. Oops.
Even if you read the original complaint and agree with Baldanza in principle, that's a pretty jerkoff way to respond to a customer and if he had any balls, he would apologize and refund the twenty-two cents or whatever the passenger paid to ride on Mr. Baldanza's discount thrift store flying claptrap.." [Via consumerist.com]

The Pointswizard.com Spin:
see the rest of the story and comments - click on blue line above

Labels: Spirit Airlines, travel

Take advantage of this great Orlando offer.

The Pointswizard.com Spin: Bonus Cancun, or Puerto Vallarta Mexico certificate. Click blue line above to get details.

Labels: Cancun, Disney, Orlando, Puerto Vallarta, travel

"Saturday morning is the best time to find a deal on airline tickets, according to CNN Money. Most airfare sales are released to the Airline Traffic Publishing Company on Friday evening, and then forwarded to travel sites and agencies. With 200 million fares in circulation at any given moment, CNN has a novel solution for ferreting out the best deal:

Okay, you're at your computer in prime travel-shopping time. Where to go first? Not to one of the big three travel-agency sites. You instead want to visit ITA Software (itasoftware.com), a Boston company that developed QPX, a travel search engine that powers other search engines.
Primarily, it's a business-to-business site with no frills, but you can log on (as a guest) and search fares, even including those of some discount carriers.

Once you enter the usual information, QPX produces a list of flights with prices, departure and arrival times and warnings about inconveniences such as long layovers. You can also search for the lowest fares at any time during a month and for deals if you stay over a weekend.

You can't purchase a ticket through ITA, but you'll receive "booking details" that instruct you how to secure the flight you want. ITA Software lets you send an e-mail to your travel agent (a living, breathing one, not a Web site) to request the specific ticket it found. Or you can print out the details and then hunt for the same flight on a travel Web site where you can make a reservation.

To find an even better deal, be flexible like a gymnast. Fiddle with flying times and airports - anything to squeeze extra savings from the airlines." [Via consumerist.com ]

The Pointswizard.com Spin:
Some very good advice.

Labels: airfare, CNN, ITA Software, plane tickets, travel

Here is a site to help you plan your trips around future sports events. Check it out...
johnnyroadtrip.com™ is created and run by sports fans like you. We are your one-stop source for all the travel and sports information needed to make your road trip fun, exciting, and memorable!!
But johnnyroadtrip.com is more than just a travel web site. We provide schedules, message boards, tailgating tips, city information, and major sporting event information, as well as links to every league, organization, pro team, plus other great sports-related web sites.

Pointswizard.com Spin - Click on blue line above for more info

Labels: future sports events, travel

"Life on the road has always been a dicey proposition, but 2007 is already shaping up as a year of unique challenges. Prices — for airline tickets, hotel rooms and car rentals — are rising. Service is deteriorating as the travel industry continues to cut back on everyone from gate agents to front-desk clerks. Airlines are losing more bags, rental-car firms are bungling more reservations and hotels are slashing more perks.
You have two choices when things go wrong: Start a blog and rant — or complain effectively and get satisfaction. If you goal is to vent, well, I guess posting a nasty blog entry makes some sense. But if you want compensation and satisfaction, I think that writing an effective complaint letter is a better way to go." [Via USA TODAY]

The Pointswizard.com Spin: Click on blue line above to read how to complain

Labels: complain, Joe Brancatelli, travel, USA Today

("The program generating your packing list is doing some of the decisions for you from knowing what kind of trip you are doing. No scuba diving? Leave the snorkel behind! Never warmer than +10 centigrade? Leave your shorts behind! But please make yourself a service and experiment a bit with the "Size of bag" setting! It has these choices:

I've hired sherpas
Large
Normal
Small
Extremely small")
(via the website)

Labels: packing, packing list, suitcase, travel

Booking your Food Network Travel Package is as easy as:

1) Book your stay.
2) Reserve your table.
3) Embark on a delicious adventure!

Travel should treat you to extraordinary flavors, scents and vintages. So we suggest a fine dining escape at our celebrated hotel restaurants that includes:

4-Course Dinner With Wine Pairings for Two
showcasing unique regional flavors, original recipes and expertly paired wine flights chosen by our award-winning Hilton Chefs.

Enjoy these special keepsake gifts:

Ten-city travel guide as seen on Food Network

A compilation DVD of Food Network show highlights from shows such as $40 a Day, Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels and Road Tasted

Food Network Kitchen’s cookbook
How to Boil Water

Food Network travel tote

Labels: food network, HILTON, travel