Gadling’s guide to topping off your frequent flyer account

by Grant Martin on

After 17 long years of flying America’s skies, you’ve done it. You’ve almost saved up enough frequent flyer miles for a free ticket to anywhere you want to go in the United States. Nice work. Most people who remember to put their frequent flyer number into the box before departure forget about their miles and let them expire.

But you’re just a couple of miles short. And you really really want to go see Aunt Ximena in Palm Springs over Labor Day. Distressed, you check the airline website and see that you can buy two thousand miles for sixty bucks. And you’re so excited about In-n-Out and Aunt Ximena’s Uruguyan Barbeque that you’re just about to cough it up. But you shouldn’t.

Hold on fellow passenger! There are ways to accrue those miles without wasting money straight from your pocketbook. At the very least you can use your money practically and earn the miles on the side. Here are a few great ways to do that.

  • Check the website for promotions. Several carriers host small promos for new program members to indoctronate educate newbies on the advantages of their specific product. These change every so often, so it’s helpful to go back and make sure that you’ve qualified for all of your excitement.
  • Go shopping. Many airline programs have deals with an online (or in air) mall that let you purchase goods from a regular retailer (GAP, Home Depot, etc) and earn miles per each dollar spent. So if you needed to buy dog food for Fido or flowers for your mother anyway, you can get 5 miles / dollar online at petsmart or 10 miles / dollar at FTD.com. Not all of them mark up goods either — most gateways go directly to the vendor website.
  • Go out to eat. Sites like Dining for Miles let you enroll your favorite credit card or visa/MC debit card in a program that earns miles per dollar spent at a restaurant. You can peruse about to see if any of the restaurants are near you, then next time you’re out to lunch with co-workers, pick up the bill and take cash from everyone else.
  • Transfer miles from another program. Points.com gives you a pretty serious shaft when transferring miles among programs (I equate them to the TravelEx money exchange in the airport), but they’re good if you’re in a pinch and haven’t got a ton of spare cash. There are too many participants to list them all, so check the website and see if your favorite points program is listed.
  • Take some surveys. Several online sites let you accrue points by taking surveys that you can cash in for miles. E-rewards has worked well for me a few times, although I no longer have the time to take their somewhat elaborate surveys.
  • Get a credit card. This is a little more risk-involved, but if you were prepared to get some plastic anyway, it might be worth looking into a signature or platinum card that gives you 25k miles or a free ticket upon enrollment. You’ll have to pay an annual fee of course, but that should be significantly less than a round trip ticket.
  • Beg. Yes, airlines do give away coupons for free miles that do (illegally) get circulated around the internet. If you’re ready to live a life of sin, check ebay, flyertalk or your local craigslist for people giving away or selling miles. Don’t tell them I sent you though.
  • Go on a mileage run. I know it sounds crazy, but if you need a few extra miles, it may be cost effective to actually fly somewhere just to reap the miles from the trip. Check out Gadling’s Guide to Mileage Running for more info on that.

Finally, the best thing to remember is to be patient. Award availability does dry up pretty quickly and I’ll admit, if you’ve found an itinerary that works, you want to book it as soon as possible. But you don’t need to do anything brash to get tickets before the end of the day. Have some juice, think about your options and find a good workaround. Your miles and your pocketbook will thank you.

The Gettysburg Museum of the American Civil War and Heritage Days

by Jamie Rhein on

Even though I’m disappointed that the Electric Map is gone, the new National Park Service’s ‘s visitor center in Gettysburg where the map used to be does sound wonderful.

Called Gettysburg Museum of the American Civil War, it is filled with artifacts, interactive displays, a gift shop and a place to buy Civil War era food like hardtack, a type of biscuit that keeps forever.

As mentioned in a previous post, the Electric Map has been traded for a movie, A New Birth of Freedom. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, it outlines the importance of the Battle at Gettysburg and pertinent details about the Civil War. The rest of the museum is made up of galleries with different themes.

The Voices of the Campaign Theater in Gallery 5 seems like a section not to miss. This is where you can hear audio versions of letters, diaries and newspaper articles from the time period. Artifacts of note in this gallery are Robert E. Lee’s stove and other items of an officer’s field camp. The display is made to look like what a field camp would actually look like. The field desk that Lee might have used at Gettysburg is also here.

The 11 other galleries are as detailed, and each have a theme inspired by Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. For those of you watching your dollars this summer, a stop here has a price that’s right. The museum is free. The movie costs $8 for adults and $6.50 for children. If you can swing it, spring for the movie because I imagine it will help highlight the sites that you’ll see when you tour the actual battleground. Plus, Morgan Freeman has such a lovely voice.

From June 29 until July 6 is Heritage Days which commemorates Gettysburg’s history. This year the museum is playing host. Here’s a link to the schedule of events.

Renovated National Aquarium offers an inexpensive option

by Jamie Rhein on

Gas prices aren’t the only expense of a vacation that pinch the finances. Admission fees can be a real downer. If one is traveling with young children, huge, expensive museums can be overwhelming.

These are two reasons why the National Aquarium in Washington, D.C. sounds appealing to me.

At $5 for adults, and $2.50 for children, the admission is not even close to the $18.75 amount for adults to the Newport Aquarium in Newport, Kentucky. The Newport Aquarium, the last one I visited, is quite impressive, but sometimes I’d rather opt for a simpler venue for less money.

Last year, when we went to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, much of our time was spent finding a bathroom and each other. Due to time constraints, we hurried through sections where I wanted to linger. When mixing children with large museums, it’s often necessary to leave out entire exhibits in order to not have a kid meltdown halfway through.

With a smaller museum, like the National Aquarium that claims you can see the whole thing in 45 minutes, you don’t have to pick and chose among options. At the end of an hour you can end up at the gift shop satisfied and have time and energy left to take in something else close by. I’d head to the outdoor sculpture garden at the National Gallery of Art for starters.

Along with the aquarium’s renovations that include new signage, carpeting and exhibits is a new theme–“America’s Aquatic Treasures.” Look for alligators, eels, sea horses, a baby loggerhead turtle and more. [see Washington Post article]

If you can make here on August 9, it’s Shark Day. There are several activities geared towards kids and talks adults would enjoy.

Mirror Mazes: One more way to entertain yourself this summer

by Jamie Rhein on

Every beach boardwalk with amusement park rides has some attraction that one wonders, is this worth it? The Marvelous Mirror Maze at Myrtle Beach in South Carolina might be worth it simply because the money you fork over for a ticket pays for an all-day experience.

This doesn’t mean you go all day, but that you can make repeat visits all day. Seems like this might be one method to not have to pay out money all day long for various attractions.

As a parent of a 6 year-old, I’d say this is a bonus. One trip through an inflatable obstacle course is never not quite enough. Almost as soon as the money is paid, the trip through is finished.

According to the description, the Marvelous Mirror Maze is a series of hallways made out of mirrors that are configured to be complicated enough to appeal to adults. Here’s a video link that highlights the experience. I noticed someone pushing a stroller through. Anyone 3 and under doesn’t pay.

There is also a mirror maze like this one in San Antonio, Texas. The one in San Antonio is across from The Alamo. One could think this is a case of where history meets kitsch. I wonder what Davy Crockett would think about that?

Another maze is in Frankenmuth, Michigan.

If you do decide to go, print off the coupon on a particular Maze’s Website. You get $1 off per person. With a family of four, that’s a gallon of gas.

Open Skies airlines gives free companion fares through summer

by Grant Martin on

By this point you’ve probably heard the buzz about Open Skies airlines, British Airways‘ new daughter airline that is flying a new business-class-only type of service between New York City and Paris. They just started operating yesterday and are slowly starting to build their reputation and customer base.

Outside of the internet and this blog though, most people are out in the ether. I’ve mentioned the airline to a few people and they didn’t know what I was talking about, let alone what the Open Skies Agreement, proper, was.

Open Skies knows this, which is why they’re starting to prod some of the frequent flyers and attention-payers out in the market. They’re now offering members of Flyertalk, the local airline and mileage forum free companion tickets on fares booked through the end of the summer — yes, that’s high season.

And yes, you can join Flyertalk too.

Tickets have to be booked in at least biz, their second tier of service, but adding up the numbers, I got round trip prices in late August for about 830$ per passenger. That’s 40$ less than an economy ticket on the competition. That’s a good price.

If you want to check out the offer and join Flyertalk, check their website here or bounce over to Open Skies for their official page and booking instructions.

See you in Paris.