It is a really poor program today but remember Global Pass (Latin Pass) is simply making up for the giveaway of the century. It seems we all forgot the million mile program.

I also vote for CO One Pass. To try to make a reservation on-line using miles is near impossible and when you pay the blood money to speak to a person, you don't do much better.

mypoints has been good to me because I just click on the 5 point things, let the site of that link open, then close it and delete the offer. Once and a while there IS something I may actually particiapte in, and if you find and offer or a survey, you can participate but for those you HAVE to keep records. They almost always require waiting, faxing, calling and emailing but if you basically only go for the 5 point click and trash emails, then it is fine. I have told them repetedly that they ALWAYS mess up on the offers that yeild between 20-100 points, but eventually, if I stay on top of these, the points do credit. To counter this, I often sign up for things like the free AOL or PeoplePC offers with UBER pointage and then cancel. But again, you have to play administrator for the length of time to get that properly taken care of.

How do you make the umlout ??sp?? key on a PC keyboard? I copy/pasted these but DON'T ask me how to spell the word for the two dots over the letter:

�, �, �, �

MM

Whereas I agree the Freddies are not a statistically valid survey to evaluate the general public perception of FF programs, which the Nielsens are, the Freddies ARE a valid means to evaluate the FF perceptions (self selected, yes, but by INTENT) of FF programs which is relevant in my opinion. While Continental did not win, it was near the top and the highest rated of the legacy carriers. This supports MY opinion, and contradicts yours and some of the others, that at the very least the Continental program is providing a higher level of satisfaction to its members than the other legacy carriers. Of course, this is an opinion and nothing more.

Having worked at a consulting firm, I can remind us all that surveys are often designed to steer people in directions with no alternative choice. In some cases, stacked to make it be the choice they hope for.

Soutwest's Rapid Rewards makes me cringe because I'd have to fly Southwest.

The points expire unless if you stay at Best Western once a year.

I'm kind of bashing this program on another thread (the program "enhancement" thread), but I'll defend 'em here. From an honesty/ethics perspective, RR is probably the most straightforward, user-friendly program of all.

Yes, the earnings/redemption expiration dates are strict, and yes there are blackout dates, but the user can easily understand exactly what they are from the very first time he/she logs in. The execution of the program is simple and transparent. WYSIWYG.

We can debate the quality of the WN product itself. (I understand why some people love it and others hate it.) We can debate what constitutes "fair" adjustments to redemption levels. (Arguably, WN's original redemption level of 8 RT's = 1 no-bull freebie is already competitive, and they operated extremely generously for several years before returning to their original levels.)

But as for the program itself, I think anybody who participates in it sees its simple mechanics and lack of fine print to be a breath of fresh air.

I have to agree with this post because it is what it is and it is transparent. That's all I asked of any of these gigs but until Southwest goes international, we are gonna be flying blind with the other programs. I don't particularly care too much for southwest but I would definitely use them if they did go overseas! Think: PEOPLE'S EXPRESS!
Anyone remember the $100 trips to places like London where they would litterally ask you on a plane from say, LAX to BOS, "If you have your passport and $100 cash on you and you wish to continue on to London, we will walk down the isles and collect it right now from any passenger who wishes to do this..." I almost did but I met a cutie on board while en route to my home in Boston, and ended up dating her for a summer we both happened to be spending at separate rental houses with friends on Cape Cod. (Yes, I like Pina Coladas!)

MM

I was going to jump in and bash Southwest but look, many have done it for me! Not only do you have to fly Southwest but you have to fly them an awful lot in a short time for your flights to be worth anything. When I was living in Seattle, I usually looked at them for options since they have a lot of flights on the West Coast but always ended up booking Alaska.

Now there's my vote for best program: Alaska's Mileage Plan. Mostly because it has so many partners and outside the alliances. In the US alone you can earn/redeem on American, Delta, Continental and Northwest, so it basically covers all the big carriers except United and I can throw away the rest of my points programs.

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Hold down the ALT key and type in the appropriate number from this list. (Look at ALT 128 -168.) Or, just copy and paste from the list.

I emailed this list to my travel email addresses so I can write these from any computer no matter where I am.

If you type a lot of accented characters, as I do when I write in Spanish, there's an easier way.

For WinXP: In Control Panel, Regional and Language Options, Languages tab, click Details button.
Then select the Keyboard and click Add.
Add United States-International
and make sure it is selected as Default Input Language

Then you can type any accented character with 2 keystrokes. For example, to get � you type " then o, to get � type ' then e, to get � type ~ then n. If you only want the special character, e.g. just a quote character type it and then a space (or it will just appear if the character typed next doesn't have an accented version). Once you're used to it, it's very fast.

Nice. Where can I get a list of all key strokes useable in United States-International to get all international letters?

thanks for these tips, mates!
now if this were an airline or a points program, simply obtaining that information from CSRs would have made for at least 45 mins of on holds and transferred called to other departments, lots of typing and some illiterate person in the Tulsa office telling you, "I'm sorry sir, we do not service that type of request here and there's a fee for it anyway"

MM