Imagine a virtual stock market where mileage and points are currency, and the free market — rather than the airlines — determines the exchange rates. That’s the general idea behind some new online services that have quietly begun testing ways for travelers to leverage unused miles:
ExpertFlyer (www.ExpertFlyer.com) — A subscription site ($4.99 a month) lets [...]
Airfare Watchdog (www.airfarewatchdog.com) – This site scours the Internet for the best airfare bargains, including low fares that airlines often reserve for bookings only through their own Web sites. The Watchdog is known for posting of time-sensitive bargain fares very quickly.
Farecast (www.Farecast.com) – Buy now or wait for a better price? You type in your [...]
FlightStats (www.FlightStats.com) – Developed by the programmers who helped create online ticket-booking for the airlines. Rated “excellent” last year by the Wall Street Journal, the site offers real-time updates and alerts on departure, takeoffs and landings (including code-shares) for more than 420 airlines and more 900 airports worldwide. Alert service available for phones and pagers. [...]
Boarding Area (www.BoardingArea.com) – One of the newest sites useful to business travelers is this online portal created by Randy Petersen, an expert on frequent flyer programs. Boarding Area is essentially a directory of blogs that address issues of interest to business travelers.
Airsafe (www.airsafe.com) – Data on fatal accidents organized by airline, country, and year. Created and managed by aviation safety expert Todd Curtis, a former airline safety analyst with Boeing, and the author of Understanding Aviation Safety Data.
Aviation Safety Net (www.aviation-safety.net) – Tracks major airline accidents and serious incidents. Produced by Aviation Safety Network, part of [...]
SeatExpert (www.SeatExpert.com) – In the rivalry between SeatExpert and Seatguru, SeatExpert has bragging rights to the number of airlines whose interiors have been assigned color-coded graphics explaining what seats are good, bad, and best to avoid. The site managers have mapped nearly 400 aircraft models operated by 58 airlines, and provide data on such inflight [...]
Airport Parking Reservations (www.AirportParkingReservations.com) – Parking is available at more than 200 off-airport lots in US and Canada, and lots are plotted on a Google map to give users a sense of how far they are from the terminals.
ParknFlyNetwork (www.parknflynetwork.com) – Takes reservations for off-airport space near 67 terminals as well as parking spaces at [...]
The best way to get access to an airport lounge is to buy a first- or business-class ticket. But traveling coach doesn’t mean you can’t have the same access. According to Travel & Leisure Magazine (July/2008), you have four options: the annual pass, the day pass, the third-party pass, and credit card pass:
THE ANNUAL PASS
If [...]
BostonCoach (www.bostoncoach.com) – Fidelity Investments launched BostonCoach in the 1980s as a ground transportation alternative for its own business travelers. The company has since become one of the largest owned chauffeured services in the world covering more than 450 cities worldwide.
Carey International (www.carey.com) – Carey pioneered the chauffeured services industry in this country in [...]
How do you take the “lug” out of luggage? The answer is luggage forwarding. What started as a premium service 10 years ago is looking more attractive to fliers, who feel that if they must pay to check a bag, they might as well do it on their terms … and not worry it might [...]