There are oodles of BoardingArea and other bloggers giving away hotel points and other great travel items, and I uncovered another Starwood Preferred Guest 50% off rack rate certificate I’d like a lucky reader to have.

As you probably know, rack rates are definitely more expensive than the cheapest best available room rates, but the use of this certificate on suites can really save money, especially in Europe. The cert is valid for one to five consecutive night stays at participating Starwood hotels or resorts worldwide, subject to availability.

As far as I know, the only way to book a stay using these is by calling SPG reservations, but I have read that people successfully used the online chat feature to check rack rates as they aren’t typically published online.

There are terms and conditions, of course, but most are what you’d expect:

• Certificate expires December 31, 2013
• Maximum of five consecutive nights
• Certs may not be applied toward service charges, room tax, food & beverage, parking, gratuities, gift shop purchases or other incidentals and taxes
• Cert must be presented at check-in
• Member will receive Starpoints for paid portion of stay only
• Not combinable with other room rate discounts or specials
• Good for only one room during the stay
• Not valid in Hawaii, French Polynesia or at the Sheraton Bahrain Hotel

Leave a comment if you’re interested and on Friday, February 24, 2012 at 12:00pm PST, I’ll use random.org to select the lucky recipient. The only “rule” is that you can only leave one comment on this post per person/email. Oh, and not to worry if your comment gets held “in moderation.” I’ll be sure to get it approved ASAP.

Good luck!

[Edited 2/24/12 at 12:00pm PST: Comments are now closed.]

In the next couple of weeks, the Continental Airlines name will retire into the history books, so I’m devoting this week’s Vintage Airline Seat Map to one of the carrier’s DC-9-10s seen flying the skies in the 1980s.

Delta Air Lines took delivery of the first -10 variant in 1965 and it was designed to serve smaller airports on short- to medium-haul routes. Continental’s version appearing below seated a mere 83 passengers across two classes of service. The airline operated a total of 36 DC-9-10s during its tenure and sadly, experienced a fatal accident with one on November 15, 1987. Continental flight 1713 crashed after takeoff from Denver’s Stapleton Airport due to a combination of pilot error and improper deicing.

Continental’s row numbering in coach on this version is intriguing with a break from 16 to 21. Other DC-9s from the carrier at that time didn’t have a similar disparity. In First Class, you’d find me in 3A or 3F and in coach, I’d be keen on sitting forward of the wing on the two-seater side, probably away from the bulkhead in 6A or 7A.

Where would you sit?