W Minneapolis – The Foshay, W Montréal, W New Orleans – 2 locations,

W New York- 4 locations, W San Diego, W San Francisco, W Scottsdale,

W Seattle, W Silicon Valley, W South Beach

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here for info and reservations -W Hotels getaway escape – Two Cocktails, Daily Parking +Room,

Now through 12/31/2010

There are 3 contest periods  left – so you can get a coupon for each period thru September….

First Day of Entry Period – Last Day of Entry Period

Second: April 19, 2010        - June 6, 2010

Third:  June 7, 2010             – July 25, 2010

Fourth:  July 26,2010           -Sept. 12,2010

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here for how to get Promo codes for 10% off American Airlines

There are 3 contest periods left – so you can get a coupon for each period thru September….

First Day of Entry Period – Last Day of Entry Period

Second: April 19, 2010        - June 6, 2010

Third:  June 7, 2010             – July 25, 2010

Fourth:  July 26,2010           -Sept. 12,2010

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here for how to get Promo codes for 10% off American Airlines

Contest…

-Every home game, one lucky winner will receive:…
-Two game tickets…
-Pre-game field access…
-Passes to the American Airlines Lounge…
-One year Admirals Club membership…

Pointswizard.com Spin: American Airlines- $25 off flights + Co-own Dallas Cowboys for a week

Travel must originate from D/FW;  American Airlines offers you a $25 discount for two people from Dallas/Fort Worth to any American Airlines destination worldwide. This exclusive discount may be used only once, and is valid for ticket purchases made by December 6, 2009, for travel between September 7, 2009, and December 6, 2009.

The Sweepstakes ends 11:59:59pm ET on Dec. 26, 2009

And yet, on a layover in early November, I hoped. Though lacking in atmosphere, the Miami airport is much like Miami itself, with Cuban restaurants and cafes strewn throughout the complex. Finding an excellent specimen of the Cuban sandwich — roast pork, ham and Swiss cheese with pickles on a roll, panini-pressed into gooey, crispy deliciousness — should, I figured, be easy.

Hardly. At Bongos Cuban Café, a sleek sandwich bar owned by Gloria Estefan, the Cubano was well-pressed but devoid of flavor. At the Casa Bacardi lounge, it was inedibly dry — which was probably the point. The drier your mouth, the more Bacardi rum mojitos you’ll consume.

By the time I reached La Carreta, I was nearly in despair. Sure, this outpost of a Miami mini-chain looked appropriately shacklike, with a stand-up coffee counter and a cheap-looking backlit menu that included a host of tropical-fruit shakes. It certainly felt like Little Havana. But I’d been fooled before.

Not this time. The roast pork was juicy, garlicky and chock-full of real roasted flavor, and the cheese tasted as if it had actually been produced from the milk of a cow. La Carreta’s was a Cubano I would happily eat “off-campus,” as airline employees refer to the world outside the airport, even though the bread was oddly chewy and I wanted more pickles. Then again, I always want more pickles.

No one likes to eat in airports, but eat in airports we must, since we’re spending more time there than ever. Around one in four air passengers experienced trip delays averaging an hour and 54 minutes in 2007, according to a report from the Center for Air Transportation Systems Research at George Mason University. And it only gets worse during the holidays, said Lance Sherry, the center’s executive director, since airlines are running at maximum capacity and therefore can’t easily recover from delays and cancellations.

“Small delays will have a big impact,” he said.

At the same time, he added, the airports “perversely” benefit from the delays. By offering cheap leases to airlines, he said, the airports have to make money somehow, and they do so through concessions. Which is why that ice-cold turkey sandwich costs $9, the bottle of water is $3, and the delays never seem to get any shorter.

“They’re incentivized to keep passengers longer,” Professor Sherry said.

Still, there are bright points. In October, JetBlue opened a striking new food court in Terminal 5 of Kennedy Airport in New York (more on that later), and with another holiday season approaching, it seemed appropriate to see if good restaurants might exist in other American airports, perhaps overshadowed by the Cinnabons and Sbarros but producing honest, edible food nonetheless. And so, over the course of four days, I flew between some of the nation’s biggest hubs — Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, Dallas-Forth Worth, Los Angeles and, in New York, La Guardia and Kennedy, which together accounted for about 400 million passengers in 2007, according to Airports Council International, an airport trade group — and tried to discover food worth eating. But what to seek out? And how to find it?

First, I wanted to ignore the big chains and focus instead on local food. Each of these cities has a strong, distinctive food culture, and I hoped this would come through in the airports. Plus, I reasoned, local employees might have a greater connection to the local cuisine and thus a certain pride in seeing it done right.

By this measure, Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport was exemplary, with not one but three Texas-style barbecue joints, all branches of off-campus stalwarts. Cousin’s Bar-B-Q was easily my favorite — the brisket had just the right balance of meat, fat and chewy, charred burnt bits — while Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, whose brisket was watery and ribs dry, made an intriguingly spiced hot link. Only Railhead BBQ disappointed, perhaps because I was already stuffed and had to save my chopped-beef sandwich for a cold midnight snack.” ( via travel.nytimes.com  ) by MATT GROSS

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read much more of Grabbing a Bite Between Flights

TSA has implemented 3 different security lines to “speed” up the process. The first line is for those who need more time to “strip down” and may lack the hours of travel experience that would force you to know how to zip through security. Not sure what the second line was for. I went through the 3rd line for “experienced” travelers – I only had a purse. It must have been Murphy’s law, because my line moved the slowest!  I overheard the woman behind me (a so-called expert) ask the brilliant question, “Do I need to take off my jacket and shoes?” (No to the jacket, yes to the shoes!) Why was she in this line with me?

Then it took the x-ray screener an eternity to view each x-ray. I think she needed glasses because her nose was practically on the screen! It took me 15 minutes to get through. I also had to walk through the new “air puff” screening device — several puffs of air and my hair came out looking like Carrot Top. Not everyone has to walk through it.  It also slowed me down – I saw the woman who didn’t know to take off her shoes get ahead of me! So much for my expertise in traveling light. It’s probably why I was chosen for the “air puff” machine in the first place.

Also, don’t bother  using   DFW’s web site  which estimates wait times at various security check points.

(Click here for TSA wait times) The site claimed my wait would be  4-6 minutes max at gate 30. Very misleading information. I waited 15 minutes. Allow 20 minutes for security if you travel on Wednesday from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM. Can you even imagine what a Friday wait time will be like?

Thanks to our reader JIll J.