The National Park Service is recognizing the contributions and sacrifice of our service members by giving them and their families free admission to all our national parks.

“An annual pass will be made available to members of the military free of charge beginning Saturday, which is Armed Forces Day. The America the Beautiful National Parks and Federal Recreation Lands Annual Pass ordinarily costs $80. It provides access to more than 2,000 national parks, wildlife refuges and other public lands.” Announced a press release from the Interior Department as part of Armed Forces Day celebrations.

Pretty cool and I always like to see something done for the families.  Even though we often hear how budgets are tight, the NPS is giving up an estimated $2-6 million in fees by doing this action.  Military personnel or any of their family members can get the pass at any national park or wildlife refuge that charges entrance fees.  The pass will be for active duty military or activated Reserve or National Guard service members and any member of their family. The service member does not need to be present for a dependent to get the pass.

To give credit where credit is due, this effort was spearheaded by Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.  Ms. Biden said in a statement, “”Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to our servicemen and women who make great sacrifices to protect our country and preserve our freedom.  In recognition of their service, we are so pleased to be putting out a welcome mat for our military families at America’s most beautiful and storied sites.”

I fly one to three times a month.  I used to keep track of all my various itineraries by printing out the various airline, hotel and rental car reservations and keep them in my Franklin planner for the appropriate date.  I was all for a smarter way to do this when I learned about a couple of apps that will track all of these parts of a trip in a convenient easy-to-access way.   These are already known to a lot of frequent flyers, but I know there are a lot of my military readers that would love to have something like this available to them.

The first one that I tried was Tripcase.  This app works by you emailing your intenerary that you receive from the airline, hotel, or rental car company to Tripcase.  They have a program that will parse out the key data while associating your account with the email address you have sent it from.  They can even put together a single integrated intinerary from emailed reservations you send them from various companies.  So with their service, you can call up your trip from your smart phone and see all the various components of your trip in one integrated screen.  Pretty neat.  They even have an upgraded version called Tripcase Pro that is free until the end of the year.

The other app that I tried was Tripit.  Tripit does the same things as Tripcase, but adds on a couple of features that they don’t have.  To be fair, for these features you need to pay $45/year for their Tripit Pro version.  The features are a module that tracks all of your frequent flyer miles and points.  Handy to have it all in one place even though there are several other programs that will do this by them selves such as Award Wallet.  The second feature that I tried out was that the program will alert you if your purchased fare drops in price.  Most of the airlines will credit you the difference if the fare drops and you tell them about it.  I actually went almost the first full year that I purchased Tripit Pro without a single alert and was about ready to give up on it, when it alerted me to a $22 drop in a fare to Alaska that my wife and I bought.  I called and got a voucher for the $44 difference.  That paid me back for my investment so I continued the service.  Well see what the future brings there, but for now I am going with Tripit Pro.

Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza has created quite a ruckus by denying a 76-yr old cancer patient a refund after his doctor told him that he was too sick to fly to his appointment in New Jersey.  Jerry Meekins paid $197 for a ticket from his home in Florida to New Jersey where he could receive treatment.  The doctor told him that he was too sick to fly so he ended up driving instead at a cost of about $300.

When CPO Meekins approached Spirit about getting a refund, they only offered him a credit voucher provided that he would pay a change fee.  CPO Meekins replied that he couldn’t use a credit voucher since his doctor forbid him from flying.  Ben Baldanza went on TV to defend Spirit’s handling of the affair only to create a media storm of negative publicity.  Here is his quote:

“Making an exception would be like an insurance company paying to fix a  fire-ravaged home even though the owner didn’t have a policy before the fire.  Had we done that, I think it really would’ve been cheating all the people  who actually bought the insurance,” he said. “And I think that’s fundamentally  unfair.”

OK, Mr. Baldanza, I get that you don’t want to set a precedent and change all of your famously cheapskate airlines rules, but c’mon.  If I was Mr. Baldanza, when I found out about this story, I would have whipped out me personal checkbook and written the retired CPO a check for $197 and ended it right there.  I’ll wager that the CEO probably makes millions every year and should have just done the right thing without making such bad publicity.

Want to know how much that bad publicity is costing Spirit?  A Facebook page calling for a boycott of Spirit has gone viral and their stock price dropped 5% on Thursday after this interview with Baldanza.  Instituting a $100 bag fee for any bag that could not fit into the overhead bin may have also contributed to that drop.  Here is the link to the BoycottSpirit page.

Not that I had any intention of ever flying Spirit, I now will definitely not.  What do you think?

A hotly debated topic among frequent fliers is whether to hoard your miles and save them for a rainy day or spend them right away on a flight before the airline can devalue the miles.  Devaluation typically comes in the form of a revision to the program’s redemption rate meaning that you need more miles that previous to get that free flight.  The two philosophies have compelling arguments on either side.

The case for “burning” miles right away is to use the miles for a benefit before that benefit can be taken away.  I find this case applies more for those folks who earn only a limited number of miles each year.  If you only have 25,000 miles and can only get a few thousand each year, then an airline raising their number of miles for a redemption to , say 30,000, really can mess up your plan.  15 yeasrs ago many people assigned a worth of $0.02 per mile based upon a typical award.  Meaning that you could buy a ticket for $500 or spend 25,000 miles to get that ticket for free.  Now you are doing very well if you can get that type of return for your miles.  The rate is more like $0.015 or sometimes less for the value of your mile.  Most airlines have gone to a two-tiered redemption system where you can technically get a domestic coach ticket for 25,000 miles if there is available limited space or spend twice as much and get a ticket on any flight.  This means that there are only a few seats for the lower award redemption on most flights, and if they are taken, you have to fork out 50,000 miles for the exact flight that meets your plans.  Since the popular flights are the first ones taken for the limited available award seats, the remainder are usually off-peak or red-eye flights that are much less fun to take.  Many consider this a devaluation of their miles effectively meaning that you need 50k for any convenient redemption.

The savers (I admit that I am in this camp) believe that it is worth the risk that the return on miles will be lower in the future, to retain many miles so they can use them either for when they are old and no longer traveling much or for emergencies.  It is the latter of these thoughts that make me want to save miles.  As we all know, the most expensive tickets are the ones you must buy at the last minute.  However, in mileage world the flights all cost the same.  Miles are also more flexible when plans change.  Here are some examples.

My buddy at work was on a TDY trip to Iwakuni MCAS when he got word that his brother had passed away.  He had already used UA miles to book a vacation to Malaysia, but was able to call the airline and change the ticket to a trip back to New York without spending any cash.  If he had paid cash for that trip he would have been hit with a change fee of $150 and then paid an exorbitant amount for a last minute trip to New York.

Last week I went back to a Commanders Conference at Ft. Meade.  Two weeks before the event they told me that they would like me to bring my wife along since they were having a Family Readiness Group series of meetings.  I could have said no given that the price tag for a HNL-IAD ticket was $1200, but made everyone happy by spending 80k in miles and even treated my wife to FC going there.

A couple of weeks ago, we found out that my nephew was marrying his Finnish sweetheart in Finland.  My brother and sister-in-law were going, but their grown daughter said she couldn’t afford it.  I looked at the 950k of miles I had on UA and decided that she deserved to be there and got her an award ticket to Helsinki.

I admit that it is easier for me to be a saver since I earn so many miles a year.  If you have a couple of hundred thousands of miles coming in every year, I am in a good position to spend more miles on a flight since I know that I will earn them back quickly.  In the end miles are only worth what you personally value them at.  Let me know what you think and which philosophy you follow.

A few months ago, my wife and I were both sent an e-mail to sign up for Alaska Airlines TSA Pre-Check list since we are both MVP Golds.  That day arrives on 24 April, although only if you are traveling out of SEA.  PDX will follow next month and hopefully ANC will not be far behind.  I am really looking forward to trying out this new service and may just exit and try to re-enter at SEA next time I pass thorugh just to see how well it works.  With this start by TSA, and the start for military service members started last month, I do not think it will be long before this fast screening becomes available at most large to medium sized airports.

Since all of the TSA Pre-check programs are based upon having high stauts on an airline (except the military one), this gives you another incentive to gain status and avoid the hassles of regular screening at security.

Here are the details from Alaska’s announcement:

As a participant of TSA Pre✓™, you are entitled to use the TSA Pre✓™ lane at the north checkpoint. You will experience expedited screening – which means you can keep your shoes and belts on, as well as leave laptops and your 3-1-1 bag in your carry-on.

Once you register, there are a few things to know before you travel to ensure you receive expedited screening:

• You must check in online at alaskaair.com, at a kiosk, or on a mobile device.
• If you choose to check in with an agent or make changes to your reservation, please do so at the MVP Gold counter.
• After check in, proceed directly to the north checkpoint.
• TSA Pre✓™ includes a random screening component, so you are not guaranteed expedited screening every time. (This is a part of TSA’s broader random security measures.)
• Family members and traveling companions who are not TSA Pre✓™ eligible may not accompany the TSA Pre✓™ participants through the designated checkpoint lane.

At this time, Pre✓™ participants may only use Seattle-Tacoma International airport’s TSA Pre✓™ checkpoint lane. In cooperation with TSA, Alaska Airlines is expanding TSA Pre✓™ to more airports
throughout 2012. The TSA and Alaska Airlines will launch TSA Pre✓™ initiative at the Portland International airport in May.

So to continue from last time, I interviewed Scott Higgins, CEO of Veterans Advantage, and Roy Asfar, Marketing VP, for further details on what the program offers.  Here are some of the discounts that they wanted to make my readers and I aware of:

AMTRAK.  15% off of any ticket.  AMTRAK was the Veterans Advantage first partner.  I am not an “East Coast” guy so I am not that familiar with AMTRAK, but I did get a chance to ride their train from NYC to see my sister in Fairfield, CT last Thanksgiving and I thought it was a nice relaxing ride.  Probably a good deal for someone like my daughter who lives in Baltimore and can take the train up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

Greyhound.  20% off any fare.  Again, I hadn’t ridden a Greyhound bus since I was a 2LT at Ft. Belvoir in 1985.  Got a chance to ride one with my daughter from Baltimore to NYC at Thanksgiving and was pretty impressed.  Internet on board and power plugs everywhere gave me plenty to do on the four hour journey.  The rest stop on the Jersey Turnpike was actually very nice with a wide variety of food similar to what you would expect at any large airport.  This seems like a good deal for those on a budget.

Travel Medical Insurance.  For a simple fee of $189/ yr. you can buy insurance in case you get very sick while traveling and need to be medevaced out.  I know from my time in Alaska that those “lifeflights” as we called them cost thousands.  Might be a good investment for those who travel to remote places or where there is sketchy medical care.

Concierge Service.  This service is included in your membership fee and is a great reference for traveling someplace and talking to an expert in the local goings-on.  Museums, shows, restaurants, etc.  I plan to try this out and see how well it works.  Kind of nice to be able to call someone for entertainment advice when in a  strange area.  I have seen this advertised for other travel services, but you usually have to pay big bucks for the conceirge service.

Prescription Discount.  I thankfully don’t need this, but my wife probably gets a couple of hundred dollars worth on meds every month.  Tricare picks up most of it, but I can see this discoount coming in handy because the expense is only going to get bigger with time.  Not to mention what might happen if Congress cuts back on Tricare like they have been discussing.  It’s hell getting old, but it sure beats dying.

Lastly, the one I am excited about most.  Scott is very close to tying up a deal for Ford’s X Program.  This is where you get a pre-negotiated discount for a Ford car.  I really like this as I hate haggling over the price with the dealer, not to mention the required “waiting while he talks to his boss”.  I know they are really out having a cup of coffee.  I could really use this for my little girl when she graduates next month and needs a car for that first job.  More on this to follow.

I was very pleased this week to receive an e-mail from Roy Asfar, the VP for Marketing of Veterans Advantage asking if Scott Higgins, the Founder and CEO, could have a chat with me.  I eagerly agreed and the three of us got o the phone for about an hour.  First of all, I have to comment that I think that Scott is a great guy and is all about finding ways to get an advantage for his fellow veterans out there.  A 5% discount might not seem much for some of the discounts offered, but you have to remember that for many services, such as airlines and rental cars, 5% of the total price is a huge amount of their profit.  A small discount adds up over time.  Scott and Roy are working hard to get whatever discounts they can from as many firms as possible for the members of Veterans Advantage.

To start, Scott and Roy wanted to take issue with my last rental car analysis.  They actually thanked me because my blog caused them to review their system and found that the Dollar discount was not functioning correctly.  They made a fix and I ran the analysis for the same time period again (22-30 May out of IAD).  They also helpfully guided me through the website and show me how to apply the Enterprise discount which I was unable to figure out last time.  Here are the results:

Company          Travelocity           Veterans Advantage

Budget                $389                     $342

Alamo                 $413                      $350

Dollar                 $166                      $158

Thrifty                $166                      $186

Enterprise         $256                      $243

Hertz                  $619                      $344

Well, certainly very different results from last time!  Veterans Advantage gave a discount over Travelocity in all but one company.  I wonder about that one too, as Dollar and Thrifty typically have the same price, so maybe an error on my part or in the applied discount.  Bottom line is that Veterans Advantage codes resulted in a discount in almost all instances.

This re-do also highlights a key thing to remember with rental car reservations – they change ALL the time!  Unlike airlines which normally go up the closer you get to the flight date, car reservations fluctuate wildly.  If you go back and compare these prices to the ones in the previous analysis, you will see a radical difference.  I had booked Dollar at $248 for the same rental period that is now showing as only $158.  Needless to say I cancelled my previous reservation with Dollar and rebooked at the (much) lower rate.

OK, so I am sold on the car rental discount with Veterans Advantage.  Next time I will relate more of my discussions with Scott and more on the Veterans Advantage discount  program.

If you are not already familiar with it, Trusted Traveler is a TSA program to speed certain low-risk people through the TSA screening process.  It basically requires you to only be screened as you were before 9/11.  So no taking off shoes, belts, taking out your laptop, etc.  Although randomly you will be selected to go through the normal screening process in order to keep thing honest.  So far this program has only been offered to high-level frequent flyers of American and Delta with other airlines to follow and only operates at certain airports.

You would think that servioce members would be a pretty good security risk even if they don’t fly enough to be a frequent flyer and TSA has finally recognized that.  So starting at DCA, and expanding to SEA and ATL soon, service members and their families will be able to go through this expedited screening simply by showing their CAC card.  Anyone traveling through DCA, please try this out and let us all know how well it worked.

TSA Expands PreCheck Program to Service Members
Flying Out of DCA

On March 20, 2012,
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will expand its Trusted Traveler program, known as PreCheck, to Service members flying out of Ronald Reagan
Washington National Airport (DCA). Service members, active drilling Reservists, National Guardsmen, and members of the Coast Guard, who present a valid Common Access Card (CAC) at security checkpoints will receive expedited security screening.

To participate, members must go to the TSA PreCheck lane at the security checkpoint in terminal B (gates 10-22), and present their CAC to a TSA officer who will scan the card to verify their status as an active Service member. Once verified, members will not be required to remove their shoes, outerwear, belts, laptops and any small liquid containers from carry-ons when going through security.

Eligible Service members do not need to be on official travel or in uniform to take advantage of the TSA PreCheck program. Family members ages 12 and under traveling with an eligible member can also process through expedited screening.

While this program offers expedited screening for Service members, TSA plans to continue applying random and unpredictable screening measures as part of the agency’s layered approach to prevent terrorist from “gaming” the system.

The program is expected to be expanded to members flying out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport in the upcoming months.

This concept holds the potential to enhance the travel experience for government travelers. TSA hopes to expand the PreCheck program to DoD Service members and civilians at airports across the country in the future.

For more information on TSA’s PreCheck program, visit http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/rbs_dod.shtm.

Most military members are aware of at least some of the military-run resorts that are set up to offer military families as first-class hotel at a discounted rate.  The four resorts are:

Shades of Green at Disneyworld

Hale Koa in Waikiki, HI

Dragon Hill Lodge in Seoul, Korea

Edelweiss in Garmisch, Germany (the German Alps)

All of these are fantastic to stay at, I particulary enjoyed staying at Edelweiss during my first R&R from Iraq.

However, there are several lesser known military resorts that I find many people are totally unaware of and thus never that advantage of.  Here are a few:

Pililaau Army Recreation Center

Pokai Bay, Hawaii

(808)696-4158 • www.mwrarmyhawaii.com/lodging/parc

Pililaau Army Recreation Center (PARC) located on the Pokai Bay and is one of the best beach facilities on the island. It captures the essence of “old Hawaii” with beachfront property surrounded by rustic farms and homes. PARC is located just 35 miles from Waikiki and 18 miles from Schofield Barracks, on the beautiful Leeward Coast. The gentle waves and white sand beaches delight swimmers, snorkelers and scuba enthusiasts.

PARC is comprised of 39 beachfront cabins, one distinguished visitor cabin, an equipment rental center, club facility and cove pavilion area for group outings. All cabins are air conditioned, with ceiling fans, cable TV and telephone. The kitchens are equipped with cooking utensils, tableware, dishes and linen, a private sundeck and barbecue grill.

I love this one as it is a nice quiet way to enjoy Hawaii and sits near my favorite beach on Oahu.  A real get away as opposed to the excitment of Waikiki.

Kilauea Military Camp

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii Island

(808)967-8333 • www.kmc-volcano.com

Located in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Kilauea Military Camp (KMC)
sits amidst spectacular scenery, natural wonders, and cultural treasures
including the marvels of the active Kilauea Volcano. Hawaii Volcanoes National
Park is Hawaii’s number one visitor attraction in the state featuring one of the
most active volcano on earth. It has also been designated as a World Heritage
Site (one of 20 in the United States) by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as well as an International
Biosphere Reserve.

This one can’t be beat – cabins next to a volcano?  How great is that?

Seward Military Resort

Seward, Alaska

(907) 224-2659 • www.sewardresort.com

The Seward Military Resort is offering a very affordable package from March 31st to May 13th!  Package includes Lodging, Gray Whale Tour and admission to the Alaska SeaLife Center.  An Amazing Price starting as low as $99 per person!

If you are a fisherman, this one is the best.  They will not only arrange a halibut charter, but when you get back they will cut your catch into one pound packages, vacuum seal and freeze them for you!  Anchorage is only two hours away and the visits to the glaciers and nature are fantastic.

Take advantage of these other resorts as well as the main ones.  They are all a well deserved perk of being in the military.  Note that many of these facilities are now managed by IHG so you can get points in the Holiday Inn program as well as a great vacation.

Alright, so I am trying a few more of the discounts.  Let’s see how they do with rental cars.  I need a rental car for about a week when I go to my daughter’s graduation from Johns-Hopkins in May.  I need full week because I’ve got to help her buy a car and move to her new job  location.  What can I say, I try to be a good Dad.

So I normally check on Travelocity to find the rates for all the car companies and then go to individual sites to shop with discount codes.  I got rates for Alamo, Dollar, Thrifty, Enterprise, and Hertz and then applied the Veterans’ Advantage discount at each of their websites to compare.  Here are the results:

Company             Traveocity           Veterans Advantage

Alamo                   $376                       $403

Dollar                    $205                       $195

Thrifty                   $205                       $222

Enterprise             $214                       Couldn’t make it work

Hertz                      $440                       $344

I tried the Enterprise site, but it wanted a corporate code in addition to the published discount code.  I probably could have called the Veterans Advantage number for help, but decided to skip it in this case.  Too bad as I expected a good military discount since Enterprise was founded by a carrier pilot – hence the name!

So the only result that was less was Dollar, but that was good enough for me.  I saved $10.  That almost pays for the gas I use to get to the gas station to fill up the car.

Here are some other discounts advertised that I have not taken advantage of:

Verizon – 15% discount on your monthly bill if you have a plan costing $35+ with a data plan of $25+.  Pretty good since that is a savings for every month.  Unfortunately, I’ve got AT&T, but let me know if any of you take advantage of this one.

Wendy’s – Dave Thomas (Wendy’s founder) was an Army cook who made the rank of Staff Sergeant.  They have a special program that you sign up for and then they e-mail you discounts for different things and for special holidays like Veterans’ Day and Memorial Day.  Probably a good deal for a lot of people, but it wouldn’t help my waistline to go there too often!

I’ll keep working it and let you know what else I find out.  Savings to date: $48

I have to admit that I am one of those guys who follows the old rule “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”.  So when I came across the Veterans Advantage Card on the Deals & Offers tab on the new United.com website I was skeptical.  The main draw was a 5% discount on all United flights, but there were a host of other discounts including pretty much every rental car company, AMTRAK, Greyhound, and a bunch of stores.  The catch was that to join you needed to pay $60 plus a $4.95 handling fee.  Hmmm.  Let’s do the math, hey I’m an engineer, I like math.  So to recoup $64.95, I divide it by 0.05 and get $1299.  I would need to buy $1299 worth of United tickets to make this worthwhile.  I probably spend about $3000 on United per year, so that part works out.

I decided to investigate more.  The UA website link brings up a page giving some details of the program and touting the ability to get a free 30-day membership, but it didn’t really provide the detail I want before making a committment.  Going to the www.veteransadvantage.com website gave me the answers that I needed.  It lists the many programs involved, plus if you go to the Plan Options tab and then the Special Offers tab on the left side you will find two mutually exclusive options.  One allows you to get a 15% discount on the membership price ($51) and the other gives you a free companion ticket.

OK, so not much to risk, but I was still a little concerned that I would find that the 5% discount on United would only apply to a high fare class or be somehow limited.  I decided to take the plunge for the sake of my readers – what the heck it’s only $65.  The first thing after signing up and getting my member numbr and code for United was to take it for a spin.  Plugging the code into the Offer Code space on the search screen, I tried out an upcoming itinerary to attend my daughter’s graduation.  They said a blue star would appear on each fare to let you know the discount was being applied and sure enough it appeared on every single flight listed.  I was really surprised as I have had other United discount codes that only applied to a few flights when I tried them out.

OK, so the fare I wanted for a normal price of $762 was now only $724.  A modest savings of $38, but heck, that’s equal to a free dinner, I’ll take it.  So the ROI (return on investment) so far is already paying off as I just made back 58% of the money I put into this thing and I still haven’t got my rental car or hotel.

I’ll continue to report on my successes with this card over the coming year, but so far it seems like a good investment.  Check it out yourselves and let me know if you have any questions that I can try to answer.  Savings so far: $38.