View from the Wing

eBay has a new member-get-member promotion.

Existing members can refer new members. If a new member buys something for $10 or more or lists something for sale within 30 days, both the referring member and the new member receive 500 eBay Anything Points.

Those points, of course, can be used for eBay purchases (500 points = $5 credit) or converted to airline or hotel points at Points.com.

I can of course refer anyone who wishes to join eBay, just drop me an email. But most people have joined at one point or another I imagine?

I still don’t know what I’m going to do with a free Mac Mini but this Wired piece suggests it can turned into a livingroom video recorder, a media center for cars, or a toaster.

Though that last one may be a little too MacGyver for me.

John Stossel’s ABC News piece last night contained some interesting nuggets, including this about proposed changes to the Ketchikan International Airport in Alaska:

Years ago Congress gave money to the little tourist town of Ketchikan, with only 14,000 residents, for an airport on a nearby island. Ketchikan International has six to eight flights a day, and people get there by taking a short ferry ride — which they love. The scenic ride takes 500 air travelers a day to or from the airport in just seven minutes



Alaska resident Mike Sallee likes the ferry ride. He said, “I think our existing ferry system is just dandy and it doesn’t cost $200 million.”



The $200 million refers to the fact that Young recently persuaded legislators that Ketchikan needs a bridge to the airport. And Young doesn’t want just any bridge. He wants a $200 million bridge — one higher than the Brooklyn Bridge and almost as long as the Golden Gate. Some people here say, why not. They say the ferry schedule’s inconvenient, so why not spend everyone else’s tax dollars on us?



“Whether it’s a bridge here or a new interstate connection in Dallas, it’s gonna be spent somewhere,” said one resident.


Young used to complain when the Democrats wasted your money. But now that his party is in power, he’s pretty good at spending it too.



“Don Young has turned into a tax-and-spend Republican. He wants you and me to pay for his bridges to nowhere,” said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense. His group even gave Young its Golden Fleece Award for wasteful spending.



Young says the bridge is worth it because it would create jobs here. But that’s just politicians’ folly. Political spending doesn’t create jobs. It just robs Peter to pay Paul — takes jobs that would have been created by taxpayers if their money hadn’t been taken from them — and moves that money to where the politically connected live. In any case, a study paid for by Alaska found that once the construction jobs are gone, the bridge would create only 40 permanent jobs.



“It would be cheaper just to write each person a check for $100,000 a year than to build this bridge to nowhere,” Ashdown said.

The Bush Administration is proposing to more than double the airline security tax under its budget for the Homeland Security Department.

Bush’s plan calls for boosting the security fee from $2.50 to $5.50 for a one-way airline ticket and from a maximum of $5 to $8 for multiple legs. The hikes are expected to generate $1.5 billion.

I know this makes sense to me, since the Department of Homeland Security gets so much value out of the budget they have now. Any money will surely be well spent. Heh.

(Hat tip to Tripso Daily.)

Southwest Airlines has an offer for a free movie download from Movielink.com as part of their effort to introduce in-flight entertainment.

They won’t install movie screens or inflight audio. Instead, they encourage you to download a movie and watch it.

The eFax 30 Day Free Trial offer is back on the Free Mac Mini site.

I did the eFax trial for my photo iPod. It’s a 30 day free trial, which is good because it makes it plenty easy to cancel. Cancellation is done via online chat, so you can even save the chat in case something goes wrong (just copy and paste it into your wordprocessor).

So if you’re looking for an easy offer to complete, this is a good one. The past few days had seen only sketchy offers like 7 day trials that required you to stay signed up for the full 7 days, or even a 1-day trial for $1. Too much hassle. Much prefer to have a month…

Randy Petersen believes that United’s Mileage Plus is worth $2.4 to $2.7 billion and that a public offering could lie in the future.

Engadget reviews the iPod Shuffle:

This thing is tiny — and light. You’ll never feel it around your neck or in your pocket. It’s like a stick of gum, not a pack. Just be sure not to leave it in your jeans when you wash them.

Gets me excited about the new Free iPod Shuffle offer from Gratis, not to mention the Free Mac Mini.

Continental and United are both offering 42,000 bonus miles for business class flights across the Atlantic, matching British Airways and American.

USAirways is offering double miles for purchases made through the end of the month on all flights through the end of 2005.

Business class flights to Europe earn 40,000 bonus miles (like American and British Airways) and all flights to the Carribean and Latin America earn 10,000 bonus miles.

Registration is required, and again the bonus applies only to tickets purchased by January 31.

The year started with a bleak outlook for Independence Air, as news broke that they had missed an interest payment on some bonds leading to speculation that they were close to a bankruptcy filing. (If they were going to file for bankruptcy there was no reason to make the payment, and they’d want to conserve cash in any case.)

Then they announced plans for job cuts, renegotiated lease payments on aircraft, agreed to return some aircraft, and obtained a loan from GE.

All of this bought some breathing space for the carrier, though did little to improve their revenue outlook. But my opinion of the carrier is somewhat boosted by two big bets being made on the carrier by Wall Street heavyweights.

Regulatory filings late Friday indicate that two major hedge funds have acquired 12.5% of the company’s stock. Surely they know more about the current state of the airline’s finances than I do, and I’m willing to defer to them in a somewhat limited way and say that I don’t see the airline ceasing to operate in the coming weeks.

As with USAirways, I’ll say that it should be safe to book February seats on the carrer.

Members of the machinists union at USAirways approved pay cuts. They were the last union to do so. Coupled with the bankruptcy court’s decision to allow USAirways to draw on the cash behind its federally back load guarantee, the airline has been given a few more months of life.

There’s currently no indication that they’ll return to profitability, especially since March is generally their lowpoint in cash for the year. But I don’t see an immediate liquidation threat. In other words, it should be fine to book February flights on the airline.

The Hagerstown, Maryland airport currently serves an average of fewer than 45 passengers a day. So it may be no surprise that the airport is currently slated to lose commercial service on April 30.

But they’re spending $60 million to upgrade the runways for bigger planes starting in April anyway. And bizarrely enough, the fact that they’re losing all service is seen as bolstering the decision to invest in support for larger aircraft.

Gratis Networks, the semi-secret company behind the free electronics offers like the free Photo iPod, looks like it is beginning to come out of the closet. Their corporate website now features a blog with updates on their offers and newsclips.

It makes for an interesting read, as they’ve been covered across the mainstream media. It also signifies a bit of a shift for them, I think. They seem to have tried to fly a bit ‘under the radar’ in the past, making it difficult to find out who or where they were. Part of their business model has been to keep everything automated and to provide nearly no customer service whatsoever. I wonder whether that’s changing.

I have had absolutely outstanding luck with them. I’ve received an iPod, a Photo iPod, a flatscreen TV, a desktop computer, a Sony Playstation 2 (slim version), and a Prada handbag.

I haven’t had too many difficulties. I did have a bit of a customer service problem with the offer I completed with Video Professor. They didn’t properly cancel my account. No big deal, I got it straightened out and didn’t wind up paying any money. And a couple of my successful referrals turned out to be duplicates, which meant I had to come up with a few more referrals.

But those were minor bumps in the road, and I’ve gotten a ton of free stuff without going out of pocket any money at all. I really can’t complain.

I do know that some folks have had more difficulty than I have. I’ve written about it before, and there are good tips to avoid frustration.

If an offer doesn’t credit, complete a new one. Don’t use the same computer as someone else working to complete an offer. Don’t make up referrals. Be patient.

Still, I’m interested in hearing stories of success and failure. Drop me an email.

While I’m on the subject, let me note that when I went to the Gratis Networks homepage I discovered two new offers I hadn’t seen previously:

• The easiest one yet: FreeIpodShuffle requires only three successful referrals.
  

• A pretty cool cutting-edge one: FreeMiniMacs. This one requires ten successful referrals (like the free Photo iPod does).

Full disclosure: using the links for the MiniMac and iPod Shuffle benefit me, as I haven’t yet completed my referrals. So use them if you wish, but feel under no obligation to do so.

As always, when you create an account with one of these sites you’ll be taken through a number of ‘yes/no’ offers. Just click no on all of them, as they do nothing to help you get your electronics.

Then once through those few screens you’ll have the opportunity to refer friends as well as complete an offer yourself. The best offers are those that have free trials and no shipping charges. But don’t forget to cancel before the trial period is up! And get confirmation of the cancellation, just in case.

MLB.com has a $10 off $10 purchase coupon — just use code 10cart. So search for inexpensive hats and shirts to come up with a $10 shopping card. Shipping should come to $5.

Back in November I explained why mileage award prices will go up, now and in the future, because there are simply too many miles chasing too few seats.

This new piece (originally in the Boston Globe and then syndicated) outlines the current state of the phenomenon.

Frequent-flier miles are easier to come by as airlines sell more miles to partners like credit card companies and hotels, but they’re harder than ever to redeem.



Behind-the-scenes deals with corporate partners are helping cash-strapped airlines rake in millions of dollars at a time when high fuel costs and lower fares are killing their bottom lines. At the same time, these deals give companies that buy miles a sought-after incentive to offer their customers.



But frequent-flier club members shouldn’t think all the freebie miles they’ve racked up will add up to free trips. Even with more miles floating around, airlines are cutting flights and flying more crowded planes, limiting the seats available to frequent fliers.

…

“The sale of miles is growing,” said Mark Bergsrud, vice president of marketing programs and distribution at Continental Airlines. “It’s good business whether the oil price is low or high and good business before fares started to decline.”



It may be particularly good now.”



Continental reported $24 million from sales of its OnePass frequent-flier miles to other companies in the fourth quarter of 2003, but Bergsrud said the actual amount was probably larger because airlines account for those sales over several quarters.



Delta Air Lines landed $500 million in cash from American Express Travel Related Services Co. in October, when American Express paid for three years of points in Delta’s SkyMiles frequent-flier program in advance. American Express offers a Delta SkyMiles credit card, which allows members to accrue miles as they make purchases with the card. Delta spokeswoman Tanya Dunne said she could not discuss the deal before the airline files financial reports with the SEC.



Selling miles to companies that give them away is good for the airlines not just for the cash they produce, but because many of those miles go unused anyway. United passengers got about 2 million free frequent-flier tickets in 2003, but Mileage Plus members still had about 9.7 million trips worth of miles sitting unused in the same year, according to documents filed with the SEC..



Members of US Airways’ Dividend Miles program took 1.2 million awards trips in 2003, down 7.7 percent from the previous year, according to company filings. But the airline’s frequent fliers were still hoarding miles worth 6.2 million trips.



Even if passengers used more miles for trips, it would be unlikely to hurt the airlines because it doesn’t cost that much to add passengers to a flight that already has hundreds of paying customers on it.



If there’s a seat available on a flight that hasn’t been paid for already, “then we’re not losing money,” said Ned Raynolds, a spokesman for American Airlines.



About half the miles earned in American’s AAdvantage frequent-flier program come from products or services other than air travel, said the company. American frequent fliers can earn miles through 1,500 different companies by buying things like Kellogg’s cereal, flowers from 1800flowers.com, long-distance services from AT&T, or using a special Citibank credit card.

FootLocker has a printable coupon for 30% off valid from January 21 - January 23. It can be used online as well with promo code FF05EM01.

There’s a similar printable coupon for Foot Action and Champs Sports.

Register to earn 500 bonus Amtrak Guest Rewards points on your next train trip by March 31.

Another reason that I picked Northwest for Best Website in the Freddie Awards balloting — they’ve just introduced online redemption for upgrade awards.

Most airline programs won’t even tell you when upgrades are available. Most won’t even display their upgrade inventory buckets publicly in the Global Distribution Systems. They keep the information proprietary and you have to call and and waste tremendous amounts of your (and their agents’) time.

Sure, there are workarounds. With United you can search for award travel in expert mode and the upgrade buckets appear (e.g. X is the first class upgrade bucket, I is for upgrading to business class). But nothing replaces good ‘ol functionality, and it looks like Northwest has got it.

United has introduced a new reason to book on its website in addition to the standard 1000 mile booking bonus.

Flights booked at united.com and paid for with a United Visa will earn an elite qualifying mile for every dollar spent.