The Australian Frequent Flyer Gazette

** The Australian Frequent Flyer Gazette - April, 2000 **

A FREE newsletter for Qantas Frequent Flyers, Ansett Global Rewards and Fly Buys members sponsored by The Australian Frequent Flyer.

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Contents:

1 - Editor’s Note
2 - Travel Hints for Frequent Flyers
3 - One Man’s Triumph Against The System
4 - Where to Collect Those Points Quickly

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1- Editor’s Note

Welcome to the first autumn edition of The Australian Frequent Flyer Gazette for this year. We have some great travel tips for you this month - from what to do with all those free shower caps you collect at hotels, to explaining how yoghurt can make your life easier. We also have a great story from San Francisco on how one man collected 1.2 million miles just by spending about $5,000!!.

Be sure not to miss The Australian Financial Review's special report on Frequent Flyer & Loyality programs which will be published on Monday 17 April. The report promises to investigate all programs on offer, detailing strengths & weaknesses and will explain how best to manage participation in these programs.

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2 - Travel Tips for Frequent Flyers

Before you take off on a trip overseas, visit a photocopier. Take out your purse or wallet, and pull everything out. Photocopy everything on one page (front and back). If someone steals your wallet while you are overseas, you will know exactly what you have lost. Write down all emergency numbers on this piece of paper (e.g. who to phone if someone has stolen your credit cards/traveller's cheques) and give a copy to a friend who has a fax machine. This will speed up the process of re-ordering new cards, cheques and passports.

If you intend on sending postcards to all your friends, take pre-addressed labels instead of an address book. It will save you a lot of time and space.

Save the free shower caps from hotels and motels to pack your shoes in. It will help to stop you from getting dirt all over your clothes.

If you are travelling to a country known for its high crime rates, use a disposable camera to save your good one from being stolen.

Many airlines will allow disabled or wheelchair bound passengers to use the executive lounge during stopovers. They often have better seating and easier access to toilets. Check with your airline before you leave.

If you find yourself without shaving cream, use aqueous cream from the local chemist. It is great for rejuvenating dry skin that accompanies aeroplane flights.

If you are travelling to a country known for its 'risky' food, try to eat yoghurt at least two weeks before you take off. The yoghurt creates friendly bacteria in your stomach, making you capable of tolerating more things (and hopefully reducing the incidences of "Bali Belly"!).

Interested in a free flight to an Asian destination? Visit the Hot Tips section of the Australian Frequent Flyer website (www.frequentflyer.com.au/tips.htm) to see how this can be done!!

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3 - "Pudding Guy's" Triumph Against The System

Here is an article that was published in the San Francisco Examiner. We hope it inspires you!

"Phillips, a civil engineer at UC-Davis, has become a cult hero in the obsessive subculture of people who collect frequent-flier miles by parlaying $3,150 worth of pudding into 1.2 million miles. Oh, yeah - he's also going to claim an $815 tax write-off.

Last May, Phillips was pushing his shopping cart down the frozen-food aisle of his local supermarket when a promotion on a Healthy Choice frozen entrée caught his eye: He could earn 500 miles for every 10 Universal Product Codes (bar codes) from Healthy Choice products he sent to the company by Dec.31. Even better: Any bar codes mailed by the end of the month would rack up double the mileage, or 1,000 miles for every 10 labels.

"I started doing the math, and I realized that this was a great deal," he said. "I wanted to take my family to Europe this summer, and this could be the way." Frozen entrees were about $2 apiece, but a few aisles away Phillips found cans of Healthy Choice soups at 90 cents each. He filled his cart with them, and then headed to his local Grocery Outlet, a warehouse-style discount store. And there he hit the mother lode. "They had individual servings of chocolate pudding for 25 cents apiece," he said. "And each serving had its own bar code on it. I did some more math and decided to escalate my plans."

Phillips cleaned the store out - bought every last cup of pudding in the warehouse. He then asked the manager for the addresses of all the other Grocery Outlets in the Central Valley and, with his mother-in-law riding shotgun in his van, spent a weekend scouring the shelves of every store from Davis to Fresno. "There were 10 stores in all," he said. "Luckily, most of them were right off the freeway." He filled his garage to the rafters with chocolate pudding and stacked additional cases in his living room. But Phillips wasn't finished yet - he had the manager of his local Grocery Outlet order him 60 more cases. "A few days later I went out behind the store," he said, "and there were two whole pallets of chocolate pudding with my name on them." All in all, he'd purchased 12,150 individual servings of pudding. Around this time, Phillips began to reveal his scheme to fellow readers of the Webflyer Web site, where he posted an account under the name "Pudding Guy." Phillips' tale was met with skepticism, if not outright disbelief, until he uploaded photos of his haul. (They're still there, at (http://www.flyertalk.com/pudding.htm)

But then Pudding Guy discovered he had a problem on his hands: The deadline for earning double miles was quickly approaching, and there was simply no way Phillips and his wife could tear off all those bar codes in time. "I had to come up with something to do with all that pudding, fast" he said. Phillips trucked the pudding to two local food banks and the Salvation Army, which agreed to tear off the bar codes in exchange for the food donation. "We'd never seen anything like it," said Larry Hostetler, community relations director for the Sacramento Salvation Army. "We've gotten some big donations, but always from companies and institutions, not individual people." Phillips got his bar codes in the mail in time to beat the deadline, and then held his breath. "The promotion specifically said I could get the miles for any Healthy Choice product," he said. "But still, it seemed like there was a good chance they'd get me on some technicality." But then packages - large packages – started arriving in the mail from Healthy Choice. In all, they contained 2,506 certificates, each good for 500 miles. That's 1,253,000 miles.

Under the terms of the promotion, Phillips could have the mileage posted in any airline account. He split 216,000 between his United, Delta and Northwest accounts and posted the rest - 1,037,000 miles - to his American Airlines account. By surpassing the million-mile mark, Pudding Guy now has AAdvantage status for life, entitling him to a special reservations number, priority boarding, upgrades and bonus miles.

While we talked on the phone, Pudding Guy did a little math - as you might have noticed by now, he's very, very good at math - and figured out that scheme netted him enough miles for 31 round-trip coach tickets to Europe, or 42 tickets to Hawaii, or 21 tickets to Australia, or 50 tickets anywhere in the U.S. "Wow - 31 trips to Europe for a little over $3,000," I said. "That's less than $100 a ticket." "Oh, it's better than that," Phillips said. "Since I gave the pudding to charity I can take a tax write-off of $815. So that brings the cost of a ticket to Europe down to $75." As it turns out, Pudding Guy didn't donate all his stash to the food banks. He kept about 100 servings for himself, and he's just about finished them. "Actually," he said, "I really like the stuff.""

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4 - Where Can You Pick Up Points In April?

QANTAS is offering double Frequent Flyers points on a few deals this month:

* Thinking of heading to New Zealand? Fly between Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane and Auckland, Christchurch or Wellington and earn double points! Flights must taken between 1st May and 21st June. Does not include flight QF104 from Auckland to Sydney.

* Going to South Africa or Zimbabwe? Fly between Australia and Johannesburg or Harare (Qantas First or Business Class) on a scheduled weekly flight between 15th March and 15th June and earn double points.

* Fantastic Fiji! Fly between Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane and Nadi (or from Sydney to Suva) in Business or Economy Class and earn double points. Trip must be completed by 30th April.

* Any direct Qantas regional airline from Melbourne or Brisbane to Newcastle before 30th April will earn you twice as many points!

FLY BUYS have many promotions this month where you can boost your points count:

* Spend more than $2,500 at Myers on Moran Leather furniture, and you can collect 10,000 bonus Fly Buys points.

* Buy a set of four Goodyear Venture tyres at Kmart before 15th April, and receive 2,000 bonus Fly Buys points.

* With the Easter Bunny poking his head around the corner, Coles is offering 250 bonus points if you purchase at least $20 worth of easter eggs or novelties at their stores.

* Don't forget Mum on Mother's Day! Spend $100 or more at Gifts to Go and collect 500 bonus points.

GLOBAL REWARDS have some great deals this month. Try:

* Leavin' for L.A.? Double points during May, June & July from Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane to L.A. flying Air New Zealand. If you travel return First Class, this could mean up to 36,000 bonus points for you.

* To match Qantas's deal to New Zealand, Global Rewards are offering double points flying Air New Zealand from Melbourne, Brisbane or Sydney to Auckland (Business or Pacific Class) in May, June & July.

* Ansett is continuing with the offer we told you about in last month's newsletter. To collect thousands of bonus points on flights to L.A. and San Francisco, check out last month's offers in the Gazette (www.frequentflyer.com.au/gazette/march.htm)

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The Australian Frequent Flyer is independently owned and is not affiliated with Ansett, Qantas or Fly Buys. While every effort has been made to ensure accurate information in this newsletter, it should be regarded as a guide only. You are advised to confirm all details before making any travel arrangements.

All information published in The Australian Frequent Flyer Gazette has been made available for public use. This information is freely available and subject to change without notice.