For ladies, to pack perfume soak some cotton balls in your scent and place them in empty film canisters. You can use them one at a time - the airtight canisters keep the fragrance fresh, and you don't have to risk getting your perfume bottles smashed or taking up excessive room.

If you are travelling with your laptop and hope to be using a modem, find a hotel that has high-speed Internet connections. STSN, a provider of broadband high-speed Internet services for hotels (www.stsn.com), provides travellers with an easy to use connection that lets them tap into their office networks with a continuous broadband connection. The daily charge in the USA of $9.95 is beneficial for business travellers when you consider hotel phone costs, and the added productivity while on the road.

We're not sure about this tip, but thought it was worth mentioning. Perhaps some readers could supply some feedback on the validity of this tip? When entering your hotel room for the first time, run the shower for a few minutes, and leave the room. This will get rid of any build-up of spores that cause Legionnaires disease.

For security reasons when checking into a hotel, request a room that is not on the first floor (if possible). Also, although rooms with sliding doors leading into a pool area are luxurious, they can increase your risk of being broken into.

Clifford Reichlin, the founder of The Australian Frequent Flyer website was interviewed in the Australian Financial Review this month, remarking that members of frequent-flyer programs have trouble understanding their program.

"Or, in many cases, they're just too time-poor to make effective use of their points," he said.

To combat the difficulties, The Australian Frequent Flyer has established an awards booking service, helping to:

• Plan and book your entire trip
• Verify points status
• Make airline, hotel, car rental reservations on your behalf
• Arrange for the deliver of tickets
• Provide a complete itinerary - comprising of paid and award components - with easy-to-read details

The service, a first in Australia, was launched last month to great success receiving hundreds of inquiries. The service is aimed at business professionals.

"A busy business professional will accumulate hundreds of thousands of points a year. They typically lead a very busy life and don't have the time or inclination to deal with impersonal call centres in redeeming something which should be their reward, a pleasurable experience. The modest cost of the service is small and easily affordable by this type of person."

"The consumer can save time, utilise our extensive knowledge and experience in getting the best value for their points. It's a single service where they can easily combine frequent flyer travel with paid travel. For example, their partner travels at the same time but on a paid ticket. They may use their Frequent Flyer travel for a ticket to LA, and then purchase a connecting flight to Seattle, car hire, and hotel bookings."

Read more at the Australian Frequent Flyer website: http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/ab_info.htm

The media has described Ansett as a winner in this issue. The Sydney-Morning Herald reported aviation analysts predicting that the demise of Impulse, which forced lower fares across the industry, would mean prices on the main routes were almost certain to increase. This would give Ansett opportunity to win back market share on high-volume routes - and open up mid-price fares with more flexible ticketing conditions (good news for business travellers).

Half of Ansett's Boeing 767 fleet remains grounded. It was hoped that two more aircraft will be cleared to fly by the end of the week, but that may be hampered by differences of opinion between the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).

Emirates will be issuing Airogym, an exercise device, on its long-haul flights to help stop passengers developing Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). Airogym apparently increases blood flow through deep veins by up to 50 percent (reducing the risk of blood clots being formed). Ansett has suggested exercises to follow during flights, which can be found at http://www.ansett.com.au/info/exercise_f.htm. The Qantas equivalent can be found here: http://www.qantas.com.au/flights/essentials/healthinflight.html

While it is disappointing Impulse won't keep operating under its own name, it may mean more for Frequent Flyers and Global Rewards members. Last Thursday, Ansett CEO Gary Toomey said: "You also haven't seen the end of budget airline operation on Australia's major metropolitan routes, just because Qantas is trying to swallow Impulse. One way or another, we're going to keep it alive." Why, then has neither Ansett nor Qantas offered the radically discounted prices to the west coast, where there has been no competition by the budget airlines?

The Age reported that serious threats to airline safety may not be reported by workers "because of the fear of substantial public exposure, Ansett Australia warned a Senate committee yesterday." Read more at The Age: http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/05/05/FFXL7EWTAMC.html

The good news is Qantas is going to honour Impulse's Freebies program. Any Impulse passenger with fully flexible "Flexi" fare customer receipts will be able to send these to the Qantas Frequent Flyer service centre and will be credited with 1000 frequent flyer points for each receipt (offer stops December 31). If that person is not currently a Qantas Frequent Flyer they will enrol them free of charge. So, if you wanted to join Qantas' Frequent Flyer program for 'free', you could taking an Impulse flight before 14 May and Qantas would honour your receipt and sign you up with no charge. Of course, this is only useful if you were going to make the flight anyway.

Be aware that Impulse Airline's web hot specials seem to be discontinuing after May 14. Get in quick.

Expiry Points
How does this affect the expiry date of your points? If you remember, Qantas currently don't have expiry dates on their points as long as you kept your account active. Impulse Airlines' rules for its Freebies program were:

"Freebies flights must be booked and used within 18 months of the date of issue of the first Impulse Customer Receipt being used and accepted, to earn a Freebie flight."

Darren Peisley, Manager Loyalty & Airline Alliances at Qantas, assured us Qantas will accept Impulse customer receipts until 31 December 2001 under the rules of the Impulse program. This gives members approximately 7 months to make their claim for Frequent Flyer points.

Qantas frequent flyers will no longer be able to use points to buy one-way flights. Ansett still allows its 2.5 million Global Rewards members to do so, but have not outlined whether they will drop this option in the proposed revamp of the Global Rewards program.

Qantas Frequent Flyers can now earn and redeem points with their two new partner airlines - South African Airways and Alitalia.

Web specials: Sydney - Melbourne ($66), Adelaide - Brisbane ($108.90), Hobart - Canberra ($133.10) Book at https://www.qantas.com.au/cgi-bin/specialssearch

Ansett
Web specials: Sydney - Melbourne ($66), Sydney - Brisbane ($66), Melbourne - Brisbane ($88), Brisbane - Adelaide ($108.90), Adelaide - Melbourne ($88). All specials are one-way economy class fares and are only available with bookings made on the Ansett website (http://www.ansett.com.au/travel/e_fares_f.htm). Note, if you are using Internet Explorer 5 you may have difficulties booking online. There is a link to fix this problem on the page above.

Virgin Blue
Sydney - Gold Coast (First five days from June 17 - $55), Sydney - Brisbane ($66), Melbourne - Brisbane ($88), Brisbane - Adelaide ($108.90), Adelaide - Melbourne ($48 until May 6)

As always, the best way to get the cheapest fares is to keep your eye on the Internet sites of each airline - the cheapest fares are often unadvertised and only on the Internet.