Rental car companies charge frequent flier mile redemption fees

Since launching the program last fall, Travelzoo has been expanding its Local Deals program. As of this week, the company now touts deep discounts on restaurant, spa, and (increasingly) hotel offers in 75 locations worldwide. You can sign up to receive alerts for offers within a two-hour drive or short flight from your hometown. (These alerts differ from the company's famous Top 20 travel-deal e-mail newsletters.) For any offer, you have a few days to buy vouchers that can be later redeemed at the local store. You can use Travelzoo Local Deals in two ways: To keep track of discounts near you to plan a "staycation," or to track deals at a location you're planning to visit. The free program works similarly to Groupon's upcoming vacation deal service, but the deals tend to be on higher-end products and services. Recent sample deal: The Chelsea in Atlantic City was available for one night with a three-course dinner for two at its well regarded restaurant and access to the spa for $189 midweek or $299 on Fridays. That was a savings of more than 30 percent off of what I found when I attempted to book the components of the deal separately. Travelzoo has about 26 23 million newsletter subscribers in the US and Europe. Has anyone tried the Local Deals service and had good results? MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL Open secret websites for booking hotels Eight ways to save when booking hotel rooms What to do when you lose all of your digital photos

In mid-May, United began early boarding for uniformed military personnel. Soldiers board before all other passengers, including first-class passengers, the disabled, and families with infants. The decision copies a longstanding policy of United's merger partner, Continental. Since the policy change, the FlyerTalk discussion boards for frequent fliers have been hot with a debate about whether this policy is the right one. Speaking for myself, and very much not on behalf of Budget Travel, I think this policy of early boarding for uniformed military personnel is a bad idea. Some airlines allow soldiers to board first and other airlines do not. It's a reasonable question to debate whether early boarding is a good idea or not. I'm just presenting one view, of course. Please share your own opinions by posting a comment below. Like all patriots, I salute our soldiers for pledging their honor and their lives to defend our people and the Constitution. They represent the best of our nation, and they deserve our gratitude. But my friends and family who are service members are also big believers in humility and integrity. Ask them why they serve and they say they are just doing their job. They also value living in a democracy that does not engage in uniform worship or put soldiers on a pedestal above police officers, firefighters, and other heroes. United and Continental may be honestly attempting to show appreciation to U.S. soldiers by encouraging them to board first. I'm sure for many individual employees at the company it's a policy they're proud of and that is enforced from the heart. Yet some of us suspect that the airlines have additional motives that may be less patriotic and more business-minded. Maybe the early boarding policy is a public relations move to make other passengers feel sentimental about the airline because of the gesture. Over at the travel site Upgrdr, Matthew, a former member of the Air Force and a current frequent flier, highlights a couple of other ways for airlines to show gratitude to the men and women who preserve our freedom and safety: 1. Encourage passengers and employees to donate time and money to causes that help military families. Actively promote these programs and provide corporate matching donations. 2. Coax passengers into donating some of their frequent flier miles to a program that gives free tickets to military personnel who were injured in Iraq. The Hope Miles program is run by Fisher House and authorized by the Department of Defense. US Airways is one of many airlines that suggets passengers donate their miles to the program. I also realize that the U.S. military is one of the biggest customers of both United and Continental because of those airlines' large route networks and longstanding ties. The airlines may want to treat their biggest customer especially well to make sure they continue to earn the military's business. But wooing government business could be done in other ways than having uniformed service members board planes first. One option: Let all active duty service members and their dependents traveling with them qualify automatically to receive the first seat upgrade available on a flight, as spacing permits, ahead of high-status members of frequent flier programs. In that way, airlines could give support to our armed forces without making a big show of it before crowds of passengers. The recent decision by many Delta, American, and other airlines to relax their checked-bag rules for service members is another example. But what do you think? Is it a good idea for the military to board planes before all other passengers? Please sound off in the comments. MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL: Is it cheaper to fly or drive? Renting a car? Beware of getting gouged on gas prices Wheel Deals: Alternatives to Renting at the Airport

Andre Balazs' Standard hotel in Manhattan is launching a summer seaplane service to the Hamptons, and is offering passengers the option to play its "Flight Board" game for a shot at seats as low as $30. The flights are on board a bright red, eight-passenger Cessna seaplane called StndAir. Passengers can sign up to play the Flight Board for a chance to book off-peak flights between 9 a.m. and 7p.m., Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Flight Board flights are also available Sunday mornings and Mondays after noon. "Seat prices increase as the plane becomes full, so join early for the best rates," the StndAir website advises. "Your flight can be bumped off the board if someone takes your desired time slot and charters the entire plane in full, or gets seven friends onboard before you do." Flights on the Flight Board that depart on Friday, July 1, for the Fourth of July weekend, for instance, currently range from $30 to $295 each way, depending on how full the flights are, and contingent on them filling up and later bookers being willing to throw down even more. Flight Board destinations include East Hampton, Shelter Island, Montauk and Nantucket. And while the Flight Board offers a chance for seats as low as $30, regularly scheduled flights between New York and East Hampton cost $495 each way with between one and four departures daily, depending on the date. The service started this past Memorial Day weekend and runs through Oct., 2011. The StndAir is available for charter service to any East Coast destination within a 300-mile radius of New York, which includes Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod in Massachusetts, as well as the Hudson Valley. The plane is operated by Shoreline Aviation as part of their FAA Part135 Air Carrier Operations. Flights depart from and land at New York Skyports Marina, located at 2430 FDR Drive on the East River at 23rd Street (the dock is to the left of the Gulf Gas Station at 23rd Street). More from Budget Travel: Will you be flying this summer? Summer fares: Book now or wait? 10 Beach Products You Never Knew You Needed

A reader has a question about the U.S. government requiring airlines to give fatter payouts to passengers who get involuntarily "bumped" from oversold flights. As Budget Travel recently reported in its story, "8 Common Air Travel Snafus (And How to Beat Them)," the DOT has increased by hundreds of dollars how much airlines have to pay passengers for bumping them off an oversold flight against their wishes. Starting this August, most bumped domestic fliers who get to their destination more than an hour late than planned must receive double their one-way fare back, up to about $650 in cash. Delayed much longer? You'll get four times your one-way fare, up to $1,300. But in most cases, you'll have to go to an airport customer desk and demand what you're owed. Here's the great question about this from Romeo Raabe in Green Bay, WI: In this and many other articles about being bumped off an airline, I've read to only take cash. Please define "cash". Does this mean I must demand cash, greenbacks, US currency? Or a check, in my hand, or promise of being mailed to me? What, exactly, is cash? I'm sure other readers wonder about this too.The answer: You want cash—as in, the green stuff you hold in your hand. (While a paper check or direct deposit would probably also be legal in theory, no airline we know of gives its airport service agents the power to write checks or issue direct deposits in its name. Cold, hard cash is what you want and what you can reasonably expect.) Last year, 59,250 passengers qualified to receive cash compensation by being bumped against their will. Airlines rarely paid out cash to these fliers, though. They instead wooed passengers with voucher credits for future flights. The problem with these flight vouchers—which work like gift certificates—is that they come with more restrictions than cash. There may be an expiration date on the flight voucher. You'll have to use the voucher on that specific airline—even if the lowest fares for your upcoming trips may be on other airlines. You'll probably have to make the reservation over the phone if you're redeeming a voucher. In short, how sure can you be that you'll be flying this particular airline again soon enough to be able to use the voucher? Rather than worry, just ask for cash. Cash is specifically what the DOT says in its rules that airlines must be able to pay out. (For international trips, an airline must get you to your destination within one hour of your scheduled arrival time. After that, it must pay you compensation of double your one way fare up to $650. For delayed arrivals longer than four hours, you are entitled to four times the value of your one-way ticket up to $1,300.) MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL 8 Common Air Travel Snafus (And How to Beat Them) New Budget Airline Vision Delivers Cheap Fares Quiz: Can You Spot the Travel Rip-off?