Frequent Flyer Miles in Jeopardy?

Do you save up frequent flyer miles for a dream trip? Are you loyal to one airline so that you are eligible for flights and space-available upgrades? Do you use a credit card (left) that gives you miles for charges? I do all those things, and in terms of my balance in those mileage banks, I'm a rich woman. But my thrift, and that of other fequent flyer program members, could be in jeopardy.

Until it stopped hubbing in Denver, I flew Continental all the time and enjoyed Silver Elite status in their OnePass frequent flyer program. Redeeming miles was easier then, and I often used my miles for my son when attended school in New Hampshire. Now, I fly United enough to be a Premier Mileage Plus member. It gets me a seat on the front of the plane, which I love, but I still keep racking up more miles than I have been able to use. I also have accumulated miles in the fequent flyer programs of American, Delta, Frontier, Southwest and Virgin Atlantic.

Miles have become increasingly difficult to use any time I want to travel. My husband and I had hoped to fly to Munich for a wedding in May on United or Lufthansa, one of its Star Alliance partners. Not only were we unable to obtain tickets in any class of service on Lufthansa's convenient Denver-Munich non-stop, but we were unable to fly that route on any class of service on United or Lufthansa even with multiple stops. Therefore, the miles remained unredeemed in my account.

Airlines view people like me as liabilities, and stockholders are reportedly getting restless with liabilities. "Investors Press Airline to Spin Off Frequent Flyer Programs," a disquieting report in USA Today, in which reporter Dan Reed wrote, "Airlines are feeling pressure from aggressive investors and a slowing economy to boost their sagging share prices and raise cash by selling or spinning off some assets, including their prized frequent flier programs."

Examples? Reed reported the the investment group that is American's second-largest stockholder " is publicly urging the company to spin off its pioneering AAdvantage frequent flier program, which it estimates is worth about $6 billion on a stand-alone basis. AMR's total market capitalization is only about $5.5 billion. A spinoff would involve distribution of new, separate stock to current AMR shareholders."

He quoted a United spokeswoman who "confirmed that her company's board discussed 'portfolio optimization' at its annual strategy meeting this week in San Francisco, including the possible sale of the frequent flier program. She declined to say what the airline will do or when."

US carriers might be following the contrails of Air Canada, which " spun off its Aeroplan frequent flier plan in 2005. Since then, Aeroplan's market value has nearly doubled to about $4 billion."

I would love to use up lots of my miles, but the airlines, which understandably prefer a revenue passenger to a for-free flyer, make it so hard. I recently gave my son 40,000 miles so that he could fly to New England for a friend's wedding, and it hardly made a dent in my accounts. In the long run, I'm suspicious that these spin-offs, should they occur, will be yet another way to make air travel less about satisfying passengers and more about satisfying investors.

K-ching. K-ching. K-ching.

Travel-Babel Cited as Top Travel Blog

FlipKey, a lively and informative blog dedicated to the vacation rentals and real estate, recently asked its readers to nominate their favorite travel blogs. "Choosing the winners was difficult," wrote FlipKey's Carl Query, "but we have come up with four distinct blogs that did a great job of capturing their respective angles via frequent posts, eloquent writings, and great insights." I am thrilled that Travel-Babel was one selected as FlipKey's top four for Wealth of Information -- and for the record, I didn't stuff the electronic ballot box, nor did I ask anyone else to do so.

Here's what FlipKey's Carl Query wrote of Travel-Babel: "Why we love travel-babel? The blog is a great assortment of travel-industry related topics. Beyond just interesting tidbits about travel, a read through Claire’s blog is a rich learning experience, covering everything from the recent change in many country names to the 'seven wonders of Colorado'. Read her blog and I guarantee you will walk away with a new piece of knowledge."

The three other blogs cited by FlipKey are Christopher Elliot's blog in the Consumer Advocacy category, Nerd's Eye View for Creativity and 2ndHome in the Vacation Home Purchase category. I am familiar with Elliott's efforts, both in print and on line, on behalf of beleaguered travelers. I have cited it on Travel-Babel as well, but the other two are new to me. They're on my to-visit-often list now too -- and I'm guessing that we are all honored to have been cited by FlipKey for excellent content. FlipKey also listed (and linked to) a number of interesting Blogs as Honorable Mentions. These include The Tranquilo Traveler by my colleague, Joshua Berman, and others that I need to start looking at and perhaps linking to.

Coming in October: Denver Arts Week

I'm going to be traveling for a good part of October, and I'm kind of bummed, because I'll be away for the first annual Denver Arts Week. I don't know whether anyone has counted up the individual events, but the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau cultural census has tallied more than a dozen museums, 40 performing arts groups, six neighborhood arts districts and 100 art galleries. Here are some events that I already regret having to miss:

Friday, October 5 - Super First Friday Art Walks in RiNo, ArtsDistrict on Santa Fe, Golden Triangle Museum District, Tennyson and Cherry Creek North, the half-dozen arts districts the DMCVB has identified. What makes it more "super" than a regular First Friday Art Walk? For one thing, the ArtsDistrict on Santa Fe will have live music all weekend with street performers, a drum circle, fire dancers and wine/beer tents.

Friday, October 5 - Colorado’s GALA Choruses' "Everything Possible" at Montview Presbyterian Church, 1980 Dahlia Street, Denver. The concert will start at 8:00 p.m. and feature the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus, Denver Women’s Chorus, Harmony: A Colorado Chorale, Out Loud: Colorado Springs Men’s Chorus, Resonance Women’s Chorus of Boulder, Sine Nomine and Sound Circle. Tickets are $20. For sales locations, click on website or call 866-464-2626.

October 5-7 - Tickets the Colorado Ballet ("Le Corsaire") and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra ("Magnificent Mendelssohn II") are $52.80 for two. They're not cheap seats either.

There are all sorts of other special events, some free. You can find them on website with a full calendar, but the ones I've mentioned are the ones I would have been most likely to attend.

I know that I will also be missing the October 5 first look at the Denver Art Museum's "Artisans & Kings: Selected Treasures from the Louvre," but it will be around until January 6, so I figure there's time to catch that.

US Airlines Readying for Inflight WiFi

Being in the air will no longer mean being disconnected from the earth below. Beginning in 2008, passengers be able to use WiFi-enabled laptops, mobile handheld devices and smart phones aboard selected aircraft -- thanks to cell- and satellite-based wireless broadband services.

AirCell's high-speed data connection will enable passengers to surf the Internet, check and send E-mail, send attachments and log into office networks using personal WiFi enabled laptops (left) or mobile handheld devices. American Airlines is starting with B767s in transcontinental service, and Virgin America will install it throughout their fleet which is expected to serve 10 US cities by next year. Alaska Airlines will be the first to install Row 44's satellite-based system, a type of technology that several European carriers are already using.

Before you know it, I'll be blogging from 35,000 feet -- and you might be reading my blog that way too.

Big Brother is Watching You Travel

"The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials," according to a report in the Washington Post, which noted that "personal travel records are meant to be stored for as long as 15 years, as part of the Department of Homeland Security's effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country." These actions may not be as obvious or annoying as Transportation Security Agency intrusiveness at the airport, but they are more insidious and impactful on American travelers' privacy.

Reporter Ellen Nakashima interviewed a Silicon Valley executive who was shocked that her records, obtained by the paper and passed on to her, include information not only on her race but on an international flight that neither began nor ended in the US, nor connected with a US flight and also included the phone number of a sister who lives overseas. Edward Hasbrouck, author of The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World , was quoted as saying, "The [agency's] Automated Targeting System is the largest system of government dossiers of individual Americans' personal activities that the government has ever created."

Nakskashima wrote, "He [Hasbrouck] said that travel records are among the most potentially invasive of records because they can suggest links: They show who a traveler sat next to, where they stayed, when they left. "It's that lifetime log of everywhere you go that can be correlated with other people's movements that's most dangerous," he said. 'If you sat next to someone once, that's a coincidence. If you sat next to them twice, that's a relationship.'"

One former DHS official was quoted as describing all this personal travel data "an investigative tool, just the way we do with law enforcement, who take records of things for future purposes when they need to figure out where people came from, what they were carrying and who they are associated with. That type of information is extremely valuable when you're trying to thread together a plot or you're trying to clean up after an attack."

Attention Department of Homeland Security: Next month, I am flying to the UK for a conference. While on the other side of the Atlantic, I am also flying from London to Lisbon and a week later from Madrid to London. Don't infer anything from this, because I am a tourist, not a terr'ist.

Luggage Lock Uses Words, Not Numbers

I should remember my PIN codes and combinations for luggage locks, bike locks and miscellaneous padlocks, to say nothing of numerous phone numbers, cell phone numbers, street addresses and Zip codes. But I don't. For those I select, I try to use the first or last four numbers of past phone numbers. Sometimes it works, but I sometimes get those ancient phone numbers mixed up, and I try to use a bike lock combo on the ATM or my PIN number to unlock a suitcase.

So I was delighted to learn about WordLock, which uses letters rather than numbers. For someone like me, who is better at words than at numbers, this is a brilliant innovation. All WordLocks are said to be easy to set and reset, and the manufacturer says that the luggage lock models are TSA-approved. They are available in several colors to harmonize or contrast with one's own bags. If you are one of the millions with black rolling suitcases, you'll find yours easier to spot on the carousel if it is outfitted with a colorful lock on a visible zipper pull.

WordLock's website does not give a manufacturer's suggested retail price, but expect to pay about $10-$12, depending on whether you buy it via mail or at a local luggage, travel gear, sporting goods or other retail outlet.

Airline News from Lufthansa and Southwest

In a move that can't possibly please powder-hungry European skiers, the Colorado resorts that welcome them or transatlantic business travelers, Lufthansa German Airlines is cutting its Denver-Munich nonstop service from daily to five per week beginning on October 28. Monday and Friday flights will not operate until they are reinstated -- possibly on March 31, the first anniversary this route. That, BTW, is my conjecture, not anything that Lufthansa has indicated.

Southwest Airlines is not going to abandon its open-seat plan but in addition to assigning first-come, first-served boarding groups, but by early November, the carrier will assign numbers within each boarding group at all 63 airports it serves. I don't know whether this will prove to be a good thing or bad thing. Instead of bunching up waiting for their boarding group to be called and then jockeying for position once the group has been called, passengers will be asking each other, "What number are you?" -- like the supermarket deli or bakery counter. In any case, Southwest did test several other boarding procedures in several markets and concluded that this was the best for it and its passengers.

Also, starting on October 2, Southwest will cease automatically pre-boarding families with small children. If they want to get on with the first wave, they will need to arrive at the airport early enough to be in boarding group A. Families will be boarded after the first 60 passengers are on the aircraft.

Seven Wonders of the Mid-Atlantic States

First there were the Three Tenors. Then the Three Irish Tenors and the Three Sopranos and, for all I know, the Three Over-The-Hill-Rockers. Then, to update the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, we had the Seven New Wonders of the World and the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

Now, we have the forthcoming Seven Wonders of the Middle Atlantic States, created by the Washington Post because the US in general and the Mid-Atlantic Region in particular were left off the Seven New Wonders list. The Post editors winnowed the list down to: Brooklyn Bridge, US Capitol Building, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Statue of Liberty, Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, National Cathedral, C&O Canal, Fallingwater, Dulles International Airport, Independence Hall, University of Virginia campus "Lawn," Monticello, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Washington Mall, Skyline Drive, Pentagon and Washington Monument. You can vote on-line for your seven choices. Results will be released on October 14,

What I'm waiting for next is a poll to select the Seven Wonders of New Jersey.

Farewell Summer - Hello Winter

The first measurable snowfall was recorded in Colorado's high country yesterday (photo at right taken at Breckenridge on September 17, 2007). While it is sunny and warm in Boulder and elsewhere at low elevations, we all know that mountain hiking season will soon give way to downhill and cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Here's a look back at some hikes from the summer of 2007 -- short trips from home, but travel nonetheless.

Top row, left: The very broad, very exposed top of Medicine Bow Peak, WY. Top row, right: View from Twin Sisters Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park. Second row, left: Crag Crest Trail, Grand Mesa. Second row, upper right: View of Pingree Park from Stormy Pass Trail. Second row, lower right: Crater Lake in the mist; Indian Peaks Wilderness. Third row, left: Abundant wildflowers flank the Shrine Pass Trail. Third row, right: Bridal Veil Falls, Rocky Mountain National Park. Bottom row, left: View of Boulder from the Anemone Trail, whose trailhead is within walking distance of our home. Bottom row, right: Memorial Day Weekend hike through the aspens on the Racoon Trail in Golden Gate Canyon State Park.

Primer to Denver International Airport

Denver International Airport opened on May 15, 1994. If you don't know your way around by now, you either don't live on the Front Range and/or haven't flown a lot in more than 13 years, or you don't live in Colorado and perhaps have only changed planes at DIA. In any event, if you're new to DIA or still confused, pick up today's Denver Post and hang onto the travel section. Travel editor Kyle Wagner devoted most of the section to reaching, parking at or near and getting around the airport -- and where to eat, shop and kill time once you are there. If you read this post after the paper is off the newsstands, find that info online (also be sure to scroll down to "More Travel Headlines," which is where you'll find most of the nitty-gritty), print it out and save it.

I have flown in and out of DIA a lot over the years, beginning a mere three days after the airport opened. Here are six specifics that I would add:

• If you are parking in the short-term garage and don't insist on parking under cover, head directly for the top level of either the east or west garages. You can always get a space in the open-air parking penthouse, and that is actually the same level as Level 5 of the terminal, which is the baggage claim level and also has express check-in and curbside check-in stands. (The main departure area is on Level 6, an escalator or elevator ride up.) FWIW, this is the level I use when I am picking someone up at DIA; I'm too thrifty to spend $18 a day for park there when I am heading off somewhere.
• When I was at DIA last week, workers were busily building an expansion to the garage on the west side of the terminal. It should be open byearly winter. It is shown on the excellent schematic accompanying the articles, but it bears noting.
• RTD's skyRide has regular routes (from Boulder, it's down the US 36, southeastward on I-270, east of I-70 and to the terminal on Peña Boulevard), but in the rush hour, drivers sometimes take alternate routes -- so don't be surprised if you doze off and wake up to an unfamiliar landscape. When I am traveling by myself, my preference is to use RTD's skyRide or SuperShuttle rather than driving to the airport.
• When my husband and I travel together, we generally drive and use one of the private lots. I totally agree that USAirport Parking is the most user-friendly. Still, we also frequently park at FastTrack (formerly PCA) because it was there first and we got into the habit -- and because we generally come up Peña from I-70, and it's the first we reach. At both of these off-airport facilities, you can get a punch card and receive a certain number of free days after a certain number of paid days. I once sent to sent in two completed PCA punch cards and never received by free parking coupons. I was negligent about phoning to follow up, so I've essentially given up two weeks of free parking. Several weeks ago, I sent a completed card to FastTrack and have yet to receive my coupons. I wonder whether someone in Los Angeles is siphoning off coupons and selling them on some kind of black market.
• If you are going to be using one of the private lots, check the newspaper, coupon mailers or the operators' websites for discounts. The most recent I saw from FastTrack was $31.50 for a week -- a nice price break from $8 per day without a coupon.
• Another RTD skyRide option is to park free, as long as you like, at the old Stapleton garage. The bus ride is $6 each way -- which makes this a real bargain for people living right in Denver, compared with $10 for Boulder and other farther-out communities.

Dollar Sinks to 15-Year Low

If you are planning to travel domestically, you will be spared the sticker shock of the terrible state of the US dollar. What might eventually be a boon to the US export picture is a sock in the wallet to anyone traveling to many other countries. It now takes more than $1.38 to buy one euro, and more than $2.05 for one British pound. The Japanese yen, the Swiss franc and other currencies have also gained strength against the dollar. If you are planning to travel overseas, you might hedge your bets and lay in some foreign currency to spend when you are abroad in country with strong currency.

On the other hand, if you are traveling in the developing world, the dollar is still welcome and looked on favorably.

Miami International's South Terminal Big Mess

Because Denver International Airport (DIA) is my regular gateway, and because I also fly via Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) more than any other, I don't pay too much heed to what's going on in the southeastern US. Now, the mess that Miami International Airport's new South Terminal became came to my attention via an article in the Miami Herald.

According to reporters Ronnie Green and Rob Barry, "As Miami International Airport unveiled its gleaming new 1.7 million-square-foot South Terminal last week, passengers could savor the roomier concourses and fresh sheen of the floors. What wasn't so visible: the discord, delays and errors that helped add hundreds of millions in cost and 2 ½ years to the project's timetable. Planned for a budget of $799 million six years ago, the terminal's tab is now $1.1 billion....[The] project conceived on a ''fast track'' became mired in change orders, angry subcontractors and escalating costs." All of which meant that the terminal's purported "fast track" became bogged down with slowdowns, the equivalent of lane closures and detours.

DIA took a lot of flack when its opening was delayed, but that was a whole airport. This is one terminal, for which construction began in 2002, and it's taken this long to do a lot of things wrong. Interestingly, the official terminal map doesn't even show a South Terminal, unless that's what Terminal J, Under Construction" is all about. The post recent on-line press release with "South Terminal" in the headline dates back to January 11, 2002, with the announcement of the groundbreaking ceremony. Given the mess described by the Herald, I'm not surprised that officials wanted a low profile for the South Terminal.

MIA, the airport's official airline code, should be changed to BRIA, Banana Republic International Aiport, suggested one disgruntled flyer on the news site's comment section.

Thailand to Revert to Siam?

"Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night..."

Those are lyrics to an old tune reminding people that place names change. Like so much else in present times, cities and countries have shed part of their pasts -- colonial and otherwise -- and taken on new names or returned to old ones, or now have several names instead of one during un-unification. Rewind only as far back the changes since what schoolchildren learned mid-20th century geography classes, and it's clear why even veteran travelers have problems keep things straight. Some relatively recent and current names in the world atlas are:

• Belgian Congo - Zaïre - Democratic Republic of Congo
• Burma - Myanmar
• Bombay - Mombai
• British Honduras - Belize
• Calcutta - Kolkata
• Ceylon - Sri Lanka
• Chung-King - Chongqing
• Czechoslovakia - split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia
• Federal Republic of Germany (West or BRD by its German initials) and German Democratic Republic (East or DDR in German) - Germany
• French Congo - Central African Republic
• Palestine - Israel and Jordan
• Persia - Iran
• Peking - Beijing
• Southern Rhodesia - Zimbabwe
• Thailand - Siam
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union) - Russia (the Socialist Republics being Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Uzbekistan, Kahzakhstan, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Moldavia, Latvia, Kyrgyzistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan and Estonia, which are now independent countries)
• Yugoslavia - assembled from half-a-dozen countries in 1946 and half a century later split into Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia

Wait a minute! Why is Thailand on that list. Is it reverting to Siam? As in "Anna and the King of...."? It hasn't happened yet, but it could. According to an article posted on eTN/eTurbo News, during a recent conference on tourism and globalization, "Dr. Charnvit Kasetsiri, a respected historian from Thammasat University in Bangkok, introduced the debate on changing the name of the country from Thailand back to 'Siam' by showing a newly released video and presenting the possibility of a name change in one of the next constitutions to come. "

The change from the historic name of Siam (also sometimes spelled, Sayam) to Thailand occurred in 1939. We could see a reversion in our lifetimes.

Dinosaurs, Dodo Birds and Paper Air Tickets

Starting June 1, 2008, you probably won't be able to obtain paper airline tickets, even if you want one. The 240 airlines belonging to the International Air Transport Association will all have switched totally to electronic ticketing. Considering that IATA members account for 94 percent of all international air travel, you can consider the vote for E-ticketing to be a landslide. Three years ago, IATA began encouraging all of its member carriers to switch to E-ticketing. At that time, 16 percent of tickets were issued electronically. Today, it's 84 percent.

Although the initial intention of the changeover was modernization and simplification of processing systems, the paperless ticketing initiative is also environmentally friendly, which is not trivial in the age of increasing environmental consciousness. Before the switch to paperless ticketing, IATA carriers were issuing 400 million tickets a year. Between now and the end of paper tickets, another 16.5 million paper tickets are expected to be used. IATA believes that the changeover will save 50,000 mature trees a year, and it will save a lot of paper from the world's landfills. US domestic carriers have largely switched to E-ticketing over the last few years, and many have eliminated wasteful ticket jackets as well.

What's good for the environment is also good for airlines' bottom lines. IATA believes that each paper ticket costs the airlines $9 per passenger; total anticipated savings for the airlines from E-ticketing will be about $3 billion annually.

The most likely glitch, of course, comes whenever an airport loses electric power or something else causes computer systems to crash. Last month, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times, a computer outage at Los Angeles International Airport shut down the Customs and Border Protection computers for nine hours, stranding 17,000 people on airplanes. That time a government agency was affected. Another time, it could be airlines. Gate agents can pull paper tickets by auxiliary power or flashlight if necessary. With E-tickets, when the system is down, there's nothing to do but wait.

New Concessions at DIA

In a story yesterday about new and upgraded concessionaires at Denver International Airport, the Rocky Mountain News quoted Patrick Heck, DIA's acting deputy manager of revenue and business development, who said, "We want a much-more branded environment that reflects the best of Colorado. We want people to understand they're in Denver, not just any other airport."

Maybe I'm just dense, but "branded" and "reflecting the best of Colorado" usually are mutual exclusive. New and anticipated food concessions include Heidi's Brooklyn Deli, Einstein Bros. Bagels and Schlotzsky's. Heidi's and Einstein may be Colorado-based, but Scholtzsky's is from Texas. In any event, someone must think that DIA passengers and workers have an insatiable appetite for faux New York deli food. Maybe they do. More appropriately Colorado are the New Belgium Brewing Company, Caribou Coffee (from Minnesota but feels like Colorado), Dazbog Coffee and a Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery. Starbucks, of course, is Starbucks and reflects its home base of Seattle.

Despite my knee-jerk oh-no-not-more-chains reaction, I am encouraged that the airport is in the process if accepting proposals "for six different opportunities covering nearly 8,000 square feet of space." These will include a marketplace in the main terminal near the fountain where people have little to do while waiting for inbound passengers except stand behind the metal barrier and fidget.

"DIA recently tweaked its policies and procedures to make it easier for smaller businesses to compete. It started outreach programs targeting local businesses and set fixed lease rates that even the playing field for smaller companies," wrote Rocky reporter Chris Walsh. My wish dream is that this policy will work, and that something genuinely local that has not yet blossomed into franchise-dom will get one of the spaces. I keep thinking of Pour La France, whose old Aspen/Snowmass and Boulder locations were always better than those at DIA's terminal and Concourse B, where the baked goods always seemed rubbery and the sandwiches lame.

Concession revenues are not trivial. "Food and alcohol sales soared 20 percent in the first five months of 2007, while merchandise revenue rose nearly 17 percent, according to DIA figures. That far outpaces DIA's 4.2 percent rise in traffic this year," Walsh reported. The cynic in me might note that it's no surprise that concessionaires' revenues were up. Remember the weather last winter? Flight delays and cancellations were rampant in the early months of 2007 due to frequent snowstorms, which might not be the case next year. TNot only might weather patterns could be more favorable for air travel, but DIA is also investing millions in enhanced snow-removal equipment to minimize such problems.

Passport Stamps & Other Vicarious Travel Snippets

By the time my previous passport expired, I had finally reach a minor goal: having so many stamps that I had to get extra pages inserted. This was well before the current passport office slowdown, so the process was fast, straightforward and free. Silly and superficial as this goal was, I considered it a feather in my traveler's cap. In fact, I worked toward it, asking to have my passport stamped at airports and border crossings that only give them on request. When I feel that I haven't been anywhere noteworthy beyond our borders, I occasionally pull out my passports -- both current and expired -- to look at the stamps and remember the trips: European countries now within the European Union that have erased border formalities at many crossings, China, Thailand, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and more, plus the post office Easter Island, the Austral Museum in Ushuaia and the British Primavera Station in Antarctica, whose unofficial, souvenir stamps are among the official ones.

So I was intrigued by a link to "Fill Up Your Passport" on a New York Times travel page. It linked to the rare on-line advertisement that I actually spent time playing around with. That page features and open passport complete with stamps. Click on any of the cities or countries and up comes a photo montage. Click on a photo and get more info on that destination. The passport stamp section is part of a Visa Signature Living on-line ad campaign. It hooked me, found myself clicking on some of the others too, including an interview with a Scots Guards officer at Buckingham Palace, afternoon tea at Claridge's London, astronaut training, heli-skiing, the Seychelles, New York City at Christmastime and the 28 Seven Wonders of the World (seven each of ancient, medieval, natural and modern wonders). I can't easily tell how many there are (the click-on list is long and scrolls dynamically down the left side of the screen), but there are a lot of them. Some are film clips, some are animated, some are still -- but I had a good time looking and traveling vicariously, even without digging out my own passports.

I already have a Visa signature card, but if I didn't, this engaging ad campaign my tempt me to apply for one.