Free hotel stays
Want to be a hotel inspector for Small Luxury Hotels of the World? You get one free night’s stay, but you have to get to the hotel on your own dime. Kitty Bean Yancey of USA Today links to the application for the “job” of hotel inspector. You’ll need to fill out a form detailing your lodging habits, and obviously not every applicant is accepted.

Free wi-fi
Yesterday I posted a link to get free T-Mobile wi-fi access. Reader Jeff passed on another great link: A list of airports with free wi-fi, without any introductory offers, etc. Just plain old free. Thanks, Jeff!

Free wine
Answer all 10 questions about wine correctly, and you’re in the running for a free mixed half case of wine, courtesy of Dr. Vino, the site devoted to “wine picks and politics.” Click here to take the quiz. Check out the recommendations for cheap-but-good wine, too. (update: quiz ends midnight tomorrow – Thursday, Sept. 7)

Free SuperBowl tickets
Another sweepstakes, courtesy of Southwest Airlines. Enter by buying a Southwest ticket with your Visa card, or by sending in your name. Details here.

Now through December 31, 2007, you can use this link to get 30 days of FREE T-Mobile HotSpot wi-fi access within the United States. Use it in most Starbucks, Borders, FedEx Kinko’s, Hyatt hotels, Red Roof Inns, and the airline clubs of American, Delta, United and US Airways. A full list of locations is here. Depending on the plan you choose at signup, you may need to call back to cancel. (You could choose the pay-as-you-go plan, which would incur no further charges, unless of course you use the service beyond the 30-day window.)

I’ve been lucky to avoid the latest round of security mayhem, not having flown in the past week. But the missus flew United Airlines to and from Boston recently, and her report leads me to believe that the airline is, at best, missing an opportunity to build its customer base in light of the recent restrictions.

It’s irritating, of course, that one can’t take liquids onto the plane, even those purchased in the supposedly secure area past the checkpoints. And the UK even advises you not to have EMPTY bottles in your baggage. So the airlines are stepping up and serving more drinks in flight, right? Right?

Wrong. Not United. Tuesday’s flight 537 from Boston to Chicago featured a single beverage service from the cart. No walk-through with a pitcher of water, or coffee, or anything. I’m sure you could have walked to the galley and asked for a drink, but with the embargo on onboard fluids, this seems like particularly thin service, even for a short 2-hour 10-minute flight.

In the past few days, hotel chains like Omni and Wyndham have been trying to win over clients by promising free lotions, makeup, and toiletries. Avis is putting Procter & Gamble amenity packs on the passenger seats of rental cars. And the airlines?

United tries to sell itself as a premium brand within the domestic U.S. market. They advertise their Economy Plus and premium transcontinental service. They still have free headphones, pillows, blankets, etc. But the airline isn’t adding water to the catering order?

From what I’m hearing, other airlines are not any better, and haven’t made any effort to improve service either. Air travel is the epicenter of the security-related inconvenience, and yet the airlines aren’t doing much to help matters.

A smart airline would 1) make an effort to assure passengers that their time on board the plane will be a relief compared to the time in the airport. Getting more water on board, at a minimum, would be a start. 2) Then market the fact that the airline is trying to help. Blast an e-mail to its customer base, telling them what they’re doing to reduce passenger frustrations, for a start.

Seems pretty easy. It’s been over a week. Why hasn’t any airline stepped up?

Related:
- The future of airport security: Predictions and wish-lists

Zagat will send you a free copy of the next edition of their “Top International Hotels, Resorts, and Spas” guide if you supply them with the raw material for the ratings. Go here to vote and leave your pithy reviews. Registration required (obviously… how else would they know where to send the book?).

Update:
The usairways.com discount below expired at the end of 2006. So the list of promotional codes for American Airlines and other carriers, linked below, is down. However, there IS a 5% discount codes for US Airways Vacations, as well as a discount for American Airlines, in the 2008 edition of the Entertainment book, which may be a worthwhile investment.

The original post lives on below for posterity.

——————————————————-
If flying US Airways, and booking on usairways.com, try entering the promotional code RR506FS to receive a 10% discount on purchased first class tickets, or promotional code RR506CU for 5% off economy class tickets. On the flight booking page, enter these codes in the “e-certificate” box located below the “return date” field.

Travel by November 15. Up to 4 passengers can receive the discount on the same itinerary. No codeshares. It doesn’t appear to have any advance purchase or geographic restrictions — you can seemingly use it for any destination on US Airways. I also don’t see any reason why the codes can’t be used again and again, so have at it.

Main offer page here [links deleted, offer expired]; full terms/conditions, and (important!) blackout dates here.

“Hotel” rooms gone to the dogs
Some unscrupulous New York apartment managers are listing their units as “boutique hotels” through online booking agencies. Angry tourists find such “amenities” as a foldout sofabed that can’t fold out, because the room is too narrow. Sweet. Folks, we’ll say it again: Don’t book a hotel room, especially one you’ve never heard of, without looking it up on TripAdvisor first. Research!

Dogs gone to the hotel
Marx and Lenin would cite this as proof that capitalism has reached its highest and final stage: Hotels such as the James in Chicago, the St. Regis in Aspen, and the Loews Coronado Bay in San Diego are offering room service for pooches, with a full array of luxury spa and resort services. Some of the dog food menu items made my mouth water, which either says bad things about my tastes or amazing things about their pet menus.

Free food and wine, maybe even for your dog
Why pay the $75 fee for a puppy snack when you can eat and drink free in your hotel? HotelChatter mentions the Banks Mansion of Amsterdam, where the minibar is free, snacks and drinks are always available, and the breakfast is complimentary. While other hotels might use the economistically logical technique of lowering the room rate and then hitting you with the extras later, the Banks includes it all in the base rate. Did I mention free wine?

Light up my life
Smokers are no longer a security threat (though you may want to give them their own airline): TSA officials recommend that lighters be allowed back on board. Maybe they’re just tired of disposing of the 30,000 lighters they confiscate EVERY DAY.

Airline security komedy hijinx
The Onion: “Baggage-Handling Mixup Sends Dirty Bomb to St. Louis”

I can’t drive 55
The United States’ interstate highway system turned 50 years old yesterday. Chicago-based drivers celebrate on the Edens Expressway with a 55-minute drive from Lake Cook Road to the junction, blasting Sammy Hagar all the way.

Make you sweat ’til you bleed
Self-serving deodorant-maker Old Spice names “sweatiest cities in America.” In a shocker, Phoenix comes out on top, despite its legendary “dry heat.” Phoenix mayor Skip Rimsa received a year’s supply of deodorant as a consolation prize. But with three of the top ten cities in the desert, charges of foul play should be afoot. Reports of bribery, focusing on the Washington, DC judge, are unconfirmed.

Paging Mr. Freeze
Maybe the people in sweaty cities should just invest in an air-conditioned shirt. Hopefully you don’t have the get the freon recharged too often.

Free fallin’
Old news — from 1972, in fact — but still… Flight attendant falls from 33,000 feet (without parachute) and survives. If she’s not already there, Vesna Vulovic should be in the flight attendant exhibition at the International Women’s Air & Space Museum in Cleveland.