- Nov 29, 2003
- 419
- 0
As many of you may know the Dept of Defense has been providing for soldiers deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom to make about a 2 week R&R/Leave and return to the Continental United states in order to see family members and loved ones.
The flights arrive at one of the three United States gateways....DFW, BWI or ATL. From there the soldiers have been having to fund their travel to their final destination. Many carriers have been doing things to help...charging el cheapo advance purchase restricted fare prices for walk up travel for these folks, for instance.
Congressman C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D, Maryland, although I don't hold either of those against him LOL!) contacted several of the airlines at BWI and got a good respose, thus they have implemented programs where people can donate Rapid Rewards credits or mileage from many of the other so-called major carriers. When the threshhold for mileage or credits is reached, the airline issues a ticket to the USO or similar service organization for distribution to individual soldiers.
I cannot think of a better use for miles and credits and have acted accordingly. I emptied out the AAdvantage account this morning and tomorrow, at work, plan to consolidate everyone's Rapid Rewards credits and forward them to this organization for their use. I hope some of you will do likewise.
On the Congressman's website (www.heromiles.org) it says that WN is not accepting individual credits, but a call to Southwest's General Office in Dallas confirmed that they had amended the policy. This is a reasonably painless way to help others during this holiday season, and a little bit of charitable spirit never harmed anyone.
The flights arrive at one of the three United States gateways....DFW, BWI or ATL. From there the soldiers have been having to fund their travel to their final destination. Many carriers have been doing things to help...charging el cheapo advance purchase restricted fare prices for walk up travel for these folks, for instance.
Congressman C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D, Maryland, although I don't hold either of those against him LOL!) contacted several of the airlines at BWI and got a good respose, thus they have implemented programs where people can donate Rapid Rewards credits or mileage from many of the other so-called major carriers. When the threshhold for mileage or credits is reached, the airline issues a ticket to the USO or similar service organization for distribution to individual soldiers.
I cannot think of a better use for miles and credits and have acted accordingly. I emptied out the AAdvantage account this morning and tomorrow, at work, plan to consolidate everyone's Rapid Rewards credits and forward them to this organization for their use. I hope some of you will do likewise.
On the Congressman's website (www.heromiles.org) it says that WN is not accepting individual credits, but a call to Southwest's General Office in Dallas confirmed that they had amended the policy. This is a reasonably painless way to help others during this holiday season, and a little bit of charitable spirit never harmed anyone.
