Earn Extra Miles with American

American Airlines (www.aa.com) has a special promotion in effect until May 23 that permits you to earn miles for playing games and for performing social actions, as well as for actually flying.  You can earn up to 700 miles by playing online games, up to 350 for social actions and thousands of bonus miles when you fly.Thanks to www.flyertalk for this tip. Flyertalk is the source for up to date information on the best frequent flyer deals, and its forums give you a place to sound off about airline experiences, good and bad.

One current forum thread concerns a passenger who was sitting next to someone who had a seizure and covered his seatmate with bodily fluids. The person so covered could not get up to use the washroom because the doctor said the patient could not be moved, and flight attendants offered no help. Another not so great airline experience is on the news shows here this weekend--the great Canadian luggage toss from an Air Canada (www.aircanada.com) plane. The airline has offered an apology in that case, and said offending employees will be fired if they are identified.

Incidentally, if you plan to travel soon in the U.S., be aware that the average daily cost for a business traveller is $255 U.S. This includes $105 for a hotel room, $57 for a rental car, and a whopping $93 for meals. You may not be able to do much about the hotel cost, but it does seem it should be possible to shave quite a bit off meal prices, by having breakfast at your hotel, and choosing fast food for at least one of your other meals. Many motels and hotels in North America now include breakfast buffets with your room price, a welcome development.

Happy Easter, everyone, and please remember our fellow Christians in the Middle East, especially Syria, and those in Ukraine who are in harm's way this holiday.