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Sunday, December 31, 2006

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Making Miles Last

WITH THE END of the calendar year here, we would appreciate your adding another way to avoid losing frequent-flier miles ["How to Make Your Miles Last Longer," Dec. 24]. Donating as few as 1,000 miles (US Airways) or 5,000 miles (Delta) to qualified charities also extends the expiration date of a frequent-flier account. Each of the major airlines has a list of its partner charities. Although a donation of miles is not a tax-deductible contribution, small donations from the flying public add up quickly and permit these nonprofit organizations to carry out their charitable purposes.

Fisher House Foundation partners with nine major U.S. air carriers and is using between 2 1/2 million and 3 1/2 million frequent-flier miles each month to fly wounded service members home from military or VA hospitals, or to bring their families and close friends to their bedsides. In three years, the foundation has provided more than 7,800 free airline tickets to these heroes and their families.

For more information: Delta, http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use_miles/donate_miles/skywish_charities/index.jsp, and US Airways, http://www.usairways.com/awa/content/dividendmiles/purchasemiles/donateMilesForm.aspx.

James D. Weiskopf, Fisher House Foundation, Rockville

Rental Car Keys, Cont'd

I HAVEN'T encountered a huge set of keys when renting a car [Message Center, Dec. 24]. Usually I just get one key, so the first thing I do is get the key duplicated, then put the spare in my wallet. I make the rental car company a present of the extra when I return the car.

My peeve is that rental cars almost never come with owner's manuals. I once had to pull over on Interstate 70 in Ohio as it began to rain because the windshield wiper controls were not where I expected them to be, and there was no owner's manual to consult beforehand.

Gary Goldberg, Silver Spring

Timeshares, Cont'd

I REALLY ENJOYED your articles on the timeshare industry ["Sign Here," Dec. 17]. Two items might be worth a follow-up.

When you reviewed the six clubs, you didn't cover what the resale price would have been. It wasn't clear why you were reviewing the clubs as a new purchase only. That isn't the way other real estate is purchased, even if the timeshare people don't want you to buy it that way.

Also, the annual dues for timeshares are incredibly high -- $1,000 a year for a week is greater than $50,000 per year. Why is that? That's more than the mortgage for most homes! That is even more of a scandal than buying a week for $27,000, or greater than $1.4 million a year for a condo.

Are timeshare deals solely for the math-challenged?

Bob Dolan, Santa Barbara, Calif.

SOME ADDITIONAL thoughts on timeshares:

A client of mine bought a timeshare/condo in Freeport, Bahamas. The developer's contract provided that the annual maintenance charge was approximately $200 a week and would not increase more than 10 percent per year. Yet only a few years later, the client received a bill for $800 for his share of a capital assessment. What fine print governs this?

This leads to my own analysis of several timeshare budgets. The reserve funds invariably do not have sufficient money to replace vital systems, such as plumbing and wiring, that get sclerotic after about 40 years.

Here's another cheery thought. A key element of the standard sales pitch is that the buyer can "trade up" to use more desirable units elsewhere. The reason for this is that the usage of units by owners is less than 100 percent. (How otherwise would owners of more desirable units collectively create the partial vacuum that makes those units available to people with only lesser units to swap?)

There is no reason to believe that the party listening to the sales pitch is any different from anyone else and, to this extent, the math applied to justify the expenditure on a dollars-per-vacation basis needs to be ratcheted down to reflect the more likely real rate of usage.

Julian Karpoff, Arlington

Florence Thievery

JUST A REMINDER to travelers in Florence, Italy: Keep hold of your purse at all times.

Recently, a friend had her purse stolen while we were lunching at an open-air cafe on the Piazza della Signoria. Unfortunately, instead of holding it, she had put it by her feet. One of the diners later said that a couple of "well-groomed" men entered the enclosure and looked around (ostensibly to find a table). One stooped to pick something up (alas, the purse), and off they went.

A number of years ago, I had money stolen by children who swarmed me by a church in Florence. I did not see this on the current trip. There also were lots of police patrolling, but their response to the theft was to tell us to report it.

The only good news was that I learned a lot of Italian words helping my friend with the police report.

Elaine Davies, Woodbridge

Write us: Washington Post Travel section, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. E-mail: travel@washpost.com. Provide your full name, town of residence and daytime telephone number. Letters are subject to editing for length and clarity.

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