A special Friday edition brings back an arcade game that many remember as being the best and only for $10.
One of those enigmas of arcade gaming in the ’90s hasn’t aged well, mostly because it was never that great of a beat-em-up in the first place. Popularity is firmly in the use of license and attention-grabbing voice work from the cast. Konami’s superb sprite work captures the sarcastic, pop-culture fueled attitude of the show, which places the game in those realm of those iconic earlier episodes. It’s hard to ignore how well that sense of humor is maintained. What’s missing is collision detection, wildly inaccurate and purposefully so to suck in more quarters at the time. Now, it’s merely a gameplay flaw. With four players going to town and with the slightly altered Japanese version included (along with hilarious carry out-like ambiance in the menus), this one has the charm. Whether you can see through it will determine your enjoyment.
If you’ve earned frequent-flier trip, consider going soon. (Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers) site delta frequent flyer
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service September 12, 1994 | Kohn, Bernie If you’re like me, you have a hard time planning what you’re going to do for lunch today, let alone where you’ll go on vacation next year.
But if you’ve earned a modest amount of mileage in one or more frequent flier programs, it might behoove you to give some thought to the latter.
Early next year, most major airlines will increase the amount of mileage credit needed for one free domestic ticket, by far the most-claimed award in frequent flier programs.
American, Continental, USAir, Northwest and United will bump their minimums from 20,000 to 25,000 miles. Only TWA and America West will remain at 20,000. (Delta is lowering its minimum to 25,000 from 30,000.) USAir’s change is effective Jan. 1.
This is a non-event to people who have 200,000 or 2 million miles in their accounts. But most frequent fliers are types who have right around 20,000 miles. Frequent flier expert Randy Petersen calls them “blue-collar fliers,” who fly only a few times a year and don’t take advantage of all the ways to accumulate mileage credit without flying.
If you’re one of those, it might make sense to cash in those miles now.
That’s particularly true if you’re thinking about a trip to a popular hotspot such as Hawaii or Orlando in the next year. Airlines set aside only a few free seats on those flights, and they go quickly even in years the airlines aren’t preparing to change the rules.
“If you wait, you run the risk of becoming a statistic. You become the person they tell that there are no free seats available,” Petersen says.
Claiming an award does not mean you have to take a trip before the rules change. At USAir, you have one year from the date the Frequent Traveler Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., issues an award certificate to redeem it for a ticket. And you have another year after that to take the trip. So, in fact, you can claim an award now, under today’s rules, and not use it until September 1996.
How do you know if cashing in your mileage makes sense?
First, think about how you’d use the award.
If you’re figuring on using your freebie to fly to New York City, you’re probably better off keeping the miles and buying a ticket, given today’s very low fares on short flights. site delta frequent flyer
The same advice may hold true if you’ve been saving for a grand award, such as tickets to Europe.
But if you have a long-distance domestic trip in mind for the next year or plan to go to some annual event, like a family reunion, it can’t hurt to claim an award. Your plans don’t have to be ironclad. Frequent-flier tickets can be changed just like paid tickets.
One word of caution here: Don’t factor trips around major holidays into your thinking. Airlines almost always black out free travel around those times.
You also should ponder how big a difference 5,000 extra miles really is to you.
A lot of this has to do with how often you fly. At USAir, 5,000 miles is at worst 3{ round-trip flights. That’s a year’s travel to some people; a weekly itinerary to others.
Even if you don’t fly often, you can pile up 5,000 miles pretty quickly in other ways. AT&T and MCI give frequent flier points for long-distance calls you’d probably make anyway. Using charge cards such as the NationsBank USAir Visa, American Express or Diners Club can make up points in a hurry.
How to reach airlines making changes:
American AAdvantage: (800) 882-8880 Continental OnePass: (800) 621-7467 Delta Frequent Flyer: (800) 323-2323 Northwest WorldPerks: (800) 435-9696 USAir Frequent Traveler: (800) 872-4738 (or (800) USAIR-FT) United Mileage Plus: (800) 421-4655 Kohn, Bernie
