 | LOOK WHAT'S NEW
Want to sign up for free e-mail notification of Sherri's column or to see past columns? Click here! | Road Warrior as Reality
For this year’s Road Warrior contest (yes, it’s that time again -- yippee!), we’ve decided to borrow a page from our TV brethren and call the life of a road warrior what it is: reality. So you might notice a similarity or two between this year’s contest and, say, The Amazing Race. Think about it: Each week you plan your itinerary, get on and off planes and into and out of cabs, search for hotels and restaurants and office buildings, all in order to achieve your goals (or to follow instructions, as the case may be). So we’ve structured the contest around that life.
Almost every frequent flier I talk to tells me two things: first, whether they’re Platinum or Executive Platinum, and second, some super (or superbad) story from their most recent trip.
So your first task will be to tell us a pro and a con (what’s a contest without an essay question?) that traveling has afforded you. Maybe you got to go to Europe for the first time -- and on the company’s dime. Or maybe your travel experiences include being stuck in a conference room without windows at a hotel in Hawaii. Whatever your stories are, they should be great. You do want to stand out from the pack, after all.
Your next task is much easier. We hear you talk about your brutal schedule and all the time you spend on planes, and now we want specifics. List for us the cities you were in, and for how long, during any one-month period in 2008 (pre-July 1). You can give us as much information as you want to, but all we really need is the city, the date you arrived there, and the date you left. For example, mine might look like this: Chicago (May 16 to 18), Orange County (May 18 and 19), Dallas (May 20 to 22), New York (May 22 to 28), etc.
Perhaps your list is more exotic than mine, or maybe you’re in a different city every day. Dial up your calendar on your PDA and let us know. Easy, right?
You might think of your third and final task as a detour. It’s going to require a little brainwork, legwork, and ingenuity. This is where we’ll separate the serious contestants from the posers.
We’ve chosen five major airports, and in each of their terminals or concourses, we’ve identified an item of interest. Based on the clues provided on our website (www.americanwaymag.com/roadwarrior), you need to find just one of these things. Not one in each airport or one in each terminal or any other combination you can dream up. Just one out of the possible 12 on the list. If you want to find more, go for it. But one is all we’re looking for. Just one.
Of course, before you get started, you’ll want to hear about the payoff.
As in past years, the grand-prize winner will receive the coveted one million AAdvantage bonus miles and two million Hilton HHonors bonus points.
The second-prize winner will get a Bose Lifestyle 48 home entertainment system, a Bose Wave music system, and a pair of Bose QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones, as well as a five-night trip for two to the Hilton Papagayo Resort in Costa Rica, courtesy of American Airlines Vacations, and a Panasonic Toughbook W7 laptop computer.
And three third-prize winners will each receive a three-night trip for two to the British Colonial Hilton in Nassau, Bahamas, also courtesy of American Airlines Vacations, and a Panasonic Toughbook W7 laptop computer.
So go to www.americanwaymag.com/roadwarrior, look at your tasks in detail, and get started. The fun ends on August 31 at 11:59 p.m. CDT.
And just a small note of advice: If you’re really serious about participating, don’t wait until August 31 at 11:50 p.m. to start. Good luck! 
Sherri Gulczynski Burns
Editor
|
|
|
|
|
|