Hero Miles

Whatever you think about the war in Iraq, it's fair to say that the US, British, and Polish soldiers who are fighting over there, aren't the enemy. When they come home, the Department of Defense deals with getting them from the middle east back to the states, but getting home from there is up to them. The money to fund airfare for our troops was left out of the $87 billion aid package for Iraq and Afghanistan. There was a motion to include funds for our soldiers, but it was not allowed to come to a vote.

Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland's 2nd Congressional District has started an organization called hero miles that provides frequent flier miles for US soldiers to get discounted or free tickets to get home.

If you've got, say, a couple thousand miles on an airline that you don't normally fly, rather that letting the miles sit there until they expire, consider donating them to Hero Miles. For what it's worth, I've just done that with 4K miles on United and 2K on American. I mainly fly Northwest; I haven't been on a united or american flight since 2000. I was never going to use those miles; this way, they're going to a worthwhile cause.