Trevor's Travels

The Business JetBlue from American Express is a joint venture of JetBlue Airlines and the American Express. It is convenient for you if you frequently fly on the JetBlue Airways, and would like to earn rewards, which are compatible with your current TrueBlue points.

Just be sure to make the monthly payments on time, if you seriously want to get rid of the high interest rates. This credit card has a comparatively higher interest rate than normally charged by other cards, but in return, it promises you host of benefits.

Benefits Of The Card

Business JetBlue from American Express offers 5% discounts on any JetBlue flight together with other reward program savings and points. For every dollar you spend, you obtain award dollars. You can also earn double award dollars at concerts, golf courses, restaurants, movie theatres and other fun venues. For each dollar spent on JetBlue flights, car rentals, wireless phone charges, gas, office supplies and equipment, you will get two award dollars. What is most interesting is that there is no limit to the amount of award dollars that can be earned!

The Business JetBlue from American Express has an annual fee of $40, which is a reasonable rate when compared to the other airline reward-card fees.

You will get 5000 bonus award dollars after your first purchase, only that your credit statement should read a $50 credit. (One TrueBlue point equals 200 award dollars and 100 TrueBlue points together will fetch you a round-trip flight.)

You can have access to the usual cardholder benefits. The card has a low annual fee. The above the average interests of the card are well compensated with free reward flights. Therefore, you can save money and you will only need to pay your full monthly balance. You can redeem your points any time and there is no question of invalidity.

You will also be provided with the OPEN Business Savings automatically. For this facility, you need not be enrolled in any program or are not required to submit your points for discounts. The Business JetBlue from American Express makes it easier for the business owners to save for traveling, hotels and FedEx.

The Rewards expiration period of the credit card is of 1 year. As long as the redemption activity takes place within a year, the points will not expire. The TrueBlue awards expire a year after their issuance. This one-year period is actually applicable to all the points, reward programs and rebates.

Other Perks

The Business JetBlue from American Express is different from the other airline rewards cards. Other than offering a low annual fee, the card also offers you various travel and emergency assistant service benefits, various Internet account related services, access to the OPEN Savings Network, extended warranty services, discounts on products and services at participating merchants and retailers, travel accident insurance and purchase protection.

Looking back to the days I worked as an international business consultant. I traveled between 200 and 300 days per year. In the beginning this is quite fun; going to airports, shuffle from plane to plane, meeting a lot of interesting new people, seeing foreign places and so forth. After a while it is not so fun anymore; you get used to it. After a few years as a heavy business traveler you sleep when travel but sooner or later you just get tiered of all this traveling and you decide that enough is enough. I quit as a business traveler.

Now I just travel for leisure and fun, with very few exceptions.

A business traveler might face a lot of difficulties during travel from one place to another around the world. The difference in the culture, food, mode of travel and location play an important part during the travel. The saying “information is wealth” will suit a business traveler more than any other person in real life.

The business traveler needs to get the right information from the right source if he wants to be successful in his business trip. The Business travel directory is one such resource which can be sought when a business traveler needs information on anything. There are many directories available online and a traveler may look to it when needed.

A business travel to international destination is not an easy task if you don’t get the right information needed for your travel. Airline, Car rental, hotels, maps, directions, and other information are needed by a business traveler. After you land in a destination you can’t look for a hotel during a peak season in that destination.

Then you are the one who is going to pay a lump sum for a meager hotel accommodation. Maps are needed to locate the place that you are going to visit. It would give you the confidence if you know in which direction you are going to go. A business directory is one that gives that confidence.

Restaurants near your choice of stay are also important. A good business directory for travel should be able to give you this information also. There are many websites that serve as a travel directory for the business traveler. Some of them might require you to become a member of that site if you need to use it.

Free memberships are also provided. Hard copies of business directory for travel are available in the leading bookstores in most of the business destinations around the world.

Jack Hollingsworth is one of the most well known names in stock photography. An early and very successful pioneer in RF, Jack not only sells stock through Getty, Corbis and his own site, but was a founder of BLEND images as well as Red Chop Sticks and IndiaPhotos. Jack has been described as “Indiana Jones with a camera” due to his constant world travel. Jack teaches, lectures, blogs and has a column in Shutterbug magazine.

John:    You have a reputation as someone who is a pioneer, who doesn’t shirk from change, but embraces it and certainly someone who is an entrepreneur at heart.  I believe you are also a realist.  In my book, these qualities make you someone who is well suited to dealing with the current market realities. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of stock?

Jack:    I’m optimistic about the future of everything.  Stock is going through a difficult time right now but it will be back.  There will always be a need for images.  It might not come back in the same way we knew it, but it will be back.

John:    My strategy is two fold:  Make the best, most relevant images I can, then get those images in front of as many potential buyers as possible.  A huge part of my plan is the development and optimization of my web site. Can you share your strategy for dealing with the future?

Jack:    Online.  The web is everything.  The web is the center, the hub of the wheel that all the spokes radiate from.  You have to learn to use web 2.0, learn the tools, learn to explore and exploit what the web has to offer.  I am revamping everything,  my blog, my site, everything from the ground up.

John:    Do you see the consumer as a viable potential client?

Jack:    Yes!  I don’t yet know how to reach them, but there are millions, and millions and millions of them well beyond the channel of commercial distribution.  The money is in getting the photography in front of the consumer.  This is an entirely new kind of market.  There are 60,000 to 80,000 commercial buyers of stock in the world.  That number doesn’t really change.  Now, with a push of a button, we can reach a billion people.  Think about that!

John:    I do think about that!

Jack:    We are at a crossroads, an intersection.  Very few can continue to have the cool lifestyle of shooting stock that we have had.  Now it is about reaching the consumer.  It is about building community and then monetizing it.  People don’t get this: Our future success has little to do with our past but rather what we do from today on. It is not about your past, what you shot before.  It is about what you do from now on.  It is about what you shoot now, and how you shoot it. You can’t rely on your legacy. You can be a Micro celebrity on the net in 12 months.  It is about developing a fan base.  With a fan base of 1,000, or maybe 5,000, you can make a good living.

John:    Micro, RF or RM…or some combination?

Jack:    Add footage to that as well.  All of them are going to be around.  It isn’t either or, it is a little bit of everything.  Some people will do all of it, some will do two or three of them.  You have to find out what works for you, what you love to do and then do it. My priority is first footage, then Rights Managed and then a split between RF and Micro.

John:    How about prints?  Are you planning on getting into that arena?

Jack:    Yes! Possibly through Imagekind, or something like that.  Right now I am going through my collections cherry picking the images that I think would make good print sales.  I really believe in merchandising.  I have big plans for what people can do with my images.  It can be coffee mugs and that sort of thing or it can be a whole lot more. We don’t even know all the ways people are going to be using photos.

John:    Jack, you are undergoing a major re-branding with your website.  When do you think you will have that ready for us to see?