Travellers search out free travel on the net

If there's no such thing as free lunch, how come internet surfers can win free travel?

Every day at the Travel Free website, a domestic flight is given away. The prize is drawn from the joint pool of Australian and New Zealand members and that happy surfer wins a trip within New Zealand flying Air New Zealand or, for winners across the ditch, within Australia flying Ansett Australia.

There are also two weekly international economy flights for two, a monthly draw for two international tickets, business class, and then the annual prize in November of travel for two, worth up to $120,000, anywhere on the Air New Zealand or Ansett Australia networks.

As well, each country's site runs e-mail competitions relevant to that market.

You do have to be a New Zealand resident to register, and then visit the site regularly to clock up enough points to win prizes.

One Malaysian internet user won a draw, but was disqualified because he wasn't resident here. The woman who won the redraw had just married but never got to go on honeymoon. She was thrilled to take hubby off to Bali sunsets, in business class to boot.

And one user managed to win a daily and a weekly prize in the same week.

Travelfree, running since April, is an online initiative between Air New Zealand and www.travel.co.nz, New Zealand's largest online travel agency. It is run by co-founders Nick Mudge (Air New Zealand) and David Tonkin (travel.co).

Mudge describes the site as a "ticket to the internet". Travel-orientated, it has such links as news (nzherald.co.nz is its most popular link), education and sports.

"If we can't get people comfy with the easy stuff (checking the weather and news) then we, as travel providers, can never expect to have travel online as a big thing," says Mudge. The more people get used to the medium ... hopefully they will use the internet for travel planning and bookings."

The company also uses the site to promote its products.

Some site users are new to the internet while others have been surfing for five years. In New Zealand there are more than 10,000 members.

And, how do I know about this site? I discovered it through a link at competitionworld.co.nz Pretty damn good it is too, but maybe I'm a little biased. I scored a night at the new Hilton in Auckland and a lunch for two through the travel site's e-mail competitions. Free lunches and free flights ... as they say, you gotta be in to win.

Links

Travel Free New Zealand

Travel Free Australia

New Zealand online travel agency