ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 29, 1995                   TAG: 9511290042
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FREQUENT FLIERS GET THE FAX; SPORTS FANS GET CARDED

If you've ever cashed in frequent flier miles, you know what a hassle it can be. And now that the holiday season is in full swing, it's bound to get worse as blackout dates and restrictions increase.

So, before you plan to use your free miles to visit relatives for Christmas, or to fly out to that New Year's Day bowl game, you might want to call FlyerFax. It's a 24-hour fax service that was recently launched by Frequent Flyer Services, the same people who publish InsideFlyer magazine and the Official Frequent Flyer Guidebook.

The automated service gives you access to more than 100 documents on a variety of topics:

Blackout dates for 1996;

Award redemption procedures;

Partnership listings;

Student airfare deals.

Call (719) 574-6947 on a touch-tone phone. Punch in code 1000 at the prompt to get the main menu, which is updated periodically. Once you've made your selections, enter the phone number for your fax machine and then wait for the documents to arrive.

The faxes are free; you pay for the long-distance telephone call. There's a limit of five documents per call, but you can call back as often as you like. Your best bet is to call early in the morning or late in the afternoon, when the lines are less likely to be busy.

In time for Christmas and the Super Bowl: Donruss Trading Cards Inc., one of the country's major manufacturers of baseball and hockey cards, is getting ready to introduce a football card game that will let NFL wannabes play coach from their own armchairs.

The game, called Red Zone, is built around a set of cards featuring pictures of NFL players. You draft players to build a team, then plan offensive and defensive strategies. The down side: There aren't any refs to blame if you lose.

An 80-card starter set will retail for $10. Twelve-card booster packs will sell for $2.79. It's supposed to be in stores by Christmas.

And bleacher bums longing for Wrigley Field or Camden Yards can look for a baseball version of the game called Top of the Order, which will use cards featuring pictures of major league baseball players. No surprise that it's also scheduled to hit stores in time for holiday gift shopping.

In the market for fine art, but don't quite understand that whole auction process?

Sotheby's, the venerable international art auction house, has launched a World Wide Web site designed to demystify auctions. Whether you're a novice or an experienced collector who wants to brush up on bidding techniques, you can learn the ins and outs of auctions in an interactive section of the Web page called "Auction Adventures." You can try out three fictional scenarios that will lead you through the entire auction experience, from pre-sale exhibition to the actual bidding.

The site, which is located at http://www.sothebys.com, also includes a glossary of art terminology, hints for starting art collections, information about upcoming sales and appraisals of new art discoveries. 


 by CNB