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If you’ve been following my blog routinely, you have probably seen how into and excited I was with the recent US Airways Grand Slam Promotion. I ended up with 28 hits, getting me 60,000 miles. I could have done more with some unnecessary car rentals and point transfers, but I was satisfied with my 60K. This will get me a free round-trip flight to Europe. Out of pocket I ended up spending $316.51 – some where purchases I would have had anyways (i.e., flowers, restaurant.com, network solutions). I also earned about another 12,000 miles with just the partner activity posts. I am pretty happy with my result, but I know I could have spent less. Next year I will do much better – less spend and more “hits.”
Top Lessons Learned:
- Start Early! I started the promotion midway and saved some of my hits to the very end of the promotion. This was not smart for so many reasons:
- Some of the partner activity terms changed during the promotion for the worse. For example, some of the flower companies started excluding sale items from earning miles. Since I acted on this partner activity too late, I had to pay more for an item that qualified.
- Not all of my partner activity has hit my account yet. This prolongs the time to get my bonus points. It also puts uncertainty if I will get the hits and when the actually activity date will be.
- Some free quotes actually counted as a hit for some folks. Starting late meant that they posted after the end of the promotion and did not allow me to see if they would actually count as a hit or not. Due to the uncertainty, I wanted to ensure I had 28 legit hits and could not depend on some potential hits.
- ShareBuilder partner, for example, has been reported to have its activity date post as the last day of the month. If you opened up and funded an account after November 1st, the activity date might end up not qualifying for the promotion. US Airways takes no responsibility for partner activity posts, so will result in a phone call to the partner (where they still might not be able backdate it). I did have the 2,000 points post to my account just for opening up account – so this might count as a hit.
- Register, register, register! Do not make the same mistake I did for my husband’s account. Make sure to register immediately prior to any partner activity. I was so focused on my own account and ended up completing half of the “hits” for his account before realizing that he was never registered! My husband actually has a featured guest blog post this past weekend describing this situation. For those that have husbands/wives that have to deal our obsession with points/miles, it is pretty funny and I would recommend reading.
- E-miles & E-Rewards – Start NOW! Both partners require you to take a million surveys (it felt like at least!) to get enough points to transfer to US Airways. Start acting on the surveys now so you are not stuck at the end of the promotion praying that a survey will appear in your account that you will qualify for. E-miles is not too bad, but E-Rewards can literally take forever. Also, if you are not currently a member of E-Rewards, it is an invitation only survey program so keep an eye out in your email for an invitation.
- Start saving hotel points. There are many partner hotels that transfer to US Airways resulting in a hit each. The transfer rate is pretty poor, but if you are able to get enough free points in a program it will be worth your while. For example, during the promotion I was able to get 10,000 Club Carlson points for free by “liking” a hotels Facebook page. I have no other Club Carlson points and probably would never done anything with these 10K points. Transferring them for a hit was worth it. Keep your eyes out during the year for those random hotel free points. You might not think about acting on it as they will not provide enough points for a free hotel room, but you never know where else they can come in handy!
If you have any other lessons learned, please share! I actually cannot wait till next year as I will be sure to be much more strategic with my hits and obtaining the most amount of points possible.
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The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
re: E-Rewards
While it is an invitation-only program, USAirways has this note helpfully posted in their “earn miles” section:
“Membership is by invitation only. Update your profile to receive Dividend Miles News & Offers and you could receive an invitation to join e-Rewards.”
@Colleen – Thanks for the tip for the readers!
Great blog. I had never done the GS and reached 36 hits. Overall I spent $2000, but much of that was expensed to my company. Overall I spent around $230 on things I didn’t need, such as 2 1 day car rentals, a winegrowers cookbook, a tacky window decoration, etc.
I will be more attentive to gathering hotel points this year by crediting car rentals and flower purchases to hotel programs. That seems to provide a better bang for the buck than a few paltry airline miles.
Can’t wait for next years GS!
@Mike – I cannot wait till next year either! Glad you jumped in this year.
Be careful starting e-Rewards now with hopes of having your rewards for next year’s grand slam. 75 percent of your rewards expire at the end of your membership year.
From their membership agreement:
All e-Rewards Currency earned during any Membership Year must be redeemed within thirty (30) days following the end of the Membership Year. (For example: A Member who enrolls on August 21, 2010 is assigned a Membership Year ending on September 30, 2011 and must redeem Currency earned during the Membership Year running from August 21, 2010 to September 30, 2011 by no later than October 30, 2011.)
Following the end of the thirty (30) day period, as set forth in Section 8.b. above, seventy-five percent (75%) of any unused e-Rewards Currency remaining in a Member’s account that was earned during the just-ended Membership Year will expire, and will be removed from the Member’s account. The remaining twenty-five percent (25%) of the e-Rewards Currency earned by the Member during the past Membership Year shall be automatically transferred into such Member’s account balance for the next Membership Year.
@Rachel – That is correct. Assuming the grand slam promo starts the same time frame next year then starting now will still allow you to transfer at the beginning of the promotion. But to be safe, you are right and can wait a few months to start.
How long does it take to see any action on the hits. I started late, but still managed to get 12 hits. In one of your prior posts, you mentioned that Dividend Miles does not keep track of our points. Does that mean we must report our own somehow. Anyway, all I have received is points for doing the surveys, etc. How do we get the points added for what we do on the searches from the toolbar? I am so new to this. Next year, I’ll have it figured out (maybe) Thank you for the advice and help.
@Kathleen – Unfortunately Dividend Miles does not have a system to show you how many hits you have earned. They do, however, keep track of them in the back-end, so there is no self-reporting needed. I am still missing hits as well, some can take 6-8 weeks to post.
I should hit 36, still waiting for a few to post, but I may already have the 36 even with the missing two.
@IPBrian – That’s great! Vacation already planned?!