Just got this in the mail today from MCI-United:

10,000 miles for switching residential long distance. (5,000 upon sign-up, 1,000 per month for next 5 months.) Call 1-800-246-9482 & mention code ZTNU.

-OR-
Do it on line at:

http://miles.mciworld.com/4ual

and they say you will get an extra 1,000 miles.

I need to find out if MCI is also offering this for Continental. Time to switch, I think.

Dave

By trial and error I found that the offer is also available for AA and USAirways.

In the above URL subsitute for ual:
aa
usa

****!, they are getting DESPERATE!
I remember this summer getting a couple things from UA for 2K and 5K mile offers, but
didn't bite until Nov. when they started flogging their 10K offer about, and they
still kep cranking it up. Makes me kind of wish I'd held out 'till next summer by which time they'll have cranked it up to 20K maybe

I guess MCI is just bounded and determined to
have every frequently flyer using them.

Good thinking pgupta011!

More trial and error gets one pass with the tag "4cont". I had tried co and con yesterday, but your success with the others gave me renewed vigor.

The American site offers 12,000 (an additional 1,000 if you use your calling card in the first month. Thanks for the info

Does anyone know the code for the offer if it is available through Delta?

For delta the URL is:
http://miles.mciworld.com/4delta

http://miles.mciworld.com/4ual (United)
http://miles.mciworld.com/4aa (American)
http://miles.mciworld.com/4usa (USAirways)
http://miles.mciworld.com/4cont (Continental)
http://miles.mciworld.com/4delta (Delta)
http://miles.mciworld.com/4hawaiian (Hawaiian)

I can't seem to "crack the code" for MCI's other partners such as Midwest Express and Southwest...

There's no expiration date mentioned. Anyone have an idea how long these offers last?

Here's my thinking. I just got an offer from AT&T for $100 to switch back, which I happily did. I figured I'd give it 30 days and then switch back to MCI. Has anyone else done this successfully?

The mailing I received said "hurry expires February 28th"

In the interest of "full disclosure" on the topic of receiving airline miles in conjunction with MCI, let me whine about the surprise I discovered on my MCI bill. While the miles are free, MCI winds up passing on to its customers the Federal excise tax it pays in buying the miles from the airlines. This excise tax appears on the MCI bill as a Federal tax. They don't tell you that it's a tax on your "free" miles; they just stick it on your bill (perhaps hoping it won't be noticed). Admittedly it's not enough of a charge to stop getting the miles, but it's annoying to pay even a little for something that's supposed to be free. MCI's customer service has an example it read off to me when I questioned this; they state that they pay in the neighborhood of 1.3 cents/mile purchased. Assuming that's a correct figure, 1,000 miles would cost them $13. The tax is 7.5% (for 1,000 miles this works out to $.975 which would be rounded to $.98 and then put onto the long distance bill).

So it's a small charge. But note that switching in order to receive the nice bonus miles being offered will result in this charge on the phone bill. Query why MCI is behaving this way--a 10,000 mile bonus costs them $130 (if you accept their asserted cost per mile); the tax on this (passed on to the customer) would be $9.75. I wonder why they don't just "eat" the tax portion too and thereby avoid raising the hackles of at least some customers.

Many companies are passing the tax onto the customer. Whether or not they should do that is a matter of opinion - I personally do not fault the companies for doing so. Hopefully (though I am not counting on it) customers will be outraged enough to write to their congresspeople to repeal this tax. I doubt if this tax is being used for things that would benefit the average traveler, but rather used for other pork expenditures and targeted tax breaks towards the special groups that the pols want to court. If you find this tax annoying please write to your congressfolks to repeal it.

Essxjay -- we have three phone lines coming into the home and we've played the AT&T/MCI switch several times. Never got more than $75 from AT&T -- per line ;-}

MCI always sends us a $5 cert to cover the cost of doing the switch. We were going to stick with MCI for the miles on but they keep raising the bonus so we'll switch back to AT&T on the next go round and get the bonus again...

Okay, Since Northwest is dumping MCI for Sprint, I took the plunge and switched to Sprint from MCI last night. I subscribed with MCI for almost 10 years! Here is my impression:

Sprint has a human answer the phone after two rings. MCI puts you through the most extensive voice mail system on the planet (If you are undecided, press 3...or maybe 4) and then makes you listen to Muzak for 20 minutes or so.

However, MCI is less expensive for my residential phone demands.

MCI charged me .09/minute 24 hours a day and .05/minute on Sunday. MCI send me my invoice via the internet and automatically charges my mileage Visa card, giving me an additional mile per dollar spent and netting me 6 miles per dollar spent.

Sprint is .10/minute 7pm-7am and on weekends, .25/minute all other times. Ouch! Also, 5 miles per dollar spent.

I switched because I am the *Mileage Addict* but I think I will grab the 5,000 NW miles I receive in the next few weeks, forget about the other 5,000 I would be entitled to in 6 months and switch back to MCI. Even though I won't be able to go back to MCI with Northwest miles, I will gladly take their United promotion since I seem to be flying UA more and more.

I have to salute all of you for being able to switch back and forth between phone programs, raking up miles and keeping track of everything. In this case it's too confusing for me.

I have been with AT&T since I learned how to take apart my aunt's phone with a screwdriver (3 years old!) While it's partnerships are not as extensive as MCI (which called me AGAIN last night to say PLEASE SWITCH) I'm
too settled in my phone usage.

Although everytime I have to call AT&T I have told them to get MORE airline partners.
CATMAN