US Airways 2011 Grand Slam Promotion - Lessons learned (or, Making plans for 2012)

I realize the corpse is not yet cold (or technically even a corpse), but before GS winds down it seems to me worthwhile to start cataloguing what this year's promo teaches about next year. Here are my preliminary thoughts:


Start early with retail partners. This year, several merchants switched things up in the middle of the GS period to make it harder/more costly to earn hits. In particular, after the Grand Slam was in full swing

Biscoff raised the prices on Anna's Cookies & Biscoff spread (and in the process, changed the offer terms to eliminate the base 250 miles)
Vinesse jacked up prices (apron, wine chiller) and removed other cheap items entirely
A certain no-cost financial institution hit -- one that had been good in prior years -- went away mid-GS thanks to the foolish decision by certain bloggers to trumpet it.
SkyMall did double back-flips to hide or de-list cheap items; and
1-800-Flowers seemed to clamp down on giving miles for any sale items

If you did these hits early, you probably saved yourself some money and/or scored a few extra miles.
For e-miles & e-rewards, start really early. Don't wait until the start of GS to work on these. They're a lot less painful if you pace yourself by accruing points all year long, or at least starting some months in advance of GS -- say, by Memorial Day.
Trust past track records. Network Solutions took over a month to post in 2010, but posted reliably. Many people had concerns this year -- whether about the use of a discount code, or the confusion over 1000 vs. 2000 miles -- and the long wait didn't help matters, but in the end miles posted for most participants right on schedule yesterday.
If something looks broken, and veterans tell you it's broken, then it's broken. In prior years, US linked to an OfficeMax landing page containing a form for entering your US DM number. This year, there was no such page/form -- indeed, no way at all to type in your DM number. Various people made technically questionable claims about how OfficeMax could still credit the miles, all of which proved to be completely incorrect. OMX was a nuisance for everybody this year, but those who waited until 9/22 (when the DM entry form reappeared) ended up better off in the end.
Things I shouldn't have to mention. Register. Confirm with US that your registration took effect. And for God's sake, don't call a partner (or put comments in your hotel reservation form) and alert them to a loophole.


What other practical, general advice should we record for posterity?

I would just add on to point number 1 regarding start early.

It is really beneficial to also set yourself up for the Grand Slam prior to the actual GS beginning. If you need to apply for a credit card, debit card etc... do it early so that your statement will close during the period. We had lots of people waiting until the last minute having to call up and try to change statement closing dates and hoping things would go through in time.

Sign up for E-rewards, e-miles as soon as possible so you aren't scrambling around trying to get miles near the end. Accumulate E-rewards throughout the year and get money banked in your account to get your hotel points for transfer ready for the GS next year.

Something I did this year which made things easier with some merchants was to add my kids as authorized users to my credit card so they could use cards in their own name to purchase items.

I'd also like to really thank beltway for all his hard work this GS. I think one important lesson we've learned for next year is to let him run things again :).

Sign up for E-rewards, e-miles as soon as possible so you aren't scrambling around trying to get miles near the end. Accumulate E-rewards throughout the year and get money banked in your account to get your hotel points for transfer ready for the GS next year.

Appropriately enough, I just added that same point in, seemingly right around the time you posted.

I'd also like to really thank beltway for all his hard work this GS. I think one important lesson we've learned for next year is to let him run things again :).
Aw, shucks. I'd settle for people a) only starting meritorious threads and then b) committing to updating post #1 for the long haul. EDIT: Two people who stuck to it this year are rob_flies_ua (hotel transfers) and lowfareair (hotel stays). ^ ^

While we're handing out thanks, I think San Diego 1K deserves much kudos for creating the sub-forum, as do our two remaining moderators for their work in keeping the undergrowth properly trimmed & pruned. (Heck, they get credit just for surviving. GS claimed 33% of the team this year.;))

I believe e-Rewards only allows one transfer per quarter (can someone confirm this?). Therefore, it may be helpful to transfer once a while to hotel programs to bolster those accounts to help with hotel transfer hits. Of course, once it gets closer to GS time, it would be best to save those for the US GS hit.

Same thing with TopGuest - 50 points/day can really add up over a while and help with the lower threshold transfers (like BW or Choice 5000 points ... 100 check-ins over the course of a few months = free transfer if you don't stay at those chains). I didn't start hardcore TopGuesting until the GS and it helped me with my Hilton Transfer hit, but had I started last year, I could have saved $ with 2 other hotel transfers.

After a few weeks, I think vysean's great site GSScorecard.com (www.gsscorecard.com) will have useful data to see what hits take a while to post. These would be beneficial to study to see what should be done early.

Also, even though certain hits may have certain restrictions in terms of subscribing, it would be best to at least attempt miles-earning with them. For example, 21st Century said that one would get a hit for switching to them, but some people simply asked for a miles-earning quote and got the hit from that. They did it early and got the hit, while those who did it later may not be as lucky.

By the way, one hit that became expensive during the GS was the Buy Miles hit, because (1) the 100% bonus was only for the first 2 days of the GS and (2) the price per mile went up from about 2.95cpm after tax to over 3.7cpm in October. On the first day, I got 20K miles for $295, but today, the equivalent amount would cost $749! Obviously, if you were just going for the hit, it would be about $37.50 now for the minimum 1000 miles, but since I value US miles at about 1.4cpm, my 20K mile purchase hit was probably only about $15 extra, instead of $23 extra had I bought the 1000 miles today.

Lastly, beltway, you have been amazing with this year's GS sub-forum. Kudos! Although to save you some angst next year, I think Lesson #1 should be use the ******* search function! :D

I'm just a first timer with this promo, but one of my takeaways was that it's sometimes best not to start early. There were several partners where the hits became cheaper, at least based on the best practices discussed here.

For example:
- When the promo started, folks were using the DFW airport run for Supershuttle for $10-13. It wasn't till a week later someone found the $4 PHX route.
- Lots of folks bought tickets thru Audience Rewards before it was discovered that trivia miles would count.

Now that we are less than a week away from the end of GS 11, it may be a good idea to pause for a moment and sum up any lessons we have learned from the past two months. It can be helpful as a jumping off point for GS 12. I am a firm believer in not "reinventing the wheel."
Let me start by a bit of personal experience. This was my first GS, and I expect to get 36 hits and 1 insurance hit.
1. START EARLY / FINISH EARLY. Ask yourself what 100 (or 110) thousand miles are worth to you, and then budget your purchases with this holistic view in mind. Get your hits at the very beginning, and then relax. This is better than obssessing about whether or not each hit is "worth it". This will save you incredible amounts of time, and time is valuable. I thought a long time about whether I should do the Teleflora, for example. Finally, I just did it - after plenty of wasted time.
2. DON'T SPEND HOURS TRYING TO SAVE TWO DOLLARS
Yes, it's great to have a low CPM, but sometimes, we go a little crazy. Think of time expended in relation to the dollar or two you might save.
3. DON'T EXPECT MAJOR DEALS AND CHANGES TOWARD THE END
I often hesitated thinking that US Air would pull some rabbit out of its hat as November approached. This did not happen. Yes, there was a change in policy about Audience Rewards, allowing Trivia answers to count as hits, but considering some of the cheap tickets, that only ended up saving about 11 dollars. Similarly, not funding brokerage accounts is not really a savings at all, as they pay the same interest as your bank account. There were a few hotel transfer discounts toward the end (SPG) but they were balanced by the hotel transfer discounts expired early on. Similarly, the 100% bonus on purchasing miles the first two days of the GS proved to be a deal than many lost out on by not using, as miles are now much more expensive to purchase (I bought 10K and got 20K, and am glad I did).
4. MOST PROBLEMS ARE RESOLVED OVER TIME
Another advantage of an early start and early finish is that it gives time for problems to be resolved, either on their own or with a phone call to a hit sponsor. If you do find some sort of break early on, which is later eliminated, at least you will be "grandfathered in." Late starters/finishers can only say "I wish I had done that. This strategy tends to eliminate worry and save a lot of time. You see clearly in the first or second sweep what the problems are.
5. ASK QUESTIONS EARLY
If you have a special question (e.g. Hotel or car rental no-shows), ask it early, and as you are probably not the only one with that concern, you will probably receive a quick answer...then ACT.
6. PLAN A TRIP FOR SOMETIME IN THE PERIOD
Nothing gives you a chance to rack up hits as a trip (even a short, close one).
and finally...
7. THINK LATERALLY
I have four kids, and all have authorized user cards (which I keep). Yes, you can get authorized user AMEX cards for kids. Had I planned this from the beginning, I would have replicated my purchases so that I would have ended up with about 140,000 miles per child. That's what I intend to do next year. Set up separate email accounts for the kids, to prevent their own email accounts from being innundated, and use the same password for all purchases, memberships, etc. That keeps things nice and simple.
This "multiplier effect" can be used efficiently and to the greatest advantage.

Well that's my two cents. Please feel free to add your opinons and tips.

8. DON'T ANGER beltway.

8. Don't anger beltway.

lol

you might want to merge this here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/2011-grand-slam-promotion/1277853-lessons-learned-making-plans-2012-a.html

Let me add to your list:

8. DON'T START NEW THREADS FOR NO REASON!!

Take a couple of seconds to look to the other threads in the forum!! Chances are that there is a thread exactly like yours a couple of lines lower..! ::td:

As I wrote to Beltway....
"We both had this lessons learned idea about the same time. I was so busy writing mine, that I didn't check the site again, otherwise I would have seen yours."
No offense....you did a great job.
Larry
To those who jumped on me for providing my suggestions....
Suggestion No. 9....Give people the benefit of the doubt!

I'm just a first timer with this promo, but one of my takeaways was that it's sometimes best not to start early. There were several partners where the hits became cheaper, at least based on the best practices discussed here.

For example:
- When the promo started, folks were using the DFW airport run for Supershuttle for $10-13. It wasn't till a week later someone found the $4 PHX route.
- Lots of folks bought tickets thru Audience Rewards before it was discovered that trivia miles would count.

Hindsight is 20/20 but to me, the security of knowing your hits posted and that you're getting them out of the way are worth the $20 extra on these 2 hits. If anything, I saved much more money on hits that got more expensive later on to outweigh these $20. so I guess you win some, you lose some. It matters on what that security of having it done early is worth.

I'm just a first timer with this promo, but one of my takeaways was that it's sometimes best not to start early. There were several partners where the hits became cheaper, at least based on the best practices discussed here.

For example:
- When the promo started, folks were using the DFW airport run for Supershuttle for $10-13. It wasn't till a week later someone found the $4 PHX route.
- Lots of folks bought tickets thru Audience Rewards before it was discovered that trivia miles would count.
I'm not so sure about "several" partners, but I think there is a valuable principle here. I'd articulate it as "Don't start early with a partner where there is a significant new development." In the case of AR, that was the new feature of being able to accrue miles directly from trivia. As for the shuttle, I'm pretty sure PHX didn't work for some folks; more importantly, for 2012 I don't think there would be any reason (absent some add'l development) to go slow at first, since the crew this year seems to have mapped out enough options & relative success rates to enable a snap judgment next year as to which shuttle to "ride".

Thanks Captain Obvious!
Anymore great tips like start early=finish early or doing multiple accounts yields more miles???

Someone delete this pointless thread.

I'd also like to really thank beltway for all his hard work this GS. I think one important lesson we've learned for next year is to let him run things again :).

I would absolutely like to second this. beltway's efforts have been amazing and personally, I've been able to accumulate more miles because of his hard work. THANK YOU, BELTWAY.

I would also agree with starting early. This was my first year with GS and I get to 28 hits. I was lucked out and got in early on what turned out to be some of the harder partners (OfficeMax, I'm looking at you). Being early gave me time to work it all out without being overly frantic about it.

Give him a break and don't be a cyber bully.

there may be a GS12.

Give him a break and don't be a cyber bully.

lol.

I am not trying to be a jerk, but the one lesson I hope people learn for next year (knock on wood) is that starting a thread for an individual question clutters the forum.

lol.

I am not trying to be a jerk, but the one lesson I hope people learn for next year (knock on wood) is that starting a thread for an individual question clutters the forum.

Fair enough. ^

I'm not so sure about "several" partners, but I think there is a valuable principle here. I'd articulate it as "Don't start early with a partner where there is a significant new development." In the case of AR, that was the new feature of being able to accrue miles directly from trivia. As for the shuttle, I'm pretty sure PHX didn't work for some folks; more importantly, for 2012 I don't think there would be any reason (absent some add'l development) to go slow at first, since the crew this year seems to have mapped out enough options & relative success rates to enable a snap judgment next year as to which shuttle to "ride".

I ended up spreading out my hits as my travel patterns ended up shifting around from the start of GS to now. For instance, I expected 1 hotel stay hit and 4 rental car hits; I'm now going to wind up with 3 hotel stays and 6 rental car hits.

Since for obvious reasons, my last few hits are my most expensive (or at least could have been if I chose to order them that way), it's good to know I wouldn't need some of the more expensive ones to work my way up to 36 hits.

Wow
All those comments and nothing substantive about the suggestions I made. I mentioned at the beginning that this was my first year. I am sure there will be a great many people for whom GS 12 (if it happens) will be their first Grand Slam. All I can say is that if I had read my own advice two or three months ago, I would have saved a lot of time and wound up with many more miles. Pretty odd that when one comes with some thought-out advice for the benefit of others, one gets flamed. It's as if some of the commenters here think they are paying out of pocket for my few KBs of memory. I would be more interested in constructive comments and additional suggestions than these kinds of put downs. I assume we've all graduated from Junior High School here, right? As for "starting a thread for an individual question" cluttering the forum, I couldn't agree more. But is this distillation of the many threads on this subforum an individual question? I leave that to your own judgment.

I'm fed up with the attitude that permeates much of FT and has done so over the past 18 months or so. Perhaps a bit longer. Maybe I'm an old curmudgeon in my ripe old age of mid 30's but it's why I don't actively participate as much as I once did. I come to read and I search FT via Google but beyond that my posts are sporadic. That attitude I've witnessed is why.

On topic, I will disagree with the argument to finish early. It simply depends on your goals and your patterns. Perhaps you won't be doing any travel until November and you'll get your hotel and/or car rentals then. There's no urgent need to complete your hotel stays early unless you intend to burn the bonus miles as soon as you get them.

Then there's always the possibility of late promotions. In prior years buy/gift bonuses started near the end of a Grand Slam. This is precisely why I won't be sharing miles between my wife and myself until Monday November 14th in the unlikely event such a promotion begins then.

While you should never hoard miles there's no reason to earn them immediately in September instead of November if you're planning to use them on a trip 6 to 11 months later.

Wow
It's as if some of the commenters here think they are paying out of pocket for my few KBs of memory.

What took you so long to figure out?? :rolleyes:

I'm fed up with the attitude that permeates much of FT and has done so over the past 18 months or so. Perhaps a bit longer. Maybe I'm an old curmudgeon in my ripe old age of mid 30's but it's why I don't actively participate as much as I once did. I come to read and I search FT via Google but beyond that my posts are sporadic. That attitude I've witnessed is why.

On topic, I will disagree with the argument to finish early. It simply depends on your goals and your patterns. Perhaps you won't be doing any travel until November and you'll get your hotel and/or car rentals then. There's no urgent need to complete your hotel stays early unless you intend to burn the bonus miles as soon as you get them.

Then there's always the possibility of late promotions. In prior years buy/gift bonuses started near the end of a Grand Slam. This is precisely why I won't be sharing miles between my wife and myself until Monday November 14th in the unlikely event such a promotion begins then.

While you should never hoard miles there's no reason to earn them immediately in September instead of November if you're planning to use them on a trip 6 to 11 months later.

that's why MP is better - just not as much info there, yet

I'm fed up with the attitude that permeates much of FT and has done so over the past 18 months or so. Perhaps a bit longer. Maybe I'm an old curmudgeon in my ripe old age of mid 30's but it's why I don't actively participate as much as I once did. I come to read and I search FT via Google but beyond that my posts are sporadic. That attitude I've witnessed is why.

On topic, I will disagree with the argument to finish early. It simply depends on your goals and your patterns. Perhaps you won't be doing any travel until November and you'll get your hotel and/or car rentals then. There's no urgent need to complete your hotel stays early unless you intend to burn the bonus miles as soon as you get them.

Then there's always the possibility of late promotions. In prior years buy/gift bonuses started near the end of a Grand Slam. This is precisely why I won't be sharing miles between my wife and myself until Monday November 14th in the unlikely event such a promotion begins then.

While you should never hoard miles there's no reason to earn them immediately in September instead of November if you're planning to use them on a trip 6 to 11 months later.

I would agree with the attitude issues. And I feel its mainly from people who have been on the boards for awhile. Note to FT members: Just because you post 1,000 posts on the boards or have been on here for years doesn't give anyone the entitlement to be rude or snarky. I for one don't mind the extra threads because I hate reading a thread that is a 100 pages long.

As to lessons learned: There are some things I wish I had waited on (i.e The Thanks Again hit--I didn't need to buy a GC because I got 100 points for liking them on Facebook; or the Audience Rewards hit-I got a hit for trivia so I didn't need to buy a ticket). But there are other hits I am glad I did early (NetSol, ShareBuilder, Biscoff, 1-800-flowers) I would say for next year-if there are multiple ways to get hits--wait and see what happens after the first sweep. If something is a good deal and you can get a hit (for example, I got a great deal on 1-800-flowers) then snatch it up quickly.

The biggest lesson learned for me is to read post #1 before asking questions for the 97th time!

:D

I'd also like to backup the thanks to Beltway (and others) for keeping this sub-forum in order. I do wonder how many packs of Biscoff cookies you got from overseas members who couldn't get them shipped outside of the US? :confused:

When someone provides information for a "no show" for hotel and car rental with specific information , follow it and don't inquire with head office.

By the way, the car rental I provided for the "no show" will be delighted to do it again next year. I told the 2 managers I will visit them again for the next GS 2012.

For myself, I will never give up 1500 SPG points for a hit. Too valuable for me.

Same thing with TopGuest - 50 points/day can really add up over a while and help with the lower threshold transfers (like BW or Choice 5000 points ... 100 check-ins over the course of a few months = free transfer if you don't stay at those chains). I didn't start hardcore TopGuesting until the GS and it helped me with my Hilton Transfer hit, but had I started last year, I could have saved $ with 2 other hotel transfers.



^

As a GS Virgin I relaized I need to find ways to plus up my hotel programs that are gathering dust. (IHG, Choice, BW) I will be looking for ways to take advantage of promos to bulk them up for next year.

I have been filling out mindless surveys a few times a week, got up to $100. $25 went to US and $75 went to HH to help offset that transfer.

Oh, and as a PLT on AA one can transfer small amounts of miles to AsiaMiles. Need to do that before I sink to GLD in Feb. As a GLD or Kettle member one can only transfer a much larger number.

Oh, and as a PLT on AA one can transfer small amounts of miles to AsiaMiles. Need to do that before I sink to GLD in Feb. As a GLD or Kettle member one can only transfer a much larger number.
Note, though, that even as an AA kettle I can (and did) transfer a few miles directly to US because I have more than 25K miles in my AA account. (Of course, points.com could change that, just as they yanked the CO low-miles transfer option mid-GS this year.) However, the larger point is a sound one: plan around points.com's arbitrary rules by banking a few miles in places that allow small-amount transfers to US.

I ended up spreading out my hits as my travel patterns ended up shifting around from the start of GS to now. For instance, I expected 1 hotel stay hit and 4 rental car hits; I'm now going to wind up with 3 hotel stays and 6 rental car hits.

Since for obvious reasons, my last few hits are my most expensive (or at least could have been if I chose to order them that way), it's good to know I wouldn't need some of the more expensive ones to work my way up to 36 hits.

This. Do the cheapest hits first and don't necessarily do expensive ones on the theory, "Well, I'm going to have to do this one anyway, why not do it now?" I did a couple of expensive hotel transfers first that I ended up not needing.

Do your e-rewards now. Don't miss the surveys. You may have as many as three or four redemption partners on ER that you can transfer to US.

Mike

This. Do the cheapest hits first and don't necessarily do expensive ones on the theory, "Well, I'm going to have to do this one anyway, why not do it now?" I did a couple of expensive hotel transfers first that I ended up not needing.
I've updated post #1 to narrow the "start early" injunction to retail partners. I agree that hotel transfer rules are very stable & unlikely to change mid-GS, so there's not much reason to do them early.

I want to recommend that this thread or one like it stay open for next year. If we could have someone keep the first post updated for the next 10 months we'll have a quick "READ THIS TO START GS 2012" guide. Many people who did GS 2010 had foggy memories about how some of the hits work (like Officemax). And as a newcomer this year I had a hard time even comprehending what the grand slam was until I saw the official US Airways announcement.

Also I think it's great policy that we should encourage shipments from those outside the US for purchases to people who are actively maintaining the first post in a thread. That gives them a nice (if small) reward for their hard work and might lead to more comprehensive guides next year. This year some of them were great (other partners, hotel stays, hotel transfers) but some were not (car rentals would have been a flop if not for Beltway's second post).

I agree with the theory of starting early (especiallyfor retail partners). While we did have a few instances of things getting cheaper (Network Solutions had a coupon later on) there were also many cases of cheap options selling out (especially at the flower sites). And since many purchases take 1-2 months to post it's very good to do things ASAP so you know towards the end if you need to do any extra purchases/activity to make up for foul balls.

With 5 days left in the promo I have 34 of 35 hits posted, with one more hotel stay this weekend. Since I have only two hits left to post (and the other one was a hotel this past weekend) I am not going to do any safety hits and I'm confident I won't need any. And at the upper levels a "safety hit" can be very expensive if you've already done all the cheap hits ($50+ per hit for those last hits).

I think I did about 16 hits in the first 24 hours of GS 2011 and that worked out very well for me. That's maybe a bit extreme, but doing all that are possible in the first two weeks I think is a very good strategy. I haven't been following this forum for the past month or so since I have my hits posted already.

Basically the longer you wait to get your hits the more safety hits you might feel you need since without seeing any posted activity it's hard to gauge if there will be problems. I see posts recently of people doing 3-4 safety hits (above 36) which would be completely unnecessary if they had started earlier.

Good job, beltway. Thanks for all your work on this promo.

I think two things that stick out to me are the situation with the financial institution and the people who blew the good thing craz had set up for us. The increased level of interest between GS10 and GS11 was pretty amazing. Once the bloggosphere got a hold of it, it brought in folks who really didn't have the frequent flier saavy to understand pretty well-settled rules on flyertalk about how to avoid these sorts of problems. If there is a GS12, I can imagine an even greater level of interest, as those who weren't quite ready for it this year gear up next year. I'd hate to see the threads on the promo treated like trick it or dollar coins, with codespeak and inside stories, but perhaps this is where we're headed on some of these.

My hunch is that GS12 is going to look considerably different from GS10 and GS11. With the bloggers pushing the crap out of it, I think it may prove a bit too expensive for US. The intention is to stimulate partner activity, but if everyone figures out how to get 100,000 miles with activity that only requires partners to have to buy 20,000 miles from US, it really isn't sustainable. Many of us guessed there would be increased minimums and limits this year, and we were fortunate that they were less significant than some of us expected. But, clearly, US is responding to partner feedback. They did away with the ability to get a hit on a cheap starwood dine. They increased hotel limits. Their creation of a hotel transfer minimum point hit at 850 was pretty clearly the result of communication with Hilton. And I would not be surprised if lifelock was a contributor to the new subscription rules. I think these sorts of rules are going to increase, not decrease, next year.

This year, some of the retail partners have clearly figured out that people have been able to get very low cost hits -- Biscoff, Vinesse, etc. I'm sure they will be giving feedback to US, and I think it's very unlikely we're going to see the $2.99 hit any more. I fear that teleflora's $30 minimum purchase rule implemented in the middle of the promo is the tip of the iceburg. This will be a much different promo next year. I think we're going to see higher minimums across the board, and maybe even on partners that would be a surprise -- like erewards and emiles.

I've updated post #1 to narrow the "start early" injunction to retail partners. I agree that hotel transfer rules are very stable & unlikely to change mid-GS, so there's not much reason to do them early.

I got lots of hotel transfer hits solely from Topguesting and E-Rewards transfers and I have already started accumulating for next year.

One more thing to add-refrain from using the toolbar in Sept until the GS12 has started or you will have to wait until the Oct sweep.

I normally travel in Sept because it's off-season and nice weather so I have started planning the trip to coincide with likely GS dates so hotels and cars I have to do anyways will count as hits.

I want to recommend that this thread or one like it stay open for next year. If we could have someone keep the first post updated for the next 10 months we'll have a quick "READ THIS TO START GS 2012" guide. Many people who did GS 2010 had foggy memories about how some of the hits work (like Officemax). And as a newcomer this year I had a hard time even comprehending what the grand slam was until I saw the official US Airways announcement.

The increased level of interest between GS10 and GS11 was pretty amazing. Once the bloggosphere got a hold of it, it brought in folks who really didn't have the frequent flier saavy to understand pretty well-settled rules on flyertalk about how to avoid these sorts of problems. If there is a GS12, I can imagine an even greater level of interest, as those who weren't quite ready for it this year gear up next year. I'd hate to see the threads on the promo treated like trick it or dollar coins, with codespeak and inside stories, but perhaps this is where we're headed on some of these.

And here we have one of the fundamental tensions in collective pooling of info on FT. Early on this year, somebody said (either in a post or in a PM to me) that if someone ever sat down & wrote a readable, comprehensive how-to guide -- complete with links to help even the dimmest GSer -- then two things would happen:

1. The guide would go viral (to FatWallet & similar sites).
2. GS would spiral out of control really fast -- overloaded merchant web servers, depleted inventory -- and the merchants would react much, much faster than they did this year to contain damage/close loopholes.

There were times when I pondered doing a global guide, with a full-on "cheapest hits" list that didn't cover just the Other Partners, but also listed the toolbar, credit cards, etc. The concern stated above, and not laziness, is what stayed my hand. As it is, I caught flak from some people for putting as much out there as I did, even in passing. (Not to single him out, but here's ArizonaGuy expressing such a concern (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/17034016-post5.html) when we talked about car rentals 2 weeks before the start of GS.) I do think it's a delicate balance between being "trick it" obscure and putting so much info out there that the deals get killed off. Somebody besides me will have to judge how well we struck that balance this year.

Finally, I think there's a conversation worth having -- maybe among only the mods & SD1K -- over how to make the sub-forum work even better next year, but I think it doesn't belong in this thread.

Finally, I think there's a conversation worth having -- maybe among only the mods & SD1K -- over how to make the sub-forum work even better next year, but I think it doesn't belong in this thread.

Jeez, you want us to start ANOTHER thread around here? What's up with that? There are already 27 hundred different threads going on, and there still isn't one for every hit. I mean, why don't Alamo and Hertz each have there own thread? Why combine the car rental hits? And there should be a LaQuinta thread, a Hilton thread (what's up with cutting Hampton Inn out of the promo?) and maybe even a separate no-show hotel thread. And on top of that, I think everyone should have their own "I have 17 hits with six more to post" threads. And another thing, why not have a dedicated "When is the next sweep" thread that folks can post in without reading the previous posts that contain the answer. I mean really, all these freaking different threads, why don't we simplify simplify simplify and just have one thread for the entire GS? Wouldn't that be simpler? Yeah, that's the ticket, one long thread with 411,672 posts. Then we can spend all our time telling people to use the search function. I think that's a GREAT idea, one super long thread. We should do it that way next year.

:D

I thought the one long thread worked fine last year, and I was very much against a subforum this year.

In retrospect, the one thread couldn't have worked this year. The promo was too big. But what did happen instead was difficult too -- I found myself losing information by not knowing where something would be posted only to discover it later in the thread I didn't expect.

I thought that this dedicated sub-forum was a BRILLIANT idea from its inception. Many thanks to beltway, vysean, rob_flies_ua, lowfareair, and silverhalide and the hundreds of individuals who posted successes, failures and insight throught the GrandSlam Forum......many invaluable contributions! Many thanks also to my European exchange students ;) and my local, behind the scenes friends (who shall remain nameless).:cool:

I am sitting on 39 hits right now and waiting on two to post... a Hertz rental (should post tomorrow).... and a Hawthorne Suites stay. Suffice it to say, I think I will make the 40 hits.:D

This year I will have earned a total of 131,222 miles (110K +21,222) for a cost that was only $140 more than last year when I earned 130,948 (100K + 30,948). I am not dissatisfied with the amount that I spent overall because I was able to earn the 10K PQM's - which are definitely important to me! Part of the reason that I had fewer 'Bonus' miles is in part to the increase in cost of miles - I would have gotten more had I had even a whisper of an idea that the price would go up so drastically.

It did 'save' me to have a few things lined up in advance and next year, if there is GrandSlamIII, I will do even better... particularly with stacking some points in some of the smaller chains through eRewards (honestly, never thought of that). I also learned to 'listen' to the community and not worry (too much) while waiting for some vendors to post.

I think I would rather see a lot of this information archived away until prior to the start of the promotion next year. The more information that we, as a community, leave 'out there,' then I believe some of the best kept secrets of the game will no longer work.

1. Have a Strategy:
Decide in advance of the promo (like August) what you want to achieve. How many accounts are you going for and what is the goal for each account? I went for 40 and worked my spouse's account for 36. Done. Daughter? I never choose a goal and now I am dithering at the end as for what I can/should/have time to do. Knowing in advance that you are going for a certain number saves you money and time because you wont jump on the bandwagon for something just because everyone is talking about it on FT. Prioritize what you need to do.

2. Follow US on Twitter and know where your closest little league Ball Field is located. Kids are always practicing here in the South. Take a picture with kids playing ball and the GS/US air logo NOW. That hit for me and my spouse saved me a lot of $ this year.

3. Be nice. Don't spout off and be a jerk to anyone you touch in this promo. Be nice to your hard working FT volunteers, (Like Beltway), to new GS folks, to the Hertz guy. People will help you if you are nice to them and treat them decently. Being unpleasant or greedy doesn't help anyone including you. The Hertz guy told me that one person made 25 reservations and then called him and asked him to do them over the phone. He was not pleased (and he did only 4 of them) and it threw a bad light on the rest of us. Duh. Like that is going to happen. Don't be a greedy Jerk.

4. Read the Rules. If you just pay attention to doing what they tell you to do you will be fine. Reading the rules and understanding them is really KEY to this promo. I had a foul ball with Fairfield by Marriott. Why? Because I forgot you had to spend $100 to get enough points to have 250 points show up. I spent $96 and didn't get hit. Still kicking myself.

5. Plan a day off. Create your own special GS holiday. Call in sick if you need to. But don't choose Day one. Think day three or so. Any kinks or the danger of early posting of hits should be past. Spend the day doing all the PIA flower orders, do all the stupid shopping mall, sky mall, insurance quotes, etc. Just make a day of it and wipe as much out of the way as possible.

6. Be thoughtful and try to make it count. We sent flowers to every woman in our office with a note of appreciation for their efforts. Used all three florists on several different family members accounts. We earned not only the miles but lots of good morale from that. We saw Ira Glass in Charlotte (So cool!) instead of throwing away a child's ticket for a bad musical. I bought something almost useful from SkyMall ( a microwaveable heating pad thing). I am now drinking the last bottle of the white wine variety selection from Wine Insiders (it wasn't bad at all!). Instead of just buying miles for stupid stuff try to use this as an opportunity to do/buy/drink something useful. Ok, there is still Track it back (which is never really gonna be useful), but try to spend your money in a way that isn't just buying miles. I loved the fact that people on FT organized to donate tickets to performances and other stuff that they didn't want. Nice cirle of life kind of thing.

7. If you are going to do Car rentals: Go with just one agency and work it from the start. I went to two different agencies (Avis and Hertz) and wound up with 7 hits. Arrggghh.

8.Consider planning out your schedule for October. This is the prime GS working month. If you are gone on a lot of business or pleasure trips you may get good Hotel and Car rental hits. On the other hand It makes it much harder to get GS shopping related hits done because you probably either don't have time to do the hits or you don't want to shop from you hotel room with your credit card number out on the shared internet space. Plan for your schedule. (See #5 and plan a day off if you have a lot going on in October.)

9. Allow for GS fatigue. You will get sick of this promo no matter how much it keeps you awake at night in August. Plan accordingly and remember that reading about the promo on FT doesn't actually earn you any hits so be judicious with your time.

10. Keep your mouth shut. Don't call participating vendors to "check" on your hit. Extra true if your miles earning is a loop hole hit. Don't grumble when you have to wait 20 minutes for the Hertz guy to do all three of your counter rentals. Don't flame people trying to do good here on FT because you don't like or understand what they posted. Don't bad mouth US Air for tightening up the rules after we find the loop holes. Be grateful that they do this promo at all and stop whining! Just be nice and try to enjoy this!!

Beltway: You truly helped me make the top tier! With out your efforts I would have earned far fewer miles. Thank you so much!

Quick question.

I see many references to the bloggers blowing the lid of the SB hit.

How do we know it was them and not the info that was posted in the SB thread?

It's hard to tell, really. Really, it's hard to keep any great deal secret in this era.

why don't we simplify simplify simplify and just have one thread for the entire GS? Wouldn't that be simpler? Yeah, that's the ticket, one long thread with 411,672 posts.
You're almost exactly 400,000 short. Time's a-wastin'....
:rolleyes:

Quick question.

I see many references to the bloggers blowing the lid of the SB hit.

How do we know it was them and not the info that was posted in the SB thread?
Given that

that hit worked just fine in past years, when it was well documented in the GS thread
that hit worked fine in 2011 -- even though it was well documented in the sub-forum (including by me in Other Partners) -- and only died after certain widely read bloggers decided to publicize it,

I'd say that the basis for the inference is quite strong.

It's one thing to visit and contribute to the GS sub-forum and see that there's a valuable free hit.

It's another thing when it is spoon-fed to readers who may not understand the importance of the hit and may just think, "ooh, 2500 miles!" That said, the bloggers have a right to do what they do, which just shows how important it is to act on tips in the GS subforum soon.


Also, this was my first GS and it was/is quite exciting. That said, I didn't really know what to expect without reading from the people who've done it in previous years. My suggestion: be patient and heed their advice. If NS is going to post on 11/7, don't fret away that night and say it's a foul ball. It will post eventually. In fact, this year, it posted pretty late into the night.
Same thing with sweeps -- there has been a regular schedule with some pleasant surprise sweeps in between. US IT has actually worked pretty well with this. They said there would be a sweep around 11/9 and there was just one, pretty late in the day on the east coast, but still on 11/9. I've fretted away a few times this year, but next year, I'm just going to complete my hits, sit back, and watch the miles come in :cool:.

I'll agree, this sub-forum has been great.

I'd even go a step farther and suggest that there be a separate thread for each of the "other partners". The combined discussion has been useful (and post #1 in that thread is the single most useful post of all), but when tracking issues with a specific partner, it's cumbersome to have to plow thru so many comments about other partners.

I'd even go a step farther and suggest that there be a separate thread for each of the "other partners".
Instead of boring you all with a repetition of why I think this is an absolutely awful idea that completely ignores the practical realities, I'll just point to this earlier screed on the issue (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/17239785-post27.html). Suffice it to say that if avoiding having to plow through irrelevant posts is your goal, having a separate thread for every partner is not going to produce the desired outcome.

This was my second year with GS. I was set on hitting only 32 hits this year, but after a couple of the very cheap hits that went into place, I decided to go for the 36. I have obtained them but am still awaiting four hits to post (after my car rental this weekend).

I learned last year and it has been posted this year to go for the erewards. I was able to get an extra hit from them because I picked up 5000 choice points that I was able to transfer to US Airways.

I am also going to get on that topguest thing for next year as I only read about it today. Shows that even though the promo is almost over, you can never know enough about GS and future GS.

I also agree with beltway about other partner hits. This was a nice consolidated place where I was able to find decent priced hits.

Finally, I want to thank all of the veteran GS players especially the person who created that spreadsheet. Without all of your help, I would be a much poorer (in miles) DM member.

I've updated post #1 to narrow the "start early" injunction to retail partners. I agree that hotel transfer rules are very stable & unlikely to change mid-GS, so there's not much reason to do them early.

Thanks Beltway!

I am still waiting on that NETWORK SOLN points to post! I had done the cheaper version like you did and then called to get them to switch it to a different domain ending and to go for the 3 years, but now they are saying that the frequent flyer number was not on the order. They told me to email them the order number, the frequent flyer account number and name, but their email gets returned as undeliverable. Did you have this same problem?
see their email:

I apologize for any issues you may have in getting your mileage points. However, upon research, I have determined that you did not enter your Frequent Flyer account information during the transaction, thus the reward was not processed. To have these miles added to your account, please send an email to miles@networksolutions.com with your order number, FF Program Name, and your Frequent Flyer Account Number. You will be contacted by e-mail within 5 business days after we receive this information.

As a newbie this is my first ever grandslam, and I've learned quite a lot not only about this promotion but the whole entire frequent flyer system:

- Have as many hotel rewards point memberships as possible. In this promotion you could have made 9 contributing hits (one per program), so that's 9 hits!

- Make Erewards a 365 day a year activity, why? Because not only do they count for 1 hit, but also you can earn points for the various hotel programs and then transfer points from hotel accounts into U.S. airways.

- Yes, erewards is time consuming, but if you do it for the hotel points, focus on programs that don't allow you to buy, and then earn hotel enough points to where you are comfortable paying for them. So maybe the first 4k are free, but you spend 11 dollars for the last 1000. ERewards, seems like its the key to this whole thing.

- Another key, car rentals. If you're like beltway, then you know DCA is metro accessible, and once you got down the routine, you can get a hit during lunch break. Also, plan ahead for car rentals, buy the cheapest rentals, during the promotion time. I got in on 2, but could have gotten 4 more at roughly 25 dollars a hit.

- Sometimes its a matter of luck, companies might take certain items off, while bloggers might expose some loopholes.

- Chase Sapphire, I wish I had this card so I can transfer all of my Ultimate Rewards from my Freedom card into hotel rewards programs.

- I was able to pull off 35k miles for $158. But had I used Erewards all year long or rented out more cards, this could have easily been 8 more hits, and overall 60k hits.

I just want to thank everyone who posted & helped me out with my 1st Grand Slam! I was able to get both my husband & myself enough miles for a first class ticket on our next trip.

Jeez, you want us to start ANOTHER thread around here? What's up with that? There are already 27 hundred different threads going on, and there still isn't one for every hit. I mean, why don't Alamo and Hertz each have there own thread? Why combine the car rental hits? And there should be a LaQuinta thread, a Hilton thread (what's up with cutting Hampton Inn out of the promo?) and maybe even a separate no-show hotel thread. And on top of that, I think everyone should have their own "I have 17 hits with six more to post" threads. And another thing, why not have a dedicated "When is the next sweep" thread that folks can post in without reading the previous posts that contain the answer. I mean really, all these freaking different threads, why don't we simplify simplify simplify and just have one thread for the entire GS? Wouldn't that be simpler? Yeah, that's the ticket, one long thread with 411,672 posts. Then we can spend all our time telling people to use the search function. I think that's a GREAT idea, one super long thread. We should do it that way next year.

:D
I am not into IT, can some of you who are tell me if it is possible to set up a program (see, i don't know the terminology), so that when an FTer has certain word combinations in his/her posts that they are taken directly to the SEARCH FUNCTION?

just asking.

ralph

While what newbie says about hotel transfers is true (9 potential hits is pretty amazing) keep in mind most of the transfers are hugely destructive in terms of total value of the points/miles. E.g. even for the most rewarding hits (5000 miles a piece) you are losing total points for the hotel transfers. If you have any use at all for the hotel points this is not such a great route. I mean 10,000 Hhonors points going to 850 US miles is pretty crappy, even if you're getting 5000 US miles in the process.

The exception of course is if you have orphaned points. Also you're right that e-rewards might be okay for this, but it pains me to think of the time it would take to get to $150 on e-rewards for 10,000 Hhonors points just to get 5,850 US miles out of the deal.

If the transfer ratios were better hotel transfers would be a great option, but as it stands they're pretty bad in my opinion.

I think one of the great tricks is getting cheap rentals. I got 4 rentals this time, all for under $20 each. Those are pretty cheap hits, if a little time consuming, but if you can work them into your schedule regularly then they're pretty easy.

While what newbie says about hotel transfers is true (9 potential hits is pretty amazing) keep in mind most of the transfers are hugely destructive in terms of total value of the points/miles. E.g. even for the most rewarding hits (5000 miles a piece) you are losing total points for the hotel transfers. If you have any use at all for the hotel points this is not such a great route. I mean 10,000 Hhonors points going to 850 US miles is pretty crappy, even if you're getting 5000 US miles in the process.

The exception of course is if you have orphaned points. Also you're right that e-rewards might be okay for this, but it pains me to think of the time it would take to get to $150 on e-rewards for 10,000 Hhonors points just to get 5,850 US miles out of the deal.

If the transfer ratios were better hotel transfers would be a great option, but as it stands they're pretty bad in my opinion.

I think one of the great tricks is getting cheap rentals. I got 4 rentals this time, all for under $20 each. Those are pretty cheap hits, if a little time consuming, but if you can work them into your schedule regularly then they're pretty easy.

True about hotel transfer, but for me, it's tougher to use hotel points than airline miles (I can use partners of US, not partners of Hyatt). 10000 HHonors points doesn't do as much for me as 5850 US miles. My last hit is a Hyatt transfer, which I get from 5000 Chase UR points. Yeah, it's a lot of points, but I don't have any other options, but these 5000 UR points net me 7000 US miles (2000 transfer + 5000 for a hit in the 30s).

I learned a couple of lessons during my first GS:

1) Priority Club posts their activity date as the check out day while HH and BW use check in date. I could have stayed at an IHC property the week GS2011 started an got an early hit.

My sixth hotel hit was going to be this Monday, November 14th at a HIX in Portland, but that wouldn't have counted. Luckily I did a one nighter at a BW and got the 6 hotel hits.

2) Read, and re-read the rules. I hit one foul ball by converting PC points to DM on points.com rather than going through PC. Expensive "miss" on my part as most of my PC reward nights are only 15,000 points.

Other things I learned:

1. Start early. I was working 4 accounts (and working full time!), so I would work 2 accounts hard, but the other 2 easy, then as we are getting close to the end of the game, I am realizing that maybe some of my hits may end up being foul balls based on when some of these companies post the points...
a. such as 1800 flowers, free shipping wasn't available until after 11/14/11 on most products, so I hope they post on order date, but I don't think they will.
b. such as sharebuilder, I didn't fund 2 accounts until 11/12/11 and now the next TUESDAY to do the trade will be 11/15/11! so, most likely will not be a hit.
c. such as emiles, even if I purchase something tonight (11/12/11) to make the transfer of 500 points, most likely they will not post before 11/14/11 deadline.

I mentioned this to a friend today, the best thing is next Aug keep an eye out if GS will be repeated and then start to follow the threads from get go. If you do then you wont be swamped with a bunch of threads that are pgs & pgs long. Write up a potential list of the Hits with the free and cheap ones on top, and note which ones although expensive you might need to do anyway eg a Hotel stay so its not wasted $$ and might even save you from having to purchase something even for $15 that you wouldnt need to do

thats how I did this yrs after jumping in late last yr, and did 36 each yr, with very little out of pocket this yr compared to last yr. cant stress the planing part enough!

Wife and I each got a pretty painless 16 hits plus a safety hit. Started to do some for little JeffISU though forgot to REGISTER her first! I registered myself/wife though spaced out the little one. Had all the miles post - 8 hits (should have been 10k bonus miles) with the only out of pocket cost of a $4 supershuttle ride along with the opportunity cost of e-rewards. Then got to thinking.. @!#$.. forgot to register her. Maybe I'll try and email and beg for mercy.. though a lesson learned for next year.

Appreciate the Grand Slam Thread.

Worked 11 accounts but quicky ran into vendors getting funky as to what would be a hit. What worked for a few accounts would suddenly stop working for the rest. Still, the game was profitable enough to consider for next year.^ And at least over here the vendors got more than game minimum spending revenue, so the promotion should have been profitable to them.

Worked 11 accounts

OMG. :eek:

Amazing!

first of all major thanks to beltway--it was my first GS and he made it so much easier..

i would echo the points made about getting set up before gs started,i didnt even have a us account let alone know what emiles were so it was a lot of work....
i think the wyndham find(2 stay hits and a transfer for 100$) were pretty good.
i would agree it may pay to try to build up points throughout the yr..

btw,what makes everyone so sure there will be a GS next yr?
Do you think the vendors are making a lot of money on this?
what about US ?

btw,what makes everyone so sure there will be a GS next yr?
Do you think the vendors are making a lot of money on this?
what about US ?

I think there'll be one next year because there's still room to tinker with the various elements to allow US and its partners to make this worthwhile.

I'm not so sure about a GS in 2013. The bloggers came late to the party this year. They won't be so slow in 2012. Each will probably have some sort of preview article about the promotion next year. And once the bloggers are all over it, I'm sure you'll start seeing articles in the general media about GS. Remember that a number of bloggers also have MSM contacts or occasionally get quoted in articles done by newspaper and magazine writers.

Although the increased numbers brought in through these channels may be good for US's partners in the short term, I think we've seen what happens when the spotlight of publicity hits matters that we normally take for granted (Sharebuilder, mint, certain award redemptions on various airlines).

If this is the way things unfold, I'm somewhat pessimistic that this promo will last beyond another year or two.

I think there'll be one next year because there's still room to tinker with the various elements to allow US and its partners to make this worthwhile.

I'm not so sure about a GS in 2013. The bloggers came late to the party this year. They won't be so slow in 2012. Each will probably have some sort of preview article about the promotion next year. And once the bloggers are all over it, I'm sure you'll start seeing articles in the general media about GS. Remember that a number of bloggers also have MSM contacts or occasionally get quoted in articles done by newspaper and magazine writers.

Although the increased numbers brought in through these channels may be good for US's partners in the short term, I think we've seen what happens when the spotlight of publicity hits matters that we normally take for granted (Sharebuilder, mint, certain award redemptions on various airlines).

If this is the way things unfold, I'm somewhat pessimistic that this promo will last beyond another year or two.

I'm guessing all the information is out there already and that the partners know exactly what is going on, not to mention US Airways. There's a trade-off to be made on their part, of course, which is a potential new customer versus the marketing cost of participating, since I don't know if US Airways is passing along part of the bill to them during the promo. Bloggers were likely more influential on the "accidental hits," i.e., I don't think AR trivia was meant to be a hit, but that's part of the price they pay.

I don't see an end to the program per se, since it's likely profitable for everyone involved in the end. But I do think that US continues to tighten up the rules.

Mike

ETA: For those of you who really want to thank Beltway, use him as a referral for the SPG Amex if you are at all thinking about getting it. I have it and it's my go-to card, particularly since 20K points equals 25K airline miles.

ETA: For those of you who really want to thank Beltway, use him as a referral for the SPG Amex if you are at all thinking about getting it. I have it and it's my go-to card, particularly since 20K points equals 25K airline miles.

Awesome point - that card is on my list and will definitely use his link when I sign up - thanks for pointing that out.

I'm guessing all the information is out there already and that the partners know exactly what is going on, not to mention US Airways. There's a trade-off to be made on their part, of course, which is a potential new customer versus the marketing cost of participating, since I don't know if US Airways is passing along part of the bill to them during the promo. Bloggers were likely more influential on the "accidental hits," i.e., I don't think AR trivia was meant to be a hit, but that's part of the price they pay.

I don't see an end to the program per se, since it's likely profitable for everyone involved in the end. But I do think that US continues to tighten up the rules.

Mike

ETA: For those of you who really want to thank Beltway, use him as a referral for the SPG Amex if you are at all thinking about getting it. I have it and it's my go-to card, particularly since 20K points equals 25K airline miles.

That's a good thought for beltway who put in a lot of effort that helped me understand the many options.

My concern about the publicity stems from the very limited nature of this promo. This is a promo that specifically seems designed with the FF public in mind. I saw no MSM-type advertising. I think many non-FT frequent flyers may have simply tossed the materials advertising this promo. Everything else advertising this promo seemed to be through the US website and the websites of most of its partners. I'm sure US and its partners have a target for the amount of participation on which they've based their assumptions about costs, etc.

Widespread publicity, such as an article in the Wall Street Journal or New York Times, would likely skew numbers for the entire promo in such a way that US and its partners would take a big hit that's not likely to be tweaked away the following year.

I don't want this promo to go away, believe me. On September 1, I stood at 0 US miles. At the end of this promo, and with 36 hits and a successful application for the Barclay's US card, I'll have 160K. Back in the 1980s and 90s when I regularly flew US out of ORF for work, I earned approximately 125K in total.

I am definitely a happy camper!

My first GS as well. Another BIG thumbs up to Beltway for making my life so much easier as well as Silverhalide for the spreadsheet which really helped keep me sane. Although I'm still waiting on all my Wyndham Rewards no-shows to post and that damned Thanks Again hit, I'm pretty confident they'll come through which will mean 100,000 US miles. I couldn't resist the half price miles either and got the Mastercard for the hit and bonus miles, so I'm going from zero miles to about 240,000+ at less than a penny a mile. I for one will kinda miss constantly checking in to the GS Pomotion thread to see what's going on!

Major thanks to beltway and rob_flies_ua for making this much easier for us. What would be really useful is knowing precisely how the partners determine the activity date and their posting schedule. It would reduce a lot of clutter in the threads and we can mostly concentrate on minimising costs. The data at gsscorecard.com could be used for this purpose.

I am not really happy with the bloggers messing up sharebuilder for all of us. How hard was it really to set up a one-time automatic investment? There are so many coupons available to offset the commission and you can invest any amount. $5 or more in one of Vanguard's ETFs would have been a good choice/advice. Instead of that, they went for the dramatic one whose sole purpose would be to increase traffic to their blogs.

I don't get the whole fuss over Sharebuilder and why people wouldn't have wanted to just fund the account and do the automatic trade. It was only $5--$1 for the stock and $4 commission. It was just plain greedy to expect Sharebuilder to fork out 2500 miles for nothing!

This was my 2nd GS.
Last year I had 36 hits.
This year me and mom both hit 36 and a friend hit 20 (18 of which happened in the last 36 hours)

I would like to point out the use of Hyatt stays as last minute hits.
Because they can be credited after the fact you can avoid wasting a safety hit.
They first get credited to miles and then you can call and have them switched to miles. Even when I try to credit to miles they seem to post as points but it works to your advantage during the GS.
If all my hits come through I can use them for whatever other mileage promo is being offered.

I hope US continues this but I have my doubts. Every year people will jump on the bandwagon and eventually US will either eliminate or cut it. I see something similar to the Continental version where you have to book all hotels and cars through continental.com.

ETA: For those of you who really want to thank Beltway, use him as a referral for the SPG Amex if you are at all thinking about getting it. I have it and it's my go-to card, particularly since 20K points equals 25K airline miles.


Yes to that. I dare not do so now as I just received my new US mastercard for the 40k bonus (just in time for a hit!). However that's the next card in line for me. DH has the SPG card which is also our go to because of the extra 5K. So, beltway, you can expect a referral request in the not too distant future. Thank you, thank you. thank you.

I don't get the whole fuss over Sharebuilder and why people wouldn't have wanted to just fund the account and do the automatic trade. It was only $5--$1 for the stock and $4 commission. It was just plain greedy to expect Sharebuilder to fork out 2500 miles for nothing!Agree, and with a little planning, make a bit of money on top of it with wise investing. I get a 'free' trade for my birthday and will use that to top up my account with another investment. Remember, next year, for those who have two accounts... you will, according to the CSR, be allowed to open either a joint or custodial investment account and that will count as a hit.

This is my first Grand Slam. I am Canadian. I don't know why, but I was surprised that my partner was more into it than me once I explained it to her. I just wish I hadn't started with 8 days before the promo ended. I could have got some cheaper (and free) hits. I basically had 0 DM and created an account too late to buy or share miles (or get the magazine credit on one account).

I have 8 hits posted already and when all is said and done, I should have enough for the 20 hits with a few safety hits. I am confident most of them will post, but I don't enjoy wondering about some of them (i.e. Shopping Mall).

This was my first one and got 20 hits.

Could have gone for 32 hits but I already had 80K miles and was tied up with work so could not do the hotel/rental duo.

Next year I will see how it goes and may prepare myself better. ( emiles and erewards ready, hope they count).

Only foul I had was 1800flowers...but I still love the item I got.

Thanks to Beltway.

My 002

I did the Orange county to Hyatt Regency Irvine for 7.00 as a safety hit. It worked !

This was my first time around. I feel I did pretty well, considering:

I really started taking it seriously around 10/18
I was determined to only spend money on things that were useful to me
I started this without having any USAir credit cards, hotel points to transfer, or needs for hotel stays/car rentals during the designated time period

My goal was 16 hits, and I ended up with 20. Funnily enough, I got the (coveted?) eRewards invitation a few days before the end, with a bonus for my first survey, which is why I decided to try to get to the next level.

Learned several things--ditto to everyone who mentioned planning ahead! I'm sure I can find a way to engineer some hotel stays, etc. I "need" during the appropriate period--or perhaps Mr. Fwoomp will be going somewhere. I'll definitely keep up with eMiles/eRewards during the year, too.

As far as whether or not the partners are getting anything out of this, one thing that I learned is that those Anna's cookies are really good! (In addition to being a reasonably priced and reliable hit.) I would buy those again, with or without the promo.

I also learned that it is possible to find items on SkyMall that are useful, in addition to battery-powered dog polishers. ;)

Finally, thanks so much to Beltway and everyone else who posted. Being able to see what was and was not reliable, how long it took things to post, etc. was really helpful. (Oddly enough, OfficeMax, done late, was one of my first ones to post!)

I learned that playing the GS takes a lot of time.
I managed to reach 28 hits (hopefully) but I imagine over the course of 60 days I spent on average of 30 minutes a day. Filling out forms, correcting passwords, numerous emails and phone calls.
I think when people determine there miles per dollar, the time factor should be taken into account. If I spent 30 hours and I value my time at $20 an hour, that would be $600 worth of time spent on GS. I must admit I enjoyed it.
Thank you Beltway and all others who assisted.

I decided early on to completely discount my time. GS fits nicely in the "hobby" category, thank you very much.

(Also, my wife told me I was crazy doing this unless I could say that with a straight face.)

I am based in continental Europe. Thanks to all of you for the great ideas and the well-good discussions. Appreciated that a lot.

" A´right I´ll go for it doin´4 hits" (should mention I didn´t do GS2010).
Then "Nice. Works. ´ll go for another 4."
..."Hm. good deal, ´d be even better with the next 4, no rather 8!"
"I want more. 20 will be good, though."
"Stupid idea. Will do 24. Needin´safety hits now,too. At least two."
"Even more stupid. 2 more and get another bunch."
"What am I talkin´about!? 4 more for 20k. As a matter of course!"

"How could I have even thought of "Won´t do GS 2011!"

I learned that playing the GS takes a lot of time.
I managed to reach 28 hits (hopefully) but I imagine over the course of 60 days I spent on average of 30 minutes a day. Filling out forms, correcting passwords, numerous emails and phone calls.
I think when people determine there miles per dollar, the time factor should be taken into account. If I spent 30 hours and I value my time at $20 an hour, that would be $600 worth of time spent on GS. I must admit I enjoyed it.
Thank you Beltway and all others who assisted.

I only spent maybe 3 incremental hours above and beyond what my normal activity.

- 1 hour devoted to eMiles.
- 1 hour devoted to extra clicking to buy 4 or 5 things I wouldn't have otherwise.
- 1 hour in the godforsaken Supershuttle From Hell from Newark to Manhattan. Yes, I'm convinced it was one full hour longer door-to-door than a taxi would have been. We didn't depart Newark until about 40 minutes later than I would have in a cab.

Lessons for next year:
- Just do the damn $10 Supershuttle no-show like every other Flyertalker here. @:-)
- Hit eMiles, one minute at a time, over the course of the next year. Have 500 miles primed at the GS '12 start.
- Forget about eRewards - just do a SPG trade like I did this year.

I was able to get a lot of hits through my normal car rentals and hotels. I didn't have to sink time into car swaps or extra hotel hops since I was going to max the hits anyway.

I decided early on to completely discount my time. GS fits nicely in the "hobby" category, thank you very much.

(Also, my wife told me I was crazy doing this unless I could say that with a straight face.)

Amen to that.

Mike

If I spent 30 hours and I value my time at $20 an hour, that would be $600 worth of time spent on GS.

As long as your employer pays ;)

How about for next year, the mods require everyone to register on GSScorecard.com and review the posting dates before any "where are my hitz?!" posts...?

This is what I mentioned before. Put the data available there into a more usable form and keep it as the first post.

For example: E-miles will post with activity date as date of deposit request. They do a monthly sweep and miles will post sometime in the first week.

Supershuttle will post with activity date as date of travel. They do a weekly sweep and miles usually post around 4pm on Friday. Thursday rides will post on next Friday.

And so on.

If people don't bother to read the first post before asking, their post should just be removed.

This is what I mentioned before. Put the data available there into a more usable form and keep it as the first post.

[...]

Supershuttle will post with activity date as date of travel. They do a weekly sweep and miles usually post around 4pm on Friday. Thursday rides will post on next Friday.

And so on.

If people don't bother to read the first post before asking, their post should just be removed.
Well, that info was in fact collected this year in a single location. As for removing posts, I doubt that the mods are going to be that draconian.

Let's get the discussion back on topic: what should the average Slammer do next year, especially in advance, to exploit advantages/avoid pitfalls observed this year?

One example - I made a point of registering for the recent Club Carlson promo for 50,000 points for a stay at a Radisson before the end of Dec. So that I will have points available to transfer during next year's GS. They were one partner where there was no option to purchase points and I missed an opportunity for a hit. i'm sure I'll be keeping similar opportunities in mind all through 2012.

My concern about the publicity stems from the very limited nature of this promo. This is a promo that specifically seems designed with the FF public in mind.


And that's a problem? Far better to keep it limited and not kill the golden goose IMO

I only spent maybe 3 incremental hours above and beyond what my normal activity.

- 1 hour devoted to eMiles.
- 1 hour devoted to extra clicking to buy 4 or 5 things I wouldn't have otherwise.
- 1 hour in the godforsaken Supershuttle From Hell from Newark to Manhattan. Yes, I'm convinced it was one full hour longer door-to-door than a taxi would have been. We didn't depart Newark until about 40 minutes later than I would have in a cab.

Lessons for next year:
- Just do the damn $10 Supershuttle no-show like every other Flyertalker here. @:-)
- Hit eMiles, one minute at a time, over the course of the next year. Have 500 miles primed at the GS '12 start.
- Forget about eRewards - just do a SPG trade like I did this year.

I was able to get a lot of hits through my normal car rentals and hotels. I didn't have to sink time into car swaps or extra hotel hops since I was going to max the hits anyway.

supershuttle was 4$
emiles are pretty bad,but erewards are really a hell on earth

but erewards are really a hell on earth

well if done Correctly it can be worth Several hits = besides $25 to DM , there are several Hotel programs thats how I got my Choice transfer, the only problem is you need more then 1 transfer to get the 5k in CP pts so you need to make 2 transfers

Start now and a person may be able to save a number of hotel pts that they earned all yr or simply do as I did and transfer the erewards to Choice and LaQuinta where I dont stay at all thats 3 hits for $0, just dont transfer them till the T&Cs come out least that programm not end up participating next year or more pts will be needed or no GD '12

Key is to do 1 transfer before 9/30 from Erewards and then you can do another after 10/1 and then when they are in the Hotel acct do the transfer over to DM

i agree
but they are hellish

do you really think there will be no gs 2012?

All those before would be good advise but looking for ways to beef up hotels balance will the thing most on my mind next 10months.

well if done Correctly it can be worth Several hits = besides $25 to DM , there are several Hotel programs thats how I got my Choice transfer, the only problem is you need more then 1 transfer to get the 5k in CP pts so you need to make 2 transfers

Start now and a person may be able to save a number of hotel pts that they earned all yr or simply do as I did and transfer the erewards to Choice and LaQuinta where I dont stay at all thats 3 hits for $0, just dont transfer them till the T&Cs come out least that programm not end up participating next year or more pts will be needed or no GD '12

Key is to do 1 transfer before 9/30 from Erewards and then you can do another after 10/1 and then when they are in the Hotel acct do the transfer over to DM

I was going to write almost exactly the same thing, but I highlighted that last, um, "sentence" ;) because it's something that would be really easy to miss. It would suck to do e-rewards all year and realize too late that, for some programs, you are limited on redemptions to once per quarter.

Note: the surveys are annoying, so do them while you are watching tv or something. Give accurate information, though, because if you miss a challenge question or give lots of inconsistent info, you may get booted.

My e-rewards offers five different hotel partners, so if I am going to max out on hotel transfers by using e-rewards as the source, I'll need over $500 in e-rewards. Obviously, that will take all year in preparation for GS12, since I'm only at $30 now. Still, at an average of $5 in e-rewards per survey, I'd only need to do about two per week. Since they come in clusters, it's important to do them ASAP.

Mike

Be careful with the e-rewards expiry date - you'd be very unhappy if you stockpiled your e-rewards all year only for most of them to expire before you transferred them.....

And that's a problem? Far better to keep it limited and not kill the golden goose IMO

The problem being that given the limited nature of the promo, widespread publicity will indeed be the killer of the golden goose, which I think is what I was trying to get across in the third paragraph of my post.

One example - I made a point of registering for the recent Club Carlson promo for 50,000 points for a stay at a Radisson before the end of Dec. So that I will have points available to transfer during next year's GS. They were one partner where there was no option to purchase points and I missed an opportunity for a hit. i'm sure I'll be keeping similar opportunities in mind all through 2012.

There was a way around this problem this year because Avis was running a promo for 9000 CC points for a three-day rental that fit my travel plans and didn't affect the number of rental hits I needed for GS. Since there's no guarantee Avis will offer a similar promo next year, I also registered for the Radission promo and will get 50K in my account. Since I don't generally stay or redeem awards at Radisson, I'll hold onto the points in my CC account just in case US increases the threshold for a transfer to get a hit or CC increases the number of points required to get 1000 US miles.

And that brings up another planning point: US may do some further tweaking for 2012 so don't assume transfer requirements (or even partners) will remain the same. I'll definitely be keeping an eye open for additions or subtractions to US's group of partners.

There was a way around this problem this year because Avis was running a promo for 9000 CC points for a three-day rental that fit my travel plans and didn't affect the number of rental hits I needed for GS. Since there's no guarantee Avis will offer a similar promo next year, I also registered for the Radission promo and will get 50K in my account. Since I don't generally stay or redeem awards at Radisson, I'll hold onto the points in my CC account just in case US increases the threshold for a transfer to get a hit or CC increases the number of points required to get 1000 US miles.

And that brings up another planning point: US may do some further tweaking for 2012 so don't assume transfer requirements (or even partners) will remain the same. I'll definitely be keeping an eye open for additions or subtractions to US's group of partners.

the main odd ball is Hilton, since they give only 850 miles so either Hilton will have to go up to 1000 miles per 10k or have a 1000 mile level for more then 10k in pts or no longer be a Transfer Partner. I think it will remain as is as it already tweaked from '10 to a min of 850 probably so as to include Hilton

Id say they will look elsewhere for the '12 tweaking. With HZ killing the hour rental program I dont see any tweaking with the cars either over what they did this year and Hotel stays will remain at 250 otherwise too many Programs wont qualify, could be they will make some others only count if theres a min # of miles earned

I learned that e-rewards and e-miles are a pain in the butt and that they should be started really really early. I have already started for next year.

For those who look forward to the 2012 GS: Wyndham hotels has a great deal now. Register and stay 2 stays at any of their (cheap) properties and get 6500 bonus points. Also if you book from the website you get 1000 bonus points for that and if you pay with their credit card you get 500 more bonus points. This will come to more than enough points for a GS hit if you just stay 2 times. Some properties are about $26 a night. I booked a Super 8 in PHX for $26 plus tax. Since you don't even need to show up to get the points this is a great deal.

For those who look forward to the 2012 GS: Wyndham hotels has a great deal now. Regsiter and stay 2 stays at any of their (cheap) properties and get 6500 bonus points. Also if you book from the website you get 1000 bonus points for that and if you pay with their credit card you get 500 more bonus points. This will come to more than enough points for a GS hit if you just stay 2 times. Some properties are about $26 a night. I booked a Super 8 in PHX for $26 plus tax. Since you don't even need to show up to get the points this is a great deal.

do you get points for no show at a super 8 as well? i thought it was only hawthorn suites and wyndham.

do you get points for no show at a super 8 as well? i thought it was only hawthorn suites and wyndham.

All Wyndham group hotels - it's part of Wyndham Rewards t&cs. But hardly anyone used Super8 for GS because the miles would usually have been less than the minimum required (which was why Hawthorne and their 500 DM per stay were so popular this year).

do you get points for no show at a super 8 as well? i thought it was only hawthorn suites and wyndham.

The no-show policy is for Wyndham Rewards, which includes all of their hotel brands. This would be earned points and not miles which you would use to transfer to DM next year for the GS if they offer the same partner transfers as this year. I believe that 8000 Wyndham points converts to 3200 miles.

For those who look forward to the 2012 GS: Wyndham hotels has a great deal now. Register and stay 2 stays at any of their (cheap) properties and get 6500 bonus points. Also if you book from the website you get 1000 bonus points for that and if you pay with their credit card you get 500 more bonus points. This will come to more than enough points for a GS hit if you just stay 2 times. Some properties are about $26 a night. I booked a Super 8 in PHX for $26 plus tax. Since you don't even need to show up to get the points this is a great deal.
Does this include foreign Super 8's as well, with a quick search was able to find some as low as 22.50 and could possibly find some cheaper with time.

Does this include foreign Super 8's as well, with a quick search was able to find some as low as 22.50 and could possibly find some cheaper with time.

You could always try doing a search, either on the thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wyndham-rewards/1281415-winter-11-gift-me-promo-1k-per-booking-6-5k-every-other-stay-na-eu-variants.html) about this offer on the Wyndham board or in the T&Cs (https://www.wyndhamrewards.com/trec/consumer/promoReg.action?promoRuleCode=W11PROMO&variant=) themselves.

(The answer is not Chinese Super8s)

for us europeans or all others with a european address on file, it might actually be an interesting promo value wise. now finding the cheapest wyndham hotel will be a pain.

30K points, provided you have or can get 2K more, you get 12,800 US DM miles, which under today's price including a 50% sale, will cost you 240 USD.

assuming you can get a hotel at 30 USD/night => 180USD all in, now if i can find anything under 25 USD all in ofc i am definitively a taker.

This was my first year doing the Grand Slam. Definitely learned some lessons:

1. Obey Flyertalk posts: in some cases I just read the instructions provided on the USAir site and did not get correctly credited. When I double checked the FT site, of course, it had specific details on how to get proper credit.

2. Start Early. I think I still have somewhere between 4 and 8 credits hanging. Very annoying. I really do not like the way USAir does this program (not being able to check specific hits) but starting early would surely help. I held off on some thinking about the ability to confirm hits by holding off on some but this really just muddied the process.

3. Consider whether this is worth all the work. This past year I applied for an AA Visa and Amex and got 150k miles. Paid for the majority of a trip to Jamaica. All it invovled was applying for two cards and making some charges. The points I eaned for the Grand Slam were MUCH harder to earn and I didn't earn half of what I earned on the AA promotion.

the main odd ball is Hilton, since they give only 850 miles so either Hilton will have to go up to 1000 miles per 10k or have a 1000 mile level for more then 10k in pts or no longer be a Transfer Partner. I think it will remain as is as it already tweaked from '10 to a min of 850 probably so as to include Hilton

Id say they will look elsewhere for the '12 tweaking. With HZ killing the hour rental program I dont see any tweaking with the cars either over what they did this year and Hotel stays will remain at 250 otherwise too many Programs wont qualify, could be they will make some others only count if theres a min # of miles earned

Agreed. I don't know how US will adjust this, which is why I'll keep on the lookout for new partners who might become eligible for hits in the 2012 GS. Hilton was a major PITA (really, a transfer rate less than Club Carlson or Wyndham?), but fortunately for me, they've devalued their awards so much that I can't imagine hoarding enough points to get a decent number of award stays from them. 10K gets you a hit with GS; it gets you very little in the HHonors program. I'll stay enough with Hilton through 9/12 to replenish my miles for a GS transfer hit; I've reached the conclusion that Hilton offers little in its loyalty program that I can't find more satisfactorily from other programs.

This was my first year doing the Grand Slam. Definitely learned some lessons:
* * *
3. Consider whether this is worth all the work. This past year I applied for an AA Visa and Amex and got 150k miles. Paid for the majority of a trip to Jamaica. All it invovled was applying for two cards and making some charges. The points I eaned for the Grand Slam were MUCH harder to earn and I didn't earn half of what I earned on the AA promotion.

Definitely some work compared with credit card applications. But unlike credit card apps in the current climate, a renewable resource. We'd hope we can get a new set of Citi/AA cards as the eighteen-month rule plays out, but there's no guarantee. The best part of GS is that it resets itself every year

I learned that e-rewards and e-miles are a pain in the butt and that they should be started really really early. I have already started for next year.
Agreed for emiles, still waiting on e-rewards invite. Maybe its because I am outside US and should adjust my address for a while in my profile.

You could always try doing a search, either on the thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wyndham-rewards/1281415-winter-11-gift-me-promo-1k-per-booking-6-5k-every-other-stay-na-eu-variants.html) about this offer on the Wyndham board or in the T&Cs (https://www.wyndhamrewards.com/trec/consumer/promoReg.action?promoRuleCode=W11PROMO&variant=) themselves.

(The answer is not Chinese Super8s)
Yes have done that now

This is a promo that specifically seems designed with the FF public in mind. I saw no MSM-type advertising. I think many non-FT frequent flyers may have simply tossed the materials advertising this promo. Everything else advertising this promo seemed to be through the US website and the websites of most of its partners. I'm sure US and its partners have a target for the amount of participation on which they've based their assumptions about costs, etc.

Widespread publicity, such as an article in the Wall Street Journal or New York Times, would likely skew numbers for the entire promo in such a way that US and its partners would take a big hit that's not likely to be tweaked away the following year.




There are two types of FF mile hoarders.
1) Those on FT. (lurkers and members)
2)Those who have figured it out on their own and have never heard of FT and think they are doing something that is somehow illegal.



That being said, I'll bet that most people out there are satisfyed plusing their accounts up by a few thousand miles. The vast majority of folks out there don't have the attention span to chase 36 hits.

There are two types of FF mile hoarders.
1) Those on FT. (lurkers and members)
2)Those who have figured it out on their own and have never heard of FT and think they are doing something that is somehow illegal.



That being said, I'll bet that most people out there are satisfyed plusing their accounts up by a few thousand miles. The vast majority of folks out there don't have the attention span to chase 36 hits.
FT is not the only place this has been mentioned, i.e. there are other sites on how to game FF points, FT is of course probably the best but I suspect some will have just read the blogs on "how I got X US Air dividend miles for Y". These people may be FT "aware" but don't really want to wade through 100 pages of info to get the tips.

I learned that e-rewards and e-miles are a pain in the butt and that they should be started really really early. I have already started for next year.

But not too early, or else you'll learn another lesson. From the e-Rewards T&Cs (http://www.e-rewards.com/memberagreement.do):

8.b. 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.)

8.c. 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. For example: At midnight of July 30, 2010, Member has $100 of unredeemed e-Rewards Currency earned in the Membership Year ending June 30, 2010, and $5 of unredeemed e-Rewards Currency earned between July 1 and July 30, 2010, for a total account balance of $105 in e-Rewards Currency. On the morning of July 31, 2010, Member will have a total account balance of $30 in e-Rewards Currency: $5 earned in July 2010, plus $25 (25% of $100) rolled over from the Membership Year ending June 30, 2010.

But not too early, or else you'll learn another lesson. From the e-Rewards T&Cs (http://www.e-rewards.com/memberagreement.do):
Yow, thanks for highlighting that. For my longer lasting account I haven't a clue what my membership year is, how do you find that out?

Yow, thanks for highlighting that. For my longer lasting account I haven't a clue what my membership year is, how do you find that out?

If you go to the My Account page At the upper right hand section will tell you the Amount subject to expiration rules. Underneath that will tell you the date and amount that will expire on that date.

Although those terms look bad, e-rewards has always waived the expiry every year for me. I guess they do it if you have some decent amount of activity,

If you go to the My Account page At the upper right hand section will tell you the Amount subject to expiration rules. Underneath that will tell you the date and amount that will expire on that date.
That's is very useful, so mine expire start of Feb 2012, so now looks like I should transfer the points I have out during Jan to one of the Hotel programs to build up my balance there and then set about rebuilding my e-rewards balance.

That's is very useful, so mine expire start of Feb 2012, so now looks like I should transfer the points I have out during Jan to one of the Hotel programs to build up my balance there and then set about rebuilding my e-rewards balance.

Hotel points redemptions have best value when you redeem at the highest level. If you take a few surveys now, e-rewards will most likely extend the expiry within a week of the end of the membership year which in your case is 31Dec11.

Hotel points redemptions have best value when you redeem at the highest level. If you take a few surveys now, e-rewards will most likely extend the expiry within a week of the end of the membership year which in your case is 31Dec11.

They didn't extend mine when my membership year ended on 30 September. I didn't find out whether they would have been cancelled though as I transferred them out during October.

Hotel points redemptions have best value when you redeem at the highest level. If you take a few surveys now, e-rewards will most likely extend the expiry within a week of the end of the membership year which in your case is 31Dec11.
I guess the question that comes up here is when/how do you know they have extended. I agree higher levels work better but if I'm close to the date and this hasn't happened I rather take what is available than take the risk.

Of course it would be nice to receive enough surveys to allow you to make the choice. I see that 3/4 of my points will expire in August, unfortunately they are well below the threshold for even the smallest award to a partner.

At the rate at which I am currently receiving surveys, I might just sneak through, but no guarantees. Perhaps I should change my profile, but I am aware of people being caught out doing so.

I guess the question that comes up here is when/how do you know they have extended. I agree higher levels work better but if I'm close to the date and this hasn't happened I rather take what is available than take the risk.

They will tell you when they extend.

Of course it would be nice to receive enough surveys to allow you to make the choice. I see that 3/4 of my points will expire in August, unfortunately they are well below the threshold for even the smallest award to a partner.

At the rate at which I am currently receiving surveys, I might just sneak through, but no guarantees. Perhaps I should change my profile, but I am aware of people being caught out doing so.

Make sure your preferences are set to send you as many surveys as possible -- that will help with the activity.

Make sure your preferences are set to send you as many surveys as possible -- that will help with the activity.

Already done. I just feel that my other e-rewards account (for BA) interferes with the US airways one by directing all of the opportunities to BA.

Over the course of the promotion (Sep-Nov), my balance went from 900 points to 1200 (equivalent to $11.25 to $15 in most people's e-rewards (UK-based ones work on points, with 2000 yielding 500 US Airways miles)).

Meanwhile my BA activity was nearly 3 times that.
As I said, I might just about have enough points to make a donation before my rewards year, but can't see a way of getting enough in time for next September.

I obviously need to change my job and lifestyle.

I obviously need to change my job and lifestyle.
That... is quite the level of dedication to GS. :D

Flying most weekends from MAN-PHL-LAX and back on my own dime was as far as my dedication to US airways went.

Having not flown with them for 7 years, shows my current level of loyalty.

The GS has piqued my interest in using the airline again, but let's take it one step at a time!

...and the next step was to get a Platinum Amex card. This seems to be one of the easiest ways of moving points into various hotel programs ready for next years' slam.
The 42,000 bonus miles certainly help.

Already done. I just feel that my other e-rewards account (for BA) interferes with the US airways one by directing all of the opportunities to BA.

Over the course of the promotion (Sep-Nov), my balance went from 900 points to 1200 (equivalent to $11.25 to $15 in most people's e-rewards (UK-based ones work on points, with 2000 yielding 500 US Airways miles)).

Meanwhile my BA activity was nearly 3 times that.
As I said, I might just about have enough points to make a donation before my rewards year, but can't see a way of getting enough in time for next September.

I obviously need to change my job and lifestyle.
I found that when I reviewed my profile (without changing anything) I went from getting virtually no surveys over last 6 months to about 1/week. Can't explain it but may be worth trying!

...and the next step was to get a Platinum Amex card. This seems to be one of the easiest ways of moving points into various hotel programs ready for next years' slam.
The 42,000 bonus miles certainly help.
Moving Amex points to hotel rewards program is certainly easy but not really that sure it's a good way to use my points!

I found that when I reviewed my profile (without changing anything) I went from getting virtually no surveys over last 6 months to about 1/week. Can't explain it but may be worth trying!

I've had a sudden burst of activity for no apparent reason.
My US Airways e-rewards account has jumped to 1685 points (need 2000 to make a 500 mile deposit....obviously too late for a hit).
My BA e-rewards account is now at 1835. I'll cash them in at 2000, as even at this accelerated earning rate, I won't have enough for the next level before the points expire.

I'll have another look at my profiles, but I don't think anything will change. I think I'll remove all cookies and run the two accounts from separate computers.

Moving Amex points to hotel rewards program is certainly easy but not really that sure it's a good way to use my points!

It's all about capability. Having the option doesn't mean you have to do it, but it does mean that you can.

Assuming Hilton participates in 2012 and the same level of points transfer is required, this might be a good time to replenish your HHonors account. Hilton is currently running a promotion offering a bonus 1000 points per night that's stackable with a 5000-point bonus for weekend stays of two nights or more.

Hilton is not my primary hotel program, but I shifted a three-day stay to Hilton this weekend and will earn over 10K points off a room costing $75 per night. In addition, HHonors is offering triple USAirways miles if you choose to earn points and miles so I got an extra 1500 miles for that.

The Club Carlson (triple points) and Choice (double points) promotions currently running obviously are also good opportunities for those who don't concentrate on those programs to build up a stash for GS 2012.

The Points Guy has a post about the Hilton promotion, including a way to get another 1000 points that I could not take advantage of: http://thepointsguy.com/2012/01/three-stackable-hilton-promotions/.

. . . In addition, HHonors is offering triple USAirways miles if you choose to earn points and miles so I got an extra 1500 miles for that. . .

For the USAirways miles promo, just double check the list of participating properties - a lot of properties aren't participating. The promo is a good deal if your property is listed. https://hiltonhhonors.com/processLanding6.aspx?lp=dividendmiles

Guys, the Grand Slam 2012 will start soon. Are you already preparing?

I did already book some Hilton hotels for October and I did already fill my Best Western account with help of Foursquare (100 check-ins give you 5,000 points).

I didn't do the 2011 GS. In fact, I've never taken a US Air flight. GS seems like a great deal. I'd like to participate in the 2012 GS. I recently got the Barclays card for 40K miles. What can I do now to make things easier in the fall to get the GS hits? TIA.

The best thing you can do is read the separate section on the 2011 grand slam. The information there is wonderful and will give you a roadmap on the best approach to the scavenger hunt. I'm getting all the hotel points done before it starts. That's a biggie. Enjoy

Guys, the Grand Slam 2012 will start soon.

LOL!!

I miss the fun of the Grand Slam. Silly as it may seem, I have done several things to prepare for GS 2012:

- opened rewards accounts with all the hotel transfer partners from last year.

- built up $25 balances in e-rewards and e-miles balances for me and my husband. (Expiration date is late fall so plenty of time for a transfer before they expire.)

- got the Barclay US Airways credit cards.

- signed up for TopGuest to build up balances for hotel transfers. I should easily have enough to transfer for Hilton, Priority Club, and Best Western.

- booked a stay for the fall at a Holiday Inn and was mindful when booking of the 2011 minimum spend to qualify. It could change for 2012, I know, but used 2011 as a guide.

Anita

I've been having trouble getting them to recognize my boyfriend's registration (even with a screenshot!) and finally connected with their outgoing-call-only/Unknown-number reply system today. Turns out there "wasn't a date" on the screenshot so they can't help me. It's been three months and I'm tired of chasing it, and he only loses 3k miles, so we can eat it...

But when I asked her if I should just assume the online reg is lying and call to confirm next time, the rep said yes (of course), but also something more interesting: that she "wasn't aware of" any plans for a GS12, "but there may be something different." Of course there's a lot of time before then and I don't know how these things proceed, but the way she said it made me think you guys would want to know.

no grand slam 2012??:mad::td:

I miss the fun of the Grand Slam. Silly as it may seem, I have done several things to prepare for GS 2012:

- opened rewards accounts with all the hotel transfer partners from last year.

- built up $25 balances in e-rewards and e-miles balances for me and my husband. (Expiration date is late fall so plenty of time for a transfer before they expire.)

- got the Barclay US Airways credit cards.

- signed up for TopGuest to build up balances for hotel transfers. I should easily have enough to transfer for Hilton, Priority Club, and Best Western.

- booked a stay for the fall at a Holiday Inn and was mindful when booking of the 2011 minimum spend to qualify. It could change for 2012, I know, but used 2011 as a guide.

Anita

re the topguest-is there anyway to do it without a smartphone?
ie thru a normal computer?

Link your topguest to foursquare and then use m.foursquare.com. on a PC

no grand slam 2012??:mad::td:

She didn't seem to think so.

But when I asked her if I should just assume the online reg is lying and call to confirm next time, the rep said yes (of course), but also something more interesting: that she "wasn't aware of" any plans for a GS12, "but there may be something different." Of course there's a lot of time before then and I don't know how these things proceed, but the way she said it made me think you guys would want to know.
I think its a leap to suggest that the fact that a CSR isn't aware of the GS12 is any indication there won't be one. GS12 is just a glimmer of of an idea in the marketing department at this stage, there is no reason that a CSR WOULD be aware of it, some weren't even aware of it DURING the last one.

I think its a leap to suggest that the fact that a CSR isn't aware of the GS12 is any indication there won't be one. GS12 is just a glimmer of of an idea in the marketing department at this stage, there is no reason that a CSR WOULD be aware of it, some weren't even aware of it DURING the last one.

Except that she was one of the two CSRs whose job it was to handle GS stuff exclusively. But I think you could be right.

i cant see why they wouldnt do it either-i think its been very succesful for them as a marketing tool-and i dont think they have lost money on it at all.
i am now using us and never would have before

I can see why they may not do it again. I'm sure US wins out on the GS--but I'm not convinced their partners do. I know for a fact Sharebuilder spent more money getting me as a customer than they'll ever make off of me (given that both my buy and sell order were free). I know skymall was probably ticked at all the silly small orders. I'm sure for some partners they made out, and for others GS is a time when they cringe, and bring on extra support staff.

I do hope that there is a GS'12...I've been preparing since the last one ended. But I'm also not sure there will be one.

I can see why they may not do it again. I'm sure US wins out on the GS--but I'm not convinced their partners do. I know for a fact Sharebuilder spent more money getting me as a customer than they'll ever make off of me (given that both my buy and sell order were free). I know skymall was probably ticked at all the silly small orders. I'm sure for some partners they made out, and for others GS is a time when they cringe, and bring on extra support staff.

I do hope that there is a GS'12...I've been preparing since the last one ended. But I'm also not sure there will be one.

would have thought skymall,depot etc do very well on the small orders when you include the fees etc

Open more hotel rewards plan instead of just SPG for the hotel transfer options

Keep adding amount to emiles and erewards so will be ready for September 2012

Keep going and not stop at 32 hits

And don't keep eating biscoff cookies. I gained more weight in September and October than Thanksgiving and Xmas.

Open more hotel rewards plan instead of just SPG for the hotel transfer options

Keep adding amount to emiles and erewards so will be ready for September 2012

Keep going and not stop at 32 hits

And don't keep eating biscoff cookies. I gained more weight in September and October than Thanksgiving and Xmas.


I've done pretty much this in preparation. One thing to be careful of is that erewards limits you to 1 partner reward per quarter. I am using it to dump into my hotel partners that are not topguest affiliated. But for example I did a Choice Privlidge transfer last week of 4,000 points ($100 in erewards $$), and a 2,000 point Club Carleson. Both will require one more transfer from erewards, but that must be done next quarter. Something to plan ahead for in case you are using it to dump into programs like I am.

Also topguest is really sweet, I'm up 1,500 Best Western points, Hilton Points and PC points there. Trying to not use erewards at all for those three.

Also set up with car rental programs, and become familiar with their deals. Alamo has $13 a day a/i lately here, I just hope that holds into sept.

and yes... biscoff=crack

Still not great value, but if you think you will need to buy LQ points for a hit in the fall - they are 20% off currently. Cost is now $44 for 5K (5K will transfer to 1K US) rather than $55 normally.

Better option of course is to rack up e-rewards -> LQ -> US but still could end up a little short - I did this past year.

http://www.lq.com/lq/returns/members/buypoints/index.jsp?CampaignID=LQTopNav

Still not great value, but if you think you will need to buy LQ points for a hit in the fall - they are 20% off currently. Cost is now $44 for 5K (5K will transfer to 1K US) rather than $55 normally.

http://www.lq.com/lq/returns/members/buypoints/index.jsp?CampaignID=LQTopNav

Just looked at there reward table for US AIRWAYS:

http://www.lq.com/lq/returns/nmembers/airline.jsp

6,000 Points Required | $52,80 to earn 1000 points:td::td:

Just looked at there reward table for US AIRWAYS:

http://www.lq.com/lq/returns/nmembers/airline.jsp

6,000 Points Required | $52,80 to earn 1000 points:td::td:

E-rewards nets 4000 LQ points for just $100 in erewards currency. LQ I'll be transferring and then maybe buying 2k for $22. Or transfer another $30 in erewards for another 1k x 2.

I've done pretty much this in preparation. One thing to be careful of is that erewards limits you to 1 partner reward per quarter. I am using it to dump into my hotel partners that are not topguest affiliated. But for example I did a Choice Privlidge transfer last week of 4,000 points ($100 in erewards $$), and a 2,000 point Club Carleson. Both will require one more transfer from erewards, but that must be done next quarter. Something to plan ahead for in case you are using it to dump into programs like I am.

Also topguest is really sweet, I'm up 1,500 Best Western points, Hilton Points and PC points there. Trying to not use erewards at all for those three.

Also set up with car rental programs, and become familiar with their deals. Alamo has $13 a day a/i lately here, I just hope that holds into sept.

and yes... biscoff=crack

lets hope they will do it after the work people are putting in!
one thing -for erewards is it only one redemption per quarter or can you redeem to different partners in same quarter?

lets hope they will do it after the work people are putting in!
one thing -for erewards is it only one redemption per quarter or can you redeem to different partners in same quarter?

I was unclear: it is one reward per parner per quarter. So I've got a little spreadsheet of which ones I'm focusing on this quarter, then I'll go back next quarter and finish topping them up.

Heads up: If there is a Grand Slam 2012 I just read in my Hyatt statement that Hyatt points to Dividend Miles is ending in March. So that will not be a hit option next year.

Sorry if this was posted previously but I haven't had time to read this thread lately.

Heads up: If there is a Grand Slam 2012 I just read in my Hyatt statement that Hyatt points to Dividend Miles is ending in March. So that will not be a hit option next year.

Sorry if this was posted previously but I haven't had time to read this thread lately.

Quite unfortunate, given I did two low-end Hyatt stays during GS last year.

sorry I feel dense, but can someone explain the erewards thing and how it relates to GS 2k11/12. This is my first year doing it and am hoping to get to at least *G this year.

Any advice for a newbie would be great.

I know this is all speculative, given that a program hasn't been announced. But, I too, would like to be as prepared as possible.

Sorry if this is too much to ask, any links to literature would be equally helpful.

sorry I feel dense, but can someone explain the erewards thing
A good rule of practice for FT: if you're not sure about something, check the sticky threads & do at least a quick search for relevant thread titles. In this case, what you want is covered in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/2011-grand-slam-promotion/1251695-e-rewards-e-miles-gs-2011-master-thread.html

after today's US daily giveway, I can now add Wyndham to one of my hits this year!

after today's US daily giveway, I can now add Wyndham to one of my hits this year!

How in the world did you manage to get it so fast. I was right on the money at 1:00 and already 'in someone else's basket' message pops up. Drat!

How in the world did you manage to get it so fast. I was right on the money at 1:00 and already 'in someone else's basket' message pops up. Drat!

i went with the two lowest levels. days inn for the pre-sale with lots of refreshing (work computer has very fast network even tho PC sucks!) and then super 8 for the regular 1pm sale. i used my cell to refresh wyndham rewards fb while using PC to refresh the travel website.

sorry :( you'll get 'em next time!

i went with the two lowest levels. days inn for the pre-sale with lots of refreshing (work computer has very fast network even tho PC sucks!) and then super 8 for the regular 1pm sale. i used my cell to refresh wyndham rewards fb while using PC to refresh the travel website.

sorry :( you'll get 'em next time!

Who can compete with that? Congrats!

Who can compete with that? Congrats!

Well.. there always is topguest/foresquare where you can beat him pricewise ;)

I just read some posts on the e-rewards master thread beginning April 27 (see details at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/s-p-m/935173-e-rewards-master-thread-60.html) indicating that owners of e-rewards accounts with multiple airline redemption partners have seen the airline partners disappear recently. I checked my account (a very old one, not even sure who the original sponsor was -- possibly American Airlines before they left the program -- but I had multiple airline and hotel redemption partners), and sure enough, all of my airline partners are gone too :( While this could be a temporary glitch, one poster provided a response from e-rewards customer service suggesting that the redemption changes were not a mistake.

So, I'm posting here to suggest that people may want to check to see if USAirways still is a redemption partner for your e-rewards account, and if not, start looking for an invitation from a different sponsor (USAirways or hotel programs ) that includes US as a redemption partner.

May 5 update: My airline partners now are back. Apparently AA recently came back to e-rewards, and e-rewards "re-aligned" redemption options. Several days ago, I noticed I had AA as my only airline redemption option. Today, after reading another post on the master thread, I checked again and now have AA and most/all of the others I had before the change in late April.

any word on when the GS promo might start in 2012?

As I recall, last year it was not possible to buy Gold points to top off for a GS transfer hit. FYI I just got an email that sets out the rate for buying points:

"Gold Points are available for purchase in 1,000 point increments for $7.00 USD; up to 40,000 points per account, per calendar year."

"Gold Points are available for purchase in 1,000 point increments for $7.00 USD; up to 40,000 points per account, per calendar year."
Makes them the same price as the new, "improved" price of Priority Club points using the book and cancel trick, BUT, IIRC, a "hit" required fewer CC points than did one for PC points, so (if buying is your only points option), CC will be a cheaper hit than Priority Club.

For hotel stays do you actually have to check-in to get a hit?

For hotel stays do you actually have to check-in to get a hit?

Only Wyndham reliably gives credit for no-shows.

FT is great for many reasons, but this thread is one more near the top of my list.

I found this thread many months ago, not even knowing what the GS even was for certain. But still I went ahead and searched my email inbox for "e-Rewards" and found that my husband and two oldest kids and I had all received invites from USAirways at one point or another. Apparently anyone over 13 can get an invite and join.

So, we've been working all 4 accounts for many months now, as well as 3 e-Miles accounts (my husband and I, and our oldest child, who is over 18 and eligible).

Something I've learned is that 30-something white females with college degrees do not get as many surveys as 40-something white males with high school diplomas. And teenagers get a halfway decent amount.

Anyhow, with two credit card applications that came with bonus miles done this past year (Hilton and Marriott), a Daily Getaways purchase (Wyndham points), and several e-Rewards transfers from multiple accounts, I now have enough points stockpiled in my own hotel accounts to net 6 hits right off the bat without a dime being paid for them. (I don't mind doing surveys, I'm a homemaker anyhow and sit around on the internet doing much less useful things often enough!)

With $11 I can top off a 7th account, my husband has enough SPG points for both of us to cover an 8th hotel partner hit (if this year is anything like last year, and actually happens, yadda yadda), and the 9th - I lack 3K points which I can buy for $21 if need be.

If it wasn't for this thread, I wouldn't have had a clue what e-Rewards was, or why I might want to start ahead of time, or what to do with the rewards once I had them. So - thanks, FT! (PS - I did make sure to save enough to cover a minimum - or even next level - e-Rewards transfer to USAirways, too. BUT - when I signed up for e-miles, I did it under Delta, so I'm currently waiting for my last 500 mile award deposit to clear before canceling the account and signing back up under USAirways. Glad I caught that, but don't know if I can hit 500 more in time without doing a purchase there, which I loathe to do. Ugh.)

[Did I mention I plan too far in advance? Oh well... so far its just my time that's been put out, so that's alright if it doesn't happen.. though I shall pout endlessly. And possibly whine a bit.]

FT is great for many reasons, but this thread is one more near the top of my list.

Hey there GGE. As thorough as you are, you've probably read the "other partner's" thread. If not, it contains a wealth of information and most of it can be found in the first post, meticulously updated throughout GS2011 by Beltway. (Thanks again!)

Wishing you well and still hoping there will be a Grand Slam this year!

Hey there GGE. As thorough as you are, you've probably read the "other partner's" thread. If not, it contains a wealth of information and most of it can be found in the first post, meticulously updated throughout GS2011 by Beltway. (Thanks again!)

Wishing you well and still hoping there will be a Grand Slam this year!

Hey, I much appreciate the pointer, and well wishes! Believe it or not, I read the entire thread you just mentioned. I found many great pointers there which I used to fill in much of the "notes" section of my spreadsheet. :D