US Airways 2011 Grand Slam Promotion - Wish List for GS2012

Various US reps have admitted that they spend a lot of time on this forum in an unofficial capacity. I'm starting this thread in hopes that one of them will send it over to the Marketing folks... I love Grand Slam, and I would be truly sad if it didn't make a 2012 appearance. But I could love it more with a few small changes. Here's my "wish list" of how to make Grand Slam even more awesome in 2012. Feel free to add your own!

-More transparency. The weekly emails following the sweeps are great, but I'd love to be able to log into my account at any time, and see exactly which transactions counted as a hit. Maybe something posted after the emails were generated but before I checked my account; maybe I'm not sure if something counted as a hit even if it's posted to my account. Being able to see exactly what counted, at any day and any time, would be a HUGE improvement!

-Registration confirmations. Send me an email when I register so I don't have to screenshot it, register 4 times "just in case," or feel cheated when my registration didn't stick in the database and I'm without a screenshot to back up my claim!

-More involvement on social media. Good request for US in general, too. I had such high hopes with the "pre-hit" for taking your baseball picture and tweeting it over. I thought surely this was the year when US got involved in social media. But sadly that was a one-off. Having more chances to earn hits via social media would be a lot of fun plus it would (hopefully) dilute all of the scathing feedback on the US facebook page. That page needs all the positive feedback it can get because it is one seriously unhappy place. Give me a hit and I'll write all sorts of nice, happy things to dilute the rants!

-Increased hit count from Shopping Mall. I'd much rather buy a few more things that I truly need than go rent a car for an hour. Put a bounty for merchants you've not shopped before-- for example, you can earn 4 hits by shopping with 4 different merchants, and a bonus free hit if 2 of those you've never used before. From a merchant standpoint I think they really get the short end of the stick because it's only one hit and dozens of merchants competing for our business; compared to rental cars, there's 6 hits and far fewer companies, so each company has a better chance to get a slice of the pie

-Increased hit count from Dining. Same as with shopping, let me do multiples and give me a bonus/free hit for dining with new restaurants. I don't usually charge restaurant bills--- those go on debit card--- so I don't follow DM Dining except once a year when GS comes out. And every year I am surprised at how many places in my neighborhood are on that list. Give me an incentive to go try them out!

-A bigger bonus for getting to 40 hits. I'd aimed for 40 this year and might still pull it off, but a last-minute, unexpected change to a hotel reservation (without notice, the hotel went from being a Wyndham to an Accor) leaves me potentially one short. With just a few days left, I'm considering dropping some car rentals because 5k PQM and 10k RDM don't really inspire me to cough up $40 for flowers I only need to replace my runaway Wyndham. And this suggestion doesn't mean "Make 36 hits worth less." It means "Make 40 hits worth more."

-A slightly lower minimum earn for hotels to count. Yes, I know this was done to close the loophole of no-shows at cheap Wyndhams, but it also made the night I stayed at a Hampton in Covington, GA not count. I can't help but think there is a balance in there somewhere--- maybe someone can find it?

-This is my favorite: a hit for actually flying on US. Allow multiples, please! I usually book in advance, and US' promos usually don't extend to bookings already made, so they'd be getting some more money from me. I'd much rather take a flight for no reason than go rent a car for 10 minutes. Don't ask me why because I can't explain it. The flight is more expensive and takes longer to transact. But it would be very nice if US would integrate actually flying into the promo. To me, it'd be two birds with one stone: a grand slam hit (or several) and a mileage run. I'd love for it to be system-wide but if US wants to use it as marketing for new routes, or an opportunity to fill up underperforming routes, so be it.

That's all I can think of for now :) All in all, I just love this promo. It's always a lot of fun (even if it is a lot of work), and it's quite lucrative. I hope US agrees and keeps this promo up for years. If they can fine tune it to make it even more fun, then that's just icing on the cake!

I agree about the hotel hit threshold being too high. The 200 mile minimum put a lot of your partner hotels at a disadvantage for their budget properties. IHG Holiday Inns and Expresses, Marriott Courtyards, Hilton Hamptons and SPG Four Points would have lost out to the Choice and Best Western properties in the same category. A 100 mile minimum would give an even playing field for all your hotel partners to compete for our business.

Please bring back Accor, they have great coverage in places like South America where other hotel chains have fewer option, especially in smaller towns.

There were some of your partners that didn't participate. I hope next year, we will see DM Daily Deals, Magazine Mileage Awards (pay cash and get miles for subscriptions) and your new partner Pet Food Direct --even people who don't have pets would buy stuff to donate to shelters who are in desperate need to feed animals.

I love Patti's social media idea too, please give more options for people who are time rich but cash poor to get hits by doing some activity that promotes US Airways but doesn't cost money!

The main problem with multiple dining or shopping hits is that they can be done cheaply. Great for us, but not so great for US, who doesn't want to give 110K for 40 iTunes. If they allowed more hits, they'd probably also introduce a minimum of miles required for it to count, like 30 for a dine. Failing to set limits like this is what burned UA on their Month of Miles and resulted in belated rule changes and a lot of unhappy customers.

The advantage to the current setup is that it's cheap to get into, but hard to master. You can get 3K for free or 10K for a few dollars, but getting to 100K or more requires a minimum of several hundred dollars spend.

Yes, it would be great for it to be even cheaper, but this lessens the incentive for US to keep running it.

The partners might consider promoting it themselves. I was actually surprised to see a banner at Teleflora's site promoting the miles plus one Grand Slam hit. As far as I know, this is the only partner that's mentioned it.

Agreed on most counts. But for Hell's sake, please don't make me join Facebook to do anything for GlandSlam. I've managed to keep that site out of my life so far, and I don't intend to change that.

Double agreed on the hotel minimums. I'm on a biz trip right now and last night I had to stay way outside the city just to stay at an Embassy Suites. There's a Hampton Inn that's way closer to where I needed to be, and in fact costs much more than the Embassy Suites, but it wasn't enough for a hit. It's kind of ridiculous to have to stay at a CHEAPER hotel in the same chain just to get a hit.

Agreed on most counts. But for Hell's sake, please don't make me join Facebook to do anything for GlandSlam. I've managed to keep that site out of my life so far, and I don't intend to change that.

Double agreed on the hotel minimums. I'm on a biz trip right now and last night I had to stay way outside the city just to stay at an Embassy Suites. There's a Hampton Inn that's way closer to where I needed to be, and in fact costs much more than the Embassy Suites, but it wasn't enough for a hit. It's kind of ridiculous to have to stay at a CHEAPER hotel in the same chain just to get a hit.

If anything I think next year will be harder and more costly. As for Hotels sorry but GS never demanded anyone stay at any particular chain. So a very cheap LaQuinta, or Choice or Best Western would have gotten anyone 250 miles and a hit

If anything I think next year will be harder and more costly. As for Hotels sorry but GS never demanded anyone stay at any particular chain. So a very cheap LaQuinta, or Choice or Best Western would have gotten anyone 250 miles and a hit

Fair enough, but I'm in a small southern city with fewer options. My point is that I paid LESS for a hotel to get a hit than if I could've stayed in a more convenient hotel in the same chain. So $$$ itself isn't the issue.

I would like to see hotels and rental cars combined into a possible 12 hits. That gives people more flexibility. Some people can't rent cars because of age, disability, etc. But they may stay more in hotels. So make it 12 max hits of hotels and/or rental cars. If you can get all 12 hits from hotels, then those who can't rent a car through no fault of their own are not punished and don't start the Grand Slam at a net -6 disadvantage for possible hits.

If this isn't doable, have maybe 6 possible hits from the shopping mall with 6 different merchants. You can keep the $1 hits down by saying minimum $10 or something.

Having a better scoring system in real time online would also be huge. The old Northwest promotions had great accounting throughout the promo. There's no reason US could not do the same.

I also like the hit for flying US Airways and why not one for using US Airways Vacations? They do have some great Vegas deals.

Agree 110% on the transparency/communication idea! Sorry, but a tiny red bit of text appearing in the middle of a page does not a proper registration confirmation make. I never even got any sweep emails. Plus, for every item in your miles earning list they already have 'checkmarks' for Bonus and Preferred...why not a 'Confirmred GS Hit' column?

I also like the idea of adding multiplicity to the DM dining hit - between that and the Thanks Again/Restaurant.com hit, I discovered a few really good places near me I otherwise would have never tried. I understand that it would be unreasonable to allow multiple super cheap hits, and it would suck to lose the possibility of one cheap hit - so why not a tier system? That's what the GS is all about, right? so for example, say you could get 4-5 hits total from DM dining, but for each hit after the 1st, you had to go to a different place and meet a gradually higher min spend (say $0/$15/$30/$45 or something). GS participants win because we have the opportunity for more hits without it being ridiculously cheap (important for US), and local merchants win because they get new people coming in and trying them out (and returning, assuming they are good!)

Another hit partner that would be great to see would be a charity of some sort. With GS going on right before the holidays, how awesome would it be to get the FF community aggressively donating to a group providing meals for the needy (yeah, people can and do give on their own, but you'd be amazed how much even a tiny bit of incentive drives up donation rates, especially given the game-like atmosphere of the Slam)

And while this next one isn't really addressable directly by US, please, please, please have your tech dept whip your partners into line! The OM debacle potentially could have been averted if your web team had a powwow with the OM tech team (bring the engineers to the party - even if we do dress a little funny sometimes!) It is frustrating when you go to a partner's website, and you never really are sure if you are going to get credit for the hit (did I click the right link? did my DM # get accepted properly? did a cookie get cleared somewhere by mistake?). Some (Teleflora, NetSol, for example) did really good, others not so much. This could even be addressed by your toolbar to make up for uncooperative partners.

Also, this was my first year doing the GS, and I had a blast and am already planning out a strategy for next year...so my #1 request is to bring back the GS in 2012!

I love the Grand Slam, I've participated every year and have 39 credited hits so far this year, with two car rentals (Budget and Thrifty) left to post.

I enjoyed reading the ideas everyone has had and agree that a lot of them would be a great addition to GS2012. One thing I did enjoy this year was trying Best Western instead of my usual HIX/Hampton mix for roadside hotels. I took a combination timeshare/roadtrip through Minnesota and Wisconsin early in the GS, and after finding out the change in the hotel criteria, made the switch from PC properties to BWs. One was very nice but the service was lacking a bit, another good for an overnight and not much else and finally, a 2 night stay in the MKE airport one which was an absolute gem. I would have never stayed at any of them otherwise, so it was an enlightening experience for me.

My one hope for a future GS, whether 2012 or beyond is either an option or a superbonus made up of PQMs. Since the business downturn, my travel is just enough to make Silver, but leaves me well short of Gold. I made it to Gold last year due to the HSJ, but this year even with the added PQMs in the GS, I will again fall into the twilight zone of having 35K PQM miles and 45 or so segments. The difference between the two levels in some ways is almost as great as non-elite to Silver, so it's definitely something I want to keep. Even something to 12.5K PQMs would help (halfway to the next level) since it brings the Buy Up into play as an alternative to a Christmas/New Years mileage run.

If the folks in Mesa read this forum I'd make this suggestion. Reward US flyers. Maybe increase the reward interval to 5 hits from 4. Offset this by providing a 25% bonus to DM elite members. Net result is no change in the GS program for your best customers but more difficulty/expense for those that get 100k US miles, use them to fly on Thai or Swiss, but never set foot on US metal.

Also offer credit for US flights taken, 1 hit for domestic west, 1 for shuttle, 1 hit for Europe etc. - modeled after the H/S/J promotion.

Agreed on most counts. But for Hell's sake, please don't make me join Facebook to do anything for GlandSlam. I've managed to keep that site out of my life so far, and I don't intend to change that.

^ +1 I don't do facemask, I don't twit, I don't want to start just for a mileage promotion.

^ +1 I don't do facemask, I don't twit, I don't want to start just for a mileage promotion.


+1. Enough with the social media nonsense already.

If anyone at US is reading this, please don't stop doing this promotion. After a particularly bad experience with your airline recently, I never ever wanted to fly on it again. But with the lure of these easier-to-obtain miles, I'm now actually *excited* about flying with US again. And isn't that, plus the loads of $$$ I have spent with you and your partners, part of what benefits your company about this promotion? So, please keep it coming! And thank you!

US airways vacations as a hit. Took a trip to PR at the end of septemeber and couldn't get a hotel hit, because it was booked through US airways not the hotel we were not eligable for miles.

[QUOTE=TimesTwo;17429434]Agreed on most counts. But for Hell's sake, please don't make me join Facebook to do anything for GlandSlam. I've managed to keep that site out of my life so far, and I don't intend to change that.

I agree, If you must involve social media then have a separate promotion for it.

ralph

I agree they should make it clearer and easier.

The hit qualifications and exclusions were scattered across the main promo page, the FAQ's, and the T&C's. I'd like to see them all on a single page. And I'd like to see somewhere where I can see what mileage posts I have that US is counting, remove the mystery about some of the hits and whether they count.

Not to go too far OT, but for those who don't join FB (and I can't blame you in the slightest), no one says you actually have to use it. Don't get me wrong, I understand that it is the principle of the matter, but companies give out a lot of free goodies on it. A slight alteration of your name makes it hard for people to find you and send you endless invites.

Mike

^ :D

exactly...i am against facebook, not free stuff.

Not to go too far OT, but for those who don't join FB (and I can't blame you in the slightest), no one says you actually have to use it. Don't get me wrong, I understand that it is the principle of the matter, but companies give out a lot of free goodies on it. A slight alteration of your name makes it hard for people to find you and send you endless invites.

Mike

In addition, social media offers GS participants an extra option. No one says you have to go for that hit. I didn't ask for an insurance quote in this year's GS nor did I no-show for a cheap shuttle ride in PHX or DFW--two examples of easy hits that I just didn't do. If one of US's purposes in doing GS is to get DM members to try new avenues/partners, then a hit for social media makes sense.

And for those who don't use FB, I've found it a very effective way to keep up with my honest-to-goodness friends. And I've noticed that some of those friends who have started small businesses are finding FB a good revenue generator.

Not to go too far OT, but for those who don't join FB (and I can't blame you in the slightest), no one says you actually have to use it. Don't get me wrong, I understand that it is the principle of the matter, but companies give out a lot of free goodies on it. A slight alteration of your name makes it hard for people to find you and send you endless invites.

Mike

I agree completely. I like Facebook for communicating with friends, but can understand that not everyone wants to use it for that. Heck, I have a Twitter account that I never post to, just to keep up with a few company feeds I like to follow. But if you want, you can set your FB options so that you can't be found by search, and can't be sent friend requests.

Here's what I've gotten for free in the last several months from Facebook and Twitter:
- 500 US miles and a free GS hit from the Twitter ballpark photo offer.
- 100 US miles and another free GS hit for liking Thanks Again.
- 1250 SPG points for liking the Charlotte Westin and the Austin Aloft
- 500 HHonors points for liking two Hilton Garden Inns.
- 40,000 Priority Club points from an easy-to-win ICH twitter contest.

I don't really understand the hostility to social media. I have several facebook accts, all to take advantage of various promos. Only one has my real name and a photo of me. Seriously, if you're capable enough of jumping through the hoops necessary to get GS hits, you're more than capable of setting up a dummy facebook acct.

Agreed on most counts. But for Hell's sake, please don't make me join Facebook to do anything for GlandSlam. I've managed to keep that site out of my life so far, and I don't intend to change that.



Ugh, yeah! I do not use FB, Twitter, or anything else of that nature. I'd rather spend money to get a hit than to compromise my privacy and open up a FB page.

Various US reps have admitted that they spend a lot of time on this forum in an unofficial capacity. I'm starting this thread in hopes that one of them will send it over to the Marketing folks... Yes..... please pass these comments right on to marketing.

-More transparency. The weekly emails following the sweeps are great, but I'd love to be able to log into my account at any time, and see exactly which transactions counted as a hit. Agree with this. I really do hate to 'bother' the CSR's at DM for information...only to have it not match up with them either. They only have the count of hits from each sweep and how they have been allocated. That being said, it did work in my favor to find out that two of my hits had been incorrectly allocated and I had plenty of time to fix them (if they do, indeed, get fixed).

-Registration confirmations. Yes, please.

-More involvement on social media. Agree totally with this. Those who do not want to participate in Social Media can opt out, of course. But it would be nice to have that option. I'll even apply for the job if it would help the @USAirways site on Twitter!

-Increased hit count from Shopping Mall. I'd much rather buy a few more things that I truly need than go rent a car for an hour. Put a bounty for merchants you've not shopped before-- for example, you can earn 4 hits by shopping with 4 different merchants, and a bonus free hit if 2 of those you've never used before. From a merchant standpoint I think they really get the short end of the stick because it's only one hit and dozens of merchants competing for our business; compared to rental cars, there's 6 hits and far fewer companies, so each company has a better chance to get a slice of the pie. Great idea!

-Increased hit count from Dining. Another great idea. I actually have to travel to get any Dining hit so in addition to the amount spent I have to consider the gas used to get there (closest dining to me is about 40 miles away).

-A bigger bonus for getting to 40 hits. 40 is a lot, yes.

-A slightly lower minimum earn for hotels to count. As well as a slightly lower minimum for hotel transfers. I did not do many of these hits because I value my hotel points as much as I value miles. If you want to close the SPG one mile loophole, then make the minimum something that will not require a full night's hotel stay to accomplish it. 10K Choice points for a hit... or Hilton.... too much.

-This is my favorite: a hit for actually flying on US. Also a good idea... even if it is one hit for domestic, two for international travel. Yes, please, let's generate some flight revenue for US.


Thanks dcPatti for some wonderful suggestions and observations.

If anyone at US is reading this, please don't stop doing this promotion. After a particularly bad experience with your airline recently, I never ever wanted to fly on it again. But with the lure of these easier-to-obtain miles, I'm now actually *excited* about flying with US again. And isn't that, plus the loads of $$$ I have spent with you and your partners, part of what benefits your company about this promotion? So, please keep it coming! And thank you!

^ This!

I too have sworn never ever to fly US again after several bad experiences. I only (re)joined the DM program because of some mileage giveaway to new members a while back. I never paid attention to the program much, missed GS last year, but decided to take the plunge for the free hits this year. Then it got infectious, so I spent a few bucks here 'n there for some more hits; then I thought, heck, I know some people who would appreciate some flowers, etc, etc. Even got the US MasterCard, although I'd sworn before I'd not take a chance on Barclay's unpredictable credit decisioning.

I'm gonna end up with 26 hits and over 100,000 US miles in my account when all hits post. And I had zero at the beginning of the year.

I agree they should make it clearer and easier.

The hit qualifications and exclusions were scattered across the main promo page, the FAQ's, and the T&C's. I'd like to see them all on a single page.
This points bears repeating. Having various rules, FAQ, and T&C pages floating around is a disgrace.

What's a bigger disgrace, though, is the content. Could US hire a team of literate outsiders -- at least one of whom is an experienced attorney -- to read the damn promo guidance? This year, the info did things like listing TrackItBack as a subscription service (and thus subject to the forfeit-it-all provision for service cancellation), which strongly suggests the need for better vetting.

Also: have a QC/QA team check to see that

there's an easily findable link on the US site (if not in the GS info itself) to each and every partner. This year, there were many partners for which there was literally zero info on the US site.
the links actually work. The Sentry Insurance links were b0rken for weeks (and are probably still broken as I type this).
the partner landing page is a) working and b) appropriate. The OfficeMax "landing page" wasn't the right one at all, initially. The Vinesse landing page had terms on it indicating offer expiration in 2009, for God's sake.

Remember: they're supposed to be partners. So maybe you could do a better job of, y'know, partnering with them so the promotion operates as advertised.

This points bears repeating. Having various rules, FAQ, and T&C pages floating around is a disgrace.

What's a bigger disgrace, though, is the content. Could US hire a team of literate outsiders -- at least one of whom is an experienced attorney -- to read the damn promo guidance? This year, the info did things like listing TrackItBack as a subscription service (and thus subject to the forfeit-it-all provision for service cancellation), which strongly suggests the need for better vetting.

Also: have a QC/QA team check to see that

there's an easily findable link on the US site (if not in the GS info itself) to each and every partner. This year, there were many partners for which there was literally zero info on the US site.
the links actually work. The Sentry Insurance links were b0rken for weeks (and are probably still broken as I type this).
the partner landing page is a) working and b) appropriate. The OfficeMax "landing page" wasn't the right one at all, initially. The Vinesse landing page had terms on it indicating offer expiration in 2009, for God's sake.

Remember: they're supposed to be partners. So maybe you could do a better job of, y'know, partnering with them so the promotion operates as advertised.

This is going to be a nightmare both for US and the people who are not FTers and get caught out. I can easily see innocent people signing up for wine clubs, Netflix, etc then cancelling for some legit reason like moving or losing their jobs and being shocked when they lose their miles. Instead of the 6 month subscription or forfeit the points deal, why don't they have these partners come up with a set prepaid package (like NetSol 2 years email or 3 years domains). Netflix could pre-sell a 6 month subscription for $42 or whatever.

I actually think US is going to have to step up their game next year to keep their customers once the UA/CO merger goes through. A lot of US's customer base is people who are time rich and cash poor who are happy to sit there and do surveys, toolbar searches, Facebook games or whatever it takes to earn miles. Those who are cash rich and time poor would rather go for quick spends than invest a lot of time.

The penalty for subscription cancellation is is more onerous, but I suspect that what will trip up more people doing the GS on their own are the hotel minimums, for both stays (200) and transfers (850). Those are buried in the T&C, while the rules say only
- Earn 1 hit for every mileage-earning stay with a hotel partner (max 6 hits per member)
- Earn 1 hit when you convert hotel points from a hotel partner into Dividend Miles

There's not an asterisk, or even a link to the T&C page from the rules page. If you aren't reading FT or the bloggers, you'd probably never see these restrictions.

The hit qualifications and exclusions were scattered across the main promo page, the FAQ's, and the T&C's. I'd like to see them all on a single page. And I'd like to see somewhere where I can see what mileage posts I have that US is counting, remove the mystery about some of the hits and whether they count.

#2 and #1 on my list, respectively.

Mike

^ This!

I too have sworn never ever to fly US again after several bad experiences. I only (re)joined the DM program because of some mileage giveaway to new members a while back. I never paid attention to the program much, missed GS last year, but decided to take the plunge for the free hits this year. Then it got infectious, so I spent a few bucks here 'n there for some more hits; then I thought, heck, I know some people who would appreciate some flowers, etc, etc. Even got the US MasterCard, although I'd sworn before I'd not take a chance on Barclay's unpredictable credit decisioning.

I'm gonna end up with 26 hits and over 100,000 US miles in my account when all hits post. And I had zero at the beginning of the year.

same with me-i had purposefully avoided us after bad experiences.i never would have gone anywhere near them and avoided gs last yr..
this has brought me back in and im considering going for chairmans status in 2012-i have also convinced my wife to switch to us as well.
i think this promo is fun,and for us is a good way to change peoples perceptions of them-i was pleasantly surprised on my recent flight!
i wish though they could make the gs a bit clearer though-tracing the hits is a nightmare currently.

This points bears repeating. Having various rules, FAQ, and T&C pages floating around is a disgrace.

I may be a conspiracy theorist or something, but I think they do this on purpose. I think they have the most brilliant legal team (or maybe the worst?). They have managed to pile ambiguity on top of ambiguity in a way that will ultimately favor them. (Same with the lack of transparency with what hits count, IMHO.) Now they should teach contract drafting to 1Ls in law schools. Wow.

Add to this the ambiguity with activity dates. They even say in the terms that the partners all have their own policy regarding activity dates and that its our job to contact them and find out what it is. Why can't they do this work for us and post it in their FAQ page or better yet they could standardize it so that activity date is always the date the activity was initiated by us.

- A well-produced, well-copywritten and -proofread microsite for the GS would be awesome. Main features: up-to-date hit counter and maybe even a customized planner tool...similar to the spreadsheets we all use on our own. It could be repurposed each year. US could even encourage users to upload stories, posts, pics, etc. of their GS quest. I don't buy the conspiracy theory that they don't want us to get the hits...I think the upside of positive buzz and use of the partners far outweighs the liability they carry on their books when they issue us bonus miles.

- Agree on the rules clarifications, it ties back into the well-written part above... The only thing I think it's semi-important for US to do is defend against some sort of loophole exploitation. I can see them not wanting users to no-show a bunch of cheap Wyndham stays. But a legit Hampton or Fairfield stay should count. Maybe that means lowering the threshold a bit or just coding the rules such that the stays count. AFAIK, most chains make you check in to get the miles.

- A hit for flying US metal. I know it's a partner promo and this one might be an easy hit for a lot of you, but as someone who has been a United flier for the past few years, it would have nudged me over onto US at least once during the promo period. Who knows...I pair a US flight with an elite trial, I end up liking the product, maybe my 2012 travels become US metal first and other *A metal second...

- I actually *don't* want them to give out too many DM Shopping hits. I'm afraid they'd then counter by reducing the bonuses or simply making you get 4 or 8 hits higher to reach the 20,000 mile bonuses.

- Agree that the 37 through 40 hits should be a 20k level. I intended to immediately halt on 36 this year because those four hits wouldn't be worth the cost. (Somehow I ended up with a mystery 37th hit...essentially meaning that my IHG transfer was a $70-ish loss.)

+1 for showing hit count along with miles posting.

+1 for showing hit count along with miles posting.
I totally agree, the have they counted/haven't they is really painful particularly as bothe the sweep and the status mails don't sem to be valid to count on. Really early for one account when account had 4 hits and sweep occured no bonus (leading me to assume I had a foul) but at 12 all 3 bonuses posted. Some may like that angst, I've long since past teenage days and I can really do without it.

Some may like that angst, I've long since past teenage days and I can really do without it.

A little stress is a good thing. People work better under pressure, don't they?

Let's be honest, if they took the guesswork out of how many hits you'd achieved, they wouldn't be US Airways!:D

A little stress is a good thing. People work better under pressure, don't they?

Let's be honest, if they took the guesswork out of how many hits you'd achieved, they wouldn't be US Airways!:D
Happy to agree on that last statement

Would be nice to know what the requirements are going to be for hotel stays ahead of time so I could plan where i was going to stay over the next 12 months at different chains to be able to convert them into hits if GS12 does happen next year...

Would be nice to know what the requirements are going to be for hotel stays ahead of time so I could plan where i was going to stay over the next 12 months at different chains to be able to convert them into hits if GS12 does happen next year...

...and know where the stock market is going
......and the winner of tomorrow's 14:50 horse race at Kempton Park
.........and where my next job is going to be.

But I get your point. I suppose if you have a loyalty target to earn status on a particular program, work towards that. If you don't, or you've already hit your target, start spreading the love to other chains. Start with the big ones or ones you would find most useful even if they are not GS partners (or there is no new GS). Remember that you will probably be able to transfer the points even if it's not part of a new promotion.

You never know, you might find that you prefer the greener grass on the other side.