I think I figure this one out. As I suspected, MCI had no intention of awarding me the 15K miles they originally promised. Just to be sure of this, I wrote to them last week and received an email from them today, confirming my suspicion. After that, I immediately log onto the web and signed up for the Sprint service. I guess they don't care at all that they have just lost my business (and I spend oodles and oodles of money on long distance every month!)

Now here are my observations:

1. My sister in Atlanta has successfully signed up for the MCI 25K bonus miles.

2. My boyfriend has also successfully signed up for the bonus, in San Diego.

3. I, on the other hand, was refused the bonus (in Boston). So were my parents (in Atlanta).

The common denominator is this: As long as you switch long distance company from something else to MCI, you will get the bonus regardless of your location. On the other hand, if you are currently a MCI customer, the only way you can get the 25K miles is if you live in one of the 9 states (unless you are very lucky - in that case, you are the exception)....does anybody know when this 25K promotion ends? Just to prove to myself that my theory is indeed correct, I want to try to switch back to MCI to see if they will give me the bonus.

On a different (happier) note, I just won a radio station contest worth $1000! Hurrah!