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).

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.

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.