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!