Carl --

Well, to get my 15K clickmiles, I bought 600 pairs of Gap jeans, peeled off the UPC labels, then donated the jeans to the local Salvation Army. All were amazed that I managed to get so many miles for a mere $22,800.

So... clickRewards had its best promotion during the holiday shopping season of '98. I think the program was in its infancy at the time. The deal was, earn 5K miles and you got a 10K bonus. e-trade made the goal much easier to reach with a 2.5K bonus (which counted toward the 5K goal) for signing up. A computer buying club offered a 1K bonus for joining, for an annual fee of I think $50. Furthermore, the usual web merchants also had some good deals (>5 miles/$) happening during this time. So, by doing all my '98 holiday shopping on the web I got the 15K clickmiles for about $500 of gifts that I would have spent anyway. Those were the days.