Originally Posted by zzpitt

I just completed an online marketing survey with Barclays pertaining to a "new and exciting" benefit in the works (received email to participate in the survey). In hindsight, I wish I would have taken screen shots, but the main point is that you can opt in to a feature which "rounds up" all of your purchases (up to a limit per month you set in your profile) and they basically sell you miles at $0.02/mile for the round up. The example they kept using was buy a coffee for $3.10, automatically round up to $4.00, and you'd get 3 miles for the initial purchase, plus 50% miles on the round up (90 cents round up times 0.5 = 45 extra miles) for a total of 48 miles on the purchase. Again, basically buying miles at $0.02 a piece. The marketing banners and ads they were testing were pretty slick, along the lines of "Imagine how much farther you can go by earning 48 miles on just your daily coffee!", I could see how an un-savvy consumer would think they were actually getting a deal. I made sure to put in the comments that the purchase rate on the points was not attractive and I wouldn't be likely to opt into the feature - it's still a better rate than purchasing them outright from AA, but I still don't see the value in purchasing them at 2 cents per mile.

Originally Posted by redtop43

I wonder how many miles are acquired by what I'll call "non-serious" flyers who may not actually use them.

FTers know that to get 2 cents per mile value you have to fly overseas premium cabin. Some others may feel this is a way of creating a "change jar" of miles which every so often will yield a nice surprise.

Unfortunately, this may well be one of their "enhancements" to take away the sting of the new EDQ limit.