Hmmm,

While we are often guilty of playing into the very marketing that "gets us," it should be noted that the marketer is guilty of, well, "getting us!"

The crafty marketers entice us as consumers, playing on all the psychologies and teasers that we cannot fight to get us to sign up for this and that deal, this and that credit card, and this and that airline.

Miles are no exception, in my opinion. I think the reasons they expire in shorter time frames now has to do with the fact that the whole concept got more popular, it's currently really easy to get miles everywhere, and they need a way out because too many people have them now! Simply put, we got used to what they thought they GET US on, so they gotta GET US again!

They get us to sign up with a belief that we will GET something and actually get to USE IT, but unless you really can play along (like a good FTer should), it aint for you! To some people, what we do here in FT is totally unknown, unbelievable and they think we are nuts for even liking it. We chase the deal and then the expiry date like crazy monkeys let loose in a concert hall or something... they keep making us chase.

But some ads are down right totally unbelievable and sometimes comical, yet some of those strange offers out there actually WORK on an entire other sector of the public:

That's right Metal Heads and Motor Heads!
See:
Dio, Danzig, Dockin, Uriah Heap, Talus, Tesla, Motor Head and Anthrax!

Sunday
Sunday
Sunday
!!!!!!
Don't Miss David Hasselhof and the Amazing Kit Car from the TV show Night Rider administering a Vulcan Mind Meld to Captain Stubing of the Love Boat Live on Stage this weekend as Heather Locklier sucks a basket ball thru a garden hose!

The guys from the Ford team say the guys from the Chevy team are a bunch of pussies with no power!! See Skol Bandit Shelly Muldaney take her Monster Truck 40 feet into the air over 13 open roofed school busses with school children inside into a giant MUD PIT!!!!!! See Andre The Giant and Big Daddy Don Garlitz live on stage!! Wait til they see the power bill for this one!!!!!

Bring your Gideon's Bible and get in for
FREE!!!!!!!

(Note: from growing up hearing many radio and TV ads like the above funny, my friends and I used to sit and make these up and then receit them with the deap radio voices to get a laugh here or there I hope you enjoyed it).

FACT: people BUY this stuff or they sure seem to get excited over it! (just like MILES get us excitied!)

But some ads for things are down right criminal! (one type I hate is the rebate offer woven into a seemingly low price, because they actually have metrics on how it will always make the company money because they KNOW a certain percentage of people will fail to claim it or screw up when they try! AND, it got you to look and possibly even sign up, but actually spend more money than you originally thought. Genius, but disgusting!)

And, more on the side of tricky advertising, I saw one ad just the other day--while not an airline related thing--that made me want to vomit!

"Pay only $20.97!*" (I think that was the amount--it was something obscure like that) This bold text was on the bottom corner of a nicely designed poster with a picture of a guy working out at a very popular Boston area gym/sports club network. It is something you'd see in clubs and bars all over the city but this one was actually pasted above the Urinals at a popular high end restaurant of all places, and I was there for lunch last week with a business associate. Sadly, when you read the small print below it, this bold text was only PART of the initiation fee and then, of course, monthly dues and sign up fees were to be added on if you signed up. It costs A LOT more to be a full member of the club (I cannot be sure but I wanna say at least $80 a month per person, plus you need to have a year contract and there's a fee to sign up) As well, the ad expired Jan 31 but it does have an affect! I mean, after all, here I am talking about it now and I do need to get in better shape again! (also, you'd think the sign would be gone by now because of the exp date of the offer, but those who put it there or suggested it would work there must know people use the toilets --I also think it should have been placed elsewhere anyway because I could SEE the fine print right up close and they don't really want that, now do they?)

Here is their current link and while they have a new low cost promo, it's only for 2 weeks but if you look further, you will spend some money to be a member here: http://www.mysportsclubs.com/regions/BSC.htm and I have not looked further. It's a decent gym network but I am not a member and I dont like fees, contracts and "*'s" in my life.

We get lured in and we almost like it. We LET them show us the FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! or PAY ONLY $0.00!!! or ZERO % FINANCING!!!

They know this but then, if the deal changes, THAT becomes the problem.

Look, Mr. Marketer... do your thang, but if I DO sign up and agree to pay all the stuff found in the fine print without complaint, PLEASE don't now go change the deal on me to stick iit to me once again!!

Changing the expiry of miles is kinda the same thing! We can do nothing, but they have made a sweeping move to clean house and it forces us to be really savvy or get burned!

Many people I know who DO NOT play the miles game have told me that one reason is because it's too hard to keep up with it. Some don't want or have credit cards as the central part of their spending world, and some have tried to redeem miles but never had success for one reason or another. It's not for them--but they had been enticed at one time or another, and so some of them are kinda miffed at being "duped" now!

You mean I signed up for card X at airline Y on their promise of FREE FLIGHTS and big mile earnings to get 20,000 miles for this MasterCard I never use (because my wife and I agreed to not spend a lot on cards --or at all) only to find out that the points expired a year and a half later??

You mean to tell me when I go to redeem these miles I must race to a que that is already mostly full on the telephone 330 days out from my date of travel? I got 3 kids and a mortgage and the last thing I have time to do at home is get on a computer and research this stuff! There's NO WAY I can plan a trip that far in advance!

So they roll their eyes and throw their hands up. Not even worth it.

Those that ARE close sometimes find us and frantically try to redeem 35,000 UA miles for a trip to Maui like next month. Yeah, like THAT'll work!

BUt ya know? Those marketers over at United and at Chase do a really convincing job at making the bloke actually think it's possible!

Whose to blame? We must be savvy but do we all really have time to know EVERYTHING? Why, if we did, we'd probably be on the watch lists of every promotions company because they'd know we find too many ways to win, and they'd change the deals AGAIN.

Oh wait, that happens already

MM

Sunday
Sunday
Sunday
!!!!!!