salut0

http://aa.rewardsnetwork.com/contest

OFFICIAL RULES FOR THE AADVANTAGE DININGSM 25,000 MILE
"MOST MEMORABLE DINING EXPERIENCE" CONTEST
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN.
DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTEST: In 300 words or less, in English, tell about your most memorable restaurant experience - funny, romantic, celebratory, adventurous. Entries will be judged on originality, clarity, and grace of expression. The essay must be entrant's own original creation and may not have been published previously, entered in any other contest, or won any other award. Judges will choose winning entries in accordance with these Official Rules and prizes will be awarded to eligible winning Participants.
SPONSOR: The Contest is sponsored by Rewards Network Establishment Services Inc. ("Rewards Network"), a Delaware corporation, with principal place of business at Two North Riverside Plaza, Suite 950, Chicago, Illinois 60606, USA.
ELIGIBILITY: The Contest is open to new AAdvantage DiningSM members who enrolled in the AAdvantage DiningSM program between August 12 and September 30, 2008 as part of submitting their entry, and who have agreed to these Rules ("Participants"). Participants must be residents of the United States who are 18 years of age or older at the time of entering. Employees, interns, contractors, and consultants of (1) Rewards Network, (2) American Airlines, Inc., (3) the parent companies, affiliates and subsidiaries of either Rewards Network or American Airlines and members of their immediate families are ineligible to participate in the Contest.
SUBMISSION OF ENTRIES: Entries must be submitted using the Official Entry Form accessible via the link above. Entries must be submitted between 12:00:00 AM ET on August 12, 2008 and 11:59:59 PM ET on September 30, 2008. Limit one entry per person. By entering, the Participant certifies that all representations contained in the entry are true and do not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party. Rewards Network is not responsible for loss of entries due to Internet description or non-receipt for any reason.
JUDGING: Each entry will be judged by the staff of Rewards Network. Determinations of judges are final and binding. Entries that are lewd, obscene, pornographic or otherwise inappropriate to the Contest will be disqualified at Rewards Network's sole discretion.
PRIZES: Five (5) winners will be selected from among the eligible entries and will each receive 25,000 AAdvantage® miles. Approximate Retail Value ("ARV")of the five (5) prizes is $3,125.00 (ARV per prize is $625.00). Winners will be notified by email on or about November 15, 2008. You may request a list of winners after December 31, 2008 by writing to: AAdvantage DiningSM Contest Administrator, Rewards Network Establishment Services Inc., 300 South Park Road, Suite 300, Hollywood, FL 33021.
AADVANTAGE® MILES TERMS. AAdvantage® miles will be credited to the AAdvantage® account of each winner, who must provide a valid AAdvantage® membership number in order to receive the mileage credit. Winners who are not AAdvantage® members may join at no cost online at www.aa.com/aadvantage or by calling the AAdvantage® membership desk at 1-800-882-8880. The credited miles may thereafter be redeemed in any manner consistent with the AAdvantage® Member Guide and Program Rules (the "AAdvantage® Rules"), which are subject to change at any time without notice. American Airlines reserves the right to change the AAdvantage® program rules, regulations, travel awards and offers at any time without notice and to end the AAdvantage® program upon six (6) months notice. Travel using AAdvantage® miles is subject to governmental regulation, availability, capacity controls, embargo dates and certain other restrictions, which may include a Saturday night stay, all of which are subject to change at the sole discretion of American Airlines. American Airlines is not responsible for products or services offered by other participating companies. For complete AAdvantage® program details, visit www.aa.com/aadvantage. Sponsor(s is/are) not liable for any expense incurred as a consequence of a flight cancellation or flight delay.
PRIZE PROVIDER: American Airlines, Inc. 4333 Amon Carter Blvd., Fort Worth, TX 76155.
GENERAL CONDITIONS: By participating, each entrant accepts these rules and to be bound by the decision of the judges, which is final. Submission of an entry and/or acceptance of a prize grants Sponsor the exclusive, perpetual right to publish, use, edit, adapt, modify, excerpt, and/or copy the entry (including the name, likeness, and details of the Participant's entry) for any and all purposes in any and all media currently in existence or hereafter invented without further compensation to entrant. Potential winners must comply with all instructions in the prize notification letter and must sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility and Publicity Release within 14 days of the prize notification date, otherwise an alternate winner may be selected. By entering and/or accepting a prize, you agree to be bound by these rules and to indemnify and release Sponsor from any and all liability, attorney's fees, and costs arising out of your participation in this Contest with respect to the awarding, receipt, use, and/or misuse of any prize.
FORUM: These Official Rules shall be governed by, subject to, and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois, United States of America, excluding all conflict of law rules. AAdvantage and AAdvantage Dining are trademarks of American Airlines, Inc.

pgary

$625 for 25,000 miles?! Nice tax deduction for them, but the taxes I would pay would more than pay for a domestic ticket, without the restrictions, and with flight miles earned.

I wonder if anyone would care to report this fraud to the IRS and try to earn the 10% bounty.

sdsearch

I don't think they said it would be taxes of $625, they just said it was approximate retail value. Whether and how it's taxable for the winner is a separate question. Whether or not the average winner will think to redeem for an award worth at least $625 is a whole seprate discussion.

At any rate, I'm not excited about contests in which I have a teeny tiny chance of winning 25k miles. I prefer to focus my efforts on bonuses rather than contests, since in the long run I'm very likely to produce oodles more miles from bonuses than from actual contest I could win, even if not every bonus by itself earns a much as a theoretical contest win by itself might...

pgary

What I meant (and I believe what I said) was that the taxes I would pay on the $625, $625 being the amount they would submit to the IRS on a 1099, would more than pay for a domestic ticket, without the restrictions, and with flight miles earned. I suspect that AA will deduct $625 from its taxes, which I think would be fraudulent.

sdsearch

Now I'm super confused. With tomorrow's reduced-capacity fuel-surcharged prices, exactly where can you fly on the taxes you'd pay on $625? (Remember, you don't pay all taxes on that, for exampe not your FICA, etc. So it's not as simple, nor as much, as taking the percentage that is removed from your paycheck and applying that to the $625.)

Me, I'd combine the 25k here with 75k earned elsewhere for an overseas trip in business class, which would be valued at least 4x$625, so definitely would be valued at more than 4 times the tax on $625.

But furthermore, where did it say that the winner would be responsible for taxes? I remember that being explicitly said in other AA contests (that awarded way huger amount of miles) a year or two ago, but I didn't see it in the T&Cs for this one.

gardener

Any prize worth more than $600, the awarder of the prize is required to cut a 1099. You will pay at your marginal tax rate on the prize value. In my case, that is 35% to the Feds, 3.07% to PA, and 1% to my local township. $625 times 39% is $244, or almost a penny a mile. Not a great prize imho if the taxes are close to the true value of the miles. OK you can argue international C or F or what have you, this is why I don't fill out the UA surveys for the 100,000 mile "prize", the taxes wipe out most of the value of the prize.

Note that the above analysis ignores the effect of AMT, in other words it could be worse than my analysis if it pushes you into AMT.