I thought this was a great offer when I first saw it posted here on this board, but am having second thoughts.

I don't collect AA miles, so I'd have to start from scratch to get those 20,000 points (converted to 25k miles). If, as noted above, it takes 10 minutes to complete the surveys and get 190 miles, it'd take over 17.5 hours to earn a free ticket!

I'd bet that most people on this board earn enough salary after several hours to purchase a domestic economy class ticket.

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade, really, but the above program and similar ones really do prove that there's no free lunch: you've still got to devote time and effort to "earn" those "free" miles.

Good luck to those willing to work for those miles, but I think I'll just stick to using my Diners Club instead!

Depends on whether or not those 17.5 hours could be used productively otherwise ....

Besides, and maybe I'm in the minority here, my take home pay would make it worth it for me to do that ... (500/17.5 = $28.50/hour tax free basically ...).

Even better than the AA miles is that for 25,000 VacationMiles you can get a ticket on DL, which I'm thinking may even earn FF mileage!

Don't feel bad Beckles, I pay others to let me work-- 36 hours straight sometimes, mind you. So if it takes 15 min/day to get about 200 points, so be it. It'll be well worth it when I relish in the thought of not sitting in the back of a tin can. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

And for those of us lucky enuf to connect via a highspeed line (e.g. at work) we're talking more like 5 minutes a day (unless you are really lingering over those survey questions.)

Anyway, I came across the following press release, which would seem to indicate these TalkCity points may be offered for quite a while (however long that is in Internet time.)

Talk City, MyPoints.com Team Up for Co-Branded Loyalty and Incentive Program
PR Newswire - Sep 08, 1999

Talk City User Base to Receive Incentives for Business Services,
Market Research, and eCommerce Programming

SAN FRANCISCO and CAMPBELL, Calif., Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- MyPoints.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: MYPT) and Talk City (Nasdaq: TCTY) today announced a strategic partnership to operate a co-branded incentive program for www.talkcity.com, the consumer community site of Talk City, Inc. The program, called MyPoints(R) by Talk City, will support the company's Business Services offerings and enable Talk City users to earn points for taking part in market research, focus groups, eCommerce, and online shopping activities that support the company's Business Services clients. The program will also be used to reward activity within certain areas of the company's consumer site. MyPoints.com (www.mypoints.com), a leading provider of Internet direct marketing, incentive and loyalty products, will manage the MyPoints by Talk City program ( http://talkcity.mypoints.com ).

Talk City's Business Services offering is a portfolio of interactive services -- from online events and online focus groups to online customer support and fully customized community programming -- which allow companies to have more immediate and direct interaction with their customers. Some of Talk City's major Business Services clients include Novell, Nokia, Kemper, and Starbucks, among others. Talk City's consumer audience, which frequents the www.talkcity.com community, is often tapped for market research, online panels, and polls to support the company's Business Services clients.

"Our ability to use the consumer audience and the online moderators of www.talkcity.com as a real-time, always available market research panel is unparalleled in the industry, and a key component of our Business Services strategy. We chose MyPoints.com as our incentive partner because their program was easy to implement and cost-effective, provided very targeted market possibilities, while at the same time was generous to the consumer who enrolled in it," said Christopher Escher, Talk City's Marketing vice president. "MyPoints by Talk City is just one of the many ways Talk City is rewarding its users, enhancing its Business Services offering, and giving consumers more reasons to keep coming back to our online community."

Under the MyPoints by Talk City program, Talk City users will have the opportunity to earn loyalty points in a variety of ways, including:

-- Online focus groups
-- Transacting online with advertisers through the MyPoints by Talk City
Program
-- Online polls
-- The creation of homepages, group tools, and other retention-based
activities on www.talkcity.com
-- The registration to become a member of Talk City and the MyPoints by
Talk City program
Points earned through MyPoints by Talk City may be redeemed for a wide variety of products and services, such as travel awards, gift certificates, and prepaid phone cards from more than 50 name-brand rewards providers.
"We are excited to add Talk City to our expanding network of top-notch Web sites who have turned to MyPoints.com for cost-effective online incentive solutions," said Steve Markowitz, Chairman and CEO of MyPoints.com. "MyPoints by Talk City gives Web users yet another reason to deepen their relationship with Talk City and gives its Business Services clients an even more targeted audience for the online market research."

[snip - omitting company information and “safe harbor” statement]

(Copyright (c) 1999, PR Newswire)

Thanks for the tip! - An easy way to get some miles.......Renee

Thank you for posting this. My son, husband and I all have Mypoints accounts so we are all collecting the points for this. It's taking about six minutes each on a high-speed cable line, which I figure is about $38 an hour tax free. It's really good pay for my 10-year-old son who enjoys answering the questions.

I didn't mean to sound arrogant about the hourly pay issue (at the present time I'm not making all that much myself, but that's okay). Rather, I just wanted to emphasize the fact that it'll take over seventeen hours of pointing and clicking to get a free ticket that might be worth only two or three hundred dollars.

But then again, maybe I will sign up after all and give it a try for a while. Ah, the things we do for miles...

A free ticket can be worth considerably more than $200 or $300. I last used a freebie on a transcontinental trip (SEA-BOS) that did not include a Saturday night stayover. If I had paid for that ticket, it would have been $920.00. Also, using miles for upgrades or biz/first class tickets increases the mileage value dramatically.

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Addicted to airline miles? Check out: The Airline Mileage Workshop

I think the party's over. This morning when I tried to take the poll and collect the points, there was a red banner above the poll results that said "you have voted already for this survey." It appears they are making it a weekly survey. RATS!

Don't get all hyped up and start dreaming of your trips to Hawaii for answering surveys - it's probably a scam like Questions.net, which I read about on this site about a year ago.

I would be very surprised if it didn't work like Questions.net did: They offer a few points up front in exchange for a pile of personal survey questions, and then promise a stream of questions every so often to get more points. (Watch that daily list of questions to move to weekly, then very rarely, if ever)

After they get your info, they don't send another question, and the few points that you've received aren't enough to even transfer.

Result: free customer survey data!

I'll believe it when I see it.

LI DEBBIE...

Go ahead and still click the MyPoints logo even if you get that message. I too got the same response, but hit the MyPoints key and STILL got my 10 point bonus for each and every survey question.

Give it a try!!!

The points posted for me for yesterday and the day before, but today when I click on the points button I get an error message that says the site is down, overloaded or unreachable. Don't know if this will clear up or if they're purposely keeping people from getting the points daily. Will check back later...

Has anyone been able to get on the mypoints site? I have not been able to connect since yesterday afternoon. Either connecting direct or through talkcity.

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Happy travelling and remember - No matter where you go, there you are.

evanjill- You had better luck than me. When I tried again there was still no response from talkcity/mypoints. No points

Baze- I can't get through to mypoints either. Got the message that netscape was unable to locate the server-doesn't have a DNS entry.

Something's up!!

Just went to MyPoints and checked my account--no problem. Also saw that my points for the TalkCity survey questions answered a second time were again posted correctly. The survey WILL say you have already answered, but it will STILL give you the points.