Just wondering if any FTer won any kind of miles or travel related sweepstakes. Is it worth the time to participate in these.

If you did please brag about your winnings here.

I avoid many of them unless with a group that I already have a relationship with. downsides are:

- Odds - usually difficult to beat
- Information - they usually want lots of stuff I would rather not give them
- Taxes - unlike miles you earn, these are taxable. No way around it, unless of course the giver forgets to report them - fat chance.

Based on my experiences, some of them seem to have pretty good odds. I won one of the FT Delta tickets and have two friends (out of five us that entered) who won CX tickets from their recent contest. I've also been making my daily entries in the current Yahoo! Concorde promo.

I won 50,000 AA miles a couple of years ago. There's another thread started recently by someone who won 1,000,000 miles.

As for the tax issue, Travelocity has a contest out right now where they're valuing the miles at $0.01/mile - I'm saving a printout of the rules in case I win something and need to reduce the sponsor's 1099 (I'm an optimist - what can I say?)

Some of these contests have been easy to enter - less than a minute of time invested. As for the spam issue, I use my spam e-mail account (not my main e-mail) for these contests.

Yes, I am the one who started the other thread about winning 1 million miles. I enter contests pretty regularly and don't win often but have won a fair amount of the time. I think a lot of people don't enter due to the spam/personal info. problem. Most contests have a question like "Do you want to receive email in the future from us?" I always check no and have never had a problem with spam.

On a side note I did go to the accountant yesterday and he said he would not recommend me reporting anything other than the amount shown on the 1099 they sent me. The taxes were less than I expected so it isn't too bad.

Mike

fsumike:

Your "accountant" isn't someone like H&R Block, is it? I used to be a tax accountant in a previous life (I was a licensed CPA) - it has to be THE dullest job on the face of the earth. Anyway, my experience with clients that previously went to chain tax preparers is that places like Block are tax "preparers" (they take your information and punch it into a tax program) - they're not very good at advising you as to the different ways things can be handled.

In a previous thread, I noted how an old college roommate won over $12K (1099 valuation) in merchandise on Wheel of Fortune. His tax accountant determined the fair market value to be ~$5K - and the IRS bought off on it.

Given that the latest million mile contest by Travelocity values the miles at $10K, your 1099 is $10K higher. If you're in a 28% bracket, you're paying $2,800 more in federal taxes than if you had won the same miles from the Travelocity contest. I'd look at printing out the Travelocity rules, finding a different tax accountant, reducing the amount you're claiming, and taking a little vacation with the money you'd save.

But understand this is only friendly (not professional) advice - I'm not in the business anymore.

I have now won 3 significant travel prizes in various contests over the years. I am familiar with the law on the valuation of such travel prizes. While this does not constitute legal advice ( ), I would suggest that anyone who has won such a prize should review this thread, in which I do NOT give individualized legal advice to anyone:

http://www.flyertalk.com/pasttalk/ft...ML/001655.html

May we all be so lucky.

Djlawman

fsumike says, "I did go to the accountant yesterday and he said he would not recommend me reporting anything other than the amount shown on the 1099 they sent me. The taxes were less than I expected so it isn't too bad."

<EGO ALERT>

When I was a contestant on Jeopardy in 1988, my 'lovely parting gifts' the second night included a recliner and some stereo gear, (along with a dozen cans of Rustoleum protective paint and $25 worth of Lee Press-On Nails.) Rather than pay the list prices Alex Trebek's staff declared their values to be, I followed the advice of my accountant to get the prices of a comparable chair from a discount furniture store and the same stereo gear from a discount audio chain, then use those lower numbers on my taxes.

Both the California and Federal tax authorities found that acceptable.

About 5 years ago I won 2 free coach roundtrip tickets anywhere in the contiguous 48 states that Continental flew. This was for an entry made IN PERSON at an auto show in Raleigh. Standard caveats on advance booking, limited seat availability, etc. I forget what the resulting 1099 said, but I decided it didn't state TOO much more value than I would have had to pay for discount tickets to the location I chose, so I reported the 1099 value rather than try to fight it.

Won 2 coach tickets to HKG on NW in the monthly drawing. Might have been the runner up. It was right after the takeover by China. NW was very inflexable and gal in charge was rather curt about any variations with stopovers or upgrades with miles. At that time, I had stopped flying coach on Transoceanic flights. The restrictions took the fun out of it. The time just slipped by and there was not any followup. HKG didn't seem inviting at the time. I had visited HKG before the return to China.

One of the few times, that I won any contest.

I also won one of the FT Delta tickets, although I haven't seen them yet. I was actually hoping to go this weekend...

After reading all of the advice on this board, I think I will ask for a second opinion concerning my award and taxes. I will post early next week when I have this ordeal resolved.

50,000 miles on any airline from Pepsi Cola

10,000 miles on UA with Dollar Rent A Car

Two round trip tickets to Europe on BA from Evian promotion

Two domestic round trip tickets from a Portland, OR television promotion

You are an extremely lucky person!!!

Don't get me started on the things I've won over the past several years ... it's not really a hobby, I suppose it really is random luck