Will there ever be another ValueMags?
 

Are we fooling ourselves coming here every day to see if someone has found another ValueMags? Could it ever happen again or was that the final golden egg that the frequent flyer goose will ever lay?

Radisson certainly did lay an egg with the ValueMags promotion. Poorly conceived and abysmally executed.

I doubt we will see that level of incompetence again, Certainly we will see ultra-generous promotions from time to tome from companies who want to get our attention and who, unlike Radisson, are fully aware of the cost of running a promotion and are willing to pay it to promote their brand. For example, Hilton's 50k bonus for 4 stays was awfully nice, and it made me switch hotel preference for the foreseeable future.

But as to huge bonuses for buying a product outside the main business of the company running the loyalty program (e.g., the Inside Flyer promo): no, I do not expect to see another promotion like that. That kind of giveaway went out of style with the dot-com crash.

I hope we don't see one just like it; I got in on the last day & had to go through the hassle of faxing documentation and getting my points properly credited after they were improperly reduced. I got the modest thing I was going after (topping up an NW account to an award level), but made the mistake of keeping the remainder amount (about 5K points) in Radisson Goldpoints. They changed the conversion rate and devalued that. Finally I just cashed 'em in for 500 more points and vowed not to mess with accumulating any Goldpoints.

Very poorly executed, and shows how these programs can be so volatile with rules and/or point values that it's like putting money in an Argentine bank. When people lose all confidence in these things then the marketing/promo value becomes worthless.