I am thinking about hooking up Earthlink DSL service. My promotional options are as follows:

4 Southwest flight credits
5000 Delta miles
Discount of $84

Would you take the discount or the miles? I value the Southwest credits at $75 minimum, as the flight coupons sell for $300 on ebay. I currently have 75,000 Delta miles and 11 Southwest credits.

I'd take the four Southwest credits. Since you're already at 11 credits, you'd only need one more to get a free ticket, and that would arrive probably around the same time your $84 from Earthlink would -- and certainly a free ticket is worth more than $84. Just my two-cents worth.

Be very careful with your DSL choice. So many DSL companies require a one year contract, and so many people have been burned with terrible service and huge cancellation fees.

Earthlink in your area may be fine, but make sure you do the research first

http://www.dslreports.com

If you don't think you will be able to get the 4 credits in time for an RR ticket, then I would agree. But if you will get them anyway, I'd opt for the cash - unless you really are saving for something special on Delta. Probably the 5000 are only worth about $75-$100 depending on how one values them - but the $84 is always worth 84 (plus interest). And the $300 value of an Ebay RR ticket is actually a little less, since you have to give a percentage to Ebay.

I signed up for Earthlink DSL and wish I wasn't stuck in a 1-yr contract. I signed up in late november and still haven't seen my skymiles post yet. You have to wait on hold forever if you have a technical question. What I wish I did was sign up for Earthlink dial up (no 1-yr contract), with the same 5,000 bonus miles for less than 20 a month, and get DSL or a cable modem through a provider which doesn't make you get a 1yr contract.

Four WN credits = 25% of a ticket
5000 DL miles = 20% of a ticket

$84 is a different story.

I'd take the 4 credits since you're so close though. If you had fewer than 8, I'd say the cash.

I know this isn't responsive to your question, but I had nothing but problems with Earthlink and never even had service. They never shipped the modem, "installed" the service on the wrong phone #, told me that the local phone company didn't own my other line (total BS), and then started billing me - they credited my Visa a large amount and then continued billing all over again, resulting in monthly disputes that lasted about a year.

In response to your question, (1) Are the WN credits going to "good use" (ie, you will earn enough add'l to make the other 3 turn into another ticket, or otherwise not going to be able to earn 1 credit), (2) Does 80K DL Miles give you an award you really want but can't get at 75K? If its just going into a bank with indefinite use, probably a waste. (3) I'd take the $ if 1 or 2 are negative.

Does Earthlink have a good reputation for actually posting miles/credits correctly and promptly? If you will have to make phone calls, wait on hold, write emails, etc. to eventually get your 4 credits or 5000 miles down the road, it makes those rewards worth significantly less because you have to invest your time to get them.

I assume the $84 is just a billing credit. Figure there's at least a 50% chance they'll get that right the first time. If they hose it up...well, they can fix billing credits pretty easily with one phone call.

Remember: telecommunications companies are NOT to be trusted. Take the quick reward - the one you know they can't blame on another company if it goes awry.

If you value miles like me at $0.015/mile (yes, it is a bit lower than others who value it at $0.02/mile), then 5,000 Delta miles = $75.00. I would take the cash, you could whatever you want with it immediately.

[This message has been edited by steve100 (edited 03-10-2003).]

in this day and age the answer is easy: cash.

In order for the Delta miles to be worth anything approaching $.02 a mile (or anything,for that matter), you have to be able to get an award seat. Have checked several itineraries recently, and have only Sky Choice seats available, at twice the # of miles. That considerably devalues the Delta miles, IMO. Thus, I would go for the cash.

Djlawman

Cash.

Meager as it may be, you can earn interest on cash if you save it.

Cash can be used towards the purchase of just about any product or service you want - even if it is not travel-related. For example, you could apply that $84 towards an extra principle-only mortgage payment. This move alone could potentially save you hundreds of dollars, which is a far greater return than can be realized by redeeming miles.

Cash is transferable to anyone if need be.

Everybody values cash. Not everybody values frequent-flyer miles.

In my e-mails that I regularly receive from Delta, I occasionally find an offer for $200 or so to fly to the West Coast from Atlanta. This makes the $84 42% of the value of a ticket - far greater than the 20% of a Delta ticket using 5,000 SkyMiles.

Cash will not devalue as miles in a frequent-flyer program can - especially these days, when the very state of frequent flyer programs as we know them are in jeopardy and changing for the worse for the frequent flyer. In fact, I question the future value of the miles I already currently have in my frequent flyer accounts.

I could think of many more examples of why I favor cash versus miles, but I think you get the idea.

This is why all of my credit cards have a cash rebate option of one form or another. I enjoy getting cash back from every one of those cards, and believe me, the cash definitely adds up.