Best use of e-rewards $ ?
 

What award would provide the best value for $25 or $50 in e-rewards?

I was thinking 3000 HiltonH points for $50 e-rewards bucks!

Any suggestions?

2500 AA miles by a wide margin

But the AA award requires a flight on AA.

You can buy 3,000 Hilton points from Hilton for $37.50. At that rate, you're better off getting the 12 (2 x 6) Blockbuster DVD rentals. That's worth $48.

Now think about how much clicking you did to get that free movie rental. IMO, eRewards aren't worth the time and effort.

Actually, the AA miles are the best deal as 2500 miles would cost between $82.50 (for 3000) and $55 (for 2000 miles) as there is no 2500 purchase shown on aa.com, $68.75 average would be 2500.

e-rewards actually requires very little effort, once they start to send the $5 to $8 surveys, which I have had 7 of in the last 2 months. If they would post a little quicker!!! Still waiting for the $10 for the 14 day trial of ancestry.com from October.

It always makes me smile to see the value people place on rewards and the rest. I don't possibly see how you can place a value on something you were given for free. It's not like it cost $50 to get the rewards, so comparing that to what you would have to pay for miles purchased from an airline doesn't make any sense.

It depends on what you want the reward for. I don't fly American, so getting AA miles is about the same as letting the rewards expire. I'm certainly not going to redeem for a few thousand miles, then say, Gee, if I fly another 22,500 miles I'll get a free trip.

I have never rented at blockbuster, so the $152 I've accumulated so far this year is also fairly worthless to me there. Never rent for five days in a row, so Hertz doesn't make any sense.

You have to base it on what you will actually use, not the dollar value if you purchased these items from the vendor.

I fully believe e-rewards are worth it, it takes very little time or effort to rack up bucks. I wish they were still offering the array of choices that they were for redemption last year, but I'm sure I'll be able to bring my balance back to around zero in another month or so.

I really kind of like e-rewards. It doesn't take much time to rack up the dollars, and it gives me some insight into who's marketing what.

Unfortunately, there's not much to spend the e-rewards on. I keep hoping in vain for that killer $100 reward, but I haven't seen anything yet that really excites me.

PS. I have amassed over $150. If the rewards options don't change, I expect to spend my e-rewards on AA miles and lift tickets (assuming they come back in stock).

The Omaha Steaks deal is a joke. They offer the same "special offer" free on other websites at no charge. Don't get fooled into that one. =)

I will donate $15 for a domain... thinking about sabretools.com where we could host all the tools, maybe with an HTML interface etc. anyone want to help me with the webdesign?

thanks

I honestly tried to use e-rewards $ on the IBM used laptop deal, but it made absolutely no sense. It looked like a coupon that was being offered to everyone who went to the IBM site.

I use the first $25 on Blockbuster every year, and the remainder on Hilton, since you can only pick one award from each vendor per year.

How the heck do you guys get these surveys or other opportunities to rack up e-rewards? I occasionally get a $1 survey. About once every 3 months. I've had an account open for a long time with them, and maybe have ten bucks. AA miles are particularly valuable to me right now (I'm closing in on 1MM Lifetime), so I'd play ball if they'd let me in the game...

I agree ... who possibly gets all these $5 and $8 surveys? I'm happy for you! But I'm lucky to get a $1 once in a blue moon. Still, I should rack up $50 in eRewards by the end of the year and cash it in for 3,000 HHonors points. Those are 3,000 points I wouldn't have otherwise. It's not a fair comparison to say you'd be getting this points/miles if you spent the same in cash. This isn't real money. It's just partnership/sponsorship deal. The only reward that fits, is the reward that you'll actually use. I signed up for eRewards to get HHonors points. I don't fly AA much. I use Netflix instead of Blockbuster. I don't ski. Got all the luggage I need.

I always just go with the reward that fits what I'm going to be doing in the future -- what do you need, what will help you get there?

Got a $10 survey last nite. I think it was for Song.

I'm not sure why, but I think it has to do with a profile they are looking for. I am self employed, using a great deal of tech and communication products with a 16 year old son. My son has had 2 $5-$8 surveys alone in the past 2 weeks, on my e-mail. Consistency in responses may play a part.

I also agree that putting a value on something "free" is something to smile about. I guess the way to look at it is maximizing the gift opportunity-value.

Another thing to consider: airlines sell their miles at astronomical rates, so don't use those to "value" your miles. $82.50 for 3000 miles? Unless you have 117,000 miles in your account and want a 120K award on a flight that is taking off in 3 hours, you probably aren't going to do this. It's certainly fair to estimate your time spent on e-Rewards vs. the reward obtained, but be at least somewhat realistic on the value of your miles. (Hey! Aren't we overdue for another How Much Are My Miles Worth thread? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif )

welcome to FT ray there are multiple discussions on how to spend e-rewards at the S.P.A.M. forum.

Some are old, but still give a good insight on what to do with them.

I am still wondering what to do with them, as I have $120+ with them http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif

best cash-out @ e-rewards

$150 in E-Rewards - what to do?

What to do with $250.00 e-rewards?

2002 e-Rewards expire on March 31, 2003 - Expiration and Redemption Considerations

$70 E-Rewards balance - What to do?

Almost worthless e-Rewards $25 disc. coupon for eBags

Do a search in S.P.A.M. you will find plenty of information in there

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Moderator: OMNI and S.P.A.M.

[This message has been edited by jfe (edited Dec 03, 2003).]

Thanks for your input, everyone!

Based on the comments on this and all the other relevant threads, I have decided to go with the Hilton reward. It is the most useful option for me and it also seems to be the least complicated option.


-Ray

[This message has been edited by ray (edited Dec 03, 2003).]

Really good thoughts here ...
... but shouldn't this be in 'S.P.A.M.'?

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On the road, In the air,
I enjoy travel, From here to there.

Are the Vail lift tickets coming back?

I seem to get at least 2-3 big $25 surveys a year, with plenty of change thrown in along the way. I really like the program - its great, every year I can rack up enough Hilton points for a free night at a Scandic Hotel which would otherwise cost me a couple of hundred bucks.

Its a shame I dont fly AA ... because I could get more HH miles through AA conversions (or indeed free roundtrips on QF directly through AA).

The e-rewards are sucking really bad these days. I have been after VAIL tix for past 4 months and the morons at e-rewards keep telling it will come soon and its no where in sight. E-rewards is just fooling the subscribers these days..

Just finished a survey for $10 on heavy equipment.

I'm sure glad this was in MilesBuzz. I had the same question, having about 100 'whatevers' and wondering about their value and how to use it. I too sort of enjoy seeing the work of the marketing pollers.

I was here at FT when the SPAM board was created to remove what was then regarded as 'spam' from BUZZ. Since then I have never had a reason to even once look at what is posted there. I came across e-Rewards completely independent of FT. I don't consider it to be a topic only appropriate for SPAM.

I used the special offer on their site in combination with my E-Rewards.

It seems to me that the best use is putting them into the account you're trying to top off so you can redeem and award.

The lift tickets are a total scam. They haven't been there in almost a year (at least)--about the same time the higher value HHonors awards disappeared. My email exchanges went for naught, and I lost about "$100" in e-rewards due to these changes and the surprisingly-enforced expiration policy that hadn't been enforced for the previous two years.

I did discover how to get higher value surveys--after I lost my previous management job at a well-known technology company and started my own, and updated my profile to indicate I was the "decision maker" for a wide variety of corporate purchasing, the surveys began arriving.

Update!

Hmmmm. I found an e-Rewards email in my Yahoo spam folder. So I opened it: a 1-minute survey about IT stuff. I completed the survey and earned a quarter. Yippie. I also told Yahoo that This Is Not Spam, hoping that I'd get more e-Rewards stuff and not miss it. About 4 hours later, I got another 1-minute survey about slightly different IT stuff. Another quarter. I wonder if I start becoming responsive to e-Rewards if they will start sending me bigger surveys. Perhaps Yahoo has been blocking a bunch of surveys all along... Who knows.

Anyway, that 50 cents for under 2 minutes of my time. At this rate, I will be rich by 2056. Oh wait...by then, an ALON will cost 4 million HH points. Never mind...

Another update: when you actually start interacting with the e-Rewards emails, they start sending more your way. Since I filled out a couple of short surveys, I now get about an email a day from e-Rewards (whereas I used to get about one every couple of weeks).

Still nothing big, but lotsa of 25-50 cent jumps for reading an email and then answering two or three questions. Since we are talking about a tiny time investment (measured in seconds not minutes) and a small carrot at the end of the stick (1000 or 2500 AA miles for me), I will keep clicking for the sake of mild amusement...

Can you transfer the E-rewards to a hilton account that is a "mutual" or family account. My wife would like to transfer her E-rewards to our account, by generally it looks like it is only in my name even though it is a mergered account.

KT

I side with those in the "it's worth the effort" camp. I've been active for about 2-years and have amassed $235 e-bucks. Have never cashed in as I'm waiting for a tempting offer. I think it's consistent participation and some degree of influence in the IT world that brings the high dollar surveys into your inbox.

How can it not be worth it? I have racked up over $150 in just over a year. The $5-$10 surveys do take 5 roughly minutes with a good DSL connection but you figure that for roughly 3 hours of time(worst case) spread out over 15-16 months I have received 9,000 HHonors points............to me that is a no-brainer.

The dollar value of erewards is HIGHLY inflated over their true value. Right now I have nearly 50 erewards "dollars," which I will probably redeem for the 3,000 HHonors points. (That's the only thing I've ever redeemed erewards for -- HHonors points).

Unfortunately, 3,000 HHonors points are not worth anything near $50. Probably more like $30 (1 cent each) or even less. This is based on my having redeemed numerous HHonors hotel awards, trying hard to maximize value received for points.


Kathy

I think we all agree on that: the dollar-numbers they associate with the rewards are way out of whack with the value of the rewards - if we were actually talking about US currency.

But the key with e-Rewards is to throw out the dollar-number they associate with the rewards and ask yourself is the effort needed to earn those 3000 HH points worth it to you? Whether you need 50 or a million of their e-nuggets is irrelevant: it's merely a question of how much time you have to invest to get to your desired reward level and whether that is worth it to you.

I like e-rewards. I answer some survey questions, get to learn about some new products and/or deals (one of which I have taken advantage of) and end up with 3000 HHonors points. Luckily, I’m usually able to spare a few minutes when I receive the surveys. I wish that I could redeem for HHonors more than once a year, however.

Well put. That's exactly the way you should look at it. I'm thrilled. I finally got to $50 and cashed in for my HHonors points. Love to see that balance bounce past 200,000 ...

e-rewards offers the same stuff as the Discover card rewards. Discover dollars are redeemable as real dollars so there is a 1-1 payback.

Discover will double rewards with basically the same list of merchants as e-rewards. The double rewards for Blockbuster means $2.00 rentals. That is the best deal I've found, as our local Blockbuster charges $4.00 plus tax!

Gracewood groves seems a good deal. Omaha Steaks is a rip-off. The reward is redeemable only from a special rewards catalog, in which the prices are so much higher than their website your rewards cupon actually looses money!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif

Are we talking about the same "e-rewards" program? AFAIK, it is unrelated to credit card programs. Is there a connection here that I'm missing???

One big negative about the erewards program is frequent difficulty getting credit for special surveys that are supposed to pay bigger amounts, such as $10 in erewards money. At the moment, I am still waiting for $10 credit on an Oreon survey about restaurant and fast food preferences that I took a few weeks ago. I waited for 10 business days to pass, then I sent an inquiry to erewards. Got a promise that the reward would be posted "ASAP," but STILL no credit.

The value of this program really becomes questionable when you spend 15-20 minutes on a survey, DON'T get the promised reward, and then have to spend more time e-mailing to find out what happened! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif


Kathy

Curiously, I took the same survey (mid-Nov), had the same problem with credit not posting, contacted them and received the same response as you did. My credit, however, was applied later that same day.

The only reward currently offered that appeals to me at all is the Blockbuster one. First of all, it is the only one where the dollar value of the reward is in scale with the e$ used. e$25 for 6 movies is e$4.17 apiece, and that's very close to what you would pay in real $ to rent them.

More importantly, it's the only reward where you actually get something free, as opposed to a discount on something which you might never have considered buying in the first place. Although $25 for 1000 miles is roughly charging double, I might take the AA miles if I could just cash in and bank them, but NO, I have to buy an actual flight at the same time. I wouldn't mind getting a couple of fancy steaks for free, but I have to pay out to buy a bunch of their overpriced meat and then get a discount. Same thing with E-Bags; it never would have occurred to me to buy from them, so getting a discount on their overpriced stuff is hardly getting something for free.