e-Rewards devaluing AAdvantage award
 

Received this from e-rewards. This means that the value of the reward has been cut by 60% to someone like me that uses them for AAdvantage miles.

Hello patrickATX,

Using your e-Rewards currency to get American Airlines AAdvantage® miles is about to get easier. That's right—based on feedback from members like you, we will soon be changing the reward items offered by American Airlines.

Beginning August 29th, when you redeem your e-Rewards currency at the $25, $50 or $100 level, you'll earn AAdvantage bonus miles credited directly to your AAdvantage account—with no flight required:

· $25 Level - 500 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles
· $50 Level - 1,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles
$100 Level - 2,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles

If you're planning to redeem your e-Rewards currency for the reward items currently offered by American Airlines, please keep in mind that the last day they will be available on the e-Rewards Reward Chart is Sunday, August 28th. The new rewards will be available for redemption beginning Monday, August 29th.

Sincerely,
The e-Rewards Team

I see both positive and negative in this. I have about $80 in rewards right now. I was trying to take a flight and get the actual miles, plus get the 2500 mile bonus from e-rewards. However, this way I can forgo the flight, save the money I would have spent, and get some miles directly to my account without flying. So depends on how you look at it, I guess.

Maybe they should have offered one set of rewards with a trip, one set without.

For those of us who fly AA reguarly, this is bad news! I love the way they try and spin this into a positive. I wonder how they obtained the members feedback which they claim they used in making this change??

I have already wrote a protest response to them. :mad:

That would have been nice indeed. For me, this is good news in that I can now use otherwise useless e-Rewards currency to occasionally top off my AA account between HHonors redemptions.

But for those who fly AA, I can see why this is bad news. :(

And the email the o.p. posted from e-Rewards reminds me of the letter I once got from my bank telling me they were closing my branch "in order to serve me better." :rolleyes:

I hope I get a survey soon! I'm at $48!

:eek:

I think this new change is probably a response to the new offers from NWA (as they are identical in terms) as well as 'customer feedback'.

I received a response to my complaint: :td:

Good Afternoon,

We appreciate that as a frequent traveler you have found the current reward structure valuable. We continuously evaluate our reward offers and use member feedback such as yours to identify ways to make them more useful for our members.

Last fall we offered a special promotion to our members, allowing them to redeem e-Rewards currency for AAdvantage bonus miles without the flight requirement. We received a lot of positive feedback from this promotion, and still receive e-mail from our members asking when we plan to remove the flight requirement again. It is largely in response to this feedback that we have changed the American Airlines rewards.

We empathize with your position, and understand how, as a frequent traveler, you would feel that the value of the American Airlines rewards has been diminished. However, for a great deal of our members this change is an improvement. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this change may cause. We hope that you might take this opportunity to consider redeeming your e-Rewards currency for rewards from our other program sponsors and partners, in addition to claiming the AAdvantage bonus miles.

Sincerely,

Corie Marsh

I wonder if AA award will become once-a-year as NWA is.

The survey had better arrive today as the new AA award takes effect Monday.

I think it sux. The AA award was the only reason I am still participating in erewards. I was at $35 so I cashed in a $25/1,000 mile award today and will stay until I get the few dollars needed for a Blockbuster award then I'm gone. :(

I got a survey yesterday for $6 which will take me over $50 - just got to hope it posts before Sunday

Good point, hope not. But I guess we will find out in 3 days (still old terms on web site).

ONCE a year! You must be joking!

well this it may be not to good for a lot people who fly american but it will be good for a lot more like who we dont fly a lot im sorry for all of you

agree in theory, but what about those that sometime when fly those that be already credit many too late ???

I received the same canned response as Patrick did to my complaint letter. :td:

I know I'm in the minority when I say this, but I, for one, am extremely happy with this. We don't fly much and when we do, we always use our award miles. It will be soooo nice to be able to get AAdvantage miles without flight activity.

Woo Hoo!!! :p ^

Huh?
Care to translate that into English? :D

Very amusing all this. There were a bunch of threads here recently saying e-rewards are useless since one could only get AA miles every 90 days.
(HH points are every 90 days and the two from separate accounts per 90 days into HH mutual accounts have been shut down.
Plus 1 AA mile is worth 2 HH points)
They changed that to every 30 days, but the complaints continued.
Now you can get miles without flying....more complaints. :rolleyes:
Did it occur to some, now there is no excuse to ever lose reward $$?

Since we have two e-rewards accounts here and get over $100/month this might not be a bad thing because less HH redemptions are now available.

mike

Nope, you're not in the minority. :) This was becoming frustrating not having items other than Hilton points and having to fly to get those miles.

I E-Mailed them a week ago and received a response from Ms. Marsh a few days ago to ask if they could partner with Apple so that we could redeem E-Rewards for songs, gift cards, and other items from the iTunes Store.

e-Rewards is a Dallas-based company, and although they offer other rewards, it has primarily been a vehicle for AAdvantage members to earn additional miles. The fact that they offer diluted Hilton rewards is IMO like airlines facilitating mileage redemptions for magazine subscriptions. With that in mind, AAdvantage members are better served by receiving “full value” bonus miles earned when flying as opposed to diluted bonuses earned without restrictions. It would great if there was a choice, and then everyone could be happy. However that is not the case, and given these two options, it is clear which side should prevail. I am sure that others out there do find small quantities of miles beneficial, but the people that benefit most from AAdvantage miles are the people that are active members, flying regularly. My ability to earn AAwards is much greater than someone who can’t redeem an e-Rewards bonus because they don’t even fly American. While I am sure that the minority has exceptions (Citibank members, those that cannot book online, etc), the heretofore non-vocal majority has every reason to be upset.

The program is open to everyone. The awards have, for the most part, been consistent. I cannot see the logic in people choosing to participate and subsequently complaining about the awards offered. Why would anyone become an actively involved respondent in the program if they did not like the rewards? That being said, I doubt that the “enhancement” is actually based on a grassroots campaign by the grounded AAdvantage members. That would definitely be shortsighted. I cannot imagine anyone choosing to join e-Rewards in light of this program modification. Even if that assertion is incorrect, I am quite certain that defectors will outnumber new recruits several to one. I for one cannot justify the time necessary to answer e-mails, complete surveys and periodically chase credits when the redemption rate has plummeted. Whereas I expected to receive 15,000+ miles again this year, I am now looking a revised rate of 6,000 miles annually under the new system. No thanks!

I still have not received an e-mail from e-Rewards, and I am uncertain the significance of this omission (?). I just redeemed another $50 reward, leaving $30+ in my account. I hope that the changes are not unilaterally imposed on all members. However, if that is in fact the case, I will let e-Rewards know my displeasure and let my account go idle until it nears lapsing. Hopefully, e-Rewards will return to the preferred reward redemption options before next spring.

Sam

$100 per month? Wow!

And I thought Hilton Hhonours at once every 90 days was bad

cannot agree with you more. They should offer AA miles like they do with NW without any strings attached. I am for it.

While I was able to make great use of the $50 e-reward of 2500 AA miles for a flight, and wish it hadn't changed, my biggest issue with this change is the ridiculous devaluation.

We're going from the current $50 = 2500 AA miles (redeemable every thirty days) with a flight to $100 = 2000 AA miles (redemption period not mentioned, but if it corresponds to the new NW offer, could be as poor as 1 redemption per year). That's quite a dropoff.

Since I rarely fly AA but have enough miles in my account for a free ticket that I will eventually use, this new option is one way to keep the account active. I can see a big devaluation for those of you who use the current reward, but at least I can now use it. And it's another option for in between HHonors rewards.

I am pretty happy since I didn't have much luck with the prior (with flight) AA awards and given that I collect both AA and NW miles this means I will now need to earn over $e400 before I run out of redemption options ($100 AA, $100 NW, and 4 $50 Hilton).

I thought that your points expire after one year - but that you could exchange your points for miles within the same program more than once during a year.
Am I incorrect? If so, can someone point me to a link showing me the rule?

Thanks!

I am in exactly the same situation as you are. Keep in mind now you can also get NW miles too.

The Party Is Over
 

For those who havent checked the website this am 8/29
You will find the new changes and redemptions scheme is now posted

BUT EVERYBODYS WORST FEARS HAVE COME TRUE.
ONLY ONE AA REDEMPTION PER YEAR 2000 MILES = $100

The fat lady HAS sung. :mad:

mike

i notice that they failed to mention the once per year part in the original notification email.

Some improvement :td:

I'll be cancelling my account as soon as I cash in the last of my rewards.

I got a $5 survey last night and converted a $50 award....whew!

To those thinking of closing the account...you could refuse to do surveys and just get enough emails every year for the free Blockbuster award.

Great Idea! You must still let e-Rewards know why you are boycotting.

I forgot that you get upwards of 25 cents for receiving e-mail, right?

Sam

Wow! I finally found where it said that you could only redeem for AA miles once a year. It is buried in the membership agreement.
There is not such entry for Northwest Airlines - which is weird since even the ones with no limits on redemptions say just that.
So what do you think the policy is for Northwest?

If you go to redeem the NW miles, it states the limitation in small print on final screen before redeeming the reward.

Redemption Limitation: Redemption of this reward is limited. A WorldPerks account holder may claim only one Northwest Airlines reward per calendar year.

They sure do bury that language!

Make that 2 of us!! I have nothing else to redeem for!! Good bye
E-NoRewards! :mad:

erewards is finished

So I was wondering how many of you were serious about quitting on e-Rewards. Personally, I just reached the next level for rewards ($50) and cashed in for HHonors points. As soon as they post, I am cancelling my e-Rewards account. The once a year redemption of fewer miles just isn't worth my time.

Good luck to those who are staying.

I just cashed in for a $100/2000 mile AA award. I'll continue earning enough to qualify for another $100 award in January, then I'll be done with it.

That's pretty much my plan too. I need about $8 more for a 2000 mile reward, then I will bank another $100 to redeem the beginning of 2006, then I will stop. Since they will take 3/4 of my miles in July anyway why would I go on earning them?