E-Rewards Question
 

I have $100.34 in E-Rewards points. If I redeem $100.00 will I lose the remainder plus any more points that I accumulate in August when they do their yearly sweep? Anybody have the answer?

I think they do that at the end of June, no?

Often they give waivers to high earners, but if not I think your "penalty" would be 75% (of $.34): 26 cents.

I see my membership year ending on June 30, 2007. Does that mean I lose 25 percent of the points after that date?

It means you lose 75% of your accumulated points and keep 25% on June 30th, 2007. Spend them on June 29th for whatever you can and hope they release enough surveys before then to get up to the $25 level to cash in for some miles.

so wait wait wait I never knew about the amount expiring?? I have roughly 40.00 and I have gotten several rewards, all my miles are used up. I really should get some flowers or something. hmm :confused:

I think it sucks you can only use the miles rewards once a year.

Here's the rule from the website. The expiration date depends on when you join, and you should have 30 days from the end of your membership year to redeem. If you look at "my account" on the erewards web page it will list your expiration date, and the dollar amount subject to the expiration.

Section 8) Expiration of e-Rewards Currency

All Members of e-Rewards will be assigned a Membership Year based upon the date of enrollment in the e-Rewards program ("Membership Year"). As described below, Member's initial Membership Year will be between 12 and 15 months in duration. Each subsequent Membership Year will be 12 months in duration. Each Membership Year will end on the last day of a calendar quarter and shall be determined according to the Member’s enrollment date as follows:
Members whose enrollment date is on or before December 31, 2002 shall be assigned a Membership Year ending on June 30 of the year following enrollment and June 30 of each year thereafter.
Members whose enrollment date is on or after January 1, 2003 shall be assigned a Membership Year ending on the last day of the calendar quarter in which the Member enrolled of the year following enrollment and on the last day of the calendar quarter of each year thereafter. For example:
Those who enroll between January 1 and March 31, 2007 shall be assigned a Membership Year ending on March 31, 2008 and then on March 31 of each year thereafter.
Those who enroll between April 1 and June 30, 2007 shall be assigned a Membership Year ending June 30, 2008 and then on June 30 of each year thereafter.
Those who enroll between July 1 and September 30, 2007 shall be assigned a Membership Year ending September 30, 2008 and then on September 30 of each year thereafter.
Those who enroll between October 1 and December 31, 2007 shall be assigned a Membership Year ending December 31, 2008 and then on December 31 of each year thereafter.
All e-Rewards Currency earned during any Membership Year must be redeemed within 30 days following the end of the Membership Year. (For example: A Member who enrolls on August 21, 2006 is assigned a Membership Year ending on September 30, 2007 and must redeem Currency earned during the Membership Year running from August 21, 2006 to September 30, 2007 by no later than October 30, 2007.)
Following the end of the 30 day period, as set forth in Section 8.b. above, seventy-five percent (75%) of any unused e-Rewards Currency remaining in a Member's account that was earned during the just-ended Membership Year will expire, and will be removed from the Member's account. The remaining twenty-five percent (25%) of the e-Rewards Currency earned by the Member during the past Membership Year shall be automatically transferred into such Member's account balance for the next Membership Year. For example: At midnight of July 30, 2007, Member has $100 of unredeemed e-Rewards Currency earned in the Membership Year ending June 30, 2007, and $5 of unredeemed e-Rewards Currency earned between July 1 and July 30 2007, for a total account balance of $105 in e-Rewards Currency. On the morning of July 31, 2007, Member will have a total account balance of $30 in e-Rewards Currency: $5 earned in July 2007, plus $25 (25% of $100) rolled over from the Membership Year ending June 30, 2007.
At e-Rewards' sole discretion, e-Rewards may choose to waive or defer enforcement of the expiration of Member’s e-Rewards Currency.

I agree, but you can go for HHonors points which can be converted to AA miles.

The conversion in that direction is BAD, though. Better to use the HHonors points for hotel stays. @:-)

I agree that the yearly expiration and loss of 75% of one's points is perhaps THE worst feature of e-rewards. :td: But, quite often, people are given reprieves from the expiration rules, without even asking. If you end up being stuck with points and no way to redeem them, consider e-mailing e-rewards and asking for this. It can't hurt.

A lot of people have had luck getting their e-rewards points put back in their account after they expire by sending an email and asking them.

This is why I stopped wasting time with E Rewards

Just a reminder
 

There is now a reward at Borders: $5/month credit for three consecutive months (non-combinable and cannot be "rolled over") for $15 of e-rewards. Available once per calendar year.

My anniversary is the end of May. At the beginning of May I received an email from erewards offering to extend my expiration for another year if I would update my profile. I did, and sure enough the points did not expire! Great since my 3 month waiting period for more Hilton poinds was June 8!
I think they are tryinf to be more customer focused than in the past.

If they really wanted to be customer focused they would end expirations for active accounts.

This "trying to be more customer focused" is NOT new. They have been doing this for AT LEAST the past couple of years, if not more. (There are a myriad of other threads on e-rewards in this forum, and you'll find the same questions and discussions on some of them as on this one.)

I agree with mvoight that they ought to eliminate the annual 75% of points expiration....

Thanks everyone. I redeemed $100 and will take my chances on the rest.

OT, but just had to post.

The survey I just completed asked my sexual orientation!

And for "Single" there were three options - 1) in a relationship, but living together; 2) in a relationship, but not living together and 3) not in a relationship.

These times are a changin'. :o

ooo, you didn't get the 'hotel' questionaire??? lots of questions for what you'd pay for 'entertainment/communications' services? Totally loaded questions, that you couldn't answer without a complete hassle, then last question??? heterosexual, gay, lesian, bisexual, prefer not to answer? and the answer was???? who writes these surveys?

And why do they want to know. I took that survey too & couldn't believe it. Talk about OT. The question certainly was.

They ask for the same reason that they ask about your gender, race, etc.... they want to get a wide sample of the population, and that means various demographic information. More and more surveys are asking that, these days.

e-rewards SUCKS and should die soon
 

It took me a while to realize it, but e-rewards sucks.

Tried redeeming AF/KL points, but the dodos at e-rewards programmed their system to require 12 digits, while AF/KL cards have only 10 digits. Doh!

Tried redeeming "$100" ... but this is inflated currency. $100 gets you 2000 miles. $100 should earn you 10 thousand miles. A penny a mile is the normal currency rate.

So next time you get an e-rewards solicitation that says you'll earn $5 for completing a 15-minute survey, forget it. $5 = 100 miles. Not worth 15 minutes of your time. Especially since the survey will take 30 minutes to complete, will likely have bugs in it, and will also likely exclude you (and you'll get $0.50, i.e. 10 miles, for wasting 5 minutes of your life and being told that your quota was already completed).

The nail in the coffin is that the currency expires one month after the end of each year, so your "dollars" may have a life expectancy of as little as 31 days. Say you get an opportunity to "earn" $5 today, and your "membership year" ends in 8 days. This means only get 38 days to spend the $5 (I mean the 100 miles). And since you're unlikely to get enough survey opportunities that you qualify for to get to a meaningful awards, you're S.O.L. Any airline program at least has points expire after they've been in your account for at least a year, or 18 months, or 36 months+. This is a cumbersome and low-rewarding program, where you can't earn enough points for anything meaningful has points expiring in 31 days after earning them!!!!! This is NONSENSE.

Finally, if you've already redeemed points once on an airline, you can't redeem them again! So you can't use it if you get too many points, like over $100. You can't use it if you get too few points. And if you have "$75" you can't redeem a $50 and a $25 reward ... the program is absolutely inane. Only if you earn exactly 100 or 50 is the program at all marginally useful, but there are far easier ways to earn 1000 miles.

e-rewards will die soon when its "members" realize that it is a bad program where the hype does not match the benefit. Join Ameniti and other duds.

NWA e-certs are available on e-rewards again, hurry, may not last long.

Just finished one that asked that myself.... Can't see that they really need that info for their demographics.

FORTUNATELY, I just got a reprieve and don't have to stress over when my actual expiration is ^

Thank you for accepting our invitation to become a Member of our Preferred Research Panel by updating your Member profile information.

The e-Rewards Currency earned and in your membership account as of June 30, 2007 has been rolled over for an additional Membership Year and will remain available to you for Reward redemptions through June 30, 2008.

Someone mentioned the surveys taking a LONG time....I find they take much less (usually) than the estimate. It's very little time (for me) and free miles, so I'm satisifed :)

today when I logged in there was an offer to update my profile to avoid the loss of e$ from before the 6/30/07 earn date.

e-rewards is giving some people a way around this.

there is a time restriction true, but that does not mean you can never earn that reward "again."

This is what I find odd. My 82 year old mother gets the reprieve every single year. She doesn't accumulate much by way of surveys, yet they want to keep her as one of their "preferred research panelists." "This panel is comprised of e-Rewards® Members whose stated interests are especially important to our market research clients." :confused:

True, there is a limit of "once per calandar year", but if your first redemption was on December 31, 2006, you can redeem again on January 1, 2007! So it's not "never again"!

So do I, and this year I have over $111.00 in my account! (And no, I'm not 82 or a mother!)

Maybe they don't have many members in that particular demographic and want to hang on to the few that they do have? ;)

:D :D :D

As other FTers have already pointed out, a number of your "facts" are incorrect. :rolleyes:

The biggest assumption you seem to be making is that e-rewards is some kind of recent program that will die as soon as people realize how "worthless" it is.

I've been a member for nearly SEVEN years -- since the year 2000. While the program does have its limitations and annoyances, I've found it to be a reliable source of Hilton HHonors points, which can be redeemed once every 90 days. Also, over the years, the program has actually been greatly improved, with the addition of far more rewards partners, rewards at different levels, etc. It used to be that Hilton points were the only thing I found worth redeeming, but now there are a number of airline rewards, Borders Rewards, etc. that are worthwhile as well. @:-)

Make no mistake, I've been very critical of e-rewards a number of times on some of the numerous threads on it in this forum. But the improvements in the program are real.

And BTW, if you truly think it is "worthless," there is a handy "Cancel Membership" button on the "Manage My Account" page. ;)

Where on Earth did you get that errant idea from? Miles are valued at MUCH more than 1 cent per mile. The actual monetary value for buying miles on AA.com is 4 cents per mile ($1000 for 40,000 miles). However, the actual value of a mile is usually thought of as between 2 and 3 cents. I use 2.7 cents per mile as my baseline.

Your one cent per mile is almost impossible - no one will give you miles for that cheap, and if you find that out, let me know where you are looking.

Imagine, a Europe coach ticket for 40,000 miles only being worth $400 - No, sorry buddy.

It IS true that miles are often valued at only one cent apiece (this is REDEMPTION value, not PURCHASE value -- it is really erroneous to value them in terms of how much you pay to BUY them!!!). And there are a lot of ways to redeem them that yield LESS than one cent per mile. At the same time, you can in fact at times redeem them at a value of quite a bit MORE than one cent per mile (e.g., international premium class saver air awards).

Bottom line, though: even our illustrious founder, Randy Petersen himself, often uses the "one cent per mile" approximation. @:-)

Anyhow, the valuation of miles is something that has been discussed on zillions of other threads, on the MilesBuzz and various airline forums, so it's probably veering way off-topic for this forum. Go take a look at those forums for further discussion.

The point remains (it's a valid one) that e-rewards "dollars" are a "currency" that is usually worth less in real dollars than their nominal value. I value 3,000 HHonors points at about $20 in redemption value, but it costs $50 in e-rewards currency to get that $20 worth of points. @:-)

Maybe in your experience, and based on your departure cities. I've never had a mile valued at less than 2 cents, unless you are talking a short-hop award ticket (and I seriously hope people aren't gullible enough to redeem for a 1000 mile flight valued at $200 with their 25,000 miles).

I value my miles quite high, based on what you can get for them at their maximum value. For example, I fly a lot from Canada - Peru. Tickets on this route are ALWAYS upwards of $1000, but are a mere 30,000 miles to redeem on AA. Likewise, last year I redeemed a ticket to Ushuaia, Argentina (at the southern tip near Antarctica) for a mere 40,000 miles when the value of the same-itinerary ticket was available for purchase for $2,600 (a value of 6.5 cents per mile). And no, I don't measure value in how much I am *purchasing* the miles for, I'm measuring them in what the value of the product you are recieving in return for the miles (how much AA, for example, is "paying" you). So in that case, the higher the better.

As for me finding another forum to discuss this in, I'm not too sure I was interested enough in discussing it in the first place - I'm mainly just calling a spade a spade and challenging the rather pessimistic and depressing claim of 1 cent per mile.

You will note that I already cited some examples ("international premium class saver awards" as a whole) where miles are worth more than 1 cent each, so you are essentially just repeating what I already stated. You might try reading a little more carefully next time.

Also, you are contradicting yourself by stating: "And no, I don't measure value in how much I am *purchasing* the miles for," where a few posts above you stated: "The actual monetary value for buying miles on AA.com is 4 cents per mile." Hmmm.... @:-) (Actually, your math is wrong anyhow: $1,000 for 40,000 miles is a purchase price of 2.5 cents/mile. :))

Nevertheless, one cent per mile is commonly used -- even, as I said, by Randy Petersen himself. If you want to challenge that valuation, have a look at those threads in MilesBuzz first.

Yes, I did the math wrong, if that makes you happy (as you seem to be!). Better get down to the engravers and get a nice trophy done for "Best Fter at making other FTers feel like garbage".

How about we agree to disagree? I'll just finish by saying I value my miles at $5.00 per mile. They're more valuable than life itself, and I would trade my house for 2,500 miles. :p

I'm a psychologist by trade, and I know pretty well that neither of our personalities will ever let the other be "right" when it comes to this subjective topic of value of miles.

As for your persistence regarding Ye Great Leader Randy Petersen's take on the topic, that seems hardly relevant. Again, it's a subjective value, and I don't think it can be set in stone by anyone (though I'd like to try). Just because we have Randy to thank for beginning the FT community does not make him some sort of demigod or ultimate authority when it comes to miles.

Have I blasphemed?

I stand by my 1 cent per mile, it is not an errant observation and there are MANY supporting datapoints and many threads on this topic.

And, BTW, off season, which is when seats tend to be available from NYC to Europe, redemption values are usually 50,000 miles on most airlines, and tickets CAN be gotten for less than $500. ... Peak season is more expensive, but the cheap awards tend to be unavailable or highly restricted ... and remember, awards don't earn miles. So thank you, what you though was a counter-example has just provided one more proof point about the 1 cent/milevaluation.

No way do I buy 4 cents per mile as a valuation; that is an outlier, and purchased only by someone who needs to "top up" a balance to reach an award. It is not comparable to the MANY ways of buying miles that are closer to 1 cent, or no more than 2 cents.

And even if you think miles are worth 2.7 cents, God bless your willingness to pay retail, eRewards values them at 5 cents ... even you have to agree their "currency" is inflated, at double your high valuation!

The point is that the eRewards "dollar" is highly inflated. While it doesn't approach the inflated value of, say, the Zimbabwe dollar, it is far from equivalent to the U.S. Dollar.

Put this another way: I just received a "15 minute" survey that would credit me with "$5" assuming I pass all the hoops. Never mind that a "15 minute" survey takes 30 minutes if you actually read the questions and answer honestly.

But let's take 15-minute claim at face value. It means it takes 5 hours of your time to "earn" $100 in eRewards currency. You may think this values your time at $20 per hour. Which is certainly too low for most people. And if you evaluate this at the rate of 1 penny a mile, which is the MOST I would pay for a mile, it means you are earning $4 per hour. THIS IS BELOW THE MINIMUM WAGE. HARDLY AN INCENTIVE.

And when you really realize the absurdly inflated eRewards value, you just earned 2000 miles in 5 hours of your time. That is, if you can actually redeem the miles with the various Byzantine restrictions on frequency of redemption and expiration dates.

I'm happy for you that your time is worth that little, and that you have 5 hours to waste for a measly 2000 miles. Is your life really so worthless that you find working for an hour for a TOTAL compensation of 400 miles to be worth your while? I am so sad for you.

Add to that, the fact that many people who post on this board brag about lying on the surveys to "qualify" for the erewards, and to get through the survey faster. This means to me that the value to the SPONSOR of the surveys is compromised, and the net impact is that the person PAYING for the surveys is getting bogus data ... and the person DOING the surveys is getting compensated at a paltry rate.

I stand by my assertion: eRewards sucks, and deserves a miserable death.

I agree with you vsevolod that eRewards sucks, at least when it comes to earning miles. Personally, I don't pay much attention when doing a survey (I multitask) and give it whatever answers I think it's looking for, and eventually the money racks up in my account enough for a redemption - I definitely think it's un undervalued currency, though.

Some exceptions: The Borders $15 for $15 in-store credit that was around last winter (the new 3 x $5 sucks, since you can redeem it only once per month, so forget about getting a book for free). And, the FTD $25 for $25 gift cert isn't bad - I've redeemed it and have paid only a shipping charge for some gift items, which would have been full price on AA's FTD site (with the only difference of earning a couple hundred miles on AA).

I was being sarcastic when I said I value miles so highly. But, I usually stick to a maximum 2 cent per mile value in my head, in terms of what I would buy them for. The actual value of those miles is a lot more, at least 3 cents, based on the somewhat remote airport I fly out of with AA. Tickets are always extremely expensive, and as long as I book far enough in advance I can get tickets reasonably easy and for much less than their retail cost on AA.com

Point is, I just don't care for Kathy too much, and I was getting carried away. Sorry to get you riled up. eRewards does suck, but it is useful for SOME rewards...

They have other ways of extending your points for another year, which allows you to build up your balance. This is nice if you like to hoard and never spend. All you Adult ADD pack rats line up :D

I just completed an update 'survey' that extended my points another year.

Most people don't treat surveys like a part-time job. They take them because it's (for them) a fun thing to do in a few minutes of spare time.

Excuse me, when did this turn into a question of whose life is more valuable? Personal attacks, even if not directed at a specific person, are really uncalled for here. Some people choose to spend hours a week watching their favorite TV shows for ZERO compensation... I'd imagine even you do that. Is that worth their while? Please don't judge people for what they choose to do in their spare time, whether that's watching TV, watching paint peel, or filling out surveys for what you perceive to be negligible compensation. We all have our hobbies.

For me, I pity these people that take time to B**ch about a progam that they don't have to participate in. Who's time is being wasted by that? If you don't like the return, fine, don't play. This is a game and some of us enjoy it enough to continue. If you don't, it really says something about you that you lower yourself to complain about those of us who do. My response to you: Get a Life of your own and stay out of mine! :rolleyes:

I finally qualified for a "big ticket" survey worth $23. Posted within minutes. :)