T&C appears to have been updated with the expiration now requiring activity during the past 12 months. I'll contact them to ask them what they define as "inactive" and report back.

This actually appears to be a huge liberalization of their previous policy, under which 75% or 80% (I forget which) of any currency in your account at end of your membership year was just taken from you - no matter whether you were active or not.

So if you'd been saving for a reward toward the end of your year and didn't complete enough surveys for enough currency to claim the reward - or even if you weren't allowed because it hadn't been 90 days since your last airline redemption for example - they just stole it from you. :mad:

Now it seems like if you are active (whatever that means exactly, thanks for checking, freetravelguys), you will be OK. Kind of a big relief, actually, since we don't have control over the timing of earning or redemption...

FTF

Their prior policy was very unfair. I redeemed some currency a couple of months ago because it was set to expire, and even after I did that, they still took away a percentage of what was left over. I suppose enough people complained about it. I emailed them yesterday, but no reply yet, so when and if they do I'll post their answer here.

E-rewards [Master Thread]
 

I know the consensus is to not make 2 deposits from 2 ereward accounts into 1 airline account within the 30 day redemption period, but FWIW I'm wondering if anybody has actually tried depositing from 2 erewards accounts into a mileage plus account (in the same 30 day period) I would really like to take advantage of the MileUp promotion just 1 more time!!

E-Rewards is known to take adverse action and close duplicate accounts. Do u really want to take a chance ..

Can't say I'm surprised after sister company e-miles did the same.


Dear (beachmouse),

As an e-Rewards® Member who joined us from either Delta Air Lines or Northwest Airlines and has claimed Delta SkyMiles®, we wanted to notify you that Delta Air Lines has chosen to no longer make SkyMiles® available to us as a Reward option. However, as of January 1, 2013 you can redeem your e-Rewards Currency for an expanded list of frequent flyer currency from American Airlines, Southwest, and United, as well as other travel partners!

EARN 25% MORE IN 2013

To show our appreciation for your participation in 2012 and to make your e-Rewards Currency go further with your new Reward options, we are going to award you quarterly bonuses for your activity during 2013. You can earn 25% MORE e-Rewards Currency for every survey answered!*

What's the catch? There isn't one -- just keep responding to surveys! Your 25% bonus will be credited after each calendar quarter during 2013 based upon all the e-Rewards Currency you earned during that quarter.

It's our way of saying - Thank you!

*Your 25% earnings (e-Rewards Bonus) will be credited within 2 weeks following the end of every calendar quarter. We'll notify you when your account has been credited.

This could be pretty valuable, I hope is available for everybody (the 25% bonus-) I redeem about 1,000 miles a month.

I contacted them on December 21st and again December 24th which I realize is Christmas Eve. Tomorrow will be seven days since my first contact and I am not impressed. I realize we had Christmas this week but companies that deal with customer service don't close for the whole week.

Opps, I just saw that they say they try to answer in 5 business days and with the holidays that probably means like 10 so I will not hold my breath.

It's been less than that since I emailed them and I haven't heard back, but if I don't then I won't be too annoyed. In the end this is something I get for nothing, so my expectations aren't too high with them.

Yeah I agree. I had emailed several companies on Monday the 17th about products I was interested in. Two of the companies I have not heard back from and I would give up but I am having a hard time finding something that fits the various requirements I am looking for. I sent another email to both companies yesterday. And when I called I was told I had to email.

So my point is I just feel like I am waiting a long time for responses. At least e-Rewards states 5 business days in their auto-response.

Anyone else notice a difference in Hilton Honors redemption costs ? One acct shows $100 for 7000 HH points vs another at $125 for 7000 HH points.

Sorry for the bump but Ive been having a crappy time with e-rewards. I get about 2-3 emails a day but they are ALWAYS expired. I installed the notify app thinking it would help and I click through instantaneously when it pops up (and before the email arrives) but it is still ALWAYS expired. Any advice?

Probably because you are outside the US?

I noticed that a few weeks ago. In my opinion it seems to be the newer accts that have to pay the higher rate.

I have been a member if e-Rewards since 2000 and I definitely only redeem 100 bucks for 7000 Hilton Honors points.

You found the right thread. Maybe you should have searched it too:

It seems accounts sponsored by HH still have the $100/7 K rate. I have one such account which was opened very recently.

You can't do the survey while in a country, different than the one your e-rewards account is based. The surveys show as expired.

Aaaah. Makes a lot more sense. Thanks. Will have to wait till I'm back there in March then.

To be more precise, you can't do a survey while e-rewards' server thinks you are in another country. Connect through a proxy server in the desired country and it'll be fine.

This is one of the most annoying aspects of e-rewards. I have plenty of time to waste on their surveys during long layovers between overseas flights, but then their servers don't want to let you! I mean, isn't it obvious that people interested in something like e-rewards might be people who travel?!

Well, the logic is most probably this: They target specific groups for surveys. If they target US residents, it makes a lot of sense to check if the person taking the survey is really in the US, otherwise he is not relevant. I suppose there's been a lot of cheating, so they introduced the checks (there were not checks initially). It doesn't combine well with the travelling, I agree.

When this came up before (I have beeen burned by this too), someone suggested using a proxy server, and I believe a list of several was posted some time ago.

Although technically they're trying to avoid answers from outside the US, as neuromancer suggests this is no doubt a meat cleaver approach to avoiding non-US participants registering as US rather than an attempt to weed out international travelers...

FTF

E-rewards [Master Thread]
 

FWIW: I am out of the country right now but was able to complete a $2 erewards survey (small but put me over $60 for a PC redemption!) so all is not lost!

My account is now showing $100 for 7,500 HHonors. However I also noticed e-Rewards added EK, FL, F9, UA, US and several other new airlines partners. $100 for 2,000 MileagePlus miles, consistent with the former DL rates and the other airlines.

I got to e-rewards by way of Delta, and have 7K for $125 as my Hilton option. And no airline partners showing right now.

All Airlines Options are Active
 

All of the airline options are now showing up in my account. Formerly, only Delta showed up--of course, that is now gone.

Thanks but was the sarcasm really necessary...

It seems as membership increases e-rewards fills their quota faster as I've noticed. US accounts seemed to be better but Canadian based accounts have limited opportunity and fill up way sooner. Another problem is its annoying to be data mined for no reward well into a survey to be told its expired/filled at the end....unethical not be advised at the beginning.

Just tried e-miles to see what its is like ....seems ok so far.

Likely thats it.....2008 acct vs 2012 account....Thanks

I don't think that's totally it. My account was opened Feb 2007, and I have the $125 for 7000 HH points, so if it's a cutoff date it goes back quite a few years.

I normally redeem for Gamestop gift cards, and the redemption for a $25 gift card has gone from $50 e-rewards dollars to $75. :( would have been nice to have been warned so I could spend the $270 in banked credits somewhere else...

I don't know if my customer service e-mail made the difference, but I've now got all the FF redemption options.

Is 3K Avios for $100 a better redemption deal than some of the other FF program options?

Depends on how you plan to use the Avios. Also depends on whether you can easily transfer the IB balance to BA balance because I dont think there is any easy way to build a large balance in IB program.

As I've only have ever gotten the $100/2K partner airline redemption option, I'd say definitely yes.

Well.... my account dates back 10+ years and it too is now showing $125 for 7K HHonors :(

I'm wondering there's less to it, rather than more. I have 3 accts, each with different partner sponsors. 2 have it, one doesn't. I think with the level of CS that e-r provides - perhaps they just haven't gotten around to converting all the accts yet?

I think this is probably the reason. The account I have that is 100 USD for 7,000 HH points I started to keep my HH acct active. So that reasoning makes the most sense.

It also happened to be the account I opened 13 years ago so that is why I thought it was by date.

How do you get them to respond?? I have now contacted them 4 times over 16 days and nothing. Is this normal? Do they respond to emails? I sent 2 emails to [email protected] and the other 2 times was from the contact form on the web site.

My e-Rewards currency was supposed to expire Dec 31st yet I know I have one month grace period. I think they took off the expiration dates but it would be nice if they confirmed it and responded to one of my inquires. I don't want to use the currency now if I don't have to.

If you no longer see expiration date showing online, lest assured you do not need to worry about it.

It is not a good idea to "hoard" the currency if you have reached $100 because:

1) there is usually a 30 days to 90 days before you can redeem for the 2nd redemption on the same type of award.
2) the miles can devalue as the latest HHonor redemption shows.