aztimm

Do you know how much effort these people will have to put in to get these hits, and be the first 50? I'd bet that all will be gone by July 10, probably closer to July 7. After all, those who get into this can take advantage of the long July 4th weekend to pick up all their cars, check-in/out of the hotels, while eating, and buying a plasma tv they've been planning to buy anyway on their US credit card. Not that I'm condoning it, but these just aren't for me (but I did consider it for about 30 sec).

If you think about it, if someone has the 2 US credit cards (10k miles each), and takes 2 trips to Europe in a year (maybe 15k miles each with creative routing), they could be close to gold anyway.

Mrp Alert

Where in the T&Cs does it specifically limit you to 1 hit from DM Dining? I can't seem to find it anywhere??

Beckles

Grand Slam Terms & Conditions

Mrp Alert

Wirelessly posted (FlyerTalk.com/wap is fun : Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D062; Blazer/4.5) Palm 690p 16;320x320)

the way I interpret the terms is that dm dining is worth 1 hit. the max of 1 hit only applies to buy, gift, or share miles programs, no?

Art234

There is an interesting subtext to this promotion. Did someone in Tempe lose sight of the fact that this is an airline and not a marketing company? Did anyone notice that this bonus program is to get us to do just about everything BUT fly them????

They are trying to generate revenue by getting the partners to pay for miles.
I think it would be fine if we all ignored the program. Besides, if they keep going the way they are now, they won't be around long enough for anyone to use the miles.

So they are pulling just about ALL incentives for actually flying them, but giving them to us for NOT flying.....brilliant airline marketing I must say...then again, look who's running the ship in Tempe......

I feel bad for the US folks on the front line...I really do.......

Evan!

In comparison to Delta's partner promo earlier this year as well as Northwest's the US Grand Slam promo pales. However, US' explanation of the rules as well as the presentation of the qualifying activities FAR exceeds the haphazard verbage Delta used in their copy.

• DL - Max of 25K bonus SkyMiles
• US - Max of 40K bonus Dividend Miles
  • Winner US
• DL - 6000 miles increments per (most) threshold
• US - 4000 mile increments per threshold
  • Winner US
• DL - Any DL-branded credit card purchase however small (per card type)
• US - Must earn 3K miles to get ONE partner credit (per card type)
  • Winner DL
• DL - Conversion of any amount of (qualifying) hotel points to SkyMiles
• US - Minimum conversion into 3,000 DM of (qualifying) hotel points
  • Winner DL
• DL - Any stay at a partner hotel (group) counted as one qualifying partner
• US - The second stay qualifies
  • Winner DL
• DL - Max one qualifier per hotel group
• US - EVERY second stay, even if within the same hotel group, counts as a qualifyer. This might seem to be a winner for US... but sadly... from the US TOC "Maximum five (6) hits per member." NOTE: they typo of the word "five" with the number "6" is US's typo and NOT mine. So the winner is again....
  • Winner DL
• DL - No minimum purchase $ amount from SkyMiles Shopping
• US - Minimum $200 purchase from Dividend Miles Shopping
  • Winner DL
• DL - Max of 1 qualifier per car rental partner no matter how many times one used that same partner - total possible were 8 per SkyMiles member.
• US - Max 6 "hits" per DM member for all car rental partners combined
  • Winner DL
• DL - One single car rental from one qualifying car rental partner earned one partner activity
• US - Two rentals required from one qualifying car rental partner to earn 1 "hit" (ex: every second rental from Avis earns 1 "hit") STILL... a total of 6 hits per member for car rentals so even though I could get 6 hits from 12 Avis rentals......
  • Winner DL
• DL - Any type of points.com conversion into SkyMiles counted as a 1 unique partner activity.
• US - Per TOC: "The following activities do not count as Qualifying Partner Activity or Hits:....Dividend Miles earned by exchanging (“swapping”) another loyalty currency into Dividend Miles at points.com." I converted 30 Dividend Miles for 1 (yes ONE) SkyMile at points.com and it counted as 1 unique partner activity.
  • Winner DL
• DL - No special reward for being quick about using partners
• US - Gold status if one of the first 50 to reach 24 hits
  • Winner US

us2

I think the promotion is insulting to high revenue FFs who fly short hops.

To put the cutbacks on elite mileage bonuses in perspective, 40000 miles is more miles than one would get from 60 annual roundtrips on the DCA-LGA shuttle (25,600 by my count), which is 120 segments to qualify for CP. Pricing out the current unrestricted Y fare of $334 one-way, such an individual would spend $40,080 on the year, for a cost of $1.57 per RDM. All that flying over a year earns you one Y saver award (if you can find it).

When you compare this to, say, WN's RR program, the difference is astounding. Not only do you get into the A-List program, you get a companion pass as well good for unlimited use over the course of a year for flying over 50 roundtrips. In addition, you've earned 7 free tickets for yourself. Which is the better deal, bearing in mind that US plans on nickle and diming you for everything?

And this is why US is doomed. On all the short-haul routes on which they compete with WN (and there are a lot of them), WN offers more for less.

Edited to add: the Companion Pass is good for award travel.

Beckles

Did you read the link I posted? "Number of Possible Hits" says "1" for "Dividend Miles Dining." For comparison, "Earn one hit for every second rental from the same Qualifying Partner. Maximum six (6) hits per member. There are 8 Qualifying Partners: Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Hertz, National, Sixt, Thrifty." says "6" in the same column. I think it's pretty clear you can only earn one hit from Dining regardless of how many times you dine at however many different restaurants. Quite frankly I think US did an incredibly good job of making the terms and conditions crystal clear compared to a vast majority of other airline and hotel promotions, and I'm hardly one to praise US.

Beckles

Evan, interesting summary, but I'm not sure I'd agree with your assessment of DL as the "winner" for rental cars and hotels. While DL did only require one rental, they limited it to one "hit" per partner, the fact that you can earn up to six hits with a single partner, even though it takes two rentals/stays for a hit, is probably a plus for many folks who prefer to stay at just one or two hotel chains and prefer to rent from just one or two car companies. I'd just say they're different and there is not a clear cut winner.

Regardless, DL's promotion is not going on right now and probably not in the near future (since the last one ended not too long ago), so clearly US's is the better one that you can participate in for now.

Mrp Alert

I have read and re-read your link repeatedly. I agree with you that US has done a wonderful job with writing their rules. Where I disagree is the wording.

The Number of Possible Hits varies between 1 and 6 with certain activities being specifically limited in volume. Car Rental Partners, Hotel Stay Partners, Buy or gift miles at usairways.com or points.com, Share miles with a friend at usairways.com or points.com, and US Airways Incentive partners explicitly state the number of times that the bonus can be earned. Why is it that Dividend Miles Shopping Mall: Spend $200 or more in qualifying purchases not including tax and shipping. does not have a limit whereas the following 2 activities have a maximum earning limit? The rest of the list states no limit except for the last item DM Incentives.

Read based on the T&Cs, 1 possible hit can be earned for each of the following activities without a stated limit:
AIG Awards For Mortgage And Real Estate, Biscoff, Bose, Charlotte Observer, Chase Home Mortgage, DHL, Dividend Miles Dining, Dividend Miles Wireless, E-Miles, Energy Plus, E-Rewards, Florist.com, FTD.com, getAbstract, Giftsense.com, Homeloancenter.com, iNest.com, ING Direct - ShareBuilder, LendingTree, LifeLock, Marriott Vacation Club (ownership purchase), Microsoft Live Search Club, Netflix>, Network Solutions, OfficeMax, Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, Realestate.com, Reservations Rewards, Sentry Insurance, SkyMall, Starwood Vacation Ownership (SVO) (ownership purchase), SuperShuttle & ExecuCar (counts as, partner), TD Ameritrade, Thanks Again, Trackitback.com, US Airways Cruises, USA Today, Wine Insiders

ExitRowAisle

Just from skimming through the T&C's, it seems that one can earn many bonus miles for $0 or little cost (depending on where you live):

1. Microsoft Live Search ($0)
2. Sentry Insurance ($0, limited to certain states)
3. AIG (assuming it's for a quote - $0) (SEE (A) BELOW)
4. E-Miles ($0, probably only available to those who aren't signed up with another airline's program)
5. E-Rewards ($0, probably only available to those who aren't signed up with another airline's program)
6. Thanks Again (launder a shirt for $1 - $2)
7. Rewards Network ($1 - $3, buy a coffee or beer)
8. Office Max (less than $10 even with shipping)
9. Netflix (less than $10 for one month, probably technically only available to those who aren't signed up with another airline's program)
10. LifeLock (approx. $10 for a one month subscription)
11. USA Today (less than $15 for one month)
12. SkyMall (less than $20 with shipping -- probably can do better)
13. Biscoff (less than $25? with shipping, didn't spend a lot of time checking out all of the products)

This ignores the offer(s) where you tie up capital (TD Ameritrade) or divert your earnings to US Airways (hotels and rental cars).

(A) Edited on 7/3/08: AIG was added to the list of financial partners. Unlike Sentry, it requires that you switch to AIG to get bonus miles. Cost is >> $0.

dcpatti

So how do you get your purchase to qualify? Do you have to purchase thru the partner link on the US website? Just wondering as I have a number of Hilton, Marriott and Avis reservations already booked thru Amex Travel at work, and I wouldn't mind getting some extra miles if I can. :-D Gotta replace all the miles I am trying to burn off right now...

alanh

Go to to the full T&Cs and look at the table at the bottom of the page. The first column indicates the maximum number of hits per partner.

soonerfanatic

Actually, the verbage used in the T&C's is misleading and unclear.

While it does say "Number of Possible Hits" in the title, why in the details are there "max hits" on some but nothing on others?

1 Buy or gift miles at usairways.com or points.com (max 1 hit)
1 Share miles with a friend at usairways.com or points.com (max 1 hit per member)

This is misleading and I would think that each "dine" would be unique activity and no max restricting since there is no mention similar to above. Time to screenshot copy the T&C's right now since they may change......

Beckles

I've seen a lot of promotions and the terms and conditions are often terribly written. To claim that these terms and conditions are misleading or poorly worded I think is ridiculous quite frankly, except for the one typo where they say "five (6)" (and six everywhere else, making it clear to me they mean 6) these terms and conditions are about the best I've seen for such a relatively complicated promotion. I think it's perfectly clear that "Dividend Miles Dining" is good for one hit total. You guys are trying way too hard to justify it meaning what you want it to mean when it clearly does not mean that.