Grand Slam Summer Promotion 40,000 Miles Anyone?
 

Looks like a new promotion is launching next week....
http://www.usairways.com/grandslam

So ... I think I've got it.

Too many miles out there cause too much liability ...

So we must remove all preferred and minimum mileage bonuses ...

However we get paid for miles given by partners ...

So lets get our passengers to go out and use our partners all the time ...

The partners will have to pay us to award miles ...

So mileage liability may go up, but at least we'll get paid for the miles and not have awarded them to our passengers ourselves ...

In fact - maybe we can spin this ...

When all those annoying preferred members call us upset about the fall of all bonuses - we'll just point them to this web site and use some statement such as "evidence of our commitment to mileage accrual opportunities."

Ok, what's the cheapest way to manipulate this? Anyone figure that out yet?

The Grand Slam Bonus
 

Will be when you wake up and your miles on US are worthless. We are getting close............

If you carefully read the T&C, the bonus miles won't post until 12/12/08. If you are planning on using those miles, plan accordingly.

I see Dividend Miles Dining Listed. Does this mean that everytime I visit a DMD restaurant I can earn a hit? If so I can have Gold Status by 11 AM!

I don't quite understand this. :confused: Does this mean GP for you and someone you choose to nominate?

Yup

I was thinking the same thing as there is a smoothie shop near me thats part of DM Dining. But alas, according to the T&C DM Dining is a max of 1 hit.:(

So, I'm confused...or maybe I just don't get it. Either is entirely possible! :)

If you find a way to get points without spending any money (which is inherently cool), you don't really screw US - you screw the partner that paid US for the miles, but you didn't pay anything to get them. US wins

Sure, you get miles to add to your account, and it adds a liability to US becuase they have to (presumably) eventually make good on those miles. US "loses"

But US controls their own award availability, and can tighten it up/change the number of miles needed to redeem as they see fit. So, really, they control the risk in redeeming miles and can screw the FF who needs to redeem on a certain date by either not having availability or by charging many more miles for the ticket than they used to. US wins

The miles won't post until 12/12/08...so if you've spent money to get the miles, you've "invested" in something that, by the time you get it, (while it will still get your transportation) could realistically be worth less than when you bought it (like a car! :D) US wins

You won't get the miles until December, and the new fees for redeeming miles go into effect in August. SO, you're paying US more money to use the miles that someone else paid them to give to you. US wins again

SO, in the net analysis, you only stick it to US when you add a small number of miles to their total DM liability. In every other aspect of the transaction, they either get money or limit their continued mileage liability (by charging more miles for awards), and they come out ahead.

Also, I don't know about the rest of y'all, but I'm not really jonesing to fly on US at all -- for "free" or not. True, those miles can be used on *A partners, which I guess is really the only way to get US to pay for something (transportation) that they themselves aren't providing.

It just seems like this promo is designed to benefit US at every turn -- not the DM members who are using it. :td::td:

And, to me, seems like a big negative overall... :confused: My goal is to empty the DM account and close it, along with the Juniper card I have and be done with this airline for good.

What am I missing :confused:

NB: For those of you that are sticking with US for whatever reason, I hope you do well by this promo -- just beware of the potential downsides before spending money that you wouldn't normally spend to get the miles. YMMV ;)

Cheers and safe travels! :)
Phil

1 hit per restaurant? Or 1 hit total?

I'm probably one of the few remaining US proponents out there, yet I'm baffled by nearly all of these promotions they do. So they want me to give up HHonors or Hertz points and earn some US miles instead? Or even transfer some of my HHonors points to US miles?

The only promotions that I actively participated in were the, "Everything counts," and the 10,000 M/C Europe bonus miles, and the last simply because it coincided with mileage runs I was planning.

I'd be willing to bet there are folks out there already planning how to do this, and quickly, so they get the *G status, as cheaply as possible. But for me, if I decide I want to keep my US/*G status, it is far easier to just find cheap flights (they still exist, just take a little more digging).

Does it irk anybody else that 100 people (50 X 2) will be given Gold status by virtue of shopping with 24 US merchant partners without having to fly at all? I think that this is more insulting that the Mistake Golds from last year, because this time they are consciously giving away Gold status, while those of us who earned it by 50K+ miles of BIS flying are "rewarded" by losing our bonus miles!

A few months ago I probably would have said yes. Now I just don't care (like US feels about us). I've pretty much given up on US. I already have Gold for next year and have moved over to UA where I will be 1K shortly.

Except for hotel stays and car rentals, it's basically one hit per partner, with US Airways Dining being a single partner.