Monthly Archives: March 2009

Oh, so now you’re going to give me points to butter me up?

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I’ve been pretty upset lately. Hilton/AMEX closed down their Advance Your World Challenge due to an overwhelming number of cheaters and probably an underwhelming performance from their IT department. Both companies ought to be ashamed with they way they are handling this fiasco. Before I get comments bashing me and reminding me of Terms & Conditions, kindly recall my positive attitude when this promotion commenced. Nothing but praise. Worst promotion award should be a new Freddies Awards category.

Check out the message Hitlon/AMEX posted on the game’s site. They didn’t even have the decency to email people. I had to find out about this on a forum!

Thank you for playing the Advance Your World Challenge brought to you by the Hilton HHonors® Card from American Express. Unfortunately, we have found some technical issues with the game that resulted in erroneous scores. As a result, we have made the decision to end the promotion in accordance with the official rules as of March 27, 2009.

 

We will still award the 1,000 prizes, but will do so through a random drawing of everyone who registered as of March 27, 2009 and meets the eligibility requirements. We will notify potential winners on or around May 18, 2009.

 

We know many of you devoted significant time and effort to playing the game. We thank you for your participation and apologize for any inconvenience. If you have further questions, please email questions@eprizefulfillment.com.

So they are now going to radomly give out prizes? Wasn’t the purpose of this “event” for people to win prizes based on their skill and practice? But, I do wonder, since there are were so many cheaters registered, how will the organizers of this game know if the players they chose for the prizes were cheaters or duplicates to begin with? They could contact every single person that registered and request an ID to be scanned and faxed to them. That’s what I’d do!

One more thing. If anyone is paying close attention to the FlyerTalk thread that discusses this promotion, notice that around page 44 of the thread, members are receiving emails with 3,000 and 5,000 HHonors points as an apology. Of course, you have to craft a nasty complaint email to HHONORS@HILTON.COM. I did so yesterday, and as of 8PM on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 I haven’t gotten a reply yet. We shall see.

Have a nice clicK life, (really AMEX, have a nice life as those form/generic replies are really starting to tick me off!)

-Mark

US Airways extends double EQM period until the end of April 2009. Kinglobjaw’s prediction was right!

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It was just two days ago when I was speculating if US Airways would extend it’s double EQM promotion. They did! That means my Hawaii trip now will possibly count for double elite qualifying miles! Even though it was booked in February, I’ve heard from quite a few people including my father, that itineraries booked before the promotion still got double the EQMs! I’m hopeful.

With my US flights taking me ORD-PHX-KOA; LIH-PHX-PHL-ORD, instead of getting 10,032 EQMs, I would get 20,064! Very hopeful! If only US would remove the silly “must ticket after registering for promotion” clause a la United doing so yesterday, I would be thrilled! Still, very nice of US to offer this extremely generous promo and extending it. Props for US Airways!

 

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

100 free miles with Delta, Northwest, Lufthansa and others.

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Very easy and free 100 miles with Delta, Northwest, Lufthansa and 16 other companies after filling out a simple form. More details available at Mobile Miles.

One thing regarding the phone number you enter. DO NOT enter your own or change the ‘+372′ prefix for Estonia! Just add 7 more random digits and hit submit. You will then get a confirmation page.

You can try doing it again and again for all the programs that you earn miles/points with; however be sure to enter a different phone number every time. You can also use a different email every time, should you choose to do so, but it is not necessary.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Very generous offer for earning miles on a car rental.

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Right now, the best offer for earning miles on a car rental is Delta’s offer for partner Avis where you can earn up to 5,000 miles per rental. Here are the full details can be found here: http://www.avis.com/car-rental/html/partner/dl/deltaoffer2009.html

Basically, you get 2,500 Delta SkyMiles for 3 day rentals, 5,000 miles for 4 days or more.

Here’s the good:

  • No flight required, so you can fly in on any airline you want.
  • Bonus miles are valid on any car class you rent
  • 2,500/5,000 miles is in addition to base miles you earn (base miles for Delta SkyMiles program are 50 miles per day or 500 miles on 5+ rental days.)
  • Expires on December 31, 2009 (Rental must begin on/before this date, so it is a long lasting promotion unlike many other car related ones)

Here’s the bad:

  • Miles only earned at airport locations (not promotion related, but a typical Avis rule; however you can rent at airport and return at non-airport location and still earn miles)
  • only US/Canada rentals qualify for this promotion
  • Must use the AWD discount provided by Delta on the promotion page (link again here: http://www.avis.com/car-rental/html/partner/dl/deltaoffer2009.html)

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Did US do 2X EQM’s a bit too early? Or should the other airline FF’s thank them?

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Just as US’ double elite qualifying miles promotion is about to come to a close, other airlines are announcing their own versions of double eqms for Summer 2009.

Last year it was all about AA patching things up after their MD 80 fleet mishap, but this year it’s about getting more people on board planes. US is to be commended for leading the big six (soon to be five) into double eqms promotion which everyone matching, though Delta being the most restrictive.

But, I do wonder: could it end up hurting US Airways during the busy Summer travel season? Will they extend their promotion to last past March 31, 2009 to match the other airlines during the summer. Maybe! Probably not, though. Nice promotion given that US Airways rarely does flying related promotions. I am seeing however that for their new transatlantic routes such as TLV and OSL, they are offering 5,000 bonus miles for Envoy bookings, and 2,500 for certain Economy fares.

One final thought. These 2X EQM promotions have one pesky rule requiring that tickets be booked after the promotion commences, thus previous booking are immedaitely disqualified. Tricky, tricky!\

 

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

A Copacabana congrats to US!

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For those who haven’t heard yet, US Airways was one of two airlines chosen for the new 2009 Q2 Brazil air services. That means, US’ service from PHL via CLT to GIG will commence in October 2009! Nice!

US is planning to use a 767 for this service, however there is a possibility of an upgrade to the A332 if all goes well and profitable.

Of all the carriers flying to GIG, I think Delta and United should fear the most. US Airways’ proximity of the CLT hub will most likely affect Delta’s ATL-GIG. United’s route from IAD will probably loose some passengers who will prefer to fly from DCA and connect through CLT instead of going out all the way to IAD. Fact of the matter is, DCA is so much more convenient than IAD and everyone knows it!

Again congrats and best of luck to US Airways on the route. May it do well an open up the possibility of new South American routes!

If you’d like to know what I think about US Airways opening an Envoy lounge in CLT, look here: http://www.usaviation.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=45319&view=findpost&p=675396

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Want 3,500 Marriott Rewards points or a $25 VISA Gift Card?

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Just got my Marriott Visa card statement and I usually don’t look through the offers and ads included, but one stood out. It read “3,500 Marriott Rewards Points or a $25 VISA Gift Card”.

Here’s the jist:

You need to call and set up an over-the-phone appointment where Marriott’s Vacation Club “steals” approximately 30 minutes of your time to tell you about the value of owning a Marriott Timeshare property. For that you get the equivalent of $25 in the from of a Visa gift card or 3,500 points added to your Marriott Rewards account. I chose the points.

Call 800-527-1889 or visit www.Marriott-Timeshare.com/VISA for more information.

There’s a page full of generic rules, but some of them could be dealbrakers:

  • Open to couples and individuals making $60,000 per year or more
  • Only open to residents of AK, CT, DE, GA, IL, KS, ME, MD, MA, MO, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TX, VT, VA & WY
  • 18+
  • Expiration date is 3/25/2009, so act fast!

The agent I spoke with set up an appointment for Friday at 10:30 AM (only times available at this point are weekdays early AM), so I’ll let a Marriott rep waste 30+ minutes of my cell airtime.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Muscles ache, AMEX cheaters, Friday the 13th mess, HAJ no go and more!

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As I am typing this I am in quite a pain. I started working out to get into better shape last Monday and every foot (maybe not that much) of my body is aching. My solution? Go work out some more! I think my arms and shoulders hurt the most!

After Friday, March 13, 2009 I stopped playing AMEX’s Advance Your World Challenge that I have been praising so much since it started. Too many cheaters, and the company isn’t doing too much about it. What more? So many of these cheaters have suddenly become new members on FlyerTalk explaining how righteous they want to be and fix the problem. Since I started blogging about this challenge, I have to say, traffic on my blog has doubled. I’m sure being in the Top 7 added to this…

Here’s how I see it. New guy/gal learns about the promo and the prospect of getting $10,000 cash for virtually nothing, then Googles the Top 7. Kinglobjaw is quite a weird user name, so I guess people have stumbled upon my blog and it discovered my posts where I mention the direct FlyerTalk link. I read the FlyerTalk thread about this promotion daily and I see 5 or 6 new users that have joined FlyerTalk in March 2009 and have fewer than 10 posts at this point. These schemers want to be liked by others and mask their real intentions with a glitch that probably never occurred. I mean, the other FlyerTalk members who have been around for a longer time- not one has reported the “endless speed boost” glitch these newbies are reporting. I could be wrong, but these newbies are the cheaters! Food for thought.

Onto my next topic- Friday the 13th. I remember the day started out well because I made first place on the Advance Your World Challenge. Hours later, “lightning” had come to my place. You see, it was around 5PM when I decided it was time to vacuum again with the brand new DC-25 Animal Dyson vacuum. It’s a very powerful machine. A suggestion, the vacuum is absolutely amazing and a must have. To make the unpleasant story short, my hard drive got zapped. As unlucky as can be, my surge protector and fairly new battery backup failed during the less than one second it took for me to turn on the vacuum. Needless to say, my hard drive died, I got the “blue screen of death” and part of my stuff was not backed up! Lesson learned! As a replacement HD I bought a 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black from Best Buy and so far it’s fine. It’s slightly quieter than the one that died. I will try to contact Seagate about the cost of data recovery and decide if it’s worth it.

My HAJ trip has been axed and what a shame!

Last but not least, I’m counting the days to my Hawaii trip which occurs at the end of April. We’re all set in First Class on US as we were upgraded at the time of ticketing. No need to check loads every day to see F buckets disappear and worry; however my PHX-PHL return could go into oversell mode so I’m ready to volunteer should the need arise. I know a lot about US Airways, but I’ve never been bumped before so I don’t know what kind of compensation to expect. Honestly, I’ve never heard the announcement before either so I am going to ask around on my next flight.

Different kind of post today, but I thought it would be nice to offer an update.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Update (2) on AMEX’s Advance Your World Challenge

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This is a second update on regarding American Express’ Advance Your World Challenge in partnership with Hilton HHonors.

Got a comment in my previous post from another player, Eryeal. This is the good kind of player, not a cheater. He’s just less than half a second ahead of me and I am done for the night. Guess I will continue this tommorow or maybe I should take time off over the weekend?

I can’t believe how I’ve put my entire online life on hold to play this for hours!

 

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Update on Advance Your World Challenge

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I’ve been so quiet over the last few days- sorry! The truth is I have been playing arduosly to get into the top seven of the Advance Your Wold Challenge. As of 11PM CST I am on 5th on the rank list with a score of 5:14.905 with 4th place so close!

The game is great- I have improved immensely in Tokyo the most, but I find Costa Rica the hardest at this point.

I think a lot of people are cheating in this challenge, notably “shiniwata” who was already removed twice.

I also see some FlyerTalkers are participating which I knew would happen- good luck to you guys and gals. Currently, FlyerTalk is off limits for me (I’ll be back in a few months), but I do see someone is talking about me on Page 7 of the thread. To answer the question- yes it is me who is participating. I am Kinglobjaw!

I will post an update in a few days. Be sure to wish me luck! I wish you luck as well! Don’t cheat. My fingers hurt so much, but I won’t mind if you are honest.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark