Kinglobjaw's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘amex’

This will probably be my final post regarding AMEX’s Advance Your World Challenge.

By now, all winners should have gotten an email stating the prize you won. Still, all participants should check their name against the winner’s list just to make sure they did or did not win. Sometimes spam blocking technology can misinterpret the email and block it out completely so you can’t even find it inside your ‘Spam’ folder.

In order to to get a copy of the winner’s list, send a blank email to WinListRequests@eprizefulfillment.com. Be sure to include a subject and at least one character inside the body. It’s an automated email so all they do is take down your email address and then they email you a copy of the list once the promotion is over. Technically, it isn’t over until after May 18, 2009.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Remember the Advance Your World Challenge brought to you (and cancelled) by Hilton & AMEX?

Guess what? I was one of 993 first prize winners. What does that entitle me to? 10,000 Hilton HHonors points and Diamond VIP status extended thru early 2011!

Was hoping to win the grand prize, but oh well! Better than nothing.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

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

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

Alright, get ready for the coolest, most rewarding sweepstakes ever! This beats any sweepstakes in the past that were deemed good, even US Airways’ 50 cent flights!

Why? Because winning is based on skill, not luck! Advance Your World is the name of the game. Pun intentended. The sweepstakes is a game!

Basically, you enter seven races in different parts of the world and you try to get to the finish line in the least amount of time possible. On the way, you collect power-ups which can help you avoid obstacles, reduce your score by two or three seconds and speed you up. The top 1,000 people are the winners. Top seven scores get the Grand Prize- 1,000,000 HHonors points, $10,000 cash and Diamond VIP status until March 2011. The other 993 top members each get Diamond VIP until March 2011 and 10,000 HHonors points deposited into their account. No luck necessary! Maybe an ailment for your fingers?

Everything about the race is Hilton/Amex themed- from the seven race track courses set at seven destinations where you find Hilton family hotels. Hawaii, New York, Costa Rica, Italy, Japan, Australia and Mauritius are the courses. The power ups are things like 2X Hilton HHonors points, No Annual Fee and Baggage Insurance Plan. Here’s a screenshot of the Tokyo, Japan track.

Easiest track? Hawaii, USA. Most difficult? Tokyo, Japan due to the many unexpected turns and road blocks. Lots of cops too!

You can race as many times as you need to get the lowest score. This contest ends on April 15, 2009. As of 5PM Central Time on Monday, March 9, 2009, my rank on the list was 198. I hope I can at least get my 10,000 bonus points since I doubt I’ll get one of the the top seven spots. My gaming is not was it used to be. Pretty ironic since I’m still a teenager, right?

Register and take part in the promotion here: http://www.advanceyourworld.com/

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark