Grand Slam 2011

Thanks for the tip. Not interested myself but a hit will be nice. More seriously, your explanation is good.

Down here in underdeveloped Brazil all tax declarations must be filed online. They no longer accept physical forms, nor is payment by check permitted. Of course we cannot have hanging chads either because all voting nationally (and in Consulates abroad for people outside Brazil) is online so results are almost instantly announced and there is no doubt about counts. of course voting is mandatory here too.

Sometimes hanging chads are worth it, especially when anybody can buy a Diebold machine on eBay for $1,200 and muck around with the internals to find a way to rig it. Not to mention that "no paper trail" business is kind of important when you consider what you've voting for.

My husband is planning on getting the LASIK done eventually so I am sure he would be willing to sacrifice himself for some FF points.

The lasik deal had residency restrictions.... to bad ny residents (even if I went to a nj location) did't qualify

There is a Groupon todayfor Wine Insiders. 25.00 for 75.00 of wine. Not sure if they will be on the list this year but it's still a good deal.

That was quite a battle last year, from what I recall. I don't think I ever got that hit. Wife enjoyed the wine though.

I noticed the groupon is not valid for membership. I can't remember if last year the hit was for membership or any purchase.

If you do purchase the groupon, make sure you do it through the DM shopping mall.

+1

It is best not to learn that which may not be accurate. The promotion went over 2 months last year, plenty of time to digest the applicable terms for this year's promotion. I doubt they will change drastically but any excuse to procrastinate.

Well USAir is a US based airline so that is not overly surprising... just like if Lufthansa did this I would suspect it to be Germany-centric.

If you anticipate needing some Choice points for a transfer, there's currently a 10% bonus that expires Aug 31, so $11/1,100 points instead of $11/1,000 points.

Many non-US individual's participated in last year's Grand Slam. Many of US residents provided addresses for them to send any goods or magazines they ordered to. It worked out very well..... although it was a little difficult to figure out what to do with five or six packs of shoe spikes used for aerating the lawn

We get our own voting confirmations. It is hard to make a mistake. The confirmations work. The system works better than etickets so nobody worries, including me. For all our faults this system works. One reason is that each local area does not control the system, so loval corruption cannto interfere. A good thing! We are pretty good at corruption too.

The FAQ has been posted; some interesting tidbits:

• runs through November 14, 2011 again
• no flight hits again
• hotel point transfers must result in at least 850 miles being deposited with US (so no more SPG 1 mile transfers)
• hotel stays must earn at least 200 miles
• no minimums for rental cars
• 40th hit can only be earned by those with preferred status

If I’m not Preferred status can I earn all of the bonus miles in Grand Slam?

No. You must be Preferred status in order to earn the miles in the 40th bonus tier. If you are not currently Preferred you may earn a hit by purchasing Preferred status or Trial Preferred status. Just make sure your Preferred status is active when you make your 40th for hit or you will not qualify for the final bonus.

All looks interesting enough, aside from that! Nice to see that 3 searches on the toolbar counts as a hit. Otherwise it looks like it shaping up pretty much the same as last year...not sure how it'll be bigger and better unless the 40th hit level gets bumped up or there are a lot more partners (which I highly doubt). It will be very interesting to see the full earning chart, as there are already differences in the first two levels this year.

One can earn a hit for transferring hotel points that result in a minimum of 850 dividend miles being deposited.

• Accor: Minimum transfer size for anyone is 4,000 points to 2,000 miles. No way to buy points directly that I can see.
• Best Western: Minimum transfer size for anyone is 5,000 points to 1,000 miles. Elites can apparently buy points, but not sure what the cost is.
• Choice: Minimum transfer size for anyone (non-elite or elite) is 5,000 Choice points to 1,000 dividend miles. Normal cost to buy points is $11 for 1,000 points. Through Aug 31, $11 will get you 1,100 points. It's possible for some to transfer e-rewards to Choice once per quarter for $100=>4,000 points, $60=>2,200 points, or $30=>1,000 points. E-rewards transfer happened instantly for me. Purchasing points might take 24 hours. There's also the possibility of buying a game from Big Fish Games for something like $5 for 1,500 points.
• Club Carlson: Posts on FT look like minimum transfer size for anyone is 2,000 points to 250 miles, which would mean 8,000 points to 1,000 miles to meet the minimum requirement for a hit.
• Hilton: Minimum transfer size for anyone (non-elite or elite) is 10,000 points to 850 miles. Normal cost to buy points is $0.0125 per point for under 10,000 points or $0.01 per point for 10,000 or more points. Note that this means you should never, ever buy 8 or 9 thousand points as it'll be cheaper or the same price to buy 10 thousand points. If you have no stays or partner activity, your account must be open for 90 days before you can purchase points. Points should post within 30 minutes.
• Hyatt: Minimum transfer size for anyone is 5,000 points to 2,000 miles. Normal cost to buy points is $24 per 1,000 points. Through September 30, $24 will get you 1,200 points.
• Marriott: Minimum transfer size for anyone is 10,000 points to 2,000 miles. Normal cost to buy points is $12.50 per 1,000 points.
• Priority Club: Minimum transfer size for anyone is 10,000 points to 2,000 miles. It's possible to buy 10,000 points for $60 or 5,000 points for $40 and they post pretty much immediately.
• SPG: Minimum transfer size for preferrers is 2,500 starpoints, for golds 1,500 starpoints, and for platinums 1 starpoint (although the Grand Slam minimum is 850 starpoints) and you'll receive 1 mile per starpoint. There's a 5,000 point bonus per 20,000 starpoints in a transfer. Transfers should happen in less than two weeks. You can buy starpoints for $.035 per point with a 500 point minimum ($17.50/500).
• Wyndham: Minimum transfer size for anyone is 8,000 points to 3,200 miles. No way to buy points directly that I can see.

Looks like it's going to be expensive this year with the new earning minimums... :-(

Even though you can make out the first couple of hits from the faq and it shows 40 total hits we still need the full earning table to know just how expensive it's gonna get.

I signed up for double Hilton points a few weeks ago - will that not push my mileage to US to count for a hit once the program starts? Also, if we uninstall and re-install the toll bar will that count as a hit?

Installing the toolbar doesn't count. You just need the mile from 3 searches.

And you should review your earning preferences to make sure you're earning miles to us airways. Then later when you have enough points transfer to earn the other hit.

Can't wait to see the details actually released so I can figure out how many hits I realistically have a shot at...I don't have points in many of the hotel programs above (other than Hilton and SPG), so that has me a little worried!

Also, I had the Dividend Miles search bar installed and it was working fine, but then I got a new computer a couple weeks ago, and just re-installed it today. I noticed I no longer get the pop-up box in the bottom right-hand corner of my screen that says "you've earned a mile!" when I've earned a mile...has this been anyone else's experience?

I am signed up for double miles (currently with Virgin Atlantic as partner), and the mileage shows up in two increments (in Virgin's case, of 1,000 miles each), so not sure if it would be enough for US.

i battled with them or Vinesse last year over this combo. They refused to do both. Spoke to front line agents, managers... never got anywhere. Contacted BBB on them since terms didn't state they couldn't be used together with a US promo and the Groupon deal.

Good to know. I may have to make a separate purchase.

If you're getting double Hilton points then that oes not increase your Miles earnings, just your points. You'd have to set to double miles and once you've picked, you can't pick again.

I'm not sure I'm following this...I thought Hilton account settings were either point and points (no miles), points and variable miles, or points and fixed miles. So in order to earn a Grand Slam hit, you would have to have your HHonors account set to either points and variable miles or points and fixed miles, and as long as you get at least 200 miles for a stay, you would get the hit. What am I missing here?

Also, a question about earning a hit when staying at a Starwood property...I might just be an idiot here, but I'm not aware of an option on my SPG profile to choose some sort of "miles" option (like you can do with Hilton)...I've always just earned points for Starwood stays...where can you update your profile to earn miles for stays as well?