Grand Slam 2011

Here is the latest update:

I called three times until I finally got some information. On the second phone call I was told "that they were out of some of the varietals that I ordered so they made a substitution." This is where I threw in the: "We aren't talking Jelly Beans here comment (thanks for that HaveMilesWillTravel)." They then said that they would send out 6 reds and a call tag for the pick-up of the whites. Ok......pick away. Then I was told that the free bottle opener was from a promotion that ended last MARCH and so was null and void. Ummmm, then how come you sent me a receipt stating that very thing on 11/1/11? They asked me if I could fax over "proof" of this claim. You bet your bippy I can!

Very next day I received a phone call from WI stating that they were sending me out 6 reds and WOULD NOT be sending a call tag for the whites since it was entirely their error. They would also be sending me a wine opener (not that I need or want it) and hope that would right the situation. They look forward to my future business.

I received the wine opener this afternoon so hopefully the wine shortly.

So as I sit here wondering about when or if I'll ever see my hits from Wine Insiders, Network Solutions and Netflix I am wondering if I'll take part in all of this again next year if they repeat this promotion.
It seems like the hits may be harder to get next year if I'm already signed up for Netflix, there is no toolbar hit anymore, etc. I'm guessing I need to pad my accounts all year so I can hit the transfers hard and fast and avoid the problem hits with vendors like Wine Insiders.

I'd say the easiest most reliable hits I got are Hertz, Audience Rewards, DM Shopping mall, Office Max, e-miles, e-rewards. The middle ground was the hotels on both transfers and stays. They screwed me on a couple of transfers (Thanks IHG) by delaying the dates or posting the wrong date.

The worst seem to be NetSol, Wine Insiders, Netflix, Bank of America Debit and Biscoff. Biscoff I think was a victim of computer issues early on and I'm sure I'll eventually get Netflix and BofA hits but it shouldn't take so long.

Maybe we should grade all of the hit vendors and report this back to US Airways. Wonder if they care? I bet they would if they delayed the kickbacks they pay.

I don't know if it would matter, and if anything it would matter to the partners themselves, since now you know that next year you might not want to send any business to the "problem" partners like NetSol for fear that you'll get a foul ball.

I think for next year I'll do what anybody that participated for the last couple of years did... pad the empty accounts early and start working on the "hard" free/cheap hits (e-miles / e-rewards) and make sure you have "expendable" SPG / IHG / whatever points to transfer.

The 850 mile minimum was a bit of a monkey-wrench but not an insurmountable problem, and come next summer everybody is going to start trying to find out cheap no-shows that post for car rentals and hotels.

The promotion overall is not a bad thing, it's not hard and doesn't have to be terribly expensive if you plan it early enough. I for one -- and I'm sure quite a few other people -- are looking forward to next year.

Now if US Airways would just get going with Hop, Skip & Jump...

I must say that I think most people had few or no problems with NetSol, Netflix, BoA, and Biscoff. There were a few problems with the exact amount of miles received from Biscoff, but they did post. All of these partners post exactly as predicted with the predicted activity date.

I am surprised you didn't mention OfficeMax. Most people had serious problems with them and only in November did they manage to get their system fixed.

It sounds like you were very late in the game and unprepared.

AMEN!

By the way, had to write to DM marketing for a hiccup in the +1's account.... and received this comment in the reply (which resolved the issue) "The next Grand Slam review and posting of bonus miles will be on or near 12/7/11."

Does anyone know when US did their last sweep for GS11?? I think all my points cleared, but they haven't swept in a week or so (at least that I know of)

Last sweep was last Thursday... Next sweep is 12/7.

I'm padding like crazy with e-rewards right now. Depending on which "package" you get, you can have several hotel partners that are coincident with GS. I consider those hotel transfers among the most expensive hits, so it's nice to earn the points for free through e-r.

Mike

I'm with you. Already building my e-wards up. My one mistake this year was waiting too long to start those annoying surveys.

I had no problems with OfficeMax. I think the trick to sites like OfficeMax is to double check to make sure the purchase is linked with US Air at the checkout. Many of the stores seemed like it would dump out the member number or other glitchy stuff.
Funny that within a few hours of posting my comment above I got the hit from Wine Insiders. That may have put me over the top within my safety/backup hit range of the 36 I was trying for. Cautious Yeah !!

Limited participation for me this year ... 4 hits only and the 3K GS bonus miles showed up already very smooth!

My first participation in the GrandSlam this year and I managed two accounts.

Account 1:
Skymall never posted. They never answer their emails either. Just sent them another one this weekend.
Not that its a huge issue, I got credit for the tier even though I don't have the required number of hits -- something obviously counted that I don't think should have counted.

Account 2:
This one had terrible luck. I started playing later and stuff just doesn't post. Audience rewards shows transferred to US on Oct. 31st but nothing ever showed up. Thanks Again never saw the purchase. And the dividend mall with Itunes never posted either. The rest posted but I had to constantly do followups with this account.

Will have to play earlier if it comes around again in 2012.

My network solutions 2000 miles posted today!! off to 28 hits!

I saw another thread on Skymall that listed the email address miles@skymall.com which apparently goes directly to someone in the airmiles group. I tried it this weekend and rapidly got a reply that the miles would be credited. Its signed from someone in the "Frequent Flyer Customer Service".

I thought I would mention it here in case anyone else has problems with SkyMall, this seems to be a lot better than their general customer support contacts.

US Airways Beat me out of my 28th hit

I have 28 hits that posted to my grand slam account. But one hit for using my US Airways mastercard won't count they say. I used my card for dining and got that hit. But since I received a credit from a refund from a previous months purchase my card activity shows a negative. Even thought the T and C's say any card use I will get the credit. But this is not the case because the refund was bigger than my current useage which made a negative on my statement balance. Does this seem fair. I did use my card during the GS time period, its just the refund that threw it out of whack

My netsol purchase on 10/19/11 just posted yesterday. I just wanted to share the data point.

Argghh!!

Dealing with Wine Insiders is the worst! I placed my order a week before the end of the GS and did not receive any notice that the items were OOS. I called and they said they would substitute it but the points would reflect the new ship date and not when I placed the order. When I said where was this written, they told me in the USAirways T&C on the Wine Insiders site -- couldn't find it, but then the manager argued that it also does not say the transaction date or when I ordered and so they would post it only for the final day it shipped.

Poor CS followed by inability to resolve issue!

Would someone please look at this and tell me how many hits you see? I am counting at least 16 but no sweep for +1. I also have a couple of things not posted for him yet but no spreadsheet here so can't remember the rest.
And it looks as though they have only awarded miles For 12 ........

you definitely have more than 16!
oops, I missed the date and counted one twice -- I see 15.

I only count 15.

The last few you copied won't count at all because the transaction date is past November 14. The world card might count, because obviously you used your card in the period if they posted just after the end. But, I'm not sure whether or not US Airways will see it that way.

You only get one hit for Audience Rewards and only one for Points.com. So that leaves me with these as counting hits. The Hertz also looked like a duplicate so I didn't count it twice.

I don't see that any of the transaction dates Are after the 14th. I mean 'activity' dates.

Those two are both past. E-rewards definitely will not count. The iffy one is the US World mastercard. But, I'd be willing to bet it won't count either.

I'm only seeing 15. These are the hits that I see after removing anything that is a duplicate of an earlier row (AR, Points.com, Hertz), after removing anything with an activity date after 11/14, and after removing the GS bonuses:

I see a Fight on my hands then about the eRewards transfer. That was actually transacted on the 10th of November....or earlier.