American Express and BoardingArea.com have come up with a sweepstakes contest for a nearly all expense paid trip for two to Gold Coast, Australia.
BoardingArea.com Gold Coast Sweepstakes Information Page link.
Entry Period: The entry period for the contest is from 12:00:01am Mountain time zone Monday, March 22, 2010 through 11:59:59pm Mountain time zone Sunday, March 28, 2010.
Eligibility: Contest is only open to U.S. residents of the 50 states and District of Columbia who are 18 years old at time of entry. And if you are related to me I think the rules indicate you can’t win the prize. Sorry Mom & Dad.
To Enter Sweepstakes you need to answer this question:
“What’s your top tip for travelers who want to earn and use their loyalty points?”
You can only have one entry comment on Loyalty Traveler blog, however, you can enter once on each of the 20 BoardingArea blogs participating in this sweepstakes.
The Prize: Seven nights/eight days hotel accommodations, transportation, meals, activities, and roundtrip airfare for two people to Gold Coast, Australia. Retail Value $10,250. The trip must be taken by March 31, 2011 or prize is forfeited. And very important information – the winner will be notified within two days of the end of the contest and you must respond within five business days to confirm prize acceptance. So check your email carefully next week.
Click here – http://boardingarea.com/goldcoast/rules.php to see all the Terms & Conditions.
Loyalty Traveler sweepstakes analysis
As a blogger who analyzes promotions regularly, I find it amusing that this sweepstakes has a retail value listed at $10,250, yet there is no mention of the specific hotel or airline, and what kind of transportation, meals, or activities are provided. The sweepstakes rules state ground transportation is the responsibility of the winner?
I guess American Express does not want to divert your attention from the primary purpose of the sweepstakes which is to promote their credit card.
The good news from Randy Petersen, founder of BoardingArea.com, is the prize winner will receive additional gift cards from American Express and BoardingArea.com that should cover most or all of the taxes that you will owe from a prize valued this highly.
And another good point is that while the airline and hotel for the trip are not revealed, Randy says the flight and hotel will allow the winner to earn miles and points.
Would you expect anything less from a frequent travel guru?
Loyalty Traveler take on American Express Membership Rewards
Here is my Loyalty Traveler take on American Express Membership Rewards points. They are a versatile currency for exchanging into a variety of hotel points or airline miles. Many of the airline partners overlap with the Starwood Preferred Guest program airline partners, but some airlines are unique to American Express Membership Rewards. Even better is the ability to exchange points into hotel currencies other than SPG which is something you can’t do with the SPG American Express card.
Membership Rewards points can be exchanged into Hilton HHonors points, Best Western Rewards points, Priority Club Rewards points, and Starwood Preferred Guest points. In addition to exchanges, Membership Rewards points can be used for certificates and vouchers with Fairmont Hotels, Hyatt, Jumeirah Hotels, Loews, LXR Resorts, Marriott, Morgans Hotel Group, Omni Hotels, Preferred Hotels Group, Radisson, and several hotels in Las Vegas.
Loyalty Traveler take on Gold Coast, Australia
If you are not familiar with Gold Coast, Australia, think Miami Beach. This is the part of Australia that is warm (not hot) in the winter months of June, July, and August. I traveled from Melbourne to Sydney to Brisbane during the month of July and I needed a full array of clothing to combat the icy winds of Melbourne to just the bare necessities for the beaches of Queensland.
Beer is expensive, seafood is cheap, and surfing is prevalent. And my impression of Australia is that the country is the most easy-going international destination for Americans who may have a fear of international destinations.
So think up a good tip to post on this blog and the other BoardingArea.com blogs. My understanding of the rules is each blogger picks one tip and the random drawing will occur from the 20 chosen tips by each participating blogger. (Disclosure: the BoardingArea.com blogger who has the winning tip receives an i-Pad in April. Fingers crossed.)
Sign up for RSS feeds of all the blogs so you can receive updates straight to your computer. If you have never used RSS feeds, they are wonderful because you get the news updates straight to your computer rather than having to remember to visit different websites and blogs every day. Some of the news items reported on BoardingArea.com are time limited and high value information that you don’t want to miss.
The Gold Coast Sweepstakes web page provides RSS feed registration links next to each of the participating bloggers. http://boardingarea.com/goldcoast/
Check us out on Twitter.com. BoardingArea.com on Twitter posts all the individual title posts from the Boarding Area bloggers within minutes of publishing.
Go ahead and leave your tip here in the comments section of this post.
“What’s your top tip for travelers who want to earn and use their loyalty points?”
G’day mate and good luck.
Noosa Beach, Queensland, Australia
