I get a lot of mail from banks, credit card companies, hotels and airlines. That comes with the territory of having 43 different credit cards and who knows how many loyalty programs tracked with Award Wallet. Some of these pieces of mail are outstanding (think targeted credit card offers) and some of them are just outright dumb.
(SEE ALSO: Why does Citibank keep sending me the dubmest offers?)
But most of the offers fall somewhere in between – not that exciting, yet not out of the ordinary
Delta sends an egregiously bad offer
This weekend though, I got a letter in the mail from Delta that was just egregiously bad. Well, I suppose technically “I” got it in that my wife got it but like I’m sure many of your households, she is a passive partner in the miles and points accumulating portion
Check this out
What’s so bad about it?
Now, you can argue that airlines and hotel programs are all the time trying to get you to use your miles on dumb things. They’d rather you use your miles on toasters and gift cards instead of international premium cabin travel
(SEE ALSO: 10% off a points redemption you should never do)
(SEE ALSO: Why I didn’t pay $9,144.92 on my vacation)
My big problem is the wording “this is a smart way to use your miles”. I can not see under any circumstances how this could possibly be construed as a “smart” way to use your miles. In fact, this is just about the worst way to use your miles that I can possibly think of (except possibly letting them expire)
So shame on you Delta for this horrible piece of marketing
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Also the presence of a date along with the 12 month inactivity seems to imply that the miles expire on May 18th when in fact Delta miles to not expire. That’s sin #2, after calling this a smart way.
Great post. Just curious though, is there a technical issue causing several of your sentences to not have a period at the end of them? I noticed 5 in this post alone (usually the last sentence of a paragraph) and I’ve seen it in several previous posts too but just never asked. Not trying to be a nitpicky grammar policeman here but just thought I’d ask in case it’s a technical issue. This blog is part of my daily reads and I love the content. Thanks.
Interesting – I had not noticed that There is no technical issue other than me 🙂 I wonder if it’s just part of the way I type or write things down
I know that sometimes I am moving paragraphs around, or I jump around between thoughts as I write them which occasionally leaves sentences or paragraphs half written but this is the first time I’ve ever noticed a lack of periods but you’re right
(And yes, this comment was intentionally written without periods :-P)
My wife and I have received essentially the same from American Airlines. (No- did not buy any magazines)
Received the same thing from United. 100 miles for Prevention Magazine! What a deal!
Once when my AA points were about to expire about a decade ago, they called my father!! (he was my emergency contact, I haven’t lived with him in 30 years).
But magazine redemptions isn’t always a bad idea, when you get 3-4 cents/mile for a magazine you’d buy normally. Its the question of cost/benefit.