American sent out a marketing email offering 2000 miles for signing up with NextIssue, a service that lets you read a bundle of periodicals on mobile devices.
When you get to the sign it does look like you get 2000 miles for signup.
But that’s not quite right. You sign up and get a free one month trial. You then pick the basic ($10) or premium ($15) monthly plan.
The mileage offer is only available with the premium plan and miles are awarded after first monthly payment. (You are not committed to keeping the service after that.)
Here’s the relevant terms:
This offer is available to new, first-time Next Issue subscribers only. Try Next Issue free for 30 days. After your free trial period, you will earn 2,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® miles upon your first monthly payment. Mileage offer valid on Premium plan only.Please allow up to six weeks after you make a payment for the miles to reach your AAdvantage account. You may cancel anytime. Bonus mile offer expires October 1, 2015.
Now, $15 for 2000 miles is a good deal. There was a time I would have done this for the miles and set my calendar to auto-remind me that I needed to make a decision on continuing after that month.
I have plenty of American miles and I’m not sure 2000 more is worth the calendar space (and followup to cancel). It’s a personal calculation, and as I say my younger self would have jumped on it.
Some will find it a useful service since there are plenty of titles, such as:
Personally I like stripped down RSS reading and emails, I like text, and I don’t use a tablet. I don’t really want to manage this on a smartphone. So my ex ante guess, not having tried it, is that it won’t suit my own particular reading preferences. But your mileage may vary.
2,000 miles with any amount of work and followup (and worry if you will actually get the miles) doesn’t thrill me anymore. I guess that I have been spoiled over the years.
It is easier to buy $400 worth of gift cards at staples w/ an Ink card.
Please allow up to six weeks after you make a payment for the miles to reach your AAdvantage account. You may cancel anytime.
So we now have no experience with what actually happens to the miles offer if you cancel less than a month after you make your first payment. If they do what they promise, the 2K miles would cost 0.7495 cent/mile.. Follow this flyertalk thread on the subject: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz/1705783-15-2-000-aa-miles-via-nextissue-free-trial.html
Bonus mile offer expires October 1, 2015
I agree with you– I prefer stripped down RSS reading, too. Why don’t you allow your readers to access your blog in the way that suits your own reading preference?
@Andrew: Agree. It’s a pain, e.g. free miles with wine sign-up, fraud alert, this and that. Then you have to ensure you cancel your subscription in time but you still get unwanted emails, unwanted regular mail. Much hassle, better to buy miles outright when a good deal turns up, e.g. LifeMiles.
@Jon I do. Email me if you have problems.
It’s really sad to see you lose your edge…
“It is easier to buy $400 worth of gift cards at staples w/ an Ink card.”
Not sure about that…you pay almost the same and have to go to staples and then unload them.
Where as this offer gives you a useful product for 2 months and you never have to leave your easy chair….just cancel after paid month.
I like reading magazines on an iPad so would get some value out of this subscription anyway. So to me, well worth the $15 and cancelling at the end of a month- thanks for the heads up!
I agree with you. Last year I had the perk of using plenty points for airlines I believe 30k or something when I signed for card. It was better. Shucks, it’s sad when an airplane continues to strip away good deals from point system or terms for using certain airline. Kudos on your parts alerting us about pros and cons of which perks.
Weird. I got the email, followed the link, typed in the correct AA awards number, and it said “Sorry that user reward account is invalid.” Any suggestions?
@ George- try again? I got the same error message the first time, but when I typed in my frequent flyer number again, it went through. I just assumed I had mistyped the first time, but maybe it’s buggy?
@George: I had the same experience. But it worked in a private browser window.