Vinesse, purveyor of automatic shipping of really bad wine, wants you to join their wine club.
The offer of ‘over 11,500’ United miles and a United Club pass breaks down as:
- 2,500 miles with your first shipment of 6 bottles of wine at a cost of $58.49 plus 1 cent shipping.
- 4,000 miles with your second shipment (costing $90 – $120 for 6 bottles of wine, plus shipping)
- A United Club pass with your third shipment
- 7 miles per dollar spent beginning with your third shipment.
I figure this is actually a minimum of 12,800 miles after a year: 2500 + 4500 + ($90 x 7 miles/$ x 10 shipments for shipments 3-12).
The total miles earned will be higher to the extent that some shipments charge more than the lowest $15 per bottle price on wine.
I did this once. Back in 2009 there was an offer of 4500 Northwest Worldperks miles for a single $42 order. I cancelled after the first shipment and did get the miles.
But the wine was so undrinkable that no matter how many promotions there have been over the past five years since that, I haven’t bitten. Even when Vinesse counted as a ‘partner’ in the US Airways Grand Slam, I just couldn’t do it.
If you want to try wines, and be given miles to do it, you may wish to jump on this offer. But please don’t think that what they send you is representative of “wine” as such.
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So this is $900 for 12,800 miles, at over SEVEN CENTS A MILE? Or am I missing something?
The United Club pass is worth ~$5.00
the wine is undrinkable, but you can cook a chicken in it so it has some value, let’s call it $5 per bottle to equate it to what you can buy Black Box for.
I made the mistake of giving some of this away as gifts before I tried it! Big mistake.
Also, even when I canceled both online and via the phone they insisted on shipping my next order and charging me for it. I ended up having to file a complain with my CC before they were willing to fix it – huge hassle.
I did this for Delta Miles about 2 years ago and canceled before the 2nd shipment too. I gave two bottles away as gift (oh well, poor souls). I don’t have a taste for wine so I wouldn’t know what bad wine taste like, I just drank the rest when I was bored. Basically, I was happy to get the miles and cancel, and it wasn’t too much of a hassle for me either (I have read some horror stories). All in all, I have not allowed myself to be tempted to do it again either.
So funny!
My nephew got me to sign up for this deal last year. Out of the 12, one bottle of wine was nice, one was drinkable the rest were just foul and probably wouldn’t pass prison brew standards. On the positive side though, if you need drain cleaner this stuff would do the job.
@Glenn – this is not a great deal for buying miles, though it’s a better deal for shipment 1 and cancel, shipment 1+2 and cancel, and as I say you need to value the wine at something greater than zero which i do not. I guess I posted about it not to suggest people do it, but to walk people through the analysis of why NOT to do it..!
I agree with everyone else, the wine is absolutely terrible.
The horrible stuff in the bottles that they ship is an insult to the name ‘wine’. Absolutely the most disgusting stuff that even the guys on skid row would not accept. 😉
I tried cancelling within the first two shipments and for whatever reason it never took. There were a couple that I would consider drinkable but would expect to pay $7 in the store.
Anyway, after receiving about 5 shipments I finally was able to cancel. Since I can’t drink 40+ bottles of this, I let the wine sit in a closet for several months. We recently opened a red and it had already turned into a oily sludge. Other ones have sat in the same spot with no issue but this just didn’t “age” well.