I have not written anything about this years US Airways Grand Slam promotion since I was waiting for the promotion to actually start. The way airlines have been changing terms on all of their promotions lately has caused me to use a bit more caution when trying to score free or cheap miles. There is always a risk that the miles do not post after expenditure of money and effort.

Mommy Points has been doing a pretty stellar job of informing everyone of all the nuances of the program, so please read some of the information on her site for some of the basics. For starters, here are some quick basics:

• Registration
• Rules
• Facts

I have been a US Airways Dividend Mile account holder for several years. Every year I see the Grand Slam promo come and go, and never really take advantage of it or plan accordingly. In the past I have always been of the mindset that I can typically score a round-trip flight anywhere in the US for around $200 if I really watch for great sales, so why would I shell out all kinds of money to get miles that may be difficult to use?

Well fast forward to now being married with two kids, and the travel picture greatly changes. No longer am I looking to spend $200 for a single seat, but I need at least 3 seats to get anywhere, and that is with a lap child. So miles are becoming an ever more important part of our families travel dynamics as we grow.

That is why I am really paying attention to this years Grand Slam promotion. I get excited when I see people earning thousands of miles for free or relatively cheap.

Currently only my wife and I have US Airways accounts, but I am tempted to open up ones for the boys to start building their arsenal. Maybe once I start getting some easy miles in our accounts, I will expand my to-do list.

First 2 Hits: FREE

So in addition to being a long time member of US Airways, I also have long time accounts with e-Rewards and e-Miles. For those that do not know, e-Rewards is a site that you get invited to join via airlines and other rewards programs. You then answer surveys to earn money that can be redeemed towards rewards, including US Airways. e-Miles is another invite site where there are various offers on your page, and if you view them and/or take part in the offer you earn miles that go towards the airline you originally signed up under.

Again, I was fortunate that I have an e-Rewards account and was sitting on $118+ in rewards plus my e-Miles account had the minimum 500 miles sitting in it, and it was through US Airways. So my first day into the Grand Slam promotion, and I easily tackled 2 hits into my account. Miles will take a while to post, as has been my experience in the past, but I will just need to keep track of it to earn my bonus miles.

Magazine for Miles

I remember in my early days of collecting miles, when I was naive, I used to always cash in my miles for magazine subscriptions. I saw miles as pointless, and I could enjoy a year or more worth of free magazines instead. However, today I never redeem for magazines unless something like the Grand Slam promotion comes along.

In order to gain a hit, I needed to order a magazine through the US Airways magazine system. Luckily, they had a cheap subscription to Sunset Magazine for 400 miles. When I submitted my order, the system encountered an error and said to try back again later. However, when I went back into the site, it showed that my mileage account balance had already been deducted by 400 miles, so I was not about to go in and resubmit the order. Hopefully everything goes through ok.

I look at it as yes I had to lose 400 miles, but I will gain a free travel magazine subscription, which will hopefully inspire me for future articles. Plus I now have three hits for FREE plus 1000-400 miles. Once I get 4 hits, I will earn a bonus 3,000 miles. So the potential gains greatly outweighs the loss of 400 miles.

Toolbar

I already have the US Airways toolbar installed and take full advantage of it each month. Performing three searches is easily done in one day for me, so this was another easy hit assuming they give me credit for already having the toolbar installed.

So there it is, without much effort I already earned four hits and 3,600+ miles, all for “free.” Whew! Yet that was only for my account. Now I need to do it all over again for my wife’s account? When am I supposed to sleep?

How did everyone else do for the first couple of days?