Free 1,000 Miles from American: AA trolls Delta in the Process

I'll admit it... I like it when big companies interact with each other through social media and promotions. I love it when they end up trolling one another, intentionally or not.

Bonus points for when both companies are Alaska Airlines (AS) partners.

Photo: VNAFlyer/ASFlyer

Gary Leff, author of the blog View from the Wing, shared his insight from a panel discussion at loyalty conference today regarding communication with members and engagement.  He spoke of  "Worldperks University" where frequent flyers of now-defunct Northwest Airlines (NW, which merged with Delta Airlines [DL]) could earn 100 miles by reading about an aspect of the program and answering a simple question about it.

Apparently a panelist from DL stated that they were not going to bring back Worldperks U.

And today, American Airlines (AA) just happened to introduce a new engagement campaign named "AAdvantage University" where AAdvantage members could earn up to 1,000 miles by going through 6 videos about the program and answering a simple multiple-choice question after each one.

Image: American Airlines/aa.com

There is also a drawing available for 2 first class tickets to anywhere in the world AA flies.

For those who are already familiar with the AAdvantage program, you will be able to answer all the questions easily. Even if you select the wrong answer, you'll still be given the full miles.  There's a progress counter showing how many miles you've earned towards your dream trip (kudos to AA for throwing in some Psych 101).

As I have Million Miler status with AA, I like to think that I'm pretty familiar with the program, so I just skipped to the end of the videos (which are powered by YouTube and you can just click on the progress bar to skip to the end) to get to the questions.  My one "wrong answer" was from when I fat-fingered my mousepad and accientally selected the wrong answer.

I went through AAdvantage U. in pretty short order. After inputting my "dream destination" and taking all 6 quizzes, I was asked for my name, email address, and AAdvantage number, and the confirmation page stated that 1,000 miles would post 6-8 weeks after the promotion ended.

Why should you go through this?

• It's a quick, easy, free 1,000 miles.  Do it right, and you could be done in less than 3 minutes.  Or, you just let the videos play while doing some other errands.
• If you have expiring miles, this is a good way to reset the clock (as long as your expiration date isn't in the next few months, since these miles won't post until at least that long).
• I personally like AAdvantage miles. While they've tightened up the rules a bit, AAdvantage is still one of the better (and easier) programs to redeem for award travel.

And remember to tell your family and friends that they can do it too!

Did you go through AAdvantage U. to get your 1,000 miles? Share your experience in the comments below!

(H/T: Gary Leff/View from the Wing)