Recap: Albanian Plane Heist, Marriott CEO Named CEO Of The Year & More

 

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sdsearch
sdsearch (@guest_747829)
April 12, 2019 16:18

There are two T’s in Marriott. Your Recap title only has one. 🙂

Matt P
Matt P (@guest_747715)
April 12, 2019 12:18

Is this the evil convention of CEOs where the one who screws over their customers the most gets the award?

Dee
Dee (@guest_747674)
April 12, 2019 10:55

IMO the Arby’s contest to Hawaii is complete junk. In Hindsight, I suppose I should have calibrated my expectations that they are targeting the average person that might feel ‘lucky’ just to set foot in Hawaii, even for a few hours. (Not people on here that might know how to travel cheap.)

Some Details:
0. Prize is only for 1 person.
1. “All travel must occur occur between 4/26-4/28.”
2. Paid night near LAX on 4/26.
3. Round trip LAX to HNL 4/27. “Round trip air transportation between LAX and HNL will occur on the same day”
4. Appear in Marketing video for Arby’s in Hawaii on 4/27.

Summary: The contest is basically to perform free work for Arby’s. This way Arby’s doesn’t have to pay someone to be in their marketing video. Instead, they are offering it as a contest. You fly to Hawaii and immediately return home. You don’t even spend a single night there!
This might be nice, if you are an aspiring actor or something along those lines, but otherwise this is absurd IMO. Perhaps, So-so (Hot horrible) if you live on the West Coast meaning travel would be shorter.

– Being on the East Coast, I would expect a nice bonus if a job asked me to travel in this way. As I hinted above, – This “Contest” feels more like “Work” than a “Prize.” to me.

Keep in mind: They write a $500 check to help offset taxes, but you owe taxes on $2700 of value. ($540 if you are in the 20% Tax bracket – $1350 if you are in the 50% tax bracket. Keep in mind Both Federal AND State taxes, so I assume most people are at least in the 20% bracket. – Note: Even if you are very poor, there are Tax credits and benefits you lose as your “Income” increases.)

Frank
Frank (@guest_747696)
April 12, 2019 11:31

Lol I wonder what happens if you just butcher the marketing video?

Jamie
Jamie (@guest_747705)
April 12, 2019 11:58

And they point out that no meals are provided. So…you can’t bring a friend/spouse, will spend one night at (probably) a dumpy LAX hotel, and fly to HNL the next day (first or business class, which is surprising). You have to fly home the same day you arrive in HNL, so given the time change for some, you would be participating in their market video, sleep deprived, and finding some food at your own expense before you have to fly home that same day. I would rather spend my vacation time at my in-laws to be honest. Oh, and there may be taxed owed to the IRS and the state if I’m really lucky! Yeah. Sign me up.

tro
tro (@guest_747757)
April 12, 2019 13:49

This whole thing is a marketing stunt. Instead of saying, ‘win a trip to Hawaii’, which has been done a million times (BECAUSE HAWAII IS AWESOME), they say ‘$6 trips to Hawaii’ which is way better clickbait for headlines. Instead of saying ‘6 hour Hawaii layover on a trip to nowhere’ they say ‘no volcanoes, no pineapple farms, just 6 hours of sandwiches’. I guess if you lean into what a shitty prize it is it’s OK?

Dan
Dan (@guest_747658)
April 12, 2019 10:05

Protesting grocery store workers? Bring in the robots in next couple of years.

PoorChurner
PoorChurner (@guest_747673)
April 12, 2019 10:54

A lot are already using self cashier machines.

Frank
Frank (@guest_747694)
April 12, 2019 11:29

Went to Home Depot and needed 35 brackets (7 packs of 5). Closest line was witha cashier. Took 10 minutes to check out because she wanted to scan each one rather than scan 1 35 times and put one in the bag after each scan. She charged me for 34 because she couldn’t count -.-

Self check out would of taken 1 minute and I’d have paid for 35. Machines are better, cheaper, and easier

Zaos
Zaos (@guest_747766)
April 12, 2019 14:01

Some items don’t work with the SCO. Unfortunately.

Debit
Debit (@guest_747653)
April 12, 2019 09:40

Mariott CEO getting the award shows how tone deaf and blind a large part of society be to the needs of another large part of the society.

Dee
Dee (@guest_747683)
April 12, 2019 11:08

Yes, I wish I could “Boycott Marriott” in response, but,

1. I already don’t pay to stay there.
2. I assume I cost them more if I use my free hotel points from Credit Card spend/bonus. (And perhaps I should use my points sooner rather than later, the way Marriott is headed.)
3. Even if Marriott somehow benefited (‘free’ advertising?) for my staying there, it’s hard to say no to free hotel nights. (Selfish?)

Frank
Frank (@guest_747692)
April 12, 2019 11:26

Similar logic to the NRA has card (when it existed) — signing up and getting 5% cash back on gas was likely a money loser for them so you could hurt them by getting the card

Matt P
Matt P (@guest_747713)
April 12, 2019 12:16

That’s not how credit card affiliations work. The NRA would get a set payout per card and a revenue share, but would not share any losses. You might drive down revenue if another customer had positive spend, but you would need to buy a ton of gas to even get close to offsetting the per card amount the NRA gets when you signed up.

Ann
Ann (@guest_747734)
April 12, 2019 13:11

Yep, the verdict in previous posts about these two cards was/is to get the Ducks Unlimited version instead (which is still available btw) if you don’t like the NRA. They both give the same 5% back on gas and sporting goods.

tro
tro (@guest_747714)
April 12, 2019 12:16

Next up is the Amazon tax accountant as accountant of the year.

Ed
Ed (@guest_747652)
April 12, 2019 09:35

CEO of the year? HA HA HA HA HA HA

CarpeWut
CarpeWut (@guest_747648)
April 12, 2019 09:21

That’s 4 cents per account before attorney and payout administration fees, which means it will most likely be a sum donated to some random-yet-related charity.

Lawyers drive class-action claims and then prefer to settle to ensure they are adequately reimbursed for their troubles – a great system if you’re a lawyer.