Two interesting offers were sent to my e-mail account: free solar eclipse viewing glasses and an upgrade for a rental vehicle in the future — but they were both useless to me, unfortunately.
Free Solar Eclipse Viewing Glasses and an Upgrade? Thanks — But…
The offer for the complimentary viewing glasses was from Delta Air Lines for the total solar eclipse in North America on Monday, April 8, 2024:
If you’re traveling in the days leading up to the Great North American Solar Eclipse, ISO-certified solar eclipse glasses will be available at all Warby Parker stores and offered to Delta travelers visiting select Delta Sky Clubs in Austin, Dallas, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Detroit. (Available at select Delta Sky Clubs from April 4 through April 8, while supplies last. Club membership or valid access credentials required for Delta Sky Clubs.)
Although I am a member of the SkyMiles membership program of Delta Air Lines, I am not a member of Delta Sky Club — nor do I possess valid access credentials…
…and even if I did, none of those airport locations are convenient to me. I am sure that they are potential convenient to members of Delta Sky Club who will be arriving at those airport locations for the solar eclipse.
I also received an e-mail message from Hertz that prompted me to “upgrade today” for an upcoming reservation for a rental car.
Okay. That sounds good. I clicked on the black See upgrade options button to view more details about this offer…
…only to be informed “Sorry! No, vehicles available for upgrades at this time.”
Wow. I suppose I should have looked at the date when the e-mail was actually sent to me. I forgot what day it was when I tried to access the offer.
Final Boarding Call
Why was the e-mail message from Delta Air Lines not sent to only existing members of Delta Sky Club if part of the offer was limited to them? Did they believe that someone would pay at least $695.00 to get a pair of solar eclipse viewing glasses that may be worth — oh, let’s be generous here — $25.00? Perhaps they figured that while at that Internet web site, someone will go ahead and purchase a pair of eyeglasses or sunglasses for a discount of ten percent — which may not be a bad deal — but it is only available to members of the SkyMiles membership program and should have been sent as a separate offer, in my opinion.
As for Hertz, I have no idea why the e-mail message was sent to me if no vehicles are available for upgrades at this time — unless they happened to be sold out between the time the e-mail message was sent to me and the time I read it, which was not all that long.
With all of the technology that is available to these multinational corporations that they use to market their products and services to as close to their target markets as possible, one would think that they would be more careful about sending virtually useless — or useless altogether — e-mail messages to potential customers who simply cannot use them. Most of us get substantially more than enough junk mail and “spam”. We really do not need more of it.
Anyway, I hope that you can take advantage of obtaining complimentary glasses to safely view the total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024…
All photographs ©2017 by Brian Cohen.
