GOL Smiles just returned with yet another promotional offer to boost your mileage balance only weeks after the recent Purchase Bonus offer expired (see related article here).
Previously this offer was designed to purchase GOL Smiles directly into your own account, this time you have to transfer the miles into a secondary account to receive the 100% bonus. The price also changed to 0.04 BRL per unit and the price to transfer 40,000 Smiles (the limit for this promotion) is 1,600 BRL ($495). The price of a Smile through this promotion (in USD) is roughly 1.23 cents each. You can access GOL Smiles website for this promotion here.
It seems like the receiving account must have a CPF number on file (Brazilian Tax ID Number). Without this number it prompted an error message when I tried it.
As mentioned before the website is exclusively in portuguese and should you be forced to call GOL Member Services for any reason, the service there is also in portuguese only.
Based on the translation of the very simple Terms & Conditions for this promotion it appears like the Smiles you share remain in your account and the secondary account receives the same amount rather than transferring all miles out and doubling them into the secondary account.
Here is the translation of the T&C (via Google translate):
Help a dear person to travel and receive the same amount transferred into your account.
What if you could help an extra special person to make the trip of dreams? Between 7 and 13 July 2015, you can transfer your miles for any account Smiles and get 100% bonus on your account. Every mile transferred, you get back.
Take the opportunity and make someone smile with you!
This is the original version in portuguese:
Ajude aquela pessoa querida a viajar e receba o mesmo valor transferido em sua conta.
E se você pudesse ajudar uma pessoa superespecial a realizar a viagem dos sonhos? Entre 7 e 13 de julho de 2015, você pode transferir suas milhas para qualquer conta Smiles
e receber 100% de bônus em sua conta. A cada milha transferida, você recebe uma de volta.Aproveite a oportunidade e faça alguém sorrir com você!
Conclusion
GOL has these sales in a very high frequency now and I would urge caution investing too much into large balances as everything (such as redemption levels) can change quasi overnight without any noteworthy recourse.
Yesterday I tried to redeem a ticket which was initially displayed as a connection on KLM via Amsterdam to the Middle East, however there was an error in the final step and it could not be priced. It was not an urgent matter but it shows you that things can go wrong. Some of our readers also mentioned issues in the comments on the previous article.
It’s also worth mentioning that the T&C for previous promotions included that purchased Smiles are valid for 12 months and Bonus Miles received only for 6 Months. There is no mention of anything like that here but that doesn’t mean a lot as I wasn’t able to find any detailed conditions at all.
The Smiles program is not a serious program.
A few months ago, they launched the promotion number 191 .. where the transfer gave 200% mileage bonus .. the transfer price was R$ 30.00 per 1,000 miles.
Combined with the agreement with the Le Club, for every three miles sent to the Le Club, you received 1 point in their program.
In practice, people could send 6000 miles to Le Club at a cost of R$ 90.00 and receive a voucher Le Club 40 euros.
Thus, the euro to pay for accommodation in Le Club skirt for R$ 2.25 and at this same time, if someone needed to exchange US $ for euros, paid R$ 3.60 each euro.
Moreover, many people were able to issue in executive passages, by Smiles / Alitalia by 130,000 miles at a cost of R$ 1,950.00, when the price exit by paying R$ 8,000.00 or more.
So when the Smiles realized that the promotion was good (and this was one of the few good deals that Smiles made in recent months), they just took the site down … the promotion ran from Wednesday to the following Monday and on Saturday they took the site down.
How many people threatened to report to the Public Ministry (who has the power to request the opening of criminal and civil proceedings against the company) Smiles “tinkered” site, in the late afternoon of Monday …
If it were a company, minimally serious, it would have extended the term of the promotion for the same period the system “was down”.
In addition, the program gives 20% bonus for transfer of credit cards, but increases, without notice, the ransom table in stances. 100% partner days later.
It is a program that is increasingly the reputation compromised because of your marketing that often makes false advertising.