Lori's Travel & Other Adventures: Expedia FriendTrip - Grand Prize 8 days 7 nights in Paris

It's almost time for my next travel adventure, so I guess it's also time to start blogging about it. This one starts a year ago. I was messing around on Facebook, and started playing a game on Expedia's page called The Expedia FriendTrip Game. Basically you had to like their page, then invite some of your friends to also like their page and join the game. There were 6 or 8 possible trips to win, and to get an entry, you and 5 of your friends had to sign up together. Expedia was also giving away a daily $250 gift certificates, and I thought it would be really fun to win one, so I tried to enter everyday.

Then in May I got an e-mail from Mary, and she's forwarded me something that I initially though was a scam or SPAM. I was checking e-mail pretty early (before coffee) and I almost deleted it without actually reading it. It said I had potentially won a trip, and I'm thinking, yah just like I almost win Publishers Clearing house every month..lol. So the first thing I did was Google the company sending the e-mail, Marden Kane. It turns out that they specialize in running sweepstakes, etc. for lots of big companies. So then I called their NY office and verified that I was a potential winner. At that point, I was awake and didn't really need coffee :-), though I'm not sure that I was 100% convinced we'd actually be going to Paris.

Here is the e-mail notice:

Dear Expedia FriendTrips XXXXXXX:

Congratulations! As the official judging organization administering The Expedia FriendTrips Game we are thrilled to announce that you have been selected as potential grand prize winner of the trip to Paris/South of France.

The approximate retail value of your prize is: $16,600. This prize includes $3,300 per person which can be used to cover any tax implications as reviewed below or as spending money for incidentals during the trip.*

In order to receive your prize, please review the following carefully:

The pilot of your plane (Lori Murray) has been notified and will be responsible for the following:

The Role of the Pilot:

- Ensure all passengers complete and provide all documents on time as requested by Expedia.

- Confirm at least 4 registered people will be accepting the prize.

Note: If less than 4 registered people on a winning plane complete and return documents as requested, the Pilot on the plane and all Passengers will forfeit their prize and a new plane will be selected. If a Pilot chooses not to accept their prize, they must appoint an alternate Pilot from the registered Passengers on their plane. The new designated Pilot must accept the prize and agree to accept the roles and responsibilities of the Pilot.

- Once confirmed, the pilot will work with their passengers to determine and communicate travel dates to a designated Expedia Travel Expert.

All passengers must complete, sign and return the following documents within 5 business days of the date of receiving this e-mail:

- W9 form (attached)

- Affidavit of Eligibility (attached) (must be notarized)

It turns out that Marden Kane had UPS'd me a winners notification packet, and since I was out of town, it was setting on the porch by my front door. I got a hold of Patty and had her go up to my house later that day, she found the box and opened it for me, then called and read me the info. I'm really glad Marden Kane followed up with e-mails to the others on my trip, or I might not have found out about it in time to respond.

Winner Packet

Once the paperwork was all finished, we had a year to use the prize, and then we had to figure out a that worked for all 6 of us. That was probably the hardest part, trying to arrange 6 schedules to get a week off at the same time.

So here is the luck group. We leave for Paris on April 3rd for a week. I'll have more to say about our itinerary in my next blog entry.