I really dislike disingenuous marketers and companies who “breach” my personal space. I take pride in my customized email filters and my SlotGuard subscription (to stop junk mail on the postal side). Sometimes companies get through because I trust when I shouldn’t.
Expedia.com was a shining example of this today with their most recent email: “Account Update: We deposited your $200 travel coupon.” Since I have already opted out of Expedia marketing emails and the “Please SPAM Me!” box in my Expedia account is definitely unchecked, I assumed what most reasonable individuals would: that “Account Update” means “Account Update.”
I book business trips regularly with Expedia, so it’s not unrealistic to assume they might be doing something special to thank me for my business. “That’s nice,” I thought.
Then I opened it.
Dear Expedia Customer,
We just dropped a Holiday Bonus coupon into your account. You’ll save $200 on any roundtrip package that includes a 5+ night hotel stay. Redeem your coupon for travel by March 31; travel by April 30, 2011.
It’s easy to redeem your travel coupon:
* Sign in to your Expedia Account
* Choose a 5+ night vacation package*
* On the Vacation Package Billing and Delivery page, click “I have a coupon”
* Select “apply and reprice”
Plan your next vacation on Expedia
Sincerely,
Expedia Travel Team
The deal itself isn’t so bad: what bothers me here is what I perceive to be clear deception on the part of Expedia. First of all, the holidays are over, decorations are down, and the holiday-promotions ship has sailed. We are well into the sick-of-this-and-waiting-for-Spring part of the season.
Secondly, I believe this is at its core a marketing email, not an account update, and exactly the type of thing federal legislation has sought to prevent.
Title 15 Chapter 103 ยง7704 (a)(2): It is unlawful for any person to initiate the transmission to a protected computer of a commercial electronic mail message if such person has actual knowledge, or knowledge fairly implied on the basis of objective circumstances, that a subject heading of the message would be likely to mislead a recipient, acting reasonably under the circumstances, about a material fact regarding the contents or subject matter of the message (consistent with the criteria used in enforcement of section 45 of this title).
I reasonably thought this message was an update about my account, and receiving a real $200 credit/gift might be consistent with that. Being told about a special promotion is, to me, not an account update. Expedia would likely argue that having a new coupon “added to my account” qualifies as an update on which they should keep me apprised. By extension, this would also mean that they could have any special promotion “applied to my account” at any time and consider it an account update. If this is their justification then we will definitely have to agree to disagree.
At the worst, their interpretation is incorrect and they are in violation of federal SPAM legislation. Or more likely, since I’m sure their lawyers are no fools, they are simply finding new ways to disrespect customers’ wishes by exploiting legal loopholes.
To conclude, I will again point back to the special little box in my Expedia preferences that reads: “Please send me Expedia emails with travel deals, special offers, and other information.” It is clearly unchecked, which should be a good indication to Expedia that I don’t want to hear from them with “travel deals,” “special offers,” or “other information.”
So, basically, leave me alone.
Apparently the only way to accomplish this is to cancel my Expedia account, which I will get to later in the week. I have no particular loyalty to them and am quite confident that any of the other Google results for “travel deals” could provide similar service with a little less talk.
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I found a fascinating article on Reddit this afternoon about 
American Airlines has a new program that lets you get back miles you’ve lost due to expiration (18 months of inactivity). This is not published but information is available on some of the various frequent flyer internet forums as well as from American Airlines themselves if you ask really nicely.
