Both Match.com and eHarmony pulled frequent flier promotions tied to new dating subscriptions after the deals caused a frenzy amongst fans of airline miles.
At the start of March, an offer was created that would give 150 British Airways points – called Avios Points – for every dollar spent by US customers on new Match.com subscriptions.
Another similar deal was also created for rival dating site eHarmony, which offered 130 British Airways Avios points per dollar spent, according to a recent story in The Wall Street Journal.
As the report says, if you bought an annual subscription to Match.com for $215, this promotion would give you 32,250 British Airways loyalty points.
The news of this promotion caused a flurry of activity on message boards frequented by discount and frequent flier enthusiasts.
The deal was short-lived, however, Match Group saying the affiliated promoter who launched the deal did so “without authorization”.
The Dallas-based dating company cancelled new subscriptions, refunded fees paid and pulled back points awarded, the WSJ said.
eHarmony also cancelled the deal after the company discovered that married discount fans were signing up to the service, and others were creating fake profiles – practises that violated its terms and conditions.
Match Group would not name the affiliate marketing company who created the deal, and said it was not aware of the deal until sign-ups spiked and the site started getting hit with a lot of “bad behavior”.
Read the full story over at The Wall Street Journal.