Back in November of 2005 I stopped at a Wendy's one day for lunch. I got my usual order of assorted delicious chicken parts and a Coke (this was back before I stopped drinking them). As I savored that unique processed meat taste I noticed that my Coke cup looked different. Instead of the usual bright yellow cup, I had a blue one. Upon further examination, I came to realize that the cups were a part of a new promotion between Wendy's and AirTran. The general idea was that you could collect 32 cups and redeem them for a free 1-way flight anywhere AirTran goes. Collect 64 for a round trip, and so on.
I started thinking about it and it turned out to be a pretty good deal. For a bit over $64, you could get a round trip ticket across the country. $64 was a great price, but what if it could be even less? What if it were free? I remembered that you can get free cups of water whenever you order if you don't want soda. So the next time I visited Wendy's I ordered a cup of ice water. It worked- free cup!
I told a couple friends about the deal and we tried again a few days later. We ordered some food for dinner and asked for ice water to drink. We were all expecting to get AirTran cups, but instead we were given kiddy sized cups. They had caught on and wouldn't give out the AirTran cups without an actual drink purchase.
I checked the rules, and there were still several months before the cups had to be mailed in. I began gathering them whenever I could, taking them from friends when not wanted, and even grabbing a few lying in the parking lot. Others caught on and within a few days there were news reports of people raiding Wendy's dumpsters in search of the cups! By the end of the month I had managed to collect about 150.
The next step was to mail in all of the coupons from the cups. I had more than enough cups for 2 round-trip tickets anywhere I wanted. My travel time was limited as I was still in school, so I tried to sell them on eBay.
Apparently I was not the only one with this idea and AirTran began to get upset that people were buying round-trip tickets on eBay for far less than their retail price. AirTran convinced eBay to take down the auctions, but not before I sold mine for $300.
This was an interesting promotion that I doubt we will ever see again. I was so satisfied with it that I hung one of their banners in my dorm!
