Travelling miles for that free gift

Is there anybody around who might do enough miles, or live long enough, to earn the required tokens for a Trinitron 28″ TV through BP?

The latest That’s Entertainment Collection promotion is rather challenging. The CDs and videos are the same as in previous promotions, but because this is a longer term promotion I am concerned about the larger items.

I found the suggested TV in the catalogue, marked as ‘”only 170 cards”, and without trying to appear too much of an anorak, worked out how much petrol I would need to buy to achieve this. At this point, “only” is irrelevant because it would seem that I need 7,650 tokens to fill 170 cards, with one token given for every 12 litres of petrol bought at the present price of 52.9p per litre – a staggering 48,562. Converting a mileage of 30 miles to the gallon, this becomes 6.67 miles to one litre – an average of seven miles to one litre for argument sake. Therefore, seven x 12 x 7,650 = 642,600 miles for one 28″ Sony Trinitron.

The average person, who does 11,000 miles per year, would take 58 years to save for it. With the best will in the world I am sure this promotion will not last that long, so it’s not really something your average motorist can contemplate. The red badge by the side saying “Only 170 Cards” is therefore very misleading. I understand the need to run promotions, but have to say that the Shell airmiles scheme is far more attractive as a long-term saving plan, for one main reason: other companies such as NatWest Access, BA and Hertz all collect the same so you do not have to spend money on one item, petrol. Jacc Alderman

Director

AC Communications

Old Isleworth

Middlesex