I joined Twitter initially to participate in my workout studios contests – Twitter Tuesdays.  I figured that the odds of winning on twitter were pretty good as a small percentage of members were active on Twitter.  In the past year, I have entered many contests – some involve a simple re-tweet, a few involve creativity and others want photos.  I’ve also tweeted about good & bad experiences while traveling and in my everyday life.  Now in my real life, my luck isn’t something I’m known for, quite the opposite actually but on Twitter, I feel like a winner (If I could only parlay this twitter luck to Atlantic City that would surely help my travel budget!)

Now that I’ve actually won many travel related items that have helped defray costs on my trips and in my day to day life.  Here are a few:

• A creative tweet about using points for a pint at a pub in London – won points at the Intercontinental (IHG) which I used for two nights in Johannesburg with a points/cash award – savings of $400
• My photo was featured on the Expedia Twitter page in April and I received a $250 voucher – I used that for my D.C. hotel (The W) before leaving on safari
• My twitter war (a bit of back & forth) with my health insurance company ended up with a senior manager calling me to discuss my concerns and get me offline.  They ended up accepting my workout studio into their healthy lifestyle program and I received  my reimbursement of $150
• I tweeted about a great stay & service at a Holiday Inn and was surprised with a $10 ITunes gift card (still waiting on this)
• When I was shut out of my favorite restaurant (and bread basket) despite open “reserved” tables – I casually mentioned my disappointment on twitter (I usually tweet about the restaurant being wonderful to solo diners) and was contacted by their social media manager, then a senior manager by phone who apologized and offered to treat me to a meal.  What a surprise when a $75 gift certificate showed up!  I would have only spent $25 so this was beyond exceptional for what was me just being sad about not being able to overindulge in carbs.  I was able to invite  friends to dinner which was great fun.

So these are a few ways that I’ve been surprised by my limited use of  Twitter. Today, I was notified that I won a 2 night stay in Sydney at the Pullman Sydney at Hyde Park Hotel – an Accor hotel (I’m a fan of the Sofitel brand).  Sydney is one of my favorite cities so now the quandary – do I go to Sydney to use the voucher!  Was this the universe telling me to go back to Sydney this year since I’ve been so indecisive? It’s hard to believe that my Australia/New Zealand trip was almost six years ago.   Australia is a big place with many more parts to see so I am tempted – the tricky award ticket will need to be creative if I do go back -stop in Asia? go via Europe the long way?

So what would you do?  Plan a trip from Philly to Sydney to use the voucher and if so, where do you stop on the way there – you can’t go that far without exploring elsewhere?  Have you ever won anything on Twitter from a contest or a tweet, if so what did you win and how did you do it?