American Airlines temporarily removed a sweepstakes from its Web site after hoards of people tried to register for the promotion and caused technical problems with the microsite.
A message on the site carrying the DealFinder Travel the World Sweepstakes on Friday read: “Due to an overwhelming response, this site is temporarily unavailable. Please try back at a later time.”
The sweepstakes, which launched last Wednesday, drives people to register at http://www.aa.com/promo for a chance to win first class air travel for two around the world and a $25,000 MasterCard gift card. Two first-prize winners will each receive a $10,000 MasterCard gift card.
The high-value prizes succeeded in sending people to the Web site, but to no avail; it couldn’t handle all the traffic, the company said.
“On very rare occasions, overwhelming response to a promotion can cause slight technical difficulties with our microsite,” American Airlines spokesperson Marcy Letourneau said. “In this case, we did have tremendous response and the site began to run slower than we'd like, so we've pulled it until we can get it up and running better.”
The site was back up over the weekend.
The promotion, which runs through March 7, is designed to boost awareness around American Airlines’ DealFinder tool, which searches for exclusive, discounted fares based on pre-selected fare preferences the airline flies.
People can earn additional sweepstakes entries by downloading DealFinder from the site or forwarding the promotion on to friends.
Online marketing and -mail blasts support the sweepstakes. The Marketing Arm handles the promotion for American Airlines.
