American Airlines recently established an AAdvantage Facebook page, which currently is handing out airline miles in exchange for Facebook "likes."
After clicking on the like button, as 214,691 people had done as of this writing, you can embark on the Mystery Miles Journey.
Enter your AAdvantage number -- or importantly, enroll in the loyalty program if you are not already a member -- and the airline will deposit 100 to 100,000 miles in your account as part of the promotion, which runs through the end of March.
I gave Mystery Miles a whirl and was notified my account would become 100 AAdvantage miles richer within three to five business days.
Of course, a mere Newark, N.J., to Boston jaunt on American Airlines Feb. 26-27 would cost me 25,000 miles in MileSAAver awards -- the kind redemption category that requires the fewest miles and includes blackout dates -- so I won't be globe-hopping with my 100 newly acquired AAdvantage miles anytime soon.
In fact, with these sorts of handouts, American can neatly identify in the the promotion's rules the odds of winning -- "all eligible participants will receive an award."
It looks like most of the value in Mystery Miles for the airline is in signing up new enrollees to AAdvantage, with all of those new email addresses and demographic information. And, building up Facebook fans for future promotions undoubtedly is part of the equation, as well.
But, what kind of value is there in collecting these sorts of Facebook "likes" and fans with a giveaway?
Are the social graph data valuable if many people are just clicking on the "like" button to get something for free?
Laurent Bui, a social media strategist at Sid Lee Advertising Agency, raises a similar question in a Quora "answer" about how to gauge the value of a Facebook fan.
"Are your fans coupon leaches or brand ambassadors?" Bui wonders.
As American Airlines undoubtedly knows, all "likes" are not created equal.