Winning Scoot's $250 Voucher

Alright, so there is a large following of FlyScoot on Facebook and FlyScoot regularly organises contests and giveaways. The most recent being Naughty or Nice 2013, where Scoot Fans earn guesses for candies and can subsequently exchange the candies for flight vouchers.

I don't usually join lucky draws or contests, unless I really like the prize! Like.. The other time i won Tigerair's pair of return Chiangmai air tickets; which I did not make the trip due to work commitments and still feeling sore about it. So this time, the top prize of $250 flight voucher appealed to me, especially since I travels quite frequently. When Tan (circled in red) suggested that the community work together to help each other get more guesses for candies, I kinda weighed my chances and opportunity cost and found it viable. So I jumped onto the bandwagon as early as possible as I know this will be a race against time if I want the top prize. The redemption of prizes were on a first come first serve basis.

I started my quest during lunch time, and left a comment on one of FlyScoot's photos to get people to add me. For every invite who eventually played the game, I will get additional two guesses. It worked well, replies were prompt, and I got 62 guesses for candies. According to the FAQs, there is one in six chance of getting a candy with the guesses.

By end of lunch time I had accumulated 20 candies. Sufficient to redeem a $40 flight voucher. 

I just left my Facebook account as is until I was off work at 6 pm. Friend requests began to slow and I had to act on it if I still want to be kept in the race. Meanwhile, I went for my prayer's session which lasted from 7 pm to about 10 pm. Halfway through, I panicked a little when I saw one of the four $250 vouchers was redeemed. That meant that someone of the 'pioneer batch' had made it. If I still wanted the top prize I needed to hurry! If not, I would have to be contented with 2 x $80 flight vouchers.

I posted another 2 comments on the other two of FlyScoot's photos to get people to add me for candies. Progress was slower but revived again and I got more guesses! There were times when it took me more than six guesses to get a single candy especially towards nearing my goal of 50 candies. Really wasn't that easy to guess! 

I finally found my 50th candy at 10+pm and exchanged for my $250! Unity worked! Feeling quite happy that my strategy worked. After almost half a day, I had an additional 124 friends on Facebook, which translated to 248 guesses for 50 candies. Works out to be about one candy in five guesses. Not exactly lucky, but still bettered the system's one in six probability. By the time I got home at 11+pm, the top prizes were totally wiped out, and the $80 vouchers as well. There were several users lamenting on their statuses that they were just two or three candies shy! Seems like I made it just in the nick of time! 

See, this is the power of Internet and Social Networking Sites. 

I explored my possibilities and set my target vacation dates to be in Feb 2014. Figured out that I could go free to Bangkok and Hong Kong (HK on promo) on Economy class. Or go Bangkok on ScootBiz with a $50 top-up. I am also rather keen on topping up approx $150 for a return trip to Gold Coast or Perth! I've never been down under! 

Either way, thank you everyone!