Three sweepstakes: Reasonable odds beat lottery tickets

    If the free travel department, Viking River Cruises is giving away three Rhine River cruises for two valued at $10,000 to contestants who "Like" their company on Facebook. The company already has over 46,000 "Likes" and the drawing will be held as soon as they hit 50,000 contestants.
    As contests go, a 1 in 16,666 chance to win a $10,000 prize is pretty good. In reality they are paying you about 50 cents to press the "Like" button. Nobody says you can't unlike them in the future, though. Fifty cents isn't much, but pressing the "Like button is cheaper than buying a lottery ticket.
To enter, visit the Viking River Cruises website and press the Facebook logo down on the bottom scroll menu. You can then go to the Facebook page and enter the contest. Good luck!

    In the more free stuff department, if you "Like" the Hilton Garden Inn on Facebook you get a free 250 HHonors points. If you're saving for a free 225,000-point reward at a top hotel, that makes the points worth a little over $3. It may take you a while to get to 225,000, but remember the story of the tortoise and the hare.
    Here's the link to the signup page: http://apps.facebook.com/promosapp/146873/. Oh, and they're also having a drawing to give five people 10,000 HHonors points. That's worth just over $100, so no big deal, but it's free. The 10,000-point sweepstakes adds about 1.5 cents in value, so the value is in the sure 250 points, not the bird in the far distant bush. Somehow, even though the Hilton deal is a better value, the Viking deal is more exciting!

    Meanwhile, American Airlines is giving away a million airline miles. To enter, download their Android app. Except the deal is, you really don't have to have an Android or download the app to enter. Just read the small print. http://fly.aa.com/androidpromo/default.aspx?cc=1. You can enter this contest twice per email address, by the way. Not sure how they came up with that.
    Finally, American is offering a giveaway every day for 30 days. Just go to AA.com/AAdvantage30th and sign up. American miles are the best there are, so I sure hope I win some!
    Now we all know the odds are that you won't win any of these. But maybe I saved you five bucks on lottery tickets!