Originally Posted by
CPRich
Yes, they are "legal". Very little in awards programs can be done that would violate the law and have the police come after you.
But I suspect that this would violate the terms and conditions of the programs. You won't get arrested, but you could forfeit all of you accumulated points.
How can they do it? It's not illegal or against the program T&C to be an intermediary to such a transaction. You lose the points, LoyaltyMatch has no liability/damage.
Note the weasel words buried deep in the fine print - "In making a reward purchase or trade, you warrant and covenant to LoyaltyMatch that: (a) you are legally able to trade the rewards through the LoyaltyMatch Site, (b) you have read and agreed to the terms and conditions of for the loyalty or rewards program from which you are listing rewards to buy or trade on the LoyaltyMatch Site, and, (c) your offer to buy or trade will not violate the terms and conditions of your respective Loyalty Program as they pertain to you. "
I.e. - you are stating/committing that you have verified the T&Cs of your program and are allowed to do this.
So when you get smacked, they just say "but you stated to us that it was OK and we accepted your word - your mistake, not ours"
I have read all these replies to loyalmatch's founder and what I find annoying is that no one seems to care that airlines are essentially telling us what to do with our miles, and this really bugs me. So I thought I'd do the unthinkable and encourage all of you to give selling your miles a shot, I guarantee you'll feel much better after the first time, and so will your finances. Here are a few sites:
www.craigslist.org,
www.flyhub.com,
www.sellingmiles.com,
www.loyalmatch.com,www.ebay.com. Don't let these airlines intimidate you, you earn these miles you do as you wish with them: sell them.
I spend my life on airplane, my job demands it, so I always end with a ridiculously high number of miles that I can never use, because I travel so much for work, I tend to stay home for my vacation. Let me just say that my company always fly me first class and pays a fortune for these tickets, so the airlines make a lot of money already. In return I earn miles and not only do airlines make it nearly impossible to book the dates one wants for a decent amount of miles, but they also impose this absurd rule that states that we cannot dispose of the miles we OWN in whatever way we choose. Sure we can give them away, but god forbid should we ever make money by selling them, they will punish us. And we all accept our fate.
Am I the only one who sees something wrong here. Who the hell are they to tell us what to do with something we own? Don't they make enough money as it is? Don't they charge us an arm and a leg for a ticket already? I really hope someday soon someone actually sues them for daring to tell people what to do with their own property, that what should be illegal. Airlines should not be allowed or get away with threatening people selling their miles.
Has anyone ever tried to issue a ticket with their miles? I once did just that: I tried to get a friend a ticket and it was a nightmarish experience. So, guess what I do with my miles now? I SELL them! that's right, I no longer waste them as I once did, now I make a lot of extra cash selling them. I have been for the past years. First on
www.craigslist.org, then on
www.ebay.com, then on a site like
www.flyhub.com and now I will also give
www.loyalmatch.com a shot.
Is it illegal? NO, and if the airlines could make it illegal they would have a long time ago. Think about it.
Could you get in trouble if you got caught? YES, but for example, sites like flyhub have a very strict privacy policy. They allow frequent flyers to buy and sell miles or issue tickets without ever exposing either the buyer or the seller, not even to one another. It's the stubhub of airline tickets, so you never have to worry about getting caught and the airline have absolutely no way of knowing who sold what.
Loyalmatch.com might have a similar policy, not sure, never used them. But I'll definitely check it out and start using it to. In short I'm really getting sick and tired of these greedy and controlling airlines, and I think it is time we end this nonsense. I take pride in fighting back by making money from my miles, and I will continue to do that.
I encourage you all to do the same: sell your miles, and do so in a way that protects your interest, in the shadow of any company that is willing to protect your identity.