Last week I was reading USA Today and in the classifieds there were about five ads for buying/selling miles with toll free numbers. I was curious about such blatant advertising and decided to call one to see how they would even go about it.
A woman answered and mentioned some travel agency, which I didn't understand the name because I was struggling with her accent. I asked her how they go about buying miles. She asked how many I had. I made up some numbers like, 180,000 United, and 130,000 American.
She says I'll give you $3,000 for your United miles.
I asked how do I transfer the United miles to you when they are in my account and I can't sell them?
She said, I need two business class tickets to Asia which will be 180,000 miles. You get the tickets in my clients' names and I will pay you for the tickets.
I made my excuses and hung up.
1. I don't have the miles in my account and I was never interested in really selling them. I was interested in how they would go about setting up a transaction and processing miles from a seller to a buyer.
2. The buying rate was essentially 1.6 cents/mile which I was surprised to discover - seems lucrative for the seller. I have to wonder about the price they sell a business class ticket to Asia. Anyone interested in researching that side
?
3. This was an ad in USA Today. How can the airlines not be busting these people? It took me less than five minutes to discover the process. Couldn't the airline contact them, set up phony deals, and bust them? There were at least five companies advertising in USA Today with toll-free numbers.
4. It makes me think from the original poster that Scott might be the passenger, since the agency I contacted said the process would be for me to get tickets for the passenger. Wouldn't the passenger have access to the name of the ticket buyer who paid the taxes for the award?
It is quite a racket. I love my airline programs too much to fool around with them. And like Punki, this is not the first story I've read on Flyertalk about the danger of playing with mileage brokers.