Yes they are. She had a little then we ordered out a C ticket on Air New Zealand from AKL to SYD with return. That left an odd 9966. VS would not move becuase she did not have the minimum 10000 points to transfer to HHonors. I've been trying to make decent use of them for a year and have given up. The only other alternative was I believe a ticket on Hawaiian Air which was a pain to issue. So this will flatten out her VS account and I need not worry about it anymore. They would not even take a couple of points from my account. So orphan in our minds indeed.