To answer AlohaDaveKennedy's question above - I changed my address to Canada after the "stars" promotion started. (I used my wife's address - she lives there.)

As far as the other posts about the bad ratios - last time I was in Vegas it was hot and a guy was sitting on the street with a cooler full of ice and bottles of water, selling them for $1. Suppose he chose to sell the same bottles for $5. A rip-off? Nope, nobody is forced to buy it. Points.com provides a service. Actually, I think the way they handle it is by finding a conversion path. For example, if you want to transfer Amex MR points to United, you have to transfer Amex to SPG at 3:1 and then transfer SPG to United at 2:1. (Maybe there's a more efficient path, but the example is still valid.) So points. com would give 6:1. I don't think points.com skims anything off the top.

As noted, I found them very useful. And if I had, say, 59,988 miles and needed 60K for an award, I might find them useful also.