Originally Posted by
Happy
The liquidation of your miles / points - if via the work reimbursement route, it is only available to very lucky few.
Other methods of liquidation have high risk - you could be caught by the airlines (AA comes to mind) and your whole account is frozen, then miles confiscated ...
Also, have your read about how Chase closed people's UR pts earning cards because they are accused of violating program rules in transferring their UR pts to parties not their spousal units? I am sure before Chase put its foot down on this, people are freely selling / buying UR pts among co-workers and friends/families... But that is NOT a reliable way nor legit way, to liquid such "assets" which should be viewed more like a life enhancer that brings a lot of nicety to one's life otherwise would cost a lot to obtain. Enjoy them but dont treat them the way a house or a bank account or a stock portfolio is treated when you come to count your wealth.
At the risk of being accused of whining - note that with regard to Chase (at least in my case) their own CSR's knowingly transferred people's points to non-spouses, and then they later came back and closed my account for T&C violations. In fact, a Chase CSR once told me (alas I do not have recorded proof of this) that it was perfectly alright to buy points from others. When they cancelled my credit card, they did let me keep the points, and I opened another account and transferred them.