Gimme a break!

If you've flown (or charged, or stayed, or rented) enough to actually earn enough miles for a free flight, then you've got to know that the rules of the mileage credits state that the points/miles, nor the resulting rewards, can be sold or bartered. I was just on a United flight this morning and right there, in the Hemisphere's inflight magazine, is a quarter page advertisment exclusively stating "Don't sell or barter your United Miles" in big bold print.

I'm not saying I've got any problem with actually selling or barting miles & awards - I'm just saying everyone knows you're not supposed to do it.

With the exception of SouthWest, who appears to turn a blind eye to Ebay sales, I don't see a lot of miles & rewards sales on Ebay (just did a search for Delta and United which turned up a lot of coupons & discounts, but very few miles & awards). It seems that the majority of the airlines actually do try to enforce this policy when it comes to a worldwide marketplace like ebay.

The references to "illegal" activity are off base. There is nothing "illegal" about selling miles or awards and you aren't going to go to jail or face a big (governmentally enforced) fine for it. It's simply a term of the "contract" you have with the Airline. The airline gives you miles/points, and you give them certain promises in return. If you breach your part of the contract, the airline has the right to void the contract all together.

I'd be interested to know from the Original Poster what the exact correspondence was between the airline (what airline was it), Ebay and him. In other words, give us the details on how ya got busted!

Final word: My favorite auction in my recent search was the guy who was selling the "white envelope" with the "free gift" of a rounnd trip ticket in it. He specifically says in the auction that the round trip ticket is "fully transferrable"....aaahhhhhhhh, ok then, how about just selling the damn ticket and fuggitabout the white envelope?