Originally Posted by
Often1
Sure, and those same people are then reporting the income from the sale and then paying the taxes due because their basis in the cert is $0. That seems common sense too. But, this is all about selective common sense.
It
The problem with that is everyone claims that there is something which ought to be more prominent, e.g. change fees, bag fees, refundability, stopovers, and so on. Whatever it is that somebody could not be bothered to read ought to have been more prominent.
That leads to the problem that if everything is prominent, nothing is prominent.
I've met many people who are unaware that they can't sell their miles. I don't think I've met anyone that didnt know that there are fees to change their flight or check a bag.
I think most people, even once a year flyers are aware of the existence of bag fees, change fees/refundability, and what stopovers are. They may not know the exact amount of the fee but if they wanted to know, the would naturally go looking for the information or ask. You see it in the news all the time about fees. The penalty for not knowing about it is pretty small.
Selling of miles/instruments is different. No one talks about it, no one knows about it and the penalty is potentially huge.
Most people who are unaware of the rule will say "They're my miles, I earned them, why can't I sell them?" That makes alot of sense to me and is an easy conclusion to make for someone who has not specifically looked for the rules. People don't generally go looking for rules for "common sense" items.