Perhaps they make you cringe, but the bottom line is that SWA awards are are in huge demand on the open market and - despite reports that the sky is falling due to recent crackdowns on RR sales on ebay - they are still very easy to turn into cold hard cash.

Case in point: someone close to me sold a RR award in the past week or two to an "internet stranger" that needed one short-notice roundtrip, to minimize any possiblility of problems with what some call the Rapid Rewards Police the seller did the following:

1. DID NOT use ebay
3. DID NOT use a ticket broker
2. Actually spoke on the phone to the eventual buyer before the sale to explain the ins and outs of using the award and to "get their story straight" in the unlikely event that questions were asked (they weren't of course)

The end result was a win/win situation for the two parties involved: after expenses the seller ended up with slightly over $375 in their pocket and the buyer saved $200+ from what they would have had to pay for a "normal" ticket.