Middle_Seat,
Where did you hear that points.com wants your MyAlaskaAir ID rather than your Mileage Plan number? I couldn't get it to accept the former but it would accept the latter. It remains to be seen if it will really work. I can't believe it takes them so long to to update your balances. Programs like Yodlee do it immediately.

Points.com is really quite painful to use. They have some really ridiculous security policies--like you can't give them a free Internet email address like yahoo or hotmail. I've never encountered any site with such a restriction--even ultra-security conscious banks.

What we won't do to get those 20 AA partners!