Ultimate reward points question
 

It has come to my attention that people are willing to buy chase UR points for substantially more than .01 per point. I know that you can get .0125 per point when you use them for airfair, but people are offering me slightly more. Why are these points worth more than .0125 cents to some people. Is this done frequently, and is it common? Thanks for your help in advance, and I hope this is the right forum for this discussion.

Because you can exchange them for UA miles, for example, which are worth considerably more than .01 depending on how you use them. For some FC international flights they can yield .04 or more. They can also be used to add points to other people's accounts. They're very flexible and useful. Starpoints are arguably worth more, but the UR points are up there.

Agree with previous poster and they can also be transferred to hyatt, priority club, and southwest which increases the value tremendously as well.

So is there any illegal in me selling my points to someone ?

Also what's a fair price for them would you guy's say, don't want to get ripped off.

Moderator caution
 

Welcome to Flyertalk. Please be aware of this Flyertalk rule:

Discussions about the idea of buying or selling points are permitted, but discussing specifics such as the quantity or price is likely to be regarded as a disguised offer.

Spend some time reading about the ways that others redeem Ultimate Rewards points. This will give a good idea of their flexibility and value.

Here's a good site to read on market value of points and why:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemil...t-card-points/

"Chase Ultimate Rewards – 1.9 cents/point"

Wow thanks for the info guys, the guy was trying to lowball me.

Thanks again !!

One thing to note, he may not be savy and maybe using the points poorly himself. Everyone values points differently. You'll find higher values here because people know how to best maximize points.

you sell it few times and one day you will be told BYE BYE by chase for life!

Yes if they catch you or even think you are selling them bye bye Chase. So if you transfer them to more than 1 or 2 accounts you maybe gone gone gone from Chase.

I have frequently bought points from co-workers for 1.25 cents. I'm lucky in that I work for a company with about 5000 professionals on our main campus and a bulletin board where I can freely advertise to buy them.

If there were a large, transparent market for UR points, it's hard to say where the price would land. The people I buy them from are usually using them for 1-cent statement credits. I'm sure most of them know that there is probably a better way to use them, but it might not be worth their while to do all the learning. They might prefer cash now to using them later for airline tickets, at a time when they might not even remember to go to the UR travel site.

One person who replied to my ad at work said "How do you aribtrage them?" Obviously he knew they had a higher value to me than 1.25 cents. It led to a conversation where I showed him how to get the two Citi AA cards to get more points for himself.

"Consumer surplus" is a key element of consumer well-being. If you would pay $10 for a gallon of milk because you like milk so much, you benefit from the fact that most people will not pay $10, and the dairies have to lower the price to $4 in order to sell all their milk. Here, conusmer surplus dictates that you might value points at x but someone else values them at less than x, so you can make a transaction that benefits you both.

The "pure" value of points is not the value of what you redeem them for, it is the value of the redemption, less the cost of both acquiring the knowledge of how to redeem them and the actual work of redeeming them. You might think for example that since third-party award booking services charge about $100 per ticket, that the value of a point is perhaps 0.1cpm less than the award value, since someone is either paying $100 per 100,000 points redeemed, or has done the learning work to know how to avoid the $100 fee.

I have bought points from at least a half-dozen people at work, and never has anyone at Chase given me the slightest question about the transfer. I don't have actual documentation of the date and time and name of the CSR, but I did ask a CSR on the phone and was told there is no rule against buying points.

I doubt he was trying to fleece you -just wanted a good deal. We don't know what he offered you, but we know it was more then 1.25 cents as you indicated. If he is buying them from you, obviously he wants a good deal or he wouldn't need you. I know lots of people that are thrilled when they sell their points because they will never use them themselves, so for them it is a good deal. the value to each person is different...

I like how you explained consumer surplus. It is true about milk, but not UR points. If Chase sell UR points for 1.25 and you buy because it worth more than that for you then you could interpret it as consumer surplus ;)