DiverDave

The seller's previous auctions were for Delta Gold status, and he has an active one going for Delta Gold right now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=130153696072

You can check the auctions linked in his feedback, I've linked one above.

David

DiverDave

You can be reasonably sure that Continental (and all of the majors) routinely monitor ebay auctions.

David

ConciergeMike

I would hope that CO knows about this by now, to say nothing of my hopes for a press release when they nail the human detritus that is doing this.

entropy

the guy is also trying to sell a Biz class amenity kit for $49...
haha

ryerflyer

Only a fool would fall for this. It clearly could be revoked at any time, and CO could care less how much someone "paid" for Elite membership on eBay or anywhere else.

vsevolod4

Auction should be reported to eBay. It violates CO's TOCs and therefore violates eBay's listing rules.

While I think there should be no restrictions, there are, and as long as there are, people who don't play by the rules make things worse for the rest of us, and we should not tolerate this.

whiteknuckles

No way would I bid on this.

goingnow

Cupertino

A bunch of Flyertalkers are taking this on because it impacts upon them in many ways. The very least of which is that that person buying the status is competition for upgrade seats. Also, Flyertalkers know that FF programs and status are rewards for loyalty to an airline. It is a chosen loyalty, agreed; however, when someone comes can come along and just buys the status for which others have to fulfill the rules of the program, it cheapens the whole program, not to mention the rules of fairness. If a supermarket chooses to take expired coupons that is their business. If it means that my current coupon cannot be used, or is worth less, then it is my business.

Mary2e

Here's the scenario I was talking about...

My company requires that I book the least expensive fare using their travel agency. That means I won't get 100% EQM on all my flights unless I game their system .

However, if I miss getting status because of this rule, the travel manager has the ability to get me the status anyway. All I have to do is call him and he'll give me what I would have earned anyway.

Is that breaking the rules? Technically yes, I didn't book on CO.com so I didn't get 100% EQMs, but I flew the required BIS miles.

I believe this auction is by a travel manager with access to that status. There were a bunch of similar auctions 2 or 3 years ago selling status on several different airlines and it was in the same timeframe. The end of the year. I would be he found himself with a bunch of status comps and figured he'd make a few bucks.

Yes, I think it's wrong, but it's just a bit more wrong that the situation I described above. Both technically break the rules.

goingnow

Lurker1999

Do note that Onepass rules state explicitedly: "You can have only one OnePass account, which is established under your full first and last name (no initials, please)." and one interested party asked about going from silver to gold. The seller stated he would need to create a new account for that person.

owie69

I bought a Silver Elite Status voucher several years ago on eBay. Continental routinely provides these types of vouchers to charity auctions and other types of fundraising events. The voucher is totally legit and it makes sense that this would be the time of year to see a "Gold 'til 2009" voucher out there. I paid $200 for the Silver (back when you could actually get upgraded on Silver) voucher.

So no need to "alert" anyone or fire up any eBay flags or anything. There are plenty of legitimate ways people could be selling this type of item. It is certainly worth more than $350 to anyone that plans to have a decent amount of travel between now and 02/2009.

rkkwan

I seriously wonder where the "value" is to pay $355 for something like this.

Only if someone doesn't fly much at all this year - and plan to fly a lot next year. Or if one flies a lot, but all miles credited to NW or DL, and really want to switch real bad.

Otherwise, I don't see many reasons to pay this much for gold status.

owie69

I bought the Silver voucher at the time because I was starting a new project and would be traveling fairly heavily the following year and the $200 for Silver seemed better than the $99 for the Prestige Pack. This was long before Elite lines and Elite carpets and all the other amenities the long time Elites take for granted.

So if you are starting a new job, or starting a new travel project, you can bypass the first 3 months of hell getting seats in the 20s so you can bring your carry on aboard and the various other things "normal" people have to do when they travel. We train our new people to do things like that until they achieve Elite status. If you get an upgrade every now and then, maybe even more valuable. The extra miles certainly don't hurt either.

To each his own, but if I was not going to re-qualify for any Elite status for next year, I would give this serious consideration. Be a Have, not a Have Not!