Isn't this the situation with any company or service? Walk into a restaurant when you are extremely full and buying a meal would be a complete waste of your money. Points.com is a completely voluntary service. If you don't like it, don't use it. It is as simple as that. Many of us use them just in specific situations, as you cited, and this is the case with *any* company.

If you think that you could provide the same transfers at a better rate, why not start a competing company? If it was that simple, you'd have a goldmine on your hands, as there are few competitors in the field.

Just like Points.com, SkyMiles are viewed as "SkyPesos" by those who don't understand how and when to use them efficiently. No one should accumulate a currency they can't use well, but if you decide to earn it anyway, you have no right to complain.

Alright I'm going to sum it up this way...

I am really not too savvy with Hilton.
So I got the Hilton Surpass Amex and have racked up some 95k points in the past couple months.
I wanted to redeem some points and also book nites with money. I called in to do this and have set up a reservation for like 10 days from now.

AFTERWARDS I asked: So like, if I had to cancel, I can do that and get everything back right? CSR said yup, just do so up to 3 days out and you are 100% fine.

Ok I kinda assumed that. I assumed it would be workable.

With SPG it's one day out. And since I knew this about SPG, I figured HH would be similar.

But the point is that without even really fully knowing the program or knowing about its cancellation policy, I went into it confident that this could be done similar to how others do it.

While one should know what they are doing and know the rules, we all often go into things thinking it could or should be a lot like other stuff we are used to.

We go into deals figuring that it should work a certain way and it often does.

But with points.com that is not the case. They screw ya. I have proved it in threads I have posted links for all over FT

They break the rule WE have as customers: that we came to expect a certain level of general service in certain assumed areas.

I do like the fact that Point.com is now active on FT but I don't really believe that Points.com can change. FFP's have basically annointed Points.com as their transfer agent. The fees charged are pretty bad but people do use the site. If they can make money with this model, no matter if the model is a rip-off or not, they will not change. I think the market does dictate the redemption rates and transfer fees, so if they are charging what they do; it's because they can get it.

The site interface is actually quite good and if they transitioned to creating a section of their site dedicated to large person to person transfers (aka 25k or more) and created an option of taking the transfer fee in points instead of dollars they might get some business from the FT crowd.

Does anyone else have any suggestions that would get a FT to use Points.come?

watch now how we will begin to see less and less of the points.com representative in here

For those considering Points.com, click the link at the bottom (mostly complaints). Sure, there are some, even many who have used the service w/o problems. However, this is one company that seems to have quite a few unhappy users. Myself, I was seriously thinking about doing a transaction but I smelled a rat after I viewed the sophomoric instruction page, and clicked around to try to fully understand.

As with many others, Points.com just blew off my email inquiry as if they never even received it or something---not even an acknowledgement of having rec'd it. I can just imagine what happens when you have a problem!

I went to a Plan B (booked another destination for a few less miles) Of course, not all people are so flexible and so, maybe it's worth the gamble and/or rip-off cost to get enough points to be able to book an award flight.

http://www.my3cents.com/search.cgi?c...points-com+inc

That link is about mypoints.com, not points.com.

Ooops!

I fail to follow you logic.

Say if I think a restaurant charges a ludicrous price for a plain hamburger, I point it out the price is ridiculous and outrageous, then I share my opinions with the public. But you are saying I should open a hamburger store instead?

Why would I want to run a hamburger store? I am just a smart shopper who knows where and how to shop. I am no competitor or merchant, nor do I want to be one.

Why should I start a competing company whenever I see a company run an open-for-those-who-don't-know-better model?

lin821's message was in response to mooper, but I want to try to answer as a sympathist to mooper's comment.

1. I don't think you should feel obligated to start a competitor, but rather just answer the question: what is impeding the formation of a competitor? You may find a systemic problem more deserving of discussion and your "outrageous" label, or you may find an interesting business opportunity also more worthy of discussion, or, more likely, you'll probably identify holes in your knowledge about the situation and identify some questions worth asking.

2. I do not see how it is outrageous when I am offered the option to buy a hamburger expensively.

3. I might even knowingly buy a hamburger expensively just because the price difference exceeds the value of time I would otherwise spend searching for a cheaper burger. Even in that case, the existence of the additional expensive hamburger stand improves my options.

4. However, the buyer information situation is not really so bad with points.com as there are times when trading on points.com really is the best available option, typically when you have some points in a program that you think you'll never otherwise use and you were otherwise going to buy points even more expensively to top up to an award in a different program.

I agree; you didn't follow my logic.

You mistook my argument as suggesting that you are *obligated* to open a hamburger store in the event the market is dominated by a restaurant with prices that are "ridiculous and outrageous", priced far above the level needed to be profitable. I'm not suggesting an obligation; I am suggesting an *opportunity*. Your savvy ways have alerted you to the fact that the hamburgers could be sold for much less and still yield a profitable business. Therefore, you know that if you *wanted* to make an easy profit, you could start a competing store with reasonable pricing you believe would be wildly popular. Of course, the original store could drop their prices too, but in this type of situation, there's usually plenty of room for both profits and price drops.

In the case of Points.com, I suspect that their costs and the business model dictate that there isn't a lot of room to cut pricing, spend more on customer service, and be as profitable. However, your opinion that there is an "outrageous" differential present could certainly be correct, and if so, you would be wise to act instead of whine.

USAirways is currently running a 100% match when buying miles. Is it against the rules to buy USAiways miles and use points.com to exchange them for Delta Skymiles? Thanks for any info.

By the way, I'm new and already addicted...can't seem to get my head out of the computer when I start reading posts. I've already learned so much. Thank you all for that.

Welcome to Flyertalk! Buying the US miles, even with the 100% bonus, isn't worth it to many people (those who have good use for international first class where they often shine, may). Further diluting them by doing a points.com transfer would make the value even more dubious. I believe you could purchase Delta miles directly more cheaply than the process you propose.

Lets say I make a trade - whatever for whatever - when the miles get credited to my account do they have the same lifespan as if they were new? Or are they somebody else's miles that could be "almost expired?"

I hope I am posting in the right forum, and I hope I am describing my question accurately. I tried asking on points dot com but no response to date.

Like they are new. Some programs take a long time to post.

I joined Points.com some time ago and want to transfer some Frontier miles to Alaska air. I have registered Frontier without issue but when I try to register Alaska air I get this: The Alaska Airlines account you specified is not eligible to purchase. What does that mean and why? Thanks for your time and input.