If you have a Delta Skymiles Amex credit card, you can liquidate skymiles at the rate of 11,000 per $100 AmEx gift card, I believe.

WebFlyer Mileage Converter
 

Why not check out Webflyer Mileage Converter to explore your better options? That is a tool much much better than using mile-costing Points.com.

Also see this master thread on Points:

Points.com, pros and cons [consolidated thread]

Sage advice that seasoned FT Member gave me when I joined the forum a few years ago .. "Avoid Points.com whenever possible."

Indeed. ^

In the past I've done a few good trades to move Delta SkyMiles to AAdvantage miles. But it's a lot of work: one needs to continuously post trades in the hope that one or two of them are accepted. (Posting a trade on the site is a fair bit of work in filling out the forms.)

Usually, all I see are ludicrous ratios, which I've assumed are brokers or something (often the handles are nonsensical).

Personally, I hate points.com. I tried it several times, and it was a lot of effort. I got a few good, small buys here and there.

My biggest issue isn't the fact that one pays through the nose. My biggest issue is that my credit cards, for whatever reason, keep getting "declined."

I can assure them that there is nothing wrong with my credit cards. It is points.com that is the problem. It is on their end.

I wrote to points.com and explained that now I've been through several credit cards, and they just will not work on the website anymore (all declined). I have none left to use. I received a canned reply and then several days later a lame reply asking for the type of miles I was trying to purchase. However the email did not let me reply, so I had to go back to the stinkin' web form and reply that way. Finally I got another answer that I don't quite know if it is true or not. They said that the airline actually makes the decision as to whether or not the sale takes place, and points.com is just a "platform" or something like that, for the airline to use.

????????????????

What the (@&%(@%)!??

So I will not use points.com anymore because I am UNABLE to do so, and they don't really care, and I'm out of virgin credit cards that have not been used on their website. So I'm done but not by choice. And I agree with those that said points.com is a hassle. In my opinion it is, and in more ways than one.

If someone came out with a better website similar to points.com (but better and fairer) I suppose it would do rather well. Anyone? Anyone?

Even after all this time, credit cards only seem to work once. It's almost as if Points.com does not want to make money. I don't get it.

They have a monopoly on points transactions. Unless someone brings an antitrust law suite on them nothing will change. And I don't even know if this is possible since they are registered in Canada.

American Express considering competing with points.com?
 

American Express Serve is apparently running a survey where they ask, among other things, about the appeal of the following potential new service:

Later, the survey asks if the respondent is a user of about six different web sites, one of which is points.com.

I will admit that due to the fact the process worked for me as described by another user, I just recently used points.com once to transfer 10 miles in and out of my US AIR account and it should give me another hit for the GS promo. IT was the first time I signed back up to and used points.com in 6 years. I think now that I have used it for this, I will not use it again til next year's promo.

Then again, I have heard that some people are saying points.com is even finding ways to re-neg on those transactions too!

They are a rip off but for just 10 miles it was worth doing what I did.

Joke of the Day
 

Every time I go their website, I have to reset my password. I'm not that bad at misremembering my password there. It's a joke.

I took the survey, but I highly doubt Amex would have the partnerships Points.com does, considering it doesn't even have working relationships/partnerships with 3 of the major (US) airlines.

BTW, this is not at all an endorsement for Points.com - which I find to be an appalling site both in service and value.

One of the worst websites among travel. I find it useful only for the US Airways Grand Slam Promo.

Mike

Also the occasional expiration date reset.

So glad you said that, I was beginning to think it was just me. I don't even remember when or why I signed up for points.com, but fortunately I only have 2 of my many accts listed and don't plan on listing more. and I'm tired of resetting my password, which like you, I can't possibly be forgetting EVERY time!!

I manage 6 family accounts @ point.com and don't face this problem. Why don't you guys use a password manager like Roboform or Lastpass to remember the passwords. I use both of them and have found it to be very helpful.

I tried Points.com yesterday for the first time. I just laughed at what they offer. Maybe will use them next year for Grand Slam, but that would be it.:td:

When I try to exchange between programs the exchange button remains grayed out. What am I missing? I know it has worked for me before as I have used it for Grand Slam and to reset expiration dates. Thanks

It means that the exchange is not allowed for some reason (not enough balance, programs does not allow exchange etc.)

Just looked into this. Wow they are expensive. Points wise and fee wise

Has Points.com announced whether or not United with become an exchange partner after the merger or will Continental just go away?

I'm not sure why/how so many people had negative experiences or comments about points.com. I had about 7,000 Continental Onepass miles sitting in an abandoned account from before they became Star Alliance.

I set up my own trade request looking for an equal trade of 7,000 OP miles for 7,000 Aeroplan miles. Within hours someone had accepted the trade and 72 hours later the points were out of my OP account and the new points in my Aeroplan account. It cost me $0.01 per mile to do the transfer -- which is a lot of $$, but the points were useless to me otherwise.

For those contemplating using Points.com -- I'm a happy customer (I seem to be a bit of a rare breed based on the other posts).

there should be no such thing as an abandoned CO acct right now. Maybe in a few weeks, but right now, all the miles could easily go to a UA acct of the same name and addy without issue! You are fortunate to have had a 1:1 trade to Aeroplan, but I find this to be rare. I will say, however, that they HAVE seemed to have changed a bit for the better. I even used points.com to transfer 10 US miles into 4 Asia miles, and then 4 Asia back to become 1 US so i could get HITS on my US GS promo!! haha
worked like a charm within a few days time, and on more than one US acct.

Agreed. When I initially thought to trade the CO points for Aeroplan, I saw offers of 2:1.... but, figured I would just try the 1:1 post. Worked, so I was happy. I would NOT have done the trade for any less.

Points.com: "Ripoff.com"

I can't seem to find the coupon connection you talk about.

It's a hidden forum until you have made x number of posts.

If I recall, there's some kind of special FT requirement (minimum number of posts or something?) before it will appear with one's login. You might want to try a FT search for the thread...

I dont see the value in points.com for all the reasons described so far. But if they are cunning and collecting data on where we earn our points, patterns of earning, etc.... you've been warned.

I'm going to unsubcribe.

so what can i do with my 500 Alaskan points expiring soon and 1200 Hilton?

If you live/ work near a Doubletree, do a mobile checkin via Facebook. I think those 50 points reset the expiry clock.

As far as your AS points, 500 isn't that much I would worry about losing. Perhaps you can redeem for a magazine? If AS participates in Idine you can always go to a participating restaurant and order a coke.

Many of us don't value our miles much above the 1 cent/mi you spent. But beyond that...

Even notoriously poor services have isolated positive experiences. :D

7000 CO miles aren't worthless. If you take a long enough viewpoint, there are cost effective ways to turn them into a worthwhile redemption. Combine with UA and there are periodically decent rental car promos, for example. And there are plenty of low-impact time wasters, such as e-miles and e-rewards.

Your points.com trade sounds like a fair value but there are plenty of other ways to make those miles valuable without paying.

You can answer 6 Best Buy trivia questions from Audience Rewards and then transfer those 12 BBR to 2 Alaskan Airline miles via Points.com. That should reset your counter for another year.

Can't believe points.com is still in business.

This is the type of Point.com trade that works, and it's even better if you can trade at a ratio more beneficial than 1:1.

Everyone keeps saying that point.com is a total rip off but there are ways to find value for some people.

My wife traded 12k Delta pesos for 15k AA and paid one cent each she can book a ow to Europe on AA for 15k good deal IMHO

I am glad it's working for you/some people.

To get the hit on US GS I even decided to dive in and give em one more try and it actually worked. That said, I too will tread lightly for things like that going forward. I see they have in fact revamped their site and appear to have things more organized, etc.

BUT, as stated earlier and in other arenas, this company has a horrid history of not following up with customers WHEN there are problems. Just be careful in case that's STILL the case.

These days I actually judge companies and my experience as a customer not on how well things went in my purchasing experience, but how they handle things if something goes wrong. I don't mind if something goes wrong... in fact I almost hope it does. Then I can see how they deal with it/me.

To further this point, there was a special on CNBC the other night called Customer Dis-satisfaction. It had to do with the call centers in other countries and their perception of us, our complaints, their ways of working. It also got into some of the big complaints customers have had with obtuse corporations and their call centers.

While getting into the fact that many call center employees and managers cannot or will not do certain things for the customer because of policy, the show failed to reveal one thing:

The theory that the company itself hog ties those employees so they do not have the power nor wherewithal to help customers with problems, and that is why everybody gets upset (CSr and customer alike). It is therefore the company, its often badly designed policies (that you do not know all about til it's too late) and its way of presenting these rules that are the bad thing, not the CSRs. The CSRs are just rule followers. Some customers are irate or unreasonable. But in general, many companies DO just plain STINK! In my experience, and maybe it's changed now for the better, Points.com fell into the STINK category.

I've used it to keep track of balances, but the only real reason I use it is to liquidate BBrewards points. I rarely if ever shop there, so its nice to get an extra .5miles per $ spent there.

BBRewards gives 1 point per $1. Sure I can convert these back to 2% cash back (500 points=$10), but I never shop at BB, and also this purchase was below that threshold (netted 450 points), so I'd end up with $5 to spend at BBuy, which expires in 90 days, and 200 orphaned points or I'd have an orphaned 450 points.

Points.com got me an extra 220 US Air miles for the 450 points. Not a great value, but helps to make the overall purchase that much sweeter. Was a purchase for a friend so the miles were all "free" in essence.

I never thought about this. Smart.