The answer is likely simple: enough people utilize their conversion rates and deal with their (according to you and some others) poor level of customer service that they are profitable. Profitable companies stay in business.

If they didn't honor their terms and make you whole, then it would be fraud and you would have an actionable case in court. If they were simply annoyingly slow and clueless, but they made you reasonably whole in the end, then it is *not* a "fleecing" nor a "sham". Rather, they'd be a terrible company in your book, one you won't do business with again, and you should leave it at that without misrepresenting the situation.

Yes I see your points and they make sense, but, well they s*ck bad and in my opinion not a single person in Ft should defend the company at all or their right to do anything. Anyone who does will either get burned by them or an entity like them, or will allow for some other person to get burned

My experiences and those of others in the cases that involved more than one did not need court and so in the end points.com made us jump thru hoops but they paid up, but the sheer fact that they made us go thru hell on wheels was enough evidence for me. Do Not Use! For more info, read the threads I posted in my first post in here--particularly the end pages of the AA one:td:

omg, you made me spit out my drink laughing. One of my all-time favorite movie moments!!

:D I'm glad someone picked up on this one hehe

One of the classic movie moments (though I love the dancing hamburger, too).

oh yeah --the dancing hamburger is classic! hahahaha

But now what I want to see is one of those re-edited commercials that today's technology allows for whereas the kid GETS the $2 he's after but in Mint coins. yeah, a pair of Sacagaweas:D

Wow, I aleady stated that I am satisfied with posts here regarding Points.com, but you can't accept that I'm satisfied. You just love to argue. Wow.

Indeed I love to argue, but unless I'm misunderstanding, you had said that you were satisfied with posts knocking points.com as reason not to use them but that your primary reason forbashing them was your inability to find details on terms and conditions, no? You never asked those specific questions here, did you?

Price for trading away Delta SkyMiles increased $30 per trade
 

Some time in the past week or two, the price for trading away Delta SkyMiles on points.com has gone from $.01/mile to $.01/mile + $30/trade. Offers posted before the price change to do not appear to be affected. Points.com tech support confirmed to me that the change is not a software bug.

Update: 2/23/2011: The $30/trade surcharge for offering Delta SkyMiles seems to have been removed.

Has anyone successfully traded Delta points for any other airline points? I tried to trade SkyMiles for OnePass Miles a while back and the whole deal went sour....eventually got my points restored to Delta, but I'm really hesitant to try it again....

In the past few months I have done at least the following transactions on points.com involving Delta: DL to CO, DL to VX.

Occasionally a trade of mine will be "under review" for a week or two and will then usually clear, but sometimes get cancelled. I suspect that when a trade goes "under reivew" the problem is more commonly with whoever posted the trade rather than the person accepting a posted trade, since the person accepting the trade can presumably be vetted immediately for being within trading limits, credit card authorization, etc., but some time has elapsed since the person posting the trade was similarly vetted. However, I have seen trades that I have posted go "under review", and I have never learned the reason why (and I would not expect to be told if the problems are with the other party).

Delta $30/trade surcharge gone
 

The $30/trade surcharge for trading away Delta SkyMiles on points.com that I mentioned in my message #44 in this thread appears to have disappeared.

I hope the reversion is permanent, but on the off chance that the reversion is accidental, I don't plan to ask their tech support about it.

Traded 1000 VX for 1000 DL today for $20 surcharge. Hit my SkyMiles instantly after being notified the trade had been accepted. The VX miles were expiring and would have gone to waste, essentially I bought 1000 DL miles for 2CPM instead of the 2.8CPM DL usually charges (plus no tax!). Seems like a good use for Points.com, though I agree a lot of the redemption offers are not good value.

Update
 

Bad news:

1. points.com's $30/trade surcharge on giving Delta miles in trade has returned.


Good news:

2. points.com's 50% bonus for receiving Delta SkyMiles in a trade has also returned, which may be worth more than $30 if the trade involves enough SkyMiles.

3. In a simpler and completely positive development, points.com has apparently started a 20% bonus for receiving AA miles in trade, so anyone with an active posted trade involving AA miles and not Delta will probably want to repost to qualify for the bonus.


Good, but not strictly news:

4. For completeness, I should mention that the 15% bonuses for receiving Aeroplan and JetBlue in trade that began last month are still running.

The Delta $30/trade surcharge has returned, but there are also some new promotions (50% on DL, 20% on AA).

By the way, I plan to post any future updates to the more neutrally named "POINTS.COM" thread here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...oints-com.html . I think I let my frustration get the best of me when I chose this thread to post my original message about the $30/trade surcharge on Delta points.com trades. Although I think a $30/trade surchase will eliminate most trades, I suspect that the fee comes mostly from the airline rather than points.com, and the situation is still better than being prohibited from trading at all, which is the case with most programs.