Frequent Flyer Award Brokers
 

If I am psoting this in the wrong place, forgive me. An email has come to me from a person professing to be a Frequent Flyer Award Broker. I have not responded because I really do not know what these people do (he says that he is a rarity in this country (yours' or mine, I know not), or whether I want to get involved.

Can somebody advise me please?

Generally, the advice is STAY AWAY from these kind of folks. Participation in such schemes generally violates the terms of your frequent flyer program and can lead to "sanctions" including loss of points, membership, status etc.

I'm with BB! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

This subject has been debated in several other posts. Take a look at the American thread (upgrades for sale on Ebay) for the most recent one.

Here's at least two reasons why you might want to beware:
I know many people that have sold awards to brokers and never received the money from the broker for the awards sold. Lost in the mail, etc. until you give up. What do you do? Complain to an airline that the awards you sold weren't paid for and will they put a stop on the award use? Call the cops who in the line of investigation will talk to the airlines to establish value and remedies? I don't think so.

Also, these brokers are always living life with a rearview mirror. Airlines are constantly shutting them down and guess what the first thing the airlines do? Yep, get ahold of the customer list, both buying and selling and a little clecrk goes through the seller list and tags all those accounts. They also trade these lists with other airlines. I don't think you want to appear on any list.

So, there's a few things to be wary of. Tip: most of the deals done these days are among private parties; friend-to-friend; business associate to business associate, etc. Less of a problem and much cleaner, though "trading" is far more popular than selling.

Thank you all. I suspected as much. I am not sure if I made it clear that this was an unsolicited approach. I do not want, I never have wanted, and do not think that I will ever want to sell my miles. I can only think that the person concerned got my email address from my profile here. I was addressed as "Dear Frequent Flyer".

I really appreciate the concern of you all. I had never heard of such people. I actually want to use my miles myself, and have no intention of putting myself in jeapody with the providor. I posted as much as anything for others as well. I would be suprised to learn that I was the only target.

Many Thanks to all especially you Randy


Paul

Ways to dispose of miles.

Book award travel for someone.

Charity.

Arrange with your company to have them reimburse you through using them.

For United, Delta and American, turn them into DC points.

Dumb Question..What are DC points?

uhh.. Diners Club

I've looked at award bookers' websites out of curiosity. Seems that even if you were interested in selling your miles, you get a REALLY raw deal: they pay on the order of a penny a mile. So there's another reason not to sell your miles to those people, in addition to the ethical reasons and the possibility of being caught by the airlines.

Depending on your tax bracket, you could probably do better than a penny a mile by donating a ticket to charity (like the one that flies cancer patients to treatment centers) and then taking a tax deduction.

In the USA, there is no deduction for donating miles, I am pretty certain. (Nor is there tax on acquiring them or redeeming them, beyond the PFC's on the routing--although partners that buy miles from airlines to give out do have to pay tax.)

That is correct. At least in the US, you cannot take a tax deduction for the donation of ff miles. Reason being that your "basis" in the miles is zero, hence, you have zero to donate (officially at least).

Still, it would be a nice touch to donate miles that you will not be using.

I'd just as soon stick with no accrual tax and therefore no deduction!

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"Sire, it is not a revolt. It is a Revolution!"

Randy, do you really think that an airline can purge your account if you were selling miles in -another- airline's account?

I don't believe the rules (however flimsy they may be) for FF accounts states that violations in another program void you in that program.

Said brokers advertise in the classifieds of USA Today. I sold a 20K award to a Miami broker for $300. A few months later I tried to sell one to an Idaho-based broker, booked it as an E-Ticket 8 days adv., didn't get a check, so I called the airline the eve. before the AM flight to cancel. I was out the $35 fee but saved my miles.
I tried to complain to IDaho Atty. Gen., but I had no name, only a phone #.
Above points are right--if they cheat you, you have little recourse. It's like going to the cops to report that your dope has been stolen.
BTW, if you sell/give to a friend, include a birthday/Christmas note from yourself to the flyer. Just in case the airline ?s something.