I am new to this site and don't want to violate its solicitation rule. I just seek information. I would like to sell an airline ticket that can be purchased with my 35,000 frequent miles. I checked the Web and found consolidators, who offer well below market value, and auctions brimming with these too-good-to-be-true certificate deals. Is there a site for people looking to mutually benefit from buying and selling frequent flyer miles travel? Your assistance would be appreciated.

Selling award tickets violates the rules of all frequent flyer programs. Using a purchased award is illegal in California, under a statute that makes it illegal to use a ticket in violation of its terms and conditions.

People on these boards appreciate the fact that Randy Petersen makes them available to the frequent flyer public free of charge. He depends on the airlines' good will for the survival of his business. Therefore, most of us won't do anything that could get him in hot water with them. Making suggestions on how or where to sell award tickets falls into that category.

Aside from that, the risks of buying and selling awards (you get your account closed and lose all your miles, they get the ticket confiscated and have to buy one at the walk-up price or stay home) are why you've seen such low prices. People won't take the risks unless there are enormous savings. What with discount fares, Web specials, legitimate consolidators who buy in bulk, Priceline.com and more, most people will just buy an inexpensive fare and avoid any worry.

And keep in mind that if you find a site, chances are the airlines know about it too. Your "customer" just might be an employee.

Efrem- Good job,thanks for all of us

If a person were going to do something like this (and I do not encourage it, recommend it, or opine regarding its legality), I would think that person would be much better off finding a close friend, relative or business associate that they could save some money for by getting them a ticket. That friend, relative or associate could then compensate them, if and as they saw fit. Such actions, it would seem to me, raise far less likelihood of coming under the scrutiny of the airlines and jeopardizing the accounts of the person with the miles. Beside that, what about the risk of sending the ticket and not receiving the cash when dealing with some anonymous person (or getting a check which bounces). Of course, the person getting the ticket won't want to send the cash without assurance of the ticket either, which means both parties might want a face to face exchange. Again, not encouraging this, just speculating on it.

Djlawman

Here we go again. . . .
I doubt anyone will get prosecuted in California for "buying" a frequent flyer ticket. Most state laws do not apply to the airlines.

Most mileage brokers will request you to send the miles COD---they will need to hand over a money order in order to get the letter with ticket inside.

The real value in frequent flyer mile tickets are not in coach award seats but in upgrades and business /first tickets. With asking prices for these seats between $5k and $10k there is alot of room for profit.

I have said this before and will say it again, anyone who gets upset about someone else selling an award ticket should also get upset about any other practice that violates airline rules. This includes using 1st Air, back to backs(even using seperate airlines), hidden city ticketing, and buying a round-trip with the intention of only flying one-way.

As far as selling miles or awards, I would not advise that, especially to a stranger, but on the idea of booking a round trip to use one way because it is cheaper, my thought is this:

The airlines were deregulated so that they could charge any prices they wanted, so why the heck should they be allowed to regulate whether or not people use the product. If a grocery store started selling half gallons of milk for more than full gallons, do I not have the right to buy a gallon and throw away the other half? The airlines have made this complex fare structure for the sole purpose of maximizing their profits, the consumers should have the right to make purchases to maximize their savings. To call it fraud is a double standard on their part.

True, true. And i doubt the law will be used, but you can still get a ticket for leaving an untethered horse on North Pleasant Street. And i've seen it done.

Nevertheless, the point of these boards is maximizing miles *legally*. Yes, we might complain about rules, and possibly even learn to organize, politely, against them, but these airlines remain the hands that feed FlyerTalk. Thus, everything Efrem said is valid, so i won't add on further.

(And incidentally, i demand that if a dollar charged on my credit card is a mile, a mile should be a dollar! yeah! i'd make a quick 300 grand...but seriously. mile-selling is not good for the programs and not good for us mileage-addicted types. )

I have 1 Million AA miles that I'll sell for $1 each. Need to do it in increments of $9,999 so as not to alert Uncle Sam!

(This would be a joke, not a solicitation)

so you did a search on the internet under "selling frequent flyer miles" and come up with nothing(?!) and so you post here...under the guise of ignorance?

I learned my lesson back in the 80s with United. Sold miles to a PDX ticket broker and was later notified by the airline that the end users had their tickets confiscated in Hawaii. They had to purchase returns at full fare. I got off with a warning---Whew.

BTW, it probably wasn't a good sign that while I was delivering miles to the broker's office there were two police officers there serving a summons for scalping event tickets. You can believe I cashed the broker's check immediately.

I like the point made about complaining only if you don't violate all the other rules. This person wanted information, not morals.

As many of you well know, I have pointed out that the majority of what goes on on coupon connection violates the rules. They are violated any time there is an exchange of value. Interestingly, in this regard, I just saw some new wording from NWA on a coupon to the effect that rules were broken and coupon was void if any form of consideration was involved whatsover.

My point? let that guy do what he/she wants, you do what you want, let the chips for both fall where they may, offer helpful info if you like, or don't if it offends you. We are all sinners here (with incredibly rare exception) so pontificating about anyone elses moral choices is rather weak. This isn't drunk driving or sexual harassment we are talking about...

The main reason why the airlines do not allow you to sell your miles is to protect their bottom line. Most mileage accounts never amount to very much and up until recently, these miles would expire after three years. If the airlines allowed miles to be sold or trasnfered, it would raise their obligations for mileage redemptions.

The subject of mileage certificates (id kellogs products) where the coupon is left blank and then sold is still a very big grey area. The airlines claim this is illegal but I can find no basis for their reasoning.

Hi.
I guess I am a novice at this. Do sites like Milepoint which allow you to switch miles between airlines for a fee count as "selling miles"?
I assume not but listening to you discuss this it seems to come close. It seems that the abilty to do this takes away from the benefit to the individual airlines; that is increasing customer loyalty.



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Miles for your time on-line at...
URL=http://www.milesbar.com/join.asp?id=MBP3779]http://www.milesbar.com/id=MBP3779[/URL]

If the airlines profit by something, they will allow it. If they do not profit from it, they have a rule prohibiting it.

That is the clearest, most lucid explanation to this question ever.