*Newsflash* Ebay Eliminating Anything Points Program!!!
 

So much for that great exchange into CX miles,
From ebay's anything points site...
"Beginning August 15th, Sellers will no longer be able to use Offer Manager to offer Anything Points on their listings. All listings that offer Anything Points on or after this date will continue to do so until September 30th, 2005. At that time, these listing will be modified and the Anything Points incentive will be removed. We encourage you to update your listing and remove Anything Points you may have added as soon as possible."

I believe eBay should eliminate anything to do with all Frequent Flyer or Frequent Stay programs period!

Use Ebay anything points by 8/31/06
 

Discontinuation of the U.S. eBay Anything Points® program
We have decided to discontinue the eBay Anything Points program on the U.S. eBay site (www.ebay.com). The process of transitioning certain features and functionality related to the eBay Anything Points program will begin immediately and continue over the next few months, with the program officially ending on February 28, 2006. However, you will still be able to use any points you have accumulated until August 31, 2006 (all points that have not been used by August 31, 2006 will become invalid).

http://anythingpoints.ebay.com/

Very sad. This was a terrific vehicle for getting money back on Priceline transactions. :(

So it seems that the canadian program will not be terminated...i wonder what the difference is???

You can get a 3% rebate on Priceline purchases by going through ebates.com.

3%??? I think I was getting $15 for 4*, right? That's 15% or better usually.

I agree, this is a horrible day for Priceline IMO. The ability to save the company money AND put money in my pocket was a HUGE plus. No one could complain.

I will still use Priceline (I guess), but there is no economic benefit to me by forgoing loyalty programs with Marriott, Starwood, Hilton, etc.

Sam

This is big news. What's the value of the eBay AnythingPoints card w/o AnythingPoints?

How sad.....
 

Well, looks like I better start planning my Christmas vacation now. Get as many Anything points as I can before the program goes down.

This is very upsetting. Guess I better blow all my anything points on ebay now.

From anythingpoints.ebay.com -

For more information about your eBay Anything Points credit card, please contact your respective credit card provider at the number printed on the back of your credit card.

which I assume is a round about way of saying the cards will be terminated and you can discuss with the issuer changing it into another one of their cards.... so were there actually multiple issuers of the cards and has anyone with one called the bank yet to ask what they are doing?

At least we still have Ebates for PL purchases. Don't go through that A-B link! :p

This eBay program was a dud the day they announced it. Just like Diner's Club's MONTAGE (would be high-end card), I and a few others predicted the demise from the day it rolled out. Don't have the thread or feel the need to search for the thread, but its buried somewhere here at flyertalk.

What *are* the DC and eBay execs thinking ?

Yeh, I agree. This stinks. I loved it, to be honest, and it got me to use PL a lot more than I otherwise might have.

Agreed. There was zero incentive for any seller to actually give them - they were totally paid by the seller, with no matching or subsidizing by eBay themselves. And I don't think that eBay did enough to promote the program to the point where very many people actually would want to seek out auctions where the seller offered Anything Points, which made it even less likely for the seller to offer them to a buyer.

They worked for FTers (and others, I'm sure) because of their ability to be earned outside of the venue. And even though they have a great value to people through favorable exchanges via points.com, I think that the program failed to meet its stated objective - to encourage people to use eBay to buy and sell their wares - from the very beginning.

Mike