At the time of Cloudeleven's link I bought Amtrak points on a site powered by points.com for Amtrak to enjoy one of the offers I've reported in Post #24 above. A few weeks later, points.com snatched a similar number of points from my Amtrak account, claiming a mistaken/ erroneous exchange rate. So I disputed the purchase transaction with Amex, asserting that I had not (permanently) received the Amtrak points I had paid for. Amex took the purchase off the bill without investigation with a "Yes Sir!" attitude. I never heard from AGR nor points.com re: this matter again :)!

Great news! Of course, once when I tried contacting Points.com ("Scam.com") I received no response. That's why it's a scam to me.

I wouldn't use them based on what they charge for transferring, I'd rather let points expire

But if you offer a 1 - 1 exchange it will probably be snapped up quickly.

Points.com is used as the backbone for the major airline FF programs, so of course they have that power. The fact that the airline refuses to help the customer out is a bad reflection on the airline, not points.com.

I use Points.com for one purpose. Best Buy Reward points. I do very little shopping at Best Buy and when I do, it's usually for something under $50. The Best Buy points have no minimum for exchange into other programs so I usually move them via Points.com from Best Buy to one of my inactive programs that requires activity every 18 months so I don't forfeit the miles. Typically, I will trade 50 Best Buy miles for a pitiful handful of Hawaiian Miles. As it counts as activity, I'm good with that exchange.

This sounds like DL's fee to transfer miles from one DL FF account to another DL FF account: $30 plus one cent per mile, IIRC plus tax.

It is. Points.com just matches strangers to make the same trades which they could make if they knew one another. Points International operates the backend of many frequent traveler programs, points.com is simply their retail site.

Given that airlines sponsor/ work with points.com to allow FFers to trade miles with each other, that makes them hypocrites for objecting to doing it ourselves or on the deceased Coupon Connection! It's a money grab--they're greedy for outrageous transfer fees :td: !

The airlines allow members to transfer a capped amount of miles for a fee. Trading privately is different because it evades the caps and the fees. This isn't hypocrisy, it's just a business.

I haven't used the site, but FlightNuts allows you to post wanted ads for points or miles and then just trade with someone directly so you don't have to deal with any middleman.

but you still have to pay the cost of the miles, plus the airline's fee for transferring miles. you avoid points.com, but it doesn't seem to 'save' one any money.

Only if you need the miles transferred into your account do you pay the airline's fee for transferring miles! Say if you have 135K miles of your own & need another 15K into there to redeem a 150K award.
In most cases, the FlightNuts traders operate like our late great Coupon Connection: you book a 25K ticket from your account in your Trading Partner's (TP) name for him/ her to fly & s/he books a 25K ticket from theirs in your name, so no transfer fee to points.com nor anyone else.
Main downside is that it's probably (pa)trolled by the same mileage police who raided Coupon Connection last month!