Points.com buyer beware
 

I signed up to Points.com this past month, and trasferred miles from Alaska Airlines to Amerca West. I made a mistake by not paying attention to the loss in miles in this transaction, and got only 1796 America West miles for 19,511 Alaska miles. I called America West and Alaska and they could not reverese this transaction. Points.com wants you to pay to phone them, and only responded via e-mail. Points.com refered me to Capital One, and they siad they had nothing to do with Points.com. This is a scam between the arilines and Points.com. Make sure you fully understand what you are getting into. Buyer beware! :mad:

I'm not sure how it can be a scam when you yourself admitted you did not pay attention to the transaction. They also give you a period of time in which you can review the transaction and cancel it if you want.

Points.com is very helpful if you are a few points short of a flight or status, and shouldnt be used for more than that.

Points.com is overpriced. The website is terrible. And heaven forbid you need customer service. I find LOTS of faults with this company.

But there's certainly disclosure on the transfer ratios. I'm sorry that your transaction didn't live up to your hopes, but certainly nobody lied here.

Never use points.com for anything and you will be safe from now on ;)

Points.com does tell us how few points we will get, but it is still unconscionable: Like saying, "For every dollar you pay me, I will deposit a dime into your friend's bank account!" :td:

One of their few fair exchanges is from S&H Greenpoints into miles/ other points.
1000 Greenpoints = $1 in free food at the supermarket or about 85 USAirways miles.

People, people! It bugs me every time I see FTers ripping on Points.com for their exchange rates because they are NOT free to impose whatever exchange rates they like!

Please remember that in order for Points.com to give you X for your points, they need to receive that X from the airline whose points you are using. If airline X is only willing to give Points.com say half a cent per mile redeemed, and Points.com has to pay retail for the points you buy on anther airline (say 2 cents each), how could they possible not give you so many fewer points!

Why would airlines want to reward you for your loyalty to them by buying you points on other airlines? Buy allowing Points.com to offer you a better exchange rate, they would be: a) loosing more real cash for miles verses potentially empty seats b)enabling you fly their competitors with their currency at their cost!

My guess is Points.com does make some money off of their transactions. But the fact that one can get as much as 1 cent/mile value trading AA miles (and not other airlines) tells me their exchange rates have more to do with the restrictions imposed my the airlines rather than the ill-will of points.com management!

I DO think POINTS.COM has some serious problems...their lack of CS is one of them...but they do disclose their exchange rates and if a user does not pay attention, it really is not Point.com's fault!

^
I can't agree with you more!

As far as I know, Points.com has gone through at least three management reorganization since Spring 2004. If you had searched the forum abount points.com before you joined them, I bet you would at least see a dozen threads, including the heated Get "Unlimited" AA miles... If search had been performed, you would have some ideas in terms of how screw-up Points.com can be. Most of the happy people I saw reporting were doing really small transactions.

I totally agree with the earlier posts that Points.com should be used only if you need to top off your accounts.

points.com ripoff
 

Got burnt by Jet Blue and points purchase yesterday. I needed just under 4000 pts for what I though was a 12000 point "award" . Like a fool I purchased the 4000 I needed which came to like $140.00. (so basically, I already had 2/3 of what I needed)
Then I go to book and see to outright buy the flight it was $164.00!!!!
I bought it outright and tried after many calls to void the purchase. Jet Blue told me that the point are sold by a "third party company" and they have no way to contact them. Huh? I tried calling my bank and debit card issuer, and I cant rescind the purchase as on a charge card (closing that account today!! Then called Jet Blue again, and they said IF I fight it or contest the charge my Jet Blue points are ALL lost. ...!!??! IS this any way to run an airline??
I will NEVER use a debit card again (no protection from fraud and usury) and will NEVER purchase point or anything else from Jet Blue again other than flights. Long letter to Jet Blue coming too.
Buyer beware: DO NOT PURCHASE ANY POINT FROM JET BLUE!!! THEY ARE WAY OVERPRICED!!

Yes, they are way overpriced, and yet you still paid. This error is on you, not Points.com. Why in the world wouldn't you check the price of the flight first?

What he said

C'mon! Joedette knows that s/he has borked, but who hasn't? I remember clicking to buy an airline ticket, then 5 minutes later exclaiming, "Oh no, I forgot about that coupon I have!"
There should be a way to stop payment on a credit/ debit card transaction before it posts IMHO.
Look on the bright side, Joedette! U can use your JetBlue award next time, when the $ price may be quite expensive!

no scam but a robbery
 

I dont think is an scam but it is definitely a robbery. how would you pay so much to transfer points from account to another account when you earned those points flying, staying in hotels or expending money using your credit card. Some smart ... came out with this idea and some dumb ones fall into it. Think about it. My friend who for health problems cant travel anymore wanted to transfer me her miles 30K from her Delta to mine. Delta said the cost was $300. With those 30K you can get a flight from PBI to LGA for 30K plus a fee. The same flight cost $263 if paid with cash. .... Any way, I would never do business with this people. Hope every smart one out there do the same.

Its not a scam or robbery. Its an excellent way to top off accounts. There are also some good sales (hint buy not transfer). Now if your one of the ones who pays to transfer the points rather than just book the award for the person thats your own problem. Its no secret its expensive but its very clear how much its going to cost.

It's also a good way to clean up orphaned miles which would otherwise have zero value.

What is the point of transferring unless you really need a few extra miles to fly? You can always book a ticket for yourself on their account if needed.

+1 Blsnk! Cubaninfla debiera pedir a su amiga su numero DL & contrasena para poder log-in & utilizar las miles directamente del conto de la amiga. Se puede emitar un boleto para cualquiera persona.

Cubaninfla should ask his friend for her DL account # & password, then log-in & use the friend's miles directly to issue a ticket for him/herself or anyone else!

Why didn't you check before you bought the points?

Points.com: unethical (but legal). Just horrible---I can't imagine ever doing business with it. I would cheerfully burn miles on a magazine subscription over trying to get rip off exchange. Reminds me of some sleazy check cashing business.

No scam here.
It is painful to make mistakes like this,
as they are not reversible,
but providing you are careful,
points.com has been useful.

Its sucks to make this mistake but points.com does have some uses...its one of the reasons why i haven't fully checked out of Amex MR program as you can trade Aeroplan miles to Dividend Miles more a relatively decent ratio 1:0.79...not great but it used to let me transfer my MR points to Star Alliance. And now its a great way to avoid to hefty fuel surcharges by BA.

For once or twice in its lifetime, points.com offered good exchange rates in Dec. 2012 from Priority Club to Amtrak & from Amtrak to Asia Miles. So good in fact that several of us grabbed the bargain, only to see points.com reverse/ rescind the exchanges, claiming that they had made a "mistake."
That's a reason to call points.com a scam: If a customer makes a mistake or finds out that the rate is unfair, the transaction is "irreversible." But if points.com has second thoughts about the rate, it is reversible!

Well now.. I DO remember that,
and indeed, that memorable transaction was reversed on me.

So yes, points.com is a scam. :)

You do realize you are responding to a post that is over eight years old.

Over the past 8 years, points.com exchange rates have become less bad. Back then 1000 USAir miles would getcha an insultingly low 40 or 50 miles on another airline. Today you get 197 DL or 425 Cathay miles, with other airlines in the 200s. Some rates, such as out of Speedway Gasoline or Esso Extra, are actually (close to) fair!
Still there is no robbery because the definition of robbery is 'stealing by force or threat against the victim.' Points.com has never forced anyone to accept their lousy exchange rates or pay their excessive fees! Anyway, they are unethical. What is the correct term for exploiting someone's ignorance, stupidity or desperation?

Points.com charges worse exchange rates if you put your location as Canadian provinces (something to do with being a Canadian company and tax issues most likely)

Aeroplan to Asia Miles is around 1:0.7 and US Airways is 1:0.84 (but can only convert 100k per year)

Those are actually pretty decent rates

Can you convert DL miles into AA for example?

No exchange out of Delta, only in.

You can trade with other members, but at $30 USD + 1 cent a mile... and the offers are usually terrible

I only use Points.com as a wallet that shows me how many miles/points I have in each account I have. The only times i've ever bought points or miles have been

1. Jetblue Points when you could redeem 100 or 200 true blue points for a RT.
2. US Airways Dividend Miles

Both times I did because there was a 100% bonus involved and it was directly from the airline.

I thought points.com was for trading miles with other members. I've never done it because its so expensive to do as others have pointed out, makes it kind of pointless to waste your time and money on points.com.

Anyone who does that needs to see a psychiatrist. The rates people want are double or triple what it costs to buy the miles/points legally.

The main thing that keeps me from using Points.com is this bit I read on a travel blog:

http://www.onlinetravelreview.com/20...ut-points-com/

Is this something to be concerned about? If not, why not?

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.