points.com - you've got to be joking
 

Looking at points.com to swap Asia Miles (CX) to AAdvantage (AA) miles and it gives me the ratio...

15000 Asia Miles converts to 66 (!!!!) AA miles.

like that's insane. How does points.com get any business?

some people actually go through with such a horrandous exchange ..

I swapped about 7800 AA Miles for a $30 Amazon.com cert. Worthwhile for me, as I no longer fly AA.
Kate

Unfortunately it's the only transfer option available. Of course you could just shop online and very easily get those 66 AA miles (or even just do an opinionplace survey)....

Yes, the conversion rates are abominable. But if you have orphan miles in accounts you're not going to use before they expire or need to create activity to keep an account alive, it's an option.

Occasionally they sell deals where the cost isn't bad for the end user; e.g., HP's Flight Fund to US' Dividend Miles right after the merger announcement. There was no cost to move from one to another.

But most of the time it is a rip off. I did the above and they ended up billing me $50 this January as part of an "annual membership fee" that they never alerted me to. So I disputed it with Visa.

Watch these guys, they are not to be trusted!

15K miles on CX gets you a short-haul domestic award on AA.

Not sure the OP was looking for something to do with his 15,000 AA points, its just that he can not believe that Points.Com is in business.

I tend to agree with him. Sure I let 5000 HP miles expire and would have been happier if I could have gotten even 10 miles in another usable program last year, but when I looked at paying an annual membership just to make that transfer it did not seem to be too worth it.

I too would also like to know how Points.Com stays in business, and how you could use Points.com to make a trade that was worth it.

IMHO, and based on my own experience, the way they stay in business is by promising things and not delivering. :td:

I am so glad I read this. I have been looking at Points.com and thought it was a rip off. I also thought that maybe it was the only way out there to consolidate miles/points. I was even contemplating joing for $5 month so I could actually talk to someone in customer service. My account is all confused and the only way to contact someone (without gold status) is through an email system and they take two weeks to contact you. What a joke. I am so NOT going to join their group. Thanks you guys!^

They handle some useful stuff as well: purchase of PC points, AA to HH transfer etc... I vaguely recall very good ebay to AA promos of the past...

I didn't have to pay a fee to transfer my orphan, soon-to-expire US points.

There's 2 levels of accounts at points.com. One is free. The only one that's worthwhile IMHO. :) I wouldn't bother with the gold account.

Wirelessly posted (Nokia6030b/2.0 (5.24) Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

Wow. 7800 AA miles are worth over $150 on the "mileage market".

Why not just add 20K from a credit card and get a free ticket?

The only useful purpose of Points.com was to launder eBay anything points to Asiamiles. They sometimes give you signup bonuses where you can effectively buy miles at 1 cent.