Selling miles?
 

I came across this website www.cashyourmiles.com. Is this legit?

I believe most frequent flyer programs prohibit selling miles. If you look at the fine print there is a minimum of 100,000 miles to sell. I wish my "orphaned" accounts had 100,000 miles in them!

Almost certainly not. Among other things, they do not say who is responsible for covering the transfer costs. Any choosing to transfer points for cash is almost always a violation of the T&C of the program. But it is nice that they are trying. ;)

I doubt that it's a scam set up by the airlines, if that's what you're asking. If they have any success, the airlines will sue them and subpoena their records. All customers who contacted them will then likely lose their FF accounts. I suppose this could work for you if you sell 100% of your miles and you don't plan to earn any more miles in that program.

Tried this for fun:

Hello XXXX


Officially we don’t buy less than 100k miles or points. If we were to buy your 30k Starwood points we would pay 1.4 cents per point which for 30k comes to a total of $420.



Kind regards,



Eli - Cash 4 Miles

718 475 7669

Isn't it not so long ago that the discussion of selling miles came up? December'08, I think.

Here's one sample thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...ell-miles.html

Yes it is legit take it from a pro miles seller
 

I've managed to get myself in trouble with this topic before, but my take remains, if you are not going to use the miles (and perhaps even need the money) sell them. I've been doing this for years, and most recently been using www.flyhub.com consistently because of their model and confidentiality. I also use craigslist and did do a couple of transactions on loyaltymatch.com

The fear of being caught is not as serious as you might think, how often do these airlines take actions, not as often as you'd think, and when they do, brokers end up counter suing. The good thing about www.flyhub.com is they sell a variety of airline goods: vouchers, points, airline credit, coupons etc... so here's how you can get around selling my miles, if you are not comfortable, advertise for tickets. I have never used cashyourmiles but know them, they are also a legit company.

The hell with the airlines, they are your miles, sell them. Thank god for companies like cashyourmiles and flyhub.com, in this economy it is more than ever imperative that travelers miles be set free by these greedy airlines. Just my 2 cents. I can already hear all the objections :- )

Well, I guess you haven't read enough threads on FT about the accounts being audited and frozen. Otherwise you wouldn't have come to such conclusions. As far as I know, there are threads about sellers getting caught in AA, Delta, NW & UA fora every single year.

I agree the fear of being caught is not the serious part. What's serious is the consequences. If frozen accounts and losing miles are within your comfort zone, please go ahead. I recall reading a thread that someone was barred from flying Delta due to the act of selling lots of Skymiles. I believe there's some legal action involved and he also received a letter from the legal department indicating he's officially on Delta's "no-fly" list. Maybe someone can dig up that thread for your reading pleasure.

My point is there's a range of consequences when one sells miles via the channels with no affiliation with FFPs (craigslist and ebay are two perfect examples). If you think you can handle the consequences, nobody can stop you.

FWIW, not everyone who gets caught is willing to go public and post on FT. I am sure there are quite a few untold stories out there.

When ticket brokers stop buying miles because they aren't worth the bother, then we'll know the miles game is really over. So in that sense only, I'm glad they're around.

You know I respect your views so I will not get into a debate about this. I own my frequent flyer miles, whether I decide to sell my miles on flyhub.com or ebay or anything else, or as the airline would want it, give them away at no cost, is none of the airlines business.

In this economy a lot of people who are less fortunate than us, or perhaps who have lost their jobs and have miles to sell should be allow to do this. As far as I'm concerned anyone who wants to sell their frequent flyer miles, or buy them, should do this as they please. This is why sellyourmiles, flyhub.com and loyalmatch, all these companies are successful in what they do. There are a lot of travelers out there who clearly agree with me. There is a huge market for it and these companies get it.

If you can sell your miles, then you should be taxed on them as income. I believe that is an area that most of us no longer wish to visit.

An interesting position, but one which appears to be incorrect. The airlines, at least, maintain that you are some sort of licensee who must follow their rules or they can do what they want. Unless you are ready to litigate big-time (for a whole lot more than anybody's miles are worth) you are probably stuck with this--unless and until someone brings another class action.

Airlines definitely own the miles, and can take them away for no reason at all. I would hope they never would, but eh, the law would be on their side.

Flyerd, do you have an affiliation with flyhub? You linked to them in your posts, so just curious. I would never use them as it's spammed on craigslist all the time and wouldn't risk losing my miles as it seems pretty risky to go through a central source like that.

I don't have a moral objection to selling miles, but it's just not worth it considering how easy it is for airlines to track it.

So, I think, if you have/want to sell your miles, sell them to people you know, in person. Can be a win-win, if they save some money (and don't know about earning frequent flier miles :p)

It says to go into their office in Brooklyn. Does that mean you have to show up in person? In any event, if you search the numerous pages of FT I doubt that you will find anyone who thinks it's a good idea to try and get cash for miles. Even if it were ok (which it is not) I'd run from this particular one.

I actually agree with you, but I also agree with lin821 that the consequences will be dire if you are caught.