I chatted with a customer service rep at points.com today, who was mostly non-helpful. But this is what I learned from the chat:

"We’re pleased to hear that you wanted to make a swap, but Points.com and Hotspex has temporarily paused the Swap program in order to offer you a better experience and serve you better. .This change was effective on August 26th,2009. .We apologize for any inconveniences."

"however, .I can assure that the option [to swap] will be available again....we just don't know when, because of technological upgrades."

When pressed on the fact that Hotspex is ending their participation tomorrow night, I was told, "Hotpsex has been taken off the site, any misinformation about swapping that was posted on Hotspex website, you'll need to contact Hotspex."
.

Pretty upset with Hotspex for sandbaaging us.

I let them have it in an email; sent pretty much the same one to points.com

This past weekend, I got a survey from Hotspex which I thought great, I can move some points to park to get ready for US Airways hit promotion. In the middle of the survey it stopped working. I went to try to restart the survey but it had disappeared from my list. Hotspex denied that I ever had the survey.

Without points.com anymore, I have no need to use hotspex.

It was the kind of thing was I concerned about.
I transferred all my hotspex to AA over the weekend.

I didn't want to get stuck without being able to transfer. I got a survey today and also found that it had ended early.

Too bad. This was a great method to transfer to all sorts of points programs.

Looks Hotspex is innovating itself out of existence:
No more prizes, only contests. Is it worth the extra effort to spend my BUX on contest entries before closing my account?

Don't trust points.com
 

I chatted with one of their agents on the 26th. She assured me I had until the 28th to swap my Hotspex points. Today I chatted with the same agent. She said she was sorry she was mistaken but there was nothing she could do.

When a company doesn't honor their word then they should be run out of business. Be careful if you swap with them in the future. I intend to delink my accounts later today.

Your reaction is a little over the top, isn't it? After all, based upon the above, it is clear that this was not what was anticipated. You are just mad at yourself for not pulling the trigger sooner.

If you want to cut off your nose to spite yourself you can do so, but Points.com is still good for point transfers to fulfill various promotions.

Hotspex on the other hand is another matter -- I would not waste my time with them unless they add some form of currency swap that is useful to you -- as I have noted above, none has been added that motivates me to complete any more surveys.

I'm not really angry with myself. I read in this thread about the 28th as the last day. So I went directly to Points.com to confirm the information. Points.com has a chat function in which you can ask questions and get quick answers. I used that function and based on that reply took the time last night to figure out how to spread those Hotspex out to my best advantage.

As you might know there are several partner deals going right now (Priority Club and soon US Airways). Since the US program had a Sept. start date I figured a few Alaska miles would take care of them. Anyway I came in prepared to do them today. That was well before the announced and confirmed deadline.

So why should I be angry with myself? However I no longer trust Points.com. And Hotspex is even worse for giving almost no notice of the change, and then not honoring the announced date.

Both of these companies are not worthy of my time in the future. On the other hand, E-Rewards has been very reliable and their redemptions are for much larger amounts.

Your loss. :rolleyes:

New option for exchanging miles coming soon
 

When I attempted to transfer some BUX to AA on 8/26 and was unsuccessful, I went ahead and emailed Hotspex via my account. I explained that they should still honor it given that the published end date was 8/28. Here is the response I got a response:

That's nice, but I know of no other company similar to, much less better than, Points.com.

Anyone else know of any company where you can wash your points/miles into various other accounts? I don't!

Of course, they could use one of Points.com other partners, like S & H Greenstamps, and the like, but somehow I think Points.com will not be too keen on that idea -- if indeed, it was Points.com that pulled the plug on the transfers -- and even if so, what was the reason for that change.

Any updates on this...Im sitting on close to 1,000 bux and want to exchange them for miles some time, but I guess Im out of luck. What is the best travel-related prize out there worth redeeming if no miles options?

diligence
 

If you actually looked first before asking, you would find that all that is left right now are CHANCES to win prizes and no prizes per se.

Thanks, but I did look. Often on FT, there are opportunities that are not readily visible. That's the whole point of the friendly spirit on this board.

I still do an occasional survey if they don't IP block me. I'm planning to donate the Bux to the rainforest charity they have.