Hotspex ending partnership with Points.com
 

I just got an email from Hotspex. It's a newsletter update. Here's the bad part:

But what’s old? We have ended our partnership with Points.com. What does this mean for you? You will have until August 28, 2009 11.59pm EST to finalize all transactions between Points.com and Hotspex. If you have any questions or need more information or help swapping or redeeming your BUX please contact Points.com directly, as they can help you out best. You can visit their online FAQ section or contact them via email using the following link:
https://www.points.com/static/html/support_email.html


They also try to assure you that, in the future, you can get cool prizes, but folks if I were you I would trade those points to miles ASAP!


What else are we doing? We are using our creativity to tailor programs that will let you trade in your BUX and make sure that you always get something cool for the surveys you do! Until this change happens you can still participate in the XChange programs listed above or simply save your BUX for the amazing new programs to come!

-Kinglobjaw

Got that one too. I guess it won't be too much of a loss since I only have around 2,000 bux anyway and haven't gotten a survey for months.

I'd cash them in as soon as you can if I were you. From the sounds of it, FF miles won't be one of the "cool" prizes offered under the new scheme.

2000 miles is nothing to scoff at. Depending on what airline you're redeeming to, they could net you up to 1088 miles via Points.com. Maybe that's peanuts to you, but I'd take 1,000 FREE miles any day of the week! ;)

Great for topping off an account to get to the next award level and for keeping an account active so you don't lose all the other miles you have accrued...

Best,
TMichaels

Safe to give FF Account Info?
 

In the past, I have redeemed Hotspex points for Amazon.com gift cards instead of frequent flier miles. I don't have enough points for an Amazon.com gift card, I noticed that you have to provide Points.com with your frequent flier account information, so that your balance appears on the Balance Tracker section of the website, just like your Hotspex account points. Do you all think it's safe to provide Points.com with this information? I notice that you have to do the same thing with the Starbucks option if you want to redeem points to reload your card. I'm a little concerned about security and what could happen to my points. Because of this, I'm not sure whether to redeem my 1600 Hotspex points now through Points.com or take a chance on new programs Hotspex may offer.

Been with points.com and transferred from them for years. The transfer ratio really is poor but sometimes you have no choice. Too bad about hotspex moving away from points, I always used this as an activity to keep expiring miles alive. Time to transfer all my bux to ff programs.

Thanks King for the headsup. Checked the email account and the hotspex notification was buried in the Spam folder, so probably wouldn't have ever caught it b/4 the deadline.

Now I'm a whopping 700+ AA miles richer. :p

It's not that I won't cash them in. I just meant that I don't get significant activity from hotspex that the change would actually matter to me much.

I just joined Hotspex for the upcoming US Grand Slam promo. I can't see anything on the Hotspex home page about them pulling out of Points.com.

http://www.hotspex.com/points_home.asp

The only issue here is the date given above of 28 Aug and the start date of the US Airways promo of 1 Sept clashes. I don't need a lot of points, just want to show a "hit" of any amount.

I couldn't get Hotspex to link with points.com today after several tries for the current Priority club partners promo - ended up swapping a handful of AS miles instead.

It worked for me when I signed my non-computer savvy husband up so I could swap some points into PC. I use Firefox for my account and IE for his. I sent about 75 Hotspex to his PC account for 40 points.

I saved 70 Hotspex points just in case I can still use them for the US promo in Sept, if I can't, I will donate them to charity.

Hey Tiki, just a heads up! They are ending the Points.com xfers as of August 28th, so don't save them! They won't be there for you to use for the US promo in September anyway. :(

I saw what the others had posted, I am just wondering why neither Hotspex nor Points.com mention it on their websites. I already sent some to Priority Club for both mine and hubby's accounts and held back about 70 Hotspex points to try to trigger a "hit" in the upcoming US promo.

They would only get another 40 PC points so if they cancel the partnership with Points.com, I will send them to the Rainforest charity they have and be done with it. I got an email from Hotspex called Newsletter Volume 9 and no mention was made that they are leaving Points.com.

I'll take the chance because for an Aussie (even with dual US citizenship) I am struggling to be able to get "hits" since most partners are US based and don't like non-USA credit cards. I found a couple who take Paypal though.

I received the same message as kinglobjaw. I would trust if Hotspex states that they will be terminating their relationship with Points.com via E-Mail, I would take them at their word.

After immediately receiving the e-mail from Hotspex, I cashed in all my Hotspex points via Points.com for 150 AAdvantage Miles. The Points.com transfer posted quickly to my AAdvantage account.

Of course, there is the chance that Hotspex will offer frequent flyer miles as an award in the future. However, the e-mail was vague as to what new prizes will be.

If Hotspex offers frequent flyer miles in the future.... great, and I hope they do. But if they don't, and I didn't cash in my points via Points.com, then I would be losing the frequent flyer miles I could have earned before the 1 week change annoucement.

It's a noble idea to send them to the rainforest charity, but considering that Hotspex already kindly plants a tree for surveys taken, I have less guilt earning frequent flyer miles. :D

sorry to see the relationship end. It was great to keep activity in airline accounts. I just got rid of all of my bux. Glad tI was home when the email came and not camping in the woods or I would haved missed the whole thing with only 1 week's notices.

That's not going to work. If you want to use your bux, then transfer them into some other points.com partner that lets you transfer into US Airways; then do the transfer as you want to do in September.