| Points.com Points International Ltd. 171 John Street Toronto, Ontario Canada M5T 1X3 (416) 595-0000 Customer Service: Email Points.com Click here to sign up at Points.com Click here to visit Points.com on Facebook | Points.com Coupons: Redeem fewer points and miles for more rewards! - Points.com Redeem Miles for Magazines - Points.com Exchange your reward points and flight miles between your existing programs - Points.com Trade your points and miles with other Points.com members - Points.com Redeem your points and miles for gift certificates at hundreds of online retailers - Points.com |
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- Free to join
- Members can trade, exchange, buy, give or redeem points, miles and rewards from over 100 popular travel reward programs
- Take points or miles any program and move them to any other participating reward program
- Turn reward points or miles into “cash” by directly transferring them into a PayPal account
- Redeem reward points or miles for retailer gift cards for retailers or restaurants
- Convert credit points into flight miles or vice versa
- Trade unused reward points or miles with other Points.com users
Our Editor’s Review
As frequent travelers, we are acutely aware that reward points can be very valuable. However, we can barely keep track of them! It is hard to remember what points we have, where, and how many we need to get our reward. This is where we find Points.com to be a lifesaver in many ways. We can easily manage our several reward program memberships electronically on Points.com. They will update our point balances at least every 2 weeks, so we do not need to log into separate accounts to check balances. We now feel like we can toss out our bulky reward cards and just store our information electronically on Points.com.
We are disappointed that you cannot exchange Delta SkyMiles points out into other programs (at least not for free). This is not really a problem with Points.com, but we hear that Delta SkyMiles is strict about their rewards program and won’t allow Points.com to transfer their points to other programs. Oh…but if you want to transfer points into Delta SkyMiles, you are more than welcome to do so! If you want to get rid of your unused Delta SkyMiles, you can trade them with other users of Points.com. The only problem here is that there is a “trade fee”, which can be over $100. Points.com seems to have a very simple process for trading points. Similar to a classified ad, Points.com users can post what they are willing to trade (ie. your 5000 Delta SkyMiles for their 2500 Alaska Airlines miles), and you simply accept.
We were pretty excited when we heard that PayPal was a new Points.com reward partner. This allows you to virtually convert your loyalty points into “cash” in your PayPal account. Woohoo…. no gift cards! Unfortunately, the facts didn’t really live up to the hype. Turns out we’d need over 25,000 AA miles to get a measly $100 PayPal bucks. Likewise, this is about the same redemption value you will get if you redeem your points for a retailer gift card (about 25,000 AA miles for $100 gift card). We’d much rather redeem those points for an economy round-trip airline ticket. Points.com does have a few “low balance” offers, which allow you more bang for your buck (ie. less points), if you’re looking to join LifeLock or are in the market for a new Santa Suit (yes, that is an actual option). For the least amount of points you can subscribe to top magazines.
That being said, we think the best use of Points.com is to keep track of all your reward programs, while converting those points that you will never use for travel into something more useful. Hey, if you don’t think you are flying anywhere soon, you are much better off swapping those 24,942 AA miles for a $100 Best Buy gift card.
Lest we forget to mention, signing up for Points.com was the easiest process ever. We were already logged into Facebook on our computer, and simply hit the “Facebook Connect” button on the sign-up page. That was it. They didn’t post anything on our Facebook wall, so our privacy was protected. We must give them two thumbs up here!
Points.com Loyalty Program Partners
- Aeroplan®
- Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- American Airlines AAdvantage®
- Asia Miles™
- BMI
- British Airways Executive Club
- Delta SkyMiles®
- DISTANCIA
- Frontier Airlines EarlyReturns®
- Hawaiian Airlines® HawaiianMiles®
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Icelandair Award Points
- Lufthansa Miles & More®
- Midwest Airlines Midwest Miles
- Scandinavian Airlines EuroBonus
- US Airways® Dividend Miles®
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Amtrak Guest Rewards Program
- Choice Hotels
- CruisePoints
- Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts – Sirius Rewards Program
- Marriott
- Priority Club® Rewards
- ReserveAmerica
- Starwood Preferred Guest®
- Trident Hotels, India-Trident Privilege Programme
- Wyndham Rewards
Do you belong to any of those loyalty reward programs? If so, Click here to sign up at Points.com to add them to a free Points.com account to keep track of your balances and exchange points between programs.
Points.com’s Small Print*
- To cancel a Trade on Points.com, you can only do so if the other party has not accepted it yet. “You must search for it on the trading board. The best way, will be to search it in reverse, of what you posted. Once you find the trade on the board, you will see the option to cancel“.
- Both parties pay the Trade Fee, which is primarily charged by the reward programs. Points.com charges a $6.95 processing fee per transaction, which is included in the Trade Fee.
Points.com User Reviews:
Have you used Points.com and have an experience to share? We want to hear it! Add your own review of Points.com in the customer comment box below. All user reviews and comments are moderated by a human being and will be posted LIVE on TravelSiteCritic.com as soon as they have been reviewed by a moderation team member. Thank you for contributing to our great community!
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Points.com Coupons:
Redeem your reward miles directly into PayPal! – Points.com
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Points.com Reviews ,
I think the whole buying or trading for points is a scam. Yes, they provide the transaction fees up front but they are so ridiculous that it does not make sense even for a distress sale. We should have a site where we can exchange with a nominal fee. The exchange or sale rate is left to the individual selling/buying which is similar to the eBay concept. Wonder why these big guns of business cannot understand simple marker mechanics.
Points.com is still a SCAM…they took my miles from Fontier, I let them sit for a while, then when I went back to add, I could not get my password from them (even though I had it saved on my “cheat sheet”). They continued to give me nothing but a run around and ultimately they wiped out my account ….yea, don’t expect anything but to lose your points….
I find Points.com to be utterly worthless. The fees are excessive and the trades or exchanges — when they are even available — are not worth accepting. For example, I was offered 15,000 American Airlines points but I would have had to give up 50,000 American Express rewards points PLUS there was a $500 fee!!?! Who on earth would do this?
Points.com is worthless! I just signed up, and it was a complete waste of time. It would be great if you could swap miles with other people and that was that, but NOO. Points.com wants a cut that is larger than what the miles or points would be if I just purchased the points outright. It’s stupid. Plus it isn’t just larger, it like 3 times more!
Plus I feel like I made a huge mistake giving them any of my private passwords and usernames!! Don’t do it or sign up with Points.com. I think you are just asking for trouble.
Just tried points.com two weeks ago for first time. Never again. I traded 80,000 American Airline miles for a few hundred dollars of Amazon gift card. Their system put me in “pending staus” for ten days. Only when I complained did they release my pending status. They then took my miles and I still have no idea where my credit is.
I am not sure if they are just incompetent, they are playing some kind of “float” plan with credits, or if they are a genuine scam. If I ever am able to get my credit I will not use them again.
HORRIBLE. I can’t say it enough. Points.com is not an exchange business. They are a scam that all flight miles programs will refer you to because they do nothing. They don’t answer email questions. They answer their phone and hang up on you midst greeting. Probably so I can’t say they don’t answer.
DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME AT POINTS.COM
Please be aware, points.com was quick to take my airline miles but never delivered on my magazines.
My recommendation is stay away from them.
Points.com customer service sucks. And I agree they need a course in ethics. They failed to notify me that a trade was accepted. I was under the impression nobody was agreeing to my bid… So I bid on somebody else’s bid. Turns out points.com didn’t allow me to cancel my bid. Now I have more miles then I needed and paid twice the transactions fees.
SO I EMAILED immediately, and let them now to cancel the trade. Guess what I got an email back. 2 days later… oh sorry we can’t help you, the trade already posted.
I contacted american… yes the trade did post… 2 days later. if they would have just responded to my trade like they should have to begin with… but no.
here is the copy of their response:
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Thank you for contacting Points.com.
We truly appreciate you making trades, however, I checked with our Product Support team and because the original trade you made had already begun processing, it unfortunately cannot be reversed because miles have already been removed from the accounts.
Please do not reply to this e-mail, which was sent from an unmonitored account. Instead, to contact us browse to our FAQs here questions.points.com/home
Check out our new Earn Opportunities section at the bottom of our home page. You can share your own earn opportunities or view others. Be sure to add the programs to your Balance Tracker to view all opportunities!
Thank you for using Points.com.
Jo | Customer Support Representative
Points.com
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here was my first emailed:
Subject: how do you know if a trade is accepted
nobody was accepting my trade so, I went and accepted somebody else’s trade. Then I tried to cancel my old trade and it didn’t work, it says pending. Does that mean my trade was accepted. How come I wasn’t notified. It’s not CLEAR at all on your website. Now, I’m afraid I might have gotten myself into 2 trades. If so, I would like to cancel the trade for 4000 and accept my original for 8000 continental miles.
I don’t know much about points.com and am considering using them to trade some airline miles but this story partially lays the blame on you for waiting last minute. It’s important to know that there is a processing lag time involved with any online transaction and they don’t always post date the transaction when it began but when it completes. Lesson learned.
Points.com needs to take a course in ethics. Over the course of several years I had accumulated over 120,000 miles on a Citibank American Airlines (AA) credit card. I quit using the card a little over a year ago, which meant I was going to lose my miles if I didn’t redeem them by November 15th of this year. I wanted to hang on to my miles for as long as possible in case I needed to fly somewhere. That day never came so I began investigating other avenues to use my miles. I saw that AA had partnered with Points.com so I signed up with them and figured I’d unload my miles when time got close. That day was November 13th, when I redeemed all my miles for about $500 worth of gift certificates. Not what my miles were worth at AA, but still better than nothing. I kept a copy of my transaction, just to be on the safe side. On November 16th, just one day after my miles were to expire, I received an email from Points stating that my transaction didn’t go through and that I should try again. Too late, American had deleted all my miles. I checked my account at Points.com and the transaction date had been changed from the 13th to the 16th. I wrote them, asking how that could happen. They said it took 3 to 5 days for their transactions to process, and apologized if they had caused any inconvenience. Inconvenience? Really? 120,000 miles down the tubes an incovenience? They can’t do any better than 3 to 5 days in this digital age? Points.com had my current balance of miles, but yet couldn’t factor in a couple of days of float. Now THAT’S convenient. I wonder how much of a kick-back they’re getting from American? Funny thing, I received an automated customer survey from Points a couple of days afterwards. I really wonder if it was accidental or if they wanted to rub salt in the wound.
I had 50,000 miles on american airlines…..traded it on Points.com for about 200 bucks of gift cards to CVS. Not a great trade rate but also wasn’t gonna use the miles so w/e. The process was annoying, you have to fill out an online form you get an email saying ty for your order…..great so I’m getting my cards right? Wrong. You didn’t read the TINY print, you need to contact hallmark and get another # that you need to enter on their website so you can redeem the cards. If you think the explanation is complicated imagine the process. Finally got it to go through BUT when I got the cards, they do not work in the store! There is a 1 800 # on the back of the card, called the # asks you to enter the card # (NO other option of any kind) after I enter the # in…..says Not Valid. Try the store again….Not valid. Call Points.com, they say call Hallmark. Called Hallmark about a week ago and now I’m waiting to hear back. Basically I’m sitting here with 200 bucks worth of cards I can’t use and no one to talk to about it! Won’t be using Points.com again.
I was skeptical when joining points.com, particularly regarding how the fees worked, but this site seemed like it could be of some use consolidating points from infrequently used reward programs. Their new website is an improvement but it still has a ways to go.
Be aware that you need to understand your reward programs and the related fees as there is all kinds of crazy stuff in the trade list. For example, I needed a couple of AirTran credits, which are $39/credit through AirTran rewards. There were trades listed where the costs would be $50-$80 per credit.
I was able to get 2 credits for $50 but it is still pending so I’m wondering just how long it will take until I actually see the points in my AirTran rewards.
Nowhere on the Points.com website does it mention that many airlines won’t let you swap (in addition to Delta, mentioned in the review). The web site implies you can swap between all airlines. Big problem for me, since I closed an Amex credit card that had 100,000 reward points and transfered to Delta, thinking that within Points.com I could swap into airlines I needed. Rippoff! I also have miles in American Airlines that I was planning to move into Alaska Air — nope! Even though they are partner airlines! These may be the fault of the airlines, but Points.com keeps it a secret until you try it.