Selling Your Miles

With all the devaluation, maybe this will become a less popular question. But I doubt it. I’ve been asked this maybe more than anything else…

“Yo MileNerd, where can I sell my miles?”

There’s a lot of misinformation about this, so let me make it very clear. There’s a giant difference between being illegal and being against program rules. This is not something that’s going to get you tossed in jail. What it can do is get you banned from an airline mileage program. A great friend of the blog lost over 500,000 miles for violating airline program rules. No, he’s not rotting away in a cell, but the situation was still sad. It takes effort to earn so many miles and it’s obviously a valuable currency to lose.

If you interact with enough people in this game, you’ll be able to get some offers for your miles/points. They won’t be the most impressive offers in the world, but you will be able to make a few bucks. Just be very, very careful. Stay away from Craigslist, Ebay, and other obvious websites for the airlines to look. If this is something you’re very serious about, let me know and I can give you some ideas. Just know that the best option is usually to do this with close friends and family

Wednesday Quickies

  • As usual, I made a mistake with the Top 25. Many of you pointed out the 50,000 point Citi ThankYou card offer here. There is a long wait for 30,000 of those which is some new trickery. 
  • As a good companion to the Top 25, here’s a solid post from Dan’s Deals. It details what cards are best to use where. Pretty stuff if you have a big pile of cards.
  • American Airlines’ shopping mall is offering 2,500 miles if you spend $250. You also earn 12 miles per dollar from Nordstrom right now, so spending 250 bucks there is one of your best bets with this promo.

Hyatt Devaluation

Devaluation is a word that I’m starting to hate. United is definitely the king of suckage, but Hyatt’s new chart is more bad news for us nerds. In short, you want to book upcoming Hyatt stays before January 7th if possible. I have a new Top 25 Credit Card post coming in the next few days and have been thinking about these issues. United and Hyatt were the reason Chase Ink/Sapphire were the top cards to sign up for. These Ultimate Rewards points just aren’t worth what they were before. No real way to deny it. Things are changing.

Amex Transfer Bonus

Ah yes, American Express Membership Rewards points. We forgot about these old friends, didn’t we? New kid Chase Ultimate Rewards has been stealing all the glory. Well, things change, and UR points are a falling currency since United decided to pull a Meg Ryan. Thank you, this has been your daily United diss. Actually, it’s kind of a strange metaphor. I was referring to her bad plastic surgery. See, she uglied herself up, which is similar to what United is doing. Ah, never mind…

Back to Membership Rewards. New (and wonderful) transfer partner Emirates is going to offer a 25% transfer bonus for the next 2 weeks. This is a pretty solid option, and I think more impressive than the current British and Virgin bonuses. Meg Ryan would agree, Membership Rewards are looking good!

A Whole Lot Of Goodness

  • I assume (hope) we all have at least one American Express card. If so, get a free Shoprunner account. This is good for saving delivery costs and gets you free 2-day shipping for 80+ stores. Usually, this will run you $79. Free is better.
  • Another buy mile offer to add to yesterday’s post is this 35% bonus from Alaska.
  • One way to use your United miles before they turn craptastic is this 20% savings to Europe.
  • Not really a deal, but I thought this was a fun list of top airport restaurants.
  • Free Uber rides in Chicago and Detroit. If you’re new to Uber, you can get $10 for signing up.