Fly, Trade, Save!

It used to be that when you amassed 15,000 miles on an airline those points could get you a free trip along with your halfway decent meal and attentive, pleasurable flying experience. Not to go all Lewis Black here, but flying on airlines today is akin to riding in a cold bumpy freight car, dining on delicacies such as terminal (no pun intended) McDonalds or a five-to-a-bag pack of nearly stale in-flight peanuts. Don't forget, that's an extra $15 if you just must check your bag before boarding. So as you may no doubt have surmised I am just a tad turned off by the "new way to fly."

One thing that has me perked up though is a site called Points.com. They are a frequent flyer miles trading site. All those miles that don't add up to even a one-way free trip can now actually do you some good. Their system is simple, fun and easy to use.

Following a fairly simple sign-up process, Points.com allows you to track your miles balances from several different programs in one place. Most major international airlines are currently participating on Points.com. Joining also comes with a free bonus offer attached. You get to choose from a list of carriers and merchants offering up to 25 free miles or 1250 free points. They even offer suggestions on how to spend them or how to go about efficiently amassing more.

Once you join the site you can use their proprietary GPX system to trade points and miles with other members. It works like a combination of a stock exchange floor, sans the mad broker chaos, and an online trading post. You choose what you are looking to score and then what you are willing to trade. A results page pops up showing the best matches and any bonuses attached to the resulting trades. While it is free to post trades, their is a trading fee attached. According to the Points.com site,

"The Trading Fee covers two costs: it includes the fees charged by the reward program to transfer the miles or points into your account, and a small Points.com processing fee of $6.95. All reward programs participating in GPX charge a fee when you transfer miles or points to another member of that program. The nature and size of this fee varies from partner to partner: some charge a flat fee plus a cost-per-mile/point; others charge only a flat fee that's based on a range of miles or points."

You can also swap miles between all of the rewards programs you have set up with various airline carriers. In addition, you can use the site to purchase points and earn more miles through their Earn Offers section.

In addition to all of this, you can also gift points to friends and family just in time for the holidays, that special someone's birthday, or an anniversary trip for dear old Mom and Dad. This is done simply by transferring the miles to their account or onto gift certificates for them to use at their convenience.

Personally I think this site is a great idea. What do you guys think? Anybody out there currently using this system?