Anyone have experience with this? I seem to remember Karen talking about this program. If you join can you, for example, transfer points from USAir to Delta??? We're getting ready to consider a land trip to Viet Nam....so I'm starting to play the 'points game' once again! :eek: As always, thanks for your help!

I am not sure about swappping US Air to Delta as I don't have a Delta acct. to test it out at the Point's website. I did swap out some Alaskan air points to US air (I think) in the past. I just checked the website but can't find any info on what you can swap and where. I think I remember the exchange rate wasn't that good but I would never use those Alaskan air points again.

I would suggest that you sign up with your miles programs and do a test swap to see what exchange rate you get.

I looked into this once and found the exchange rate to be TERRIBLE !!

But it does come in handy to get rid of useless points and in emergencies when you only need a few points to reach your goal.

It does look like you can swap from US Air to Delta - not sure if it's 1:1 though.

I hadn't gone into Points.com in years but wanted to use up some of the Goldpoints I had remaining before they stopped the program on 12/31, and I was very happy to get $34 in Starbucks rewards!

Thanks for your help everyone! The points 'game' is enough to drive me nuts! :rolleyes:

I've now got 10K AA points that I thought I could swap, but can't: mininum swap is 25K. Oh well, guess I can get some kind of coupon for them...

One thought, if you're feeling beneficent, you can donate your unused miles to the needy. For example, your miles can be used to help "pay for" a medical transport for someone awaiting surgery.

Yes of course, what a good idea!

I've only used points.com to exchange "orphan" miles/points when they are so "small" that you can't get any type of award for them. I wouldn't use them for significant amounts since the exchange rates are really bad. The most I've used them for was when you got EBay points for Priceline hotel bids, I swapped out the EBay points to AA miles.

Bonnie - if your goal is to get to Vietnam - I think US miles might actually give you more options to get there than DL - since with US you can redeem on United (probably easiest), Singapore, ANA, Thai, Asiana while DL miles you're limited to DL, NW, Korean, and Singapore.

Thanks, everyone....and peteropny! I only have 80,000 on usair...can we convert, add/buy addit miles and fly in the front on SQ???? I thought Singapore and ANA only accept one award per cabin?? Again, thanks for all your input!

Peter, I can redeem USair miles with United?

I believe you can Karen - USAirways & United are part of Star Alliance .

Well that is pretty cool, how do you go about doing it? Do you have to call United or is there some way to do it online?

Karen, I've had to call US Air (not United) to redeem US Air miles for a United flight. Some airline websites are better than others when you try to book award travel using miles for a partner airline. For example, I was able to book an award ticket on the British Airways website using BA miles for an American Airlines flight to go from Boston to Vail. I've booked on the Northwest website using miles for a Delta flight (that was before they merged even). You can try the US Air website and see if they have that functionality now, otherwise, just call them.

Oh, and I have never found Points.com to have good "exchange rates" either.

Thanks Kim, I will try that next time I attempt to get rid of these USair miles.

Bonnie - yes it is tough to get award seats "upfront" on Singapore but it is possible - currently I have 2 award itineraries in First to Bangkok. 80k miles is quite a way from even a Business award though - I believe you're 45k miles away (even if you bought the miles - $1,350). What you can do though (at least I've done it a few years ago for a Lufthansa award) is to ask for them to check availability then just buy the miles right on the spot if there is availability.

Hurry though, there is only one flight from the west coast (SQ 11 / 12 from LA) and one from the east coast (from JFK via Frankfurt) that Singapore will release Business / First awards on since its still on the 747 equipment (they won't release award space on the 777 (77w) or the new A380 - but if they change the equipment once you are ticketed - they'll honor the award).

Thanks, as always, for the great advise, peteropny! Frankly, I'd fly Singapore on ANY aircraft!! ;)