pointsbank.com.au, has anyone heard of it(perhaps beware)

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Hi All,

today when i was on facebook, browsing the good old feed, I came accress this website: pointsbank.com.au. Its more like a cross between awardwallet and mileageclub. Going through the site, they apparently have contacts with AMEX Australia, Citi, QANTAS and Virgin etc.

Im pretty sure, when it comes to a 3rd party business selling Airline points or AMEX MR points, its a grey area in our pleasurable hobby. As I know many years ago got busted for the rookie error of buying from a mileage broker and having a frequent flyer account suspended. Luckily i didnt lose ANY points as I was very honest with the airline about how i got the points etc....

So I contacted pointsbank.com.au via email, and asked how much is it to buy Korean Air Skypass and SQ Krisflyer for and they got $35 for 1000 points.... Big fat question mark on how safe these purchased points would be.

SO....has anyone heard of this website and how on earth is this done in Australia?........
 
The Frequent Flyer Concierge team takes the hard work out of finding reward seat availability. Using their expert knowledge and specialised tools, they'll help you book a great trip that maximises the value for your points.

AFF Supporters can remove this and all advertisements

This doesn't seem to be a points seller. Just a company providing two things... (a) a platform to keep all your points programs in one place and (b) offering - presumably for a fee - assistance to use those points.

They'll charge $$ to find award seats and book. Nothing wrong with that - lots of companies do it.

Buying top up points is them buying points from the airlines for you. Any passenger can do this themselves - Qantas offers it directly on their website, as do many other airlines. But they make it sound like a special service.

Buying points at full top up price is rarely a good deal. You need to buy points in programs that heavily discount points.
 
Buying top up points is them buying points from the airlines for you. Any passenger can do this themselves - Qantas offers it directly on their website, as do many other airlines. But they make it sound like a special service.

Buying points at full top up price is rarely a good deal. You need to buy points in programs that heavily discount points.


As I told you in my last post, they are offering to sell krisflyer and Skypass miles, directly to you for $35 per 1000 miles.

Further IF you read the Singapore Airlines Krisflyer on miles being:

"Please note that you need to have at least 50% of the miles required to redeem for an award ticket or flight upgrade before you can purchase the remaining miles to top-up your account. I wish to purchase KrisFlyer miles at US$40 per block of 1,000 miles. Terms & Conditions: Payment must be made by credit card."
https://www.singaporeair.com/saar5/pdf/ppsclub_krisflyer/forms/Miles_TopUp.pdf

What this cat from pointsbank.com.au is doing is very deceptive conduct and he is putting many Australian Frequent Flyers at risk of getting their accounts suspended, which is very disgusting.
This guy is CLEARLY NOT buying points from the airline directly on your behalf, if he is offering it to you at a lesser rate than what Krisflyer sells it to someone for.
 
Do you know that for certain? or is the company buying miles in say a hotel program and then transferring them over? this may mean buying miles at a 100% bonus, and another bonus of say 20% for transferring to an FF account.

Do you know the company isn’t transferring from velocity?
 
Do you know that for certain? or is the company buying miles in say a hotel program and then transferring them over? this may mean buying miles at a 100% bonus, and another bonus of say 20% for transferring to an FF account.

Do you know the company isn’t transferring from velocity?


I Don't know where the company is getting their miles from, pretty sure is against terms and conditions of frequent flyer company terms and conditions. There is no way he is getting Korean Air Miles from Velocity. I believe no Australian Credit card has links with Korean Air Skypass too. He may be getting these miles from a broker in USA, which is dodge cough....
 
I Don't know where the company is getting their miles from, pretty sure is against terms and conditions of frequent flyer company terms and conditions. There is no way he is getting Korean Air Miles from Velocity. I believe no Australian Credit card has links with Korean Air Skypass too. He may be getting these miles from a broker in USA, which is dodge cough....

There are many legitimate ways to buy miles from airlines. The company is NOT stating they are selling you a bank of miles they have purchased from another passenger. The text merely seems to indicate they are offering a service that they can top up your miles for you if you need them for an award. They could do this using your credit card, directly with the airline. Is it value for money? That all depends. I directly topped up miles the other day for 1000 miles I was missing for an award. It saved me $700 on purchasing the ticket as a revenue fare.

They could also legitimately help you transfer points from AMEX. They could help you transfer points to/from SPG (or whatever other hotel program) into airline points. They are doing all of these things as a value added service by the sounds of it.

You don't need to have a direct earn Aussie credit card to wash points in and out of programs, perhaps using hotel programs as the intermediary.

Just because you don't understand how it works doesn't mean it is dodgy.

I can't vouch for the company either. Your concerns may be justified. But reading the sales pitch of the company it sounds little different to many award booking services, one of which is even offered by AFF.
 
Just saw this today as well and was wondering what they were selling points for. I thought they might buy miles when they're on sale then charge a higher price to buy these when people purchase them during a non sale period. Just a guess. Maybe transferring miles from SPG would give them a lot of flexibility.
 
Just saw this today as well and was wondering what they were selling points for. I thought they might buy miles when they're on sale then charge a higher price to buy these when people purchase them during a non sale period. Just a guess. Maybe transferring miles from SPG would give them a lot of flexibility.

Is there any evidence they are selling points? Rather than transacting on behalf of the passenger for example.
 
Is there any evidence they are selling points? Rather than transacting on behalf of the passenger for example.

True it just says you can buy points as a top up but if they are selling them at a better rate than the airline (as suggested above) then you have to wonder how that is achieved.

I was thinking it has to be that point banks buy points during a promo then on sell to customers when there is no promo available, but do this at a slight profit. Also protects against devaluation of points to some degree because the points are being used. Only way to test the theory is to try it out but I don't have any particular need currently.

It also suggests if someone is in sales or retails buying reward points from them as an incentive to aid sales. eg 500,000 points which is a lot to purchase in one go from any rewards program. I guess credit card churn could accumulate that much especially if spread across several people.

https://www.pointsbank.com.au/buy-points/

I'm just pondering the possibilities of how this works.
 
One hurdle for an individual buying points in an hotel program is who they can actually transfer them to. Often the name of the two accounts has to match. So Miss A. N. Other can only transfer them to herself.

It might have been the agent got the price of SQ points wrong.

Looking at their sample fare SYD-TYO return for AUD2625 this would be achieved by:

Lifemiles return is 90K points. Of which you require minimum 40% to redeem an award.

90K x 40% = 36K. Buy these at full price of USD0.33 = $1188
Top up the rest of the points at 1.5c each = 54K x .015 = $810

Throw in $100 for taxes = USD2098 = AUD2724

So I' about $100 out, except I can't remember when Lifemiles changed their award chart to make it 10K more miles for flights ex AU? (So it would have been 80K return instead of 90K).

Even the gifting of miles - they've put the spin on it when they really mean you are transferring your own points as a gift to someone else.
 
One hurdle for an individual buying points in an hotel program is who they can actually transfer them to. Often the name of the two accounts has to match. So Miss A. N. Other can only transfer them to herself.

It might have been the agent got the price of SQ points wrong.

Looking at their sample fare SYD-TYO return for AUD2625 this would be achieved by:

Lifemiles return is 90K points. Of which you require minimum 40% to redeem an award.

90K x 40% = 36K. Buy these at full price of USD0.33 = $1188
Top up the rest of the points at 1.5c each = 54K x .015 = $810

Throw in $100 for taxes = USD2098 = AUD2724

So I' about $100 out, except I can't remember when Lifemiles changed their award chart to make it 10K more miles for flights ex AU? (So it would have been 80K return instead of 90K).

Even the gifting of miles - they've put the spin on it when they really mean you are transferring your own points as a gift to someone else.


Nice workings. I think you can get LM down to 1.375c (USD) with promos which may take the cost down further.

I'm thinking businesses need to make money somewhere. Would be surprised if it was just an assistance fee here. I'm not normally this pessimistic!
 
Nice workings. I think you can get LM down to 1.375c (USD) with promos which may take the cost down further.

I'm thinking businesses need to make money somewhere. Would be surprised if it was just an assistance fee here. I'm not normally this pessimistic!

I'm sure there is some added 'service fee' somewhere down the line. Lots of companies do this - AFF for example.

You can get LM points down to 1.375c - but - you have to be amember at the time the sale is announced. Which wouldn't work for a company like this starting with a new customer from scratch.

My calculations were assuming a brand new member buying the first 40% of the required miles at full price (anyone can do this at anytime), and then using the 'top up' price of 1.5c for the balance of the award.

As a company I'd probably add $100-$150 or so on to make such a booking? Dunno how they cope with screenshots and everything else.
 
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