First and foremost let me tell you that pretty much in every mileage program, the selling or trading of your reward points is against the terms and conditions. It’s not against the law, is just against the terms and conditions, so if you don’t mind bending the rules a little bit and working outside of the box you can make use of your rewards points in ways that were not exactly authorized. Of course, the disclaimer on this is we suggest you do not do it blah blah blah. If the airlines catch you at doing something against their terms of conditions, of which they are quite actively looking for, you have nobody to blame but yourself if they cancel your account and confiscate all your miles. Now having said that there are still ways you can use those miles.

Gifting

Almost all of the mileage programs and frequent flyer programs will allow you to buy tickets for your friends and family or gift miles to them for their travel. This does not mean you can transfer your mileage to them, but it means you can use your mileage for them. This is often where the loophole comes for mileage programs that buy and sell miles. Very often they will pay you and you will buy the ticket for them under their name. The airlines do not know if that’s a friend or a family member. However again, if they catch you, do not be surprised if they cancel your account. If you are going to run out of time on the miles you have left, sometimes it can be worth the risk. Or even better, how cool would it be to gift a family member a weekend getaway or a flight to Europe, instead of having to buy them a birthday present. If you are losing the miles anyway, it’s a cheap expensive present.

CashforMyMiles

This is one of the larger networks of mileage brokers. They also offer cash for mileage points, as well as you can buy mileage points for cash. They act as the middleman and handle that deal. Of course, you must never tell the airline that you’re doing this, but as long as you pretend that they are a friend that you just gifted mileage to your good to go.

Universal Rewards Exchange

Urwex.com is more like an open exchange with payments being paid outside of the system, so you have to be a little bit more trusting. It has a large forum where you can post your mileage or look for whatever deal you want to make. Universal tries to verify profiles to make sure that you have a higher chance of getting what you pay for or getting paid for what you have. They also have a good review system so you can see the history of anybody that is posting.

Flip My Miles

This company is another good company to sell your miles for cash. They’re one of the largest brokers of points that will trade for cash. Again, if you’re miles are expiring and you don’t really care that much about your program, then these might be the guys to go to. From our research, these folks look to be the best pricing for how much you can get for your points.

rewards2cash

rewards2cash.com is another company that’s been around for a while and seems to have a lot of very good reviews. We have never used them, but we have heard many good things.

milesp2p

milesp2p.com is similar to rewards to cash but they have a system that seems to be a little bit more secure. Instead of having to give your password and id over to the brokerage company, they work it in slightly different way where you don’t need to do that. You post what you want or need and then they match you up and you take it from there. P2P stands for person-to-person.

Sell My Rewards

Sellmyrewards.com is another broker that has been around for a while. They pay some of the best prices and they’re very secure. They also have same-day payments in some cases.

There are many sites online that will let you buy and trade mileage. Keep in mind though that the airlines frown on this seriously. So, don’t post your name and your mileage number, anywhere that you want to buy or sell miles. Keep things on the low down and you should be fine. Personally, we never seem to have enough mileage ourselves as we use them to travel as much as we can, whenever we can. If we have any left over that we cannot use or transfer to another mileage program, we become generous and give it to our friends and send them on weekend vacations. Although we don’t make money from that, the friendships become stronger and the payoff is in dividends in the future.