Collectors connect at marketplace

Users can buy, trade and combine points, miles across programs

On average, Canadian households are active in nine loyalty programs, according to the 2011Colloquy Loyalty Census. What if you could consolidate the points or miles on various rewards cards — or even trade miles with someone else — to earn a bigger reward, faster? You can.

Points.com is a marketplace that allows users to trade points or miles from12 different rewards programs with other collectors, safely and anonymously. It also lets users buy miles to meet the target amount needed for their dream vacation.

Some loyalty rewards aggregators, like Awardwallet.com, display all your rewards balances and send reminder alerts before they expire. Milewise.com helps you compare whether it’s cheaper to buy a flight or redeem for it. And Swiftexchange.com, launching in 2012, says it will let you combine points and miles into one spendable balance.

But 12-year-old Toronto-based Points.com is revolutionizing the loyalty industry.

Melissa Kenney, a Toronto-based national marketing director at Days Inn, used Points.com to exchange points for miles. “I wasn’t using my HBC points and had to attend an out-of-town wedding, so I exchanged them to top-up my Aeroplan Miles for two free flights to Halifax,” she says.

The cost to trade your rewards with another Points.com user varies depending on the program, and is chargeable to your credit card. Loyalty programs typically charge one cent per mile to transfer miles to another user. Some choose to charge a flat fee on top of the Points.com processing fee of $6.95.

“We offer unique redemptions that even our redemption partners themselves don’t offer, like the ability to convert your Aeroplan Miles to Paypal,” says Points.com’s President, Christopher Barnard. “We’re like E-trade for loyalty because through our site, there’s an actual transaction functionality.”

Being Points.com’s redemption partner has been a good fit for Aeroplan. “It helps us grow our accumulation strategy, as many Points.com users are looking to acquire more Aeroplan Miles, and it’s another way for our members to grow their own portfolios or reach their aspirational rewards sooner,” says Francine Sternthal, Director of Product Management at Aeroplan.

The partnership also helps Aeroplan build customer engagement, something Kelly Hlavinka, Managing Partner at Colloquy, says is key.

“The things customers want from a company include insider status, special perks, privileges and benefits that show their business is valued,” Hlavinka says.

Those perks are what drew American Points.com user Tracy Soldan.

“Living in the States, there are limited opportunities to acquire Aeroplan Miles, but I just traded 8,000 Continental miles for 8,000 Aeroplan Miles, which gave me enough for a trip from Seattle to New Brunswick,” says Soldan, an accountant for AMEC Environment & Infrastructure based in Seattle.