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August 31, 2005
Squeezing every last drop out of eBay Anythingpoints
One of the best miles and points deals I’ve participated in is about to end soon, but I’m getting every last point I can while it’s still gasping for breath.
eBay began offering Anythingpoints about two years ago but they never particularly caught on for eBay proper. They were only offered by a few sellers with little incentive for more to use them. Other vendors offered eBay points as well – PayPal, eBay, Points.com and Metarewards were all stirred into the soup, usually causing great irritation as each would blame another if points did not post. I got about 12,000 Anythingpoints I traded for AA miles by participating in trial offers from Metarewards (and then pulling teeth at customer service to get the points credited). But the best deals of all came through the eBay portal for Priceline.
eBay offered points per winning Priceline bid by the star value of the bid, 500 points for 2*, 1000 for 2.5* and 3* and 1500 for 4* and 5*, no matter the length of the stay or dollar value of the bid. This potential $15 rebate was nice enough if you purchased items on eBay. I used 2500 points towards a camera. On Flytertalk I learned that the best deal of all was to convert Anythingpoints to Asiamiles via points.com .
Asiamiles is the mileage currency of Cathay Pacific Airlines. Cathay Pacific has a unique reward structure based purely on mileage rather than location. They don’t offer awards from North America to Europe for instance, but from 2,500-5,000 miles. An economy class roundtrip of 2,500-5,000 miles is 45,000 Asiamiles, or 60,000 in business class. This is not merely on Cathay Pacific, but also on several of their partners in the One World group including American and British Airways. Since all destinations in Europe are less than 5,000 miles from the east coast of the US, this is a bargain – it’s 90,000 miles on most other airlines. Add to this the fact that Asiamiles has the most favorable conversion ratio to Anythingpoints by a factor of more than 2 – one Anythingpoint is worth 1.125 Asiamiles.
Here’s the math: It takes around 53,400 Anythingpoints to get 60,000 Asiamiles. That’s just under 36 winning 4* bids on Priceline. Considering that Priceline offers the cheapest hotel prices around anyway, it was icing on the cake.
I just broke 40,000 Anythingpoints when eBay announced the discontinuation of the program. It’s being phased out gradually, with eBay sellers programs ended first, then affiliates. MBNA will award eBay points on their MasterCard until the November statement. Points.com will allow swaps into Anythingpoints until September 30 and out until February ’06. The eBay Priceline portal no longer mentions Anythingpoints, but this one still does and still works, or did as of 8/29/05 for a 3* bid. So if you’re in on the Anythingpoints chase, don’t stop using the portal yet!
I’m up to 49,000 miles. My goal is business class to St. Petersburg via London next June.
Posted by Leigh Witchel at August 31, 2005 12:45 AM
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