Points.com Inc. has unveiled a first-of-its-kind online exchange: pointsxchange, which is expected to launch on 2nd April.
By giving members of various loyalty programmes the ability to exchange points, miles and other loyalty currencies between programmes, pointsxchange unlocks the true value inherent in loyalty programmes.
“Simply put, consumers can use pointsxchange to exchange points or miles from one loyalty programme for points or miles in another programme,” said Rob MacLean, President of Points.com. “This has never happened before. Now every point or mile in every program counts - for both the programmes and their members. Our first group of participating partners have taken a bold step forward in their ongoing commitment to providing more value to their members and we look forward to being the catalyst.” To date, Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, America West Airlines, beenz.com, LoyaltyTravel, Midwest Express Airlines and PhoneHog.com have entered into commercial agreements to participate in pointsxchange. Points.com has signed letters of intent and is working through final commercial documentation with 10 additional partners and is in talks with over 50 other potential partners in the hotel, airline, retail, financial, online and other sectors across North America, Europe and Asia.
“As we approach our launch date, and as we move forward from there, we will continue to grow our business,” said MacLean. “We are dedicated to having a diverse group of partner companies, which will enhance the value of pointsxchange, give members more options when exchanging their points, and provide greater and ever growing exchange volumes for our partner companies.” Pointsxchange includes a number of other products and services to facilitate the exchange of points:
- pointsxchange, where members can exchange one kind of currency for another
- autoxchange, which allows users to set up pointsxchanges to occur automatically between the programs they want, every month, or every quarter
- xchange calculator to help users see the exchange value of their points or miles and plan their exchanges in advance
In addition, Points.com will offer its members a unique loyalty asset management system that includes pointsfolio, award finder, and goal tracker which provides members with one convenient location to track account balances, store account information, find awards, and set and monitor progress towards award goals. Points.com selected IBM Canada Ltd. to help implement its proprietary asset management offering. Points.com and IBM collaborated on the software application behind the solution.
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