Continental Airline Tickets

Continental Airlines, Ebay, and Paypal- You won't believe this! Are there any lawyers who can advise?

Ok, so last week I log onto ebay and I notice that they are featuring an auction for 25,000 Continental Airline onepass miles. This was not a special promotion from Continental, rather just an average guy like me selling his accumulated miles. I was thrilled- I too have 25,000 miles accumulated, I am currently unemployed and could use the extra cash- The next day I put my miles up for auction on Ebay- They sold for $305.00....Minutes after they sold I receive notification from paypal that the buyer has sent me an instant payment- but paypal was placing a hold on the payment for 21 days, unless the buyer leaves me positive feedback prior to the 21 day deadline- In other words they were acting as an escrow service- I was not thrilled, but whatever, I send the guy my miles- It turns out that the guy was a Continental Security rep- He revoked all of my miles, closed my one pass account- and took his payment back! Apparently it is against onepass policy to transfer airmiles- I had no idea as Ebay was featuring onepass miles on their front page of their web site as stated earlier- But wait- it gets worse- So I am feeling very ticked off- I send messages to everyone else selling their onepass miles on Ebay (about 30 people) telling them what happened to me - Most wrote me back in disbelief and kept their auctions going- Now I am getting email after email from these same people who's auction has closed- Paypal tells them their payment is on hold (stating it is a random act)- then Continental steps in and revokes everyone's miles so they may never be used for free travel and paypal gives them their bogus payment back! Wait! There is still more....The same day my auction closed- I received a letter from Continental Airlines telling me my account is closed because of my ebay auction- It was dated 3 days prior to my auction close date- Now...there is no way Continental would know who I was from my ebay auction-

Public Comments

1. Unfortunately, I think you are out of luck. When you use Ebay, you agree to the terms of service. Ebay has very detailed information for sellers posted on its website. The information is broken down by category. In the travel section, Ebay specifically states that individuals are responsible for verifying that the frequent flyer miles they are offering for sale can be legally transferred. In addition, you were bound by the terms of service of Continental which stated that these miles were nontransferable. A court will expect you to have read the agreements you made and to follow the rules in your agreement. As for privacy, Ebay's privacy policy states that they will share information with third parties in connection with a fraud investigation. Bottom line - you need to know the terms of any website where you do business. You will be stuck with them.
2. wow I think that really sucks. I know Ebay usually ends listings that go against ebay rules. As I have had one of my listing erased. As to why Ebay would let you keep your listing up, I have no idea. It is strange that the airline didn't just give you your miles back after all you did earn them. I think the system is flawed or something