I bought a $1000 ticket on united through amex travel and used points to pay for it so I would get back 35% of the points. The next day I canceled my ticket through amex travel. Amex had already deducted 100k points for the ticket, and when I canceled, they refunded the $1000 back to the card (they always first charge the ticket in money, and then credit back the money when they deduct the points the next day). So instead of refunding me the 100k points that I paid, they refunded $1000. A few weeks later they credited back 35k points (the 35% rebate for using points to buy a ticket on united.) So at the end of the day, I was credited $1000 to my amex accnt for 65k points. I wouldn't suggest doing it often. I did it because I needed to cancel the ticket, but it is an option how to cash out mr points at 1.5 cents.
Sorry if this belongs on a different thread...