Verizon Rewards: Absolutely worthless?

[TheGadfly]

I enrolled in my Verizon rewards program, which accumulates points every time I pay a bill.  I'm up to almost 30,000 points but after only a brief look at the types of redemptions Verizon has to offer, it is clear that these "rewards" are just a scheme to encourage you to spend money on stuff you wouldn't otherwise buy.

For example, if I want to use my rewards to book a hotel room, I can only use $10-worth of rewards points toward my $80 reservation.  This represents a small discount but I can usually get the same discount by booking through a different site or paying in advance.

So, are these points totally worthless or is there something on the Verizon site that is actually worth redeeming?  The most attractive option appears to be the sweepstakes.  It doesn't cost any real money to enter, just rewards points. I would much rather do that than spend $15 and 5,000 rewards points for a $20 gift card to Chili's.

Thoughts?

[nobody123]

I'm frustrated with the program as well.  The "deals" aren't anything special, and the auctions are formatted in a way that you can't just say "I bid 10,000 points for this", you have to keep clicking on the item to bump up the bid by the 5 or 10 points they determine.  I would gladly grossly overpay for a $5 gift card I find useful if all it 'costs' me are my reward points.

[pagoconcheques]

They're worthless. 

I'm so tired of these reward programs that seem to be everywhere.  My take is that the reward better be money (e.g., cash back on credit card purchases), or money back on purchases with that entity or something else I use (we get discounted gas from our grocery store rewards).