Airplane Miles

I do not understand airplane mile economics.

American alerts me that i will loose my 8k miles if i don't do something. I don't really want to earn any because Delta is where i'm "trying" to accrue points, so spend. That link takes me to points.com where i have to register and go through hoops, which i managed. I try seeing about an Amazon gift card: i have too few points. I have too few points to move them to another program (and this finally displays that i need 25k points to play there). I could trade 7k American points for 1k Delta points and pay a fee of $50, but if i just buy 2k Delta points outright its $70. I'd be crazy to take the trade, i think.

Also, I do not understand Points.com's passive aggressive design. "You cannot redeem this card value with your selected program. Please try a higher card value." No, this is silly. As soon as i indicate i'm interested in an Amazon card with my United program, you should say "You do not have enough points," instead of having me click on $10 to find that takes N points, so then i click on $30 which would consume most of my points -- and why can't you just say, "Not enough points"?

Best i can tell with Points.com, is that i American won't let me do anything because i have too few points (which will go to 0 in February) and that Continental doesn't participate in any programs i'm interested in or i have enough points to exchange.

I don't travel enough to make this worth my while!