Trading airline miles

[Zeke]

Death in family last night. One sister is 2000 miles away and has no money. My wife OTOH must have 300K miles with AA. I did a search and it seems those miles can be used by the person that has them to book a flight for another. And then there's the bereavement thing I have heard about. Maybe there's an advantage with that. It is certainly fact. AFA air travel goes, I have the least knowledge of anyone.

Any tips? I'm likely going to have to get involved.

[masraum]

I would think that the easiest would be to use the wife's airline miles for the ticket. I've heard that getting a bereavement fair is a beyotch that requires a death cert. Who knows if they even do it any more.

In the past, I did have tons of FF miles with Continental/United, and have used them to buy tickets and upgrade multiple people that were part of a family vacation.

I suspect using the wife's FF mile should be pretty easy.

My condolences on the passing of a family member.

[Zeke]

Yeah, I looked casually. I'll downplay the bereavement thing. It's not necessary anyway. These miles are wasting away and need to be used even with penalties if there are any.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Yeah, I looked casually. I'll downplay the bereavement thing. It's not necessary anyway. These miles are wasting away and need to be used even with penalties if there are any.

I don't specifically know about AA, but I think United will charge a small, "service charge" to use the miles. I think it was generally somewhere in the $50-200 range (it's been a while since I used miles for anything). So I don't think it's going to be free, but it should be a huge discount, especially for someone flying a fair distance.

[stevej37]

AA miles can be redeemed for gift cards.
I had about 130k miles about 5 years ago and checked my balance one day. The miles were down to 20k and it showed that someone had been redeeming them for gift cards ($50 each) for the last few months.
I called AA and they said I needed to file a police report before they could do anything. I was upset and argued that it was their responsibility to safeguard them.

About a month later, the miles were reinstated. They never offered an explanation of how it happened.

[Rick Lee]

You didn't hear it from me, but lots of places will buy those miles from you for cash. It's against your cardholder agreement and you can lose them all if they catch you. But if you're not going to use them, you can sell for cash.

[Alan A]

Delta let both my wife and I buy a ticket for my kid with miles. Separate accounts. Done it a few times.

I can’t imagine AA is different.

[Rtrorkt]

Check your credit cards. You may have points there that are more fungible

[onewhippedpuppy]

I actually booked a flight for my sister in law a few months ago using my AA miles. I booked the flight as usual and put in her information as the passenger. Nothing to it. I’ve done the same with Delta over the years when my kids have travelled, equally easy.

In theory you can transfer or gift the miles but they charge a fee.

[Zeke]

@onewhippedpuppy, so the trick is to just go ahead and enter the name you want to be in the seat using your account? I think I read that if you have miles, you have an account. As I said, I know nothing.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Zeke

@onewhippedpuppy, so the trick is to just go ahead and enter the name you want to be in the seat using your account? I think I read that if you have miles, you have an account. As I said, I know nothing.

Yes, if you have miles, then you have an account.

You would likely need to login to the wife's account and then there's probably some sort of "redeem miles for travel" link or something like that.

Just like I could get on and buy a ticket for 10 different people to travel, you should be able to redeem miles for anyone that you want. You'll need their info (likely name as it appears on their ID/DL). It'll probably also ask for email and cell phone. You can give the person that's flying or your own (you'd then have to forward any texts or emails to the person flying).

[onewhippedpuppy]

Yup, what he said. I think there’s a box that says “I’m traveling”, after you uncheck the box then it will prompt you to enter the traveler’s info. I think you’ll need full legal name, DOB, address, phone number, email, and maybe DL information.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Also after you log in, make sure you check “redeem miles” before you search for flights. Otherwise it will give you dollars.

[A930Rocket]

With Delta, you have the option for cash, miles, and cash/miles. I used my Delta miles* last summer, for Comfort Plus, for our trip to Paris.

* I have an Amex tied to Delta.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Milt, if you need help walking through this let me know. Also sorry about the death in your family!

[Zeke]

Got it done. Forgot to come back to the thread. Thanks a million, Matt.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Great, glad it worked out!