MilesBuzz! - Selling American and Delta miles - alternatives?

I fly mostly NW where I am a Gold Elite (not nearly the status of others on this board, but you may be most qualified to answer this question). I am in Columbus, OH where I have the choice of American (EMB145s which I hate because I am 6'4), United (great planes to the west, terrible commuter planes to the east), Delta (OK service east and west, but the Delta of the '70s has been replaced by the ghost of Eastern Airlines), although I can at least fly CRJs to DC and NYC which is an improvement IMHO over EMB145s (or EMB135s). NW has great overseas to the west, scary DC10 service to London and Amsterdam and terrible short haul service to DC and Chicago). I don't fly enough to support multiple carriers and make GOLD every year, so consolidation on one airline makes sense.

Now, I can choose United (who matched my Gold Elite status) and use Delta flights east on that account. OR I can stick with NW and suffer on Chicago and DC routes. OR I can pick American and fly EMB145s and really suffer.

If I pick NW, can I sell my 160,000 American miles and 65,000 Delta miles? If so, which service is better? I want cash or corresponding extra miles on NW, not 10% off of purchases that I am unlikey to make (www.milepoint.com). Or can I transfer the miles to a hotel company?

Also, I can angry with Delta because 1) they ignore my requests for a comp to NW Elite and 2) their Asia routes are horrible! Korean (Kim-chee) Air? China Southern? Sure, it says Singapore Air but I called Delta and asked if I could get Skymiles for using Singapore from LAX to Singapore. They said no. What gives?

Sorry for the rant. The choice of Freq Flyer plan is SOOOOOOOOOO frustrating. Any help would be appreciated.

Welcome to Flyertalk!

I don't believe that you will get a reply regarding which service is best to sell your miles with. The selling of miles is against the rules of every FF program.

Good luck choosing a program.

Mary

I have resisted offers to buy miles in the past and will continue to do so. BUT, can American, Delta or NW miles be transfered to hotel programs (such as Starwood)? If it is legal, of course.

Yes, they can, but there are different transfer ratios. Some of them are about to change significantly. You can get the most current information at the Hilton HHonors or Starwood Preferred Guest sites. The bottom line is that transferring miles from one airline program to another, through a hotel program, will cost you a large percentage of your miles.

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Vasant

You can transfer AA and DL miles to Hilton. The exchange ratio is changing for AA effective next year. So next year you could convert 5000 AA/DL miles tp 10,000 Hilton points. I would recommend leaving the points there and using the Hilton points.

The bad news is that Hilton is diluting their point structure next year.

Tony,

I don't know about selling the miles -- that seems to be verboten - but a little creativity.

1) Are you sure you want to get rid of them? 160K is enough for a nice first class ticket to some distant land - with some left over.

2) Not sure what kind of business you are in, but if client pays for a tkt on AA then you can use the miles for an upgrade.

3) You could get an AA certificate - FC to ??? and then maybe find someone who could use the tkt and work out some kind of informal trade or something.

4) If you are convinced the miles will go to waste, let me know. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Good Luck.


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TANSTAAFL - but if you work it right, FF miles comes pretty close.