mileage in divorce court -- I won!
 

In the paperwork for division of marital property, everything was split 50/50, including my 100,000 FF miles (she has no miles).

If I were on the receiving end, I would be certain that the settlement says "I get 50,000 of your miles", and I know that is the case with other people.

But in my case, while the miles are indeed on the chart, 50k each, the whole chart is in dollars, and the 50k miles we each get are valued at $1! One measly dollar for 50,000 miles! :D

You have to do this for some things, like a car or a house or even land, where you "cash" them in and then divide the dollars instead of chopping up a perfectly fine car or house.

So, because my miles were turned into dollars, just like my car, it means we don't split a car and we don't split my miles. We split a two dollar bill, which involves no transfer at all since we each have a dollar anyway from "cashing in" our 50k miles. :D End result, I get to keep ALL my miles ^ (hey, I was the one who sat in airplane seats for countless hours)

Dang it, I think I came to the wrong conclusion. Do I have to give the winch 50,000 miles?

I'm trying to figure this out myself instead of paying my lawyer big bucks!

Perhaps she has no need of your miles to fly free?:p

Not really (just doesn't travel much), and is dumb as dirt when it comes to travel, so I'm counting on her not bothering :)

Wait, so she got the car and you got the miles? I'm not sure this is a good deal unless the car is a piece of junk. I probably understood it wrong; please explain.

Any lawyer involved? How did you convince a lawyer that 50k miles are only worth 1 dollar?

No, the property is divided 50/50 on a balance sheet. Add up the total value and divide in half. That's each party's share, in dollars. I subtract from that everything I posess (including 40 nickels worth of FF miles), and she subtracts whatever she posesses (e.g., furniture), and whoever goes below zero owes the other person that much money so the end is exactly 50/50, nothing left over.

Hey, if they're DL miles I think $2 is a pretty good valuation for 100k. ;)

I'm not sure how the valuation works, hopefully you'll come out ahead.

What I'm trying to figure out is... do I owe my ex-wife one dollar, or do I owe her 50,000 FF miles? Paying one dollar would be much preferable!

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems like your best bet (from a totally manipulative standpoint) is to a) check with your lawyer, and b) lay low on the miles, until she's taken her half of everything else, to the dollar, maybe even a little over. Then, if she asks for the miles, let her know she's already gotten her share of the assets. If she still wants miles, offer to trade the miles for something she really wants to keep and she'll be less likely to make the swap.

Frankly, I'm not sure you did yourself a service in having those miles valued the way you did. I don't know if it could've been done differently, but it makes it hard to find an equitable trade to leverage at such a low valuation.

Either way, you should probably check with your lawyer, LOL.

agree, if she squawk's at the value, the judge might tell her to give you $2 and for you to give her 100k miles.

I'm not a lawyer, nor have I ever been divorced, but based on the experience of others, if it's an asset that can be divided (such as money in a bank account), you must split it. If it's an asset that can't be divided (such as a house), one party must pay the other an amount equal to 50% of the value.

If you've managed to convince her lawyer that FF miles are a non-divideable asset, you have definitely won. Or, if you've convinced your soon-to-be ex-wife that she doesn't want half of a divideable asset (for example, she may not want half of your herd of cattle), you've won too. If you've convinced both of them that the entire account is only worth $2, good for you. In theory, they could assign the value of a round-trip ticket (say, $400) to every 50,000 miles in the account.

BTW - you should definitely check with your lawyer. Even if it costs money to do so.

Book a trip with the miles leaving the day after the settlement. You can't 'share' a seat on a plane.

disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, following any advice I give may cause you more trouble than it is worth.:D

and how are the miles going to be transferred and who pays any fees involved.... ?

and sometimes you get bonus miles when you transfer them -- who gets those?

Bob H

Who gets the miles in Texas

http://www.bbthompsonlaw.com/legalno...e-flyer-miles/

Not that it really helps much at all.

^^^