Kiwi Flyer

Does anyone have info to add/amend to the opening post?

Long Zhiren

How would an airline know if anybody was dead if nobody notifies the airline?
I once chased down a refund on my mother-in-law's CO ticket because she died before the departure day. If I didn't send in a copy of the death certificate, CO would never have known. I help manage my relatives' ff accounts because they're not exactly on top of things as the average FT forum participant is.

glocklt4

That's exactly what I was about to ask - course it has been nearly 2 years and no one has answered this yet... I don't see how they will know either. I just signed my 91 year old grandmother up for a BA card and plan to manage everything myself. BA miles expire when you... expire. Since my wife and I are doing a month long One World Award next month we may not get to do too much more traveling the rest of the year to burn those 100k BA miles, but since she's older it obviously makes sense to use those miles first. The credit card company will find out somehow through SSN and credit reports, but BA can't check any of that. Maybe close the BA Chase card pretty quickly so that BA couldn't get a living status from Chase somehow.

juggler451

Problem is need two CC's of account holder when making booking on BA w/ miles--at least on the phone. Maybe need to get grandma on as authorized user on two of your accounts and put her FF account at your address.

glocklt4

Two CC's?? That's odd. Good idea with adding her as authorized user on one of my cards. I just applied for the BA for her with her real physical address. She doesn't have a BA EC account yet, so I imagine they will create one to her current address. Wonder if it's a red flag to change her addresses on both over to mine.

Tavoludo

Thank you! I didn't even think about this before but taking into account that so far I have applied to pretty awesome programs within the last few months, I have accrued good mileage so far.

juggler451

BAEC also allows you to add third parties to be able make bookings. Just did this so don't know how varies items needed for redemptions when FF account holder not one of passengers.

rubesl

When my father died five years ago (PMNW) he did not have an online NW account so I just set one up under his Worldperks # & then my mother, brother & I just booked tickets from his account using his miles, no problem.

This issue is also why everyone who has any type of online account should also have their user names & passwords written down & kept somewhere safe along with some way for the executor or survivors to know where the list is kept.

Counsellor

Why 2? You'll need one to pay taxes and fuel surcharges, I got that, but why the second one?

By the way, this requirement for a second card must be new, since it didn't exist a couple years ago when last I redeemed BA miles.

Boraxo

My brother just died and I have taken charge of his FF accounts with a view to transferring miles to his spouse, if possible. Although he was not an FTer, he became an avid mileage collector over the last few years, applying for credit cards and jumping on fare mistakes.

This thread is quite helpful however I will endeavor to update the info here as appropriate, given the top post is 3+ years old!

Jlove

I just transferred less than 10k miles (from someone who died) and AA charged me $50. I didn't even think of transferring the miles to a points program, etc. It may have been difficult since I couldn't access or change the email address. I was on the fence with paying the money, but ended up just going ahead with it. You have to fax in a form, and they posted really quickly, like the next day! Maybe because of the $50.

keloutwest

I've read a few existing threads:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-ff-miles.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-2010-a-6.html

but have a slightly different question. If say a parent or spouse has deceased and the family wanted to make use of remaining miles, it seems the options are:

1. Use the miles in the deceased's account as though they were still alive and had booked it themselves for a family member.
2. Transfer the miles to family member's account by notifying the airline of the person's passing (and in some cases pay a fee, other cases not)
3. Transfer the miles "normally"

Essentially my question is the viability of option 3 (with option 1 as well). Given the year end transfer bonuses running (up to 100% back in some cases), would it be better to just keep the account alive and transfer the miles (getting some back which would then be used as described in 1 above)?

Centurion

If the airlines miles or points are held by a credit card company like Amex I would be careful since most credit card companies get a copy of the social security death master index and some cancel accounts for protection.

Ironic as it is this index is designed to prevent fraud but some stupid news agency is claiming it is creating fraud. All I am going to say is has been very useful for people researching family history and some dumb news network or reporter is just plain out of control on the issue.


I have no information if airlines use this system but information on people is becoming cheaper to obtain every year and far more vast amounts of information seem to be available.

Palaimo

I had a family member pass away earlier this year. He had a ton of miles stashed away (apparently he had an airline credit card that he used for years but never redeemed the points) We were able to fly in all of the out-of-towners (myself included) with his miles on short notice for his funeral. It was an appropriate use of the miles, and since last minute trips like that can get very expensive, it made sense.

jjmiller69

If you don't use 2 how do you take it out of the estate with out breaking the law?