The miles in your wife’s United account will expire at the end of the year. Most, if not all of the airlines’ frequent flyer programs, will extend the expiration of the miles in their respective accounts for another three years with merely one transaction.

Continental miles at one time did not expire, but they do now. However, Continental has had an alliance with Northwest for years, and they now have an alliance with Delta Air Lines. You eventually can fly one of the three airlines and get mileage credit in the frequent flyer program of your choosing. As far as I know, it is not possible to do this now (and I do not know for sure if it ever will be possible), but there may be an opportunity in the future to pool those miles together from those airlines for an award.

In addition to the suggestions above (pinniped and Marysunshine beat me to responding to your e-mail!), consider the following:

Perhaps use your wife's frequent flyer number from an airline different form the one which you are flying whenever renting a car from a car rental company or staying at a hotel, if the program allows it. You only need to do this once every three years per room or car rental for each airline. This will also extend the expiration date of those miles.

Join a program such as MyPoints, where points can be converted for use for United miles. See the S.P.A.M. forum for more details.

I suppose you can also “launder” her miles through various conversion programs (such as through a hotel program), but expect a significant devaluation.

You can also buy miles to be able to have enough to redeem for an award, such as on Delta Air Lines.

The miles on a few of the airlines you mentioned may be enough to use for a domestic first-class upgrade.

The bottom line is that your wife has too many miles in most of her accounts to just let them expire.

I hope you find this information helpful. Good luck, L Dude 7.

[This message has been edited by Canarsie (edited 07-25-2003).]