Originally Posted by
sbagdon
The most I can imagine they'd value the miles at would be pro-rated to what you can buy online. I believe AA is $0.028/mile on purchase, so I can't see how AA could value it greater then $28k. So taxable cost would be about $9.5k... I'd pay that for 1,000,000 RDMs and LT gold. Figure that's 10 international premium tickets, that should be worth $9.5k.
OP, what's the driver for Elite status. Elite seats, check-in, boarding, etc?
Yeah certainly talk to a CPA about the valuation. I don't even think you'd have to go as high as the purchase value on the open market. I'd think as a gift the value of it would be the cost basis to the airline for the miles. But, I'm not the kind of CPA that does taxes. Check it out.