Rnmcd
To properly answer your question a little more information is needed.
We know at least that you are in Iowa.
Can you tell us in which program your mother has miles and roughly how many. It may be that you may have enough for a ticket already.
Generally speaking there are plenty of opportunities for gaining additional miles and it may be possible for you to top up your mothers account then claim an award in your name. It may even be that your mother can get some free miles by filling out surveys.
A really great site to get some instant free miles is as follows
http://www.tbsa.com.au/~ferrett/miles.htm
What a terrific site. If your mother is in one of the programs with free offers going you can get some free miles every quickly.
Failing that check out
www.mileageworkshop.com
You'll see many other free offers although many will take a bit of effort to get the free miles. I recommend that you consider getting your mother to switch telephone companies
eg the following is extracted from the mileageworkshop site
"25,000 free miles when switching to MCI. If the MCI rep asks for a code, tell them you received a flyer in the mail with a certificate, which has "25,000 miles" printed on it. The codes are: Z25A-American, Z25C-Continental, Z25D-Delta. Phone numbers: American 800-432-3426, Continental 800-256-1474 and Delta 800-269-2292. NEWS UPDATE 3/20/00: This promotion is only valid to residents of Iowa, Michigan, Montana, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin. Some contributors to this website have indicated that some MCI reps have declined to offer this promotion or have said it has expired. If you do not obtain this offer, try calling 800-754-7076 instead. Some readers living in non-qualifying states have called this number and have been offered 10,000 miles which is still better than MCI's standard offering. On a personal note, I switched one of my phone lines to MCI on 3/20/00 and was offered this promotion. "
Seeing as you are in Iowa the 25,000 miles offer applies to you. 25,000 miles will get you a round trip tricket within the US!
There are times I wish Australia was the 53rd state of the USA. We just don't get these deals downunder.
cheers Peter