Originally posted by selfdestrc:
For example, I have about 7,500 miles in my Northwest account, which is too far from a free ticket.
Orphan miles don't exist today, or at least they don't have to exist. Here's a micro and macro example to show why.
Micro: In your above example, 7,500 miles is not too far from a free ticket. In fact, I would consider it very close to a free ticket. All you need is some Sprint bonus miles (10,000 miles and up), LookSmart miles (via ClickRewards, or Starwood points and you have a free ticket.
Macro: One issue to address in your project is that today you don't have to be a frequent flyer to have a lot of frequent flyer miles. And since you don't have to fly to get miles, you never have to leave miles stranded.
Today you can get almost a quarter million miles every year and hardly leave the ground. Here's a sample annual mileage summary, in thousands:
40 - Phone (two lines, 10k for switching every six months, per line)
60 - Credit card
60 - LookSmart Live
40 - Greenpoints/ClickRewards
So there's 200,000 miles a year before even counting flying miles/bonuses.
There are so many ways to top off miles today that it's silly to get rid of the miles through places like Milepoint.com.
Even for infrequent flyers, true orphan miles are a thing of the past.