Originally Posted by Margyb
I have around 8K miles on NWA and the same on BA. I can't find any way to convert these miles to either AA, Marrott....or something I can use!
Any thoughts or am I S.O.L.?
As you've already learned, you can't transfer out of these programs, and you aren't yet at a level where you can use them within these programs.
Any chance you'll fly on NWA, Delta, Continental, or KLM again SOMETIME? If so, might be worth signing up for World Perks Dining (with one credit or debit card that's not already in another dining program) and occasionally do a dine with that. That'll keep your NWA miles around forever, until you can add to them in some signficant way.
Same thing (if you have yet another credit or debit card that's not already in a dining program) for Executive Club dining. Or, for BA, rent from Avis occasionally: at Avis you earn 500 BA miles for even a one-or-two-day rental, but at Avis with other airlines and at other car rental companies with any airline (other than Southwest) you earn a measly 50 miles per day.
Keep in mind, btw, that you don't need to get to 25k with BA necessarily, if you sometimes visit Europe. Within Europe, you can use 10k BA miles for an upgrade to Club Europe.