excellent response pinniped....I have long considered the prospects of donating miles to these various airlines' "donor" programs...I've got orphan miles all over the world in various pools that I have little chance of efficiently using...but I have so little confidence in the fundmental intrgrity of the airline to morally and ethically utilize the miles *WITH ANY EFFICIENCY* that DIRECT DONATION of the actual award is the only way I would consider this sort of thing. During the recent hurricanes, I made available award seats to the local Red Cross but NEVER considered dumping miles back to AA to let them direct them.

One example: I would not be surprised at all to find the airlines would only convert 50K tickets instead of 25K, and so on; IOW always using the poorest conversions to fill their empty seats at higher mile awards to burn the miles...and oh, maybe some needy got the awards as a by-product. From Arpey on down, I don't trust these people any longer.

Dunno - maybe I'm wrong here. Would like to see conclusive evidence either way.