david55

So we offered to donate 2 air tickets using our miles for a non-profit auction experience and that included a week's stay at our house in Mexico

The winner of the auction is trying to arrange the details....and because of their slow and spotty responses I am finding it increasingly difficult to help them book the flights.

It would be so much easier for me to " share" 70K ( 2 RT coach saver awards) and deposit into their account. Let them work out the air details at their pace.

But I realize that such a transfer would cost us $775US. ( $350 for 30K x 2 + $125 for 10K = 70K @ $775.)

What am I doing wrong here? Is there an easier way to gift someone 70K miles.


Thanks.

macfadsj

Is your difficulty in helping them book space due to lack of award availability on their preferred dates?

In a transaction like this, it is all about finding award space.

Might be prudent to "de-link" the tickets and the stay at your house in Mexico: Suggest they use the miles for any flights of their choice for them or their friends anytime in the next year to any destination where the miles are sufficient. They can then buy the tickets to Mexico, preferably using a companion ticket acquired through the AS visa card if there are two of them.

OR, perhaps there are seats to one of AS many destinations in Mexico, and they could then get to the airport nearest your house on separate tickets.

If they are the "slow and spotty" type, beware of them wanting to change the dates of award tickets after you book them and there being no space available on the new dates. Best to let them know, and get them to acknowledge via email exchange before you ticket that date changes may be difficult.

The above strategy is not pretty, but it gets the job done and wraps this matter up for you.

david55

That is exactly what we are suggesting to these auction winners....that we gift the 70K miles into their account and let them figure out their flights and whether to use the miles for this trip or another.....frankly I don't care how they use them.....I am just trying to figure out a way ot lessen the $$ bite of the transfer. Since AS only allows you to transfer 30K at each transaction it means $75 in admin fees as well as the $700 in transfer fee.

macfadsj

Doesn't make any sense to transfer the miles, as there is no way to do it at a reasonable cost. You need to book the flights from your account, and obviously want to be done with this as quickly as possible.

alphaeagle

If you are MVPG you could book flights that may work for them. Then let them change it themselves with no change fees. Or book it 60+ days out, as long as they adjust it to what they want 60+ days away there won't be change fees.

thegingninj

IIRC, there are only no change fees if the reservation is in the MVPG's name.

alphaeagle

Using miles from a gold's account also get free changes.

beckoa

^ ^