Award ticket in name of another person?
 

I'm trying to figure out if I can use my Skymiles to book an award ticket in the name of someone else? It's a little confusing because it does say the following:

Award Transfer

Miles may be redeemed for Award Tickets in the name of passengers other than the SkyMiles member, but Award Tickets are nontransferable once issued. Members are prohibited from selling or bartering Award Tickets.


It doesn't say that I must transfer my miles to another Skymiles member in order for that ticket to be issued to someone else or that the other person has to be a Skymiles member? If it says "Award Transfer", I assume that is the case but it's doesn't spell that out.

There is no need to transfer the miles to the other person. You just buy a ticket with miles and enter their name when buying the ticket. They do not need to be skymiles members.

Very easy to do, I "bought" my nephew a free ticket using some of my vast hoard (but getting smaller) of SkyPesos and he got an e-mail with the ticket info. He was not a SkyMiles Member. The ticket redemption showed up in my activity log. Just make sure you get their name spelled correctly.

As stated, no need to transfer miles. Just book and when it asks for the name, enter his/her name. You will also need their birthdate in order to book.

Note that once you have the ticket issued and the miles deducted from your account, you can't then try to transfer the award to someone else.

Note too that you need the exact legal name as on their government-issued ID. Please don't assume what their name is. You may know him as James Smith but his legal name could be Steven James Smith and he just goes by James. Happens ALL the time.

Much thanks!

You select the ticket you want, and you change the name from that in the SM account to the desired name when booking.

This is incorrect.

OP, be sure not to click "I am Traveling" when booking.

What is incorrect about his instructions?:confused: That's the way I do it when I'm booking an award ticket for someone else.

If you could only book an award ticket for yourself, there would be only 8 Flyertalkers total and the rest of us would have to find something else to obsess about.

He implied that the name in the booking simply could be changed. That is incorrect.

If I Am Traveling is checked the system populates the ticket name fields with the FF's info and it cannot be changed.

If you want to remind the OP not to check the "I am traveling" box, that's fine. But N639DL should be "furiated" that you're saying he is incorrect when he's not.:p