How to Transfer SkyMiles without a fee
 

Hi,

I am Delta Platinum and have over 500K SM. I am looking to transfer some to my son and daughter in law so they can book 2 biz class tickets. They will then transfer the miles back to me once they have them accumulated - this will likely be done in a few months but we want to jump on award seats now.

When I called Delta they told me there is a charge of $100 per 1K miles plus $30 fee. So to transfer 240K miles would cost me nearly $2,500!!!!

Keep in mind this is moving miles from one SkyMiles member to another.

Is this standard? Is there any way around this fee?

HELP!!!!

Just out of curiosity, why don't you book the flights for them and have them reimburse you for the taxes and fees instead of transferring them the miles?

Why not just buy them their tix with your miles?

The only way to transfer the miles to either of their accounts without paying a lot of money would be to transfer American Express MR points or SPG points to one of their FF accounts, as both of those programs allow the transfer of points to various travel programs.

Since you are a DL platinum, it would greatly benefit them if you used your own miles to book their tickets, since platinum medallions get free award changes. That way if anything comes up, they find better routing, decide to add a stop over, change desination, etc you would be able to change the award free of charge. You can use your own miles to book a ticket for anyone else, and you don't need to transfer them to that person first.

If they are planning on paying you back for the miles you are redeeming (by accumulating their own miles), then they will need to keep the miles in their account and similarly book a trip for you with their miles to avoid the large transfer fee. If they don't have PM or DM status, then the awards will incur a $150 change fee since the miles are coming from their accounts. Also, they can't pool their miles, so you would have to book an award on each account individually. Or if one or both of them have AMEX MR points or SPG points, those could be transfered to your SkyMiles account.

They want to effectively borrow the miles. I am happy to book the ticket for them but I do not intend to "gift" them the 240K miles. Our goal is essentially to advance them the miles now so they can get the tickets, and then have then "gift" them back to me once they have the 240K miles accumulated themselves. Understand?

Yes we all understand. But to do what you want, you will pay huge fees as you mentioned. We are trying to explain alternative ways to get the same end result, which is for you to use your miles to book their tickets. To pay you back, they would have to do the same, or have points in the other programs I mentioned which can transfer to Delta.

Unfortunately the fees to "gift" (transfer) the miles is unavoidable.

That's why others here have made the suggestion that you book the flights for them directly from your Skymiles account. When your kids have accumulated the miles themselves, they would simply do the same for you... book a trip for you from their Skymiles account.

Unless Delta is running a transfer bonus promo which they haven't done with meaningful value in several years transfering miles in large quantities is almost always a horrible value. Essentially they charge you the value of the miles 1cpm to move them between accounts which is a terrible deal.

Very few programs allow "free" xfer between accounts (BA Avios is an exception that comes to mind).

Why not just book the tickets for your kids and have them do the same down the road for you as previously suggested?

With all due respect, your logic is difficult to fathom. First, why would not buying tickets for them now and having them buy tickets for you in the future accomplish your goals? Second, other folks have suggested great alternatives to your method and you wouldn't listen. So why don't you pay $2500 now and ask them to pay $2500 when they have enough miles to transfer the miles back to you? Fair deal?

Airlines don't want you to freely transfer miles so you could combine miles from multiple accounts and redeem them for free tickets. They would love those folks with a small number of miles just to forgot about the miles over time. Hence the transfer fees.

JakeMalloy,

I think you'll find the best answers to your question in this thread

Pay special attention to posts numbers 2,3 and 4 - especially the last 2 paragraphs of #4

Understand?

LOL +1

Jake

I'm not sure I understand. :D


You want to advance them miles so the can get two tickets - cost $2,500

You want them to rerun the miles to you later for tickets - cost. $2,500


FT ers present you with an alternative:


You use the miles to get tickets for them - cost $0

They use miles later to get you tickets - cost $0

Same results total savings of $5,000

Good deal for all involved. Understand?

Let's not forget that for $5000 one could purchase a discounted BE ticket or a B/M ticket that can be upgraded with miles or SWUs. Purchasing the ticket rather than paying to transfer miles would at least result it a ticket that itself earns miles.

Would the real jakemalloy please stand up?