I am the daughter of a deceased Plat. SM member and since my Dad had left me his PIN, have been redeeming his miles for tkts for my Mom and brothers so that now his acct. is under 50,000. My question is this-AX has just recently contacted my Mom to tell her that since my Dad is deceased, they would like to send her a new card and keep her as a customer. Should I now contact Delta and transfer the miles to her acct. or keep it as is? We have outstanding itineraries right now using those miles in Oct. and next June that I am worried about. Thanks.

I would just continue as you have been doing. When you get to under 25K miles (too little for a ticket) start ordering magazines. At this point, it isn't worth risking somebody messing up a transfer.

AmEx
 

When my grandfather passed he had a lot of AmEx points but and a DL account with comparatively not that many miles in it. Since we knew AmEx does not let you 'inherit' points, we first requested a points transfer from AmEx to DL of all his points and then my father inherited a very larger SkyMiles account.

Thanks, and it doesn't seem like Amex is going to contact Delta to tell them about a deceased member so I will just leave it as is for now and maybe set up one more tkt for my mother and then when all itineraries are completed, use the leftover miles for magazines and close the acct.

First, I am very sorry for your loss. My father passed away last year and we had to do the same thing with his SkyMiles. Yes, the SkyMiles can be saved and transfered. There is no cost to do this. On the Delta.com web site, you can open up or download an affidavit, here is a link http://images.delta.com/delta/pdfs/affidavit.pdf

The form is easy to complete, and requests some additional papers to be sent along to the Delta address stated in the affidavit, and requies a notarization. This is what we did with my father's account, and all his miles went to my mother. Good luck.

Thank you very much but think I will leave it as is for now until all itineraries are completed(by June).

How to get miles of deceased into heir's account.
 

My FIL passed away and his wife, my MIL, wants to give me his Skymiles. All she has is a letter from DL addressed to him, pitching the Amex credit card and saying "You currently have XXXXXX number of miles". She doesn't have anything with his Skymiles account number on it and it doesn't appear to be on the letter.

So how does she go about doing this? I'm sure she has to get the miles into her account as beneficiary under his will, and then transfer them them to me, but how does she do that? And can I do it for her as she is barely able to understand the concept of miles at all. In fact (bless her heart) she sent me the letter from Delta thinking that I could just show up at the airport and get on a plane with nothing but the letter in hand.

Just call up DL at 1-800-323-2323, select listen to the account information, enter YOUR SM number and Pin, and then just hit zero a whole bunch of times until you get an agent.

Tell the rep you are booking a flight for your FIL, and need his SM number. They will ask you for the name, and hopefully his address to verify the account, and they will give you the SM number. You can then go online and have the PIN mailed to the address on his SM account, and then once you get the account information, you can go from there with contacting Delta about transferring the miles (or you can always pay to have them transferred)

Once you obtain the SkyMiles number, you can use his PIN to redeem awards or you can complete the deceased member affidavit to have the mileage sent to a beneficiary.

merging a deceased person's NW miles into Delta
 

My father passed away May 2007 and I had Delta put his skymiles into my Mom's Delta account as an inheritance. There are about 20K miles in my father's NW account. When the miles merge from NW to Delta, how would I get his miles into my Mom's account? His Delta account was closed when it was emptied last year.

Have your mom open a NW account and transfer the NW miles to that. I'm assuming it's the same process as Delta. The rest will take care of itself after the merger.

Better do it now. I tried to transfer my late father-in-law's DL miles to my husband's account. After getting all the paperwork together, which took some time, the FIL's account was closed when DL made that big purge of inactive accounts.

I can do that. I'll have to search on the NW forums or call them to find out what paperwork is needed. As I recall, DL had me fill out an affidavit and send a copy of the death certificate. CO only needed the affidavit, and American wanted an affidavit and $50 to get my father's miles from those airlines into my Mom's accounts.
If my Mom doesn't have a NW account I may try to put my father's miles into my account.

Not so fast ----
 

If I remember correctly NW World Perks are NOT transferable upon death.

Check closely in the T & Cs on the NW web page. My Father in law passed away two years ago and we were not able to do anything with almost 200K miles.

Unless this has changed, you may want to wait until the merger then transfer the miles.

Good luck

L2F

Easy way
 

Consider spending the miles. Take Cash and Add Miles! Look under the rewards section of the NWA website. 20,000 miles + $89 can get someone a domestic ticket. Use your huskey voice. Dad can still buy you a ticket to go visit Mom. or .... well you get the idea.

you said about 20,000 miles. if your a few short. you could take an online NWA class and earn another 500 miles.

Good idea - Beachmiles
 

I did a quick search of the NW web site, this is from the Terms and Conditions, # 10:

"Except as otherwise explained below, mileage credit is not transferable and may not be combined among WorldPerks members or conveyed by any means to anyone, including through a member’s estate, and may not pass to members’ successors and assigns. Accrued mileage credit and award certificates and award tickets do not constitute property of the member. Neither accrued mileage, award certificates nor tickets are transferable by the member (i) upon death, (ii) as part of a domestic relations matter or (iii) otherwise. Mileage earned from another frequent flyer program cannot be transferred to the WorldPerks program."

Good luck and safe travels!

L2F