Nothing has changed that I'm aware of... if a skymiles member dies and DL find out then the miles are gone. You can't leave them to someone through a will etc.

While I'm sure some here would call this 'unethical', your best bet in this unfortunate situation is to use the miles for award tickets and not alert Delta to their death.

Unwillingness to find and read T&Cs really is a pox on FlyerTalk.

Under the SkyMiles Mileage Expiration policy, miles do not expire.
 Delta reserves the right to deactivate or close an account under the following circumstances:

Fraudulent activity occurs
A member requests an account closure
A member is deceased
A member does not respond to repeated communication attempts regarding the status of his/her account
A member resides in or relocates to a country where membership is prohibited under applicable law
A member violates the terms of this Membership Guide and Program Rules

http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...onditions.html

Sounds like if the doctors tell you "you have x months to live", then go ahead, expeditiously and start using up the miles to buy J tickets for children/relatives to go LHR, CDG, MAD, BCN etc. Better to use them up while still kicking (to a good cause) then have them float into the ionosphere unused..

So to play devil's advocate, it does not say "will close the account" - it says "reserves the right". Doesn't "reserve the right" mean Delta may or may not take action? And as long as the deceased member gave authorization to do use the miles and the account in such a manner it avoids the issue of "unauthorized use".

Technically, since the T&Cs only give the member the right to reserve award travel (even if they're redeeming for someone else), the fact that the member is pushing up daisies would preclude them from reserving travel for anyone.

Although if someone had power of attorney or were an executor of an estate this would create a grey area.

Just a guess - but it wouldn't surprise me if there were cases in the past where Delta got dragged into some family arguments about who was entitled to use the miles of a family member who passed away.

With rare exceptions, I would bet FF miles do not get mentioned in most peoples Will.

Uncle Fred passes away and next thing you know Delta is stuck in the middle between kids and ex wives all looking for access to poor Fred's account and laying claim to Fred's stash of unused miles.

There's also the benefit of being able to remove a liability off the books with one press of a keystroke (without the risk of losing a loyal customer in the process!).

Does anyone know if DL actively searches any types of databases to find out if a pax has deceased?

'Unethical' defines the way Delta promised in writing that our original SkyMiles would never expire, and then reneged on that written promise later by saying "we can always change our T&Cs", even if they contained an absolute, indisputable promise inside them.

Delta outright lied to us (or were willing to break a clear promise). They did nothing--absolutely nothing--to restore the bad faith.

Screw 'ethics' when it comes to dealing with them.

So what would a family member of the deceased do about the small charges attached to a SkyMiles award ticket? Aren't credit card accounts frozen at the time of death? That would apply to whatever credit card is listed on the account. If I wanted to, could I add the credit card of one of my kids to my SM account to enable them to use the miles after I die?

If anyone from Delta is reading this, these questions are purely theoretical! I am in excellent health.

You can use whatever credit card you want at the time of the transaction, you don't need to use a saved one, and the CC does not need to have the name that is on the SM account. Payment is separate.

Instantly locked? I doubt it.

Bill will still go to the house and can be paid for the taxes.

Someone's death isn't universally known to all. Companies are usually alerted to such by phone call from a friend, family member, or creditor. If no one calls anyone (or if they call and claim to be you and answer all of the questions correctly), credit cards and bank accounts could stay open for years.

To answer your question, yes: you could do that. But when/if your kids call in and they're asked "Who am I speaking to?", they'd have to be ready and willing to not answer truthfully. Some of us can handle that, while some of us can't.

POA terminates upon death. An executor only has control over the estate. Since the SM account is not owned by the person, it doesn't become part of the estate. Thus there's nothing the executor could do.

These come up a few times a year it seems.

Sudden death it seems that hopefully have access. Buy tickets or use miles to buy other stuff ASAP.

If it is a prolonged or known death. Do the same as above.

Likely Delta has no one searching for deaths to clear out SkyMiles accounts.