Carolina2Cali

What is the best thing to do with someone's miles once they die? I should have asked this BEFORE she died, but alas, as long as the airlines don't know she has passed, what can we do with Mom's miles? Please spare the condolences, I have reached my max capacity for the week of tears, sorries, sweet stories and otherwise. She was a great Mom and person. For Delta, she had 17k, so I am guessing a transfer from her account might make more sense? Or using them directly within her account to book a one way domestic flight for my father somewhere?

Jaimito Cartero

17k in DL miles isn’t worth much. I value DL at 1 cent per mile.

DL says if you die, the miles expire. With that small amount of miles you might find a cheap one way trip, or short haul round trip. Use the miles, and don’t tell DL.

erik123

You could donate them in honor of your mom. https://www.delta.com/buygftxfer/dis...teMiles.action

MSPeconomist

Do you have access to the account? FF number, password, and email address (able to receive email)?

jetsfan92588

I guess it depends on your origin and destination, but RT flights to the west coast are 9-12k depending on where you're going (sea,lax,Las all pretty cheap) as long as they're 21+ days out.

I'd bet delta subscribes to the database that alerts them of deaths though, so you may not be able to book something that far out since you're booking it after the date of death.

indufan

I am not sure we have any evidence of this even though I am not saying you are wrong.

Delta death tax is evil.

Mr. Tickets

Trust me. They don’t. My wife passed away 20 months ago and her account is completely accessible and miles can be used (I’ve used them).

But as someone already said, 17,000 miles isn’t much. Definitely not worth the cost of transferring to another account.

Jaimito Cartero

Especially as DL often charges what the miles are worth to transfer them.

CDF

I had this happen to me and fortunately I had access to the account. Like yourself, there wasn't a lot of miles (about 20,000 or so) so I donated them in their name to Make a Wish foundation (I think that was the charity). I figured it was better to help someone else out that could use them rather then let them go to waste.

jetsfan92588

Interesting, and surprising. I guess they figure the miles will expire so it's not worth tracking deaths for the balance sheet?

emma dog

Given the number of miles, just buy a gift card and call it a day.

Jaimito Cartero

Delta miles don’t expire, until you do, technically.

xliioper

Miles don't expire, but they make a calculated estimate about how many miles will likely never be redeemed for accounting purposes (breakage).

"To value the miles earned, we consider the quantitative value a passenger receives by redeeming miles for a ticket rather than paying cash, which is referred to as equivalent ticket value ("ETV"). Our estimate of ETV is adjusted for miles that are not likely to be redeemed ("breakage"). We use statistical models to estimate breakage based on historical redemption patterns."

ATLflyer2017

Don't ask Delta.
If you have access to her online account, just book yourself a flight using your name and credit card. 17k miles isn't much. If you can find a use then great, but if not, oh well. Definitely not worth the cost/effort to officially transfer them.

Carolina2Cali

Thanks all for the replies. Yes, I recently saw a post on one of the travel blogs about a United program where you donate miles to families to travel to see one another due to major illness or terminal diseases... which would have been NICE to know about before her death... but indeed maybe a worthy cause. That, or fly my dad somewhere who has been locked up taking care of her for so long. I do hope Delta does not have such a death database, they owe my Dad these miles at the absolute very least, he was such a saint, and Mom earned them. Out of any and all illegal things I'd ever do or consider doing, using Mom's miles for him after she died is EASILY the easiest and of which I'd feel absolutely guilt free. And yes, thankfully, we do have access to her accounts... her and my Dad were basically one and the same.