TheRoadie

Delta seems to HATE mile hoarders, and wants us to burn those miles at the high rate rather than hold out for the tease of elusive low redemptions.

I have to wonder if this change was initiated by the bean counters, or legal staff. And was it in response to an actual lawsuit or an imagined one?

I guess mutual respect ends at death. Oh, wait....

TTT

I would also like to see how that would hold up in court if it came to it.

indufan

No, but they can suggest to a court, via their rules, what they think the best action is.

I am not exactly a mile hoarder by choice. I don't have a spouse or kids to use my miles. My family does sometimes use them as I do. I generally end up with some ecredits or vouchers to use for my travel. Every time I make a big (for me) deduction in my SkyMiles balance, I always think that my number will never get any higher. But the sad reality is I am still in a positive points flow situation. Of course, I am not planning on leaving this earth anytime soon and plan on free travel for a long time but, you never know, I might not be lucky enough to make it through the day. I think it is abhorrent for Delta to deprive my family of my hard earned miles in the event of my untimely death.

indufan

I wonder if they thought about an imagined lawsuit over changing it? Of course, I love the court system, they might say you aren't in position to challenge it until you are dead.

The Mileage Millionaire

Can't the surviving spouse simply book award tickets for herself and her family/friends without notifying Delta of the member's death? That's sure as hell what I would do.

This policy change is disgusting. The Kettles' miles never expire (except upon death!), but a Diamond who never has the chance to redeem because he's spending huge amounts of money on paid tickets gets screwed upon death? That makes no sense. Another nice move, Delta.

StayingHomeIsBetter

Are you going to come back and discuss this change with us?

Or is this another drive-by posting?

The Mileage Millionaire

drive-by shooting? Oops, now we're all dead and our miles are expired.

StayingHomeIsBetter

Is there an exception to this policy if Delta is the cause of your demise?

AJDelvarno

Does anyone want to complain about the quoted portion of the policy that states miles may not be attached, seized or levied upon? My guess is everyone is pretty happy that DL will protect our miles from such conduct by taking the position miles aren't our “property.”

When it comes to our demise, however, now we now WANT the miles to be property, to have value and to be distributed as we wish without interference by DL.

That seems to be wanting it both ways. Our miles have no value if someone wants to take them from us, but they DO have value when we want to pass them on.

Is that fair? I have to think most people here like parts of this policy… I have no problems with it. YMMV.

StayingHomeIsBetter

"Today, Delta Airlines is announcing an enhancement in our policy with respect to transfer of SkyMiles. Effective March 20, 2013, we will no longer permit the transfer of mileage from the accounts of deceased members to their heirs. It has increasingly come to our attention that some members were accumulating large account balances, and then killing themselves on order to avoid the transfer fees normally involved in the transfer of miles from one account to another. It became necessary for us to stop the abuse by these gamers so that we could protect the value of the SkyMiles program for our most loyal members. This was a difficult decision to make, but it was the right decision."

HongKonger

It would be the inheritors who would be challenging it. But their policy seems to try to prohibit transfer for lots of reasons not just death, so for example splitting them up in a divorce proceeding. A court can give the wife half if it damn well pleases and if it is within the law of the state where the divorce is taking place.

BTW, GO HOOSIERS

StayingHomeIsBetter

The likelihood of someone suing me to seek to gain my Sky Miles account is rather low.

On the other hand, I believe the probability of my ultimate demise is rather high.

I think I am ready to play the relative odds of those propositions.

I guess that I am amazed that it only took 34 posts before someone came in to defend this scurrilous grab on the part of Delta management.

HongKonger

I don't want to complain about it, but I do want to state that it is complete BS. The courts have a funny way of deciding what can be seized, attached or levied regardless of what DL says.

The Mileage Millionaire

I heard that several FlyerTalkers have faked their own deaths to avoid transfer fees. These people ruin death for the rest of us.

exwannabe

Yeah, I would like to kill those cheaters who kill themselves to get free transfers/

I will be honest and will my children my SM username/password.