18,500 Miles expire 31 May 2016
 

Hi All,

I have 18,500 miles that expire in 4+ months with no plans to fly EK anytime soon. I mostly fly UA/*A so don't think there's any opportunity to transfer miles to another program.

Any suggestions? I took a look at high street and didn't see anything too appealing. I was thinking maybe redeeming for a flight on Alaska Airlines, but it's really hard to search for awards tickets on EK's website. Any I live in Kansas City, so would need to awards reservation to originate at MCI and not sure that is possible, although I am flexible with availability on just about every weekend between now and end of May.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

You could make a redemption on B6, alternatively, make a donation of miles to one of the four organisations EK partner with.

How would I go about doing that? According to this: http://www.emirates.com/us/english/s.../jet-blue.aspx

Kansas City (MCI) is not on the rewards table.. Should I be looking somewhere else to book a rewards ticket on B6?

Indeed - perhaps construct a getaway weekend itinerary with some combination of UA and B6. You don't have to fly before the expiry of the miles, only ticket an award before the expiry date - however if you then cancel the award after the initial expiry date, the miles are lost.

To ticket B6 awards using EK miles you need to call EK.

Or you could transfer them to another Skywards Account who is soon to be flying - **hint hint ;) **

transfer 18k miles is 450$ ...

:eek::eek::eek:

$450 US

typo haha, still enough imo

Turns out I'll be in Europe in early/mid May, so I may do some hopping around and should be able to burn the miles on Easy Jet. Although never flown them and not looking forward to it....

So for now, that's my plan. If that falls through for some reason, I'd be happy to transfer the miles to another Skywards member... I'll post back here if that turns out to be the case.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Why not? Easyjet are fine. Much prefer to be on a nice clean Easyjet A320 than a AA MD80 :)

If you're not able to use them before expiry than you could convert them to Heathrow Rewards. 6000 skywards=2000 heathrow rewards = ‎£20.
Better than nothing.

$450? That's insane. Just another way of making money.