6,700 orphan miles
 

Last September I took an emergency last minute flight on EK FRA-DXB-SIN. As I wasn't thinking straight (booked 3 hours prior to boarding) I opened a Skywards account, without doing any research.

In hindsight I would have been much better crediting these miles to AS, as I will do with any future EK flights (after doing the research, I have decided the Skywards program doesn't suit my style of flying).

Anyway, I have found myself with 6,700 orphan miles to get rid of. So far, the only options I have found are:
1. Order something from the High Street. Not keen on this, as I don't really want to pay P&P to Germany on something I don't need, and probably wouldn't otherwise buy.
2. Transfer to Heathrow Rewards. I don't have a HR account, but I sometimes transit LHR - is it worth opening an account?
3. Somehow conjure up another 800 points for the cheapest Easyjet redemption (MAN-MUC perhaps?). Any ideas on how to pick up 800 easy points?

At the moment I am thinking Heathrow Rewards is the answer, unless anyone here has a better idea?

Thanks in advance.

You could donate 5000 of those miles to one of the charity partners leaving you with only 1700 miles remaining.

How does the donation work? I mean, what does the charity actually get? Are the miles used to fund volunteers' travel, or does the charity receive a cash equivalent?

I think it must be a bit of each. This page explicitly states miles are used to fly doctors and engineers on projects.

http://www.emiratesairlinefoundation...nefit_new.aspx

And this one mentions other ways they are used (needs log in).

https://www.emirates.com/account/eng...spx?login=true

2 stays at IHG hotels earn you 1000 miles or some rentals earn you flat 500 miles. Or buy them for 40 usd Hut that's bad value.

I'm unsure exactly, will try and find out - however, the Emirates Airline Foundation is part of the Emirates Group, so I assume they would be able to get STF travel rates anyway, so it may be a nominal credit to their cash balance. For the other external partners, I would assume it would be a donation to their mileage balance which could be used in the normal way.

Crediting the car rentals could be of interest. Thanks for that.

Thanks. I am willing to donate the miles if I can be sure that a good charity will get something worthwhile for them. However, if it's something derisory like $0.002/mile, then I'll go with Skywardhunter's car rental suggestion.

Does anyone have any current suggestions on what to do with expiring Emirates miles? I have 2,000 in my account.