Pts & miles inheritance
 

If a person passes away, who gets the pts/miles? How can I designate certain ppl to receive them? Sorry, very dizzy to stay on comPuter right now and search.

Do you live in a community property state?

I live in NYC. Sorry, not sure what a community state is.

I would just mention it in the will including the frequent flyer number and password. Some airlines would open a deceased account to a family member although I'm not too sure of the rules on that.

Personally, I would avoid those "diseased" accounts; you could catch the same thing that killed your deceased relative.

AA info
 

There is a thread on this for American:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...lidated-6.html

AA is under no obligation to do so, but they seem to have been generally nice about transferring miles to an heir. There seems to be a nominal fee.

The same thread indicates some varied experience with other programs.

A community property state entitles your wife/husband to half of everything you own. As far as New York, it is not a community property state. You may be able to make a bequest in your Will regarding the miles, but laws vary from state to state. It would be best to check with your attorney.

j3brooklyn I would have to agree with your advice. :D

LOL, still trying to get used to typing on the iPad.

I remember those days, auto-"correct" can be quite frustrating! ;)

Some other threads on this topic:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-ff-miles.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...ter-death.html

There is another path espoused on these boards. Basically, it's:

"Here's the envelope with all my accounts, usernames, passwords and pins. Never let them know I'm gone!"

[It's possible to book someone other than the account holder using an account's miles/points.]

By the way, I officially transferred ~200K of my wife's UA miles to my son after she passed, and the only "hurdle" was to provide copies of death certificate and son's ID. And I think there was also an affidavit to sign. It might have included a hold harmless and acknowledgment that there would be no reversing the process. Something like that. But no will or trust was requested.

Remember the legal fine print in the T&C that says that the miles do not belong to you, they belong to the airline. You actually do not have a legal right to them.

I seem to recall seeing something on Air Canada saying that they will basically, in respect of your loss and bereavement, graciously permit transfer of miles to an heir for just a token fee of 2 cents per mile (barf barf!).

However, airlines do vary in their actual policies. Air Canada's policy is essentially confiscatory, since the miles aren't even worth 2 cents each. This is why, as another poster mentioned, some people have been known to leave their password and say "Don't tell anybody I'm dead until you burn all the miles."

There have been divorce cases where people have claimed miles as marital property to be divided. I don't really know how they have been decided. I'm pretty sure that an airline can just laugh and say "Oh, you have a court order telling us to transfer miles from Mr. Flyertalk to Mrs. Flyertalk. Go spit in the water, you can't make us do a damn thing, the miles don't belong to Mr. Flyertalk, they belong to us." (Most likely the court will say that if the miles are worth $5000, Mrs. Flyertalk gets an extra $2500 from some other asset.)

Probably the "use 'em before the airline finds out" is the best strategy.

Situation also varies from program to program. Some FF programs will not transfer miles on death, no matter what *you* say in your will.