In the pre-bin Laden days (late 90's until 2001), it was the heyday for miles for me. Gold elite status on multiple airlines, 6 figure mileage balance on many airlines, etc.

Now my travel is limited to about 5 or 6 times per year. I am cattle level elite on every airline. I am even starting to be concerned that I won't have enough activity and have my accounts closed (3 years for most airlines, 18 months for CO - unless CO doesn't follow their rules which is a possibility) as I have flown on UA or YX since 2001 and not on NW since 2002.

Has anyone used all their miles then deposited future miles to another airline. For example, I am considering draining my CO account and putting future CO credit in Delta. If so, I would forfeit the 1,000 mi. bonus for online bookings since CO gives the bonus only to flights credited to your CO One Pass account.

Has anyone else drained and then closed (technically left open but inactive) their ff accounts? Or do you keep them open then watch to make sure they don't close for inactivity.

Any activity should keep them open for another 3 years

so try a small flight

or even redeem something small, like a days car hire or somethign from each program

If you are not flying as much as before, it is certainly wise to concentrate your miles on fewer airlines. Note that you can transfer your Continental miles into United's program 1:1 via Amtrak, 5000 mile increments, 25,000 miles per year max. You can't transfer miles out of United, however. You can also transfer miles between Continental and Midwest (either direction) via the same method with the same restrictions.

Actually, you can if you have a Diners Club card. This represents a 50% devaluation in most cases, although Diners Club runs frequent bonus promotions that can make up some of the loss.

American miles can be transferred into Diners Club points as well.

Remember, any activity will extend the expiration..

Check the airlines website for their partners. Send someone flowers, rent a car, buy something from skymall, a night in a hotel, just about anything.

As I had mentioned in a post last year that is quite ironic, even though CO (and others) are very quick to say we will close your account with 3 years inactivity, when I requested that my CO account be closed and my personal information purged from their database the answer given was that we will no longer contact you about your account but we do not have the ability to erase you from our database.

BTW: I still receive monthly e-statements and promo offers from CO.

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How does one do this? I opened an Amtrak acct and can't find a way to transfer miles INTO Amtrak...

If you are concerned about United miles, don't be. Their miles don't seem to expire. I've had the same 5,000 in my account for about 4 years now without touching the account. Since then I just took a flight and that flights mileage was added to the balance.

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You call the airline's frequent flyer program desk to transfer miles into Amtrak. Then transfer out of Amtrak on its web site at https://www.amtrakguestrewards.com/

It depends on the airline. Midwest, for example, only counts flights. I made an FTD purchase in December, and they did not extend my expiration date. Then again, the only reason I made the purchase was to hit 5,000 to transfer to United through Amtrak anyway...

See, for example, Does CO->Amtrak->UA really work?

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The answer is whether one wants to keep track of soon-to-be expired miles or whether to stop accumulating miles after reaching the desired award level.

Regarding the different topic of Amtrak miles transfers, it's a way for the infrequent to somewhat frequent flyer to get credit for non-partner airlines. For example, Denver residents might be interested in flying Frontier and having those miles deposited to United or Chicago residents can have American miles deposited to United.

Here's how: Frontier (or American or Midwest) flight -> Midwest Airlines program -> transfer blocks of 5,000 miles (up to 25k per year) to Amtrak -> United or Continental.

Similarly, one can fly Continental, Alaska, Northwest, Delta, KLM, and others and deposit miles in Continental One Pass -> Amtrak -> United or Midwest.

Many of us FTers know that United miles can no longer be transferred to Amtrak but Amtrak points can be transferred to United.

So United has a lot of secret partners, including American, Delta, Northwest, Continental, Midwest, Frontier, Alaska, EVA, Qantas, Virgin Atlantic, Star Alliance such as Lufthansa, etc.