Donating miles to soldiers
 

Relative newbie so hope this is the right forum-

Interesting article: http://start.earthlink.net/newsartic...s0200407270207

So, I know and have donated flight credit for the AirTran Military Leave Credit Donation- anyone know which other airlines have such a programs?

A great program -- here's the link
 

Northwest, Pan-Am, and Southwest.
This is a really great cause. For those who fly more than a little,
especially those who fly often for work and rack up frequent flyer miles
like crazy, yes, saving up miles for the all-inclusive trip to Tahiti for
you and a loved one IS a worthy cause, but I submit that this may very well
be even more worthy. A chance to donate your miles to a soldier who is
thousands of miles away from his family, who fights for and defends
freedom, who dodges and returns bullets facing forces of evil squarely in the eye, reigning down freedom and liberty upon oppressed people. These soldiers, who may have not been home for close to a year, who have never held their brand new babies, whose children and spouses miss terribly, whose mom and dads pray for incessantly, whose brothers and sisters proudly speak of . . . they can be benefitted by donating your miles to them. In the little time that they may be granted leave from overseas, some of them cannot afford to fly home because of the cost incurred. I think DOD will be paying, now, for their full trip home, but I am not sure if it is in the works yet, and as I understand it, it is a reimbursement program. So, if the soldiers don't have the money or miles in the first place, they can't fly home. Hostile fire zone pay or whatever it is called simply does not pay enough for all of this. If any of you have more than a few miles racked up in your account, it is a gesture worthy of consideration. Send a soldier home to be with his family.


http://www.heromiles.org/

The hero miles program goes one step farther ....

"In partnership with the Fisher House Foundation, Hero Miles tickets are now used to fly family members of wounded soldiers to U.S. military hospitals and be at the bedside of their loved ones."

Fisher Houses are also wonderful places. There are currently 32 Fisher houses located on the grounds of every major military medical center and several VA medical centers. Families of the wounded solciers can stay in these houses for as long as they need to in order to be near their loved ones.

Both of these programs - the Hero Miles and the Fisher Houses - deserve all the support we can give them.

You can donate UA miles by calling the MP desk and they'll match the 1st $5M. Here's the details.

http://www.united.com/press/detail/0...1434-1,00.html

You'll notice on heromiles.org that so many miles were donated that airlines stopped accepting donations. This is excellent! ^

lbeh.org is another organization that tries to bring soldiers home for the holidays.

Donating miles is nice, but will the servicemen and women have as much trouble as FT'ers in redeeming them? :D

Upgrade them!
 

You can also look around the ticketing counter and gate of your flight and then volunteer your upgrades for them if space is available. Or, many airlines allow you to swap your F for their Y seat. Here are a few threads on this topic:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=333622
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=337738
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=338992

Guess my post was censored/deleted--but my point being that this is most definitely a great program and I've donated a few miles already myself via NWA.

I've donated my miles but always ask myself how much have the airlines themselves "donated". With all the empty seats I see when I fly, it appears to be a big waste.

That's a good question.

Moderators - if this is inappropriate for Milesbuzz, delete if you'd like...I myself have never donated any miles to soldiers and probably never will - not to turn this into a huge political debate (as this is Milesbuzz & not OMNI - but I'll probably get flamed by someone for being unAmerican for saying this) - but my reasons are simple - I don't think that because someone is in the military, they should be receiving such things from the private sector.

I think the things that annoy me the most are the extra random perks - like some hotel chains extending the government rate to military families & children & parents - car dealerships offering an extra $1000 off for military personnel - and even heard on the radio recently an add for the Prince William (VA) County fair giving free admission to people with military ID's. What the hell is that all about? What about the people that go to work everyday and work in blue collar & white collar jobs that are supporting this economy? What about the single mother of 3 kids who really could use that extra $1000 off the price of the new car? What about the rest of the people out there who contribute to what makes up America? Just because they don't carry a gun & go off to another country to fight a war doesn't mean they're not patriotic. The risking their life factor? B.S.! What about the cop or the fireman or the teacher who works in the school with kids with guns?

Ridiculous. If the airlines support hero miles to fly people from point A to point B, then they should, in theory, allow me to combine my miles and my sister's miles to fly someone from point A to point B. I guess BA's the only airline that's got it down with the family account concept.

Just my 2 cents...flame on...