|
Back in the early 90's, I booked my free ticket for a charity.
Back in the early 90's, I was asked to book what would have been a very expensive domestic ticket to a small charity. (at my workplace, I was known as the person who got excellent airfares for my travels) The head of this very small charity (who didn't get paid--volunteered her time) needed to go to a conference. The ticket would have been approx $600 and I had a free ticket with an upcoming expiration date. (this was one promo where if one flew so many segments, one would get a free ticket). I decided to give the free ticket to this charity.
It was a win-win deal. Alot of people got helped because the $600 saved were used to help alot of people in the local area. ^ :) Bottom line: I always will do direct gifts of free airline tickets to charities. I like to know that my gift will go direct to the charity. :) |
Originally Posted by jab
My simpleton thought on this is that the airlines will use our donations to lower their book liability on outstanding miles.
As I understand it, some(if not all) airlines have on their books the liability of FF Miles outstanding. If this is true then us consumers and holders of those miles help lower that liability. So keeping track of the donated miles and passing those along to those needing the miles would be important, at least from a GAAP standpoint. Of course I could be wrong on everything above. :) I don't think an airline is ever telling families "Sorry, your kid can't go get his cancer treatment because our frequent-fliers didn't donate enough miles." I think the airline sets aside a pool of free seats every year and donates them to various charities. That's great. Then, totally independent of that activity, they have a website asking for people to voluntarily take their miles off the books in the name of charity. It's purely a goodwill gesture on the part of holders of orphaned miles. I don't believe my donation would enable extra kids to go get cancer treatments - that determination has long since been made whether I donate 0 or a million miles through those sites. That said, I concede that we are all speculating here, and of course the airlines aren't going to offer up any information to confirm or deny what we're saying. I like the site Randy posted - there, one can sift through specific donor requests and click a link to give help to that person or organization. Of course that's not a perfect system either - I'd want to research the receiving charity a bit on my own - but it is cool in that it sets up a direct connection to the charity without the airline itself involved. |
| All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:18 pm. |
This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2026 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.