Hi Folks,

I have miles with various airlines, but not enough to earn a ticket anywhere.
Delta--30K miles
AA--30K miles
UAL --15K miles

I was wondering if there is anyway to consolidate all these miles, say through a third party(e.g. credit card) or something? It doesn't have to be airlines miles, but can be some other points system.

Thanks.

you have enough for domestic rewards on delta and AA
and short haul domestic awards on ual and aa

there is no easy way to transfer miles/consolidate them on a 1 to 1 basis by yourself

your best option is to continue to add to the programs until you get to your desired point level - one easy way is to get a credit card offering 15k to 25k bonus points

you can slowly add to your totals via dining rewards and merchandise purchases via airline shopping portals

there is a website named points.com which will allow you to transfer points, but they will lose almost 90% of their value in the process

I echo post #2. Consolidating miles is very difficult; you will lose some--maybe half--if you try. I think your best bet is to pick one airline and stick with it.

As noted, I see at least 4 free tickets within what you already have in accounts. If you were to seriously consolidate them into any other mileage program, you'll end up with not enough miles total for a single free ticket.

one free ticket with Delta; two free tickets on AA with short-haul awards and one free ticket on UA with a short haul award.

Actually you might have two free tickets on AA without using short-haul awards. If you look at the DealWatch section on WebFlyer.com, there is a Miles Deals section and sometimes you'll often find special mileage awards on AA for as little as 7,500 miles and even 12,500 miles.

http://www.webflyer.com/deals/dealwatch/

The good news is that you really do have more than you thought you had - makes for a great day huh!

P.S. the bummer is that in the past you would have been only 5,000 miles away on a free ticket to Hawaii with your Delta miles. Ah, the good old days.

I'm hesitant to question the guru himself, but isn't the OP *still* just 5,000 miles away on each of AA and DL for an award ticket to Hawaii (both airlines charge 35K miles for a Y award from the US to Hawaii)? I'm guessing I've misunderstood what you're saying...

Just to underscore what everyone said. You don't want to consolidate, just plan and participate to get to the award levels that correspond to where you want to travel.

I'd recommend reviewing Delta American, and United award charts.

Then determine where you want to travel and which airline awards might be appropriate.

Then visit the airline-specific forums and browse for tips, offers, etc. and post specific questions.

Right off the bat, without doing any additional earning, you could travel anywhere in the US (excl. HI), Canada, Mexico, Carribean on Delta and American (the US-49/Canada awards would leave you with 5K miles leftover) and could travel, as mentioned before, a reduced mileage award on United

Like Randy said, you've got some free tickets from all three FFP in your current miles bank already.

First, you can try Mileage Converter which suggests you different ways/routings to convert your miles between different FF programs. You will see how significantly you will lose your earned miles by consolidating. You may then decide which direction to take, either earning enough miles from your targeted FF programs for your desired travel plans, or you may go for miles consolidation.

BTW, you cannot consolidate Skymiles into any other FF miles, in case you haven't noticed yet.

You may also want to use the Search Function in one of the top tab in each forum. The inquiries of miles consolidation has been brought up a lot and you will be able to see what suggestions had been given and the decision making process for the OPs.

Welcome to FT, where you learn from asking and searching. ^

Thanks folks!