A dead-end program is a program that provides no way, at any exchange rate, of transferring miles/points out to another program.

The ability to transfer miles to another program greatly enhances the value of points and miles. It makes being a frequent flyer mile fanatic much more interesting and rewarding. The dead-end programs are ruining all the fun.

I've seen a lot of FTers asking lately how they can transfer their holdings out of these mile-traps. Maybe we could put a little FT style pressure on these dead-ends by publicizing their shortcomings.

Here's a start for a list of major dead-end programs:

US Airways
Northwest
British Airways (North America)
Southwest
Miles & More
KLM

Small Programs:

Midway
AirTran
Frontier
Qualiflyer

Are there others? Have a implicated any programs unfairly?

[edited 5/20 to remove America West]
[edited 5/21 to add small & non-US programs]


[This message has been edited by dhacker (edited 05-21-2002).]

America West miles can be exchanged through http://www.points.com (albeit the exchange rate is truly brutal - 10,000 America West miles yield 419 AA miles, or 418 DL miles, or 334 Alaska Airlines miles).

Ok, I agree that points.com counts as a way out, however lame. I'm removing America West from the list.

How about -

Midway
AirTran
Frontier

I think that the utility of transferring miles to another program is a little overrated, since you always lose a fairly big chunk in the conversion. I would not consider such a transfer out of a program unless the miles in the program were very little.

And even if you could not convert to a hotel program, you could use BA miles for hotel stays.

Indeed, because of the conversion loss I would go further and say that transferring out of a program is the last thing to do.

The best advice is to spend time upfront choosing your programs so you don't have to transfer out.

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I could not possibly agree more! I've never transferred and except possibly for the SPG 20K pt to 25K mi promo, probably never will!

Transfers that are worth doing are the exception rather than the rule. Transfers from airlines that participate in HHonors Exchange (except for AA, which has a lower exchange rate) to Hilton are a pretty good deal, but transferring from HHonors to airlines is not.

Another worthwhile one that has been available for the past several years is AA and UA to Diners Club and then to British Airways at basically a 1:1 rate (though there will now be a service fee on that).

Most other transfers are a waste and it's usually a better option to try and top an account up to an award level then lose a bunch of value moving points/miles between programs.

I agree with Beckles that transferring airline miles (other than AA) to Hilton is a good deal, particularly for people like me who usually can plan travel far in advance, thus typically getting a very good airfare. I typically transfer miles to Hilton since the value of the airline miles is diminished by the fact that I can usually fly cheap anyway and on the occasions when I did need a ticket on a short notice, the airlines usually had no reward seats left. I have ALWAYS been able to get a hotel room with Hilton. Thus, simply my Hilton points have a greater value to me than do my miles.

Not much of a leak, but you can use US Air miles for shopping discounts via milepoint.com.

I disagree with PG and Family Flyer. There have been and continue to be many great opportunities for transfers. Worthwhile transfers I've done (X=no longer available):

- 100,000 LatinPass >(X) 200,000 Marriott > 120,000 AA plus one free week at any Marriott. (1:1.2 plus free week)

- GoldPoints > AA, NW (was 4:1, now 8:1)

- DL, CO, LP, TWA miles > Hilton (1:2)

- UA > Hilton (during a 1:4 promo)

- Starwood > NW, AA (1:1.25)

- UA, DL(X), AA > Diners > BA (1:1)

- Diners > BA & AA & NW (1:1)

- Best Western > AA (I don't remember the exchange rate)

- Alaska & Midwest Express > Points.com > AA (for the 20/20 promo, terrible exchange rate, but done to qualify for 20k bonuses.)

That's 20 different transfer pairs that provided extra value for me.

[This message has been edited by dhacker (edited 05-21-2002).]

I was trying to concentrate on the larger programs because it may be too much to expect from a small program. I'll add these under "small programs".

* miles&more (LH, OS, NG, TY)
* Flying Dutchman (KLM)
* Qualiflyer (SWISS etc.)

Sorry for ignoring the non-US programs, but in typical American style, I don't know too much about them. You are soooooo discriminated against

That would be great! When was this, and any chance it will ever happen again?

[This message has been edited by johnndor (edited 05-21-2002).]