Miles after death

Can miles be transferred to ones' widow ? Advantage, Mileage Plus and One Pass. thanks

jdennyret - Welcome to Flyertalk.

I think that you would probably find the answer in the particular airline's forum. For example for Aadvantage, I would go to the American Airlines forum and perform a search (the function is in the upper right portion of the main page of the forum) using the word "deceased", you should find the answer in an "older" thread that the search finds. Different airlines have different rules. For example, NW doesn't allow transfer upon death of their miles, but this doesn't mean those miles are "lost" upon death if you know the deceased account number and password - just book an award for the living using that information. Unfortunately, miles that are insufficient for an award will be "lost".

Welcome to Flyertalk, jdennyret!

I hope your visit and first post isn't due to some close to you's death.

If you use the search function, you can likely find the answers you're looking for using keywords such as 'transfer miles death'. Anything else you cannot find via search is probably best asked & answered over in the MilesBuzz! forum
or in each airlines forum as Peteropny suggests.

Aloha!

jdennyret

Welcome to Flyertalk! I'm not sure of the particulars of the programmes you are asking about, and since you are asking about more than one programme, I think you'll get a better response to your question in the Milesbuzz forum, so I'll go ahead and move this thread over there for you

Jenbel
Co-moderator, Communitybuzz!

AA covers this on their web site:

Except as otherwise explained below, mileage credit is not transferable and may not be combined among AAdvantage members, their estates, successors and assigns. Accrued mileage credit and award tickets do not constitute property of the member. Neither accrued mileage, nor award tickets are transferable by the member (i) upon death, (ii) as part of a domestic relations matter, or (iii) otherwise by operation of law. However, American Airlines, in its sole discretion, may credit accrued mileage to persons specifically identified in court approved divorce decrees and wills upon receipt of documentation satisfactory to American Airlines and upon payment of any applicable fees. Mileage credit is transferable between AAdvantage accounts when offered by AA online, with the shareAAmilesSM program. The member must adhere to the rules and limitations of the shareAAmiles program.
http://www.aa.com/content/AAdvantage...nditions.jhtml

For information about how airlines treat mileage for surviving spouses see this article: http://www.smartertravel.com/travel-....html?id=15325

nice article, thanks.

Here's a more recent article on the subject by InsideFlyer, who started FlyerTalk:

http://www.insideflyer.com/articles/...e.php?key=1641

thanks Randy, very interesting article.

Our experience was this:

When my ex-wife died a year ago, once things had somewhat settled, I contacted Mileage Plus on my son's behalf (we were both on the line). I'm a 1K, he (was) a 17-yr-old general member. Don't know if these things mattered. They asked that documentation be faxed, which we did. My son received a letter with what appeared to be boilerplate disclaimer saying, in essence, "We don't have to do this; it's not our policy to do this..."

"...however, we have transferred the (~)185,000 miles in your mother's account to yours, and please accept our sincere condolences on the loss of your mother."

...to which we replied with a thank you card to the person who signed the letter. I believe it was a Ms. Rose or Ms. Ross.

On a side note....
I never worry about getting my love ones' miles upon their deaths (I'll learn when I need to, with all of your help). But I'm worried about them getting my miles if I die first. You know, people who don't know about miles or Flyertalk. I think we need to write a guide and leave for our spouse.

Yes, miles still matter when I die. I esp hope they can get bonus miles for coming to my funeral.

I simply have my logins/passwords to all my accounts in my safety deposit box so that there will be no need for a transfer fee.

My father had some miles in DL,AA, & CO. It was a very simple procedure, only AA charged us $50 both CO and DL moved them w/o any fees. But then AA did cancel out a couple of mileage awards for a couple of upcoming flights and waviered the $100 fee per tkt, so $50 is alot better then $250.

Each carrier has its own set of rules, only AA did we have to fax in a Cert of Death. CO was easy as I was willing to give them all the info of the flight# where he was in the Cargo Hold, they said that wouldnt be necessary and simply moved the few thousand miles into my acct. The miles from AA & DL went into my Moms as they were significantly more and she flys on them.

This being FT, I thought the question referred to whether the OP would get miles after death - I was thinking of the return trip in a coffin

This is excellent advice! Also place a gun in the safety deposit box, loaded, of course. This came in handy in one episode of Mannix. The man was forced to open the box. He reached in and got the gun. This advice, however, isn't as good as the top one about passwords and account numbers.