Being somewhat new to all of this and also rather careful when it comes to booking "preferred caarriers". I need to know how to launder "orphan miles" I have 6700 with NW, 2000 w/united, & 3500 w/AW. Any help on this would be apreciated.

You probably ought to ask the question in the individual airline forum in order to get betteer answers. Not much if anything that you can do with those miles.

You might want to just donate them to the various programs that airlines have where you pool unused miles and they give those to some kid who is poor who needs to travel. Yes, they will get a tax write off -- of course, it doesn't matter right now since they are losing money -- but at least your miles went to do some good instead of just expiring.

You can use milepoint.com to convert your orphan miles to a cash equivalent which you then can use for purchases. As you may only use a certain percentage, the discounts are not great. I used some of my orphan miles to purchase a $100 Marriott certificate for $95. But, of course, this being Thanksgiving week, you may indeed want to donate your orphan miles.

i would suggest using something like IDINE which gives you 10 miles per dollar spent at tons of great rest. and bars everywhere to "bring up" those accts to some level like 5 or 10k. Some airlines often do money and miles specials using these rounded amounts and in other cases, you could transfer at least 5k to something like HHilton and then get free rooms eventually. Read in here the many posts having to do with all these things!

then, use just the carrier(s) that you have many miles on and let these go by the wayside. That's what I am doing.

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If speed is not your thing, distance may as well be. Enjoy and embrace it all!

This option is not available with Northwest and America West.

true, no HHilton on NWA or America West, and not on US AIR either.

BUT at least with NWA you can get tickets that sometimes require 10k plus money. I have seen many a deal where it's like $100+ to fly within a zone plus 10k miles. I think it said the person has over 6k so a few decent group dinners and you have 10k sitting there waiting.

America west: I dont know. Stopped using them after my 3rd bad experience. I wrote to CO hoping they would drop them as a partner and they did. I know it was not me, but I always like to think it was my letter that got them to do it!

You can also keep your accounts alive [active] every three years (or whatever the expiration period on the account might be under the terms and conditions) by transferring 1000 miles from points-earning cards such as the Starwood AmEx or Diners Club. Many find it a good idea to keep one's "orphan" accounts alive. You never know when they may come in handy.

Eventually, you could "top off" your account with such a card to redeem an award in a decade or so. (!)

See, e.g.
http://www.citibank.com/dinersus/mgm

If you decide to apply for a Diners Club and don't have anyone else in mind to give the free sponsor bonus points to (no cost to enrollee), my sponsor code is in my profile.




[Link edit.]

[This message has been edited by SPN Lifer (edited 11-25-2002).]

Hilton HHonors seems to be the best way to consolidate miles from infrequently flown airlines. As mentioned, you're out of luck with NW, HP, and US. But you can avoid this in the future by earning on transferrable partners.

I posted some thoughts in this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/007900.html

including this handy table:

Fly.....Earn
UA......UA, DL [DL likely to end on UA]
US......UA
DL......DL, UA
AA......AA (only domestic carrier that does 1:1 ratio -- all others do 1:2)
CO......CO [DL if partnership gets approved]
NW......CO [DL if partnership gets approved]
AS......CO, HA (AA, but again, only 1:1)
HA......HA
HP......HA
YX......YX
F9......YX

AS = Alaska
HA = Hawaiian
HP = America West
YX = Midwest
F9 = Frontier

I did post on one other board and was harshly chastized for doing it so thanks anyway. Someone named SPN Flyer I think. OH well so much for free speech

Originally posted by Feamom:
Sorry, Thief Of Hearts, or Feamom, or whatever your name is (FlyerTalk terms of service prohibit use of multiple monikers, too), I didn't mean to be "harsh" on the NW board:

But it is always a good idea to read and be familiar with the "rules." I've found freedom of speech is actually a highly valued attribute in FlyerTalk, if exercised in a manner that does not waste fellow participants' time or cross the boundaries of courtesy.

If that is harsh chastisement, you should stay out of the sun with skin that thin.

But getting back on topic, I also remembered that you can purchase many magazine subscriptions with miles, and I have done this on more than one occasion with orphans that are not transferable to HH. It seems particularly suited to very small amounts that won't realistically ever amount to anything.

Here's a few links I've collected:
https://nwa.mpmvp.com/magazine/
http://www.continental.com/onepass/oMagazines.asp
http://www.milepoint.com/mall/magazine.asp