Yes, we have donated miles.

Back when we used to have a 1k club here in Seattle, there would be times when the 1k club agents would call with very specific emergency cases where a people needed miles immediately to travel to a specialty hospital for treatment. In those circumstances we would donate miles.

I can remember one instance where a group of FlyerTalkers pitched in miles to fly a young girl and her parents to an east coast clinic for surgery, and then also donated a ticket for a nurse to fly back with the girl, post-surgery.

Donating under these types of circumstance is something I would happily do in the future. Just donating miles to an organization, without knowing how they will be used, makes me hesitate. Like Rudi, I would not feel good about flying charity administrative personnel around in first class.

Yes, I have, but it has really only been to clean out accounts that I would not use in the future.
Probably 20k or so total.

Yes, I once donated a thousand miles, but that was only to keep my NWA account active (I only fly once or twice a year). I may donate again in the future if it looks like my miles may expire so that someone can benefit from them.

Same here. Most of my travel is on two of the three world alliances, my miles over on that third account get in danger of expiring sometimes. All you need to keep it alive is "an activity" and donating a minimum of 1000 miles to the Red Cross or Make A Wish is "an activity."

Besides you get a warm fuzzy feeling inside as good or better than that warm fuzzy feeling you get inside after two $5 beers in Y. And it's $10 cheaper.

I would not donate to charity as I suspect that the value that the charity gets from these miles is far less from their market value. Therefore I would prefer to 'sell' the miles (I know that airlines don't like that but I don't think it's a federal law :) ) and donate the money to charity. If you mean donating by just giving it to someone for a good cause - I would definitely support that.

No.

N/A

Currently? No.

Possibly. For me there is a similarity to cash. I didn't donate cash when I was a college student. As a successful wage earner I do.

Right now I have to "work" hard to earn the bare minimum of miles I need for vacation upgrades. If my business travel were to increase and hence my mileage balance, I would most likely donate the excess. Say, anything over 200,000 miles/year.

Since I use miles exclusively for upgrades, I value each mile more than if I were redeeming them for coach tickets.

Since I hope charities are not using the miles they receive for C/F upgrades, it is better for us both if I give them cash rather than miles.

Yes, many times

Probably well over 100,000

not applicable

Yes



Virtually all my orphan miles are donated. Airline miles I get for grocery shopping that I never plan on using, miles I get because of random hotel stays, etc.

yes
30000 miles - request from AA for families of our servicemen
Yes i will donate in the future

for those who donated I have a Q:
What kind of tax deduction did you claim on your 1040?

1. Yes

2. Small amounts from four airline FF accounts last June when they were running a matching promotion for Fisher House for returning servicemen and their families.

3. N/A

4. Definately

bj-21.

Never claimed it as a deduction, to me it wasn't worth the hassles of being able to prove whatever number I had put down.

I WOULD donate miles if it were possible to donate odd amounts. However, programmes don't make this possible.

I have 1,200 Priority Club points in an unused PC account, for example. I'd donate those, but PC only accepts multiples of 10,000. Fat lot of use. I have similar small amounts in airline schemes that will expire eventually but which I would transfer, except that they are always below the threshold.

If an airline REALLY cared about charity transfers, they'd let you donate any amount. As it is, I am dubious about the motives - especially when you're not told how much money is going to the charity in return for your miles!

Once, 25,000 AA miles so the son of a woman who had just had emergency aneurysm surgery could visit her from across the country. Would donate in the future for a specific situation like that, but probably not generically to a charity I don't know well. Didn't take a tax deduction; wouldn't, AFAIK, be deductible.

Yeah, donating miles to a "generic" charity doesn't sound like a very good idea. FF programs are "complicated," with tons of restrictions, and it would seem very hard for a charity to make good use of them. My guess is that almost any flyertalk member would be able to use those miles for far more value. Both the frequent flyer and the charity would be better off if the frequent flyer donated cash (especially when you consider the charitable tax deduction for cash).

I also have a suspicion -- never investigated -- that the relationship between airlines and charities receiving ff miles could be a bit of a "scam." Do the charities really redeem the miles like ordinary members would, or do the airlines make a charitable contribution from "the money" collected by donated ff miles? It would seem that most charities would have limited use for actual ff miles, given the crazy restrictions attached to them. It would seem far more logical for the airlines to simply donate seats to worthy causes.

If you've held the miles for over a year, you can deduct their fair market value, even if you got the miles from business travel at no expense to you.