We usually fly CO/NW, but we're about to fly SAS a total of ~8k miles. I'm tempted to credit the miles to UA. Since I don't fly them any more I've transfered my remaining UA miles to HH, and I'm working on building the last drip up to 5k miles via iDine.

I can transfer my miles to HH, but I doubt they'd let me transfer those of the wife/kids to my HH account.

So -- what do I do? The SAS program, Eurobonus, doesn't let kids under 18 join. Do any SAS partners allow mileage credit to minors, and not have a requirement to deposit mileage every year or two? I can't see my kids flying UA anytime soon. I was thinking of trying QF, but only because they're not UA.

Even if I could attach my credit cards to the kids' UA accounts via iDine, it's an *awful* lot of eating out to go from the ~8k miles we'll get from this trip to enough miles for a ticket.

Each of the kids has more than enough for a free CO ticket, and they regularly accumulate Nonepass miles...

Suggestions welcomed!

Have you considered SAS' partner, Qantas? It's part of the Oneworld Alliance and that will open up the redemption chances there if you are against the *A.

You can transfer your wife's miles to Hilton if you set up your Hilton account as a "mutual account". There are a number of threads on the Hilton board that explain this, e.g., this one.

I have been in the same situation as you, being CO Platinum, and flying occasionally on SAS. I decided on putting the miles in a SAS account rather than UA, since most of my flying was from London to Oslo and back and I got 1,200 miles each way, rather than the 700+ miles on UA.

One thing you should consider, and it sounds like you probably booked one of the Xmas trips, is that you can get a free trip for 12,000 miles on SK, versus the 25,000 miles on UA. Remember, flights in Scandinavia are expensive. Yes, I know that you want to move your miles to HH, but Eurobonus members do receive occasional deals, which in my opinion have been incredible, especially for Radisson Hotels (and I am a HH Gold). I wasn't aware that minors were ineligible for a Eurobonus account.

Isn't British Midland a partner?

You can credit the SK flight to any of the Star Alliance FF program. If you would like more choices you can pick, Icelandair(FI), Qantas(QF), South African(SA) and I even think you earn miles for Viring while flying SAS.

if you need to build up a ua account, you can apply for the first usa card -- 15k enrollment bonus. quite the deal.

Thanks, all! -- Yes, we did purchase one of the SAS Xmas specials. We couldn't resist!

I know about the HH mutual fund. We've not set that up and my wife doesn't have an HH account, at least not yet. I don't really *want* to move my miles to HH, but I want to find a way to actually put them somewhere I can actually *use* them. I'm not likely to accumulate any more UA miles.

As far as EuroBonus, I wouldn't mind leaving the miles there either but since they don't allow kids to accumulate points I might as well choose something else for them. Also, the kids can't get UA credit cards so that option isn't available for adding miles if we deposit them with UA.

Getting the miles to CO would be best, but that's not going to happen. Perhaps I'll find another program like the DL one where the miles never go away.

I've considered Qantas. How long do they let you keep miles in an account without adding anything?

I found the answer to my last question on the QF site. Like with many other programs, you need to credit something to the account every 36 months or your mileage goes away.

How do other folks keep such accounts alive for their kids? My kids usually fly with me on CO.