I have over 30,000 miles scattered across 5 different programs (British Airways - 16k, Northwest - 9k, Delta - 6k, Alaska - 2k, USAir - <1k, and some Southwest credits). All these miles will be expiring over the course of 2008 and 2009. Besides building up the mileage balances on these programs, is there any way to consolidate these so I can get a free trip or even transfer them to another program (I have substantial balances on Continental, United, American, SPG, and Hilton)--I don't mind losing 20-30% of the miles in the fragmented programs if I can get them in one place where they will be useful. Any thoughts? A 2nd best option would be to use these for non-travel purchases (I know Delta and Northwest have magazine programs) but this is a less attractive option for me.

Welcome to FlyerTalk! We're happy that you've found us.

I know of no way to efficiently consolidate orphan miles. Many airlines have plans where you can donate them to charity, for example flights for children to get to hospitals for needed medical procedures. I'd do that before letting them expire unused.

prarul - Welcome to Flyertalk! As mentioned previously, getting miles out of an airline frequent flyer program is usually an impossible task.

Instead, why not try the complete opposite. Rather than getting miles out of the BA/Northwest/Delta programs or crediting extra miles through flying. Why not consider transferring enough points into these programs so that you can then book a free flight which will then take the total down to 0.

You mentioned that you have points in SPG. From the attached link, you will see that SPG normally transfers points to most airline programs at a 1:1 ratio. Indeed if you transfer 20,000 points they will give you an extra 5,000 mile bonus^

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/prefer...eem/index.html

Good luck with whatever you decide. IMHO the Alaska/US/Southwest Airways balances seem too little to mess about with, so you may want to gift them to a charity as suggested.

Thank you both for your responses. I love the idea of transferring miles into these programs and donating some of the smaller balances to charity.

That's a wonderful idea, to earn points and convert them to miles.

I'm afraid of having too many ff programs too. I'd like to stay elite on one. However, my next (work) flight will be Delta, so I will have another account (making it 3 now) and 2 hotel programs (Hilton and Priority Club).

It's getting harder to keep track.

Look into the latter quickly. Per threads elsewhere on FT, AA has apparently announced that starting a few days (April 8?) it will only allow you to use miles for non-flying if you have a balance of 25k or more (unless you have status). I don't know if they're the first or if they're reacting. But if other airlines follow suit, you may soon have zero use for small balances. Thus if some of your airlines have no such limit now, you may want to identify which ones you'll want to do the donations from and do them sooner rather than later.

I agree that Alaska & USAir are so small as to be good only for a magazine or charity.

If U haven't touched the DL & NW miles yet, hold on. In a year or so those 2 programs will probably be merged, giving U 15K in 1 place--if they don't expire first!

Good point, and by watching these forums the OP can find many ways to keep the miles alive by earning a few more now and then. Flyertalk helped me keep some stranded Delta miles alive, as well as grow them the few thousand needed for a domestic first-class trip.

I use my measly stash of US miles for an annual subscription to the Economist.