Best program for a small amount of miles
 

Hi everyone,

My in-laws have flown out to see us and are not planning to collect FF miles for the trip. They have given me permission to stash them wherever I see fit and use them however I see fit, since they travel so seldom.

So my question is, what would you recommendation be for the best place to stash a small amount of miles (around 2,000) earned from flying on NW? The options I know that I have are depositing to NW, DL, CO, AS, and Midwest.

Out of these, it seems like CO & Midwest would be the easiest to get some use out of, as they are transferable in blocks of 5,000 (I would still have to get the account there). Are any of the others transferable on points.com? Do names have to match on points.com?

Or are there other programs (hotel, whatever) where you can accumulate points through flying?

If they are infrequent flyers, check the expiration times.

If they live where they can fly on AS metal, they may find that AS' 10,000 mile one way award coach flights are more within reach of occasional flying than other airlines' 25,000 mile round trip award coach flights.

Another possibility is to check to see if any of the airlines' miles are spendable on magazine subscriptions or other things that they or you might use.

Small mileage accounts
 

Be aware that even the CO & MW transfer options are no longer as easy as they once were. CO transfer through Amtrak now requires either that you are an elite traveler on Amtrak or at least $200 spend yearly on the Amtrak CC.
MW now has a $25 fee for any exchange of miles to points, ie Hilton program.
Still not horrible options, just require more investment- time & money

AS is a good choice for their one-way awards and for their partnerships with AA as well as CO/NW/DL.

I'd stay away from YX. They only partner with NW, and have restricted transfers of late.

If you/your in-laws could make use of Amtrak points, then there are no restrictions on transferring points *in* to AGR from CO in 5K mile blocks. You can do quite a bit with 5K AGR points. CO also has the advantage in that they currently do not actually expire accounts/miles (though the terms say they can after 18 months of no activity).

Points.com point transfers are of extremely limited use due to the incredibly lousy exchange rates provided.