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-   -   Is there a way to get miles into one program (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz/871993-there-way-get-miles-into-one-program.html)

Ano Oct 1, 2008 10:20 pm

Is there a way to get miles into one program
 
I have 16,000-20,000 miles in each of Delta's Skymiles, NWA's WorldPerks, and United's Mileage Plus programs. Is there anyway to get them combined into one program? Hopefully Northwest WorldPerks?

*wood Oct 1, 2008 11:01 pm

Often it is not pretty (poor conversion rates)

http://www.webflyer.com/programs/mileage_converter/

KathyWdrf Oct 2, 2008 1:03 am


Originally Posted by Ano (Post 10457665)
I have 16,000-20,000 miles in each of Delta's Skymiles, NWA's WorldPerks, and United's Mileage Plus programs. Is there anyway to get them combined into one program? Hopefully Northwest WorldPerks?

The simple answer for your particular situation is NO. You're not going to be able to combine all three of those sets of miles and magically get ~50-60 thousand miles total.

(By the way, is your handle Spanish? ;) )

Brobbel Oct 2, 2008 4:52 am


Originally Posted by Ano (Post 10457665)
I have 16,000-20,000 miles in each of Delta's Skymiles, NWA's WorldPerks, and United's Mileage Plus programs. Is there anyway to get them combined into one program? Hopefully Northwest WorldPerks?

For Delta and NW: wait a while, because they will merge anyway.

arcticgrin Oct 2, 2008 5:15 am

Your WorldPerks and Skymiles will combine when Delta and Northwest merge in the near future.

Ano Oct 2, 2008 1:47 pm

Another Question or two - Miles expiration
 

Originally Posted by KathyWdrf (Post 10458127)
(By the way, is your handle Spanish? ;) )

No, it is Tagalog/Pilipino

Second question, what is the best/least expensive way to keep your miles from expiring?

Also, when Delta and NWA merge, will the miles automatically merge, or will some type of action be required by me?

MarkXS Oct 2, 2008 2:14 pm

Probably you'll have to give the New Delta your DL and NW numbers for them to combine. That's how the US Airways/America West FF program mergers worked.

They are keeping NW's excellent IT systems for the loyalty program from what I have read, and they would probably be able to figure out what accounts belong together by name and address matching in many cases. However I think that for security/privacy reasons it is going to be an opt-in where you have to provide them the numbers. If you don't, you'll end up with two separate Delta accounts.

No meaningful way to get your miles out of UA. It makes more sense to find some way to get a few thousand more miles into UA to get up to a reward level. If you're already at 15K, that's enough to upgrade a UA North American domestic flight, or a full-fare international flight. 20K is enough for an intra-Europe or I think an intra-Asia award. 25K gets you a domestic US/Canada award or some other regional equivalents.

edit: Welcome to FlyerTalk!

KathyWdrf Oct 3, 2008 1:21 am


Originally Posted by Ano (Post 10461125)
No, it is Tagalog/Pilipino

....But a lot of Spanish words were incorporated, I believe....


Second question, what is the best/least expensive way to keep your miles from expiring?
For United, you can reset the expiration clock to 18 months hence by either earning or redeeming miles. There are hundreds of ways to do this. Which one is "best/least expensive" probably depends on your particular situation.

So, 1) take a look at the United web pages where it shows you all the ways you can earn and redeem miles:

Earn:

http://www.united.com/page/article/1...itle=earnmiles

Redeem:

http://www.united.com/page/article/0...le=redeemmiles

Just one example: if you shop at Safeway/Pavilions/Dominicks/Vons/etc. (i.e., in the same grocery chain), you can register your club card to give you 125 UA miles every time you hit $250 worth of purchases (some types of items excluded). That's a handy way to ensure your miles don't expire even without flying.

If your miles are about to expire, you can donate 1,000 of them to one of the charities on the United website (see "Redeem" link above; look for "Charity Miles") to reset the expiration clock.

And 2) also check the FAQ sticky on the United forum.


Also, when Delta and NWA merge, will the miles automatically merge, or will some type of action be required by me?
Probably best to look on 1) the respective airlines' websites, and/or 2) the FlyerTalk forums for those airlines. The answer is probably already posted!

JudyS Oct 3, 2008 1:26 am

Once a person has enough posts for to access the Coupon Connection forum, would there be a way to combine miles by trading with another FTer? Northwest lets you transfer miles for a fairly low fee; could you transfer NW miles into someone's account, and have them transfer Delta or United mile sinto one of your accounts?

volkswankin Oct 4, 2008 6:22 am


Originally Posted by Ano (Post 10461125)
No, it is Tagalog/Pilipino

Second question, what is the best/least expensive way to keep your miles from expiring?

Also, when Delta and NWA merge, will the miles automatically merge, or will some type of action be required by me?

The cheapest way to keep miles from expiring is to sign up for the carriers shopping portal and then buy a song for 99 cents on iTunes.

sawidol Oct 4, 2008 11:32 am


Originally Posted by Ano (Post 10457665)
I have 16,000-20,000 miles in each of Delta's Skymiles, NWA's WorldPerks, and United's Mileage Plus programs. Is there anyway to get them combined into one program? Hopefully Northwest WorldPerks?

Ano,

Have you considered looking at the exchange rate through points.com given they have the option of converting your miles from one frequent flyer program into another depending on the airlines but you need to be very careful as to sometimes the conversion rate is not so good and you might end up loosing some miles in the interim.;)

lin821 Oct 4, 2008 5:39 pm


Originally Posted by JudyS (Post 10464394)
Northwest lets you transfer miles for a fairly low fee; could you transfer NW miles into someone's account, and have them transfer Delta or United mile sinto one of your accounts?

It's not cost-effective at all. For seasoned FTers, we rather have miles earned/redeemed for free.

In terms of Worldperks miles, it will cost $150 to transfer 10K miles to another account. Simply too costly in my book. ;)

NWA Transfer Miles:

Transaction Terms:

Processing fee per transaction: $25.00
One to four WorldPerks recipients may be included in a single transaction

Miles to Transfer: -- Select One -- 5,000 miles ($75.00) 6,000 miles ($85.00) 7,000 miles ($95.00) 8,000 miles ($105.00) 9,000 miles ($115.00) 10,000 miles ($125.00) 11,000 miles ($135.00) 12,000 miles ($145.00) 13,000 miles ($155.00) 14,000 miles ($165.00) 15,000 miles ($175.00) 16,000 miles ($185.00) 17,000 miles ($195.00) 18,000 miles ($205.00) 19,000 miles ($215.00) 20,000 miles ($225.00) 21,000 miles ($235.00) 22,000 miles ($245.00) 23,000 miles ($255.00) 24,000 miles ($265.00) 25,000 miles ($275.00) 26,000 miles ($285.00) 27,000 miles ($295.00) 28,000 miles ($305.00) 29,000 miles ($315.00) 30,000 miles ($325.00)

Originally Posted by sawidol (Post 10469977)
Have you considered looking at the exchange rate through points.com given they have the option of converting your miles from one frequent flyer program into another depending on the airlines but you need to be very careful as to sometimes the conversion rate is not so good and you might end up loosing some miles in the interim.;)

It's a common knowledge among savvy FTers: Don't use Points.com to convert among your FFPs. It cuts you deep, very deep. If you don't mind the cut, go ahead, of course!

On top of that, some FFPs simply cannot be converted or transfered out, such as Delta & UA.

If I were OP, I would just work my way and try to build my account balance up to the next level of award ticket. I think you only need 20K to get an intra-Asia award ticket. @:-)

JudyS Oct 4, 2008 8:07 pm


Originally Posted by lin821 (Post 10471207)
It's not cost-effective at all. For seasoned FTers, we rather have miles earned/redeemed for free.

In terms of Worldperks miles, it will cost $150 to transfer 10K miles to another account. Simply too costly in my book. ;)

NWA Transfer Miles:

....

Yikes! I wouldn't spend $150 to buy 10K Worldperks miles, let alone to transfer them.

I saw the $25 transfer fee listed on Northwest's site, but I didn't realize that they also hit you with a second, larger fee based on the number of points that you want to transfer. (It looks like they don't tell you about that second fee until you select a points value to transfer from their drop-down menu.)

Is there a "Miles Transfer FAQ" somewhere that gives information about the fees airlines (and other companies) charge for transferring miles/points? Some of the airlines don't exactly make it easy to tell what the cost is. (Besides Worldperks, I'm mostly interested in whether there are fees for transferring Starpoints and AMEX Membership Reward Points.)

lin821 Oct 4, 2008 11:28 pm


Originally Posted by JudyS (Post 10471635)
I saw the $25 transfer fee listed on Northwest's site, but I didn't realize that they also hit you with a second, larger fee based on the number of points that you want to transfer.

Just FYI. There's (hardly) any free lunch.

Every FFP that I collect miles in charge you for miles transfers based on their sliding scales. The fees usually are equal (if not more) to buying miles. Sometimes the $25 (or something) transfer fee is waived with limited time promo. You still have to pay for miles transferred. In my budget-conscious book, I simply don't buy miles from airlines.

Horizons Oct 7, 2008 2:54 pm

Strategy of splitting miles between programs
 
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