Transferring Worldperks miles - advice needed
 

I have 24,000 miles in my Worldperks account. I plan to close it out and join the Skymiles program. My wife also has a Worldperks account, and we can't link both accounts to Skymiles (We use the same credit card account - hers).

So, I'm thinking about transferring the 24,000 miles into my wife's account, get double miles for doing so, but at a cost of .01/mile + $25 fee = $245.

Then I will link my wife's account to Skymiles and transfer all of our combined miles (plus the Worldperks bonus).

Is it worth doing this for $245?

I have been a lurker for some time now, and must confess that I am a complete novice. Based on your description, I assume the following:
- neither you nor your wife are frequent travellers
- you want to maixmise any adantage possible on future travel

If these assumptions are correct, I would suggest the following:
- transfer these miles inot one account so that you may double them.
- create Delta skymiles accounts if they do not already exist (for a total of 48,000) miles.
- Transfer from account to its corresponding account from NW to DL
- In DL, transfer from one spouse's account to the other's

This way, you will have 96,000 miles in one account -- good for several tickets domestic, or a couple of tickets to Europe, or well on the way for a ticket to Asia.

If you are truly infrequent travellers, you are not interested in status, and are interested in maximising milegae for a future free ticket. If that is true, the cost of $0.01 per mile is cheaper than actually flying.

yrs --

Your assumptions are correct, and what you are suggesting is what I've been thinking is the best way to go. I wanted an "objective" opinion on this, so thanks for giving me one!

The only thing I have a problem with is that after I transfer my WP miles into my wife's account, then we will transfer all those miles into one Delta account (we won't have separate ones), so there would be no need to transfer from one spouse's DL account into the other's.

I should add that my wife's current WP account has 104,000 miles, so we should have a whopping milleage bank with DL when we get done!

for $245 yes i think it's worth it because once you're done you have ~150K miles in your account. That's nearly enough for at least 2 tix somewhere in the world you have wanted to go in coach or at least one business class ticket to practically anywhere.

Be sure you transfer from your account to hers - there is a limit on the number of miles you can transfer with this promotion and you want to transfer from the account with the fewest miles.

You can book award travel from her account for anyone, not just for her.

LIMITS

NW
Transfer out 60; in 30 max
DL
Tr out 150 max; tr in 300k!

The problem is using the miles. I did a similar promo last year and
was unable to use miles until now for something I felt was worthwhile

I've transferred my 24,000 to my wife's account, which had 106,000. With the 100% bonus miles for making this transfer, that means her account (which is really mine as well), now has 154,000 miles!

When we transfer form Worldperks to Skymiles, we will gain more bonus miles (40,000), so this looks like a good deal to us.

.... unless, of course, it's a bad deal to go with Skymiles in the future. I can't figure out any good alternatives (we've always flown NW a lot).

Now that you have 154k miles, you can transfer them back to NW to book whatever you want (via linking).

Why do you get a bonus from NW to DL?

Northwest miles do not expire, DL does. Factor that into your planning for when to transfer. I am not sure if miles transferred to DL count towards bumping the account expiration date at DL.

I guess what I said is not really correct. I get the bonus by signing up for Amex Delta Skymiles.

See this:
http://www.delta.com/skymiles/about_...ules/index.jsp

If you use an Amex Skymiles card or do any number of other things, the way I read this, the miles do not expire.

This was a policy change effective Jan 1, 2009.

Since the title of this thread might attract people who know the answer to my question, I'm going to hijack it a little...

My WorldPerks account, very old, has my f/m initials and last name, rather than first and last. The online transfer path to my SkyMiles account (with my first and last) doesn't work. What can I do? It's 13,000 miles. Should I gird myself before calling, or is it likely to be relatively easy? (13K, @13 comment here... maybe I'll be lucky. Maybe not.)

Thank you, and thank you and apologies to PeteD.

When I went to link my accounts between Worldperks and Skymiles, I talked with an agent, who said the two accounts had to match exactly. Fortunately, mine did. I would call and see if there's anything they can do,but since all this is computerized, I'm pessimistic.

BTW, once you link the accounts, you can transfer back and forth as you please; you don't need to do it right away.

Thanks, PeteD. Yes, I missed the 500 mi. transfer bonus for the above reason, so there isn't any hurry now. There are other uses for the miles. Sorry again. Now back to regularly scheduled programming. :)

Be very careful in transfering NW WP miles to Delta Skymiles. I had some old WorldPerks miles (about 5K)and got an email about the 500 mile bonus for transferring, so I moved them into my Delta account on 4/4/09, to total about 15K in my Delta account. On 5/1, they DISAPPEARED, leaving with a 0 balance with Delta -- email statement says they "expired" (INCLUDING the 4/4/09 bonus of 500 miles)! Sheesh!

That doesn't seem right at all. I'd take it up the chain, and try to get it corrected. In the future, and with the merged programs later this year, I think there will be much yelling about issues such as this. I'm sure that the DL "expire-o-rama" of miles will be brought into play with formerly valid NW miles. Yet another reason to burn NW miles as quickly as possible.

Wow I never thought about this - so valid miles in one program became expired miles under the rules of the other program.

Good luck getting the miles back - hope you do.

Well, I was worried about this, so I called Skymiles customer service and here's the deal: Skymiles expire after two years, unless you have activity on your AMEX Skymiles credit card -- like making a purchase.

So, if you had old Worldperks miles (like 2 years or more), after you transferred them, if you didn't have any activity on the card between 4/4 and 5/1, then they would expire.

You're right, this could be a problem, so my suggestion is to transfer your miles by telephone and ask the agent what's going to happen to those old miles, just to be sure. Maybe charge something just before you make the transfer to be sure.

Use your card before transferring miles!

What a mess this merger is causing for us customers!

Lurkers, please take note
 

This is big, and SkyMiles needs to fix it -- before it becomes too big to fix easily.

Or give explicit disclosure.

(Why doesn't transferring miles count as activity?)

Lurkers: Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Certainly it would make sense that the date of transfer to Delta would be a 'new activity'...!... I'm also surprised that purchasing from their shopping portal doesn't necessarily count as a qualifying activity for miles activity either. Glad that I haven't made the transfer from NW yet.

Sharon, when I talked to the agent, he reeled off a long list of "qualifying activities", only one of which was putting a charge on your card. I didn't write them all down -- so check with them to see what counts. I do know he said buying miles or buying a Delta ticket would count -- but there are others.

Here is what else I have found. According to the Terms & Conditions of Delta's linking Worldperks and Skymiles accounts:

"·The transfer of miles earned through the WorldPerks or SkyMiles program to or from a SkyMiles account will not reset or extend the date on which your miles expire in your SkyMiles account.

·The transfer of miles earned through the WorldPerks or SkyMiles program to or from a WorldPerks account will reset and extend the date on which your WorldPerks miles expire in your WorldPerks account."

link: http://www.delta.com/skymiles/manage...unts/index.jsp

Lurkers, are you watching?
 

Well, this is a fine mess you've gotten us into, Ollie.

The moral is that we should transfer all our SkyMiles to WorldPerks.

Indeed. Miles transferred from NW to DL are "bonus miles" in DL's eyes:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/11194893-post135.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/11275568-post268.html

WorldPerks to Skymiles and then Points are GONE!
 

Originally Posted by BarbiJKM
Be very careful in transfering NW WP miles to Delta Skymiles. I had some old WorldPerks miles (about 5K)and got an email about the 500 mile bonus for transferring, so I moved them into my Delta account on 4/4/09, to total about 15K in my Delta account. On 5/1, they DISAPPEARED, leaving with a 0 balance with Delta -- email statement says they "expired" (INCLUDING the 4/4/09 bonus of 500 miles)! Sheesh!

I have gone back and looked at my old Skymiles statements, which indicate that my Delta miles were not due to expire until 12/31/09. Somehow the transfer of my old NW WorldPerks miles changed this date, pushing it up, on my most recent account activity, to 4/30/09! So, as of May 1, I lost not only my older, unexpired NW miles, but also my Delta miles as well! And, to add insult to injury, I didn't receive the 500 mile "bonus" for transferring before 5/31/09!

What a rip-off! I have filed two complaints with Delta already, but of course no response...

Your expiration date changed, but it wasn't the result of the transfer of NW miles to DL. It was the result of DL's retroactive change to a rolling two-year expiration window as of January 2009: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...-1-1-09-a.html

In other words, your expiration date was December 31, 2009 in December, and then by February 1, your expiration date had changed to April 30, 2009.

Yes, it is unfair.

So it Goes,

Wow, that makes it even worse... Well, for those of us who don't follow the FF rule changes on a regular basis, this was a big wake-up call!

Delta has lost me as a customer forever, all over a 15K mileage balance.

you can do it...maybe
 

I was plotting the same move but had a glitch.I tranf.within NW alright.%5people got the 30,000 bonus each.Limit reached+30,000 in,75,000 out.Then I +Dad had existing Delta acct.s others just applied.Will only work with Dad + I IF we have activity other than the linking mileage transfer.I kept getting a rejection email the next day.So today I bought 2000 miles each$59US for Dad +I and will try again once posted.Delta has much higher limits.In3000,00 out150,000.good luck.

Should I do it ?
 

After reading all the horror stories and realizing that I'm not the savviest with regards to my family's combined 25 FF-mile-accounts that I've got to manage thus far, I'm in need of a bit of encouragement and advice.

My young teenager accrued 38K miles in his WP account with an additional 11K expected for this coming summer travel - not nearly enough for a transpac or transat ticket under the current rules until summer 2010 (assuming the rules won't change in the meantime).
In addition he will not be able to accrue sufficient EQM for the foreseeable future, unless he wins the lottery !

Should I transfer his WP miles into my account under the current promotion ?

And what to do with all our WP accounts ?

Advice is really appreciated !

NW will be merged into Delta later this year, so if you are talking about award travel in 2010, you have to consider what Delta will be offereing at that time.

It sounds like your son will have 49k in his NW account after traveling this year. If he doesn't have a Delta FF account, create one, link his NW account to his Delta account and earn 500 bonus miles. These will post to his Delta account and can be used in combination with his NW account.

You can also earn some relatively cheap NW miles by ordering items from their shopping mall under their current promotion. Read this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/north...erks-mall.html to get some ideas. This promo expires at the end of June.

Delta and NW both have other promotions right now that encourage customers to use their partners. You might be able to take advantage of these also to build your son's Delta and NW accounts. They are http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...r22-jun22.html and http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/north...ile-miles.html. You need to register for both of these promos to earn the bonus miles. They also expire in June.

While these four ideas may be a little bit more of a hassle than transferring miles from account to account, you should be able to generate miles at a lower cost per mile. Hope this helps.

For those who need a free DL activity:
 

I found this activity at the above thread. Thanks OP.

For those who need a free ^ DL activity:

1. Register for the above Partner Activity. One of the qualifying activities is swapping miles from another airline on points.com., so it appears to qualify as an official DL 'activity.' Obviously you can't or would not if you could (bad exchange rate) transfer some NW miles to your DL account since linking began.

2. No swappable miles? No problem. :D Open a new Alaska Airlines FF account and they give you instant credit for 500 miles. ^ ^

3. Sign up for your free points.com account and swap your 500 AS miles for 80 DL miles. points.com will give you a first timer 100 mile bonus. ^

4. Presto, free 180 Skypiles and a Skymiles activity will be on your DL account. ^

Rolling Expiration Cancelled WP Miles transferred to SM
 

Thanks to everyone for suggestions when my transferred NW Worldperks miles were "expired" after transfer into my Delta Skymiles.

I received this message today from Delta:
.............................................
"We regret you were unaware of the new rolling expiration date associated
with the SkyMiles program. We try to ensure our members are aware of
these guidelines by providing them on our website at delta.com/skymiles,
as well as listing the expiration date on account summary statements
following any account activity. As a one time exception we will
reinstate your expired miles. Once the miles have been reinstated your
new expiration date will be June 30, 2009, however, once you have taken
your upcoming trip in the middle of June your expiration date will be
extended to June 30, 2011. Your information has to be forwarded to our
liaison for assistance, please allow 5-7 business days for processing."
................................................

Does anyone see any benefit of me transferring these miles back into my NW Wordperks account, if only to stall the expiration date further? We are talking about a paltry 15K miles here... but I also have an AmEx MR account with some hefty points, so they may come in handy down the road.

I am a bit confused :)

If the last activity on my WorldPerks is May 2009, and then I transfer into Delta later this fall, would the new Skymiles expiration date be May 2011 (assuming no Skymiles activity).

In other words, are others' miles expiring right away because the WorldPerks last activity was over 2 years old?

The key is the DELTA Skymiles non-bonus activity. Look on your SkyMiles account before transferring into it--there will be an expiration date in most cases; that expiration date will not change when NW miles are transferred in. In some cases of zero mileage balance, there will be no expiration date, and a new two-year expiration date will be created when miles are transferred in (to be safe, though, I'd transfer something really small (e.g., 5 miles) to test it first).

Good going, Barbi! I think Delta was very reasonable with you.

My opinion is not to transfer any miles in any direction until you are ready to use them, or until the merger is down the road. My understanding is you can transfer miles back and forth anytime you want. So my plan is to check what I can do with Worldperks or Skymiles, and get the best deal on a flight, then transfer the mileage if I need to.

Anyone else see it differently?

Not really, but you can rescue about-to-expire DL miles from impending expiration by moving them to NW.

What I gather from reading other posts, please chip in if you know more info:

WP miles don't have an expire date, SM do. If you have some SM about to expire in a month, park them all over in your WP account. For the next 6 months or so they should be safe.

In October or so when they do the final merge, I don't feel they will be able to tell which are old miles or new miles in your WP account. I think they will just take the pool of your WP miles and put them all in your SM account and start the 24 month timer on the whole batch. You thus end up stretching the expire date on your older SM.

At least I hope it will work this way.

I hope so to, but I'll be very careful when watching how the account merger is implemented.

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts and advice! Yes, I really think Delta acted reasonably by reinstating my miles. And luckily, I'm about to fly with them in a few weeks, which will extend my expiration date by two years.

This has really made me aware of how much I need to pay more attention to my mileage accounts -- big thanks!