Transfer FF miles
 

Is there a way to transfer miles from one FF program to another. E.g. I would like to transfer my NW miles to DL. Is this possible, or pie in the sky?

Pig in the sky.

You are basically asking NW to give you free travel in exchange for flying on their competitor.

You can go to points.com and see what the "exchange rate" is - usually you are the had-ee. I'm not sure both DL and NW allow swaps, though.

If it's really NW and DL, though, they're both members of Skyteam, so you can use NW miles on awards using DL aircraft for all or part of the trip. Look at the NW FF program details. If your idea is to "pool" miles from two FF programs, fuggedaboudit.

I suggest you post your question on the appropriate forum at flyertalk. Most of their readers know the ins and outs of whatever switches are allowed.

I suspect the general answer is that you cannot transfer, but there are some relatively obscure ways to get around this on certain airlines, usually involving a transfer through a third party that is allied with both airlines.

This website calculates how many miles/points you get when transferring from one program to another (if possible):
http://www.webflyer.com/programs/mileage_converter/

Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any way to transfer from NW.

Can someone "give" their miles to another person?

Debi

<i>Can someone &quot;give&quot; their miles to another person?</i>

As in transferring them? See above.

As in gifting a trip using your miles? Sure, no prob.

As in using 10,000 of yours and 20,000 of theirs for a 30,000 mile reward? No.

Note some airlines have &quot;family plan&quot; FFPs - where relatives' miles all go into one pot.

Debi,
One way to &quot;give&quot; someone your miles is to simply redeem an award from your account in their name.

Another way is to transfer your miles for a fee (usually $0.01 per mile) to the other person's account assuming your program allows mileage transfers. There may also be a cap on the number of miles that can be transferred.

Debi,
You can either book someone else a ticket using your miles or transfer them. On United, to transfer miles, they charge .01 cents per mile plus a $35 transaction fee. To transfer 15,000 miles would cost you $185.

DebitNM,last year I &quot;gave&quot; 60,000 FF miles for my daughter and SIL to be upgraded to Business Class R/T from SFO to Rome and back to SFO. They had to fly out of SFO to Rome due to a family emergency in Rome within 24 hours. They had purchased last minute tickets (expensive!) in coach. This was via Northwest.

The only problem was due to the time restraints NW did not have time to send me the form to sign to transfere my FF miles to them so I had to go to SFO with them the morning of their early flight to sign the form at the NW counter at SFO. No charge to do this.

Gardyloo - actually, I was able to contribute some miles from my account to my traveling companion's redemption of an award. The CO OnePass agent did it without problem, over the phone. Not sure if other airlines do the same.

Thanks for the replies guys! Debi

Seamus,
Was there a fee to do this?

Patty -
No, there was not a fee. There would have been a fee if I were just transferring miles into the other account but this transaction involved removing miles from two different accounts to &quot;pay&quot; for a reward. Not sure if this was really &quot;legal&quot; or whether it was a perk becasue of my elite status, but it sure was nice customer service.

I've looked through the Onepass rules and posts on Flyertalk and there's no evidence of such a transaction being legal. But airlines will sometimes bend the rules for elite members, and if that was the case in your instance, congratulations.

You might make an anonymous call and find out if it's okay in the rules - it would definitely be a good thing to know.