Maintaining Sky Miles

[DawnCt1]

We all have Delta Sky Miles. 2 DSs have had no activity on their accounts for 2 years from this coming June. The oldest has 29K so he doesn't want to lose them. DS#2 has 10K, so losing them wouldn't be the worst thing. I could transfer miles into their accounts for a penny a mile plus $30. Buy miles for almost 3 cents a mile but pay about 15% in taxes, or have them buy magazines which seems like a waste of miles when they have so few. Any other options? They don't have a Sky Miles credit card so making a purchase is not an option unless they can just buy in the market place with their sky miles number and another credit card. Anyone know?

 

[DisneyFreak43]

How about signing up for Skymiles Dining? That is what we did - they take any type of credit card. We have a local Italian Restaurant nearby that is on the list, and we just get take-out pizza once in a while. Sometimes there are promotions where they will give out miles just for signing up.

 

[robinb]

What kind of activity do they need to keep things "active"? I know that I linked my Skymiles account with my NWA account last week. I did it through NWA and got 500 miles even though my Skymiles expired a LONG time ago. Maybe they can open a NWA account and link them via Delta and get extra miles that way.

 

[johnsontrio]

Dawn I believe that you can make a small purchase at SkyMall using the SkyMiles number for each of your sons. They can make those purchases on any credit card not just a SkyMiles one. I think you can even buy something as small as $5 or $10 gift certificates from Barnes & Noble or any other affiliated company. You will have to wait for the purchases to credit to their accounts. The posters at www.Flyertalk to help you out if you need more information.

If they have Northwest Worldperks accounts as well, you can link those two accounts and receive 500 miles for doing so. I just did that recently with ours but haven't transferred the miles over. I'm assuming that they will eventually be merge just as our Pan Am accounts were transferred to Delta .

It's only a matter of time here in Detroit. The uniforms have changed as well as all the signage in the airport. The only positive aspect of the whole merger is Coke replacing Pepsi onboard and that hasn't happened yet. Go figure.

 

[DawnCt1]

How about signing up for Skymiles Dining? That is what we did - they take any type of credit card. We have a local Italian Restaurant nearby that is on the list, and we just get take-out pizza once in a while. Sometimes there are promotions where they will give out miles just for signing up.

I have Sky Miles dining for my credit card but DSs do not eat out that much, but its an idea. The restaurants near us with Sky miles are more high end.

 

[DawnCt1]

Dawn I believe that you can make a small purchase at SkyMall using the SkyMiles number for each of your sons. They can make those purchases on any credit card not just a SkyMiles one. I think you can even buy something as small as $5 or $10 gift certificates from Barnes & Noble or any other affiliated company. You will have to wait for the purchases to credit to their accounts. The posters at www.Flyertalk to help you out if you need more information.

If they have Northwest Worldperks accounts as well, you can link those two accounts and receive 500 miles for doing so. I just did that recently with ours but haven't transferred the miles over. I'm assuming that they will eventually be merge just as our Pan Am accounts were transferred to Delta .

It's only a matter of time here in Detroit. The uniforms have changed as well as all the signage in the airport. The only positive aspect of the whole merger is Coke replacing Pepsi onboard and that hasn't happened yet. Go figure.

Awesome. Thats a great idea!

 

[manning]

I was about to lose AA miles and donated 500 to a program, don't remember if they run it or backs it, who uses the miles to fly soldiers home who come home on leave from Iraq and afganistan. I did it over the phone with AA.

 

[DawnCt1]

I was about to lose AA miles and donated 500 to a program, don't remember if they run it or backs it, who uses the miles to fly soldiers home who come home on leave from Iraq and afganistan. I did it over the phone with AA.

I have done that with United, (1000 miles) but DSs need all of their miles. I went onto the skymiles shopping site, bought two Home Depot gift cards for DH under each of their accounts, 4 miles per $1, and spent a total of $35, getting something for Father's Day that he can actually use. I was told that they credit within 48 hours so I will have to watch their accounts.

 

[Wish_I_Was_At_WDW]

Thanks for posting this! I've been having a similar dilemma with my son's account so please post back and let us know if buying the Home Depot cards worked to extend the date the miles expire!

 

[librarygal]

I would transfer they miles from the smaller account to the larger account because Delta currently has a 100% transfer bonus promotion going. During the promotion if your younger DS transfers his 10,000 miles to your older DS your older DS will get 20,000 miles. Your older DS will then have 49,000 miles which is almost enough for two domestic awards. I would do it now since your miles are expiring soon and the promotion only goes a few more weeks.

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/buy_transfer/transfer_miles/transfer_miles_lto/index.jsp

 

[Wish_I_Was_At_WDW]

I would transfer they miles from the smaller account to the larger account because Delta currently has a 100% transfer bonus promotion going. During the promotion if your younger DS transfers his 10,000 miles to your older DS your older DS will get 20,000 miles. Your older DS will then have 49,000 miles which is almost enough for two domestic awards. I would do it now since your miles are expiring soon and the promotion only goes a few more weeks.

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/buy_transfer/transfer_miles/transfer_miles_lto/index.jsp

Would transferring miles into the account extend the expiration date of the miles? Thanks!

 

[DawnCt1]

I would transfer they miles from the smaller account to the larger account because Delta currently has a 100% transfer bonus promotion going. During the promotion if your younger DS transfers his 10,000 miles to your older DS your older DS will get 20,000 miles. Your older DS will then have 49,000 miles which is almost enough for two domestic awards. I would do it now since your miles are expiring soon and the promotion only goes a few more weeks.

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/buy_transfer/transfer_miles/transfer_miles_lto/index.jsp

That would have been a good idea except I am not sure that DS#3 would have wanted to part with his meager amount of miles at this point. For $10 I got a gift card and generated activity on his account.

 

[DawnCt1]

Would transferring miles into the account extend the expiration date of the miles? Thanks!

Any activity on the account is supposed to extend the expiration date by two years. I just want to keep an eye on it to be sure that is the case.

 

[java]

Dawn they just had this in my Real Simple magazine and their suggestion was

" Search your Airlines website for affiliated retailers and shop online. Most airlines have partnerships with e-commerce sites,like neimanmarcus.com and netflix.com who reward you with additional miles for every dollar spent and as a result keep your account active"