You have traveled the country and world over and have racked up thousands of airline miles – now what do you do with them? Hopefully you take advantage of the free flights and continue to travel and experience new places. However, if you truly have so many miles and can not use them all, there are a couple of options for you to ensure they do not go to waste – either before or after your death.
Make-A-Wish Foundation®
The Make-A-Wish Foundation® (the “Foundation”) grants wishes to children who have “life-threatening medical conditions.”1 Given that these wishes often involve flying children and their families to other locations, the Foundation welcomes donations of airline miles. An individual can gift airline miles to the Foundation either during their lifetime or at death through their Will. However, according to the Foundation’s website, “The IRS recognizes award points and miles as a gift or an award from the corporation to the individual. Therefore, points and Frequent Flier miles donated to charity are not considered tax deductible.”2
Specific Gift in Your Will
Most people are aware they can transfer airline miles during their lifetime to others but they are surprised to discover airlines miles can be transferred after death. You can leave your frequent flier miles to your spouse, descendants or other beneficiaries through your Will. Most airlines will require the personal representative of your estate to provide proof of death, proof of the gift and beneficiary, and proof of appointment of personal representative. Also, most of the major airlines require a fee in order to transfer the miles and some have limitations on the amount that can be transferred (refer to the chart in USA Today’s article Can Frequent-Flier Miles Be Inherited? to find more information on specific airlines). When having your Will prepared, be sure to inquire with an airline to determine whether or not it is their policy to allow for the transfer of miles upon death.
The purpose of a Will is to dispose of an individual’s property according to his or her last wishes – but remember to think outside the box of what “property” is included in an estate as it is easy to overlook those intangible items such as frequent flier miles.
1 http://www.wish.org/about/our_mission
2 http://www.wish.org/help/donate_airline_miles
