Frequent Traveler Points: You Can’t Take Them with You. But Can Your Heirs? from Austin Estate Planning Lawyer Liz Nielsen

Frequent traveler points from Austin estate planning attorney Liz Nielsen

You can’t take them with you, obviously. But under certain circumstances, you can transfer them to your heirs. Unfortunately, the rules vary widely from carrier to carrier. (Hotels have policies that are more similar to one another’s.)

It’s important to know that all carriers consider miles to be property of the airline, not of the traveler. So miles are technically not part of your estate. Despite this, disposition of miles can be handled in a will, as will be covered later.

To give you an idea of the variation among air carriers, read the policies below for the major domestic carriers, three international carrier, and three hotel holding companies.

Airlines

Domestic carriers

Alaska Airlines

Alaska does not state on its website a policy about the transfer of accrued mileage of deceased members However, a number of travel websites report that the airline, at no fee, will transfer unexpired miles with just a copy of the death certificate.

American Airlines

According to the AAdvantage program’s terms and conditions, AAdvantage miles – like award tickets, elite status and upgrades – are not transferable upon death of a program member. However, they may, at their sole discretion, permit transfers of accrued program mileage, subject to receipt of appropriate documentation, including applicable fees and of court-approved wills. Although the terms and conditions still contain language about fees, some travel writers report that representatives of AA have stated they no longer charge fees.

Delta Air Lines

Delta is infamously strict about prohibiting transfers of miles after the death of a Skymiles member: they simply don’t permit it. Knowing this, many heirs don’t even try. That said, they have receently made a statement to a travel writer that they are re-evaluating the policy, and encourage heirs to contact them and express their concerns.

JetBlue

Like United, JetBlue takes the position that TrueBlue miles expire when the member does. However, under its Points Pooling program, JetBlue allows family members – up to two adults and five children – to share a single TrueBlue account, so the account won’t be deactivated when a single family member dies. Technically, the Points Pooling must be set up before the death of a family member.

Southwest Airlines

Like Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines does not state on its website a policy about the transfer of accrued mileage of deceased members However, a number of travel websites report that the airline will transfer, at no fee, unexpired miles with just a copy of the death certificate.

United AIrlines

United’s MileagePlus rules are similar to those of American’s AAdvantage program. Like AA’s, UA’s rules still refer to fees, but some travel writers report that representatives of UA have stated they no longer charge fees.

Major international carriers

Air France-KLM

The Terms and Conditions for Flying Blue, operated by Air France and KLM, say “In the event of the death of a Member, the Company shall close that Member’s account and cancel all Miles and/or XP earned by the concerned Member upon receipt of the death certificate.” {Italics added.} If there are exceptions to this rule, they are not widely publicized.

British Airways (British Airways, Iberia and others)

The published policy states that Avios miles cannot be transferred to an estate, but a Household Account, if established before death, can permit easy sharing of those miles among a designated group of travelers.

Lufthansa

Like Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines, Lufthansa does not state on its website a policy about the transfer of accrued mileage of deceased members However, a number of travel websites report that the airline will transfer, at no fee, unexpired miles with just a copy of the death certificate.

Hotels

Policies for three major programs – Marriott Bonvoy, Hyatt’s World of Hyatt and Hilton Honors – are broadly similar: they each allow transfers to another person upon receipt of appropriate documentation. Hyatt will transfer only to someone at the same residential address, while Hilton requires the transfer documentation to be completed and executed by the executor of the estate.

What are my options?

The most obvious – and foolproof – tactic is to set up family sharing at airlines that offer it.

At airlines that don’t, the most commonly used tactic is to log in to the deceased’s accounts and use the miles for travel. This is much easier to do if the deceased provides heirs with account numbers and passwords before death. There are four pitfalls to this:

  • Having conversations with other heirs and discussing your plans is vital to avoid potential conflict later.
  • Be mindful of expiration dates of points. A free service called awardwallet.com lets you enter frequent traveler accounts, which the site will monitor and notify you if one is soon to expire.
  • You have to make some effort to keep the account active. If snail mail is returned to the airline and emails are never opened, it could prompt an inquiry.
  • It might be unwise to permit use of these miles in a manner inconsistent with the will, if distribution of frequent traveler points has been provided in the will.

The second tactic is to transfer miles to another person before death. Most experts advise against this, as the fees can sometimes exceed the value of the points. The Points Guy provides a chart, updated monthly, with his estimate of the value of points in virtually all airlines and hotels, which will enable you to decide whether paying the fee is worth it.

The third tactic is to transfer miles to another person going through each airline’s procedure. Before you decide to do this, however, ensure that you don’t want to just outright use the miles, as specified above. Once you tell an airline that someone has deceased, you can’t untell them.

And, finally, you can specify the distribution of the miles in your will. The upside is that your wishes are clear. This could help deal with airlines that handle miles of deceased travelers on a “case-by-case” basis.

You may decide to employ different tactics for different airlines, given that they have different policies.

The best strategy for your points, though, might be this: use them! Since the value of frequent traveler points has consistently decreased over time, they should be considered a depreciating asset, best used earlier than later.

Nielsen Law PLLC provides family focused estate planning to individuals and families in Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park, and the Central Texas area.  For more information and to learn about our firm, please contact us.