DO NOT Transfer Delta SkyMiles (with rare exceptions)

1/25/2020
If you've been around as long as I have, you probably have some Frequent Flyer miles that have been hanging around for some time. Realizing that these miles (many earned in the 1990's and 2000's) have become worth less and less over time. At many on-line frequent flyer blogs they are in fact referred to as "SkyPesos", probably not a favorable term. A recent experience reconfirmed that.


In the 1990's (as I remember them) you could only use your miles for someone else if they were a relative. I don't recall if miles were transferred or just what the mechanism was. There is a transfer mechanism today for SkyMiles, but it costs so much to use that it essentially makes the miles valueless! 

In my example, I was looking to transfer some miles to a relative so they could visit me in the next month or so--a round trip from Seattle to Austin. First up, I checked to see what the miles would amount to for a First Class ticket--here's what I found:

Mileage chart for Week of Feb 19-26

So the MINIMUM miles for anytime that week would be 62,000 miles + $11.20. That seemed like a lot of miles, so I checked the airfare. Here's what I found:

While the amount ($734.80) wasn't cheap, I had seen fares on this route ranging from $500 to $1100, depending on time of year, etc. Using miles instead of $$$ for this trip would value the miles at 1.17¢/mile. Not worth much at all!

But it turns out that transferring miles to another person costs money--a lot of money. Here were the latest "rules" for transferring miles:

 Under the "Transaction Terms", we find that the cost to transfer 62,000 miles is $661.20. Here is how that breaks down.

But I could buy a ticket (and earn about 4,000 miles!) for only another $73.60.  This example shows you what Delta thinks of you!

The only time it might seem reasonable to transfer miles is if the transferee is 5,000 or fewer miles short in their account. But otherwise--NEVER TRANSFER MILES WITH THIS SCHEME!

So far the only mechanism I've seen to get around this is for the original holder of the miles to buy the ticket for the user. There are no additional mileage charges in that case. I've seen questions about having the credit card used available at check-in but I'm not sure on the details for that.

Here's a link that might be helpful.  Good luck.