How to Donate Airline Miles
By Jackson Lewis
Most people who travel frequently have registered for frequent-flier accounts with major airlines. Although you can use your miles for discounts on golf trips and vacations, another popular use for accumulated miles is to donate them to charity. Many nonprofit organizations and airlines have charity donation programs for earned miles. Depending on your tax situation, you may be able to deduct your mileage from your taxes. The commonality with all of the airline mile donation programs is that your earned mileage is used to help those in need.
Instructions
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Choose an airline miles donation program. Many charities and programs have a need for airline miles. A popular program in the United States to donate your miles is Fisher House, which provides aid to American military troops who have been injured overseas. Their donation program goes toward allowing family members to visit the injured military member. Other donation programs are listed in the resources section of this article.
The following uses Fisher House as an example. Whichever charity or program you choose will likely follow a similar process.
Navigate to the Fisher House airline mileage donation website and select the "Donate" menu option. They currently accept donated airline miles from Airtran, Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, Frontier, Midwest, Northwest, United, and US Airways.
Visit the website listed on the Fisher House website that corresponds to the airline that you are going to transfer miles from to the Fisher House.
Select the "Request rewards" or equivalent menu link on your frequent-flier program website. On the subsequent menu option, select "Donate airline miles" and either choose or enter "Fisher House Hero Miles" menu option, followed by the "Go" or "Enter" menu option after you have entered the number of miles to donate.
About The Author
Based in Memphis, Jackson Lewis has been writing on technology-related material for 10 years with a recent emphasis on golf and other sports. He has been freelance writing for Demand Media since 2008. Lewis holds a Master of Science in computer science from the United States Naval Postgraduate School.
