So today is a bit of a morbid topic, but one that has been on my mind lately. While I am in good (decent?) health and have no plans for dying anytime soon, I’m also getting older and trying to at least make a few “just in case” plans. This is especially meaningful for me and my family, because my wife is a stay-at-home mom, and I am the one that not only earns all the money, but also MANAGES all the money. So I want to make sure that if I were to unexpectedly pass away, that she would be taken care of not only financially (life insurance) but also in terms of how to manage our various assets. So that has led me to think about what to do with my miles and points if I die.
What Happens To Miles and Points When You Die?
This is a topic that we have actually covered before on Points With a Crew
(SEE ALSO: What To Do With Grandpa’s 600k Membership Rewards?)
Generally, with most programs, the miles and points that you earn are not “yours”, so you don’t have any real right to include them in your will or transfer them to your beneficiaries. The standard advice that I have seen is basically “what Delta don’t know won’t hurt ’em” – so basically don’t tell any of those companies that the account owner has passed away. That way you would be able to use them as you need, as long as you have the account and login information.
What Should I Do With My Miles And Points If I Die?
So that brings me back to what I should do in my situation. Like probably many of you, I am the one who manages all of the miles, points and frequent flyer accounts, while my wife (“P2”) just shows up where I tell her :-D. If I were to unexpectedly pass away, we would plan to gradually cancel most of our credit cards, because I think that would be added complexity that she would not be interested in dealing with. She would sadly have to go back to just PAYING for travel :-).
But that leaves me to wonder what the best thing to do is with our EXISTING miles. Since most of the miles and points that we have will expire with no activity during a certain period of time (often 24 hours), I kind of feel like that we should just try to cash out at any rates possible. So I’m thinking things like:
- Redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards for 1 cent per point
- Redeem Capital One Venture miles, either for 1 cent per point for travel or 0.5 cents as a statement credit
- Transfer Amex Membership Rewards to Delta (don’t expire and useful for our home airport of CVG)
- Other hotel or airline accounts… I don’t know? Amazon? Gift cards? (barf)
I have plenty of life insurance that my wife would get, so even though it does pain me to make such “bad” redemptions, I’m not sure it would be better to keep all these points just sitting there?
The Bottom Line – What Do You Think?
I am in the process of making a document for what my wife should do with our miles and points if I were to unexpectedly pass away. I think generally I want to simplify things, so I am contemplating leaving instructions on doing things that I would never do now, like cashing my miles out for statement credits or gift cards. But I’m curious if any of you have either a) been in this situation or b) have thoughts on what you would do if you were in this situaiton.
What do you think I should do with my miles and points if I die? Leave your advice and thoughts in the comments below
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at
Why not just take the points and miles with you when you die. After all you can’t be sure which airline you will fly on next. If the Head Travel Director sends you on Spirit for a trip down south you might be able to use your miles and points to book an airline and flight with a better final destination.
I’m about to write my will and I’m leaving my points and miles to my wife, or if something happens to both of us then the family member best able to utilize the points and miles for the good of the family.
Sure – but it’s my understanding that miles and points aren’t “yours”, so you can’t “leave them to your wife”. I’m fine with my wife using my miles and points – but she has no experience in using them or anything, and I have a LOT of different miles and points (I assume you do too). So I am worried that they’ll just end up sitting there and/or expiring.
If the points/miles are in your name, I would just write down all your usernames/passwords so she can logg in as you. It prob is a good idea that, before she cancels your cell phone, she changes the cell phone in your account to hers – in case they text a code in order to logg on or something like that. The she just books her trips from your account as the passengers, or as an added guest. There is always a way to do some activity in the account (like buy a magazine subscription for 500 miles or something, or donate a 1000 miles or something to create activity). You could also pool your points with the airlines or hotels that do that. I wouldn’t waste them on gift cards. but start involving her in your booking process as you go forward, so she knows what she is doing once she is in the cockpit.
The Wall St. Journal had a good article about this in the June 9, 2025, issue.
Before I died, I just left my daughter all my accounts information, so she is now flying around for free.
I just finished transferring my late mother’s balances to me. Was successful in transferring AA, UA, Hilton, IHG and Marriott. Not DL or BA. In general, a copy of death cert and proof of authority from will, and perhaps another form or affidavit were required. Best thing I learned and will now do for myself is that her will named me as executor in a codicil. Because of that, I only had to submit a copy of the two-page codicil rather than sharing her complete will with strangers.
Also, I just added her as an AU to my CSP so I can top up her BA account and then redeem an award.