Orphan miles

[sjlp]

What creative ways have you found to spend down orphan miles that are not enough for a flight?

I recently found out I could use my British Airlines Avios for a hotel, so I spent down a useless 16,000 for a $200 hotel stay in a place that I had to be on a certain date, and that was not a bad valuation. The site lets you use a mix of miles and money, which means that you can use up all of the miles.

[nouveauRiche]

I used to be able to buy music mp3s from United using miles but unfortunately, they no longer sell them.  :(

If the miles get close to expiration, I will donate them.

ETA:  Thanks for starting this thread! 

I just checked United.com and I can use miles to get a reimbursement of the $95 annual fee on my Chase/United Visa!  It's only good within 3 months of paying the fee and it will cost 11,875 miles.  I have about 12,000 miles and will get another 50,000 after this month's spending gets paid.  Going to do some math & consult DH to see if I want to do this.

[meghan88]

I have about 30,000 Delta miles that I will likely never use.  I would love to transfer them to another Skyteam member airline but they won't even let me do that.  They never expire, apparently, so I'm just going to hold them and hope that they change their policy at some point.

[nouveauRiche]

I have about 30,000 Delta miles that I will likely never use.  I would love to transfer them to another Skyteam member airline but they won't even let me do that.  They never expire, apparently, so I'm just going to hold them and hope that they change their policy at some point.

I've used miles to fly a family member (who might not otherwise have visited) out to see us.  Could you do something like that?

[meghan88]

I have about 30,000 Delta miles that I will likely never use.  I would love to transfer them to another Skyteam member airline but they won't even let me do that.  They never expire, apparently, so I'm just going to hold them and hope that they change their policy at some point.

I've used miles to fly a family member (who might not otherwise have visited) out to see us.  Could you do something like that?

Thanks for the suggestion!  No family members in the U.S., but I have a friend in AZ who might be able to use them to get to Canada.

[nouveauRiche]

Cool.  I'm sure your friend will appreciate it.  :)