tryinthis2

How is it that my minor child must have her OWN miles #?? that makes no sense. Is there a way to combine them?

brp

They do not need to have a number if they don't want to accumulate miles. There is no "must" about it. As for combining...nope. You have to fly our own miles

Cheers.

Doppy

AA doesn't discriminate based on age - everyone is subject to the same rules. I don't see any reason why different rules should apply just because we're talking about a minor. As the guardian you can claim awards out of the child's account.

You can pool miles at this site, but it's a waste of money:

http://shareaamiles.points.com

It's better to either wait until there's enough miles in the kid's account to redeem an award or just keep earning the miles and give them to the kid when she's of age.

DCAstudent

I wish my parents had given me an AA number back when I first started flying... according to the website I became a member in 1994 (age 11). It would have made lifetime gold come a little more quickly - every little bit helps!

oklAAhoma

What are you asking here? Why do you think your child must have her OWN miles and for what reason must she have them? You are certainly free to purchase a ticket for her with miles from your account (or from someone else's account, assuming they agree to it).

Is there a way to combine miles? No but for a fee anyone can gift miles to another account, up to the maximum allowed per year.

gemac

Sounds like a good idea to me. I would suggest you call AA and ask that the accounts be combined.

kebosabi

Feel good that when your child grows up, he or she'll have all the miles to have a head start.

Also, feel good that at least your child doesn't get only the 75% of mileages like Korean Air's SkyPass Junior. If they'd gave me 100% miles since I've flown with them way back then, I'd be a Million Miler on their FF.

butterflykisses

My son is 4 and has his own AA account. He actually made gold this year. By the time he is 18 he'll have enough miles to travel around the world at least once.

ratnamg

Call, call, call and call again. If the regular number doesnt help try the EXP line (800) xxx-xxxx.. If that doesnt work try the platinum number.

If all else fails try the supersecret 800-yyy-zzzz number. If the agent doesnt help ask to be transfered to the supervisor.

mvoight

I'm a bit confused. Are you saying that you lost your miles because you didn't use AA for 3 years, yet your child still has miles?

If the child needs their own ticket, then the child can get miles.
Interesting concept, I know.

Regarding the other thread on the lost miles. It is very clear in the documentation and the expiration time is clearly indicated in every AA statement and when looking at your miles online.

ricktoronto

I wonder in such cases does the credit card to pay Points.com for the deal have to be in the pointholder's name? Makes the minors who are cardless challenged to do these transactions if so.

oklAAhoma

I don't know anything about Points.com. I was actually thinking about the gift/share program offered on aa.com. (It doesn't use Points.com, does it?) I assume aa.com would let the parent's cc pay for the transaction, regardless who was giving or getting. But actually, in this case, I read it that the OP wants to give miles to a minor child, not receive them from the child.

However, on second reading, maybe the OP wanted to accrue the miles from the child's flight him/herself and was shocked to learn that the child will earn its own miles? But considering the other thread (about losing miles after 3 years of inactivity) your take is probably correct. Either way, I think I have spent more time thinking about this than is warranted. So I'll stop now.

ricktoronto

The child seems to be the only family memebr with activity. Perhaps he or she dines out a lot and they don't know she's out of the crib.

JDiver

Welcome to FT - AA, tryinthis.

Our answers may seem all over the board to you, but speaking for myself, I'm really am not sure what you're asking, particularly if you are asking our opinions. But...

Each flyer can have his / her own account, and we can "buy" awards for others with our miles and give them to the child - or to anyone else, for that matter. To remain "alive," the account must have some kind of qualifying activity at least once every three years - not a bad thing to gift some miles annually, so when the child grows to the time s/he can appreciate / make use of them, they've got miles.

For some of us these miles are like crack cocaine, particularly when reinforced with a first class award trip to Europe or Australasia - I opened an AAdvantage account for my grandniece when she was about three days old. I'll probably buy her some stocks / shares periodically as well.

Motor Mouth

Classic...