# Delta Miles Expiring...transferring more in didn't reactivate



## 3kids4me (Mar 2, 2009)

I have 18,000 Delta miles that are expiring at the end of April.  I read that some activity on them would extend the expiration, but I wasn't really wanting to buy anything.  Then I saw that one could combine their Delta and Northwest miles.  Thinking that this would be considered "activity", I combined the two, and now have 36,000 Delta miles that are still expiring at the end of April.

I have tried calling the Delta miles number and it is always busy.  I sent them an e-mail but they never responded.  

Does anyone know how I can postpone the expiration date on the miles without spending a lot (or even any) money?

Thanks!


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## LisaRex (Mar 2, 2009)

Transfer them all back to your NWA account. You can use them on Delta flights and the miles do not expire.


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## 3kids4me (Mar 2, 2009)

I wish I could, but you can only transfer once.


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## gmarine (Mar 2, 2009)

You could sign up for Skymiles dining. You register a credit card then dine at a participating restaurant and you receive miles based on the amount spent. You should be able to sign up and dine immediately. The miles usually show up in my account within about two weeks of dining.


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## Jimster (Mar 2, 2009)

*transfer*

Who said you can only transfer once?  You should be able to transfer them unlimited times- that is what they say on the website.  But be aware if you transfer them back to Delta after April, those that expired may be gone.  Or you can forget all this and just buy a CD from the mileage mall for about $8 and that is a mile validating event- then they are good for another 18 months.


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## short (Mar 2, 2009)

*500 miles for linking?*

There was an offer for 500 bonus miles for linking your NWA and Delta account.  As usual, they allow themselves 4-6 weeks to post this bonus.

You could sign one of your credit cards up for I dine and eat out at a participating restraunt.

You could buy miles.  Current offer is 100 percent bonus on top of purchased miles which brings the cost per mile down.  Offer until March 31st.  These post fairly quickly.

Short


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## falmouth3 (Mar 2, 2009)

I think the dining may be your fastest route to getting more points and thus extending your expiration date.  

I have been known to be creative in getting points - a couple of years ago there was a promotion to get a bunch of points if you stayed at partner hotels and bought something from their associated online companies.  I was on a business trip so I stayed at a different hotel each night in the same area, and bought a potato peeler at cooks.com.  That got me the required number of transactions.  I'm not sure how quickly the points posted, but I did get my bonus points.

Sue


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## Jimster (Mar 2, 2009)

*linking*

I think the 500 mile for linking accounts specifically does not allow for extension of the expiration date for the miles, so I wouldn't depend on that.


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## LisaRex (Mar 2, 2009)

The website said that you could transfer the miles back and forth at will.  

In any event, the cheapest way to earn miles is to go to iTunes via SkyMilesShopping portal on Delta.com and buy one song.  They were 99 cents apiece but they may have increased to $1.29 now.  They usually show up in my SkyMiles account within 2 weeks. 

http://skymilesoffers.delta.com/shopping_other.php


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## TSTex02 (Mar 2, 2009)

*Magazine Subscription*

A few months ago I used some Delta miles for a magazine subscription. I started getting the magazine in a few weeks. It took a while longer to show up in my Delta account, but all my accumulated miles were eventually extended.


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## NWL (Mar 2, 2009)

I see you don't want to spend money to extend your miles, but I'm not sure that's possible (unless transferring them back to Northwest works, and that would be the best).  Another way would be to purchase something at a partner web site like 1800flowers.com.  I routinely by something for someone's birthday and use the Promo Code DE58A at checkout.  When the miles get credited to my account, it resets the expiration date of my miles.  If you choose to go this way, don't wait too long.  It takes up to 8 weeks for the miles to post.  Your expiration date won't change until the miles get posted.

Another thought is to by miles.  I'm not sure if this way will extend your expiration date, but if it does, you can by 2000 miles and get a bonus 2000 miles for $59 until March 31.

Let us know how you make out!


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## Carolinian (Mar 3, 2009)

falmouth3 said:


> I think the dining may be your fastest route to getting more points and thus extending your expiration date.
> 
> I have been known to be creative in getting points - a couple of years ago there was a promotion to get a bunch of points if you stayed at partner hotels and bought something from their associated online companies.  I was on a business trip so I stayed at a different hotel each night in the same area, and bought a potato peeler at cooks.com.  That got me the required number of transactions.  I'm not sure how quickly the points posted, but I did get my bonus points.
> 
> Sue



If you do this, eat enough places that hopefully one will post.  I have given up on Dining for Miles.  Some years ago, when there were good partner bonuses, I found about a little over a half of the dines actually posted.  More recently, when I used three dines on two cards to get miles in two accounts to extend them, not a single one of the dines ever posted on either ff account.


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## dougef (Mar 5, 2009)

Hi Sharon,

I am not so familiar with Delta, but on American there is an easy cheap way to do it.  Maybe Delta has something similar.  If you go shopping through American's "shopping mall" you get bonus miles for every purchase.  ITunes in in the maill, so if you go through the AA link and purchase a couple of downloads from ITunes for a couple of dollars, you get a few AA miles and restart the clock.  Also, AA has been running a promotion with the Komen foundation for breast cancer.  Make a donation through the proper link and you get some AA miles.

Again, I don't know if Delta has this type of deal, but I had my kids do these things to keep their AA accounts alive.  Worth exploring anyway. 

Good luck.

Doug


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## camachinist (Mar 5, 2009)

OP, your mileage expiration date on DL is a function of a rolling 24 month period pertaining to any mileage earning which does not appear in the bonus column on SM (SkyMiles). So, that April date means all miles in your DL account will expire on that date if no qualifying activity occurs. This includes the NW miles you transferred.

Another example....say you moved the DL miles to NW and did nothing. For now, those DL miles would be safe and you could use them as NW miles to buy award tickets. NW miles do not currently expire, with a possible exception of accounts being subject to closure after 3 years of no activity. But, after that April date, should you move any miles back to DL, and even when the two programs merge later this year (presumably), that expiration date would kick in and the miles would go poof.

So, my advice (and what I'm going to do) is move the DL miles to NW and do a minimum qualifying DL mile activity (flowers post fast and someone in my wife's family died earlier this week) and then leave those miles and the linking bonus miles in the DL account. So, the worst that could happen is the activity  miles don't post in time (my miles expire in April too) and the only miles you'd lose are potentially the bonus miles from linking the accounts. After the new activity miles post, you can move miles back from NW (if necessary) without issue or possibility of immediate expiration.

There's a long thread on FlyerTalk about this.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delt...s-link-your-skymiles-worldperks-accounts.html

Hope that helps! 

Pat


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## 3kids4me (Mar 5, 2009)

Thanks for the advice.

I don't see itunes listed as a partner, but I bought a magazine subscription.  Do you think that will post in time?  

I was also able to transfer all the miles to Northwest, but I am still concerned that the miles will blow up when they merge....


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## camachinist (Mar 5, 2009)

When you see miles post on DL from your magazine subscription, the expiration date of the account's miles will update. At that point, any miles which are deposited into the account, whether by your action or when the FF programs merge, will be governed by that date, subject to changes driven by further earning activity.

Pat


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## xzhan02 (Mar 6, 2009)

I think you'll be fine.  I did a magazine subscription and the mile did not post until ~3 mo later.  Meanwhile, the account shows 0 mile on expiration date.  However, once the miles were posted, the old miles came back and extended.  It was a pleasant surprise.





3kids4me said:


> Thanks for the advice.
> 
> I don't see itunes listed as a partner, but I bought a magazine subscription.  Do you think that will post in time?
> 
> I was also able to transfer all the miles to Northwest, but I am still concerned that the miles will blow up when they merge....


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## camachinist (Mar 7, 2009)

Yes, IME also, miles from partners will post with the original transaction date, reactivating or extending existing miles from that date. The only problem has occured when the miles didn't post automatically, which meant sending in proof and having a human manually fix the account. This has only happened to me a couple of times across 6 airlines which I work FF programs on.

If there are glitches in the DL>NW integration, they'll be covered on FlyerTalk.

Pat


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## LisaRex (Mar 7, 2009)

3kids4me said:


> Thanks for the advice.
> 
> I don't see itunes listed as a partner, but I bought a magazine subscription.  Do you think that will post in time?
> 
> I was also able to transfer all the miles to Northwest, but I am still concerned that the miles will blow up when they merge....



FYI, iTunes is a SkyMilesShopping vendor. SkyMilesShopping is a painless way to earn miles when you shop online. Sign up is very easy and then you just bookmark the site for future use.  Instead of clicking to an online vendor directly (e.g. Staples.com, itunes, etc), you get to it via the SkyMilesShopping portal.  You earn miles for every dollar spent at that online shop.  Currently iTunes earns 2 miles for every dollar spent.  And it counts as a transaction which will extend your SkyMiles expiration.


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## 3kids4me (Mar 7, 2009)

I didn't see itunes offered under Sky Miles shopping.  Am I missing something?


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## camachinist (Mar 7, 2009)

http://www.skymilesshopping.com/iTunes-over-1-million-songs/m__3__.htm


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## 3kids4me (Mar 7, 2009)

Aha...thanks!  I registered and bought a song...but for some reason my itunes (which is on the same computer) isn't linked to the purchase and the song has appeared in a completely new and blank itunes list.

No matter...at least I'll have two miles.     If it works.


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