<p>Anybody have any knowledge/experience? BFF’s husband had miles/points on their credit card. She called to redeem some of the miles and was asked if he was “available to speak to us” as they could only redeem points upon the direction of the ‘primary’ card holder. She is an authorized user, but not the ‘primary’ one. She hasn’t informed them of his death and still gets quite emotional when she speak those words–thinks all they want is to have the bill is paid. She’s tempted to have a male friend make the call so she doesn’t lose the points. I suggested doing it online, but they aren’t set up for that and, again, only the ‘primary’ cardholder can arrange for that.</p>
<p>I arranged for my parents’ FF miles, which were accrued via an Amex of which my father was principal card holder, to be transferred to a new account in my mother’s name alone. I don’t recall the details, but it was a bit of a pain in the ass because it took them a while and several reminders from us to get it done, and I think there may have been a limit of 250,000 that could be transferred. I seem to recall having to provide a death certificate. Someone can make the call for her to get the ball rolling. She needs to have the credit card in her name alone, anyway. She will probably have to do this for a variety of accounts, including utilities, insurance, and bank accounts, not to mention tax returns. That’s one reason why they give you many certified copes of the death certificate.</p>
<p>Can she log in as the primary and arrange it? Or does she have a Power of attorney? When a friend’s husband died they used his points by submitting the paperwork including her signatures and a POA allowing that. No questions asked. She did not mention his death in case they tried to play games with it.</p>
<p>I believe power of attorney ends at death. Sounds like Consolation had success by submitting the death certificate though.</p>
<p>There is probably some fine print in the frequent flyer program agreement that specifies what happens.</p>
<p>When my FIL died, all his FF miles disappeared with him. They would NOT allow anyone to have them on any of his airlines. My SIL gave the miles to S just before she died & he had to pay a transfer fee to get them into his account before her death. I THINK he was able to transfer them but we haven’t spoken about it. She tried to work it out earlier but got hassles from the airlines. Would NOT admit to airlines that the person has died if you don’t want miles to disappear.</p>
<p>When my dad died, I arranged for the points to transfer to his wife, and she was able to use them to make an international trip afterwards. Perhaps I needed a death cert. Don’t remember.</p>
<p>There’s a scene at the very beginning of “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” where this exact thing happens – the call center person asks to speak to the primary card holder and the widow (Judith Dench) starts to cry and hangs up.</p>
<p>Seems to me the points should belong to her as well, if she is a user of the credit card. </p>
<p>Just curious. If she had a male friend/family member call and pretend to be her husband and successfully added herself as a ‘primary’ cardholder, would she be in violation of the law or just being slightly dishonest? I’m thinking that’s the path I might take.</p>
<p>When my father passed away, the points were given to my sister and me. I don’t know what we had to do, as my sister took care of it.</p>
<p>Beil, impersonating someone who has died for financial gain sounds like a crime to me, but I’m not a lawyer.</p>
<p>I died, but not for financial gain. ;)</p>
<p>I knew my grammar was wrong there mini, but sent it out anyway.</p>
<p>Well, I loved it!</p>
<p>What airline frequent flyer program is not set up to redeem online?</p>
<p>If they are, then anyone can do it. She just needs his password and account number, and most any wife has that anyways. I really find it unlikely that she can’t do it online, and she won’t ever have to talk to anyone to do that.</p>
<p>The OP said the friend was never set up to be able to do it online. I would hope the friend would not ask a male to impersonate her husband . That puts people in a very uncomfortable position. Good luck with getting the miles transferred.</p>
<p>“The OP said the friend was never set up to be able to do it online.”</p>
<p>Yes, but I really question if her friend is correct. In this day and age, that seems unlikely. I hope the OP will tell us which ff program it is, because we can check that in about 5 seconds.</p>
<p>Seems to me if she is executrix and was a cardholder on the account, she should be able to set up the online access and do whatever she needs to do with the points. I wrote a letter and send int he death certificate after my mom passed away to get the points transferred to my dad. Then, as he aged and need more help, I handled his financial affairs (I was POA) and we set me up as an authorized user on his accounts. And he told me his pwd for his FF account. So I went into the account and transferred the points, or used some to purchase a ticket. I forget. But it was doable.</p>
<p>The key with POA is to do these kinds of things while the person who has given you POA is still alive.</p>
<p>[Where</a> do miles go when you’re gone? - SmarterTravel.com](<a href=“Where do miles go when you're gone?”>Where do miles go when you're gone?)</p>