Emirates Skywards miles – transfer after death

[acewoking]

A letter from the Times:
My husband passed away recently and I want to transfer the miles on his Emirates Skywards membership to mine (it’s a total of 189,000 miles which expire in June). This is so I can fly to Australia to visit my daughter at this distressing time. The airline won’t do it without the following: a death certificate, a copy of the will, and a letter from my solicitor to confirm I am the sole beneficiary. I must get these documents legalised by the UK government. After that I must send them to Emirates with a covering letter to get attestation in the UAE. All this comes at a considerable cost. I am at a loss to understand why there are all these complications. It seems Emirates just wants me to give up so they don’t have to pass these valuable rewards on to me. Can you help?

Reply:
My condolences to you and your family. I was disappointed to hear that Emirates was making the process of transferring your husband’s miles so complicated and expensive. But at least it was prepared to transfer them; some airlines stipulate that any points earned aren’t technically the property of its members and can’t be transferred to next of kin. After my intervention, however, you opened your account to find that the miles had arrived without further fuss, and you can now take that much-needed trip to see your daughter. Other readers with vast numbers of points might want to think about making provision in their will or giving family members login information to access the account.

[SamG]

The hiccup here usually is telling them in the first place. Log in, run the miles balance down, pay with your own card and highly likely it’ll be fine. Most programs have an option to add a nominee online to allow you to call in and conduct transactions if that is required for any reason

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Why is following basic legal procedure always lead to comments that it’s “complicated”?

It looks like EK told her exactly what they needed to prove the miles had been left to her and no one else.

Sure she could just have sent them an email request but that doesn’t prove you are who you claim to be or you’re entitled to them.

[Rob]

Bottom line is that the legal T&C almost certainly say that miles expire on death (as Avios do) so, whilst you can often get them transferred, it’s not worth messing with – just redeem them for flights for yourself off the account.