Easy way to help Afghan refugees
Oct. 27th, 2021 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkTrip Advisor tipped me off to this great charity organization that pools donated Frequent Flyer miles and turns them into airline tickets for stranded refugees trying to get from staging areas to family members or new homes. Currently they are focusing on Afghan evacuees, but they have been around since 2016 helping other migrants. Seems to be legit.
Miles4Migrants is a 501(c)(3) charity, dedicated to using donated frequent flyer miles to help people impacted by war, persecution, or disaster start a new beginning in a new home. We partner with other nonprofits to identify refugees, asylees, asylum-seekers, and their immediate family members who have legal approval to travel, but cannot afford airfare. Together, we can transform miles into a life-changing force for good.
They "partner directly" with Delta, United, Alaska, and Air Canada. That means that you can use their easy online interface to donate miles from those airlines lickety-split. Apparently it is possible to transfer miles from other airlines, but is a lot more trouble. I am not willing to part with my Delta and Alaska points, since we fly those airlines all the time. But those 15,000 United miles? I don't have that credit card anymore and haven't flown United since that time they beat up that Chinese doctor and dragged him off the plane. So those are orphaned points I will never use - might as well donate them to a good cause.
If I were a better person I might tackle the admittedly complicated process of donating those 100K American miles that I can never seem to find a use for, but not today. American Airlines is one of the few major airlines that still expires their miles (and kinda sucks in a lot of other ways), but I went to a lot of trouble to keep those 100K points alive and I'm not ready to jettison them until they get closer to their new expiration dates.
They "partner directly" with Delta, United, Alaska, and Air Canada. That means that you can use their easy online interface to donate miles from those airlines lickety-split. Apparently it is possible to transfer miles from other airlines, but is a lot more trouble. I am not willing to part with my Delta and Alaska points, since we fly those airlines all the time. But those 15,000 United miles? I don't have that credit card anymore and haven't flown United since that time they beat up that Chinese doctor and dragged him off the plane. So those are orphaned points I will never use - might as well donate them to a good cause.
If I were a better person I might tackle the admittedly complicated process of donating those 100K American miles that I can never seem to find a use for, but not today. American Airlines is one of the few major airlines that still expires their miles (and kinda sucks in a lot of other ways), but I went to a lot of trouble to keep those 100K points alive and I'm not ready to jettison them until they get closer to their new expiration dates.
