Give A Mile MileagePlus Fundraising Campaign
Give A Mile is a unique charity that takes donations of miles and uses the miles to book flights for to book tickets so that those in need can be together with loved ones in their last moments of life, so that people don’t die alone.
This is a small organization with a strong cadre of volunteers. There’s not much overhead. There’s no marketing department. Just people committed to do some good using miles. I’ve given a lot of my own miles to the cause.
And they do more than just spend your miles. They work with hospices, ICUs and hospitals to confirm details – they find the people who need help, validate their stories, and connect people in their last moments of life. They’re a 501(c)3 public charity and all miles going towards the program.
Regular readers may know that I joined the board of Give A Mile a little over a year ago. There aren’t enough opportunities to use miles to accomplish charitable objectives. Most are airline-selected corporate charities. And rarely do the miles actually get used for tickets. You can give as few as 1,000 miles.
I’m really low on United miles right now though. I made the first donation of 20,000 miles, and plan to transfer either Chase or Bilt points into my United account to donate more. Since I’m tapped in my MileagePlus account right now, though, do you think you could help out with a donation as well?
I really like this idea, but what I don’t like is United essentially profiting off their exorbitant rates for redemption flights. If I knew united was providing discounted redemptions I would be far more inclined to join.
Do they accept smaller donation of miles, not like the 20,000 that Gary Leff gave?
@ derek
1000 mile increments
@Gary … this is kind and an act of charity . Thank you for your good deeds .
Or here is an idea…United could just give them some tickets.
@Jeff … +1 .
@mike
Spot on. United would be the most benefited out of this… exorbitant rates for last minute economy tickets is not a good use for United miles.
I have over a million miles that I would gladly donate but I simply don’t think they would buy more than 20 one way economy tickets for those in need. I would rather pay cash for those tickets and most likely not all would have to be with greedy United or their partners.
MileagePlus is so badly managed right now. Just look at their award rates on their own miles… and the way they “share” award space with other star alliance partners/programs.
This is a kind and helpful idea, but something feels off.
Mileage points are generated for use by High-mileage customers who accumulate them by flying thousands of airline miles. Those passengers are then asked to reach into their hearts, deduct from their accumulated stockpile, and return those miles to United. Caring, Dependable, Efficient, and Safety motivated United employees then manage the gift gathering information and investigating charitable requests to ensure the recipient is worthy to benefit from their sympathetic distribution.
How about United expand their charitable mileage giving pool by offering to match mileage donations? This would likely encourage prolific mileage earners to donate for this and other giving purposes. Allow mileage points to become exceedingly transferrable in more cases so that they can be given as gifts for these needs, anonymously or otherwise.
United flies thousands of times daily, often with a few empty seats. United makes nothing on those empty seats when they go unfilled. This is perhaps a way United might offer access through temporary pass use.
I may be missing something, but United doesn’t look like they have much “skin in the game” if the largest role they play in the process is to pay a management team to run a mile-giving charity with returned PAX points. We’re a big company . . . There is no reason the charity should ever have a dearth of mileage available to give to those grieving or in need.