Tag Archives for give a mile.
Your spare points can buy someone time that money can’t. Give A Mile is a lean, volunteer‑driven nonprofit that converts donated frequent flyer miles into “flights of compassion,” reuniting families when every hour matters. Their mission statement is brutally simple: “The cost of a plane ticket should never be the reason someone dies alone.”
United does something really unique, and I was genuinely surprised by it five years ago at launch. Instead of picking their own corporate charities, and asking you to support their efforts with your miles, they allow charities to solicit miles directly. You actually decide which causes to support. That way your miles align with your values.
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.
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.
Give A Mile’s Year-End Campaign To Raise United Airlines Miles Give A Mile’s Year-End Campaign To Raise Air Canada Points Regular readers may know that I joined the board of Give A Mile about a year ago. There aren’t enough opportunities to use miles to accomplish charitable objectives. Most are airline-selected corporate charities. Give A Mile is unique because they take donations of miles and actually use the miles to book flights for a really worthy cause: helping people to be together with loved ones in their last moments. The goal is that people shouldn’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…
Gave a Mile’s year-end campaign to raise United Airlines miles and MileagePlus is offering a 50,000 mile match.
Would you make a year-end donation of United miles for a good cause? I’d appreciate it. No need to do so, but please share in the comments if you’d like. And thank you.
Give a Mile is a non-profit that helps people in need with air travel, using miles donated by members. First they began working with Air Canada. They also have a partnership with United. I’d like to see this grow and expand.
They are on a campaign to raise 1.5 million miles to help connect people to share the moments of life. Give A Mile raises miles and books award travel so that no one has to die alone.
Choose the charity you support, based on groups actually seeking miles (that get deposited into an account for them to redeem real award tickets against), this isn’t a ‘corporate charity program’ it’s something much better than what other loyalty programs offer – the ability for real charities to raise miles from members rather than through a corporate partnership with the airline meant to burnish the airline’s image. Kudos to United for doing this.
Have a few spare United Airlines miles? They could make a difference in the last moments of someone’s life. The miles sitting in your account can bring someone comfort, and bring family together with their loved ones before it’s too late.
I joined the board of Give A Mile which uses donated miles for trips of compassion. They are currently raising United Airlines MileagePlus miles to provide flights to people to spend the last days with a loved one. And if you’ll chip in a few miles, I’ll match them. I’ve already donated to this campaign. I’ll do more, and I’d appreciate your help.
One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is ‘how can I donate miles to charity?’ And the problem is that you really can’t unless you want to give to one of a handful of pre-selected groups your frequent flyer program endorses, or you want to directly book an award for someone out of your account. But this is not always true and you can make a difference.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
