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Can you transfer Delta miles to your spouse?

  • Meghan Hunter

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    If you and your significant other are into the “two-player mode” of collecting travel rewards and like flying with Delta, you may be wondering: Does Delta allow a husband and wife to transfer their miles to one another, like you can with Chase Ultimate Rewards points?

    The simple answer is yes, but Delta charges a fee for transfers.  So you need to do the math to see if it makes sense (it often doesn’t).

    And don’t forget, you can book award tickets for anyone using your Delta miles – without transferring miles and without paying a fee. So you might not need to transfer miles after all.

    Here’s more about transferring Delta miles between accounts and other ways to earn more Delta miles.

    You may be a travel fanatic, but transferring Delta miles from one account to another isn’t always the best idea. (Photo by Prostock-studio/Shutterstock)

    Transferring Delta miles between accounts

    Although you can transfer Delta miles between accounts, it’s generally not a good idea. Because Delta charges 1 cent per mile and a $30 transaction fee, plus tax, per transfer. And you have to transfer miles in increments of 1,000 miles.

    You can transfer a maximum of 150,000 Delta miles from your account per year and receive a maximum of 300,000 Delta miles from others.

    Being able to transfer points or miles between certain accounts, like you can with Ultimate Rewards points, is nice. Because you might only need a few more miles & points for an award ticket or hotel stay.

    But if you’re considering transferring Delta miles to someone else, you need to do the math to see if it makes sense.

    Want to transfer a few miles? It might make sense

    For example, say you want to purchase two round-trip domestic award tickets in coach with Delta. You’ll need a total of around 50,000 Delta miles (2 X 25,000 Delta miles per ticket. But you only have 47,000 Delta miles in her account and your significant other has 5,000 Delta miles in thier account.

    It’s not enough for an award ticket, but you could transfer 3,000 miles to your account. And it would cost $30 (3,000 miles X 1 cent per mile) plus the $30 transaction fee, for a total of $60 plus tax.

    In this case, it could make sense to transfer a few Delta miles between accounts. Because even though they’re paying $60 for the transfer, they’re likely saving hundreds of dollars using miles for two round-trip award tickets.

    Want to transfer a lot of miles? It probably doesn’t make sense

    But what if you need 20,000 more Delta miles to have enough for two round-trip award tickets? It would cost $200 (20,000 miles X $0.01 per mile) plus the $30 transaction fee. For a total of $230 plus tax.

    This likely wouldn’t be worth it, depending on the cash price of the ticket you want to purchase. Because the transfer fees would negate the savings you’d get from using your miles.

    More ways to earn Delta miles

    Here’s a look at some of the best travel credit cards to earn Delta miles with because if you frequently fly Delta, you can further enhance your flying experience with credit card perks like complimentary lounge access, priority boarding, annual companion certificates, and more (enrollment required):

    Just remember, American Express only allows folks to get the welcome offer once per person, per lifetime on all their cards. But if you’ve already had the personal version of the card, you can still get the business card, because they’re considered different card products.

    Bottom line

    Delta charges a fee of 1 cent per mile and a $30 transaction fee, plus tax, when you transfer miles between accounts.

    If you only need to transfer a few miles, it can make sense to pay the fee. Especially if it means you’ll save hundreds of dollars on an award flight. But if you’re considering transferring a lot of miles, I’d suggest saving your miles and paying the cash price for the ticket.

    But do the math to see what makes sense for your situation.

    And remember, you can avoid transfer fees by directly booking award seats for others using the miles from your account!

    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)