Feb 2, 2005
Ask a typical frequent flyer to guess the value of his miles and points collection, and odds are he won't factor in "lifesaving humanitarian aid" when he's doing the math.
But the value of millions of donated miles has added up to an impressive sum of generosity, according to at least two airlines that encouraged their program members to contribute banked miles to tsunami-relief agencies.
Representatives of both Cathay Pacific Asia Miles and Delta SkyMiles report overwhelming contributions of earned miles by members of their respective frequent flyer plans.
Asia Miles members donated 137,639,000 miles in the 11 days after the initiative began on Dec. 28. As it had pledged, Asia Miles is matching this with another 137,639,000 miles; the total will be divided among Asia Miles' four charitable organizations involved in Southeast Asia recovery efforts.
UNICEF, Oxfam Hong Kong, C.A.R.E. Housing Society and the vision preservation agency ORBIS will each receive their share of the donated Asia Miles. UNICEF plans to use its miles to boost fundraising efforts for the area, while Oxfam Hong Kong will send relief workers with lifesaving supplies to assist thousands of Indian, Sri Lankan and Indian families. The C.A.R.E. Housing Society will use its donations to reunite Indians living in Canada with their uprooted relatives in India, and ORBIS expects to step up eyesight-saving efforts in the region within the year.
Also seeing large mileage donations for tsunami-stricken regions was Delta SkyMiles, whose members have turned over more than 25 million of their earned miles to the SkyMiles SkyWish program. SkyWish has sent the miles to CARE, UNICEF and the American Red Cross.
In a similar vein, over the past five months SkyMiles has also harvested member donations and sent some 82 million miles to the Fisher House Foundation, which provides travel assistance for military family members traveling to see loved ones who had been wounded in service.
All together, SkyMiles officials say members have donated enough miles to issue more than 4,000 domestic SkySaver Award tickets.
Frequent flyers in various programs who would like to donate miles or points to charity can find a list of organizations accepting such contributions by clicking on http://www.miledonor.com/news/?art_key=37. To join the members of the online community FlyerTalk, who have donated more than $20,000 to the FlyerTalk Cares collection of cash for the Red Cross International Relief Fund, visit http://www.webflyer.com/redcross.php.
List of Articles:
|
