Travel: Who gets the airline miles in the divorce?

When a marriage ends, there’s much to consider: custody arrangements, who gets the house, how the furniture is divided, what happens to the pets.

But what about the airline miles, hotel nights and credit card points that one or both parties racked up? Those are fair game — and splitting them could be complicated. Couples need to work out how to divide their assets fairly and then navigate the nuances of airline, hotel and credit card policies.

The issue is so common that law firms have flooded the internet with warnings that “your airline miles may complicate your divorce” or “airline miles are an important part of your divorce negotiations.”

Erin Levine, a lawyer who co-founded the online platform Hello Divorce and serves as its CEO, said assets or debts that build up during a marriage are generally considered joint property, even if they’re in one person’s name. They are typically divided equally, though there are some exceptions, she said.

“There’s a really big misconception that ‘I earned those travel points’ or ‘I earned those airline miles; they’re in my name and they’re mine,’” she said. “That is wrong.”

Splitting miles can be messy

Levine, a divorce attorney, recommends that spouses first “get really curious” about piles of rewards to identify every point, mile, night or other benefit that each party has acquired as part of a broader exchange of financial information. After everything is on the table, it’s time to investigate the policies for transferring points at each credit card or travel company.

Some make it easy to share points; Levine said it is typically easier to transfer credit card points than airline miles. Some businesses make it cumbersome and expensive, setting restrictions on how much can be transferred at one time and charging a fee for each transaction. Delta, for example, allows batches of miles to be transferred, but it costs a penny per mile and a $30 processing fee per transaction to do so.

“If it’s going to be costly or complicated, you want to know that because it will affect how you ultimately divide them,” Levine said. Even if a court orders points to be divided a certain way, the loyalty members are still restricted by the companies’ policies.

“It’s a divorce order. It’s not an order for the airline,” Levine said.

Divorcing couples can split the travel perks down the middle or take equivalent amounts from different companies: One person gets the miles, and another the hotel nights, if that fits their travel styles. Someone who doesn’t travel much may want to put a value on the rewards and have the other spouse buy them out, or trade credit card points for cash.

Families may decide to use points and miles for their children’s travel needs, or for trips as a group even after divorce is final. Levine said she has even seen agreements where one partner will book flights for their ex-spouse using their own points post-split — a potentially awkward arrangement.

“That takes a lot of cooperation,” she said. “It’s not going to happen in a really messy divorce.”

Levine said couples should consider whether they want to use points or miles before finalizing a divorce in case moving the benefits around is too complicated. And she suggests that when people are splitting points, they make the transfers before the divorce agreement is signed while they are still technically a family unit to make it easier.

Points as inheritance

What happens to points and miles is also not cut-and-dried when a loved one dies.

Hotel, credit card and airline policies vary — though some explicitly provide instructions for the death of a loyalty member.

“Airline rewards and credit card rewards are not your assets,” said Tiffany Funk, co-founder and president of the points search-and-booking engine Point.me. “Programs assume control of your miles once they’re notified you pass away.”

Many travel companies include language saying that benefits are not the property of a loyalty member. But they also often include an option for survivors.

American Airlines, for example, says that the carrier may “under certain limited situations” opt to credit a deceased member’s rewards to a designated person, provided they have the right documentation. United says it may credit part or all of a customer’s miles to an authorized person in the event of a death or divorce of a member.

Marriott similarly says unredeemed points can be transferred to a family member or friend who is an active loyalty member once the right paperwork has been handed over.

Funk said people are often left to worry about what happens to points after someone has already died. A better solution for credit cards, she said, is for people to add their spouse or the executor of their estate as authorized users, which would give them easier access to accrued points or miles. If an airline allows families to pool miles, they should take advantage of that option.

When people do their estate planning, Funk said points and miles should be included just like bank accounts and other financial assets.

“It’s a question I get all the time and have over the past 15 years,” Funk said. “So it’s definitely something people think about.”