How To Use Miles and Points to Bless Others

My wife brought up an interesting issue the other day.  She wanted be sure that we were giving a part of our blessings from the frequent flyer miles we’ve earned.  We started to ask how we should give air miles or give a part of what we receive.

As Christians, we believe in the importance of recognizing that (1) everything we have is a blessing from God,  (2) so in response, we want to share those blessings with others.

When it comes to a salary, that is easy to do as we give a predetermined portion of our income to churches, charities that work with the poor, and mission works.

However, how does one give from their miles and points?

Since it’s close to Christmas and everyone most people have giving on their minds, I thought we’d spend a brief moment discussing miles and generosity.

I have a dream (not progressed any further than that) that one day Christians could donate miles to an organization that uses those miles to assist missionaries with travel.  I know it is possible because there are already organizations where you can donate miles.

Three Ways to Give Miles and Points

1. Use miles and points to bless others with the gift of travel.  This year, we gave both our sets of parents two free Southwest vouchers to fly anywhere Southwest flies.  While that was nice to do, neither of our parents are truly in ‘need’, and the gift was something that was going to be expiring anyways.  Would it work to set up a spreadsheet and give a % of all the miles one redeems?  I know of some business people who travel a lot who will donate their miles to missionaries or family to visit missionaries.
2. Impose a self created luxury tax.  We’ve thought about doing this in several different ways.  Each time we do something that we consider luxurious (taking a vacation is luxurious to us), we’d give a certain % of what we spend to a cause that helps the poor.  In the same way, we could give a percentage of the value of the trips we take.
3. Donate to existing charities that allow mileage donation.  I’m not really that familiar with what organizations allow this, but if we found one that aligned with our beliefs, that would be the obvious choice, due to simplicity.  I’d start witha  simple Google search ‘donate miles’ and you’ll find several good options including the Red Cross.

What are your thoughts, ideas, or suggestions?

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