Since airing a story about how individuals have donated their airlines miles to help Ukrainians escape the war zone, we've been inundated with requests to help.
One organization that facilitates the transfer is called Miles4Migrants.
Miles4Migrants uses donated frequent flyer miles, credit card points, and cash to help people impacted by war, persecution, or disaster reunite with loved ones and start new beginnings in safe homes.
Founded in 2016, Miles4Migrants is a nonprofit that accepts frequent flyer mile donations and uses them to book airfare for migrants with financial hardships.
To date: They've helped fly over 28,000 people from 86 countries with a combined value of over 7.7 million dollars!
They accept miles and points pledges from almost all loyalty programs; however, based on the most frequent requests for departure/arrival locations, certain programs are used more frequently than others.
The most needed miles and points donations are:
- United Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Alaska Airlines
- Southwest Airlines
- Flying Blue (Air France and KLM)
- American Express Membership Rewards
- Chase Ultimate Rewards
- Capital One Rewards
- Air Canada/Aeroplan
Miles4Migrants fosters relationships with other nonprofits that are working ‘on the ground’ to serve refugees and asylum-seekers directly.
Their nonprofit partners, both across the world and within the United States, submit requests for flight assistance to Miles4Migrants. Each partner is responsible for vetting flight recipients to ensure they have the necessary legal approval and documents to travel to (or, in the case of those released at the US-Mexico border or from immigration detention and legally seeking asylum in the United States, within) their resettlement country. They do not accept flight requests submitted directly from individuals without a nonprofit partner acting as an intermediary. A list of our nonprofit partners is included on our NGO partner page.
LEARN MORE: https://miles4migrants.org/