When it comes to booking flights with points and miles, I’ve made plenty of smart moves—but I’ve also made my fair share of mistakes. Here’s one I recently made that I hope you can avoid.
The Setup: Booking My Daughter’s Flight Through My Delta Account
I booked my daughter’s Delta flight to New Orleans through my Delta account because I get 15% off award bookings thanks to my Delta credit card. (Side note: Delta credit card bonuses are currently raised, and this 15% discount is a solid perk to consider if you’re in the market for a new card.)
At the time, flying from JFK to New Orleans seemed like the best option. But later, she decided she didn’t want to travel all the way back to New York from Cornell just to catch her flight. Instead, she wanted to fly directly from Syracuse.
The Problem: Changing the Flight & Transferring Amex Points Unnecessarily
To change the flight, Delta required an additional 7,200 miles. Since her original ticket was booked with miles, she could only pay for the change with miles—not cash. The issue? She didn’t have enough miles in her Delta account.
No problem, I thought. But really without thinking, I went into my Amex account and transferred 8,000 Membership Rewards points to her Delta account. Because she’s an authorized user on my Amex Gold Card, I was able to do this instantly. The miles showed up right away.
The Mistake: Trying to Change the Ticket in the Wrong Account
Once the miles were in her account, I logged in to change her flight—but I got an error. Turns out, I needed to make the change in my Delta account, not hers, since I had originally booked the ticket under my account.
That’s when I realized my mistake: the miles I transferred to her account were completely unnecessary. I should have kept them in my Amex account and simply redeemed 7,200 miles from my own Delta account to change the flight.
The Costly Lesson: Amex Points Are a One-Way Street
The biggest frustration? Once you transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to an airline, you cannot transfer them back. Those 8,000 Amex points are now stuck in her Delta account, where they’re far less useful to me. If I had just changed the flight in my own account, I would have saved those points for a future, more valuable redemption.
Takeaways: Don’t Make My Mistake!
- Always change a ticket in the account where it was originally booked. Even if the traveler has their own frequent flyer account, the booking account controls the change.
- Think twice before transferring Amex points. Transfers are permanent, so make sure you really need them in the recipient’s airline account before hitting that button.
- Leverage Delta’s 15% discount. If you have a Delta card, book award flights through your own account when possible to take advantage of the savings.
This was an annoying (and avoidable) loss, but at least now you know how to sidestep it. Safe travels and happy points planning!
The Points Mom’s Got IT!
