As someone who is going through a divorce, you know that you are entitled to at least some portion of your marital assets. North Carolina is an equitable distribution state, which means that you and your spouse should determine how to divide your assets fairly, not necessarily equally.
If you traveled together often, one of the assets that you should think about dividing is your airline miles. Airline miles might not seem like a big deal to most people, but if you love to travel or have hundreds or thousands of dollars’ worth of airline miles, it makes sense to want to get your fair share.
Sorting out your airline miles might be tough, though. Some programs won’t allow the transfer of points to a spouse in divorce. That will be listed in the terms of the program, so if your program says so, then those airline miles have to stick with whoever’s name they’re in.
Other programs may allow you to transfer points or cash them out, so you can get a cash equivalent to divide in whatever manner is fair.
What happens if you can’t transfer the points?
In the case that you can’t transfer the points or cash them out, another option is to assign a value to the points and then use that as a negotiating point. For example, if the points add up to $6,000 worth of flights, then the party who is keeping the points should have to offset that for the other person.
What should you do if the company is open to transferring the points?
If a company is open to transferring the points, it’s a good idea to open two separate accounts for them. The original account will retain whatever amount is fair, and the second account will have the transferred points placed into your name.
Remember that there may be fees assigned for using this kind of transfer, and some of the points may even expire. That’s something to think about before you decide how to divide the points, since they’re worth nothing if they expire before you can use them.