Charity Miles -- A Proposal
May 31 '00
Unused and odd-end frequent flyer miles (FFMs) are useless for conversion purposes, but consider what, in aggregate, they might mean for charity -- if only we could find a Net-wise way of arranging the donations.
FFMs are an unacknowledged form of electronic currency. Large corporations (and, increasingly, many smaller companies), know the power of FFMs, and some require FFMs earned on company flights to be used only on other company flights, not personal travel. Scrooges, to be sure, but when you consider the numbers, this policy makes fiscal sense. (We share in the reward if the company with the policy works under government contracts!) The point is that when taken together, unused FFMs could mean big bucks.
Now let us posit that we incentivize air carriers to allow their FFMs to be convertible to use by the charity of one's choice. Further, let us posit that the allocation of FFMs could be done on the Net by the owners whenever they choose to do so. And let us go all the way. Let us make our system manage the charitable gifting automatically. That is, if I have X FFMs remaining at the end of a period when they otherwise would expire, I designate their donation to Charity XYZ. The donation would take place, unless I should override, for the remaining few FFMs, along with every other such donor. And the receiving charity could then present the FFMs to the carrier electronically for a cash amount, receipted electronically to the donor.
Difficult? Not really. It is a matter of a little software and a whole lot of moral suasion. Something like the California state revenue system, without the jail terms.
Don't forget, if you don't or can't use your FFMs they just go to waste anyway. Why let the airlines get off the hook for compensating somehow? And besides, the airlines themselves could take credit (grudgingly, you can bet) for doing so much good. They would deserve the credit. I for one would applaud.
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wickengel
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Member: Wilson F. Engel III Ph.D.
Location: Nashua, NH
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Thinker, Writer, Editor, Inventor, Novelist: The Virtue of Baseball (www.puff-adder.com), Poet
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