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Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions / FAQ

In these Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), you can find responses to many questions we receive on a daily basis. It is likely that your question is answered here.

It is important to mention that because the Miles4Migrants team is not working “on the ground,” we depend on a global network of partner organizations to identify and vet individuals in need of assistance. We cannot assist individuals directly. Only flight requests that come to us via our partner organizations are processed.

See more in the questions and their responses below:

For those in need of assistance:

Miles4Migrants does not handle direct flight requests. We use a network of partners who work directly with refugees and migrants to identify and vet individuals who can not afford to pay for air travel.

We help vulnerable forced migrants who have been impacted by war, torture, persecution and environmental disasters, travel to safety in new countries. We work with partner organizations to identify refugees or asylum seekers that need help paying for airfare.

We provide forced migrants who can not afford to pay for airfare. We do not provide funds for bus, train or other ground transportation.

We do not help people with securing sponsors or sponsorship programs. Please contact a local Non-governmental organization in your area that has the resources to work with you on this matter. Visit the UNHCR HELP site for information on asylum, legal assistance, education, and other services.

We do not provide help with visas or applications for visa programs. We suggest that you contact a local Non-governmental organization in your area that has the resources to work with you on this matter. Visit the UNHCR HELP site for more information on asylum, legal assistance, education, and other services.

The Ukraine2Canada Program we helped sponsor closed in February 2023. Miles4Migrants continues to fly Ukrainians to Canadian communities with flights booked through our partners based on their available resources.

Our program Project Afghan Arrival ended in September 2022. We continue to fly Afghanis to safety with flights booked through our partners as they come up.

Miles4Migrants does not provide legal assistance. Please contact a local Non-governmental organization in your area that has the resources to work with you on this matter. Visit the UNHCR HELP site for information on asylum, legal assistance, education, and other services.

Miles4Migrants does not provide housing assistance, funds or referrals. Please contact a local Non-governmental organization in your area that has the resources to work with you on this matter. Visit the UNHCR HELP site for information on asylum, legal assistance, education, and other services.

Donations and Pledges

To donate miles/points or cash, please head to miles4migrants.org/donate. If the type of points that you would like to donate is not listed on our website, that means that we do not currently accept it.

All points and miles we receive are used to support migrants around the world, not one specific location. However, if you donate to a specific campaign or program, those donations will go towards those efforts.

We accept points and miles from many major loyalty programs, airline, and credit card programs. Miles4Migrants partners directly with the following loyalty programs so you can transfer your miles directly into Miles4Migrants pooled accounts:

  • United Airlines MileagePlus
  • Air Canada Aeroplan
  • Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
  • JetBlue TrueBlue
  • Air France – KLM Flying Blue

Other commonly donated miles/points:

  • Southwest Rapid Rewards
  • Delta SkyMiles
    Lufthansa Miles and More
  • American Express Membership Rewards
  • Chase Ultimate Rewards
  • Capital One Miles
  • Citi ThankYou Points

Yes you can. We have pooled accounts with: 

  • United
  • Alaska
  • Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)
  • Aeroplan (Air Canada)
  • JetBlue

If you pledged miles to one of our pooled account partners…

You will receive instructions about how to transfer your miles to M4M’s pooled charitable account when you make your pledge on our website. Please check your spam folder if you do not see an email. Once you’ve successfully made the transfer, you’re done!

​If you pledged points or miles from another program…

Someone from our team will contact you about the next steps. Your pledge will then be in our queue, allowing the flight booking team to match it with an incoming travel request. Our flight booking team finds the best award flight options, and then matches the flight with a corresponding donation.

We do accept cash check donations. For cash, please head to miles4migrants.org/donate to make a one-time or recurring donation. Cash donations help us cover the taxes and fees associated each bookings or the cost of a ticket that cannot be purchased with miles.

Checks can be mailed to 3629 Laurel St. New Orleans LA 70115. Please provide us with your full name and email address so we can send you the receipt.

All contributions to Miles4Migrants are used solely to help refugees, asylees, and asylum-seekers. No funding or contributions are used to cover any personal costs of staff or volunteers, and under no circumstance is any donated money used for political activism or lobbying.  

Miles that are donated to Miles4Migrants are not considered tax-deductible. Miles4Migrants is registered as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charity, and monetary donations may be tax deductible. For further information, consult IRS Publication 526 and/or your personal tax advisor.

For each flight reservation made, Miles4Migrants determines the lowest cost reasonable itinerary for the number of people requested on the day that we scheduled a flight. We define “reasonable itinerary” as one layover or fewer and exclude low cost carriers because these flights often charge additional fees. We do not use the cost of the exact flight we have booked with points because it would often lead to an inflated cash value since cash prices do not always directly correlate with the award flight cost in miles. 

For example, if we received a flight request to fly two passengers from San Antonio to Philadelphia, and we booked those tickets using United Airlines miles, it may cost 30,000 miles and $11.20 in fees. Then we’d find the find the lowest cash cost one stop flight from SAT-PHL. If the lowest cost option was a $400 Delta flight, we would record the cash value as $800 ($400 x 2), even if the particular United flight reservation we made cost $900 per ticket, since in any realistic situation where someone had to pay cash, they would purchase the $400 flight, not that particular $900 flight.

Other questions

No, we do not transport cargo or supplies. Our work is strictly focused on assisting forced migrants with transit to safe locations.

Send a message to contact@miles4migrants.org

and someone will contact you to discuss available opportunities.

We are a 100% remote office and our team is located across the globe.

On our contact page, fill out the form and select partnerships in the drop-down menu. A member of our team will contact you to discuss available opportunities.

(Revised: 05/2023)