How to Pass Your Airline Points Down to Your Heirs

WSJ Your Money Briefing

The Wall Street Journal

News, Business News

3.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

People can build up hundreds of thousands of travel rewards points over the years — but most of the time, they can’t include those points in their estate plans. Host Julia Carpenter talks with WSJ reporter Jacob Passy about how to rethink your points strategy and hand the rewards down to your heirs. Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Americans love using their credit cards, the most secure and hassle-free way to pay.
0:04.0	But DC politicians want to change that with the Durban Marshall Credit Card Bill.
0:08.0	This bill lets corporate megastores pick how your credit card is processed,
0:13.0	allowing them to use untested payment networks that jeopardize your data security and rewards.
0:18.0	Corporate megastores will make more money and you pay the price. Tell
0:22.2	Congress to guard your card because Americans lose when politicians choose. Learn more at guard
0:29.0	your card.com. Here's your money briefing for Monday, June 9th. I'm Julia Carpenter for the Wall Street Journal.
0:40.9	More than 2% of Americans 55 and older have racked up more than 500,000 reward points or miles after years of travel.
0:50.8	According to a survey by Rewards Travel Search Platform point.me.
0:55.5	That's a stockpile worth thousands of dollars.
0:58.9	But most of the time, those rewards simply vanish when the account holder dies.
1:03.5	What do we do with all these miles?
1:05.2	Because you feel like it's something you're owed and you don't want it to go to waste.
1:09.4	And so you have to be strategic about it to make sure that they're not disappearing when you leave the mortal
1:16.5	coil, as it were. We'll talk with WSJ reporter Jacob Passy about the creative and complicated ways
1:23.3	in which account holders protect their points for the next generation. That's after the break.
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1:43.0	making it simple to create everything I need to promote my business.
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1:52.0	Build your brand with Adobe Express.
1:55.0	Search for Adobe Express to find out more and get the app for free.
	...

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