How to Transfer Delta SkyMiles to Another Member Account

A SkyMiles transfer moves miles you already hold into another member’s account, and you pay a cash fee to do it. How to transfer Delta SkyMiles runs through one form, and that fee is a per-mile charge plus a flat amount on every checkout. If you already know the flight, you can book the award in their name and skip the transfer fee.

The steps below cover who can send and receive, what common amounts cost, the yearly caps, and how this paid move differs from gifting miles, buying miles, or converting partner points.

Accounts That Can Send or Receive Miles

Both accounts have to clear two tests before a single mile will move, and a number created today will fail them. The sender and the recipient each need an established SkyMiles account, not a placeholder opened so the form would accept a name.

WHO CAN USE THE FORM

• Account age: Both accounts must have been open for at least 10 days.
• Earned mile: Each account needs at least one automatically posted mile since the member enrolled.
• Name and number: You need the recipient’s name and SkyMiles number, and Delta will not look them up for you.
• Market: The tool is not offered in every country, so the link can be missing even when both accounts qualify.

Someone without an account can join SkyMiles for free and get a number right away, then wait out those two tests. The number by itself does not make the account ready to send or receive.

How to Transfer Delta SkyMiles on Delta.com

Once both accounts qualify, the move is a single checkout. You can name more than one person in that checkout, and you can come back later for another one.

1. Log in to the SkyMiles account that holds the miles you want to move.
2. Open Transfer Miles, which sits with Buy, Gift, and Donate on the same miles page.
3. Add up to four recipients and enter each name and SkyMiles number, along with the email address if the screen asks for one.
4. Pick the amount in increments of 1,000 miles, from 1,000 through 30,000 for each person.
5. Pay with the credit card on the form. The fee for miles transferred this way is not refundable.
6. Wait for the miles to show. They generally post to the recipient within 24 to 48 hours.

A second checkout is allowed, and it is a new transaction with its own processing fee. Putting four people in one cart costs one processing fee, while four separate visits cost four.

The Cash Cost of a SkyMiles Transfer

You pay $0.01 per mile plus a $30 processing fee on the transaction, plus any tax that applies. That price is set out in Delta’s published Transfer Miles terms, and the charge is billed in US dollars.

A parent pricing a transfer for a child stopped at the 25,000 mile row and left the miles in the original account.

That row works out to 1.12 cents for each mile moved, which is the mile charge plus the flat fee spread across the whole amount.

The 1,000 mile line is the expensive case on a per-mile basis, at 4 cents for each mile moved.

The 30,000 mile line comes out to 1.1 cents for each mile moved, which is as low as this fee schedule gets inside one transaction. The per-mile price falls as the transfer gets larger because the processing fee stays flat.

Residents of Canada add $1.50 of GST on the processing fee, and the terms attach that tax to the processing fee rather than stacking a second rate on every mile.

Yearly Caps on Miles You Send or Receive

The per-transaction band sits inside two yearly caps, and miles past either cap are not taken from the sender and are not posted to the recipient.

Those caps are calendar year totals, so a transfer in January and a transfer in December draw from the same pool. A recipient can take miles from more than one account, and the incoming cap still applies to the combined total.

A FULL YEAR OF SENDING

• Five max transfers: Five moves of 30,000 miles reach the 150,000 mile send cap.
• Mile charge: Those 150,000 miles at $0.01 come to $1,500.
• Processing fees: Five transactions add $150.
• Year total: The bill is $1,650 before tax when each transfer names one person.

Sharing one transaction across several recipients changes only the processing line in that list. The mile charge still applies to every mile that leaves the account.

Booking an Award in Someone Else’s Name

You can book Award Travel for another person even when you are not on the flight. The passenger does not need the miles sitting in their own account. You keep the balance, you enter their name on the ticket, and there is no transfer fee.

The paid transfer does one job that booking does not. The miles land in the other account, so that member can choose the flight later without you at the keyboard. Use the transfer when they have to finish the booking, or when you want the miles under their control. Book from your account when the flight is already picked.

Taxes and fees on the award are paid when the ticket is booked, and a transfer does not hold a seat. Award space is limited, and a peak date can ask for more miles than a quieter date on the same route.

Gift Miles, Bought Miles, and Partner Points

Three other tools sit on the same miles menu, and each one buys a different thing. Using the gift price when you meant to move miles you already hold is the mix-up that inflates the card charge.

Gift Miles You Purchase for Someone Else

Gift Miles means you buy new miles for their account instead of sending miles you earned. The other account still has to pass the same age and earned-mile tests that a transfer uses.

• Price: Gift miles cost $0.035 per mile, plus applicable taxes.
• Yearly cap: No more than 60,000 gifted miles can post to a single account in a calendar year.
• Minimum: The buy and gift terms set a floor of 2,000 miles per transaction.
• Recipients: You can name up to four people in one gift transaction and run another transaction later.
• Timing: Gifted miles generally post within 24 to 48 hours.

Gifting 10,000 miles costs $350 before tax. Transferring 10,000 miles you already hold costs $130. The gift leaves your balance untouched because you are paying retail for miles the other person did not have.

Miles You Buy for Your Own Account

Buying miles for your own account uses the same base price as a gift, aimed at you rather than at someone else, with the same minimum and the same kind of yearly cap.

TAX ON BOUGHT MILES

• US excise tax: Purchases sit under a federal excise tax of 7.5%, and Delta says that rate can change.
• Canada: Canadian residents pay an added 5% GST on a purchase of miles.
• Status: Dollars spent to buy miles do not count as Medallion Qualification Dollars, and purchased miles do not count toward Medallion or Million Miler status.

A purchase adds miles. It does not move the balance you already earned, so it is the wrong button when the goal is to share miles you have today.

Partner Points That Convert Into SkyMiles

Transfer Miles does not convert points from a bank or a hotel. That is a separate path, and American Express Membership Rewards converts at up to one mile per point, starting at 1,000 points.

Marriott Bonvoy uses a fixed grid. Marriott’s page for airline transfers is where a Bonvoy member starts that conversion.

Hilton Honors converts at 1,000 SkyMiles for every 10,000 points. Those ratios create new miles in an account. They do not pull miles out of someone else’s balance.

After You Transfer Delta SkyMiles

Miles that arrive through a transfer can be used toward SkyMiles awards. They do not count toward Medallion status or Million Miler status, and the fee you paid does not count toward Medallion qualification either.

A completed transfer is final. Once the transaction is done, the miles will not be redeposited, and the fee is not refundable. Check the SkyMiles number on the account profile before you pay, because a typo sends the miles to the number you typed.

Miles are not the member’s property. Outside this form, SkyMiles rules that bar selling miles also block pledging them or moving them by a will, a court order, or a divorce case. A sale dressed up as a transfer can still cost you the miles and the account.

SkyWish, on the same miles page, is the donate path. Causes are grouped as Crisis and Relief, Health and Healing, Education and Opportunity, and Nature and Animals. That gift goes to an organization, not into a friend’s account.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can You Transfer Delta SkyMiles to Another Airline?

No. Miles moved with Transfer Miles stay in SkyMiles accounts. You can book a partner flight with them through Delta, but you cannot deposit them into United MileagePlus, American AAdvantage, or another program.

Does the Person Receiving Miles Have to Be Family?

No. The form asks for a name and a SkyMiles number, not a family relationship or a shared address. A friend or a coworker can receive the miles when that account meets the age and earned-mile tests.

What if the Card Charge for a Transfer Does Not Go Through?

Delta can return the miles to the sending account if the payment is not received. That return is for an unpaid charge. A transfer that has already been paid is final, and those miles are not redeposited.

How Do Company SkyMiles Move to a Person?

Personal Transfer Miles is the wrong screen for a company balance. On SkyMiles for Business, a primary admin, a secondary admin, or a designated travel agent of a Plus or Elite member requests the move. That company account can send no more than 1,000,000 miles in a calendar day.

Read the recipient’s SkyMiles number off their account before you pay, then put everyone you are funding into that same cart. A second checkout is a second processing fee, and a wrong number is a transfer you cannot call back.