Points and miles after a death or divorce: what the terms say

Nine programs' terms, and the line each one prints about death

Start with the clause, not with a story about someone who got their parent's miles moved. Programs do make exceptions, and the terms reserve the right to make them, but the only thing an executor can rely on is what the program has written down. The table sets out the death clause in each document read, with the document's own date where it prints one. Read the row for every program in which the person held a balance, because each program applies its own rule and none of them refers to another's.

Two patterns jump out before any detail. First, the three bank documents with a death clause end in a redemption or nothing: none of the Amex, Chase or Citi documents read lets an heir receive Membership Rewards, Ultimate Rewards or ThankYou points as points, and Bilt's terms say nothing either way. Second, the airline and hotel documents split. Three forfeit outright or close the account, one keeps the decision to itself, and one prints a beneficiary procedure. That split is the main reason the place a balance sits on the day of death matters more than its size, a point the section on transferred balances below works through.

Bank points: a statement credit, one phone call, or a written request

Chase is the most automatic. Both Ultimate Rewards agreements read for this guide, the Sapphire Preferred agreement with a footer dated 03/23/2026 and the Freedom Unlimited agreement dated 09/11/2025, say: "If we're notified of your death, your points will be automatically redeemed for cash in the form of an account statement credit." Nothing for the estate to choose, and nothing to transfer. The clause does not print a redemption rate, and it does not say what happens to the credit afterwards; that is a question about the card account and the estate, not about points. Only these two Chase agreements were read, and other Chase cards' agreements may differ, so the sentence above describes those two documents.

Citi asks the estate to act, and it sets a clock. The ThankYou terms for Citi Double Cash accounts, last updated March 2022 and the oldest document on this page, say: "You will lose Your Points upon Your death, and Your estate, successors and assigns have no property rights or other legal interests in such Points, except under this circumstance." The circumstance is a Cash Rewards option: "If we receive a written request within one (1) year of Your death from the executor or administrator of Your estate, along with evidence satisfactory to us of Your death and the identity and appointment of the executor or administrator, we can allow Points remaining in Your ThankYou Account to be redeemed for Cash Rewards." Note the verb: Citi can allow it. The terms name the ThankYou Service Center at 1-800-THANKYOU for more information. Only the Double Cash version of the ThankYou terms was read; a balance earned on another Citi card needs that card's own terms checked.

Amex sits in between. Its Membership Rewards terms, last updated November 2026, say that if Amex cancels any of your products "for any reason (including your death, insolvency or bankruptcy)", you lose all the points in your Rewards Account. One exception follows: "The executor of your estate or personal representative may be able to make a one-time points redemption upon your death, depending on your Product, by calling 1-800-AXP-EARN (297-3276)." Three qualifiers sit in that sentence: may be able to, one time, and depending on the product. An executor should treat it as a call worth making early, not as a right.

Bilt is the gap. Its terms, last updated October 27, 2026, list the reasons an account can lose its points (breaking the agreement, filing for bankruptcy, fraud, misuse) and add that "Upon cancellation of your Account for any reason, you will lose all Points immediately". A search of the full document finds no clause about the death of a member; the only appearance of the word is in a disclaimer about personal injury or death. Silence is not permission. It means the outcome is whatever Bilt decides when it is asked, and nothing in the terms tells an executor what that will be.

Airline and hotel programs: forfeiture, discretion and one printed procedure

Southwest is the bluntest airline document read. Its Rapid Rewards terms say: "Points may not be transferred to a Member's estate or as part of a settlement, inheritance, or will. In the event a Member's account is closed upon death, any points will be forfeited." Singapore Airlines is just as clear: "Membership will terminate immediately upon death of the member. KrisFlyer miles, status credits and rewards earned but not redeemed at the time of death, as well as benefits and privileges, will be automatically forfeited on the death of the member." The KrisFlyer terms add that miles "may not be bequeathed or otherwise treated as personal property."

Delta gets to the same place through two clauses. Its program rules list the circumstances in which Delta may close an account "(and accordingly remove all miles in the account)", and one of them is simply "A Member is deceased." A separate clause says miles are not the property of any member and that, except as the rules allow "or otherwise in writing by an officer of Delta", miles may not be "transferred under any circumstances, including, without limitation, by operation of law, upon death, or in connection with any domestic relations dispute and/or legal proceeding." The officer exception is real text, but the rules print no process for asking for it.

Marriott leaves the door ajar without describing it. Its Program Rules, updated October 2026, say points are the company's property, not the member's, and then: "Limited transfers upon death or divorce may be permitted only as expressly authorized by the Company and subject to documentation and verification requirements as may be required by the Company in its sole discretion. The Company's decisions regarding such transfers are at the Company's sole discretion and final." The rules do not say which documents, which deadline or which recipients qualify.

Virgin Atlantic is the exception on this page. Clause 2.9 of the Flying Club terms effective from October 30, 2024 says that if a member passes away, Virgin "may transfer their Virgin Points to the named beneficiary's FC Programme Member's account at our sole discretion, provided that: (i) we receive a copy of the death certificate; (ii) we receive a signed letter of indemnity from the estate's executor confirming the beneficiary's entitlement, and we may request a copy of the will for confirmation or clarification purposes; and (iii) the transfer is not disputed." Even here the decision stays with Virgin, and the beneficiary needs a Flying Club account of their own to receive the points. The same terms say a member may not transfer or assign the membership itself "to any other individual, trust or estate", so it is the points, not the account, that can move.

Read the matrix by column, not by row. The first column shows that most programs end the balance or convert it; the second shows how rarely an heir receives points as points; the third shows that divorce is either barred by name or left to the program. For the programs this guide could not read, the honest cell is blank, which is why they are not drawn at all rather than guessed.

Divorce: named in three bank contracts, left vaguer elsewhere

Divorce is where people most often assume points behave like other household assets. Three bank documents read for this guide say otherwise, and they say it by name. Amex: points "don't belong to you and are not your property. You can't transfer them to someone else's Rewards Account, you can't sell them, and you can't pass them on as part of a legal action, such as a divorce, an inheritance or bankruptcy." Chase, in both agreements read: "Unless required by law, points aren't your property," and "points can't be transferred by operation of law, such as by inheritance, in bankruptcy or in connection with a divorce." Citi: "By operation of law, You can't transfer Points through such events as an inheritance, bankruptcy or a divorce. Points also can't be assigned or pledged."

Chase's wording carries a qualifier the other two do not: "Unless required by law." This guide does not say when a court order would meet that test; that is a legal question, and the agreement does not answer it. What the clause does show is that Chase anticipated the question and chose to state its own position first.

The airline and hotel documents are less uniform. Delta covers divorce in the same sentence as death, barring transfers "in connection with any domestic relations dispute and/or legal proceeding" unless an officer of Delta authorizes otherwise in writing. Southwest's bar on transfers "as part of a settlement" does not define the word, and the terms do mention a divorce decree, but only as a document that supports a change of name. Marriott groups divorce with death and keeps both at its sole discretion. The KrisFlyer and Virgin Atlantic terms read for this guide do not name divorce; KrisFlyer says membership "cannot be transferred, sold or bartered", and Virgin's clause 2.9 covers a member who passes away and a paid transfer requested by the member who holds the points. Bilt's terms are silent here too.

That last detail matters in practice. A rule that bars a transfer forced by a court is not the same as a rule that bars a transfer the account holder chooses to make. Several programs offer voluntary moves between members, sometimes for a fee, and those remain open to a cooperative account holder in the same way they are open on any other day. The section on household moves below lists the ones printed in the documents read. None of this tells anyone what a settlement should say; it tells the people negotiating it what the programs will and will not do with a points balance.

A transferred balance takes the partner's clause with it

A balance can change rulebooks in a few seconds. Amex's terms say "Once you transfer points, the transfer cannot be reversed and the partner loyalty program's terms and conditions apply," and that points transferred to a partner "can't be converted back into Membership Rewards points." The same logic runs through every bank currency on this site: once points land in an airline or hotel program, they are that program's miles or points, governed by that program's death and divorce clauses, not the bank's.

Put the clauses side by side and the consequence is plain. Points still sitting in Membership Rewards fall under a clause that allows an executor a one-time redemption, depending on the product. The same points moved last month to Southwest Rapid Rewards fall under a clause that forfeits them on the closure of the account upon death. Points moved to Virgin Atlantic fall under the one beneficiary procedure on this page. Chase points left in Ultimate Rewards become a statement credit; the same points moved to KrisFlyer are forfeited.

This is one more reason the order this site uses for every booking, find the award first and transfer last, is a sound habit and not just a pricing rule. A balance transferred speculatively, to park it in an airline account for a trip not yet found, gives up the bank's clause for the airline's, along with the flexibility the guide to transferring between banks and partners describes. The general case for holding bank points rather than airline miles, from a pricing angle, is in save points or use them now. Nothing here says what any particular household should hold, or where.

Household moves the programs allow while everyone is alive

Most of the anxiety about inherited points is really about a balance one partner earned and both expected to use. Several of the documents read for this guide print voluntary ways to move points between people, and each comes with limits written into the terms. They are listed here because they are what the programs actually permit, not as a plan for anyone's estate.

Marriott's Program Rules, section 2.8, let a member transfer up to 100,000 points per calendar year to another member's account, and receive up to 500,000 points per calendar year, as long as both accounts are in good standing and have been open at least 30 days with qualifying activity, or 90 days without it. The same section caps members at two point transfer transactions per calendar month and six per calendar year. Chase limits person-to-person combining to a single household member living at the same address, according to its education page on the subject. Virgin Atlantic's terms let a member pay to transfer or gift Virgin Points to another Flying Club member, with the fees set out on Virgin's website. Delta's rules point members to its Transfer Miles program, where "Mileage transfer fees and terms and condition apply."

The other move is cheaper and needs no transfer at all. Several programs let a member book an award in someone else's name, which Delta's rules expressly allow, though the ticket cannot change hands once issued; the guide to selling and buying miles quotes that clause and where it stops. The pooling and sharing guide covers household pooling and booking for others across more programs, with the conditions each one prints. Those moves are ordinary account management. Using them to empty an account in anticipation of a death, against a program's rules, is a different matter, and this guide does not suggest it.

What an executor will be asked for, program by program

Executors usually discover points late, from a statement in a pile of mail or an app on a phone. The documents read for this guide are specific about what they want, and in Citi's case about when. The list below gathers the requests the terms print, so the paperwork can go out together rather than one rejected call at a time.

• Citi ThankYou: a written request from the executor or administrator within one year of the death, with evidence satisfactory to Citi of the death and of the executor's or administrator's identity and appointment.
• Amex Membership Rewards: a call from the executor or personal representative to 1-800-AXP-EARN (297-3276), for a one-time redemption that the terms say may be available depending on the product.
• Chase Ultimate Rewards: notice of the death to Chase, after which the agreements say points are automatically redeemed as a statement credit.
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: a copy of the death certificate, a signed letter of indemnity from the estate's executor confirming the beneficiary's entitlement, possibly a copy of the will, and a beneficiary with a Flying Club account; the transfer must not be disputed.
• Marriott Bonvoy: whatever documentation and verification Marriott requires in its sole discretion; the rules list none.
• Delta SkyMiles: written authorization from an officer of Delta is the only exception the rules print; they do not describe how to request it.

Two practical points follow from the dates. Citi's clock is the only fixed deadline on the list, and a year passes quickly in an estate. And the other clocks still run: a balance that would expire for inactivity under a program's normal rules is not frozen because its owner has died, unless the program's own terms say so, so read the expiry rule alongside the death clause. The guide to airline and hotel point expiry gives the inactivity rules by program, and when bank points expire covers the account events that end a bank balance.

Where these documents stop

Six large programs are missing from this page on purpose. The terms pages for American Airlines AAdvantage, United MileagePlus, Hilton Honors, World of Hyatt, IHG One Rewards and the British Airways Club could not be opened on October 29, 2026, either because the site refused the request or because the archive copy was unavailable. Rather than repeat what other sites say those terms contain, this guide leaves them out. If a balance sits in one of them, read that program's current terms directly, or ask the program in writing what it requires.

The documents also stop short of law. Each one is a contract the program wrote, and Chase's agreements, at least, defer to the law where it requires otherwise ("Unless required by law"). Whether a court order, a state statute or a will changes any of the outcomes above is a legal question this guide does not answer. It is also not a tax guide: the separate guide to whether points and miles are taxable quotes what the IRS has and has not said about points, and a cash statement credit paid to an estate is a question for the estate's tax adviser. The points rules hub gathers the other rules questions in this series.

What the documents do settle is the direction of travel. For eight of the nine programs read, the default outcome at death is that the points end, or become cash, or wait on the program's discretion. The one printed route to points-as-points runs through Virgin Atlantic's beneficiary clause, and even that is discretionary. A household that wants its points used will usually get more from using them, for trips the household actually takes, than from any plan that depends on a program making an exception.

Before calling any program on behalf of an estate

• List every program with a balance, and note whether each balance is still bank points or has already moved to an airline or hotel.
• Find the current terms for each program and the clause on death; quote it in the call notes.
• For Citi ThankYou, diary the one-year deadline from the date of death and send the written request well inside it.
• For Amex, call 1-800-AXP-EARN early and ask whether the product allows the one-time redemption.
• For Virgin Atlantic, confirm the beneficiary has a Flying Club account and gather the death certificate and the executor's indemnity letter.
• Keep a copy of every document sent and the name of every agent spoken to.
• Take any question about what a court order, will or statute does to a balance to the attorney handling the estate or the divorce.