wasting air miles?

[My English Castle]

I'm looking for advice!
My DD has over 20,000 miles with American Airlines which will expire, according to their newest policy, at the end of the year.

I spent a good hour last night setting up a points.com account for her, hoping to trade those miles for something since I'm pretty sure we won't fly anywhere the rest of this year. This resulted in massive frustration because despite the tantalizing gift cards etc offered by points.com for her miles, American requires you to have at least 25,000 miles to trade into their system.

Any ideas what I can do with the miles? I don't really want to pay their
nasty fees to gift miles to her or have her gift them to us.

[My English Castle]

an additional complication

Because she is a child, car rental awards and the like aren't an option.

We may end up donating them to Make a Wish, but I'd like more options!

[sweeps]

You can do other things besides flying to keep your miles active. AAdvantage Retention Policy

I haven't tried this, but theoretically you can keep your miles active just by signing up for a Citi/AAdvantage credit card.

[My English Castle]

yeah but

the problem is, because my daughter is 5-years old, a credit card is just not a good idea. And the shopping options don't work either because they require a credit card in her name.

[poundwise]

This may not be ideal but it looks like a viable option -- If you have, or want to create, a Hilton HHonors account, you can exchange air miles into HHonors points. link

[My English Castle]

The HIlton points might be an option, but a 5-year-old with hilton points?
And dumb old American Airlines wants $25 to even switch into Hilton points. Grrrrr.

[sweeps]

If you do a google search for AAdvantage miles surveys, there are some possibilities for earning small amounts of miles by filling out surveys. That might keep the account from expiring, just a thought.

[My English Castle]

Thank you!!!!!!

Ah, sweeps, I think you've saved her darn miles!
I just signed her up for a couple surveys and some e-mail subscriptions, and I figure that should do it!

Thank you so much!
Hasn't google just helped us all soooo much!

[My English Castle]

and an additional payoff

My frustrating hour at points.com actually paid off as their 10 (wowow!) mile bonus has already appeared in her account, saving her miles for another 18 months.

I'm grateful to you all for your input. She may yet get a trip to Disney out of this deal!

[sweeps]

Glad that it worked out.