If you are facing divorce, you may have already determined the custody of your children and other important aspects of the split. Even if you think you have covered all the issues in your divorce, there may still be some matters remaining.
One often overlooked asset is the travel perks associated with online accounts. Who will get all those free night stays and frequent flyer miles?
Don’t leave money on the table
Even if your spouse is the one who accrued all the frequent flier miles through their job, it’s likely that the courts will still view the miles as marital assets that are subject to Georgia’s civil rules of division in divorce.
It doesn’t matter if you never took a flight. Like the other resources that are generated from a spouse’s employment (retirement accounts, salary, etc.), as the non-employee spouse, you still have the right to a share of their equivalent value in other assets.
Splitting travel perks is complicated
For one, the final arbiter of any trading arrangements is the credit card company or airline that issues those perks. If the Georgia family law court orders the rewards to be split between spouses, the point or mileage transfer is subject to any costs or penalties demanded by the issuer.
If the company disallows perks transfers, the courts can’t override the rule. You will have to take an equivalent value from another asset from the marriage.
Should you really bother splitting hairs on this?
Yes, definitely. Even if you are not a traveler yourself, if you have minor children who will one day go away to college, the rewards could be earmarked for custodial visits or travel to and from their university.
Even if you don’t have children to use the frequent flyer miles for school trips, you still should not forgo splitting this asset. The rewards can accrue and be worth thousands of dollars, and you should receive your share, or its equivalent value, in another way.