Travel Q&A: Cancel the card, keep the miles

TRAVEL Q&A Cancel card, keep the milesQ Can I cancel my American Express Delta Skymiles credit card and keep the miles I've already earned? I got 25,000 miles for signing up, but am wondering if the $95 fee is worth it. My wife has 40,000 miles on her card. We will probably not use the miles within the coming year. What happens to the miles if I cancel the cards?

A According to Chris Kelly at Delta, your miles will stay with you and you may not lose them soon. An account can be inactive for up to two years before the miles go away. Any activity -- charging to the card or using miles to buy a ticket, for instance -- refreshes the account, so you might want to use the card before you cancel it.

I understand your reluctance to pay the $95 annual fee for the card. Many travelers get frustrated trying to use miles to secure tickets. Airlines have been offering fewer frequent-flier seats and sometimes require cash for the transaction. (See "Trading in miles for gift cards and goodies" on G3.) If you like to upgrade your class of service using miles, though, you might want to stick with the card. Ultimately, that's why I decided to pay up and hold onto my Delta-branded American Express card. I can eventually earn a ticket with the points I garner from my Visa card, but points will never get me a free upgrade to first-class.

Answers to travel questions appear weekly in Travel and at startribune.com/escapeartists; send your question by e-mail to travel@startribune.com.

KERRI WESTENBERG

Explore the world no matterThe website www.ustravability.org offers one-source travel help for people with disabilities, compiled by Travelers Aid International. It includes information on transportation and airports, tourism resources, disability organizations and state resources.

MCCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE

KERRI WESTENBERG

Walking through IsraelMartin Fletcher, a former NBC bureau chief in Tel Aviv, spent two weeks in 2008 walking the 110-mile coast of Israel from the Lebanon border to the Gaza Strip. The resulting book, "Walking Israel: A Personal Search for the Soul of a Nation" (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, $25.99), takes readers beyond the headlines and sound bites, to meet interesting people and see fascinating sites. On his journey, Fletcher rediscovered Israel's rich and complex history, the former land of Canaanites and Philistines, and where Christianity and Islam clash. This book is about the other Israel, the Israel that the news organizations, including Fletcher's own, ignore on the way to covering yet another tragedy.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Split Rock shines its lightThe annual lighting of the beacon at Split Rock Lighthouse, near Two Harbors, Minn., will be held Nov. 10 in memory of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald freighter in 1975. The event, from noon to 6 p.m., features lighthouse and fog-signal building tours and a historical film. The lighthouse will close at 4:30 p.m. for the reading of the names of the 29 crew members lost at sea, and it will reopen after the lighting of the beacon. The event is the only time when visitors can climb to the top of the tower at night and see the beacon lit and revolving. Admission is $5 (1-218-226-6372; www.mnhs.org/splitrock).