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One of the highlights of collecting points and miles is experiencing luxury travel without the luxury price tag. But what if you want to help book travel for friends and family who aren't as savvy with points and miles as you are? The rules and restrictions around using rewards to book travel for someone else vary by airline.
Generally, you can book a flight for other travelers. However, while some airlines place no restrictions on who you can book flights for, others limit you to booking award flights for travelers linked to your loyalty account. Meanwhile, a handful of programs limit you to redeeming miles only for select family members.
Here's what you need to know about these rules and when you can book award flights for someone else.
Leveraging Lesser-Known Programs To Book Award Flights
Thanks to the adoption of dynamic pricing, award travelers often find themselves using lesser-known frequent-flyer programs to book flights. Flexible rewards currencies have made it easy to transfer points to dozens of airline partners, but it’s equally easy to get confused if you aren't familiar with each program's rules.
For instance, while you might be very familiar with the rules and restrictions for legacy carriers like Delta Air Lines, you might get a better deal booking a Delta-operated flight through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. If you've never flown with Virgin Atlantic before, you might not be as familiar with the policies surrounding award redemptions.
Or, the best points and miles to get to Hawaii might involve booking an American Airlines-operated flight through Qatar Airways Privilege Club. However, you'd be subject to Qatar's award booking rules, even though the flight is operated by American.
Understanding award booking rules is especially important because points transfers to airlines are final. There is no worse feeling than moving hundreds of thousands of points to an airline partner only to find out you can't use them to book flights for other people.
Which Mileage Programs Allow You To Book a Flight for Someone Else?
Here are the restrictions on booking award tickets for others using airline miles across most major loyalty programs, along with each carrier's policies on pooling miles into a single account. We included all airline partners for the following transferable point currencies: Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou® Points, Bilt Points, Capital One Miles, American Express Membership Rewards points, Wells Fargo Rewards, and Rove Miles.
| Airline Frequent Flyer Program | Restrictions If Booking Award Flights For Other People | Family Pooling/Sharing |
|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus AerClub | None | No |
| Aeromexico Rewards | None | Yes |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | None | Yes, Aeroplan Family Sharing joins up to 8 family members. |
| Air France/KLM Flying Blue | None | Yes, Flying Blue Family pools can have up to 2 adults and 6 children. |
| Air India Maharaja Club | You must have completed at least two Air India or Air India Express flights across different booking reference numbers before you can redeem a flight for someone else. After that, no restrictions. | You can set up a Family Pool for a small fee and invite up to 8 additional members. |
| Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards | None | Cardholders of the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Card can create a sharing network with up to 10 other Atmos Rewards members, including friends and family. |
| American Airlines AAdvantage | None | No |
| ANA Mileage Club | You can only redeem for ANA Family Account (AFA) members. | Only for members residing outside Japan, can nominate between 2-8 family members within 2 degrees of kinship to AFA. Registration fee of 1,000 miles per member. |
| Avianca LifeMiles | None | Elite members can create family pools with up to 2 adults and 5 minors. |
| British Airways Club | You can book awards for members of Household Account, plus up to 5 individuals on the Family & Friends list. No restrictions if you don't use a Household Account. | Up to 7 members living at same address can share a Household Account and pool Avios. |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | Redeem for members in your nominated Redemption Group - first 5 nominees are free and then $50 each time a nominee is replaced. | No |
| Delta SkyMiles | None | No |
| Emirates Skywards | None | Up to 8 family members can join an Emirates Skywards My Family account. |
| Etihad Guest | None | Up to 8 family members can share an Etihad Guest Family Account. |
| EVA Infinity MileageLands | You can only use miles to book a flight for someone else if you are traveling with them. | No |
| Finnair Plus | None | No |
| Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club | You can only redeem miles for up to 10 beneficiaries that you list in your account. | Up to 10 members can join a Fortune Wings Family Account. |
| Iberia Club | You can list beneficiaries so they can use your Avios without you having to accompany them on a flight. | Up to 7 people can join an Iberia Family Account. |
| JAL Mileage Bank | You can only redeem tickets for family members within the second degree of kinship. | Up to 9 members in JAL Family Club. Primary account holder must reside outside of Japan - 1,000-mile fee per family member, plus 1,000-mile renewal fee every 5 years. |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | None | Up to 7 friends and family members can combine points through JetBlue Points Pooling. |
| Lufthansa Miles & More | None | Yes. 2 adults and up to 5 children can pool miles with Mileage Pooling. |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | You can only redeem points for eligible family members. | You can transfer points to eligible family members free of charge with Qantas Family Transfers. |
| Qatar Privilege Club | You can add up to 4 people to join "My List," so you can redeem Avios for them when booking flights. They must stay in the list for at least six months. | Qatar Privilege Club Family Programme allows up to 9 family members to pool miles. The Family & Friends program allows you to pool miles with up to six non-members. |
| SAS EuroBonus | None | Up to 8 members (friends or family) can be part of a Point Sharing group at any given time. |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | You can add up to 5 Redemption Nominees. Nominees must stay on account for a minimum of 6 months - free to add people, but costs between $0-$30 to remove, depending on elite status. | Yes - KrisFlyer for Families lets parents can transfer miles from their children for a small fee. |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | None | No |
| TAP Miles&Go | You can select up to 10 people to join your List of Beneficiaries each calendar year. | No |
| Thai Royal Orchid Plus | None | No |
| Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | You must add someone as a travel companion before you can redeem miles for their ticket. | Parents with elite status and unmarried children under 25 can pool points with the Family Membership feature. |
| United MileagePlus | None | Up to five people (friends or family) can be in a United MileagePlus pool. |
| Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles | You can only redeem miles for someone else if you hold elite status. | Up to 10 members can join a Family Account. |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | None | You can add up to 9 household members who live with you to a Virgin Atlantic Household Account. |
Airlines that let you book award flights for anyone
Most airline mileage programs allow you to redeem miles for anybody. This includes all U.S. carrier rewards programs, the major Gulf carriers, most European programs, and, although not included in the table, flexible rewards currencies via their respective travel portals.
Unlike U.S. frequent flyer programs — which allow you to book award flights for anyone — many overseas programs place restrictions on who you can book awards for using your miles. That said, if you're only redeeming your points or miles for your immediate family (parents + children), you shouldn’t have a problem. Keep in mind that you may need to register your family member beforehand, so make sure to leave yourself enough time.
Airlines that only allow you to book award flights for designated people
There are several programs, including Singapore KrisFlyer, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, and TAP Miles&Go, that only allow you to redeem miles for people specified in your account. You can nominate a limited number of people (they don't need to be family), and there is typically a minimum duration of 6 months that a member must remain attached to your account. These programs often charge a hefty fee for nominee replacements to discourage foul play.
If you have a British Airways Household Account set up to pool Avios, you can use the pooled miles only for family members or up to 5 additional people on your Family & Friends List. However, there are no restrictions on booking travel for others if you don't have a Household Account.
Related: How families can work together to pool points and miles
Airlines that restrict award bookings to a limited number of family members
Unfortunately, the most restrictive policies are found in Asian frequent flyer programs that offer some of the best sweet spots in award travel.
Both Korean SKYPASS and Asiana Club allow you to redeem miles only for immediate family members and limit you to 5 linked members per account. They also require documentation to prove family or spousal relations. ANA Mileage Club and JAL Mileage Bank limit the booking of award flights to family members within two degrees of kinship.
Why Not Transfer Airline Miles to Someone Else To Book an Award?
Most frequent flyer programs typically charge a fee to transfer points between accounts. This fee could be anywhere between 1 and 2 cents per mile. Unless you'd redeem miles for far more than the fee, transferring miles to someone else’s account is usually not worth the cost. There are some exceptions, however. For example, Qantas Frequent Flyer allows family members to transfer points to one another for free.
Related: Which rewards programs let you pool points and miles with others for free?
Final Thoughts
The good news is that it’s relatively straightforward to redeem your miles on tickets for other people. The ability to book award tickets for anyone is a feature that U.S. frequent flyer programs provide better value than their foreign counterparts. Before transferring points, make sure you read the terms and conditions to be sure you can book travel for others.
And for programs like Asiana Club, Korean SKYPASS, and ANA Mileage Club, it’s essential to set up your account ahead of time, add your family members, and ensure all documentation is submitted to prove the relationship before transferring points.
Can I book an awards ticket for myself, and also have my husband book an awards flight for my child on the same booking as me? I have enough miles for my ticket, but not for my son, so we want to use my husband’s miles for the second ticket. He’s only 4, so we assume we wouldn’t be allowed to buy his ticket separately. Thanks!
Our separate team can help you redeem your miles/points for international award tickets. Please submit a request here:
https://awardwallet.com/awardBooking/add
They will look into it.
If I only have enough points to cover one leg of a round trip flight on an international trip, will I be able to book my flight online if I need to pay for the return leg of the roundtrip flight using a credit card (which is not an Citi credit card)?
It depends on how you’re booking the flights. If the flights are cheap, you may want to book both legs through Citi’s travel portal. That way you can apply as many points as you wish to the booking and pay for the rest with your credit card.
Can you do one similar to this for hotels please?
Thanks for the feedback. Will add it to our list 🙂
I’m trying to use my AA miles to book a flight for a friend. I’ve heard that they may be asked to show the credit card used to book the ticket when they fly (international flight) so we’re trying to use their credit card to pay the taxes and fees for the award ticket. Problem is I’m getting an error message that the name on the credit card does not match the name on the AAdvantage account. Is there a way around this? I really want to avoid any problems at the airport for my friend.
Do you happen to be an authorized user on your friend’s card account? Visa/MasterCard authorized users have the same card #, expiration and CVV code as the primary cardmember.
No, we aren’t that kind of friends. lol!
Wow! This is very important to me. I always thought you could book an award flight with every airline. Thanks for setting me straight.
I thought that any freq flier accounts could do anything any other ones could. Low and behold, I find that not all freq flier accounts are equal. Really I need to stop assuming…like the saying goes, “when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me.” I’ve been doing that a lot! lol! I think I will be trying to stick to US carrier freq flier accounts. I like that I can transfer from Chase UR to my husbands account, since I have him as an authorized user.
Lots of good information here. Nice to know the rules for each airline. I agree to try to use partners for best availability. Very tough onAA & UA
Great article. I thought united charges transfer fees though.
Sure, but you don’t have to transfer miles to use your miles for someone else.
I’m not sure why you write that AAdvantage doesn’t have restrictions, I booked for other people and my account got shut down.
AA doesn’t have restrictions — if they shut your account down, we can only assume it was because they believed you were violating the terms of their program. Have you reached out to them to discuss?
So what do I do now, my account is frozen and points confiscated?
Did you violate the terms of their program? Did you sell your miles to other people for award tickets? If you didn’t violate the terms you should contact AA and ask to have your case reviewed.
WOW! Thanks for the heads up! I was about to book a flight for a dear family friend and this would have been so embarrassing if they arrived at the airport and couldn’t fly! So glad I read this
Awesome post – thanks! Interesting to learn about the pooling option with Jetblue.
I suppose the main reason for all these rules about who you can redeem for is to stop people collecting/buying/trading miles and setting themselves up as a discount travel agent.
So it seems that more restrictions apply to Asia Airlines.
It could be a way of protecting customers by someone stealing the miles from their account.
What do you think? Is this a possible reason?
I transferred the last of my Membership reward points to Delta a while ago in anticipation of purchasing Delta award tickets on China Airlines for my parents. Their plans changed so I didn’t end up buying the tickets. Then Delta raised the miles required for tickets on Skyteam partners to asia, and it will require 15,000 miles more per roundtrip. Now I don’t have enough miles to buy the tickets and don’t have more miles to transfer from anywhere. I’m stuck.
You’ve hit on the reason points and miles enthusiasts have a concern with Delta.
May be slightly off topic, but how do the people that offer Award booking services book tickets for their clients? Do they call the airlines and pretend they are the person with the miles?
They call on their behalf. You don’t have to pretend to be someone — in most cases, you simply need to verify account information to complete the booking.
Brilliant! I never knew this! I have a query about Chase Reward Points: can I transfer them to a friend’s airline miles account, Singapore for instance? My friends and I use miles & points exclusively for free Suite Class flights, which are worth vastly more than the 1.25 cents they’re worth in cash when BUYING tickets via the Portal. Cheers from London!
You cannot. There are strict rules to how you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards. You could, however, transfer to your Singapore account and then book your friend once you’ve added them as a nominee in your KrisFlyer account.
Oh, of course — sorry to waste your time with that obvious solution! Keep up the great work — love your site !!!
How do the airlines know who is in your immediate family? Last names are not always transferred.
Depending on the program, they’ll ask for proof of familial relationship. That said, how you could prove brother/sister is something that baffles me.
Asiana/ Korean are Korea bases airlines. Koreans have documents by Government that shows your immediate family members. This is where is the proof of family comes from. I assume Japan has the similar system.
Transferring makes sense only if you need to top up somebody’s account, I agree.
I didn’t even know that I could book for someone else. Thanks for this information.
It’s good to see under the bad publicity that BA have been getting recently that their rules are one of the best on your chart for using miles for non family members.
So, for BA, I don’t have to have a household account or friends and family list in order to book awards for other people?
Correct. But if you have a household account, which allows you to pool miles with others, you can only book for that pool and your friend/family list.
Be aware that whoever’s account is used can make any changes they want to the booking without notifying the traveller, including cancellation. I found this out the hard way when my then husband and I made a booking for me using our pooled points in his account. Several months later when we had separated and I went to check in for my flight, I was told that it had been cancelled the day before by the account holder. I had to find my own way home at the last minute, PLUS I never got to see any of those pooled points as they all got credited back to his account. So he now has platinum status and enough points to fly around the world in business, and I got left with nothing because he wasn’t willing to do a transfer back to my account. The airlines told me that this is the normal process and there was nothing they could do about it. In the future, I won’t be pooling points or allowing anyone else to book me a flight using their account. I’m sure this isn’t a particularly common scenario, but after being burned, I won’t be taking that risk again.
The family pooling and the 3 times Amazon points really has me making a campaign to switch our allegiance from Southwest to JetBlue at our house. Same book any seat, any time, but a much more upscale in-flight experience.
Very useful breakdown of options and how to effectively use miles. Thank you.
Thanks for this article, and especially the chart! I’m not sure about the rules for redeeming miles for others, but I do know that Virgin Australia’s Velocity FF program does allow family pooling, since my husband and I use that.
Great review! I’ve been wondering about using my AA miles to book flights for other folks.. I’ll have to try that next time..
Sometimes it is beneficial to transfer miles. If I have 30,000 miles and my wife has 20,000 and we both want to take a flight that requires 25,000 miles, I will transfer 5,000 miles to her ( at a cost of $70 – $100) so we can both fly almost free.
Absolutely, that is an opportunity for a transfer. I’d hope you’re stocked up with transferable points and wouldn’t have to do that.
Very ambitious post…
With BA, you can book awards for anybody. You have detailed the exception, which is a Household Account. So if you don’t bother with a HHA, you can book awards for anybody.
Another potentially interesting element to detail is whether the member has to pay any taxes / surcharges, or whether the passenger can pay them…
Excellent point Craig; I’ve added a note about this in the BA section.
I was just thinking about doing a transfer. Thank you for this very, very valuable information.
This is really useful information. I’ll refer to this when enrolling for foreign frequently flyer programs
Very useful, thanks! Indeed transferring miles is the worst policy of all since most FFPs are not very restrictive on award booking rules.
Nice overview. This is on reason why flexible currencies are generally better to collect than specific airline currencies.
I have used AA and UA miles to book domestic award flights for family members. The difficulty is finding saver awards.
Thank you, Someone just asked me about this. And, while it’s not flights, I’ll add that Amtrack Guest Rewards can be used to purchase tickets for other people too.
Very useful.
Back in my early days of flying, I made the error of transferring miles from my account to my spouse.
Thanks and bookmarked. This chart will become very useful to me in the future.