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One of the highlights of collecting points and miles is experiencing luxury travel without the luxury price tag. But what about helping friends and family? Can you book a flight for someone else?
Points and miles collectors can generally book travel for other travelers. However, the rules vary between airline programs. Some airlines place no restrictions on who you can book flights for. Other airlines limit you to booking award flights for travelers linked to your loyalty account. And a few programs limit you to redeeming miles for select family members.
Here's what you need to know about these rules and when you can book award flights for someone else.
Page Contents
- Why This Matters
- Which Mileage Programs Allow You To Book a Flight for Someone Else?
- Airlines That Let You Book Award Flights for Anyone Using Your Miles
- Book Award Flights for Specified People on Your Account
- Airlines That Restrict Award Booking to a Limited Number of Family Members
- Why Not Transfer Airline Miles to Someone Else To Book an Award?
- Final Thoughts
Why This Matters
In recent years, the shift to dynamic pricing among legacy frequent flyer programs has prompted a surge in the use of less familiar domestic programs. As an example, the best points and miles to get to Hawaii involves booking through American, Delta, and United's airline partners — not these airlines' own mileage programs.
Flexible rewards currencies like Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou® Points, Marriott Bonvoy points, Capital One Rewards miles, and American Express Membership Rewards have made it easy to transfer points to multiple airline partners. But it’s easy to get confused if you aren't familiar with the rules.
Transferring flexible points to airline partners is final. There is no worse feeling than moving hundreds of thousands of points to an airline partner only to realize you can only book awards for immediate family members.
With that in mind, we’ve created the table below covering restrictions on booking award tickets for other people using airline miles along with policies for each carrier on pooling your miles into a single account.
Which Mileage Programs Allow You To Book a Flight for Someone Else?
| Airline Frequent Flyer Program | Restrictions If Booking Award Flights For Other People | Family Pooling/Sharing |
|---|---|---|
| American Airlines AAdvantage | None | No |
| Alaska Mileage Plan | None | No |
| Delta SkyMiles | None | No |
| Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles | Share Miles free if member receiving miles holds Hawaiian co-brand credit or debit card | |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | None | JetBlue Family Pooling - 2 Adults + 5 Children |
| United MileagePlus | None | No |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | None | No |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | None | Yes, 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. |
| ANA Mileage Club | 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. |
| Asiana Club | Only registered immediate family members | Max 5 family members for Asiana Club Family Mileage Plan - Requires documentation proving family relations |
| British Airways Executive Club | Can book awards for members of Household Account plus up to 5 individuals on 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 |
| EgyptAir Plus | None | Max 5 family members for EgyptAir Plus - Requires proof of relationship |
| Emirates Skywards | None | Nominate up to 8 family members for Emirates Skywards Family Bonus account |
| Etihad Guest | None | Up to 8 family members can share an Etihad Guest Family Account |
| JAL Mileage Bank | Only 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 |
| Korean Air SKYPASS | Only registered immediate family members | Max 5 family members for Korean Air Family Plan - Requires proof of relationship |
| Lufthansa Miles & More | None | Yes. 2 adults and up to 5 children can pool miles |
| Qatar Privilege Club | None | Qatar Privilege Club Family Programme allows up to 9 family members to pool miles |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Up to 5 Redemption Nominees. Nominees must stay on account for minimum 6 months - free to add people but costs between $0-$30 to remove dependent on elite status | Yes - KrisFlyer for Families lets parents can transfer miles from their children for a small fee. |
Airlines That Let You Book Award Flights for Anyone Using Your Miles
Most airline mileage programs allow you to redeem miles for anybody. This includes all U.S. carrier rewards programs, the three big Gulf carriers, European programs, and although not included in the table, flexible rewards currencies like Chase Ultimate Rewards and Amex Membership Rewards.
You can redeem flexible rewards currencies for anybody via their respective travel portals. For example, if you hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you can redeem Ultimate Rewards points for flights via the Chase Travel Portal at a rate of 1 to 1.75¢ per point. Those flights can be for any person.
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/miles for your immediate family (parents + children), you shouldn’t have a problem redeeming your miles for them. But you may need to register your family member beforehand, so make sure to leave yourself enough time.
Book Award Flights for Specified People on Your Account
Singapore KrisFlyer and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles 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 six months a member must stay attached to your account. KrisFlyer and Asia Miles also charge a hefty fee to replace nominees to discourage any foul play.
If you have a British Airways Executive Club Household Account setup to pool Avios, you can only use the pooled miles for family members or up to 5 additional people in your Family & Friends List.
Related: How families can work together to pool points and miles
Airlines That Restrict Award Booking 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 only allow you to redeem miles for immediate family members and restrict you to five 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 between accounts. This fee could be anywhere between 1 and 2 cents per mile. Considering that many airline miles have an average redeemable value of around 1.6 cents each, this makes transferring miles to someone else’s account, usually not worth the cost.
There are some exceptions, however. For example, Qantas Frequent Flyer allows family members to transfer up to 600,000 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 miles out of your account for other people. You just need to make sure that you understand the program rules and don’t mind a bit of planning.
The ability to book award tickets for anybody using miles from your account is a feature where U.S. frequent flyer programs provide better value than their foreign counterparts.
If you want to take advantage of the outstanding value you can extract from Asian frequent flyer 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 sent in to prove the relationship prior to transferring points.
As always, if there are any programs we’ve missed or you have any questions, please reach out in the comments.
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