Which Rewards Programs Let You Pool Points and Miles With Others for Free?

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The web is full of posts covering techniques to earn and burn points and miles. Advice exists on which credit cards to add to your wallet, identifying airlines and hotel transfer partners that will maximize the value of credit card rewards, and mapping out redemption options all over the world. But there's one aspect of rewards travel where it's a little harder to unearth reliable information: how to pool points or miles for free with other people.

In this post, we’ll highlight transfer policies for major programs and offer simple “how to” instructions on sharing points and miles with your family and friends.

Why Combine or Pool Your Points and Miles?

A few reasons spring to mind for why you might want to combine points and miles with others, and doing so for free is obviously a plus:

• To reach a specific redemption. A no-brainer, but trying to reach a particular redemption for an upcoming trip often involves juggling points between accounts. There may be times when you and your partner might not have enough points for an award redemption on your own, but combining points enables you to redeem a flight.
• Allows you to transfer rewards to an account that has elite status. Redeeming flights and stays through an account that has elite status can add a ton of value to your travel experience. Depending on your status level, this can range from free checked bags to better seats, rooms, and late checkouts.
• Some programs require names to match for transfers to take place. Marriott Bonvoy, for example, requires the account names on both the Marriott account and the receiving frequent flyer account to match for the transfer to go through. If you've had issues because of a long name or name change, transferring to a friend with the same spelling across their accounts could be simpler.
• Pooling makes it easy to utilize small numbers of orphaned points. Having multiple accounts with a small balance is frustrating, as there is often no way of redeeming them. Family pooling enables you to collect rewards into a usable balance and burn them for travel and accommodation.
• When you want to cancel a credit card or account and need to move the points before pulling the trigger. Travel goals change from year to year, and the cards we need to achieve them change with the goals. Transferring points and miles is often the only way to keep them alive in this case, rather than losing your balance when closing an account.

Credit: Kimson Doan/Unsplash

Family Pooling and Transferring Flexible Rewards for Free

American Express Membership Rewards

You cannot combine Amex Membership Rewards or share them with another member's account. However, you can transfer points to a frequent flyer account in someone else's name, as long as that person is an authorized user on your Amex card account and has been for at least 90 days.

“In order to link your accounts, the partner loyalty program account must be in your name or the name of an Additional Card Member on your Card Account. An Additional Card must be issued to the Additional Card Member at least 90 days prior to linking your program account to that Additional Card Member's partner loyalty account.”

Although they offer some level of point pooling via the ability to transfer points into one frequent flyer account if you have authorized users, Amex has the most restrictive of the points-sharing options for flexible rewards currencies.

Related: All of the Cards That Earn American Express Membership Rewards Points

Capital One Rewards

You can combine Capital One miles into a single account, and you can share Capital One miles with anyone. Capital One doesn't charge a fee to move miles between accounts, and you also can convert your Capital One cash back into miles.

Not only is this the friendliest policy for combining flexible rewards currencies, but it also enables Capital One cardholders to utilize cash-back earning credit cards in their pooling strategy. If you want to make a redemption for a family vacation but one family member has a lot of Capital One cash back, their cash back can still be moved to your account, converted to miles, and used for transfers to airline and hotel programs.

Related: All of the Cards That Earn Capital One Miles

Chase Ultimate Rewards

You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points “only to another Chase card with Ultimate Rewards belonging to you, or one member of your household.” Chase is strict on this rule, and you risk losing your points if you violate the transfer policy. You can combine Chase points across your accounts or transfer to another person, plus Chase business accounts allow you to move points to other business owners. This includes points from cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠ and Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card, as well as the Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card.

Initiate transfers by signing into your account and selecting the card you want to transfer points from.

• Click Combine Points in the menu at the top.
• Select the card you want to move points from (on the left) and to (on the right).
• Choose how many points you want to transfer, review, and submit the request.

If you haven't added a household member previously, you'll need to call before you can choose that card to receive transfers. Adding a household member only takes a couple of minutes over the phone, and you will quickly be able to pool points together.

Related: All of the Credit Cards that Earn Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Citi ThankYou^® Rewards

Despite a 1,000 point limit to transfers, Citi ThankYou Rewards has one of the most flexible rules if you want to transfer or combine points between member accounts. There are, however, a couple of things worth noting:

• Shared points are only valid for 90 days from the time they are received, so only transfer with a plan to redeem them before they expire.
• You can only share and receive one hundred thousand Citi ThankYou Points per calendar year.

To share Citi ThankYou Points with another member:

• Sign into your account at ThankYou.com.
• Click on More Ways to Redeem in the menu.
• In the drop-down menu, click on Points Sharing.
• On the next page, click on Begin Sharing, then choose the recipient, amount, and confirm the details.

If you're already signed in, you can access the transfer page directly.

Related: How To Earn Citi ThankYou Points

Family Pooling and Transferring Hotel Points for Free

Programs that don't permit pooling

You cannot share your Accor Live Limitless, Choice Privileges, or Wyndham Rewards points with others.

Hilton Honors

Hilton has one of the best points pooling options of any rewards program we’ve seen. You can combine Hilton Honors points with up to 10 other members, sending as many as 500,000 points (at increments of 1,000 points) and receiving up to 2 million Honors points per year!

Note that you can only pool points six times per year.

Navigate to the points pooling from your Honors account, or you can access the transfer page directly. You'll provide members' names and email addresses, then they'll be invited to your pool for sharing points.

Related: How To Earn Hilton Honors Points

IHG One Rewards

IHG Diamond Elite and IHG Business Rewards members can transfer points to another IHG One Rewards account free of charge.

IHG points transfers are processed by Points.com and there is no limit to the number of IHG One Rewards points you can transfer to other members. But if you aren't eligible to transfer points free of charge, the cost is high and not an action we recommend.

“IHG One Rewards points can be transferred to another IHG One Rewards member in 1,000-point increments for a fee of $5 USD per 1,000 points. “

If you need to transfer IHG points, head over to the transfer page on IHG’s website and sign into your account. But unless you are eligible to transfer points free of charge, a better option is likely accruing points from an IHG co-branded credit card.

Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott Bonvoy members can transfer up to 100,000 Marriott Rewards points per year, in increments of 1,000 points. Members can receive up to 500,000 points per year, as long as the account has been open for 30 days with “qualifying activity” or 90 days without “qualifying activity” (quality activities typically includes purchases on Marriott cards and Marriott property stays)

“2.8.a. In accordance with the conditions for transferring Points as described in Section 1.6.c., a Member can transfer up to a maximum of 100,000 Points per calendar year to another Membership Account as long as both Accounts are in good standing and have each been open for at least thirty (30) days with qualifying activity, ninety (90) days without qualifying activity (see 2.8.b). A Member can receive up to a maximum of 500,000 Points per calendar year from other Membership Accounts as long as the Accounts are in good standing and have each been open for at least thirty (30) days with qualifying activity, ninety (90) days without qualifying activity.”

It used to be that you had to call Marriott customer service on the phone to transfer Marriott points to another member account, but now you can transfer Marriott points online.

Related: How To Transfer Marriott Bonvoy Points to Another Account

Radisson Rewards

It's not possible to pool Radisson Rewards points in a group, but you can transfer your points to others for free. You can make transfers to a maximum of five members per month and can receive points from up to five members per month.

You can receive a maximum of 100,000 points per month from others, and transfers are processed within 24 hours. Your account must be at least 30 days old to participate in transfers.

World of Hyatt

Hyatt allows points transfers between any accounts in good standing, but only allows transfers once every 30 days.

“A single member may only participate in a point combining transaction (transferring or receiving of points) once every 30 days.”

Although the process is straightforward, it is not very technical and requires filling out a PDF rather than combining via a Hyatt app or website feature. Access the form on this page and email it to combinepoints@hyatt.com. Alternatively, call 800-544-9288.

Another option for earning lots of points is to hold The World of Hyatt Credit Card or World of Hyatt Business Credit Card.

Family Pooling and Transferring Airline Miles

Many frequent flyer programs charge members to move points and miles between accounts. For example, you can transfer American AAdvantage miles to another account, but it costs $5 per 1,000 miles. While this is a significant reduction from previous transfer rates, other airlines charge 1.5 cents per miles. Therefore, transferring miles really wipes out the value of your miles and is generally not recommended, so we’re only listing options where it is viable to pool or transfer miles without the huge costs.

Related: How Families Can Work Together to Pool Points and Miles

Air Canada Aeroplan

While Aeroplan does have a pooling option available, it is unavailable for new sharers (and seems to have been unavailable for a few months). That being said, if you have pooled Aeroplan miles before, this is still an option.

Aeroplan members can create a Family Sharing account with up to eight members. The Family Lead creates the pool and can invite a spouse, partner, children, siblings, in-laws, parents, and grandparents. All points from the family pool members will be added to the shared balance (members don't have the option to control what they share), and family members can redeem from the shared balance at no cost.

If someone in the pool has preferred pricing (for example, from holding elite status or the Aeroplan^® Credit Card), other pool members can take advantage of this when booking award flights. The family lead can change redemption permissions for other pool members, which could be useful for children's accounts — allowing them to earn toward the combined balance but not make redemptions.

Air France–KLM Flying Blue

Flying Blue introduced family pooling in early 2022, allowing up to two adults and up to six children to create a pool together. Anyone over age 18 can create an account and be its leader, inviting others to share miles together. There are no minimum miles required as well. Only the pool leader can transfer miles between the members, but this creates a way to work together toward flight redemptions.

Air India Flying Returns

Air India offers Flying Returns members residing in any country an opportunity to pool reward points via their MeriParivaar program. A maximum of nine members (including the family head) can belong to a free-to-create pool. However, one main catch with Air India's family pooling policy is that only the family head can redeem points. While the family head can redeem points for flights for pool contributors, contributors themselves cannot book award flights with the points they've contributed to the pool.

Family pools are deactivated when the family head changes or the head's account is canceled, suspended, or banned by Air India. However, on voluntary shutdowns, the contributed Reward miles are distributed equally among the pool members.

Air India's website no longer offers the ability to pool points online. However, contacting Air India support to pool points seems to work.

ANA Mileage Club

ANA only allows members from outside Japan to combine miles in a family pooling account known as an ANA Mileage Club Family Account, or AFA, which allows between 2–8 members to combine miles into a primary account holders account.

“ANA Mileage Club members (the primary member) who reside outside Japan can register 2-8 family members (including themselves) for this service. The registered family members can be their spouse or same-sex marriage partner, and relatives within 2 degrees of kinship.”

Unlike most programs, which do not charge any fees for pooling points, registering an AFA account costs 1,000 ANA miles, which are deducted from the primary account. The signup process is straightforward: Simply head to the Family Account page on ANA’s website and hit the Register Now button.

Registration may take a couple of weeks to complete, so be sure to keep this in mind before pooling points together.

Asiana Airlines

Asiana allows customers to pool miles with up to eight family members. While the graphic only states paternal/maternal grandfather, Asiana does allow grandmothers to join the respective pool as well.

Asiana requires family documents in order to verify that they are eligible for the pool. If you live outside of Korea, this entails “Legal documents showing family relationships and birth dates of the family representative and family members to be registered, such as marriage certificates issued in the last 6 months, birth certificates, census documents, tax certificates, etc.”

In order to submit your request for pooling, you must first download and fill out the pooling form, and then scan it. Afterwards, you have to apply for a family membership with Asiana before you can be approved for pooling.

Avianca LifeMiles

LifeMiles added family pooling in early March 2024, offering pools with up to seven family members. This new ability to share miles without a cost is a nice benefit for anyone who has status of any level in LifeMiles. However, general “members” without elite status still have to pay to transfer miles to other members.

British Airways Executive Club

British Airways slashed the cost of sharing Avios in early 2023, but it's possible to avoid the costs altogether by creating a Household Account.

You can pool Avios with up to six other members of your household, and, once established, you can also set up a list of family and friends that lets you redeem Avios from the pool for those outside the pool. Avios are deducted evenly for redemptions across all accounts linked to the Household Account.

Remember that you also can pool your Avios across accounts with British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Qatar Airways. This is free and instant.

EgyptAir

EgyptAir lets you pool miles with up to five immediate family members, meaning that extended family and friends are not qualified. In order to create the pool, you have to email EgyptAir with the passports of the family members who are joining the pool.

Emirates Skywards

Emirates allows pooling across up to eight members. The amount of miles shared to the pool can be controlled by the individual, from 0% to 100%.

However, keep in mind that current miles are not moved, though — only future mileage earnings, based on the contribution percentage, so this is not a complete pool system in the traditional sense. You'll want to set up pooling as soon as you create accounts if you want to pool for an upcoming trip.

Like Asiana, you can only register certain family and household members:

“You can invite any members of your immediate family to join. If they’re not already Emirates Skywards members, they’ll need to register before you can add them. Immediate family members include Husband, Wife, Domestic Partner, Son, Step‑Son, Daughter, Step‑Daughter, Mother, Mother‑in‑Law, Step‑Mother, Father, Father‑in‑Law, Step‑Father, Brother, Sister, Granddaughter, Grandson and Domestic Helper.”

You can see all the details of Emirates Skywards My Family on the program page. When you're ready to get started, click on the “Create a My Family account” button.

Etihad Guest

You can pool Etihad Guest miles with family into a “Family Membership” account. This allows up to eight members to pool points into a central account controlled by the lead member.

“Each family member must have their own Etihad Guest account. Including the Family Head, a total of 9 members can be part of your Family Membership.

“Members who are eligible for the Family Membership include your extended family. So, make sure you get everyone to sign-up for Etihad Guest, then create the Family Membership to start enjoying more rewards, faster, together.”

Even better, you can share your status benefits with other members of the pool, but only your family members can join — not friends. To register for Family Membership, click through to the registration page on Etihad Guest’s website.

Frontier Airlines

Frontier Airlines also allows you to pool miles with friends and family. You can add up to eight members to your pool, and you don’t even have to be related.

However, you can't create a pool if you don't have elite status or the FRONTIER Airlines World Mastercard^®. You can create a pool here if you are interested in sharing your Frontier miles.

Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles

It's possible to pool your HawaiianMiles with others, but it's not free for everyone. If you don't have the Hawaiian Airlines^® World Elite Mastercard^® or Hawaiian Airlines^® World Elite Business Mastercard^®, sharing miles will cost 1¢ per mile + a $25 service fee.

JAL Mileage Bank

The family pooling option for Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, called JAL Family Club, allows up to nine family members to combine miles into a single account. The primary account holder must reside outside Japan, though family members’ countries of residence are not a factor.

Only close family members can join, however:

“Primary member's spouse, children, parents, and spouse's parents. “

There is an initial fee of 1,000 miles to set up the Family Club account as well as an additional 1,000 miles for every family member you bring on. Although JAL does not charge an annual membership fee, they do charge 1,000 miles every five years as a renewal fee.

The primary account holder can sign up for a Family Club account via the link at the bottom of the Family Club website.

JetBlue TrueBlue

JetBlue TrueBlue also offers a great points pooling feature, and anyone over 21 years old can create a pool with a minimum of two and maximum of seven people. You don't need to be related to the pool members.

The pool leader invites others, and everyone contributes 100% of their points. The pool leader can decide whether others are able to redeem points or are just contributors. This lets you combine points from spending and bonuses on cards like the JetBlue Card, JetBlue Plus Card, and JetBlue Business Card.

Keep in mind that if a member leaves the pool, the points that they have contributed are returned to them. In addition, you have to wait six months before replacing that specific member in the pool.

You can set up a pool here.

Korean Air SKYPASS

The Korean SKYPASS Family Plan allows certain family members to form one pool of miles for award redemptions, with a maximum of five members in a group. There are multiple rules to note:

• Eligible family members include spouse, parents, children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, parents-in-law, sons-in-law, and daughters-in-law.
• Parents, parents-in-law, paternal grandparents, and maternal grandparents are each limited to two people, while spouse is limited to one person. Other family members can be registered without limit.
• Family mileage can be combined for up to five family members, including the member.
• When pooling the mileage of family members, you can designate the amount of mileage as well as the order of family members to pool. (However, the order of pooling cannot be changed at ticket reissue)
• SKYPASS members can endorse awards to registered family members by redeeming his/her own mileage.

This process is extremely similar to Asiana. Only specific family members qualify, and you also have to upload documents to Korean Air that proves the family member you are adding to your pool is family.

Remember, SKYPASS is a transfer partner of Marriott Rewards. If you want to combine Marriott Rewards points with other family members for travel, Korean’s Family Plan offers a viable alternative as you can pool points from family members from any location, as long as you can provide proof of the relationship.

Related: The Good, Bad, and Ugly of the Korean Air Award Chart Changes

Lufthansa Miles & More

Lufthansa's Miles & More program enabled family pooling for award miles in 2018 for up to two adults and five children. Once award miles are pooled, either adult can redeem miles for award travel from the combined family account.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, the option to create pools was disabled. Additionally, this program only exists in certain European countries:

“Any adult Miles & More member resident in Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania or Croatia may open a Mileage Pool.”

Malaysia Airlines Enrich

As a Malaysia Airlines Enrich member, you can create an Enrich Points Pool (warning: PDF) for free. Pools can consist of nine members — one sponsoring beneficiary and up to eight contributors or “nominees”. Only beneficiaries are allowed to redeem the pooled Enrich points. Each Enrich member can belong to one pool at a time. If you decide to replace a nominee, you can replace two a year. However, each time you replace a nominee, it will cost 2,000 points.

Pools are valid for five years, but there is a caveat: Enrich points will still expire three years after they were earned. Additionally, after points are contributed to the pool, they cannot be reclaimed by the contributor. Thus, once you contribute Enrich points to the pool, they are stuck there until redeemed by the sponsor.

Norwegian Reward CashPoints

Norwegian Reward allows you to create a Family Account with up to seven members. This program also sports the loosest definition of “family,” putting it on the record that a family account can include anyone you know (or don't know if you want to push the limits).

“You can freely choose to invite whoever you want. Although Family Account was designed for families to earn CashPoints together, we do not restrict it for other uses, such as inviting your friends or similar.”

With those definitions, you could pool points from any seven accounts into a family account, with the only stipulation being that members of a family account must remain members of the account for a minimum of three months. And at least one member must be over 18 years old. Additionally, if you leave a pool, the points that you have contributed will stay with the pool.

There are a few rules and regulations to wrap your head around, but overall the Norwegian Rewards Family Pooling feature is more flexible than any of its U.S. counterparts.

Qantas Frequent Flyer

Qantas members can transfer points to family members. The minimum transfer is 1,500 points, and there are no limits to the number of transfers you can make each year. Transfers attract a fee if you call an agent, but the service is free if you use the online form.

Note that transfers don't count as qualifying activity to prevent your Qantas points from expiring.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club

You can pool Qatar Privilege Club Avios with up to nine family members, as long as the members are at least two years old. Eligible members include spouses, children, parents, and in-laws. When creating the pool, you must provide documentation of your relation with the family member.

Avios earned by members of the family pool will be credited to the primary member's account, and those Avios stay with the primary member even if you leave the family pool. Interestingly, your earnings are based on the status tier of the pool leader, so it's advantageous to choose the person with the highest status as the leader.

You can create a pool here.

Spirit Airlines Free Spirit

You can create a points pool if you have Silver or Gold status in Free Spirit or hold a Spirit Airlines co-branded card like the Free Spirit^® Travel Mastercard^® or Free Spirit^® Travel More MasterCard^®.

The Pool Pilot (the one creating the pool) can invite up to eight friends or family members to the pool (even if they do not have a Free Spirit card or status), and points can be redeemed for award tickets for any member of the pool. However, only the Pool Pilot can book the redemptions. If you want to create a pool, head here.

Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles

If you are a Classic Plus, Elite, and Elite Plus member, Turkish Airlines will let you pool miles with your spouse and any children under 25 who are not married. Miles gained from activity on the accounts of other family members will be added to the member with status. You can request pooling be set up here, and Turkish requests documents stating that your family members are family.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Similar to Turkish, elite status holders in Virgin Atlantic Flying Club (specifically, Silver and Gold levels) can also combine miles via a household account. A household account is more strict than a family account, as it requires each member in the pool to have the same address. In addition, members must be a part of the pool for at least a year. Most importantly, only miles earned after the household is created will combine into the household account, which makes this benefit much weaker compared to other airlines. Therefore, if you want to take advantage of the household account, we recommend setting it up as soon as you reach Silver or Gold status with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

United Airlines MileagePlus

United is the first of the big three U.S. airlines to roll out a free miles pooling feature. After joining or creating a pool of up to five people, you can pool miles and redeem them for United- and United Express-operated flights. Keep in mind that pooling miles together for a redemption on a different Star Alliance partner is not possible. However, anyone can join your pool (not just family), assuming they have a United account.

Credit: United

After signing into your MileagePlus account, you can create a pool here. However, you'll want to familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of the program before you contribute miles. There are restrictions on what you can use your miles for (most importantly, only being able to redeem pooled miles on United flights). Additionally, heads of the pool can choose if other pool members can redeem miles as well. Unique to other airlines, if your group dissolves the miles are equally distributed among pool members.

Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer

Virgin Australia's Velocity Frequent Flyer is another program to offer flexible family pooling, allowing members to pool Status Credits in addition to points. You can connect up to six family members (two adults and four kids) living at the same address.

You need to register the family pooling account prior to the flights you want to credit to the beneficiary account. A Velocity family account can only contain two adults over the age of 18, and the remaining members must be under 18. Children will leave the pool automatically after turning 18. The Beneficiary will receive the earnings from everyone in the pool.

Unlike other airlines, the owner of the pool receives both all the miles and all of the status credits. Virgin Australia outlines an example from their website where the head the pool nearly receives elite status just from one domestic flight with his family:

Final Thoughts

Being able to points and miles into a single account for friends and family to use is a big benefit of any rewards program. The best programs are those that let you pool points for free.

Some of the best options include Hilton, Marriott, British Airways, JetBlue, World of Hyatt, and United. Restrictions about who you can share with — such as those found with Asiana, JAL, and Korean — reduce the value of their pooling options.

If you have any questions about any of the programs or policies mentioned, please reach out in the comments. Likewise, if we’ve missed any programs that offer convenient (and low-cost) transfers and family pooling opportunities, please get in touch, and we’ll update the post accordingly.

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