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The web is full of posts covering techniques to earn and burn points and miles. Advice exists on which credit card to add to your wallet, identifying airlines and hotels that will maximize the value of rewards points, 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 be highlighting transfer policies for major programs, plus offering simple “how to” instructions on sharing points and miles with your family and friends.
Page Contents
- Why Combine or Pool Your Points and Miles?
- Family Pooling and Transferring Flexible Rewards for Free
- Family Pooling and Transferring Hotel Points for Free
- Family Pooling and Transferring Airline Miles
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France–KLM Flying Blue
- ANA Mileage Club
- British Airways Executive Club
- Emirates Skywards
- Etihad Guest
- Frontier Airlines
- Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles
- JAL Mileage Bank
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Korean Air SKYPASS
- Lufthansa Miles & More
- Norwegian Rewards CashPoints
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Spirit Airlines Free Spirit
- Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer
- Final Thoughts
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.
- 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.
- 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 common spelling 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.
Family Pooling and Transferring Flexible Rewards for Free
American Express Membership Rewards
You cannot combine Amex Membership Rewards or share them to 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.”
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 your miles with anyone you want. Capital One doesn't charge a fee to move miles between accounts, and you also can convert your Capital One cash back into miles.
This is the friendliest policy for combining flexible rewards currencies.
Related: How To Share Capital One Venture and Spark Miles with Anyone
Chase Ultimate Rewards
You can transfer Chae 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 points across your own 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.
Related: How to Combine Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Between Credit Cards
Citi ThankYou Rewards
Despite a 100K limit to transfers, Citi ThankYou Rewards have 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 100K 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: All of the Cards That 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 (ALL), 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 500K points and receiving up to 2 million Honors points 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
There is no limit to the number of IHG One Rewards points you can transfer to other members, but the cost is high and not an action we recommend. IHG points transfers are processed by Points.com. We've only listed IHG here because of its popularity, but it doesn't all you to pool points freely like its competitors.
“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 transfer page on IHG’s website and sign into your account. But a better option is likely accruing points from an IHG co-branded credit card.
Marriott Bonvoy
Marriott Bonvoy members can transfer up to 100K Marriott Rewards points per year, in increments of 1,000 points. Members can receive up to 500K points per year.
“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 that are 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.”
The process is straightforward. 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 1.5¢ per mile. This 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.
We also should note that there was a great family pooling program with Aeromexico Club Premier in the past, but that went away when the program rebranded to Aeromexico Rewards.
Related: How Families Can Work Together to Pool Points and Miles
Air Canada Aeroplan
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. Only the pool leader can transfer miles between the members, but this creates a way to work together toward flight redemptions.
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.”
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.
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.
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%. Current miles are not moved, though — only future mileage earnings, based on the contribution percentage. You'll want to set up pooling as soon as you create accounts if you're looking to pool for an upcoming trip.
However, you can't invite just anyone to your My Family account:
“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 for free. 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 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, and an additional 1,000 miles for every family member you bring on. JAL charges 1,000 miles every five years as a renewal fee, but there is no annual membership fee.
The primary account holder can signup 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.
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.
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 in 2018 for up to two adults and five children. The Miles & More family pooling option only applies to award miles; status miles cannot be pooled. Either adult can redeem miles for award travel from the combined family account.
Unfortunately, this program only exists in certain European countries. The list is available here.
Norwegian Rewards CashPoints
Norwegian Rewards 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.
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 5,000 points, and you can transfer up to 600,000 points in a 12-month period. Transfers attract a fee if you call a consultant, 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.
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, 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.
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.
Final Thoughts
The ability to combine points and miles into a single account for family members to use is a big benefit of any rewards program, and the best programs are those that let you pool points for free.
Some of the best options include British Airways, Hilton Honors, and World of Hyatt. Restrictions about who you can share with, such as those found with 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.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
You might update this post to include Aeroplan and Capital One since they both allow sharing miles.
Thanks for the recommendation. We will look into those.
I am in Australia and I can’t find where to pool Lufthansa miles and more miles?
Nicely consolidated .. Good Details.
Hello! Thank you for this helpful guide. I was wondering if you mind sharing where you got the language re: transferring Amex MR to an authorized users loyalty account? I have been looking at their terms and conditions available online (I’m not a cardholder) and it only says that it can only be transferred to a loyalty account in the primary cardholders name. I’m curious if maybe something has changed recently or perhaps cardholders have more robust T&C that go into authorized users? Thanks again!
If you have an AU, you’ll see their name in the list from which you can pick. It is that easy.
Do both Marriott members have to be Gold or Platinum to be able to transfer and receive for free? Or, is the one transferring just need to be the one to be Platinum or Gold?
The person transferring.
Keep in mind, if you’re at the same address, you could transfer to SPG and then transfer between SPG accounts for free.
IHG is the laughing stock charging $5 per 1000 points transferred. Scammers.
Hilton’s new pooling is why I referred my husband, got 15,000 points, and he got 75,000 points for only spending $1,000 in three months. Added together we now have over 265,000 points and their reserve four nights, get one free with points, makes this a win-win for us especially since their cards carry no annual fees.
Thank you. I was starting to try to figure out some of this on my own. Now, I have it all in one place.
Thanks for the transfer recap! I’ve used the chase and spg transfers before but this showed me more options.
Thanks for the article, it would be great to see even more analytic/comparative information about reward programs.
Thanks for compiling this. I was wondering if anyone else had a ‘family pooling’ type option like Jet Blue. Now I don’t have to look up everyone else separately.
Trying to use our British Avios – based on the information posted above, I set up a Household Account and included my spouse as a member.. Both my spouse & I have Avios in separate accounts now. In order to arrange the lodging we want, it will take most of the combined Avis we have. My question – in the process of setting up the Household Account, are the Avios from each of our accounts available to make the lodging?
Or does the Household Account only allow either of us to use my Avios, but not hers?
When using Avios from a household account, deductions are taken from the accounts of both members — you’ll each see a percentage taken, based on the redemption. You effectively redeem together.
Is there any way to convert British Airways Avios to Hilton Honor Rewards? Or to any other hotel program?
You could try through Points.com Exchange — but I highly doubt the transfer rates would be something you might want to avoid. Unfortunately, there are no direct transfer options from BA > Hilton, but you could book a hotel directly using Avios: https://www.britishairways.com/travel/spend-avios-hotels-cars/public/en_us
I tried to transfer Avios to Hilton Rewards points but failed. But your information on the British Airways Household Accounts provided a different route for me. Since I won’t be using my Avios for flights, I decided to use them for lodging. Same for my spouse. With the Household Account, me can combine our Avios and have enough to make a great vacation lodging spend. Thanks for the great information in your post!
You can do Marriot transfers also via SPG if you have linked accounts.
I love when you guys do these! So much useful info in one place! Really we may be trying on our own to have all the info but really would be lost without you all! I found that I can transfer from my Chase UR to my hubby’s United account and that saved our trip! thank you!
Great to hear Karen! Glad we could be a part of the success.
Good reference for points pooling.
I’d love to see all programs allow combining — if fraud is a concern, restrict how often people can designate their households. If Amazon & Google figured it out, it can’t be hard, let me at our miles!
Solid Post. I wish there were more opportunities in Canada for transferable points currencies. Amex Rewards isn’t up to scratch compared to it’s US counterpart thanks to only a few partners.
What about Spirit Airlines??
Given that miles expire within 3 months of earning (unless you have and actively use their co-brand credit card) we don’t really consider this a viable program and didn’t look into Spirit and its capabilities of points combining. That said, based on what I’ve seen, no you cannot.
All great pooling info. Now deciding which works best toward my travel goals
Great summary of useful info. Ultimate Rewards combining has worked well in my household.
I have 50,000 points plus on Jetblue because of family pooling. I earned the miles on emirates. I knew i would never get enough on emirates to get a free flight, so we used our jetblue rewards, which allows for earning miles on emirates, and two international trips with three in our family has us with 50,000 points plus in jetblue!
nicely done!!!
I wish I had done same. My Emirates points are just sitting in account and doing nothing.
I have been a Marriott Rewards Platinum member for years and never knew this transfer option existed. Thanks!
Great Post – Its a pity that points under a thousand cannot be transferred or combined ( SPG , MARRIOTT , HILTON) . Also All my kids have a few thousand orphan IHG point . Pity about the charge.
Relatively recent change with sPG. Makes no sense at all. They should be happy to get rid of Oprah accounts with balances less than 1,000.
Love chase between my personal and biz cards plus my husbands personal and biz cards we can bank a ton of points every month. Wish IHG would allow family pooling without a charge!
I literally didn’t realise you could share any of these! Thanks
Glad we could help!
Very useful post.
The rules for combining points and miles are different and this create confusion.
Moreover, also the way the pool works is different.
This is definitely one of the aspect of miles and points I know less!
Very nice summary. Many of them I can not imagine that they have these options. Thanks a lot.
Love these type of articles as they always throw up a little something you didn’t know about, cheers guys!
This is the thing I hate about Amex MR – can’t share or combine
True. Frustrating!
Exactly! Big reason I concentrate my point-earning elsewhere!!
Good to know!
Very useful and handy list. Thanks!
Nice summary. After the merge of SPG and Marriott, I have moved from Hyatt to SPG now
Excellent post! Definitely bookmarking this for later.
Thanks much for that great information! Keep up the great work!
Very useful information. Need to refer back once a while.
super helpful- thank you
I agree MichaelJ extremely useful. I am lucky my husband researches all of the cards for us and I will be sharing all of this info. With him. I look forward to pooling more points and traveling more often.
Hope to see Marriott follow SPG’s suit and not have a transfer fee.
I traveled with Emirates and asked them to send my points on alaska. Don’t why I had an assumption that Alaska Airline let you move points within accounts for free. My bad!
Now, anyone have any idea how I move points? My kid and my wife both have 10K points in their account now.
You can of course pay to transfer, but what about looking to redeem one-way tickets instead of round-trip? Perhaps you can find some sub-10k redemptions that make sense.
Good article!
Korean Air Skypass is fantastic for those who live in Hawaii as you can fly west from Honolulu to Korea and then on to Asia, India, and beyond.
Can you extend points expiration by pooling?
Don’t count on it. While SPG will count activity if you transfer from your SPG to your Marriott — traditional pooling like with Hilton or BA won’t extend the life of points unfortunately.
Great summary – need to get on the Citi transfer option soon!
The American AA Advantage miles are my favorite
wish the us airlines would get on board
I love the Jetblue family pooling option.
Great resource — thanks!
My favorite transferable points are Chase Ultimate Rewards points. It is really very easy to do and thank goodness for that! My partner and I were just able to combine our points to pay for all of our flights when we take my mother to Europe on a tour of the Christmas Markets in December!
nice! We did Christmas Markets in Germany a few years back and loved every bit of it.
great. very usefull guide. thanks
Hard to go wrong with SPG, but, I worry about its future after the Marriott Merger.
I’ve found the merger to be helpful. Status on one is automatically linked to the other and for now points can easily be moved between programs. Plus there’s the benefit of so many more options of hotels. I guess only time will tell, but so far so good for me at least
My husband and I both have separate Chase Sapphine Reserve cards. When I looked up their policy about transferring points to each other I understood it to say that transfers can only be done if we are authorized users on each other’s cards. Since we decided not to pay the annual fees to add each other as authorized users on each others’ cards, is it your understanding we can still transfer points to each other despite the fact that we are both sole authorized users for each of our cards? This would give us unlimited flexibility on how we use our cards and our points!
The terms as they read verbatim (from https://ultimaterewardspoints.chase.com/combine-points/add-new-account) are “You can move your points, but only to another Chase card with Ultimate Rewards belonging to you, or one member of your household.”
As that reads, if I were you, I wouldn’t be concerned with you and your husband moving points between one another’s accounts. If you have ANY concern, I would recommend calling up Chase and asking for clarification. This is my interpretation (which I, personally am confident with), but you should be confident in your decision.
Hmmm….that link takes me to a page headed ‘add another Chase cardholder’. When I tried to transfer points to my husband (and vice versa) on the Ultimate Rewards website it provided a drop down menu to choose which authorized user to receive the points…and since we are both only authorized on our own cards and not each other’s, there was no way to transfer. So I’ll do as you suggest and call them. Fingers crossed!
Once you’re at your Ultimate Rewards account page, if you hover over your points balance in the title menu bar a drop down that says “Combine Points” should come up. I click that and then I can click “Add household member” where I type in a card number and last name.
This allows you to move Ultimate Rewards between card accounts and then you can move your Ultimate Rewards to your Hyatt or United and he to his through his account. If you want to be able to transfer your Ultimate Rewards to his United account, he’d need to be an authorized user. Crazy, but sorta clear?
Yes, totally clear! This is super helpful, we combine our points before transferring them to United. Excellent information. Thanks so much for following up on my replies and setting me straight.
Glad I could help!
The family and address restrictions are frustrating for me. My partner and I do not ever plan to marry, but have been together over 10 years. Further complicating this is the fact that we maintain two residences, a pied a terre in the city where we work and he owns a business, and our actual residence. We each use one as our primary address so that one of us can vote in elections in each location as they both affect us.
90% of our travel is together. I tend to put all of our joint hotel stays in my name for simplicity sake, and we each have our own airline accounts. He has the Sapphire Reserve, but I have most of the other points-earning cards in our household, including Sapphire Preferred and Freedom. I’m worried that if we try to pool our Chase points, we may get denied over a technicality. I considered changing the address on my Chase accounts, but then I worry that I may have trouble down the line with addresses not matching somewhere else.
Angie, you have a situation that I bet no one has really sat down and thought through. I would suggest calling up Chase and discussing the situation — they want you to be a happy customer and given your circumstances I’d be interested in hearing what their take is on it.
I believe that ANA allows for family sharing redemption as well, for a small fee to setup the initial household connection.
Yes, they do indeed.
This is the most helpful post I’ve read yet on this page. Thanks! Gotta go and transfer points!
Glad you like it!
Great post, found quite a few programs that allow pooling that I was not aware of like Hhonors.
Nice to have this all in one place – thanks
Sun Country Ufly allows free pooling of up to 10 Ufly Rewards members.
Yes they do. Good call!
Thanks for this post! A lot of great information here. Based on what I’m reading it seems the Chase Sapphire Reserved is the way to go! I’ll be checking back on this regularly!
My household has four Chase UR account holders (let’s call them A, B, C, and D). If each can transfer to just one other household member, can B, C, and D each transfer points to A?
This is a question I would recommend you ask directly to Chase. My understanding of the terms as it reads from https://ultimaterewardspoints.chase.com/combine-points/add-new-account (You can move your points, but only to another Chase card with Ultimate Rewards belonging to you, or one member of your household.) is that yes, this would be an acceptable use of combining points, but I do not think this is the intended use. I think the intent is to have a 1:1 relationship, not many:1. Hence, my suggestion to contact Chase directly.
This is the most useful summary of the sharing issue I have ever seen! Thank you!
We’re thrilled you like it 🙂
Thanks for the comprehensive guide. After seeing orphan points go to waste across programs, I’m definitely taking a closer look at combinable points.
The Hilton Honors point sharing is great. I booked two nights (worth $600 each) for me and my parents in NYC in December, one using a reward certificate and the other using points. Neither has seen Christmas in the city, so this was a great opportunity. Using the point sharing, my dad is transferring half the points for the second night to me.
nicely done!
Does anyone know if it’s possible to pool Fairmont rewards points earned with the Chase Fairmont card?
You can also transfer AeroMexico Premier points through their “Family Program” at no charge. You can only transfer points among spouses and their children.
Yes! Great one Izzy. We’re kinda loving on AeroMexico right now — https://www.clubpremier.com/us/about-us/programs/family/
This article is full of great information. I already oversee my parents accounts and didn’t realize the benefits that were available for pooling and sharing. It’s particularly nice when the sharing isn’t limited to family sharing the same address.
great resource!! Thanks for compiling!
WOW! This is a great list. I am always worried about pooling points when I have my fiance open a card. Glad to get these tips.
Does household member for chase have to be your family or just someone who lives in the same house as you?
The terms do not explicitly state that there must be a familial relationship, however, I do think the intent is there. That said, if it were me and say I was engaged to be married, I would have no problem transferring points to/from my fiancé in good faith.
I am going to print this post and keep it at my fingertips. Great info, and thx!
This is very useful info since I maintain a lot of accounts for four people. I’ll be combining Hilton points now for an awesome 7-night vacation for next year. Thanks so much!
Great article! The ways of getting round restrictions was of particular interest, many thanks.
Thanks for this comprehensive guide! It is really helpful.
My wife and I have a household account with BA. Using Ultimate Rewards we are able to share points for award travel on UA. It would be great to be able to share AA and DL miles.
If you’re earning with SPG or Marriott you could consolidate to SPG and then transfer — not as easy as Chase, but an option!
Great post! It would be helpful to know how long the transfers take so we can plan accordingly. Chase transfers are instant, provided the accounts are already linked.
Very useful post, especially for someone who “oversees” miles and points for several family members. How I wish IHG would loosen their transfer rules, too.
I FEEL YOUR PAIN! I think everyone in my family has the IHG card with some random amount of points that doesn’t amount to a whole heck of a lot which I’d love to consolidate.
Great summary. I need to get on the Chase Ultimate Rewards train with a Sapphire card.
Definitely a helpful post, and it’s certainly good to see large programs like Hilton start to loosen the strings ever so slightly in ways that can help out a family, etc.
Excellent and useful resource. Thanks.
Possibly would have been even better to split into three separate posts for maximum clarity. (CC, hotel, airline)
We’re going to further break it down for each program but wanted a consolidated resource too. Thanks for the feedback!