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Pooling points between family members or friends can be a very useful perk of an airline loyalty program. This way, should you have small amounts of miles scattered across members, you can combine them and make them more useful when looking to book an award. Several airlines have mileage pooling options, including United Airlines.
However, United previously allowed pooled miles to be used only for United or United Express-operated flights. This has now changed. United has amended its policy, now allowing pooled miles to be used on award flights operated by select parters.
Let's dive into this important distinction.
United Expands Mileage Pooling Benefit
United MileagePlus mile pooling allows up to five people — related or not — to enter into a pool for the purpose of combining points. There are other pooling restrictions, so be sure to check out our dedicated post on United's specifics.
Effective immediately, United is allowing pooled miles to be used for award flights on over 40 United partners. This is great news, considering United is part of the massive Star Alliance, and using United miles for partner booking is among its best uses.
For example, this flight to Zurich (ZRH) on SWISS Airlines can be booked with 44,000 pooled miles in economy and 88,000 in business class. Plus, United Premier elite status holders and MileagePlus credit card holders can get expanded award space as well as various award flight discounts — 9% off in the example below.
These discounts apply when booking with pooled miles as well, making booking United partner flights much more customer-friendly.
Related: Sweet Spots with United Airlines MileagePlus Awards
Bottom Line
By lifting this restriction, United is making its pooling feature more powerful. The ability to now book partner awards with pooled miles means those orphaned miles among friends and family can now be combined for a meaningful award flight redemption. Using those miles for flights on airlines like Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, and ANA — just to name a few — opens up more possibilities for those with United miles.
Looking for an easy way to earn more United miles to pool with others? Consider these credit card offers:
$0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $150Rates & Fees
- 3X miles per $1 spent on purchases from United®*
- 2X miles per $1 spent on dining and hotel stays when booked with the hotel
- 1X mile per $1 spent on all other purchases
$350Rates & Fees
- 4X miled per $1 spent on United® purchases*
- 5X miles per $1 spent at Renowned Hotels and Resorts
- 2X miles per $1 spent on all other travel
- 2X miles per $1 spent at restaurants
- 2X miles per $1 spent on select streaming services
- 1X mile per $1 spent on all other purchases
$150Rates & Fees
- 2x on United® purchases*
- 2x on local transit and commuting — including train tickets, taxicabs, mass transit, tolls and ride share services
- 2x at gas stations, restaurants and office supply stores
- 1x on all other purchases
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For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: United℠ Explorer Card (Rates & Fees), United Quest℠ Card (Rates & Fees), and United℠ Business Card (Rates & Fees)
