Frequent flyer programs were historically designed so that the person who is sitting in an airplane seat on an eligible paid ticket would be the one who earns the miles toward elite status and that next sweet award ticket redemption.
But the origins of frequent flyer programs are now 40 years behind us, and the way people travel has changed. Families are able to fly much more frequently together now than they could in the early 1980s.
As a result of flying more, kids are earning more frequent flyer miles. Five family members who each have 5,000 miles in their respective accounts may not be able to do much with their miles. However, if those balances could be combined into one pooled account, then you’re looking at 25,000 total miles — or enough to possibly book an award flight.
Thankfully, in recent years, some frequent flyer programs have become more family-friendly in this regard than others.
In 2024, United Airlines MileagePlus became the first of the four largest U.S. frequent flyer programs — American Airlines AAdvantage, United MileagePlus, Delta Air Lines SkyMiles and Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards — to allow families to pool their miles.
United joined multiple other frequent flyer programs that allow families to pool miles, both within the U.S. and internationally. Here’s a list of them.
US airlines with family pooling
Of the top 10 U.S. airlines, five now have the option to combine miles from several accounts into just one for little to no cost. However, three of those have some sort of restriction as to who can pool miles.
Two major U.S. airlines allow free pooling for anyone in their programs, while others offer family pooling with restrictions.
United Airlines
In 2024, United Airlines announced the addition of miles pooling, which will allow MileagePlus members of all ages to share and redeem miles in one account.
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Since there is no age restriction on members being able to sign up for a MileagePlus account, extra and unused miles from kids, for instance, can be used in a single account. Up to five members can be added to a pool, and there is no limit to the number of miles you can contribute to a pool.
Some stipulations exist. You can enter and exit a pool at your own discretion, but the airline will enforce a 90-day “cooling” period when you exit a pool, so you’ll have to wait before joining another one.
When you’re contributing miles to a pool, you have 24 hours to reverse a transaction. After 24 hours have passed, you cannot get the miles you contributed to a pool back.
You must be at least 18 years old to create a pool and become the “pool leader.” You can also only operate in one pool at a time, so you cannot be a part of several pools.
United also notes that pooling miles will not affect a member’s Premier status.
JetBlue
JetBlue TrueBlue is the most family-friendly frequent flyer program in the U.S. It allows both friends and family members to pool their miles to book awards faster.
JetBlue TrueBlue members are eligible to pool miles with up to seven friends or family members without a fee. The pool leader (who must be at least 21) will manage all the points in the Points Pooling account. You’ll be able to contribute points to the Points Pooling account upon joining Points Pooling initially and with each future transaction for zero transfer fees.
Frontier Airlines
In June 2018, Frontier introduced family pooling for up to eight people, but it’s only available if the head member in the pool has either Frontier Airlines elite status or the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard®. If you qualify for Frontier Family Pooling, the eight invited pool members do not have to be from one family — they can be anyone you wish.
The information for the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
A person can only be a member of one Frontier family pool at a time and must wait 90 days between switching pools. If you have a family, keep in mind that kids can fly free at select times on Frontier.
Related: Ultimate guide to Frontier Miles: How to earn and redeem miles
Hawaiian Airlines
The HawaiianMiles program from Hawaiian Airlines does not offer family pooling in the traditional sense. However, it permits HawaiianMiles members to share their miles with a Hawaiian Airlines primary credit or debit card holder free of charge.
There are no minimums or maximums for the number of miles that can be transferred. However, Hawaiian Airlines debit or credit card holders may only receive 10 free transactions in a calendar year.
This method of sharing miles could work for a family if one person has an eligible Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard and the other family members send their miles to that cardholder’s account as needed.
The information for the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Related: Here’s why I applied for business and personal credit cards on the same day
Spirit Airlines
In 2021, Spirit Airlines added the ability to pool points for those with Free Spirit elite status and those who hold a Spirit Airlines credit card (like the Free Spirit® Travel More World Elite Mastercard®).
The information for the Free Spirit Travel More World Elite Mastercard has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Those who are eligible can run a points pool with up to eight friends or family members. The members of the pool do not have to have a Spirit credit card or hold elite status; only the head of the pool must meet one of those requirements.
International airlines with family pooling
Once you get outside the U.S., the options for pooling miles with an airline grow fairly quickly.
As compared to only five U.S. airlines with family pooling, 22 international carriers have some form of points pooling. Some of these carriers may not be on your radar, but some are likely familiar to anyone with an intermediate knowledge of points and miles.
Aegean Airlines
Aegean allows members 18 years old and up with at least one Aegean, Olympic Air or Star Alliance flight booked or an Aegean Mastercard to activate a Together account and add up to five members, regardless of the additional members’ elite status levels.
All of the award miles earned by Together members are automatically transferred to the head member’s account. Individual members retain their own elite qualifying miles, but redeemable miles get pooled into one head account.
Related: 43 real-world family travel tips that actually work
Aeromexico
Aeromexico allows families to create an Aeromexico Rewards Family Group to transfer points between eligible accounts. Membership in a Family Group is limited to spouses and children. The last names on the accounts must match, or you can write to the airline to qualify your legal guardianship in other cases.
Children in the Family Group account must be under 21 years of age, and only the account holder can stop the linking of the accounts of their children, except when the child is over 18.
Air Canada
Air Canada overhauled its Aeroplan frequent flyer program in 2020 with largely neutral-to-positive changes. One of the positive changes was the introduction of Family Sharing for up to eight total people. Each member who joins the Family Sharing account will have their points balance added to the pool of points, including points earned before the Family Sharing account was created.
Once the family has accumulated enough points, they can use the shared pool to redeem awards for each family member. When someone from the Family Sharing account makes a redemption, Aeroplan will deduct points from all members’ accounts in proportion so as to create a fair experience.
What makes this program cool is that if one member of the family has elite status or holds a cobranded credit card, all members of the Family Sharing account will be able to take advantage of the preferred award pricing granted to the status holder.
Related: How to redeem Aeroplan points for maximum value
Air France and KLM
Air France and KLM enhanced their Flying Blue Family program in 2022. The enhancement makes it easier for families to earn and redeem miles and take advantage of elite benefits. Flying Blue allows family members to pool their miles from up to eight accounts. There can be a maximum of two adults and six children on each family account. After six months, you can leave the family account if you decide to.
As the family account leader, you can transfer your family members’ miles to your account freely. Additionally, the Flying Blue Family program now also offers a 25% discount on non-promo award tickets for children between 2 and 11 (in any cabin) and no mileage expiration for members under 18.
Air India
Air India has a family pooling program known as MeraParivar. It allows two or more individual members — who are related to each other — to link their individual accounts for automatic transferring and pooling with the head of the account. The head of the account is the only member authorized to redeem points from the pool.
There can be a maximum of nine members in the pool, and children must be at least 2 years of age.
All Nippon Airways
ANA Mileage Club permits Family Accounts for its members who reside outside of Japan. Those ANA members outside of Japan can register two to eight members — including the head member — for a Family Account. Eligible members can be a spouse, partner or relatives within two degrees of kinship. This means that a grandchild and a grandparent would be eligible members of your Family Account but not a great-grandparent or great-grandchild.
There’s a registration fee of 1,000 miles to add members to the Family Account. Mileage is accrued by each ANA Mileage Club member’s number and then combined to book awards as needed.
Asiana Airlines
Asiana Airlines allows up to eight family members to be part of a Family Mileage Plan, which can include the family representative’s spouse, children, parents, paternal and maternal grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and parents of their spouse.
You’ll need to submit a Family Mileage Plan registration form and proof of family relationships.
British Airways
Within the British Airways Executive Club, the only way for children to earn Avios is to be part of a Household Account.
A Household Account is composed of up to seven people who live at the same address. Otherwise, children cannot earn and spend their own British Airways Avios until they are 18 years old. Just like with an individual account, your Household Account Avios stay with you as long as you collect, spend, purchase or share some Avios at least once every 36 months.
The downside to the British Airways Household Account used to be that you couldn’t redeem your Avios for others who were not on the Household Account. This was a deal breaker for me, as I like to redeem Avios on occasion for friends, aunts, cousins, grandparents and more. However, British Airways now offers a Family and Friends list to accompany a Household Account. This means you can redeem Avios award tickets for up to five additional people added to your list who don’t live within your household.
Related: 5 reasons why you should care about British Airways Avios
Etihad Airways
The Etihad Guest program offers a Family Membership that permits up to nine family members to pool their miles. Eligible family members include brothers, sisters, father, mother, spouse, children, grandchildren, grandparents, parents-in-law, stepparents, stepchildren, stepsiblings, stepgrandchildren, nieces, nephews and even one household staff member. The terms indicate that Etihad may audit Family Memberships and request proof of family relationships.
Once added online, the members above 13 years old will receive an email for them to accept the request. Members under 13 will be included in the household without email acceptance.
Related: The ultimate guide to Etihad Airways partners: How to earn and redeem Etihad Guest miles
Emirates
With the Emirates My Family program, up to eight family members ages 2 and older with an eligible family relationship may participate. This includes a husband, a wife, a partner, a mother, a father, a stepmother, a stepfather, a mother-in-law, a father-in-law, a son, a stepson, a daughter, a stepdaughter, a brother, a sister, a granddaughter, a grandson and a domestic helper.
Members of the Emirates My Family program can pool all or just a percentage of their Skywards miles earned on Emirates flights, as well as miles earned from partner programs. Family members may be requested to provide Emirates Skywards with additional proof of their relationship to the head member.
Egyptair
Star Alliance partner Egyptair offers a unique family program in that it’s not only redeemable miles that are pooled but also elite qualifying miles. With an Egyptair Plus Family Miles account, up to five members with a “first-degree family relationship” can pool their miles in one account to earn both award flights and elite status faster. Only the head family member will earn elite status, but that person could then use some of their perks to benefit accompanying family members.
You must email a copy of each potential member’s passport to [email protected] and specify their relationship to you. The family member must be at least 2 years old to be eligible. Each member will have their own membership number, but miles earned will all be pooled in the head member’s account.
Japan Airlines
The JAL Family Club permits family pooling of miles and is open to JAL members who reside outside of Japan. A JAL Family Club can have up to nine family members, including the primary member’s spouse, children and parents, and the spouse’s parents. There is a 1,000-mile fee for each member added to the Family Club, as well as a 1,000-mile renewal fee every five years.
Related: Japan Airlines’ A350-1000 inaugural from New York to Tokyo: Same great service, fabulous new seats
Korean Air
The Korean Air SkyPass program permits up to five family members to join a Family Plan. Eligible family members include a spouse, children, parents, siblings, parents-in-law, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandparents and grandchildren. You must submit documents showing proof of the relationship, and these can take a couple of weeks to process.
When pooling family mileage, you can designate the number of miles to pool. The Family Plan may not apply to some of the award programs. Certain types of awards, such as SkyTeam awards, cannot be booked via the SkyPass Family Plan.
Lufthansa
Lufthansa Miles & More allows mileage pooling for up to two adults and five children for members in select countries. These countries currently are: Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia.
All the members’ award miles can be collected in your pool, and the two adults can redeem pooled miles. The adults do not need to be partners or married. In fact, friends can earn miles together.
Norwegian Air Shuttle
Norwegian Reward allows up to seven members to pool CashPoints in one account. While the program was designed with families in mind, it can be used by friends, too. When joining or creating a Family Account, you accept being part of it for at least three months. Know that you won’t be able to take any of the pooled points with you if you leave the family account. Children under 16 can be Family Account members and can leave the pool once they turn 16 if they wish.
Qantas
Qantas doesn’t allow you to pool your points, per se, but it does allow you to transfer points to eligible family members — such as a spouse, parents, a domestic partner, a child, a sibling, grandparents, in-laws, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. — for no fee. You can transfer 1,500 points or more with an unlimited number of transfers each year. Family transfers don’t count as a valid activity for point expiration purposes.
Related: Complete guide to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program
Qatar Airways
The Qatar Airways Family Programme allows members to nominate up to nine family members to their Qatar Airways Privilege Club membership, including a spouse, children and their parents. You’re required to attach documentation of the relationship with the application form.
All Avios earned by family members are credited to the primary member’s account, but family members’ flight activities don’t earn Qpoints toward status. Once added, family members cannot be replaced for 24 months. However, family members over the age of 18 can unlink from the family account and have their own membership accounts as main members. The Avios earned before unlinking will remain in the primary member’s account.
Related: The ultimate guide to Qatar Qsuite
Singapore Airlines
With the KrisFlyer for Families program, parents and guardians can link their child’s (2 years and older) account to theirs, and they’ll then be able to pool miles earned. Up to five child accounts can be linked to one adult account, and you can transfer up to 50,000 KrisFlyer miles per child’s account each calendar year.
Unfortunately, unlike many other programs on the list, there’s a fee to transfer points. It’ll cost $5 or 500 miles for every 5,000 KrisFlyer miles (or part thereof) transferred from your child’s account. That means you are looking at a total cost of $50 or 5,000 miles if transferred in increments of 5,000 miles up to the 50,000-mile cap. Compared to the many other domestic airlines that charge a fee, this is still very inexpensive.
Keep in mind that you aren’t able to transfer miles from your account to your child’s account. This means that parents are not able to move points around to combine their own points — it’s truly a link only between a single parent and the children. Once an account is linked, it cannot be unlinked until the child is 16 years old.
Related: Singapore KrisFlyer: Ultimate guide to earning, redeeming and elite status
Turkish Airlines
Miles&Smiles, the Turkish Airlines frequent flyer program, permits families to collect miles in a family membership, provided that the head member has the airline’s Classic Plus elite status or higher. Family membership allows the miles from the head member, their spouse and unmarried children under 25 to pool together as “Family Miles.”
With a family membership, all of your family members’ miles earned from Turkish Airlines flights, Star Alliance member flights and program partners will be added to your Classic Plus account. Each family member will have their own account. Family member activities will be counted as “Bonus Miles” to the Classic Plus member’s account. The flights of family members will be added to their own account as “Status Miles” to let them upgrade their membership level.
To open a family membership, you must complete a feedback form and send it along with photocopies of the marriage certificate and ID cards relating to your family members (partner and children), their Turkish ID numbers and a signed request that includes your full address, telephone and email.
Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club members with Silver or Gold elite status can create a household account and link a maximum of nine Flying Club memberships with the same household address as the Silver or Gold member. All miles earned by household account-linked members will automatically transfer to the Silver or Gold member’s account after each mileage transaction is complete, but each member will earn their own points toward elite status.
Related: How to book Delta award flights with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points
Virgin Australia
The Virgin Australia Velocity Family Pooling program allows up to six family members living at the same address to pool both Velocity points and status credits. Their Family Pooling can include up to two members over 18 years old and up to four members under 18 years old.
You can choose to pool either Velocity points or both Velocity points and status credits to the beneficiary. This means that one family member can earn elite status within the Velocity program much faster by having the whole family’s flights count toward status.
Bottom line
As you can see, not all airlines and frequent flyer programs permit families to share and pool miles in the same way. Thankfully, a growing number of programs allow families to put their miles together in various ways to achieve that next award flight faster. So, if you’re collecting miles for each of your family members, consider whether you might be better off putting all your eggs in one basket.
