Did you know that there are airlines that let you pool points with your family members or even friends? I remember so many times that my children or grandchildren would earn a few miles on a trip I had booked for them, but they were never used because they didn’t amount to much. Now, with the ability to pool points, you can capture those random points and miles to use on another trip.

In the past, four children in a family may have each had 7,000 points in their accounts that were pretty much useless. Now they can be pooled to equal 28,000 miles that could pay for an airline ticket. Let’s go over some airlines that allow you to pool those points. Be sure to read about the individual rules under each airline about points-pooling, too.

 

Virgin Atlantic

This is one of the airlines that has started to allow points-pooling the most recently. Virgin Atlantic provides a pooling of points with both family and/or friends who live at the same address. Here are some quick bullet points:

• You can add up to nine members to your Household Account.
• Virgin Points never expire.
• Anyone 18 years and older with a Virgin Atlantic account can start a Household Account by logging in to the main Virgin Atlantic Flying Club page.
• All the Virgin Points earned through Flying Club will pool in the Household account.
• You can use those points for flights, upgrades, and more.

 

Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)

Families can pool their accounts together (up to 8 family members) as part of the Flying Blue Family program. Flying Blue allows pooling for families up to eight people—two adults and up to six children.  Here’s how to set it up:

• Log into your Flying Blue account.
• Click on “My Profile” under your name.
• On the left side, pick “Flying Blue Family.”
• You can join on the next page.

One peculiarity about the Flying Blue Family program is that only two adults over 18 are allowed to be in a family, so if you have a teenager who is going to age out of the family pooling setup soon, be aware that the program will automatically remove them if there are already two family members over 18 in the group.  (Be sure to read the Terms & Conditions (starting on page 11) for more specifics.)

 

United Airlines

Families AND friends can be in a pool, but you can only be in one pool at a time. Up to five members can be in one pool. We talk more about United’s pooling in this post.  This feature makes sense for my sister and me to use because I have Premier status. We use pooling because then she can transfer her points to our pooled account and when I book both of our tickets, she enjoys the benefits of my status, such as Economy Plus seats when we travel together.  This program has some rules you’ll need to be aware of surrounding booking award flights within the first 24 hours after creating a pool (you can’t), what happens when a pool member leaves the pool (their miles stay in the pool), which airlines you can use pooled miles on (United only), and more.

 

 

JetBlue

JetBlue lets seven family and friends pool their points together, but unlike most other airlines, the group’s leader has to be 21 or older, not 18. To start a pooling account, sign in and choose “True Blue and Mosaic Benefits” under your name. When you scroll down you will see where to sign up for points pooling.  

 

 

Again, be sure to look at the terms and conditions before starting a JetBlue points pool so you know the rules and how they might affect your bookings.  One example:  JetBlue’s points-pooling rules specify that when a pool member leaves the pool, their miles go with them.  (For comparison, United’s rules say the departing member’s miles stay in the pool.)

Bottom Line

These are some of the airlines that have recently begun to allow loyalty-account holders to pool points, which can be a great tool when you’re trying to use miles within a family or friend group. Now you have options to combine miles in a way that can get you traveling sooner!  But be sure to read the rules for each program so you know what to expect; each program has its quirks.  What airlines have you used the points-pooling feature with?

 

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Virgin Atlantic & Virgin Red—How to Link Them & Redeem

United Allows Miles Pooling