Can You Share Airline Miles With Others?

Advertiser disclosure: The Miles Genie has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products.  The Miles Genie and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Editorial disclosure: Opinions, reviews, analyses, and recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.

In most cases, it is possible to share airline miles with others, but it’s not always free.

Paying fees kind of defeats the purpose of this whole award travel thing. In this post, I’ll explain why you may not need to transfer miles if you want to share. Also, there are some ways you may be able to avoid paying a fee.

Are you sure you need to share airline miles?

If you’re trying to share miles to top off an account, or “pool” your miles together, sharing the miles may be necessary.

On the other hand, if you have all of the miles needed and you want to book an award ticket for someone else, you can usually just book the ticket from your account. For example, United Mileage Plus allows members to book award tickets for others. Let’s pretend I need to book an award ticket that requires 25,000 United miles. I don’t have any miles in my United account but Ryan has 25,000. He could transfer 25,000 miles to my United account, but the fee to transfer that amount of miles is going to be over $400 (I’ll discuss fees below). There is no need for him to transfer the miles to me, though, because he can just use his account to book my ticket.

While some foreign airline programs have some rules and restrictions about booking tickets for other people with your miles, most American carriers allow you to use your miles to book a ticket for anyone, even if you aren’t traveling on the itinerary.

So here are the options: 1) pay $400 to transfer the miles to me and then I can book the ticket or 2) use his account to book the ticket for zero fees.

I’ll list the common US carriers and the policies of each airline about booking for others and/or sharing miles. Here are a few things to remember:

• Processing fees: Sometimes you also have to pay a processing fee to share miles. For many of these programs, you may be better off just buying the miles to top off the account. For example, if you only need 1,000 Alaska Airlines miles, you can buy those for less than $30, whereas sharing is going to be $35.
• Elite status: Shared, gifted, or bought miles will almost never count towards elite status.
• Account age may matter: Some programs do not allow brand new accounts to share miles. For example, an AAdvantage account must be 30 days old to be eligible to share miles with another AAdvantage member.

Alaska Airlines MileagePlan

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? The price per 1,000 miles shared is $10 and then there is a $25 processing fee per transaction.
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? 100,000 miles per year.

Transfers are usually immediate, but official terms state it can take up to 72 hours.

American Airlines AAdvantage

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? About $20-$35.00 per 1,000 AAdvantage miles for the first 3,000 miles. The price per thousand goes down as the amount of miles you’re sharing goes up. Around 15,000 miles, the price per thousand is about $13.
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? 200,000 miles per year.

Transfers are usually immediate, but it can take up to 8 hours.

Delta Air Lines SkyMiles

You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Delta at a 1:1 ratio

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? Delta charges $10 per 1,000 miles shared. Each transaction has a fee of $30.
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? You can share up to 30,000 miles per transaction. Each account can share 150,000 miles per year. A recipient can receive a total of 300,000 per year.

Transfers are usually immediate, but official terms state it can take up to 24 hours.

Hawaiian Miles

You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Hawaiian Miles at a 1:1 ratio

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? If the recipient has a Hawaiian Airlines co-branded credit card, you can transfer Hawaiian miles to that person for free. Otherwise, it is $10 per 1,000 miles shared (minimum is 2,000 miles) plus a $25 processing fee.
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? There is no minimum or maximum for Hawaiian co-branded credit card holders per transaction, but you are limited to 10 transactions per year.

JetBlue TrueBlue

You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1), Capital One (2:1) miles earned from the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card, or American Express Membership Rewards (250:200) to JetBlue TrueBlue

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? You can pool your JetBlue points with 2-7 family members for free! To transfer to others, the fee is $12.50 per 1,000 points shared.
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? 120,000 points per year.

Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards

You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to Southwest Rapid Rewards at a 1:1 ratio

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? The cost is $5 per 500 miles shared (There is a 2,000 minimum, but you can transfer in increments of 500)
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? There is a limit of 60,000 points per day.

Transfers are usually immediate, but could take up to 72 hours.

United Airlines MileagePlus

You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to United MileagePlus at a 1:1 ratio

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? The cost is $7.50 per 500 miles shared plus $30 per transaction.
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? There is a limit of 100,000 points per calendar year.

Transfers are usually immediate, but could take up to 48 hours.

If you have transferable points, you may be able pool/share/transfer miles without paying fees!

Transferable points such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One miles earned from the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, or American Express Membership Rewards are my favorite. Rather than being tied to one airline and its partners, you have the option to transfer these points to whichever airline partner results in the best redemption price for any given route. What makes this even better is that you may be able to pool points into one airline account without paying fees.

There are 2 different levels at which you can pool/share these currencies. All 3 of these currencies can be pooled at one or both levels for FREE, but there are different limitations and nuances with each program.

1. Pooling points while they are bank points. In other words, transferring points from your Ultimate Rewards account to an Ultimate Rewards account that is held by your spouse.
2. Sharing them by transferring into an airline account. Again, there are limitations which I’ll discuss below, but you may be able to transfer Ultimate Rewards or Amex points to the frequent flyer account of someone other than the primary cardholder.

When you transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One Venture miles, or any other bank currency to an airline, that transfer is permanent.

For example, if you transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to United, those points become United miles and will remain United miles subject to United Mileage Plus policies. You cannot transfer United miles back to Chase Ultimate Rewards. For that reason, you are better off keeping your points in the bank points account (Ultimate Rewards, etc) and waiting to transfer to an airline until you are ready to redeem and you are certain there is availability for your dates and destination.

I’ll go over the rules of sharing/transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, and Capital One Venture miles.

How to share Chase Ultimate Rewards points

The method in which you plan to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points determines the specifics of sharing and transferring between accounts. The two redemption options that provide the most value for booking travel with transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards points are:

1. Transfer Ultimate Rewards to airline and/or hotel loyalty programs at a 1:1 ratio. Then you redeem the points/miles with the loyalty program. You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to these airline programs:
   • Aer Lingus AerClub
   • British Airways Executive Club
   • Emirates Skywards
   • Flying Blue AirFrance/KLM
   • Iberia Plus
   • JetBlue TrueBlue
   • Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
   • Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
   • United MileagePlus
   • Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
2. Use the Chase Ultimate Rewards redemption portal. This is basically using your points as cash at a fixed rate to book through their portal.  The redemption values are going to depend on which Chase Sapphire card you have:
   • card_name: 1.25 cents per point
   • card_name: 1.25
   • card_name: 1.50

There are different sharing rules for each type of Chase Ultimate Rewards redemption

Option 1: transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points to partners

You can only transfer points to another person’s frequent flyer account if the receiver is an authorized user on your account AND they are a household member*. If you are not authorized users of each other’s cards, but you live in the same household, there is an easy workaround. You can share (Chase calls it “combine”) your Chase Ultimate Rewards into one person’s account as explained in the next paragraph. Then that person can transfer the Ultimate Rewards to his or her airline account.

Option 2: Ultimate Rewards redemption portal

Sharing points with another Chase Ultimate Rewards account holder is possible, but it may not be necessary. You can use your points to book a flight for someone else by making the redemption portal booking in their name instead of yours. The person does not need to be an authorized user or a household member.

But if you still need to combine points with another Ultimate Rewards account holder (for example, if you’re short on points), you can transfer points in your Ultimate Rewards account to the Ultimate Rewards account belonging to another member of your household* or vice versa even if neither of you are authorized users.

*The household member thing isn’t clearly defined, but Chase does state that if fraudulent activity is suspected, they have the right to shut down your Ultimate Rewards account. This is from the Ultimate Rewards website:

“You can move your points, but only to another Chase card with Ultimate Rewards belonging to you, or one member of your household… If we suspect that you’ve engaged in fraudulent activity related to your credit card account or Ultimate Rewards, or that you’ve misused Ultimate Rewards in any way (for example by buying or selling points, moving or transferring points with or to an ineligible third party or account, or repeatedly opening or otherwise maintaining credit card accounts for the sole purpose of generating rewards) we may temporarily prohibit you from earning points or using points you’ve already earned. If we believe you’ve engaged in any of these acts, we’ll close your credit card account and you’ll lose all your points.”

So to help interpret these rules, here are some examples of what is and isn’t allowed:

2 household members with separate Chase Ultimate Rewards accounts

Example 1: One person needs airline miles for a redemption. Neither person has enough points on their own, but there are more than enough points between the two accounts

• 25,000 United miles are needed for a redemption for person 1. Neither person has any United miles, but both have Ultimate Rewards points which transfer to United MileagePlus at a 1:1 ratio.
• Person 1 has 20,000 Ultimate Rewards points.
• Person 2 has 20,000 Ultimate Rewards points.

Don’t make the mistake of transferring points to separate United Mileage Plus accounts! If person 2 transferred the Ultimate Rewards to his United account, he could then share the United miles with person 1’s United account. The problem is, United has fees for sharing miles. There are two ways to avoid having to transfer between United accounts:

1. Combine Chase Ultimate Rewards. Person 2 can share the 5,000 Ultimate Rewards points to person 1 by selecting “combine points” on the Ultimate Rewards home page. Person 2 will be prompted to add person 1’s card number and last name. After that, person 2 can share the 5,000 points. Person 1 now has 25,000 Ultimate Rewards points. Person 1 can transfer 25,000 points to her United Mileage Plus account to book the ticket.
2. Transfer directly to the frequent flyer account (this is only possible for authorized users). If person 1 is an authorized user of person 2’s Ultimate Rewards credit card, then person 2 can transfer the 5,000 miles to person 1’s United account from the “transfer to travel partners” option on the Ultimate Rewards main menu.

Transferring directly to the frequent flyer account may be slightly more convenient, but even if both players aren’t authorized users, you can still combine Ultimate Rewards as long as both people are household members. Once points are combined in an Ultimate Rewards account, you can transfer to the airline.

2 household members, but only one person has a Chase Ultimate Rewards earning credit card

First of all, person 2 should open a card_name. The current offer is 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. The annual fee is $95 but the bonus alone is worth at least $750 towards travel!

Example 2: Both people have a United Mileage Plus account and both are close to the amount of miles needed for a redemption. The cardholder has 40,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points. That person can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to United at a 1:1 ratio.

• Each person wants to book an award ticket that is 25,000 United miles
• Person 1 has 22,000 United miles and 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points.
• Person 2 has 22,000 United miles.

There are 2 ways to book here. If person 2 is an authorized user on person 1’s card, both options are possible. If person 2 is not an authorized user, only the 2nd method is possible.

1. Person 1 transfers 3,000 Ultimate Rewards to his United account. Person 1 transfers another 3,000 Ultimate Rewards points to the authorized user’s United account. Each person then has 25,000 United miles to redeem. So each person uses their United account to book their own flight.
2. Person 1 transfers 28,000 Ultimate Rewards points to his United account. He now has 50,000 United miles and can book both tickets with his account. Person 2 would still have her 22,000 United miles.

Either of the 2 methods are free, but person 1 would save Ultimate Rewards points with the first method.

How to Share American Express Membership Rewards points

There are two ways to redeem Amex Membership Rewards points for travel:

1. You can redeem Amex Membership Rewards for travel on amextravel.com. This is similar to redeeming Ultimate Rewards points through Chase’s portal. The problem is, your value is only 1 cent per point (Chase is at least 1.25-1.50, and possibly more depending on which cards you have).
2. Amex Membership Rewards points are usually most valuable by transferring them to airline partners. There are 17 partners:

• Aeromexico Club Premier
• Air Canada Aeroplan
• Aer Lingus AerClub
• ANA
• Avianca LifeMiles
• British Airways Executive Club
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
• Delta Skymiles
• Emirates Skywards
• Etihad Guest
• Flying Blue AirFrance/KLM
• Hawaiian Miles
• Iberia Plus
• JetBlue TrueBlue
• Qantas Frequent Flyer
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

You cannot combine American Express Membership Rewards points with another person, but you can transfer the points to an authorized user’s frequent flyer account.

The name on the loyalty account to which the points are being transferred must match the name of the primary cardholder or an authorized user. As of September 1, 2019 a new rule has been added. In order to transfer to the frequent flyer program of an authorized user, that person needs to have been an authorized user for 90 days.

How to share Capital One Venture miles

Click here to see how the Capital One Venture stacks up against the card_name.

With the exception of Emirates, Jet Blue, and Singapore, you can transfer at a ratio of 2:1.5 to these airline partners:

• Aeromexico Club Premier
• Air Canada Aeroplan
• Air France-KLM Flying Blue
• Alitalia MilleMiglia
• Avianca LifeMiles
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
• Emirates Skywards (2:1)
• Etihad Guest
• EVA Infinity MileageLands
• Finnair Plus
• JetBlue TrueBlue (2:1)
• Qantas Frequent Flyer
• Singapore KrisFlyer (2:1)

You cannot transfer Capital One Venture miles to an authorized user’s frequent flyer account. Only the primary cardholder can transfer to a loyalty account in his or her name. But you can transfer Capital One Venture miles to and from another person that has a Capital One Venture card, and you do not have to share a household!

Once you transfer bank points to an airline, those points become airline miles and they are subject to that airline’s policies

Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One miles earned from the Venture card, and American Express Membership Rewards each have US transfer partners. But some of the best redemption values happen when you utilize their foreign partners. For that reason, I’ll give details about some of the commonly used foreign airline programs.

Booking tickets for others and/or sharing miles with international airline programs

Remember, you should not transfer bank points to an airline until you are certain that your dates, etc are available. Transfers are permanent.

Air Canada Aeroplan

Transfer from: Capital One (2:1.5) or American Express Membership Rewards (1:1)

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? 2 cents (CAD) per mile. That’s a lot.
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? Well there is, but not really. You cannot transfer more than 999,999 miles per transaction. Minimum is 1,000.

You can use Aeroplan miles to book flights operated by Air Canada or for Star Alliance partners such as United, Lufthansa, and Singapore Airlines.

Air France/KLM Flying Blue

Transfer from: Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1), Capital One (2:1.5), or American Express Membership Rewards (1:1)

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? $3.40 per 250 miles.
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? 50,000 per transfer and up to 250,000 per year

Save on flights to Europe by redeeming Flying Blue miles for AirFrance or KLM promo flights to Europe. For more info about using Flying Blue miles for flights to Europe, click here. You can also redeem Flying Blue miles for flights operated by SkyTeam partners such as Delta, and you aren’t limited to European routes!

ANA Mileage Club

Transfer from: American Express Membership Rewards (1:1)

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Maybe. You can redeem ANA Miles for family members, up to second degree. Second degree family members are defined as spouse/partner, siblings (and their spouse), children, parents, grandparents, and grandchildren of the member. Also, the in-laws from grandkids to grandparents and everything in between are considered second degree family.
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? You can register for a family account for 1,000 miles to combine points between family members (as defined above)
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? unclear

ANA is in the Star Alliance, and their frequent flyer program has some of the best sweet spots you’ll find for both ANA operated flights and their partner flights. For example, you can fly from the US to Africa in business class for 104,000 miles roundtrip!

British Airways Executive Club

Transfer from: Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1) or American Express Membership Rewards (1:1)

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? For household members, it’s free. You can pool your Avios with up to 6 household members. Otherwise, it’s $41 per 1,000 plus a $20 processing fee. No thanks. If you have Gold status or above, you can transfer up to 162,000 Avios a year for free.
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? Up to 162,000 per year

My favorite way to use British Airways avios is to redeem for American Airlines flights. American Airlines is not a partner of any of the common bank currencies, but you can use British Airways to book AA flights.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Transfer from: Capital One (2:1.5), or American Express Membership Rewards (1:1)

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes. You can register 5 people for free. After that, once a year, you can pay $50 to change up to 3 of those people.
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? You can only transfer to those in your registered group. There is a minimum of 10,000 miles and the fee is $170. After the first 10,000, you can transfer in 5,000 mile increments for $140.
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? Unclear

You can redeem Cathay Pacific miles for Cathay operated flights or for One World alliance partner flights.

Emirates Skywards

Transfer from: Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1), Capital One (2:1), or American Express Membership Rewards (1:1)

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes.
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? You can pool with up to 7 family members for free?. It must be immediate family specifically defined as spouse, partner, child, sibling, stepchild, parents, stepparents, mother and father in law, grandparents, domestic helper. Otherwise, the price is $15 per 1,000 miles.
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? Up to 50,000 each year. The receiver must have at least 1 earn activity.

Emirates is not in an alliance, but there are several non alliance partners. Click here for best ways to redeem Emirates miles.

Etihad Guest

Transfer from: Capital One (2:1.5) or American Express Membership Rewards (1:1)

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? You can pool with up to 8 family members for free into a single account. Eligible family is defined as spouse, child, sibling, stepchild, stepsibling, parents, stepparents, mother and father in law, grandparents, nieces, nephews, and a domestic helper. Outside of the family membership, you cannot transfer or pool Etihad miles.
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? no

Etihad is not in an alliance, but there are several non alliance partners for which you can redeem Etihad miles. One partner is American Airlines. Etihad’s redemption prices are better than AAdvantage redemption prices on several routes, including Japan.

Iberia Plus

Transfer from: Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1) or American Express Membership Rewards (1:1)

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? Starts at $34 for 1,000 and gets slightly less per 1,000 if you transfer more.
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? Up to 100,000 each calendar year. Per transaction, minimum is 1,000, max is 24,000.

Like British Airways, Iberia avios are great for American Airlines flights. You can also use Iberia avios for other One World partner flights.

Qantas Frequent Flyer

Transfer from: Capital One (2:1.5) or American Express Membership Rewards (1:1)

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes, but only for family members
• How much does it cost if I need to share miles? You can only transfer between family members, but it’s free. Minimum is 5,000 miles.
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? Up to 600,000 each calendar year

Qantas is a One World alliance member. Their distance based chart allows for some sweet spots, but I’ve found British Airways to be a better way to book American Airlines.

Singapore Airlines Krisflyer

Transfer from: Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1), Capital One (2:1), or American Express Membership Rewards (1:1)

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes, but for family members only
• How much does it cost to share miles? You can only transfer between family members, but it’s free. Minimum is 5,000 miles per transaction
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? 600,000 per transfer and up to 250,000 per year

Singapore is a Star Alliance partner. Krisflyer miles are great for Singapore Airlines or partner flights. There are several sweet spots.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Transfer from: Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1) or American Express Membership Rewards (1:1)

• Can I book an award ticket for someone else? Yes
• How much does it cost to share miles? The first 1,000 miles is $38 plus a processing fee. After that the cost per 1,000 goes down, but this is a lot of money to transfer miles. ssible!
• Is there a limit on the amount of miles you can share? Up to 100,000 per year. Minimum per transaction is 1,000.

Virgin Atlantic miles are great for booking Delta flights. Also, while you’ll have to pay fuel surcharges, Virgin Atlantic does have some of the lowest redemption costs for US-Europe in terms of miles required.

Final Thoughts

There are a few ways to avoid paying fees when you’re trying to book award tickets for someone else. Usually, you can use your miles to book a ticket for someone else rather than transferring to that person. All of the common US carriers allow this. Having transferable bank points is also helpful.

Chase Ultimate Rewards points

• You can share Chase Ultimate Rewards points with a household member.
• If that person is an authorized user, you can transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to their frequent flyer account.
• If the recipient is neither a household member nor an authorized user, you can still share your Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
  • You can either book with your points in the redemption portal, or
  • You can transfer Ultimate Rewards to your airline account and then use your account to book the ticket for that person.

American Express Membership Rewards points

• You cannot share American Express Membership Rewards points
• You can transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to the frequent flyer program of an authorized user
• If the recipient is not an authorized user, you can still share your points. You can transfer the Amex MR points into your frequent flyer account and then use your frequent flyer account to book the ticket

Capital One Venture miles

• You cannot transfer Venture miles to the frequent flyer program of an authorized user
• You can transfer Venture miles to anyone else who has a Capital One Venture card. This is not limited to household members or authorized users!

Advertiser disclosure: The Miles Genie has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products.  The Miles Genie and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

Comments below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. The comments have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.