Quick point: How to combine United miles with family and friends

In March, United Airlines announced that United MileagePlus members can start pooling their hard-earned miles with friends and family to achieve their travel goals sooner. This is the ideal situation for those with young children — there is no age limit on who can earn MileagePlus miles — and those who are short on award flight miles and want to cut the cost of their travel. me.

If you don’t have enough miles in your account to book your next redemption but a friend or family member has a small amount of miles that they’re unlikely to use, you might consider pooling the miles together so at least one of you can use them to book an award flight.

This is also a useful option if you want to book a group trip and use miles from different accounts in the same booking. So if you want to know how to pool your United miles, keep reading to learn more.

Related: Best United Airlines credit cards

The first step in pooling your miles is to decide who will be the “mileage leader.” This could be any United MileagePlus members are at least 18 years old or older. Whoever is designated as the group leader will control the combined mileage within the group. (Note: You can only join one group group at a time.)

If you don’t want to be the group leader, you should choose someone you trust with your miles to facilitate bookings. They will manage group miles and authorize group members to redeem them. While you can allocate the miles you want to contribute to a pool, once miles are transferred into a pool, you can’t undo the transfer.

To create a group, click “MileagePlus” on the United.com home page, then click “My Account.” On the left side of your account page, you’ll see a drop-down arrow for MileagePlus. Click on it and you will see “Mileage Summary”. There, you’ll be taken to the mileage summary page, where you can click “Create Fund.” Once you agree to the terms and conditions, you can create your group.

Group leaders can invite up to four MileagePlus members to join their group. These members do not need to be related to the group leader (and even if they are, it does not matter if the last name or postal address is different).

You can also invite friends and even children, as long as they are MileagePlus members and the total number of groups, including the group leader, does not exceed five members.

Remember, group members can only belong to one MileagePlus group at a time and cannot contribute or redeem miles within the first 72 hours of joining the group. Pooled miles cannot be used to upgrade or change seats on partner airlines such as Lufthansa and Air Canada.

Related: Is Air Canada’s premium economy worth it on the Boeing 777-300ER from Amsterdam to Toronto?

The group leader will need the MileagePlus number and email of each member they want to invite to the group in order to receive the invitation.

Group members should monitor their emails for pool invitations. After accepting the invitation, they can choose how many MileagePlus miles they want to contribute to the fund. Members can choose to transfer all of their remaining miles or just a small amount while keeping the remaining miles in their personal account.

Mileage pooling does not affect MileagePlus members elite status.

If the group leader decides to leave the group, the miles will be divided equally among the members. Group members must wait 90 days after leaving any group before joining another group.