Airlines That Allow Miles Pooling
Few airlines allow you to transfer miles to other travelers. And if they do, they charge fees that make it less worth it to do so. But several airlines let you pool miles with other travelers for free (or nearly free). Combining miles with family and friends can help you get the miles you need for a particular redemption faster. It also allows families to access their children’s miles and prevents miles from being orphaned in their accounts. Read on for our guide to airlines that allow miles pooling—and how to actually pool your miles with other travelers.
Which Airlines Allow Family Mileage Pooling?
Let's say you have 5,000 frequent flyer miles, your spouse has 5,000 miles and each of your three children have 5,000 miles. By pooling them together, you’d have 25,000 miles—enough to book an award flight. What’s more, if you pool points with another traveler who has elite airline status and they book your award flights, those elite perks could get passed onto you. Which carriers allow this? We compiled a list of U.S. and international airlines that allow miles pooling with family members—or other travelers—for free (or at a minimum cost).
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue
- British Airways Club
- Emirates Skywards
- Etihad Airways Guest
- Frontier Miles
- Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- United Airlines MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
How to Pool Points and Miles With Each Program
Air Canada Aeroplan
Air Canada Aeroplan offers what it calls “family sharing,” where up to eight members can combine their miles for free. With Aeroplan Family Sharing, all the Aeroplan points you earn are added into a shared balance. Any Aeroplan member 18 years or older who has been a member for at least six months can set up family sharing through their Aeroplan account.
The person who sets up the pool is the Family Lead. They can invite up to seven other people—a spouse or partner, children, siblings, in-laws, parents, grandparents or any other family members—to join the pool, so long as they have been Aeroplan members for more than six months. The Family Lead determines which members are allowed to redeem points from the pool for flights. Points are redeemed proportionally from the pool, so everyone contributes a fair amount.
Air France/KLM Flying Blue
Flying Blue, the joint loyalty program for airlines Air France and KLM, allows up to two adults and six children to pool their miles together for free. Any Flying Blue member over 18 years old can create a Flying Blue Family pool. A Flying Blue Family can consist of eight total members—two adults and up to six children. The member who creates the pool is the Flying Blue Family leader. They are the only one who can transfer miles from another member's account to their own. One thing to note: You must wait seven days after joining a Flying Blue Family before your miles are available to transfer. Once you join a Flying Blue Family, all of your Flying Blue miles are eligible to be transferred.
British Airways Club
Any British Airways Club member over 18 years old can create a household account to pool their Avios with up to six other travelers, including children. You'll find the option to start a household account under the “My Profile” tab in your BA account. The household account owner is the only one who can add or remove members.
Any member of the household account can redeem the pooled Avios. Avios from the pool are deducted proportionally from each household account member's balance.
Household Avios can be redeemed for members of the pool. British Airways also allows you to set up a list of five family and friends outside of the household account for whom you can also redeem the pooled Avios. Remember that you can also transfer Avios between all your different Avios accounts. So if you or other members of the pool earned miles with another Avios-earning airline, including Aer Lingus, Finnair, Iberia, Loganair, Qatar Airways or Vueling, you can transfer them to your British Airways Club account to increase your mileage pool balance.
Emirates Skywards
Emirates allows miles pooling for up to eight people. Each individual can decide how many of their Skywards miles they want to contribute to the pool, from 0% to 100%. But any miles you earned prior to joining the pool are not eligible, only those you earned afterwards.
Anyone in the Family account over 18 years old can redeem Skywards miles from the pool for award flights, upgrades and more. You can only invite select immediate family and household members to join the pool. According to the Emirates website, “immediate family members include Husband, Wife, Domestic Partner, Son, Stepson, Daughter, Stepdaughter, Mother, Mother‑in‑law, Stepmother, Father, Father‑in‑law, Stepfather, Brother, Sister, Granddaughter, Grandson and Domestic Helper.” To start a pool, head to the Emirates My Family program page and click “Create a My Family account.”
Etihad Airways Guest
You can pool Etihad Airways Guest Miles into one account with a family membership. Up to nine family members can link their accounts to share miles. Only direct and extended family members can be part of a family membership, which, according to Etihad, includes grandchildren, grandparents, parents-in-law, step-parents, step-children, step-siblings, step-grandchildren, nieces and nephews as well as household help (one only). Etihad Guest members will continue to earn and spend their individual miles. However, only the head of the family membership can spend the pooled miles.
To start a family membership, log into your Etihad Guest account and navigate to the “transactions” tab. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the option to create a family membership.
Frontier Miles
Frontier Airlines allows family pooling between up to nine people. But there's a catch: Only members with Frontier elite status and/or the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard can start a pool. The Frontier Miles member who starts the pool becomes the head of the pool, who controls the pool and can redeem pooled miles for flights. The head can invite up to eight other friends or family members to join their pool. Once you accept the invitation to join the pool, all your Frontier miles become part of the pool and are available to be redeemed.
Japan Airlines (JAL) Mileage Bank
Japan Airlines (JAL) Mileage Bank offers a mileage pooling option called “JAL Family Club.” The primary member must reside outside of Japan, although the residency of members of the pool does not matter. Anyone over the age of 12 can be the primary member of the JAL Family Club account. Family members of any age, including children, can join the pool. According to JAL's website, that includes the primary member's “spouse, children, parents and spouse's parents.”
There is an initial 1,000-mile fee to start a JAL Family Club account, which is deducted from the mileage pool. You'll also pay 1,000 miles for each family member you add to the pool. While there is no annual fee, you will be required to pay a 1,000-mile renewal fee every five years. Any Family Club member over the age of 18 can redeem pooled miles for award flights, but there are some restrictions for whom you can book flights. To start a JAL Family Club account, head to the program website and click the JALFC enrollment application button at the bottom of the page.
JetBlue TrueBlue
JetBlue allows TrueBlue members to pool their TrueBlue points with up to six other family members or friends for free. TrueBlue members 21 years and older can create a points pooling account and become the “pool leader.” Pool leaders can invite up to six family members or friends, including children, to join their pool. The pool leader can authorize any pool member to redeem pooled TrueBlue points for award flights. Authorized members do not need the other pool members' permission to redeem pooled points.
Once you join a pool, any and all TrueBlue points you earn going forward will automatically go into the pool account until you decide to leave the pool. But you can still redeem points through your own TrueBlue account. To start pooling miles, simply log into your JetBlue account and select “Start a pool” from the top menu. Click “Get started.”
On the following screen, you'll see the option to invite members to join your pool. A minimum of two people is needed to start a pooling account.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club
Qatar Airways has recently changed the way it does miles pooling. It's more complicated, but still possible. Qatar Airways' Family & Friends program allows you to invite up to six members, including children over 2 years old, who are not already Privilege Club members to your Privilege Club account. Each person you add receives their own unique membership number and any Avios they earn are pooled into the main member's account. However, only the main member earns QPoints towards elite status.
Any Qatar Airways Privilege Club member over the age of 18 can create a Friends & Family group so long as their account is at least 30 days old. Only the main member of the Friends & Family group can redeem the pooled Avios for award flights. There is also a separate group option called My List. The requirements for booking for others have been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, but you can find our coverage of the latest requirements here.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Singapore Airlines offers the “KrisFlyer for Families” program, which allows parents or guardians to link their child's KrisFlyer account to your own and transfer their miles into your account. You can link up to five child accounts to your account. Only children ages 2 and up are eligible for a KrisFlyer account.
However, there is a small fee to transfer miles. For every 5,000 KrisFlyer miles you transfer, you'll be charged 500 miles, or $5. So if you transfer 10,000 miles from your child's account to your own, you'll be charged 1,000 miles for the transaction, or $10. You can only transfer a maximum of 50,000 miles from a child's account to your own. Note that the child's account must have earned miles on a flight within the past 36 months. It must also not have accrued miles by transferring credit card points or spending on a co-branded card within the last 36 months.
To link your child's KrisFlyer account to yours, log into your child's account, head to the personal details page and turn on “Parental Link.” You'll then get an email invitation to link accounts. Accounts will be de-linked once a child turns 16. Note that there have been some recent changes to award search requirements, as well.
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles members with Classic Plus, Elite or Elite Plus status can pool their miles with their spouse and any children under the age of 25 who are not married. Any Turkish miles members earn are credited to the family account. Any member can redeem the pooled miles. You can request to start a family membership by submitting a feedback form. Once you're on the Turkish Airlines feedback page, select “Create new feedback.” On the following page, find “feedback and complaints,” click “Create” and log into your account.
Choose “Miles&Smiles program” from the options, then “Membership procedures,” followed by “Family membership.” You'll need to provide copies of your family members’ identification documents (including your marriage certificate) along with your completed form.
United MileagePlus
United remains the only one of the big three U.S. airlines to allow travelers to pool their miles with friends and family members. MileagePlus members 18 years and older can become the “pool leader” and start a free pool. Pool leaders can invite up to four family members, friends or “close travel companions” of any age to join the pool so long as they have an active MileagePlus account. They can contribute miles to the pool, and the pool leader can authorize any members of the pool to redeem miles for award flights. Pooled miles can be redeemed for anyone, not only members of the pool.
As of June 2026, United now allows you to redeem pooled miles for both United flights and flights on partner airlines. To start a pool, simply log into your MileagePlus account on United's website. Select “Create a miles pool” and accept the terms and conditions.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club members over the age of 18 can create a household account and pool their Virgin Points with up to nine other Flying Club members. Household account members must all live at the same address.
Once you join a household account, all Virgin Points you earn through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club will automatically be pooled with the other members. Any points you earn through Virgin Red, Virgin's broader loyalty program, will stay in your individual account. However, Virgin says you can call to have those transferred to the household account, but you can only transfer points once per month. The household leader is the only one who is able to spend pooled points. Household points can be redeemed for flights, upgrades and more for any traveler, even those outside the pool.
Airlines That Allow Miles Pooling: ToP Thoughts
Miles pooling is an easy way to combine points with other travelers and redeem them for award flights. Rather than each traveler being just shy of a redemption, you can pool your miles and book at least one award flight, if not more. There are only a few U.S. airlines that allow miles pooling, but many international programs do. However, each program has it's quirks when it comes to miles pooling. Have you pooled your airline miles with friends or family? Let us know how it went in the ToP Facebook group.
