In 2024, the United MileagePlus program introduced a great feature, letting members pool their miles. This initially came with some major restrictions, and we’ve just seen the most limiting of those lifted. That’s something to be excited about.
How the United MileagePlus mileage pooling feature works
United Airlines is the only one of the “big three” US carriers to allow loyalty program members of all ages to pool their miles with friends and family. With this mileage pooling feature, any MileagePlus member over 18 years old can become the pool leader, and create a pool for free when logged into their MileagePlus account.
Up until recently, the biggest restriction was that miles earned in a pool could only be redeemed for award travel on United. However, as first flagged by Travel on Points, that restriction is no longer in place — pooled miles can now be redeemed for travel on United, or any of its airline partners. Per a United spokesperson:
“We’re always looking for new ways to evolve MileagePlus and bring our members more rewards, value and flexibility. We recently expanded Miles Pooling to be available across more than 40 airline partners – making it even easier for families and friends to combine their miles for upcoming trips. MileagePlus members have been able to redeem miles on partner airlines for a long time, and now with expanded Miles Pooling, they’ll be able to pool miles with family and friends to also redeem on other airlines.”
As a reminder, here are the general restrictions that now apply on this mileage pooling feature:
- Pool leaders can invite up to four of their family or friends of any age to join the pool if they have an active MileagePlus account
- Pooled miles can be used when booking a ticket on united.com or in the United mobile app
- Pooled miles can be used for award travel on United, or for award travel on any of the carrier’s partners, including all Star Alliance airlines
- There are no limits to the number of miles that may be contributed to an active miles pool
- Members can leave a miles pool at any time; however, any miles contributed by the person who leaves the pool will be forfeited by that member, and will stay in the pool to be shared among the remaining members
- If a member leaves a miles pool, they can’t join another pool for the next 90 days, and that pool also can’t have a new member join for 90 days
- Contributing miles to a MileagePlus pool won’t affect an individual’s elite status; only members who travel on a ticket using pooled miles will earn any eligible Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs), not the member who contributed them
Practically speaking, you might be best off just using a miles pool shortly before you’re ready to book a ticket. Then you can decide how many miles each person will contribute toward that ticket, since not everyone has to contribute the same.
This is a smart play on United MileagePlus’ part
While United is far from the first airline in the world to introduce a mileage pooling feature, it did beat American and Delta to this, so deserves credit for that. It’s also noteworthy how in the over two years since this feature was introduced, those airlines haven’t matched.
United’s motive here is clear. Loyalty programs can generate a lot of revenue for airlines, and airlines want as many people as possible to join loyalty programs. This has been a big focus for all major airlines.
Perhaps in the past, an entire family that travels once or twice a year may not have signed up for a loyalty program, since they figure they won’t earn enough miles to actually redeem for awards. This mileage pooling feature is a great incentive to join, since you can pool the miles you earn, so that you have enough for a valuable reward. That’s smart.
Now, from the perspective of airlines, the big concern with these concepts is fraud, given the world of mileage brokers. In the past, we’ve seen some loyalty programs suspend the mileage pooling concept due to too many issues with fraud.
So I think United learned some lessons there from other airlines, and has limited risk. For one, there’s a 90-day “cooling off” period with pools, which not only applies to the person leaving the pool, but to the pool altogether, which makes this harder to game.
I suspect the initial limitation on only being able to redeem for flights on United was intended to serve a similar purpose, to prevent barterers from getting access to United miles, and then immediately redeeming for travel on a partner airline.
Between this and MileagePlus miles not expiring, the value proposition of the program is great for the occasional traveler.
Bottom line
In early 2024, United MileagePlus launched a mileage pooling feature, whereby up to five people can combine their miles for a single award ticket. This has just been greatly improved — previously you could only redeem miles from a pool for travel on United, while now those miles can be redeemed on all partner airlines as well.
It’s always nice to see miles become more flexible, especially for those who accrue them in small quantities. This is a big value-add for the average member, and should increase engagement in the program, especially combined with a no mileage expiration policy.
What do you make of United’s mileage pooling feature?