United's Much-Requested New Feature Means More Flight Savings for You, Family Members and Friends — Here's How It Works The new feature is available for flyers of all ages.
By Emily Rella Edited by Jessica Thomas
Key Takeaways
- United announced on Thursday that members can now use MileagePlus miles pooling to share with others.
- MileagePlus members can form groups of five and create a pool of miles to be used towards flights and other perks.
- Members with Premier status in the MileagePlus program will not be affected by contributing to a pool.
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When trying to save money while traveling, it can be frustrating to realize that you don't have enough frequent flyer points to cover the cost of a flight, especially on major airlines.
Now, United Airlines is looking to alleviate some of that stress by announcing a game-changing new feature allowing frequent flyers to pool and share points across accounts.
On Thursday, United announced that it will roll out MileagePlus miles pooling. Up to five MileagePlus members can create an account to share miles, with the airline noting that it is the "first and only" major U.S. airline to offer such a feature.
Other U.S. airlines, including JetBlue, Frontier and Hawaiian Airlines, already offer mileage pooling programs with varying policies, as do numerous international airlines.
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"We're always looking for new ways to provide the most value to all of our loyalty members and are proud to be the first major U.S. airline to allow our members to pool their miles with their loved ones and friends," Luc Bondar, chief operating officer of MileagePlus, said in a release. "MileagePlus miles pooling further reinforces United's position as the leader in family and group travel and gives our members more flexibility to use their miles while making it easier to connect to the destinations and moments that matter most, with the people that matter most."
Members must be 18 years or older to become the leader of one of the pool accounts, but there is no minimum age limit for the other four members — so yes, you can share miles with — and steal miles from — your children, making the feature ideal for families.
The MileagePlus miles pooling feature is now available to all frequent flyer members, who can access it by re-logging into their MileagePlus accounts.
United also noted that contributing miles to a pool account does not affect status for its Premier members.
U.S. News and World Report recently ranked United MileagePlus as the third-best airline reward program for 2023-2024, partially due to United's extensive network of partner airlines that fly to over 1,300 destinations and the fact that miles earned never expire.
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United posted strong earnings for Q4 2023, closing out the quarter with a 10% increase in operating revenue from the same time last year. In February, the airline noted that it missed out on roughly $2 billion in revenue after waiving the $200 change fee for economy and premium ticketed passengers three years ago.
The airline was up over 8.3% year over year as of Friday morning.
