It sometimes feels a PhD in loyalty programs is required to understand how to earn and redeem points or miles. Within this imaginary degree, the subject of transferring or pooling points with your friends and family merits its own lesson—but thankfully it’s an easier one on the syllabus. It’s also one well worth your time: Combining points with your travel companions can boost your balances to the numbers required for, say, summer flights for family trips or snazzy honeymoon hotel rooms.
These types of transfers are great when you don’t have enough points individually to redeem for free nights or flights but would with a points boost from friends or family. (Thanks, mom and dad!) Pooling can be a wise choice in situations where families or friends want to contribute points to a group trip or make the most of accounts that wouldn’t be used for solo travel (e.g., your kids’ frequent flier accounts).
The premise is simple: Almost all loyalty programs offer an option for moving points between members, either through direct account-to-account transfers or pooling among groups. Combining points may or may not come with a fee, but it certainly comes with plenty of terms, conditions, and restrictions, from minimums to caps on the number of points that can be moved to who is eligible for receiving transfers (think: friends vs. family vs. additional cardholders on select credit cards). Here are 10 loyalty programs that allow members to combine points at no charge, with the most pertinent details on how to do so.
U.S. frequent flier programs that allow free points pooling
No U.S. airline allows free points transfers, but two, United and JetBlue, provide the option of points pooling for free. This allows multiple loyalty program members to contribute to a collective points balance. The way it works is that a pool leader invites members to create a shared pool. Once accepted, pool members can see the total balance, but only the pool leader and the members he or she authorizes can redeem from the collective pot.
United Mileage Plus
In March 2024, United Airlines added a family pooling feature. Any adult (18+) in the MileagePlus program can be a pool leader for a group up to five total, with no restrictions on relation. Members can partake in only one mileage pool, and pooled miles are to be used exclusively on United or United Express award tickets.
JetBlue TrueBlue
TrueBlue members can set up or join a Points Pooling account with up to seven members in a pool. All the points are merged to create a single balance. Note that a pool leader with JetBlue must be 21 or over.
The special transfer case of Southwest Rapid Rewards
Southwest charges $10 for every 1,000 points transferred between members. While there’s no way to avoid these fees, those with the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit can be reimbursed for transferring up to 50,000 points per year ($500 in transfer fees) as part of their core card benefits, essentially making transfers free. Just be sure to use your Southwest card when transferring points on Southwest’s website to get the fees reimbursed.
Transferring points in hotel loyalty programs
Across the board, hotel loyalty programs have generous policies for transferring points to other members at no cost. Transfers are typically accomplished within minutes on the websites of the various programs.
Hilton Honors
Any Hilton Honors member can combine points in two ways. The easiest is transfers. Transfer up to 500,000 points per year from one member to another, free of charge, with a maximum of six transfers per calendar year. Hilton’s pooling feature is a bit more complicated. Members can create collective pools with up to 10 other members, in which each member maintains their own points balance but contributes to the pool, again with a maximum of 500,000 transferable points and a total of six transactions per calendar year (combined with transfers). Creating a pool doesn’t constitute a joint account; it just allows members to send points to a pool leader. In total, a member, pool leader or otherwise, can receive a maximum of 2 million points a year through transfers or pooling.
IHG One Rewards
Those with top-rung IHG One Rewards Diamond Elite status can transfer up to 500,000 points per calendar year free of charge to other members. The same holds for members of IHG’s Business Rewards program (which is free and easy to join) once the account is 30 days old. The receiving member does not need to have status or membership.
Marriott Bonvoy
Any Marriott Bonvoy member can transfer up to 100,000 points per calendar year. Members can receive up to a maximum of 500,000 points.
World of Hyatt
Any World of Hyatt member can transfer points to another member in any increment with no annual limits on giving or receiving. Transactions are limited to once every 30 days and require some paperwork. Note that transfers of World of Hyatt points aren’t accomplished with the click of a button. Members must complete and submit a pdf form to combinepoints@hyatt.com. Note that the form requires a handwritten signature from both the sender and the receiver. Points may take up to 30 days to transfer but in our experience, typically is finalized within a week.
Points transfers with credit card programs
In select cases, credit cardholders can transfer points to fellow cardholders.
Capital One
Capital One miles can be transferred from one account to another—with no caps—as long as both cardholders have a card in the Capital One Venture portfolio. Doing so requires an old-fashioned phone call to Capital One to the number on the back of your card.
Chase Ultimate Rewards
You can transfer Ultimate Rewards to one “member of your household,” provided he or she also has a Chase credit card coupled with an Ultimate Rewards account. The transfer can occur online: You will need to provide the receiving member’s last name and credit card number.
Citi ThankYou
ThankYou points can be transferred from one account to another through the ThankYou portal, maxing out at 100,000 points per calendar year (individually for giving and receiving). However, we suggest avoiding any transfers until you have a redemption nearly locked in: Once transferred, the acquired points expire within 90 days.
