In March, United Airlines announced that United MileagePlus members can start pooling their hard-earned miles from friends and family to reach their travel goals sooner. This is a great situation for those with children – there is no age limit on who can earn MileagePlus miles – and those who are short on award miles and want to reduce the cost of their travel.
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 they might be able to use, you might consider pooling miles together so that at least one of you can use them to book an award flight.
It is also a useful option if you wish to book a group trip and use miles from different accounts for the same booking. So, if you want to know how to combine your United miles, read on to learn more.
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The first step in pooling your miles is deciding who will be the “pool leader.” This can be any United MileagePlus member who is at least 18 years of age or older. Whoever is designated as the pool leader will control the pooled miles within the group. (Note: You can only be a part of one group at a time.)
If you don’t want to be the pool leader, it’s a good idea to choose someone you trust with your miles to process the booking. They will manage the miles in the pool and authorize pool members to redeem them. Although you can allocate the number of miles you want to contribute to a pool group, once the miles have been transferred to the pool, you cannot reverse the transfer.
To create a pool, click “MileagePlus” on the united.com homepage, then “My Account.” On the left side of your account page, you’ll see a MileagePlus drop-down arrow. Click on it, and you’ll see “Mileage Merging.” There, you’ll be directed to the miles pool page, where you can click on “Create pool.” Once you agree to the terms and conditions, you can create your pool.
A pool leader can invite up to four MileagePlus members to join their pool. These members do not need to be related to the group leader (and even if they are, it doesn’t matter if their last names or postal addresses are different).
You can also invite friends and even children, as long as they are MileagePlus members and the total pool, including the pool leader, does not exceed five members.
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Remember, pool members can only be part of one MileagePlus pool at a time and cannot donate or redeem miles within 72 hours of first joining the pool. Cumulative miles cannot be used for seat upgrades or redemptions on partner airlines such as Lufthansa and Air Canada.
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The pool leader will need the MileagePlus number and email of each member they wish to invite to the pool to receive the invitation.
Pool members should monitor their emails for a pool invitation. Once they have accepted the invitation, they can choose how many MileagePlus miles they wish to contribute to the pool. Members can choose to transfer their entire miles balance or only a small amount while keeping the rest of the miles in their personal account.
Cumulative miles have no effect on the MileagePlus member’s special status.
If the pool leader decides to leave the pool, the miles are distributed equally among the members. Pool members must wait 90 days after leaving any pool before joining another.
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