United Miles Pooling: How It Works

United Airlines allows MileagePlus members to pool their miles with friends and family for free, making it simple to book pricey award redemptions from a single account.

This is different from transferring miles from your account to someone else’s, which involves paying expensive transfer fees. While transferring miles from one account to another is still an option, you should avoid doing so since the fees essentially wipe out the value of your miles.

The United miles pooling feature also comes with downsides. The biggest one is you can only redeem pooled miles on United or United Express flights. They can’t be redeemed for partner flights, seat upgrades, in-flight Wi-Fi or anything else.

Here's how United miles pooling works.

» Learn more: The complete guide to the United MileagePlus program

Start a pool and invite others to join

To start a United miles pool, choose someone to be the pool leader. That person can create a pool by signing into their MileagePlus account directly on United’s miles pooling page.

Anyone with a MileagePlus account who is at least 18 can be a pool leader, but make sure you choose wisely. This person will be responsible for inviting people to join the pool and determining how miles in the pool are spent.

The pool leader can invite up to four other MileagePlus members to join the pool by providing their MileagePlus account number, email address and date of birth. Other members of the pool can also be granted permission to redeem miles. An invitation can be withdrawn by the pool leader before it’s accepted; unanswered invitations expire after 14 days.

You can only be part of one pool at a time. Pool leaders cannot remove members; the only way for someone to leave a pool is voluntarily, unless it’s dissolved.

Contribute miles to a pool

All pool members can contribute their United miles to a pool; however, new pool members must wait 72 hours before they can contribute miles. You can contribute as many miles as you have in your MileagePlus account to a pool.

Keep in mind that once miles are contributed to a pool, they are placed in a pending status for 24 hours. After that, transactions cannot be reversed. Even if you choose to leave, the miles that you contributed will stay in the pool.

Redeeming miles from a pool

Only the pool leader and any members who have been granted redemption privileges can redeem pooled miles. To do so, make an award booking online or in the app as you normally would while signed into your United MileagePlus account. When you get to the payment screen, select to pay with miles from your pooled account. Flights can be redeemed for anyone, even if they are not a part of the pool.

Just as with contributing miles, new pool members cannot redeem miles for the first 72 hours after joining the pool. All pool members, including the leader, have to wait 24 hours after miles are added to the pool before they can be redeemed. (That accounts for the 24-hour grace period members have to reverse a contribution to the pool.)

If someone in your pool has United elite status, a United credit card or both, designate that person to redeem miles from the pool. People who fall in those categories may have access to additional saver award availability, discounts on select awards and other perks like a free checked bag.

Remember: Pooled miles can only be redeemed for award tickets on flights operated by United and United Express. If you want to redeem your miles for flights on United partners like Lufthansa or Singapore Airlines, that won’t work here.

Leaving a pool

If you no longer want to be part of a pool, you can choose to leave it. However, you won’t be able to join a new pool for 90 days, and no one can join the pool you left for 90 days. Plus, any contributed miles from your account will remain in the pool.

And if you get into a spat with your pool leader, don’t worry. They aren’t able to remove you from the pool and take your miles for themselves.

However, if the pool leader chooses to leave, that will dissolve the pool and any remaining pooled miles will be distributed evenly to remaining pool members, including the leader.

Who should pool United miles?

United miles pooling is a great opportunity for family and friends to combine their miles for free to book award trips.

One key perk: It allows you to book multiple award tickets on the same reservation, when you might otherwise have to book separate reservations. This can be helpful if you want to share perks from holding elite status or a United credit card, like free checked bags. Another plus: If you’re caught up in a delay or cancellation, United will know to rebook you together since you’re on the same reservation.

This feature is especially useful for families with children or for frequent flyers with friends who don’t travel often. Because United miles don’t expire, some accounts may have a small number of miles just sitting there and collecting dust. By pooling miles together, you might be able to find a way to use those stranded miles.

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Top photo courtesy of United Airlines.