Can I move points to another person's account?

At a glance#

Why transferring is usually the wrong move#

Split balances are normal in any household running more than one account. The question of how to bring them together has a free answer in almost every programme, and the expensive answer is the one that comes to mind first.

Having points in two accounts suggests combining them, and in most programmes that instinct leads to the most expensive solution available. The fee is charged per unit moved, and its price regularly exceeds what the same unit achieves in an award booking. Before any transfer the price per unit is therefore set against your own value per point, meaning what a unit typically achieves in the awards you book. In most cases the thought ends there.

Often nothing needs to move at all. In nearly every programme an award for another person can be booked out of one account.

Two operations share the name transfer. Moving points from a card programme into an airline programme is not the same as moving them between two people: the first is usually free, the second almost never, as transferable points describes.

Transfers are also final. No programme offers a reverse, and moving too much leaves the units in the wrong account and costs again to correct. Transferred points follow the rules of the receiving account, and they are award currency, not qualifying activity, so they do nothing for status.

The free default#

Two free routes are almost always open: booking for another person out of your own account and, where it exists, household pooling. Between them they solve the problem completely.

Booking for other people#

An award booking needs a name, not an account. Anyone with enough balance can book for family, friends or colleagues.

Some programmes require the person to be listed on the account. That list is usually capped, and changes to it often come with a waiting period: some programmes allow changes immediately, others lock the list for weeks after each change. Booking at short notice for someone not yet on the list runs straight into that lock, which is the only reason to maintain the list in advance. Other programmes require nothing at all, and the name at booking is enough.

Taxes on an award booked for others are charged to the booker’s account, and booking for several people means paying them for all of them. That is rarely material on short routes and quite noticeable on long-haul.

Household and family pooling#

Several programmes allow balances to be combined through household or family pooling. The points stay formally separate and are drawn together for one booking. A shared address or a documented family relationship is usually the requirement, and proof is asked for at setup and rarely checked afterwards. Friends and colleagues do not qualify, which is where booking for others takes over.

Household pooling is the cheapest route of all. It costs nothing and solves the very problem the fee would otherwise address, and in hotel programmes it is free more often than with airlines.

Setup time matters. A household account is not usable the same day, and setting it up only once an award has been found is too late, so it is worth establishing once and leaving in place. Programmes also draw on the pool differently. Some take proportionally from every account, others from the booker’s account first, and that determines which account ends up empty.

Pooling solves the balance, not the award inventory. Availability remains the real obstacle in most cases.

Worked example: two accounts, one award#

One account is short of an award by units that sit in a second account.

Booking from the larger account is almost always right. It costs nothing and works as long as one account is enough on its own. The balance in the second account stays where it is and pays for the next award, which costs nothing either.

A transfer from a card programme usually costs nothing as well, but it needs a partnership between the card programme and the airline. Where one exists, topping up the short account from the card side is often the cleanest fix, since it leaves both personal balances untouched.

The transfer is what people think of first and the most expensive of the sensible options. It pays only when the missing quantity is small. Buying the missing units is its benchmark: the purchase price per unit and the transfer fee per unit are two prices for the same result, and the lower one wins, as buying points describes.

Switching to a different award is the most overlooked route, perhaps because it feels like giving something up. Booking a smaller award out of one account frequently beats forcing a large one with fees, and the difference in value received is usually smaller than the fee.

The fee per unit sits in the programme terms. It is the only number that carries the decision.

When a transfer does make sense#

The arithmetic flips when the missing quantity is small and the award is large. A modest fee for a few units can rescue a valuable booking.

An account close to expiry is another case. A transfer counts as activity in many programmes and extends the clock, as miles expiry describes, and for an account about to be closed for inactivity it is the last way to rescue a balance, at a cost far below losing all of it.

When a programme does not allow booking for others, only a transfer remains. That is the rarest case and the only one where the fee has no alternative, unless the account holder travels along: both names on one booking need no transfer, because the booker’s account carries it and the companion is simply a name on it.

When an account is being closed, for instance after cancelling the associated card, the transfer is a rescue route, as points after closing a card describes. A related case arises when someone dies. Most programmes allow a transfer to survivors, usually as a goodwill gesture with documentation, though a legal entitlement rarely exists.

Promotions on the transfer fee change the picture while they last. Programmes discount it occasionally, and the arithmetic flips for that period, as transfer bonus describes for the related case. Programmes with very low fees in general are a different world too, because there a transfer can be the most convenient route. The spread between programmes is wide, and no general rule covers all of them.

Awards bookable only in a particular account are the last case, for instance where a status or a card in that account lowers the price. The transfer is then the price of the lower award rate and can pay for itself.

The limits programmes set#

Every transfer is capped, usually per year and per account, which stops accounts being used as a trading platform. Some programmes allow transfers only between certain account types, so that a business account and a personal account of the same person are two separate worlds. Others set a minimum transfer size, and needing only a few units then means moving more than necessary, with the fee following the amount moved.

Selling points to third parties is forbidden everywhere. It is the most common reason accounts are closed, and it regularly costs the entire balance, including whatever was earned legitimately over years. No price a buyer offers comes close to that risk. The line between permitted gifting and forbidden trading runs at money: asking for something in return for an award crosses it. Programmes check this when something looks unusual, and bookings for a constant stream of unrelated people stand out.

When it is not worth transferring#

The fee is wasted in these cases:

• When one account covers the award. Booking for others is the free route.
• When household pooling is available. It solves the same problem at no cost.
• When the missing quantity is large. The fee then exceeds the value of the award, and buying the units outright usually costs more than they are worth as well.
• When the award is poor value anyway. A weak redemption does not improve with a fee.
• When collecting speculatively. Moving points into one account without a booking in sight costs immediately and returns nothing later, as transferable points describes.

Families with several accounts can avoid the question altogether. Collecting deliberately in one main account and using the others for qualifying activity removes the need for transfers entirely, and that is the only arrangement that costs nothing in the long run.

What to check before any transfer#

A handful of questions settles it, and none takes more than a few minutes. Does one account cover the award when booking for the other person? Does the programme offer household pooling? How does the fee per unit compare with your own value per point, and is a promotion on the fee running, which would change that comparison completely?

The last question is how long the credit takes to arrive. Transfers range from instant to several days, and that number decides whether a transfer is an option at all for an award found at short notice.

Anyone who does transfer notes the date, the quantity and the fee. The account overview often shows only a balance, and that note is the only basis for a later query.

The most common mistakes#

• Thinking of transferring first. Booking for the other person from the larger account costs nothing.
• Overlooking household pooling. It solves the same problem without a fee.
• Moving large quantities. At that size the fee exceeds the value of the award.
• Transferring at the last minute. Credits can take days to arrive, and the award may be gone by then.
• Passing points on for money. Every programme forbids it, and it costs the account.
• Pooling without a target award. The award comes first, the calculation second.

Related topics#

• Transferable points
• Miles expiry
• Buying points
• Points after closing a card
• Partner awards
• Points or cash
• Can my partner and I pool our points?