Frequent Flyer Programs where Family Members Can Share Their Miles (2021)

Earn Miles for Every Flight (In as Few Accounts as Possible), The Best Frequent Flyer Programs for Earning Miles from Your Flights

Some frequent flyer programs allow multiple family members to share the miles they earn from flying. This is sometimes called family “pooling”

If you do much of your traveling as a family or couple, it is almost always advantageous to earn miles with a program that allows them to be shared. It will take much less time to accumulate enough miles for at least one free flight.

In most cases, each family member will still have their own frequent flyer account, but miles can be freely transferred between them or can be combined when it is time to book an award ticket. In some rare cases, family members will share a single account, which will receive the combined miles for all their flights.

However, while you can use your miles to redeem a ticket for your spouse and they can use their miles to redeem a ticket for you, you can't always combine points from both of your accounts to purchase a single ticket. You CAN'T just pay for part of the ticket from one account and part of the ticket from another account. The exceptions are for the programs list below.

Some programs allow combining points from different accounts to redeem an award ticket

Star Alliance

Egypt Air. Up to 5 relatives. Unlike any other program, all miles are credited towards the primary account holder’s account and count towards elite status (only the primary account holder can have elite status and get any elite status bonuses). This makes it much easier for one person to earn Star Alliance status. But remember, elite status only provides lounge access for a maximum of one guest, so you may need to try to earn status with more than one account in your family. Official Webpage.
Singapore Kris Flyer. Can transfer up to 50,000 miles a year from child's to adult's account with a surcharge. Official Webpage.
Lufthansa. 1 other adult and 5 children. Official Webpage.
Asiana. Up to 7 relatives. Official Webpage.
ANA. Up to 8 relatives. Upfront cost of 1,000 miles per person to create a family group and only available for people who live outside of Japan. Official Webpage.
Turkish Miles & Smiles. Spouse and kids under 25. But only available once you’ve accumulated 25,000 status miles over a 12-month period. Official Webpage.
Aegean. Up to 5 members—they don’t have to be related. But only available if the core account member has at least Silver status. They also allow any member to transfer miles to any other member with a flat 15 Euro transaction fee. Official Webpage.

Sky Team

Korean. Up to 5 relatives. Official Webpage.
AeroMexico. Spouse and kids, 21 and under. Official Webpage.

Oneworld

British Airways. Up to 7 people living at same address. Official Webpage.
Qantas. You can freely transfer up to 600,000 points between family member accounts each year. Official Webpage.
JAL. Up to 9 relatives. It costs 1,000 miles or $30 to join, plus 1,000 points every 5 years to renew. Only available to people who live outside of Japan. Official Webpage.
Qatar. Up to 9 relatives. Instead of earning their own miles, a percentage of the miles are credited to the primary member, starting at only 25% of the normal number of miles. Gold and Platinum members receive 100%. Official Webpage.
Royal Jordanian. 8 family members. 1,000-mile cost per transfer. Official Webpage.

Unaffiliated

JetBlue. Up to 7 people. Official Webpage.
Hawaiian. No family program but anyone can freely transfer Hawaiian Airlines miles to the primary card holder of a Hawaiian Airlines credit card. This allows everyone’s miles to be pooled together in a single account. Official Webpage.
Frontier. Up to 8 people, they don't need to be family members. But the "head of the pool" needs Frontier elite status or the Frontier credit card. Official Webpage.
Etihad. Up to 8 relatives plus a “household helper”. Nice of them to think of the nanny. Official Webpage.
Virgin Australia. Up to 6 people at the same address, only 2 of which are over 18. Official Webpage.
Emirates. Emirates doesn’t allow family members to pool miles. But they do have a family bonus plan, where the primary account holder can earn 20% of the normal number of miles, when one of their family member flies. However, the family member wouldn't earn anything themselves. We don’t think it is usually worthwhile to share miles if you are only getting 20% credit. Official Webpage.
Gulf Air. Like Emirates, a primary account holder can receive the miles when one of their family members flies. But with Gulf Air, they receive a more reasonable 70% of the normal number of miles. Still probably not worth it—but better to get 70% of the miles and actually use them, then to get 100% of the miles and have them spread across multiple family member accounts. Official Webpage.